I (and probably only I) have long held the view that though considered different, and perhaps odd, I am basically misunderstood rather than just bad. you know the kind of thing we used to say sarcastically at college about Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin and the like, rather than own up to our own irritating proclivities and idiosyncrasies. When a man who ended up becoming a dear old friend saw me on the first day of college, he said, "you must be an engineer.." of course if he knew that I had the mathematical competency of a frog, he may not have said that, but looking at me, he could be forgiven for thinking so. How was he to know, I am in fact an artist trapped in the body of a cage wrestler with an IQ of 165, but it was an honest mistake.
All that to say, that appearances can be deceptive, and one always needs to go deeper. The world is complex and people are no different. I had however noted some common traits though that I noted in all people, so I framed a concept to simplify the erratic and complex people of the world in to this rather simple statement.
When you peel back the culture, shave off the training, ignore the environment and skin the outer appearance away... Deep down,everyone is either and artist or an engineer. The problem is that they often hide in strange places and professions, for many reasons, denying their true and inner reality and personhood.
For instance we know that Architects have to draw well, so you could assume that they are Artists, but they can end up looking like engineers with their measurements, calculations and load bearing stress members and all that. An accountant may look like an engineer, with columns, figures and calculations, but in reality could be an artist who sees the flow and form in numbers beyond the digits, who picks out shapes and art in deficits and credits, and through it all weaves a mystical path to the true and beautifully formed bottom line.
Even a theologian can see structure, mathematical precision and linear progression, rather than intimacy, grace, sacrifice and love.
The point I am making, is that we need to deal carefully with each person we come across and look beyond "their profession" in every sense. Then, we will know how best to appreciate them, and know more fully what really drives them. Knowing that, will aid us best in releasing their inner skills and discerning what is their true calling, skill and passion.
Does this hold true at the level of the nations? I believe it can be applied there also. Most would assume that the "Germanic" nations are predominantly engineers and even in music, Beethoven and Bach do nothing to dispel this classification.
The "Roman" nations are clearly artists with their excessive gestures, histrionics and Ferrari cars, and who could ever think that a Lamborghini was a mechanical device rather than the most exquisite pasta. That is the artistry of the Romans.
So what of my own fair nations adopted or otherwise. When I categorize the British or the Americans in this way I find myself calling upon the title of this blog to highlight something I was made aware of that helps us decide which beat we follow and which drum we march to. You see for each and every one of us, there is something that beats that is of the utmost importance to us all, and to which we all must march. I speak of the heart of course. It is in the heart that the engineer and the artist are formed and later, expressed outwardly in our actions. it is also the heart that is the one drum that we will all march to, or...not.
3xl thinks that though we British have had many engineers of world renown, we are at heart rye, melancholy artists, especially we Celts. Americans in general however,are defintely order seeking, mess managing, project coordinating engineers.
Let me conclude with an example...
CPR(Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation...yes I do know) as well as being a mispelling of the acronym for Queens Park Rangers is also something very dear to the heart of all who have died, and lived to tell the tale. The problem is, that everyone has a medical opinion on the best way to do CPR, and "best practice"(you really should!!) changes frequently, depending on which last research survey someone in power decides to go by.
The recommended compression rate, or how often the nice person saving you presses your chest in when you are dead, has been changed regularly and needs to be constanly re-learned which can be confusing. Also the engineer like precision needed for timing the compressions, should not really be left to the free time, improvisational skills of an artist. Some rubric, matrix or key needed to be found to be consistent.
The choices of the British and the American musical aide memoire for this, turned out to be startlingly revealing and fitting. Do not be surprised then, upon dying, if you feel yourself rising out of your body heading for the light in your autoscopic state and hearing two different songs.
If you are in America you may hear the strains of the Gibb brothers singing "Ah ah ah ah staying alive, staying alive, which turns out to be exactly the 100 beats per minute required for CPR. How fitting a choice from the positive, peppy and hopeful, can do Americans.
If however you are jumped on by an English person while dying, please do not be too disturbed to hear the pulsing rhythm of the iconic Brit band Queen, as your last hope of earthly ressurection, sings, "duh duh duh another one bites the dust...." which also has the same beats per minute.
Of course at that point you are already dead, so it should not be too disheartening or demotivational for you, and you may be forgiven for assuming that things could only get better. You will, however, if not one of their success stories, go in to the light humming one of these songs, thinking, ah those engineers, or artists, as the case may be.
3xl signing out saying keep on marching to the beat of that little drum, and keep creating, what ever it may be.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Keeping it Kingdom.. or being Earthly weird...
3xl has been rather distracted recently with visitors and things to think about. Just this week 3xl had the strange privilege of attending a friend's funeral. I say privilege, because in so many ways it was hard for me to feel sad even though the loss of a dear one like her, was felt deeply by many. I found myself smiling in the midst of the service, rejoicing that a one so loved of the Lord was now with Him and feeling a strange sense of this being how it should be in spite of my heartfelt feelings and wishes to have my friend around.
Her passing was all the more remarkable for its speed. No sooner had 3xl left for Azerbaijan praying for his friend who was a little unwell, did he hear the notification that it was cancer, and then, upon arriving back, finding she had already died, sometime as I was over the Atlantic. Of course in the kingdom of God things are a little different. Events take on a different meaning and significance, and the expected, usual and normal are given a back seat.
It would be normal for 3xl to pray hard for healing for his friend, to battle through the evil of cancer to the good of healing. I mean is there any good reason for anyone to die early? As the sisters said to Jesus, Lord if you had been here then our brother would not have died, but even in that death there was a kingdom perspective that the dear friends of Jesus had not appreciated.
As I prayed for my friend I realized that I was not to battle but to give her over to the Lord that we both served all our lives, to commit her into the arms of the King and the Father and to allow Him to deal with her in His infinite mercy and love. No wonder then, that her passing was remarkably quick and merciful and for that we are thankful.
The memorial service was full of hope and life and a sense so clearly that this was not the end of anything at all in the life of this dear saint, this was a completion of stage 1 and marked merely a passing to more wonderful things. The family spoke with thankfulness and joy and I noted that this was not the kind of thing that the ones without the hope of the kingdom could ever understand.
Is not all death in some ways loss and defeat?
Apparently not. To those in the kingdom death is merely the release of that which is of God within us, to the freedom it has been waiting for, the falling in to the ground and dying of wheat to rise again fruitful and mature. The eyes of faith see it, and heart of the given over ones know it deep within, though we miss and grieve for the loss of a friend in what is left of our Earthly life.
So why then is it so hard for us to keep it kingdom? What is it about our view of the eternal, that is so obscured by the life we so strive to maintain and preserve here on Earth and why do we still view this Earth and all that occurs within it as if we had never tasted eternity? It is the world that has been pulled over our eyes, a la Morpheus, so that we speak as if we believe in the kingdom but all the while order our lives as if what we saw, smelt, touched and heard was all there was?
