I should be getting used to this by now. I have been teaching myself to read ancient Greek. It's slow, but I've got time. So I was reading Romans 3:22 and picked up on something that didn't seem right. The NIV translates it as (context included):
But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
22This righteousness is given through faith in
Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
In ESV the last sentence carries into v25:
21But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
22the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
But the Greek doesn't say, "faith in Jesus". It says, "faith of Jesus". I thought I must be reading it wrong, But in the Greek, it is quite certainly the possessive form of the noun, usually translated as apostrophe s or "x of y". This is confirmed in extra-biblical sources. I'd eventually remembered seeing this translation before. Some versions like KJV, Darby, and Youngs render it this way. So it's not a verse about what we have to do, but about what Jesus did.
The thing is, that changes the meaning dramatically! If it's not about how to receive salvation, as I had been taught, then what is it about? So I looked further into the verse.
That's when another mistranslation jumped out at me. To get the idea, I'll give you a very literal translation from Young's:
And now apart from law hath the righteousness of God been manifested, testified to by the law and the prophets,
22and
the righteousness of God [is] through the faith of Jesus Christ to
all, and upon all those believing, — for there is no difference,
23for all did sin, and are come short of the glory of God —
24being declared righteous freely by His grace through the redemption that [is] in Christ Jesus,
And again in the most literal I found, Darby's (which was actually created not to be read, but to be an English study tool for people who didn't know Greek)
21But now without law righteousness of God is manifested, borne witness to by the law and the prophets;
22righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all, and upon all those who believe: for there is no difference;
23for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which [is] in Christ Jesus;
Do you see the difference? This is not about how to, "be saved". There's no prequalifier directing this to only those who believe, or ascribe to the right system. No performance standard. That is the old religious mindset of the Jews, the Classical Pagans, and every other religion. Far from being an exclusive text, this is ultimately inclusive.
No one is right. All are justified, including those who believe, because of Jesus' faith. Not only those who believe in Jesus. "For there is no difference"! Why? Because ALL have fallen short, but are justified freely by the ransom (i.e. 'getting rid of-ness' in possessive form again) in Jesus.
Wow! Bomb dropped. Mind blown. Again.
Why is this a big deal? It's really good news! We're not exchanging one religious system for another. That's the point of the chapter! That's Paul's whole deal across all his writings! Remember
this is coming from Paul, the guy that some think is so different from the other
writers in the Bible he should be decanonized! But in
this clearer understanding, he's right in line with the spirit of the
other writers. We are all justified. Period. Jesus did away with everything else by his faith. Paul, the murdering jihadist, knew that better than anyone.
His faith in what? I'm not sure. But faith just means trust. That's really all the Greek word means. It was a banking term originally. Like you trust the bank with your money or a creditor trusts you enough to lend to you. I think it might be his trust that God was working for his good. In other words, his trust in God that all he was going through was necessary and would come out right. His trust that God loved him and was powerful enough to complete what he had set out to do. This is a Gospel...good news...I can get behind!
But what about belief? Am I saying even people who don't believe go to heaven? What about murderers and rapists?
OK. Slow down a minute. I am NOT discounting belief. The Bible talks about it a lot. Jesus himself says it. What I'm talking about is JUSTIFICATION. That doesn't depend on belief. Secondly, let's use another word. The original word is a verb form of the noun faith. So it isn't like believing a fact. To disbelieve a fact is idiotic. Even an abstract fact, like the sun coming up tomorrow. Sure we all know the world could end and the sun may not come up in some remote, all-possibilities-included, sort of way. But to seriously disbelieve this...enough to act on the belief, would be a sign of mental illness, not faith. Jesus isn't saying we have to believe in him like we believe in the sunrise...Yeah, he existed, even the demons believe that!
So if we sub in the word trust, it works a lot better. Jesus says we need to trust him. Yeah, of course. He trusted God, and see what happened? We have to trust him and act on what he said, then we'll see what happens too. Not until then. He is the first down the path. The firstborn, the Bible calls him.
Next, let's let go of this concept of salvation equalling heaven. That's a shallow piece of the puzzle. And I can tell you, for anyone who has really faced their demons, heaven is the least of their worries and not much of a reward. Sure I'll take it when I get there, but I really need the help NOW.
As for murderers and rapists, yeah, they are justified too. I don't get it either. But I trust God enough to know that everyone gets fair play and all wrongs are righted. So I don't know what has to happen to people like that. I don't know what they go through, internally, externally, in this life, or elsewhere. But I trust that their wrong will be righted. Not in vengeance alone, because that sort of retribution doesn't fix the wrong.
But in real ways that are bigger than me or them, I can see that for them to come to true realization of the horror they have inflicted, the horror they have become, is the best vengeance and for them to react to that by doing all they can to compensate for it (i.e. to repent) can lead to far more good than the wrong done. I also trust that the wronged person is not ultimately ruined, but can blossom from it into something so much more beautiful (hear me here: I know whereof I speak), and I can equally mourn the wrong and hope for the redemption of the wronger without hatred.
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Monday, December 12, 2016
What If
What if our entire human existence as we know it is a peculiar state encapsulated in matter and time, matrix-like. What if, in the truest reality, thought and action are so intricately linked that to think is already to do? What if the way to stop us from destroying ourselves was for God to lock us in this sequential bubble called space-time and fill it with thick and slow matter that is always decaying and recycling.
What if the fact that bad things can only happen at points in time and have limited spatial scope and duration is a mercy to limit the destructive capability of beings with the creative mind and will of the All Maker.
What if God determined that he would generate a truly free being that could grow and change on its own as much without his control as possible. What if he decided to prove that his power was so perfect that even these beings, perfectly capable of unmaking themselves, would come to good and not be lost?
What if this consequence-delaying and scope-mitigating safety net of space-time is the way that could occur? What if humans are grown and not made? What if space-time is our growth medium, our soil? Growing us is the only way we could be truly free. If we were compelled in any way other than guidance, we would not be free to be other than that and could not therefore truly love.
