no stone will be left, part 1

Recently I've been thoroughly enmeshed in the audio and writings of a man named Anthony de Mello. I heard about his work on one of the blogs that I follow. He was a Jesuit priest from India who died in 1987. His work was based in India and later in life he discovered some keys to living life that he wrote about. I’m posting, over the next several days, a writing where he gives ideas on how change occurs in our lives if we cooperate and understand the dynamics of our basic makeup. This comes from his book entitled The Way To Love.

"When his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple, he answered them “you see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.” Matthew 24:1-2

"Think of a flabby person covered with layers of fat. That is what your mind can become -- flabby, covered with layers of fat till it becomes too dull and lazy to think, to observe, to explore, to discover. It loses its alertness, its aliveness, its flexibility and goes to sleep. Look around you and you will see almost everyone with minds like that: dull, asleep, protected by layers of fat, not wanting to be disturbed or questioned into wakefulness.

"What are these layers? They are every belief that you hold, every conclusion you have reached about persons and things, every habit and every attachment. In your formative years you should have been helped to scrape off these layers and liberate your mind. Instead your society, your culture, which put these layers on your mind in the first place, has educated you to not even notice them, to go to sleep and let other people -- the experts: your politicians, your cultural and religious leaders -- do your thinking for you. So you are weighed down with the load of unexamined, unquestioned authority and tradition."

Continue to part 2

can we know God?

This is one of the reasons that I believe we don't know much about God and really are unable to know.

The photo above is the Crab Nebula taken from the Hubble telescope. The NASA explanation for this photo is as follows:

"This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula, the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD, is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only tremendously complex, but appear to have less mass than expelled in the original supernova and a higher speed than expected from a free explosion. The above image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, is presented in three colors chosen for scientific interest. The Crab Nebula spans about 10 light-years. In the nebula's very center lies a pulsar: a neutron star as massive as the Sun but with only the size of a small town. The Crab Pulsar rotates about 30 times each second."

Such magnificence! This is the result of creation. Amazingly spectacular! How can we pretend to have an inkling of knowledge about who God is? Expecting our minds to comprehend is too much. The only part of us that connects with him is our spirit, or if you will, our consciousness. It is the part of us where awareness exists.

The wonder and awe inside of us is lost the second we attempt to mentally explain or say we know him and can identify him. All attempts at identification and naming processes simply point toward him. It is not him. He goes beyond...

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Romans 11:33-36

amazing construct -- our brain

Here's a video that has made its way around the internet for about a year now. I find it fascinating. How we as humans are built is amazing. I think any time we can gain a better understanding of how our body works it is worthwhile. Modern scientists have advantages in their studies with the use of computers, CAT scan machines, etc. We are learning much about the brain and its function. This woman, Jill Bolte Taylor, watched herself as her own brain malfunctioned due to a stroke. At the time she was a neuroanatomist (brain specialist) working at Harvard.

get to know yourself

shedding religion

Here's an interesting post that I found over at Jim Palmer's blog. He asked people to fill in the blank... "being a shedder means __________". The idea comes from his book "Divine Nobodies" which talks about shedding religion in order to find God. I'm definitely a "shedder"... have been for about 2 years now. I have dropped many items from my religious inventory of do's and don'ts which I thought kept me in good standing with God. Sounds kind of silly when put that way. In a subtle way I think lots of people live this way.

When I began to understand that I was thinking this way, I started examining the different things on the list and watched them gradually change. It wasn't easy at first. It was unnerving at times, but the freedom that it produced in me was real and couldn't be denied. I had no concept that dropping false ideas about religion could produce such liberty and peace.

God is not looking for any kind of performance from us. We are already loved beyond our ability to understand. Our "doing" good or bad will not change His stance towards us. Whatever needs to be changed inside of us, we can't do it anyway, at least not good enough. He's the one who created the new creation at the Cross, not us. We simply abide and live our lives. He does the transforming for us.

Who Am I?

This is a photo taken of me out front of our house on the farm when I was somewhere between one and two years of age. How much have I changed since this photo was taken? Did who I am change? Certainly much has been added since then. My familial and cultural environment have influenced the development of my mind, emotions, and body. Are these who I am? Certainly I am not my body. And for years I lived as though I was the summation of my mind and emotions, but I don't think this way anymore.

The essence of who I am is the part of me that identifies with God. I have the ability to observe my thoughts and emotions. The fact that I can observe these things is an indication that something other than mind and emotions exists inside me. I call this entity my spirit or true self... the part of me that comes from and is connected to God.

The thinking mind & feeling emotions thrive by creating baggage from past successes and failures. They also create baggage of future events, expectations of fear and hope. I call it baggage because past and future cannot be lived now. When we try to live in our memories and expectations we get suffering and emptiness on the negative side. Or we get temporary happiness and short-lived fulfillment on the positive side. But it is only temporary. Children don't do this. Children live in the "now".

I think that I am this child in the purest sense. I am not my accumulated mental and emotional baggage. Jesus told us to be like little children if we want to enter the Kingdom. The Kingdom belongs to "such as these" (Matthew 19:14). Little children don't carry baggage. So, daily, I'm recognizing the baggage and trusting God to transform me in the process. I don't understand how the transformation takes place. I just know that it's happening without me doing anything more than looking at it and seeing it for what it is.

"...and be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, for your proving what [is] the will of God -- the good, and acceptable, and perfect." Romans 12:2 (Young's Literal Translation)

Forgiven Forever