Having felt the sting of death of loved ones that did not know the kingdom news, and seen in their eyes the fear mixed with bewilderment and defiance, as they held on tight to the life they were accustomed to, I know that these are not things that we speak of lightly, they cut deep and are eternally significant. They are also the events that have throughout history caused the most heart searching and introspection. Little wonder then, that it was the sudden death of Jesus that had a greater effect than all the acts and words of Jesus in the lives of those that looked on. It was the exclamation point to His life deeds, that gave what preceded it the power and significance that it would have throughout history and eternity.
His resurrection would be the start of an entirely new paragraph, a crossing off the map, that still continues in the lives of all those who claim dual citizenship for a while, before fully entering into the suzerainty of the King in His Kingdom. It is the border crossing that concerns us.
So 3xl speaks to himself when he says keep it kingdom, forget normal, it is much over rated, believe in nothing but that which can never be shaken and walk in the faith that pleases God rather than the sight that reassures me, and remember that just because you are weird, it does not mean you are wrong, in the realm of the normal.
Her passing was all the more remarkable for its speed. No sooner had 3xl left for Azerbaijan praying for his friend who was a little unwell, did he hear the notification that it was cancer, and then, upon arriving back, finding she had already died, sometime as I was over the Atlantic. Of course in the kingdom of God things are a little different. Events take on a different meaning and significance, and the expected, usual and normal are given a back seat.
It would be normal for 3xl to pray hard for healing for his friend, to battle through the evil of cancer to the good of healing. I mean is there any good reason for anyone to die early? As the sisters said to Jesus, Lord if you had been here then our brother would not have died, but even in that death there was a kingdom perspective that the dear friends of Jesus had not appreciated.
As I prayed for my friend I realized that I was not to battle but to give her over to the Lord that we both served all our lives, to commit her into the arms of the King and the Father and to allow Him to deal with her in His infinite mercy and love. No wonder then, that her passing was remarkably quick and merciful and for that we are thankful.
The memorial service was full of hope and life and a sense so clearly that this was not the end of anything at all in the life of this dear saint, this was a completion of stage 1 and marked merely a passing to more wonderful things. The family spoke with thankfulness and joy and I noted that this was not the kind of thing that the ones without the hope of the kingdom could ever understand.
Is not all death in some ways loss and defeat?
Apparently not. To those in the kingdom death is merely the release of that which is of God within us, to the freedom it has been waiting for, the falling in to the ground and dying of wheat to rise again fruitful and mature. The eyes of faith see it, and heart of the given over ones know it deep within, though we miss and grieve for the loss of a friend in what is left of our Earthly life.
So why then is it so hard for us to keep it kingdom? What is it about our view of the eternal, that is so obscured by the life we so strive to maintain and preserve here on Earth and why do we still view this Earth and all that occurs within it as if we had never tasted eternity? It is the world that has been pulled over our eyes, a la Morpheus, so that we speak as if we believe in the kingdom but all the while order our lives as if what we saw, smelt, touched and heard was all there was?
Having felt the sting of death of loved ones that did not know the kingdom news, and seen in their eyes the fear mixed with bewilderment and defiance, as they held on tight to the life they were accustomed to, I know that these are not things that we speak of lightly, they cut deep and are eternally significant. They are also the events that have throughout history caused the most heart searching and introspection. Little wonder then, that it was the sudden death of Jesus that had a greater effect than all the acts and words of Jesus in the lives of those that looked on. It was the exclamation point to His life deeds, that gave what preceded it the power and significance that it would have throughout history and eternity.
His resurrection would be the start of an entirely new paragraph, a crossing off the map, that still continues in the lives of all those who claim dual citizenship for a while, before fully entering into the suzerainty of the King in His Kingdom. It is the border crossing that concerns us.
So 3xl speaks to himself when he says keep it kingdom, forget normal, it is much over rated, believe in nothing but that which can never be shaken and walk in the faith that pleases God rather than the sight that reassures me, and remember that just because you are weird, it does not mean you are wrong, in the realm of the normal.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
What's so original about sin....if they are all doing it?
All the way from downtown Istanbul....here's 3xl back on track after 12 days of enforced blogging silence, and I know I speak for myself when I say...I missed it.
No answer is required from you.
So 3xl was walking into the office in Baku of a local church and he noticed on the desk a book called Original Sin. He spoke with the pastor a little about it and made a wry comment about we evangelicals believing in original sin only until a baby's memorial service then all of sudden we get all Pelagian about it. Theologians never laugh at these things though, but one can always try to understand and declare what you believe the truth is however small your comprehension, in I hope questioning and real ways.
So 3xl did a little study on it and found that there is an incredibly wide and divergent range of opinion on the whole subject. Defining the concept is difficult, knowing that the Jews have never had the concept of OS and still do not is interesting, and even the words used differ a great deal among those who do believe in it, from original corruption, to sin nature, to imputed or committed. From total depravity to pre disposition, I tell you, it can make your head spin if you think about it and great people have strong arguments on every side.
When 3xl did his Law degree his chiseled old Irish Criminal Law Prof threw out a question to us. He said "what is a crime." Much sputtering about law and evil and wrong doing issued forth from the naive assembly, and the prof shook his head and cut through it all.
"A Crime, he said stridently... is a breach of the criminal law..." We all thought duh, because we had grand metaphysical notions of conscience, transgression and intent and guilt, but as far as the law is concerned a crime is not always a sin, but it is always a breach of whatever jurisdiction one finds oneself under as you traverse this world. Good to remember that sin is not law and that before the law there was something else that affected people's notions of what was wrong in their actions, call it natural law or conscience...wherever that came from.
Taking the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a crime and under other circumstances might not have been a sin but disobedience of God's explicit command not to take of the fruit created the line that was not to be crossed. Did Adam have a conscience, or did that get implanted after being caught in fragranto delecti, and was that passed on to us all from Adam, since there seems to have been understanding of what was the right thing, or not, even in the Kids, God after all appealed to Cain to do what was right, thus assuming he knew what was right. No one said you shall not kill, so when murder entered the world courtesy of Cain(actual original death came for the animal that provided coverings for the newly branded sinners) he tried to do his own sin covering, knowing it was wrong
So what is conscience and why is it not clearly present in some, or strong in others? Is it a product of environment or training, or a primeaval hark back to something implanted by an act of disloyalty, disobedience and disavowal. Was it the result of entrapment by the original sinner himself, Satan, playing on the naivete of the paradise struck couple, or a part of that eternity God placed in our hearts, that we might constantly seek Him, an Aquinasian natural law embedded along with our now natural proclivities to concupiscence according to Mr Hippo himself Augustine, and being a bit of a lad in his former pre regenerate life, he knew a bit about that. Truth is, 3xl does not know, and from what he has read, neither does anyone else but we can fall on certain sides of the debate about this.
So 3xl would rather talk about some things that are far more original than OS.
I mean, how original can it be if everyone's doing it ?
Thus 3xl would like to finish this first posting of the month with a celebration of some far more original things.