I, for one, would not want someone who only met my needs, even if they were perfectly good at it. I could never know if they loved me for myself or because I wanted them to. The only way I could determine that would be if the lover is perfectly free to love or not love, to go or stay, to choose things, people, etc. other than me. What if that's what we are made for?
What if Jesus expressed this and guided us toward that growth that God knows will lead to our ultimate form? Our ultimate form would be our ultimate fulfilment. It couldn't be otherwise, unless our existence truly is a cruel cosmic joke. But that doesn't even make sense. Either there is order and it is good, or there is none, in which case we are beautiful but meaningless accidents that have no real value nor can make value judgements...but this is another conversation.
What if, everything Jesus taught was quickly co-opted and filtered through the natural paganism of humanity until he became nothing more than a new god in the pantheon, replacing outworn faces and practices with the same spirit of appeasement and supplication.
What if this is exactly what he meant by "ever looking but not seeing; ever hearing but not understanding". And "he who has ears let him hear."
If this is the case, perhaps some people are just not developed enough to get it. If this is the case, there is no point in seeking stupid compliance and following rules. They would only hinder us.
If our conception of God or reality is wrong, then urging people to comply with some system will only cement wrong ideas in them. Better to let them go and learn and grow. What if this is the point of the rich young ruler? What if this is the key to everything Paul said, which otherwise seems so harsh and unJesus-like?
What if we were to try out this understanding and see if it's got any truth?
I have been doing this. I have not found the bottom of the rabbit hole yet. My heart swells at each new idea of it. It's good news that I am bursting to share. I can't deny it, don't want to. It fills me with love for the beautiful possibilities I see in people around me in a way that old religion never did. And it fills me with fire against anything or anyone that tells others lies about what is so good for them. For the first time, I am beginning to understand how the martyrs could have felt. I thought I understood before. But no militant mindset can hold up to what they faced.
So preachers keep preaching your dead theology and keep watching your churches empty. Ministers keep teaching rules instead of nurturing truth and watch how people fall away as fast as they fall in. Whitewashed tombs where the dead can bury their own. Your god is not my God.
My God exists in spirit and truth, light and life and love. And in spite of all the bad, he will make all things good. And not just good as in lack of bad, but good such that every note of bad that ever existed will be rolled up into a goodness that we can not imagine as we see how it was simply the orchestrating of our own richer blossoming.
I'm not asking you to believe this. Honestly, I don't care if you do. It doesn't change anything either way. I'm just saying, what if...
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Grown
I think I am being grown. I feel stretched. It's not terrible, but not great either. Many things are changing. I had dreams about dragons again, which seem to precede big changes for me that require growth. I also had deja vu today, which is another sign that something is happening.
I don't mean this in the way the words might sound to many people. It's not some spooky or flighty thing where I think of these things as special powers or whatever. I don't even know if it's real. But I know my experience. And dragons are sometimes a symbol of wisdom and reptiles can indicate change in dreams.
The deja vu is just a distinct impression that I've done something before. I don't know if I dreamed it in advance, or maybe it's just a feeling that occurs when I'm in a state of confusion and growth.
But it doesn't really matter, does it? The point is the significance to me. They are markers of something I should pay attention to.
Changes are immanent in work and life, and I've noticed a tendency toward less control and more dependence on God, which comes in the form of independence from other things. Hence it feels good and bad at the same time.
This may be an answer to prayer...in reality everything is an answer to prayer, isn't it though. In this case, I did pray for God to move me and for him to teach me to trust him more. So here goes.
The cool thing to me is that I am not so nervous as I once would have been about things like this. I'm hoping to find out if Uncle George's ideas that we have to move to see the results are true. That only in obedience to the requirements can we see the results, the lack of which we claim as disproof.
He also said that when we ask of God and it seems like no answer, it may be that God has answered immediately, but it is taking time, maybe years, for us to grow to the point that we can understand the answer. This seems consistent with my understanding of God. He would rather have us right and thoroughly good and so would not give us a half answer or no answer, as we sometimes think, but rather immediately begins the process of growing us, finishing us, to the point that we can hear. And hearing, can understand what he says. But we are not going unanswered.
To me, this is powerful. I always thought that we might be ignored for our own good sometimes, like a good parent will ignore their petulant child until they relent. But what if it isn't that at all?! What if God is a better parent than us? ...as if there is any question. Of course he'd be better. Necessarily better. To understand that way is to confirm my infantile perspective.
Or perhaps, I would think, we just couldn't understand so he doesn't explain, like a parent who resorts to, "because I said so." to the whining kid that won't accept the answer.
Or perhaps that's it: that we are just whining so he won't answer.
But just imagine instead, what it would mean to have a God who answers so immediately and powerfully that he would grow and shape a whole world of space and matter and experience around us in order that our hearing would begin developing to the point that we could first hear the answer and then our minds would be capable of understanding it.
It's supra-language, dark cloud, behind the veil stuff.
The thoughts are coming too fast now for my fingers to keep up. So I have to stop.
I don't mean this in the way the words might sound to many people. It's not some spooky or flighty thing where I think of these things as special powers or whatever. I don't even know if it's real. But I know my experience. And dragons are sometimes a symbol of wisdom and reptiles can indicate change in dreams.
The deja vu is just a distinct impression that I've done something before. I don't know if I dreamed it in advance, or maybe it's just a feeling that occurs when I'm in a state of confusion and growth.
But it doesn't really matter, does it? The point is the significance to me. They are markers of something I should pay attention to.
Changes are immanent in work and life, and I've noticed a tendency toward less control and more dependence on God, which comes in the form of independence from other things. Hence it feels good and bad at the same time.
This may be an answer to prayer...in reality everything is an answer to prayer, isn't it though. In this case, I did pray for God to move me and for him to teach me to trust him more. So here goes.
The cool thing to me is that I am not so nervous as I once would have been about things like this. I'm hoping to find out if Uncle George's ideas that we have to move to see the results are true. That only in obedience to the requirements can we see the results, the lack of which we claim as disproof.
