pass the spittoon, please

 

the constant quoting of others and the re-posting of popular pictorial memes on social networks and even in every day life is like eating out of the public refuse bins at popular toxic eateries like McDonald’s and KFC et al

… and if we are amongst those who believe that we are spiritually devout and adhere formally or informally to some belief system that has established sacred texts in public circulation I would also like to boldly suggest that the constant quotation of these sacred memes and principles falls into the exact same category

… and perhaps especially the ‘Christian’ fraternity (and I count myself amongst them) and our holy writings

… who mostly seem to claim that our belief system is not a dead and legalistic religious order like all the others … but instead is a living relational dynamic with a ‘personal’ infinitely creative and active God as the originator and sustainer of all things…

 

we ‘Christians’ … perhaps more so than most others need to consider that even the respectful verbatim quoting of the so called ‘new testament’ grace and freedom saturated biblical texts is as ‘legalistic’ as any other so called legalistic and controlling religious order we so often enjoy ‘exposing’ and ‘dissing’…

 

… an original thought is not such a bad idea‎… in fact, it’s never a bad idea

 

… indeed,  it could well be the highest act of worship and honour we can offer to our creator

… to allow the personal life-giving transformational presence and flow of divine power to cascade, even to explode through us in uniquely creative thought and deed, not hindered by literally incarcerated statutes, memes and man-made theology and doctrine, but ignited by the very presence of a supreme and ever present creator …who by all perceivable accounts excels in extravagant freedom and boundless creativity…

…seemingly never doing the same thing twice…

 

there are no perfectly straight lines in nature…

… the only straight lines are the ones we have drawn ourselves to try connect the dots, so to speak

…and drag the infinite and spectacular majesty of life into our very insignificant and limited dimension of time and space

 

we should cook and eat at home

and as we all seem to know … home is where the heart is…

… not on the pages of some glossy periodical

 

 

politics is religion and religion is politics

In the balance and order of things there will always be what we could describe as systems.

They are not there all that clearly some of the time but if we look at the substance of life around us we can see it fairly easily.

These systems support life and provide it with a substructure.

The systems support life but life does support the systems, nor does life exist for the systems beneath.

It is the other way around.

It is when life in any way, shape or form is focused on serving the systems that the real problems arise.

To love life and the people and creatures who carry it along as conduits of the divine is a wonderful thing but to love the systems and focus on our own systemic understanding of what we see as the substructure … and then to seal this limited understanding of the systems of life as the truth is completely the opposite to wonder.

We call this religion,

… and politics is religion,

… and religion is politics.

the wonder of wonderful

The word wonderful in the dictionary is revealed as exciting a feeling of wonder; marvellous or strange.

For me the word conjures up mystery.

Something could be said to make us wonder if it appears in full or in part to defy definition or even description.  Something is wonderful if it leaves us perhaps speechless or somewhat overwhelmed, even mystified.  Wonderful means full of wonder, amazing.  For me it also possibly suggests that something could be confusing, vexing, disturbing, even possibly shocking.

“I wonder what that means?”

“It makes me wonder what’s going on?”

“I wonder what that could possibly be?”

And when we are stumped by God’s virtue it is often said, “the Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform!”

Wonderful – such a choice, well used, even adored word.  It can be such a powerful adjective when used to intensify our statements and feelings.  Wonderful is so often appropriately used in honour of God and his ways.  It is commonly sung in the verses of songs of praise and abundantly recorded in the ancient hymns of worship and adoration.  Even our private and public prayers are very often filled with this word when we speak to or of our God.

Yet why is it that we seem to close down the mystery and wonder of God so soundly? In our theology and the definitions of God, his character, deeds, ways?  Why is it that we have so effectively developed tight, systematic theology and doctrine?  How did orthodoxy ascend to the cerebral heights it now occupies?  How is it that we define so precisely and articulately what we in worship declare as mysterious and full of wonder?  And how did spiritual methodology become so logical, so worldly, so empirical?

Could it be said that when the mystery and wonder of God seems to visit that we so easily tend to try pitch our tents and camp at mere signs (which are, as their name suggests, merely directives which point to something rather than being the destination itself) and punish wondering (perhaps because it reveals our nakedness)?

Could it be that we have somehow lost sight of the pursuit of truth being a wonderful journey and not a destination?

I wonder if this could be a sign for this generation?

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