Firstly, Original Love. The kind of love that is God and must be expressed even at great cost and hurt. The kind of love that creates and nurtures, and bestows the love of a parent and so much more and does it perfectly. Now that is original, and not the kid of thing that you see every day.
Secondly, Original Grace. Even more rare than OL, OG is the kind of grace that forgives wilfull, malicious rejection and the kind of desire to inflict pain on the innocent that goes far beyond my ken, and overwhelms it with OL, even when destruction is only whim away for the evildoer. Why redeem, why justify, why propitiate(why try saying that whilst eating a cracker) why strive continually with the hearts of men to forgive and save. OG is the answer that poses more questions than we have time for. Outrageous in its unfairness, it takes orignal to a whole new level.
Thirdly, Original Sacrifice. Some clever theological people will say that the killing of the animal to cover the revealed nakedness of the First lady and her man, was the first religious act that showed God covering over the "sin" of people, via the sacrifice of an animal. What is called a "foreshadowing" of the whole system of Law and sacrifice that would guide the Jewish people over the millenia. 3xl would like to say for the purposes of this blog, that it does not get any more original, any more, the one and only, than what the Lord did at Calvary where he was made naked, took the punishment for sin in his body uncovered, and chose to stay till "it is finished," when he could have removed himself from the scene and been the glorious hero and conquering one. Yet he chose to stay and drink to the bottom, the dregs of thousands of years of humanity's wrongdoing, original or not.
Understanding Orignal Sin is hard enough, Original Sacrifice makes 3xl's ears swell and his head fall off, as the cockneys say, "can you Adam and Eve it !!!" No you can not and will never be able to fathom the depth of love that causes Father to create and love in spite of all things, the Spirit to strive continually with man to turn to God , or the Son who made it possible.
Lastly let me just note one more. Original Original. God is both the first and final, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
In the beginning before all, there was God.
So in honor of this fact, 3xl coined a new name for God... The Origin of Origins.
3xl signing out bewildered and astonished by God...
No answer is required from you.
So 3xl was walking into the office in Baku of a local church and he noticed on the desk a book called Original Sin. He spoke with the pastor a little about it and made a wry comment about we evangelicals believing in original sin only until a baby's memorial service then all of sudden we get all Pelagian about it. Theologians never laugh at these things though, but one can always try to understand and declare what you believe the truth is however small your comprehension, in I hope questioning and real ways.
So 3xl did a little study on it and found that there is an incredibly wide and divergent range of opinion on the whole subject. Defining the concept is difficult, knowing that the Jews have never had the concept of OS and still do not is interesting, and even the words used differ a great deal among those who do believe in it, from original corruption, to sin nature, to imputed or committed. From total depravity to pre disposition, I tell you, it can make your head spin if you think about it and great people have strong arguments on every side.
When 3xl did his Law degree his chiseled old Irish Criminal Law Prof threw out a question to us. He said "what is a crime." Much sputtering about law and evil and wrong doing issued forth from the naive assembly, and the prof shook his head and cut through it all.
"A Crime, he said stridently... is a breach of the criminal law..." We all thought duh, because we had grand metaphysical notions of conscience, transgression and intent and guilt, but as far as the law is concerned a crime is not always a sin, but it is always a breach of whatever jurisdiction one finds oneself under as you traverse this world. Good to remember that sin is not law and that before the law there was something else that affected people's notions of what was wrong in their actions, call it natural law or conscience...wherever that came from.
Taking the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a crime and under other circumstances might not have been a sin but disobedience of God's explicit command not to take of the fruit created the line that was not to be crossed. Did Adam have a conscience, or did that get implanted after being caught in fragranto delecti, and was that passed on to us all from Adam, since there seems to have been understanding of what was the right thing, or not, even in the Kids, God after all appealed to Cain to do what was right, thus assuming he knew what was right. No one said you shall not kill, so when murder entered the world courtesy of Cain(actual original death came for the animal that provided coverings for the newly branded sinners) he tried to do his own sin covering, knowing it was wrong
So what is conscience and why is it not clearly present in some, or strong in others? Is it a product of environment or training, or a primeaval hark back to something implanted by an act of disloyalty, disobedience and disavowal. Was it the result of entrapment by the original sinner himself, Satan, playing on the naivete of the paradise struck couple, or a part of that eternity God placed in our hearts, that we might constantly seek Him, an Aquinasian natural law embedded along with our now natural proclivities to concupiscence according to Mr Hippo himself Augustine, and being a bit of a lad in his former pre regenerate life, he knew a bit about that. Truth is, 3xl does not know, and from what he has read, neither does anyone else but we can fall on certain sides of the debate about this.
So 3xl would rather talk about some things that are far more original than OS.
I mean, how original can it be if everyone's doing it ?
Thus 3xl would like to finish this first posting of the month with a celebration of some far more original things.
Firstly, Original Love. The kind of love that is God and must be expressed even at great cost and hurt. The kind of love that creates and nurtures, and bestows the love of a parent and so much more and does it perfectly. Now that is original, and not the kid of thing that you see every day.
Secondly, Original Grace. Even more rare than OL, OG is the kind of grace that forgives wilfull, malicious rejection and the kind of desire to inflict pain on the innocent that goes far beyond my ken, and overwhelms it with OL, even when destruction is only whim away for the evildoer. Why redeem, why justify, why propitiate(why try saying that whilst eating a cracker) why strive continually with the hearts of men to forgive and save. OG is the answer that poses more questions than we have time for. Outrageous in its unfairness, it takes orignal to a whole new level.
Thirdly, Original Sacrifice. Some clever theological people will say that the killing of the animal to cover the revealed nakedness of the First lady and her man, was the first religious act that showed God covering over the "sin" of people, via the sacrifice of an animal. What is called a "foreshadowing" of the whole system of Law and sacrifice that would guide the Jewish people over the millenia. 3xl would like to say for the purposes of this blog, that it does not get any more original, any more, the one and only, than what the Lord did at Calvary where he was made naked, took the punishment for sin in his body uncovered, and chose to stay till "it is finished," when he could have removed himself from the scene and been the glorious hero and conquering one. Yet he chose to stay and drink to the bottom, the dregs of thousands of years of humanity's wrongdoing, original or not.
Understanding Orignal Sin is hard enough, Original Sacrifice makes 3xl's ears swell and his head fall off, as the cockneys say, "can you Adam and Eve it !!!" No you can not and will never be able to fathom the depth of love that causes Father to create and love in spite of all things, the Spirit to strive continually with man to turn to God , or the Son who made it possible.
Lastly let me just note one more. Original Original. God is both the first and final, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
In the beginning before all, there was God.
So in honor of this fact, 3xl coined a new name for God... The Origin of Origins.
3xl signing out bewildered and astonished by God...
Friday, August 22, 2008
Thursday's child....
Ah tis 3xl here, up and ready to go on a long journey hence my poetic reference to Old Mother Goose and all that.