He also said that when we ask of God and it seems like no answer, it may be that God has answered immediately, but it is taking time, maybe years, for us to grow to the point that we can understand the answer. This seems consistent with my understanding of God. He would rather have us right and thoroughly good and so would not give us a half answer or no answer, as we sometimes think, but rather immediately begins the process of growing us, finishing us, to the point that we can hear. And hearing, can understand what he says. But we are not going unanswered.
To me, this is powerful. I always thought that we might be ignored for our own good sometimes, like a good parent will ignore their petulant child until they relent. But what if it isn't that at all?! What if God is a better parent than us? ...as if there is any question. Of course he'd be better. Necessarily better. To understand that way is to confirm my infantile perspective.
Or perhaps, I would think, we just couldn't understand so he doesn't explain, like a parent who resorts to, "because I said so." to the whining kid that won't accept the answer.
Or perhaps that's it: that we are just whining so he won't answer.
But just imagine instead, what it would mean to have a God who answers so immediately and powerfully that he would grow and shape a whole world of space and matter and experience around us in order that our hearing would begin developing to the point that we could first hear the answer and then our minds would be capable of understanding it.
It's supra-language, dark cloud, behind the veil stuff.
The thoughts are coming too fast now for my fingers to keep up. So I have to stop.
Thursday, October 20, 2016
How to make a liar
I haven't posted in a while. I tried but couldn't. I've been through one of the worst dark periods I've had ever. I don't want to go into it, but it's been rough. I'm doing better now.
I don't know what the purpose of it is, but it has revealed my weakness, my baseness, my violence, and my selfishness. Maybe that is the purpose. I just know it is not fun and not pretty. It's also not made up and I can't help it. If you've never been there, you won't understand and that's ok. Don't seek it.
I have said it before, but it is clearer to me than ever that whatever is good in me is not from me. I know you'll deny that and think it's just the darkness talking, and that's fine. I hope you never see that side of me.
But I'm trying to keep seeing it. I don't want to live in it, but I don't want to forget it either. I tend toward hubris and self-confidence without it. Even the humility you think you know in me is a form of self-pride. I'm not kidding.
People lead the question all the time. Christians are the worst about it. What do you think will happen if you constantly keep telling people how to be? Anyone with half a brain will quickly learn how to pretend at it. Put on the actions and even self-deceive that they have achieved it. I've done it. I habitually do it. And you reward the better liars.
I have a ready bunch of scripts to throw up in any given situation. I watch carefully. I have fakes backstopping fakes and will say whatever works to get the reaction I need.
And what I really need is a safe place to let those things slowly fall off. People who are not impressed by it. People who want me to thoroughly be good rather than merely seem good. You condemn yourselves in me! And I condemn myself!
Understand me, I am not saying this from a place of despair. Quite the opposite. When I was despairing, I hid from you because then I can't keep up the masks, can't keep the demons in their chains. But right now I'm in that hazy space between the nightmare and the bright day and soon I'll be fully dressed and presentable again.God forbid!
I need a savior. I am fully reminded that if there is any hope for me it is in Jesus. Not knowledge about him, but in the real living him. I am not claiming to know grand mystical things. If I did, I doubt them now. He didn't even show up in some nonmiraculous way to rescue me. But I don't care. My heart leaps when I think about him, when I read about him. I understand the meaning of hoping in him. I didn't choose this. If I did it was rigged. I am not in control. So if he doesn't have me, if I do not eventually arrive in a place of peace and perfection and learn that he was there when I couldn't see it or know it, then I would rather rush headlong into the void now. It isn't about this world. It isn't about the surface things you spend so much time talking about as if we could just decide to be something else. Even if you can, I CAN'T! I don't know how. It doesn't work. Whether that's brain chemistry, spiritual sense, slavery, karma, grace, whatever you want to call it. What I can do is lie about it though!
You'd rather me be presentable, disfigure my feelings into acceptable packages, even though you THINK you want me to let it out. Which is the most insidious part! Your words say one thing and your actions say another in the same breath. Your words are a trap. A demon maw yawns behind your fair and hopeful words, you whitewashed tombs! Damn you satans in a hollow christ's image! I've never yet found anyone who really meant it when they say it's safe to let it out and let it go. Maybe one or two people come closer than others. But if I have ever let the depth of it peak out, people take pains...no give pains to shut it in again.
So keep teaching behaviors. Keep focusing on outwards before inwards. Keep modeling the plastic masks. Keep grinding out budding faith with your two faces. Keep making liars. I don't want to be one anymore.
I don't know what the purpose of it is, but it has revealed my weakness, my baseness, my violence, and my selfishness. Maybe that is the purpose. I just know it is not fun and not pretty. It's also not made up and I can't help it. If you've never been there, you won't understand and that's ok. Don't seek it.
I have said it before, but it is clearer to me than ever that whatever is good in me is not from me. I know you'll deny that and think it's just the darkness talking, and that's fine. I hope you never see that side of me.
But I'm trying to keep seeing it. I don't want to live in it, but I don't want to forget it either. I tend toward hubris and self-confidence without it. Even the humility you think you know in me is a form of self-pride. I'm not kidding.
People lead the question all the time. Christians are the worst about it. What do you think will happen if you constantly keep telling people how to be? Anyone with half a brain will quickly learn how to pretend at it. Put on the actions and even self-deceive that they have achieved it. I've done it. I habitually do it. And you reward the better liars.
I have a ready bunch of scripts to throw up in any given situation. I watch carefully. I have fakes backstopping fakes and will say whatever works to get the reaction I need.
And what I really need is a safe place to let those things slowly fall off. People who are not impressed by it. People who want me to thoroughly be good rather than merely seem good. You condemn yourselves in me! And I condemn myself!
Understand me, I am not saying this from a place of despair. Quite the opposite. When I was despairing, I hid from you because then I can't keep up the masks, can't keep the demons in their chains. But right now I'm in that hazy space between the nightmare and the bright day and soon I'll be fully dressed and presentable again.God forbid!