Now 3xl would not want to deceive his readers here in any way so let me put the record straight. Thursday's child may have far to go, but I am not a Thursday child I am a Wednesday child, and as we all know Wednesday's child does not have far to go. Wednesday's child is....full of woe!! Probably as a result of finding out, at the tender age of one day old, that their younger sibling gets to do all the traveling in the family, and they get to stay at home and be full of woe!!
Well dear readers not this Wednesday's child. Ever the rebel, 3xl decided that he would be the one with far to go in that family week, and just let that snotty full of grace sabbath kid deal with it!!!
Of course for Wednesday's Children (W.C from henceforth)the whole travel thing has not been free of woe, so maybe there is a place for compromise in this world view. Maybe I can be full of woe and travel too. In fact some security queue line, small baggy with liquids toting, departure lounge hardened folk would say that travel and woe are pretty much synonymous and I am not that inclined to argue with them.
3xl has flown over half a million miles with one airline in the last five years and it has not all been "full of grace," although in all honesty our local carrier, that is affectionately known as North Worst, Not Working, Never wonderful, etc you get the idea, airlines has not been too unkind to 3xl. The odd upgrade here and there and the fast track line are all eminently welcome in the struggle to get the best seat, space in the overhead compartment and a seat in the aisle, or when you need to change flights on the hop. Then, that bit of gold plastic with "elite" on it really helps to make the flight easier. I mean if you have to sit in one or more shiny metal tubes, hurtling above the ground for sometimes 30 hours, then you might want it to be nice for you, perhaps.
However there have been some WC moments for 3xl over the years, and some times when woe was a good description. However most of the time there is fun along with it and in many of these situations you might as well laugh as cry. Strip searching in Ben Gurion ranks up there as a WC moment, along with getting 75% of the way to Lahore from Karachi and then flying back to wait in the airport for ten hours while they cleared the runway in Lahore of water.
Mrs 3xl (Passion 1)is very good to me, but one time she had a lot of fun at my expense in Thailand. I had a nice crisp clean shirt to put on for my return journey courtesy of Mrs 3xl. I had a flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok before continuing internationally. Between the domestic and international airport terminals there was a long tunnel way that was patchily air conditioned and 3xl had to carry his bags through it for about 15 minutes in the Thai humidity and heat. After this mad dash and much "glowing"...okay, heavy sweating, I was a lather getting in to the plane. When I reached up to put my bag in to the overhead, there was a strange feeling and then a cool draft on my back, and then another and more. My shirt which had been a little too zealously bleached my Mrs 3xl was reacting to my "liquidity" and shredding and litteraly coming to pieces on me, to the point where I looked like Bill Bixby after the hulk had just arrived, with a tattered shirt hanging in shreds. First port of call since all my bags were checked on was to find a shirt, oh so full of woe.
Or what about this year spending 13 hours in Charles De Gaulle terminal F, mostly standing, waiting to go to Jo'burg because my pass only got me in to the lounge on terminal E and no I could not go to terminal E...bonjour!!!! Be warned, CDG is a cross between a boutique and a bus station. You can buy a $30K watch there from Rolex, but try finding a good hot meal, oh yes there was some woe on that day, but once on the plane it was all forgotten..... till now!!!
One other source of WC stress is the confusingly named... 'visa.' If you do not travel to certain countries you may never come across this phenomena and if like 3xl, you did even not board a plane till you were 24, you may be forgiven for being confused when you thought that visa was something that got you nice things at the shop, rather than a small piece of paper or stamp in your passport that can cost you lots of money and time to obtain, Then after all that, as I was so helpfully and encouragingly told at the American Embassy... they can refuse you at the gate for any reason.
What? I thought I was obtaining right of passage here not paying for something that could turn out to be worthless. Have you ever tried to get a refund for your visa, its not the same as with the flexible friend and darling of criminal door openers the world over, oh no. They are somewhat inflexible on that.
So dear readers spare a thought today for 3xl as he crosses oceans, borders and timezones today. Being away from Mrs 3xl and all the little 3xls is never fun and perhaps that is why WC should be full of woe today. Maybe together we can keep working on that full of grace thing.
3xl signing off, checking in, and shipping out for now...
Now 3xl would not want to deceive his readers here in any way so let me put the record straight. Thursday's child may have far to go, but I am not a Thursday child I am a Wednesday child, and as we all know Wednesday's child does not have far to go. Wednesday's child is....full of woe!! Probably as a result of finding out, at the tender age of one day old, that their younger sibling gets to do all the traveling in the family, and they get to stay at home and be full of woe!!
Well dear readers not this Wednesday's child. Ever the rebel, 3xl decided that he would be the one with far to go in that family week, and just let that snotty full of grace sabbath kid deal with it!!!
Of course for Wednesday's Children (W.C from henceforth)the whole travel thing has not been free of woe, so maybe there is a place for compromise in this world view. Maybe I can be full of woe and travel too. In fact some security queue line, small baggy with liquids toting, departure lounge hardened folk would say that travel and woe are pretty much synonymous and I am not that inclined to argue with them.
3xl has flown over half a million miles with one airline in the last five years and it has not all been "full of grace," although in all honesty our local carrier, that is affectionately known as North Worst, Not Working, Never wonderful, etc you get the idea, airlines has not been too unkind to 3xl. The odd upgrade here and there and the fast track line are all eminently welcome in the struggle to get the best seat, space in the overhead compartment and a seat in the aisle, or when you need to change flights on the hop. Then, that bit of gold plastic with "elite" on it really helps to make the flight easier. I mean if you have to sit in one or more shiny metal tubes, hurtling above the ground for sometimes 30 hours, then you might want it to be nice for you, perhaps.
However there have been some WC moments for 3xl over the years, and some times when woe was a good description. However most of the time there is fun along with it and in many of these situations you might as well laugh as cry. Strip searching in Ben Gurion ranks up there as a WC moment, along with getting 75% of the way to Lahore from Karachi and then flying back to wait in the airport for ten hours while they cleared the runway in Lahore of water.
Mrs 3xl (Passion 1)is very good to me, but one time she had a lot of fun at my expense in Thailand. I had a nice crisp clean shirt to put on for my return journey courtesy of Mrs 3xl. I had a flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok before continuing internationally. Between the domestic and international airport terminals there was a long tunnel way that was patchily air conditioned and 3xl had to carry his bags through it for about 15 minutes in the Thai humidity and heat. After this mad dash and much "glowing"...okay, heavy sweating, I was a lather getting in to the plane. When I reached up to put my bag in to the overhead, there was a strange feeling and then a cool draft on my back, and then another and more. My shirt which had been a little too zealously bleached my Mrs 3xl was reacting to my "liquidity" and shredding and litteraly coming to pieces on me, to the point where I looked like Bill Bixby after the hulk had just arrived, with a tattered shirt hanging in shreds. First port of call since all my bags were checked on was to find a shirt, oh so full of woe.
Or what about this year spending 13 hours in Charles De Gaulle terminal F, mostly standing, waiting to go to Jo'burg because my pass only got me in to the lounge on terminal E and no I could not go to terminal E...bonjour!!!! Be warned, CDG is a cross between a boutique and a bus station. You can buy a $30K watch there from Rolex, but try finding a good hot meal, oh yes there was some woe on that day, but once on the plane it was all forgotten..... till now!!!
One other source of WC stress is the confusingly named... 'visa.' If you do not travel to certain countries you may never come across this phenomena and if like 3xl, you did even not board a plane till you were 24, you may be forgiven for being confused when you thought that visa was something that got you nice things at the shop, rather than a small piece of paper or stamp in your passport that can cost you lots of money and time to obtain, Then after all that, as I was so helpfully and encouragingly told at the American Embassy... they can refuse you at the gate for any reason.
What? I thought I was obtaining right of passage here not paying for something that could turn out to be worthless. Have you ever tried to get a refund for your visa, its not the same as with the flexible friend and darling of criminal door openers the world over, oh no. They are somewhat inflexible on that.
So dear readers spare a thought today for 3xl as he crosses oceans, borders and timezones today. Being away from Mrs 3xl and all the little 3xls is never fun and perhaps that is why WC should be full of woe today. Maybe together we can keep working on that full of grace thing.
3xl signing off, checking in, and shipping out for now...
Monday, August 18, 2008
This will be short...
3xl here, from sunny Minneapolis.
Along with all the hullabaloo of the Olympics there in China, here, there was a sad story that touched many in Minneapolis. A century old plus local business(and remember that this is young America) belonging to Christian family here in the Twin Cities, lost the CEO of that firm in China as a result of a tragic and random attack.
The family are a very close one and known to many in the area for their generous charitable work, and donations, their daughter who was an Olympic volleyball player in former years and was married to the present Olympic men's volleyball coach, was there at the time but was unhurt. Her mother was hurt but is now recovering from her wounds. The man who attacked them, killed himself by jumping to his death apparently as randomly as he attacked these strangers.
After the initial shock and sadness, letters began to pour in to the family from all over the world expressing sorrow, hurt and comfort. The family both natural and opted-in spoke with one voice about forgiveness dealing with the sorrow in grace and with a heart of trust in Father God who receives such ones as the this dear brother to Himself.
One of the letters that was made public came from New Zealand where the coach of the US team hails from. It said something like this. On hearing of the heart of forgiveness from the family and from the son in law he wrote,
"...He is a class act and has married in to a class family..."
No mention was made of whether this person believed in God, shared the faith of the family or knew them in that regard but this person recognized "class" as he put it, when he saw the forgiveness being spoken of and the grace that issued forth from this great family.
When people look at our lives and actions and when they assess what kind of people we are, how do we feed or not, their presuppositions and prejudices and what does that do for the Lord and the Kingdom that He brought to us?
Do not misunderstand me,I am well aware that anyone who calls religious authority figures white washed tombs, is not out to win any popularity or Mr Congenial awards. Speaking the truth, and being more interested in that than other people's views is something that we all need to learn from Jesus. I mean have you really read Galatians 5 :12, way to go Paul there.
I am also not talking about Mr Luther's peccadilloes either that the bracelet wearing,"what would Jesus NOT do" (probably not wear one of those perhaps)seem to find so important, or as the Lord perhaps put it, the tithing of the dill and cumin, no, I am talking about direction, faithfulness in the hard times and grace under fire, not in the Mall alone.
Now I am not going to bore you with all these lovely pictures of when you scratch me then Jesus bleeds out, or when you squeeze me only love drips out, and all that stuff, I mean, after all I am a cynical middle aged man and I do have a bad reputation to keep up so let me do that.
I have to say though that I greatly honor what I see in a person, that is truly kingdom centered, and speaks as if Heaven was much more real that this world around us, especially when that which you love has been so cruelly taken from you.
You see I tire of faithless Christianity that has more hedges and get out clauses than a crooked fund manager. I grow weary of people proof texting the Bible to justify their ideas and actions, but not quick to listen to Christ, or act as if prayer was really meaningful, and actually made a difference, or plan their great endeavors with more thinking than listening to God, and little more than a cursory opening prayer, especially if they have their backers lined up already.
It is distressing to hear people speaking as if they believed in God, whilst all the while acting as if they did not. I dislike people doing things and then justifying them rather tortuously from the Bible, or using something God did and is noted in the Bible to justify their present actions, as if God only worked that way, or with a kind of unspoken belief that, if it worked once why not again, and how could God complain anyway since it worked for David/Moses etc and He liked it then.
Then there is the other tack where we compel God to do what He said He would.... once...a few thousand years ago...in a different situation...with people He knew better than some of us.
A kind of legal executive order(or headlock) is put on God, because once He did something one way. Or as one preacher said it, "God MUST answer your prayers...." Now remind me who God was again and who you are ? Maybe you should read some Job for an hour or two for some context realignment therapy methinks.
Reminds me of that well known muppet song:-
Manna manna, it stinks the next day,
Manna manna watch for those worms
Manna manna you shouldn't use what,
is not for your use. unless God has said so. Dah dah dah dah...
Repeat till learned....
Old Manna, old wine skins, context distortion, and the like are all great ways to use the Bible in a way that creates loss, hurt, and ultimately doubt in nice humble, honest, people and legitimizes and justifies abuse from some who are not. It seems to come from what we bring to the Bible rather than the Bible itself, in terms of the philosophy and culture that we attach rather than the words that are read themselves. I feel a PhD coming on later, but enough of that for now, lets see if I am smart enough to get the masters first.
So what is class and grace, and what is authenticity? Why is 3xl such a meanie and the like. Well let me assure you that I am not talking about perfection and 100% assuredness of every course of action that we take, a kind of sinless perfection and direction as it were. The amazing preacher Wesley talks about perfection in mind and intent, of a heart and mind fully given over to the Lord that seeks even imperfectly to honor the Lord in all they do, even though perfection in action may not be attained. Hmmm...Were Enoch and Elijah perfect, since their passing to Glory, to be with God was sans mort as the Francais say. I do not know, but as Billy Shakes said in his classic play PorkLease (name changed to preserve anonymity and copyright), "there are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
My point is this, that God will not be limited to any corralling, delineation of His omnipotence, or any systematizing of what you decide he can do, just by what was written about Him, or any abrogation of His power and Authority just because we interpret the Bible a certain way. HE IS GOD... so deal with it, as they say.
The scriptures are written to reveal a person who is life and that eternal, not merely to legally sustain and support our claim on eternity by a cerebral working out of the angles, and the things we can and can not do, and also the things we can do now, but be forgiven for later hopefully, a kind of "unclenomianism:" I guess.
If your reading of the Bible introduces you to a system for salvation, fire insurance rather than the fireman, then I fear that you have missed meeting someone very important to you in that process. The Lord Jesus.
So what does class look like? It is a man capable of the destruction of all His enemies, righteously and justly, who remains nailed to a cross until all He came to do, exemplify and live out on Earth was done. It is one who brings life in the midst of their own death, and in dying brings hope to countless others.