I need a savior. I am fully reminded that if there is any hope for me it is in Jesus. Not knowledge about him, but in the real living him. I am not claiming to know grand mystical things. If I did, I doubt them now. He didn't even show up in some nonmiraculous way to rescue me. But I don't care. My heart leaps when I think about him, when I read about him. I understand the meaning of hoping in him. I didn't choose this. If I did it was rigged. I am not in control. So if he doesn't have me, if I do not eventually arrive in a place of peace and perfection and learn that he was there when I couldn't see it or know it, then I would rather rush headlong into the void now. It isn't about this world. It isn't about the surface things you spend so much time talking about as if we could just decide to be something else. Even if you can, I CAN'T! I don't know how. It doesn't work. Whether that's brain chemistry, spiritual sense, slavery, karma, grace, whatever you want to call it. What I can do is lie about it though!
You'd rather me be presentable, disfigure my feelings into acceptable packages, even though you THINK you want me to let it out. Which is the most insidious part! Your words say one thing and your actions say another in the same breath. Your words are a trap. A demon maw yawns behind your fair and hopeful words, you whitewashed tombs! Damn you satans in a hollow christ's image! I've never yet found anyone who really meant it when they say it's safe to let it out and let it go. Maybe one or two people come closer than others. But if I have ever let the depth of it peak out, people take pains...no give pains to shut it in again.
So keep teaching behaviors. Keep focusing on outwards before inwards. Keep modeling the plastic masks. Keep grinding out budding faith with your two faces. Keep making liars. I don't want to be one anymore.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Not Mine
It's been a while again. But nothing new. This blog is intermittent. Lately one thought has been passing through my head in many different contexts, which means I should probably pay attention to it.
It seems to me that the essence of contentment and goodness and even Christianity itself is the simple statement, "not my will but yours." The 'your' here referring to God.
How much of our suffering and struggle comes from some facet of wanting our own will, our own way. Me first. Whether this is starting a new school, looking for a job, starting a business, finding a place to live, helping someone who won't listen, trying to get volunteers for some project, it doesn't matter.
Sometimes this selfishness is deeply rooted and obscure to our conscious thinking, but I can't help seeing it everywhere. Buddha said that desire leads to suffering, which speaks to this same point somewhat. Though I argue that there is a positive desire, a desire for betterment, for completeness. Simply settling for anything opens the door for all kinds of evils to enter unchecked.
But if there was a supremely good being whose nature was love and fulfillment, whatever this being wanted would necessarily be better than what I wanted, unless of course those desires were aligned, in which case they'd be equal.
I think the primary failing of humanity is this selfish desire. Therefore the primary goal should be overcoming that flaw. What was Adam's sin, if not a desire for his own will at the primal level. What infant, as early and innocent as they may be, does not exhibit this tendency in their grasp and cry and tantrum at not getting what they want, even when they have all they need or the desired item is not good for them? What major religion or ethical system does not hold selflessness in high regard?
Of course, being so primal, it is also extremely difficult to overcome. Perhaps the most difficult thing to overcome. So much of our society even encourages selfishness, capitalizes on it. Some of the shallowest of us even glorify it into a virtue. But even internally, it is so hard to let go of our will. If we don't look out for ourselves, who will?
But isn't that the question? Can we trust enough to let out own will go? I know I cannot do this on my own. In many ways, I can make the conscious choice to do this. But in some of the closest to my heart, I cannot. Try as I may, I do not have the strength or even the desire to do it...but even here, if I force it, am I not still motivated by my own will?
It's only in the truest loving trust that I can let my will go. My wife can take so many liberties with me that I don't even blink at, because I see her through eyes of love and trust. I know she means no harm, even if she is capable of causing harm inadvertently. How much more could I trust one that will not ever cause harm?
I know this in my head, but it's only when it becomes a natural reality in my heart that it overcomes the monster of self...or rather the scared animal of self...yes that metaphor fits much better.
Love and trust...these are the primary factors. But God, how hard they are in some cases!
It seems to me that the essence of contentment and goodness and even Christianity itself is the simple statement, "not my will but yours." The 'your' here referring to God.
How much of our suffering and struggle comes from some facet of wanting our own will, our own way. Me first. Whether this is starting a new school, looking for a job, starting a business, finding a place to live, helping someone who won't listen, trying to get volunteers for some project, it doesn't matter.
Sometimes this selfishness is deeply rooted and obscure to our conscious thinking, but I can't help seeing it everywhere. Buddha said that desire leads to suffering, which speaks to this same point somewhat. Though I argue that there is a positive desire, a desire for betterment, for completeness. Simply settling for anything opens the door for all kinds of evils to enter unchecked.
But if there was a supremely good being whose nature was love and fulfillment, whatever this being wanted would necessarily be better than what I wanted, unless of course those desires were aligned, in which case they'd be equal.
I think the primary failing of humanity is this selfish desire. Therefore the primary goal should be overcoming that flaw. What was Adam's sin, if not a desire for his own will at the primal level. What infant, as early and innocent as they may be, does not exhibit this tendency in their grasp and cry and tantrum at not getting what they want, even when they have all they need or the desired item is not good for them? What major religion or ethical system does not hold selflessness in high regard?
Of course, being so primal, it is also extremely difficult to overcome. Perhaps the most difficult thing to overcome. So much of our society even encourages selfishness, capitalizes on it. Some of the shallowest of us even glorify it into a virtue. But even internally, it is so hard to let go of our will. If we don't look out for ourselves, who will?
But isn't that the question? Can we trust enough to let out own will go? I know I cannot do this on my own. In many ways, I can make the conscious choice to do this. But in some of the closest to my heart, I cannot. Try as I may, I do not have the strength or even the desire to do it...but even here, if I force it, am I not still motivated by my own will?
It's only in the truest loving trust that I can let my will go. My wife can take so many liberties with me that I don't even blink at, because I see her through eyes of love and trust. I know she means no harm, even if she is capable of causing harm inadvertently. How much more could I trust one that will not ever cause harm?