It is the forgiveness given from a broken heart, that understands that forgiveness is never deserved, be the offense occasioning it, great or small. It is the response of a heart that is about redeeming and releasing, rather than binding and judging, and about a valuing of life, far above a yearning for the wrongdoers death.
It is class, it is grace, it is what love looks like when it pops its head out, it is the unbelievable forgiveness that is normal currency in the kingdom of God. It is truly beautiful to God and to me.
3xl signing out, humbled by the sight of God, as seen in His close family, shining brightly in the midst of darkness that never comprehends grace, and causes even the angels themselves to wonder.
Along with all the hullabaloo of the Olympics there in China, here, there was a sad story that touched many in Minneapolis. A century old plus local business(and remember that this is young America) belonging to Christian family here in the Twin Cities, lost the CEO of that firm in China as a result of a tragic and random attack.
The family are a very close one and known to many in the area for their generous charitable work, and donations, their daughter who was an Olympic volleyball player in former years and was married to the present Olympic men's volleyball coach, was there at the time but was unhurt. Her mother was hurt but is now recovering from her wounds. The man who attacked them, killed himself by jumping to his death apparently as randomly as he attacked these strangers.
After the initial shock and sadness, letters began to pour in to the family from all over the world expressing sorrow, hurt and comfort. The family both natural and opted-in spoke with one voice about forgiveness dealing with the sorrow in grace and with a heart of trust in Father God who receives such ones as the this dear brother to Himself.
One of the letters that was made public came from New Zealand where the coach of the US team hails from. It said something like this. On hearing of the heart of forgiveness from the family and from the son in law he wrote,
"...He is a class act and has married in to a class family..."
No mention was made of whether this person believed in God, shared the faith of the family or knew them in that regard but this person recognized "class" as he put it, when he saw the forgiveness being spoken of and the grace that issued forth from this great family.
When people look at our lives and actions and when they assess what kind of people we are, how do we feed or not, their presuppositions and prejudices and what does that do for the Lord and the Kingdom that He brought to us?
Do not misunderstand me,I am well aware that anyone who calls religious authority figures white washed tombs, is not out to win any popularity or Mr Congenial awards. Speaking the truth, and being more interested in that than other people's views is something that we all need to learn from Jesus. I mean have you really read Galatians 5 :12, way to go Paul there.
I am also not talking about Mr Luther's peccadilloes either that the bracelet wearing,"what would Jesus NOT do" (probably not wear one of those perhaps)seem to find so important, or as the Lord perhaps put it, the tithing of the dill and cumin, no, I am talking about direction, faithfulness in the hard times and grace under fire, not in the Mall alone.
Now I am not going to bore you with all these lovely pictures of when you scratch me then Jesus bleeds out, or when you squeeze me only love drips out, and all that stuff, I mean, after all I am a cynical middle aged man and I do have a bad reputation to keep up so let me do that.
I have to say though that I greatly honor what I see in a person, that is truly kingdom centered, and speaks as if Heaven was much more real that this world around us, especially when that which you love has been so cruelly taken from you.
You see I tire of faithless Christianity that has more hedges and get out clauses than a crooked fund manager. I grow weary of people proof texting the Bible to justify their ideas and actions, but not quick to listen to Christ, or act as if prayer was really meaningful, and actually made a difference, or plan their great endeavors with more thinking than listening to God, and little more than a cursory opening prayer, especially if they have their backers lined up already.
It is distressing to hear people speaking as if they believed in God, whilst all the while acting as if they did not. I dislike people doing things and then justifying them rather tortuously from the Bible, or using something God did and is noted in the Bible to justify their present actions, as if God only worked that way, or with a kind of unspoken belief that, if it worked once why not again, and how could God complain anyway since it worked for David/Moses etc and He liked it then.
Then there is the other tack where we compel God to do what He said He would.... once...a few thousand years ago...in a different situation...with people He knew better than some of us.
A kind of legal executive order(or headlock) is put on God, because once He did something one way. Or as one preacher said it, "God MUST answer your prayers...." Now remind me who God was again and who you are ? Maybe you should read some Job for an hour or two for some context realignment therapy methinks.
Reminds me of that well known muppet song:-
Manna manna, it stinks the next day,
Manna manna watch for those worms
Manna manna you shouldn't use what,
is not for your use. unless God has said so. Dah dah dah dah...
Repeat till learned....
Old Manna, old wine skins, context distortion, and the like are all great ways to use the Bible in a way that creates loss, hurt, and ultimately doubt in nice humble, honest, people and legitimizes and justifies abuse from some who are not. It seems to come from what we bring to the Bible rather than the Bible itself, in terms of the philosophy and culture that we attach rather than the words that are read themselves. I feel a PhD coming on later, but enough of that for now, lets see if I am smart enough to get the masters first.
So what is class and grace, and what is authenticity? Why is 3xl such a meanie and the like. Well let me assure you that I am not talking about perfection and 100% assuredness of every course of action that we take, a kind of sinless perfection and direction as it were. The amazing preacher Wesley talks about perfection in mind and intent, of a heart and mind fully given over to the Lord that seeks even imperfectly to honor the Lord in all they do, even though perfection in action may not be attained. Hmmm...Were Enoch and Elijah perfect, since their passing to Glory, to be with God was sans mort as the Francais say. I do not know, but as Billy Shakes said in his classic play PorkLease (name changed to preserve anonymity and copyright), "there are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
My point is this, that God will not be limited to any corralling, delineation of His omnipotence, or any systematizing of what you decide he can do, just by what was written about Him, or any abrogation of His power and Authority just because we interpret the Bible a certain way. HE IS GOD... so deal with it, as they say.
The scriptures are written to reveal a person who is life and that eternal, not merely to legally sustain and support our claim on eternity by a cerebral working out of the angles, and the things we can and can not do, and also the things we can do now, but be forgiven for later hopefully, a kind of "unclenomianism:" I guess.
If your reading of the Bible introduces you to a system for salvation, fire insurance rather than the fireman, then I fear that you have missed meeting someone very important to you in that process. The Lord Jesus.
So what does class look like? It is a man capable of the destruction of all His enemies, righteously and justly, who remains nailed to a cross until all He came to do, exemplify and live out on Earth was done. It is one who brings life in the midst of their own death, and in dying brings hope to countless others.
It is the forgiveness given from a broken heart, that understands that forgiveness is never deserved, be the offense occasioning it, great or small. It is the response of a heart that is about redeeming and releasing, rather than binding and judging, and about a valuing of life, far above a yearning for the wrongdoers death.
It is class, it is grace, it is what love looks like when it pops its head out, it is the unbelievable forgiveness that is normal currency in the kingdom of God. It is truly beautiful to God and to me.
3xl signing out, humbled by the sight of God, as seen in His close family, shining brightly in the midst of darkness that never comprehends grace, and causes even the angels themselves to wonder.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Auto Bio...Th.inking M.ore about myself
3xl has been caused to take time to think on his life this week.
As both my loyal readers will remember, 3xl began a TH.M last week. (If you do not know what it is, you will probably not care) One of my first assignments for college is found under the interestingly named study guide abbreviation of "Auto Bio"... An interesting title, initially innocuous, if not a little automatistic or techno in its semantic resonance.
Intrigued, I opened up the file, and delved in, wondering what this might entail and where it might end.
At first hearing, I thought it sounded like a setting on one of those energy star, EPA friendly, green compliant, front loading washing machines, that sports the ubiquitous, "European design" bragging rights sticker, stands a silvery eight feet tall, costs well over a thousand bucks, has a name you can't pronounce or understand like Nepotism tune, or Naughty Lass and yet doesn't clean your clothes very well.... Cheaply.
In fact so cheaply, that if you own the machine for 50 years you will eventually recoup the cost of buying it over the other kind.
These machines always have an instruction manual that is the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica, written in more languages than the UN etiquette primer for new Russian Diplomats(spot the oxymoron), and would take great pains to explain all the reasons why this is a jolly good machine and you should feel good, justified and not a little self righteous for buying it...let alone being able to buy it !!. (You know you have entered the elite of apparel cleansing machines, when the kind and altruistically offered, extended warranty alone costs more than the next machine in the line you just walked by.)
By page 245, after the Serbo-Croat section on cleansing, The "Lichtensteininian" section on laundering, the Russian section on avoiding running,(because it is futile) and the English section on bleaching and whitewashing you would have these instructions.
Put your socks and unmentionables in to the "Mealy zx3279" and set on... Auto Bio. Awaiting a positive outcome for that endeavor would be as much fun as sunbathing in the sand at Bikini Atoll in the 50's, and not expecting a "healthy glow," however no snow owls were hurt in the manufacture of this machine(though 3 acres of renewable forest went in to the producing of the gargantuan instruction manual) and it will (not)wash your clothes in a far more environmentally friendly way.
But that was not what Auto Bio meant.
I surmised that Auto Bio was perhaps a new nomenclature for a sophisticated computer testing analysis program, that did 15 million tests in one second on your new hybrid, flex fuel, synergy drive state of the art, "Tomato Prescience," to tell you why your windscreen wipers come on when you indicate left. ( you are using the stem/lever/thing on the wrong side of the wheel by the way) But no that was not it either.
Auto Bio, as it happens, is short for autobiography. One of 3xl's first assignments was to write his life story. Of course his lazy side said he wished he had done this course twenty years ago before he got busy, or before he had so much more to write down. The other side of him thought that this was actually a long over due process and something that he wished he had done long ago. In fact he really really wished that his parents had done some kind of autobiography before they left. However ordinary a life is, it has much value to those that have loved those lives.
He remembers talking to his Italian step grandma and having her tell him about the time when Prince Phillip came to tea in their Parisien garden, or Louis Armstrong played piano and trumpet and sang for them into the hot African night, or Earth Kitt took her ball home after her concert, complained about the food and was a real bag-diva(this is not a Hindu term), or how JB Priestley and his family life were to live with, and how his Grandad converted to Catholicism for love and built churches all over Nigeria with convicts. Yes some people have wonderfully full and interesting lives and we pass them by in the supermarket, or the road never knowing what riches they contain and what beauty and depth they are treasuring and giving sanctuary to. Such was only part of the fullness of her life and it is not over yet.
In fact maybe there is a sad irony encapsulated and embedded in the words "Auto Bio." (you know, like if you play it backwards it says "take multivitamins"!!) To wit , that too many lives are lived on auto, and pass all too quickly without reflection, reassessment, reconfiguring or resetting a course. How many lives have been lived, with out "me time" that is purposefully set aside to take stock, and having done that, not to just sit down, head in hands and cry those oft heard words, "where did all the time go..." But to rejoice in the past and to plan for the future. To change if need be, to improve, intensify or desist from a course or direction and seek another.
It was a famous Greek guy I believe, known for his hosiery leasing (Sock Rates) that said that the 'unexamined life is not worth living,' and another Greek dude, brother of the famous Chip Otle, Arist Otle that said, "well begun is half done, " though I am told he half hinched that from some Roman dude called P. Lagiarism, who was a Pro Verb, or Quo Vadis or something, anyway you get the point. It is good to begin well but to have a full life it must be examined, assessed and then check the course plotted for the future. If you don't, you may end up locked into Auto Bio.
So what of 3xl's autobiography, will it rank alongside other great works of literature, like the Irish book of temperance(a short one this), or the Belgium guide to night life, or even the British exotic cook book, The Calvinists Guide to Self Help, or Arminius' guide to home bomb making, or the Pelagius' book Original sin, was it that original or did Satan beat him to it?, or "How Total is Total depravity" by the new author Justin Bi Grace.
Well perhaps not but it will be helpful for him to assess and to think again to remember and to reminisce, perhaps to revisit things that were learned and experienced but lost, that should not have been, I have written page 20 and I am three years old, so I know it is going to be good.
So 3xl throws out a challenge to you both, and the one reading with interest, what are you going to leave for your children, and those you love, or have felt that they have been better for knowing you?
A house or a car, money or jewelery? Or will your legacy to them be a story, a chronicle of a life, an inside view to experiences of one that you loved and a new depth to knowing, communicating and loving those ones that it is too easy to pass by on Auto Bio.
3xl feels honored and truly blessed to know quite a few of such people and would love to read about their life. (and not just the funny comic relief bit where he comes in.) This is because these lives unwritten, though not un-lived are truly deep puzzles and hidden treasures, with all the fullness and density of layers seen and unseen that make for a masterpiece of writing, and grand fiction playing out for real as the master plot weaver unfolds His intricate patchwork of our life and His part in it.
Billy Shakes once said that All the worlds a stage and we just actors on it, or something sounding more Elizabethan and Jacobitish. Well 3xl shares at least a country with Billy Bob and he reckons that all the world can be a library also, and is full of books being written as we go from one "stage" to the next. Sometimes we have the privilege of watching a mighty performance that touches us and causes us to strive to be more than those on Auto Bio and when we write it down it goes into the Library of the world in such a way that others can rejoice at its reading in the years to come.
3xl approves of this message and he did not even have to pay for it.
Signing out creatively...
3xl
As both my loyal readers will remember, 3xl began a TH.M last week. (If you do not know what it is, you will probably not care) One of my first assignments for college is found under the interestingly named study guide abbreviation of "Auto Bio"... An interesting title, initially innocuous, if not a little automatistic or techno in its semantic resonance.
Intrigued, I opened up the file, and delved in, wondering what this might entail and where it might end.
At first hearing, I thought it sounded like a setting on one of those energy star, EPA friendly, green compliant, front loading washing machines, that sports the ubiquitous, "European design" bragging rights sticker, stands a silvery eight feet tall, costs well over a thousand bucks, has a name you can't pronounce or understand like Nepotism tune, or Naughty Lass and yet doesn't clean your clothes very well.... Cheaply.