I know this in my head, but it's only when it becomes a natural reality in my heart that it overcomes the monster of self...or rather the scared animal of self...yes that metaphor fits much better.
Love and trust...these are the primary factors. But God, how hard they are in some cases!
Sunday, August 7, 2016
PokemonGo and perception of reality
Someone I know was recently upset at the treatment he'd received from general public while playing this game. This aligned with things I've been thinking lately, so I decided to jump off from there.
If you don't know, Pokemon Go is a location-based, augmented reality video game. Location-based means the players have to go to physical locations where the game will release certain aspects of play. Augmented reality is where a smartphone, for instance, will lay digital content over the camera image and the real can interact with the digital on the screen. Think of it like a live green-screen.
So we've got lots of people walking around playing this game and it's caused a lot of sideline problems, like trespassing, property rights, etc. But that's not my point. I'm more interested in arbitrating the latent battle that has already begun to break out, as evidenced by my friend's comments and the vitriolic backlash from sympathizers with him against those who offended. These games aren't going away, so we might as well learn how to live peaceably.
I think the controversy comes down to a fundamental mismatch in views of reality.
But before I get to that, I want to be clear, no one should ever harass another person for any reason. Regardless of your opinions on the game or the people playing it, or not playing it, respect the other and be decent, if nice is too much to ask. That said, I'm going to attempt to illustrate what each side of the argument perceives.
The players love the imaginative aspect of the game. They like the merging of innocent fantasy and reality. They like the interaction with technology. They like video games in general, and here is finally one where they can get outside and interact with the real world. Maybe they even get a little exercise. When they play, they are looking at the real world through the screen and find it a novel way to enjoy themselves. Their imagination fills in the gaps of the game and they see the two in a merged fashion. It's a harmless way to bring a little magic to the mundane.
Those who oppose it see people, many of whom self-identify as geeks (i.e. people overly enthusiastic, often in an off-putting way, about a topic, many of which are not physical or sports-related) walking around, sometimes absently, staring at blinking lights on a plastic box. What's so fun about that?! It's just one more way to disengage from reality and pretend to do something real. They don't perceive the merged reality, or the fantasy. They view the world in a more concrete fashion. Players aren't catching anything. They aren't seeing anything. It's all fake! Hopefully, if you're from the other camp, you can see how this would appear. The players appear to have almost lost their minds! Take the screen away and you've got the exact image of the homeless dude who babbles to invisible people as he walks around...though perhaps players are cleaner.
Again, I'm not justifying rude remarks in any way. Just trying to help one side see the other's perspective.
I recently had a similar discussion with my son when he was saving replays of video game exploits to share with friends. He kept wanting to show me his accomplishments and I was decidedly uninterested. He couldn't understand until I told him to cover the screen and pretend to do whatever he had done to get that accomplishment. Then I copied him with the screen covered. He was shocked at how stupid it looked. Essentially all he did was touch buttons in a sequence, and I was supposed to be impressed by that.
But to him, it was a much greater experience. The thing I tried to get him to see was that the experience only existed in his imagination, aided by complex coding of pixels and key sequences. When talking to people on the same plane of imagination, it was great. From outside that, it was worse than mundane.
So I'm stopping there. No judgement on either side, except to say that you must first understand your adversary before you can defeat them. And in so doing, you'll find that most of the time, you really have no adversary at all...it's just in your imagination.
If you don't know, Pokemon Go is a location-based, augmented reality video game. Location-based means the players have to go to physical locations where the game will release certain aspects of play. Augmented reality is where a smartphone, for instance, will lay digital content over the camera image and the real can interact with the digital on the screen. Think of it like a live green-screen.
So we've got lots of people walking around playing this game and it's caused a lot of sideline problems, like trespassing, property rights, etc. But that's not my point. I'm more interested in arbitrating the latent battle that has already begun to break out, as evidenced by my friend's comments and the vitriolic backlash from sympathizers with him against those who offended. These games aren't going away, so we might as well learn how to live peaceably.
I think the controversy comes down to a fundamental mismatch in views of reality.
But before I get to that, I want to be clear, no one should ever harass another person for any reason. Regardless of your opinions on the game or the people playing it, or not playing it, respect the other and be decent, if nice is too much to ask. That said, I'm going to attempt to illustrate what each side of the argument perceives.
The players love the imaginative aspect of the game. They like the merging of innocent fantasy and reality. They like the interaction with technology. They like video games in general, and here is finally one where they can get outside and interact with the real world. Maybe they even get a little exercise. When they play, they are looking at the real world through the screen and find it a novel way to enjoy themselves. Their imagination fills in the gaps of the game and they see the two in a merged fashion. It's a harmless way to bring a little magic to the mundane.
Those who oppose it see people, many of whom self-identify as geeks (i.e. people overly enthusiastic, often in an off-putting way, about a topic, many of which are not physical or sports-related) walking around, sometimes absently, staring at blinking lights on a plastic box. What's so fun about that?! It's just one more way to disengage from reality and pretend to do something real. They don't perceive the merged reality, or the fantasy. They view the world in a more concrete fashion. Players aren't catching anything. They aren't seeing anything. It's all fake! Hopefully, if you're from the other camp, you can see how this would appear. The players appear to have almost lost their minds! Take the screen away and you've got the exact image of the homeless dude who babbles to invisible people as he walks around...though perhaps players are cleaner.
Again, I'm not justifying rude remarks in any way. Just trying to help one side see the other's perspective.
I recently had a similar discussion with my son when he was saving replays of video game exploits to share with friends. He kept wanting to show me his accomplishments and I was decidedly uninterested. He couldn't understand until I told him to cover the screen and pretend to do whatever he had done to get that accomplishment. Then I copied him with the screen covered. He was shocked at how stupid it looked. Essentially all he did was touch buttons in a sequence, and I was supposed to be impressed by that.
But to him, it was a much greater experience. The thing I tried to get him to see was that the experience only existed in his imagination, aided by complex coding of pixels and key sequences. When talking to people on the same plane of imagination, it was great. From outside that, it was worse than mundane.
So I'm stopping there. No judgement on either side, except to say that you must first understand your adversary before you can defeat them. And in so doing, you'll find that most of the time, you really have no adversary at all...it's just in your imagination.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Not a Miracle
I debated whether to post this or not. But then, I realized that hiding the truth even to spare someone is a kind of lie. And letting them believe a lie is not doing them any favors. At the same time, I don't want to damage anyone's faith or reputation unduly, so I am going to stay very anonymous and use pronoun swapping to further shield the person's identity. Chances are he will never read this, but someone who knows her (see how that works) might. If you decide to share it with the person, that's up to you. I ask any reader to be sensitive.
The other day I met someone who walked into this place and very quickly introduced himself to me with a good deal of flourish and formality about who had invited her and why he was there, etc. I don't know why she introduced herself to me, perhaps he thought I was someone important. But being the kind of person I am, I am instantly turned off by any pretense at someone being special because of who they know or what they do. So in an effort to politely express that, I returned the introduction, "Hi, I'm Cav. I'm nobody."
As soon as I said it, his eyes softened and she began to concernedly explain that I truly was somebody in a mealy voice that further turned me off. "Here, we go," I thought. "I should have seen this coming." But I just politely excused myself from the whole thing and went about my business. Soon, though he was back asking me if I was an artist. No? Maybe a musician? No, huh. Finally trying to end this unnecessary bolstering of my self-esteem, I said, "I organize. That's what I do." Which I was actually doing at the moment; trying to set something up for her, which she was too involved in my bolstering to help me with. "I set stuff up for ____." I said indicating what I was doing and inserting his self-proclaimed title in the blank.
"See, there's something!" was the sappy reply.
So chalk it up to different strokes, it takes all kinds, whatever. I went on with my evening. But later as we were about to leave this person finds me again and has to, "give me a Word."
OK, sidebar. If you aren't familiar with the term, "give a Word", it's used in certain sects of Christianity to indicate a special message from God. If you do know the term, please understand that those from other traditions (like me) find it, at best, an excuse to tell us whatever emotional sentiment happened to occur to you at the moment. And opinions on it range down from there through insipid, presumptuous, and even heretical. So if you want to get along with someone from a different sect, hold off on this phrase until you know where they stand. End sidebar.
So, now I'm totally completely uninterested in anything he has to say. But in the interest of polite brotherhood, I opted to simply listen politely rather than start an argument or offend someone who might be legitimately thinking she's doing good.
The "word" was that I was a craftsman and artist, even though I don't thinkso and when I expressed it by dancing as she had seen me do a few minutes before it had "changed the atmosphere." Then he capped it with some vague Bible references that I knew but didn't see the relevance of. But I thanked her and I could tell he was looking for more of a response. So I turned the conversation to other more general topics and ended with as genuine of a 'nice to meet you' as I could manage.
So, you might be thinking, what a jerk I am for discounting this sensitive soul's attempt to help me. But if someone is thinking a duck is a flamingo and publicly declaring it, am I not cruel to leave them uncorrected? Or to be more realistic, if someone is repeatedly calling a new acquaintance by the wrong name, am I not right to point that out, even if it results in momentary embarassment?
So here is what I want to say to this person. Please read it with as much love and tenderness as you can: You were wrong. You weren't hearing anything special from God about me. You misinterpreted just about everything I said. And you were very nearly offensive to my brand of faith. I won't go so far as to say there is never anything true in the way you practice your faith, but in this case, you were totally off.
I know who I am, good and bad. At least as much as any human can, and probably a good deal more than most, as evidenced by this blog. I know where my true value lies. I give God the glory for that. But culturally, I find it offensive and morally wrong to place any human above another. So I wasn't going to brag about myself to a total stranger.
I can't honestly say, I've never dropped a name or asked for a special introduction. But I view these times as failings and ask God to help me become more like the servant Jesus was, who wouldn't even answer the false accusations against him. In fact, like I said, I wouldn't even be saying this if I didn't think it wrong to withhold the truth when I have the power to potentially open someone's eyes.
Secondly, I come from a tradition where what you do is not considered to be from God. We read the same verses and arrive at different conclusions and styles. Neither of us can categorically prove the other wrong. God will reveal the truth to us as we grow. So until that time, I'm willing to respect your beliefs and ways. I ask that you also respect mine.
So reader, if you find this sounding uncannily like you (whether it was you or not) please know I don't hate you. I think you were trying to do good. But please recognize that not everyone understands or even approves of what you do. If you would call those of us brothers, then maybe you should tone it back a little, especially if this is the first time you meet someone.
Imagine how much damage you could do to someone's faith if they believed you were hearing from God but were totally wrong. Does that mean God is wrong? Or are you a liar? Or maybe just a lunatic? I'm not saying this is what I think of you, because I understand what you were attempting. But this is what you might look like to someone who doesn't know better. So don't bruise a reed.
I speak for the trees.
The other day I met someone who walked into this place and very quickly introduced himself to me with a good deal of flourish and formality about who had invited her and why he was there, etc. I don't know why she introduced herself to me, perhaps he thought I was someone important. But being the kind of person I am, I am instantly turned off by any pretense at someone being special because of who they know or what they do. So in an effort to politely express that, I returned the introduction, "Hi, I'm Cav. I'm nobody."
As soon as I said it, his eyes softened and she began to concernedly explain that I truly was somebody in a mealy voice that further turned me off. "Here, we go," I thought. "I should have seen this coming." But I just politely excused myself from the whole thing and went about my business. Soon, though he was back asking me if I was an artist. No? Maybe a musician? No, huh. Finally trying to end this unnecessary bolstering of my self-esteem, I said, "I organize. That's what I do." Which I was actually doing at the moment; trying to set something up for her, which she was too involved in my bolstering to help me with. "I set stuff up for ____." I said indicating what I was doing and inserting his self-proclaimed title in the blank.
"See, there's something!" was the sappy reply.
So chalk it up to different strokes, it takes all kinds, whatever. I went on with my evening. But later as we were about to leave this person finds me again and has to, "give me a Word."
OK, sidebar. If you aren't familiar with the term, "give a Word", it's used in certain sects of Christianity to indicate a special message from God. If you do know the term, please understand that those from other traditions (like me) find it, at best, an excuse to tell us whatever emotional sentiment happened to occur to you at the moment. And opinions on it range down from there through insipid, presumptuous, and even heretical. So if you want to get along with someone from a different sect, hold off on this phrase until you know where they stand. End sidebar.
So, now I'm totally completely uninterested in anything he has to say. But in the interest of polite brotherhood, I opted to simply listen politely rather than start an argument or offend someone who might be legitimately thinking she's doing good.
The "word" was that I was a craftsman and artist, even though I don't thinkso and when I expressed it by dancing as she had seen me do a few minutes before it had "changed the atmosphere." Then he capped it with some vague Bible references that I knew but didn't see the relevance of. But I thanked her and I could tell he was looking for more of a response. So I turned the conversation to other more general topics and ended with as genuine of a 'nice to meet you' as I could manage.
So, you might be thinking, what a jerk I am for discounting this sensitive soul's attempt to help me. But if someone is thinking a duck is a flamingo and publicly declaring it, am I not cruel to leave them uncorrected? Or to be more realistic, if someone is repeatedly calling a new acquaintance by the wrong name, am I not right to point that out, even if it results in momentary embarassment?
So here is what I want to say to this person. Please read it with as much love and tenderness as you can: You were wrong. You weren't hearing anything special from God about me. You misinterpreted just about everything I said. And you were very nearly offensive to my brand of faith. I won't go so far as to say there is never anything true in the way you practice your faith, but in this case, you were totally off.
I know who I am, good and bad. At least as much as any human can, and probably a good deal more than most, as evidenced by this blog. I know where my true value lies. I give God the glory for that. But culturally, I find it offensive and morally wrong to place any human above another. So I wasn't going to brag about myself to a total stranger.
I can't honestly say, I've never dropped a name or asked for a special introduction. But I view these times as failings and ask God to help me become more like the servant Jesus was, who wouldn't even answer the false accusations against him. In fact, like I said, I wouldn't even be saying this if I didn't think it wrong to withhold the truth when I have the power to potentially open someone's eyes.
Secondly, I come from a tradition where what you do is not considered to be from God. We read the same verses and arrive at different conclusions and styles. Neither of us can categorically prove the other wrong. God will reveal the truth to us as we grow. So until that time, I'm willing to respect your beliefs and ways. I ask that you also respect mine.
So reader, if you find this sounding uncannily like you (whether it was you or not) please know I don't hate you. I think you were trying to do good. But please recognize that not everyone understands or even approves of what you do. If you would call those of us brothers, then maybe you should tone it back a little, especially if this is the first time you meet someone.
Imagine how much damage you could do to someone's faith if they believed you were hearing from God but were totally wrong. Does that mean God is wrong? Or are you a liar? Or maybe just a lunatic? I'm not saying this is what I think of you, because I understand what you were attempting. But this is what you might look like to someone who doesn't know better. So don't bruise a reed.
I speak for the trees.
Monday, May 16, 2016
I'm pretty sure Jesus just rode past me on a bike
OK. Long title, I know. It's also been a really long time since I posted anything. Bygones.
When I run in the swamps every week, it's a real spiritual time for me. Like John Muir, that's my church. It's common for me to come out with a revelation of some sort. Sometimes these are very profound, sometimes kind of silly...like the time I realized that "catch your breath" is exactly the opposite of what happens. More like we outrun our breath and it has to catch us. But no one says, "I have to stop and let my breath catch up." But I digress...
This week, the place was entirely deserted when I got there. Humans are usually pretty scarce when I go, but this day, there was not a sole around. That alone makes the wild places more majikal (my spelling distinguishes between the real otherworldy supernatural quality and the performance art). Things just come more alive, seriously, there's more animals visible, etc.
This time though, I was also wearing some natural bug repellent. With zika on the rise, I figured some form of protection might be prudent. But this stuff smelled intoxicatingly sweet, like standing in a field of wildflowers. If you haven't stood in a field of flowers and felt the light-headed giddiness of the perfumes, you don't know what you're missing.
So these two factors were making the place seem way more majikal than usual. I kept seeing shapes move in the periphery that were gone when I looked, hearing sounds that seemed to have no known cause, feeling chills and shivers, and I thought, it's easy to see why Romantics were so taken with the idea of Faeries. If they were real, this would be the time and place, you'd find them. I half expected to fall into a toadstool ring and find myself in different world. Or to stumble across a party of them and be whisked away into a some adventure.
Then I thought, well maybe they aren't real. But something sparked the notions, so perhaps other forms of being were actually afoot. That's when I quickly recognized the danger of courting spiritual forces, which I have ample experience with. So I turned my thoughts to God and thought whatever was up, He was in control of it. And I asked if I could meet anything like that. Just have a peek behind the veil for a moment. Then it occurred to me, that if I was asking for that, how much grander would it be to meet God himself moving through the swamp and how all it's glory would ignite with His presence reflecting and radiating through it.
That's when I felt the wind at my back. It's hard to describe. It's not there until I start running, and then I feel it pushing up from behind as well as running into it. Stop and it stops, start and it starts. In the extremely humid Florida swamps, much of this may be the very air flowing around me as I move through the thick vapor. But if I've learned anything from my predecessors, it's that one must never assume that because something has a rational explanation, it doesn't also have a majikal dimension, like Uncle George's faerie realms where every flower and sunbeam is a palpable metaphysical argument.
I say this because as the wind whips around me, I often feel it urge me on, like a ethereal being swirling and gamboling around me. I can almost hear it telling me to run. And then it struck me deep inside like God often does...crack...Divine Wind...boom...like lightening in my deep brain. What if that WAS God flowing around me. The Gentle Blowing. The Kurios Pnuema! And I whispered, "God show me."
I kept running. Through the hotter places, the new growth forest and the heat rippled sand flats. Eventually I made it to the edge of the swamp. Just like in a movie, this is the line where it goes from hot to cool, Sun to shade, open to heavily treed. This is my cathedral. Just in, I slowed and climbed the vine I usually scale. 4 meters up and then hang in the air. Then slow back down. It's my gate to the swamp, the antechamber of the sanctuary. If God was going to meet me, it would likely happen in there.
I slow to breath and cool down a minute, when out of nowhere I hear a clatter of bike wheels and a young muscular man with slightly long sandy brown hair erupts over a rise and cranks down hard. I stayed to the side of the trail. He made eye contact as soon as he came over the rise. As he passed he smiled a big knowing smile, gave half a nod, and blew past me down the trail.
I padded off behind him as he disappeared out of site. I thought how weird it was that he would come out of nowhere (usually I can hear them coming farther off) and was going so fast in that heat that far from an entrance, and the look on his face was not the usual polite trail greeting; almost a knowing smile. And then the second of my revelations hit me. Maybe that was Him!
As I ran, my intellect argued, "Come on, just some guy. He was probably smiling because you and he are the only crazy ones out here. Or he saw that we were half covered in dirt or something." But I answered myself, "Yeah, but how else would we expect Jesus to look if he was to show up out here?"
My intellect responded, "Good point."
So I continued, "Heck, for that matter, he could be anyone!"...crack...Angels unware...crackle...least of these...rumble...When did we see you...BA BOOOOOOMMMM...
My intellect, my soul, my skeptic, and all the other parts of me stopped in their tracks...Whoa...
When I run in the swamps every week, it's a real spiritual time for me. Like John Muir, that's my church. It's common for me to come out with a revelation of some sort. Sometimes these are very profound, sometimes kind of silly...like the time I realized that "catch your breath" is exactly the opposite of what happens. More like we outrun our breath and it has to catch us. But no one says, "I have to stop and let my breath catch up." But I digress...
This week, the place was entirely deserted when I got there. Humans are usually pretty scarce when I go, but this day, there was not a sole around. That alone makes the wild places more majikal (my spelling distinguishes between the real otherworldy supernatural quality and the performance art). Things just come more alive, seriously, there's more animals visible, etc.
This time though, I was also wearing some natural bug repellent. With zika on the rise, I figured some form of protection might be prudent. But this stuff smelled intoxicatingly sweet, like standing in a field of wildflowers. If you haven't stood in a field of flowers and felt the light-headed giddiness of the perfumes, you don't know what you're missing.
So these two factors were making the place seem way more majikal than usual. I kept seeing shapes move in the periphery that were gone when I looked, hearing sounds that seemed to have no known cause, feeling chills and shivers, and I thought, it's easy to see why Romantics were so taken with the idea of Faeries. If they were real, this would be the time and place, you'd find them. I half expected to fall into a toadstool ring and find myself in different world. Or to stumble across a party of them and be whisked away into a some adventure.
Then I thought, well maybe they aren't real. But something sparked the notions, so perhaps other forms of being were actually afoot. That's when I quickly recognized the danger of courting spiritual forces, which I have ample experience with. So I turned my thoughts to God and thought whatever was up, He was in control of it. And I asked if I could meet anything like that. Just have a peek behind the veil for a moment. Then it occurred to me, that if I was asking for that, how much grander would it be to meet God himself moving through the swamp and how all it's glory would ignite with His presence reflecting and radiating through it.
That's when I felt the wind at my back. It's hard to describe. It's not there until I start running, and then I feel it pushing up from behind as well as running into it. Stop and it stops, start and it starts. In the extremely humid Florida swamps, much of this may be the very air flowing around me as I move through the thick vapor. But if I've learned anything from my predecessors, it's that one must never assume that because something has a rational explanation, it doesn't also have a majikal dimension, like Uncle George's faerie realms where every flower and sunbeam is a palpable metaphysical argument.
I say this because as the wind whips around me, I often feel it urge me on, like a ethereal being swirling and gamboling around me. I can almost hear it telling me to run. And then it struck me deep inside like God often does...crack...Divine Wind...boom...like lightening in my deep brain. What if that WAS God flowing around me. The Gentle Blowing. The Kurios Pnuema! And I whispered, "God show me."
I kept running. Through the hotter places, the new growth forest and the heat rippled sand flats. Eventually I made it to the edge of the swamp. Just like in a movie, this is the line where it goes from hot to cool, Sun to shade, open to heavily treed. This is my cathedral. Just in, I slowed and climbed the vine I usually scale. 4 meters up and then hang in the air. Then slow back down. It's my gate to the swamp, the antechamber of the sanctuary. If God was going to meet me, it would likely happen in there.
I slow to breath and cool down a minute, when out of nowhere I hear a clatter of bike wheels and a young muscular man with slightly long sandy brown hair erupts over a rise and cranks down hard. I stayed to the side of the trail. He made eye contact as soon as he came over the rise. As he passed he smiled a big knowing smile, gave half a nod, and blew past me down the trail.
I padded off behind him as he disappeared out of site. I thought how weird it was that he would come out of nowhere (usually I can hear them coming farther off) and was going so fast in that heat that far from an entrance, and the look on his face was not the usual polite trail greeting; almost a knowing smile. And then the second of my revelations hit me. Maybe that was Him!
As I ran, my intellect argued, "Come on, just some guy. He was probably smiling because you and he are the only crazy ones out here. Or he saw that we were half covered in dirt or something." But I answered myself, "Yeah, but how else would we expect Jesus to look if he was to show up out here?"
My intellect responded, "Good point."
So I continued, "Heck, for that matter, he could be anyone!"...crack...Angels unware...crackle...least of these...rumble...When did we see you...BA BOOOOOOMMMM...
My intellect, my soul, my skeptic, and all the other parts of me stopped in their tracks...Whoa...
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