In fact so cheaply, that if you own the machine for 50 years you will eventually recoup the cost of buying it over the other kind.
These machines always have an instruction manual that is the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica, written in more languages than the UN etiquette primer for new Russian Diplomats(spot the oxymoron), and would take great pains to explain all the reasons why this is a jolly good machine and you should feel good, justified and not a little self righteous for buying it...let alone being able to buy it !!. (You know you have entered the elite of apparel cleansing machines, when the kind and altruistically offered, extended warranty alone costs more than the next machine in the line you just walked by.)
By page 245, after the Serbo-Croat section on cleansing, The "Lichtensteininian" section on laundering, the Russian section on avoiding running,(because it is futile) and the English section on bleaching and whitewashing you would have these instructions.
Put your socks and unmentionables in to the "Mealy zx3279" and set on... Auto Bio. Awaiting a positive outcome for that endeavor would be as much fun as sunbathing in the sand at Bikini Atoll in the 50's, and not expecting a "healthy glow," however no snow owls were hurt in the manufacture of this machine(though 3 acres of renewable forest went in to the producing of the gargantuan instruction manual) and it will (not)wash your clothes in a far more environmentally friendly way.
But that was not what Auto Bio meant.
I surmised that Auto Bio was perhaps a new nomenclature for a sophisticated computer testing analysis program, that did 15 million tests in one second on your new hybrid, flex fuel, synergy drive state of the art, "Tomato Prescience," to tell you why your windscreen wipers come on when you indicate left. ( you are using the stem/lever/thing on the wrong side of the wheel by the way) But no that was not it either.
Auto Bio, as it happens, is short for autobiography. One of 3xl's first assignments was to write his life story. Of course his lazy side said he wished he had done this course twenty years ago before he got busy, or before he had so much more to write down. The other side of him thought that this was actually a long over due process and something that he wished he had done long ago. In fact he really really wished that his parents had done some kind of autobiography before they left. However ordinary a life is, it has much value to those that have loved those lives.
He remembers talking to his Italian step grandma and having her tell him about the time when Prince Phillip came to tea in their Parisien garden, or Louis Armstrong played piano and trumpet and sang for them into the hot African night, or Earth Kitt took her ball home after her concert, complained about the food and was a real bag-diva(this is not a Hindu term), or how JB Priestley and his family life were to live with, and how his Grandad converted to Catholicism for love and built churches all over Nigeria with convicts. Yes some people have wonderfully full and interesting lives and we pass them by in the supermarket, or the road never knowing what riches they contain and what beauty and depth they are treasuring and giving sanctuary to. Such was only part of the fullness of her life and it is not over yet.
In fact maybe there is a sad irony encapsulated and embedded in the words "Auto Bio." (you know, like if you play it backwards it says "take multivitamins"!!) To wit , that too many lives are lived on auto, and pass all too quickly without reflection, reassessment, reconfiguring or resetting a course. How many lives have been lived, with out "me time" that is purposefully set aside to take stock, and having done that, not to just sit down, head in hands and cry those oft heard words, "where did all the time go..." But to rejoice in the past and to plan for the future. To change if need be, to improve, intensify or desist from a course or direction and seek another.
It was a famous Greek guy I believe, known for his hosiery leasing (Sock Rates) that said that the 'unexamined life is not worth living,' and another Greek dude, brother of the famous Chip Otle, Arist Otle that said, "well begun is half done, " though I am told he half hinched that from some Roman dude called P. Lagiarism, who was a Pro Verb, or Quo Vadis or something, anyway you get the point. It is good to begin well but to have a full life it must be examined, assessed and then check the course plotted for the future. If you don't, you may end up locked into Auto Bio.
So what of 3xl's autobiography, will it rank alongside other great works of literature, like the Irish book of temperance(a short one this), or the Belgium guide to night life, or even the British exotic cook book, The Calvinists Guide to Self Help, or Arminius' guide to home bomb making, or the Pelagius' book Original sin, was it that original or did Satan beat him to it?, or "How Total is Total depravity" by the new author Justin Bi Grace.
Well perhaps not but it will be helpful for him to assess and to think again to remember and to reminisce, perhaps to revisit things that were learned and experienced but lost, that should not have been, I have written page 20 and I am three years old, so I know it is going to be good.
So 3xl throws out a challenge to you both, and the one reading with interest, what are you going to leave for your children, and those you love, or have felt that they have been better for knowing you?
A house or a car, money or jewelery? Or will your legacy to them be a story, a chronicle of a life, an inside view to experiences of one that you loved and a new depth to knowing, communicating and loving those ones that it is too easy to pass by on Auto Bio.
3xl feels honored and truly blessed to know quite a few of such people and would love to read about their life. (and not just the funny comic relief bit where he comes in.) This is because these lives unwritten, though not un-lived are truly deep puzzles and hidden treasures, with all the fullness and density of layers seen and unseen that make for a masterpiece of writing, and grand fiction playing out for real as the master plot weaver unfolds His intricate patchwork of our life and His part in it.
Billy Shakes once said that All the worlds a stage and we just actors on it, or something sounding more Elizabethan and Jacobitish. Well 3xl shares at least a country with Billy Bob and he reckons that all the world can be a library also, and is full of books being written as we go from one "stage" to the next. Sometimes we have the privilege of watching a mighty performance that touches us and causes us to strive to be more than those on Auto Bio and when we write it down it goes into the Library of the world in such a way that others can rejoice at its reading in the years to come.
3xl approves of this message and he did not even have to pay for it.
Signing out creatively...
3xl
Monday, August 11, 2008
O limp ick Musings
3xl here. As you might guess from my nom de plume, athletic endeavor is not the strongest point in my impressive resume of talents. I have had honorable mention in stair climbing, in the two flight category, and have been known to smash some records(and furniture) in the two feet dive to the couch. It should also be made known that no one, but no one has ever beaten me in the strength event of start the lawn mower, though it has to be admitted, under my truth in blogging rules, that the field is somewhat sparse and the grass somewhat long...and the 4 passions are only girls anyway :-).
I, like many couch athletes, was watching the spectacular and wonderful games that are occurring in the Middle Kingdom over these next few weeks and I was struck by many things and many questions.
I mused on whether the opening event had to be quite so long and so lavish, breathtaking though it was? I heard though that China had lost 25% of the nation's industrial output to pay for the games and had closed factories to clean the air around the stadiums, so I guess they want their money's worth and 25% is quite some "bang" for buck.
I wondered how many of the drummers, had epileptic episodes as the strobes on their drums flashed on and off canceling their subscription to their brain's alpha waves?
What kind of harness rash do you get when you fly through the air for twenty minutes.
What kind of pins and needles do you get, as the harness drops your circulation to the level of the Alabama corn growers association weekly!
Did the men under the boxes going up and down so wonderfully, really have no other help, or was their something under their feet that jabbed them when they had to lift up their boxes.
One central imponderable for me was how they ever found Sarah Brightman, and then got her to sing in Chinese, on top of a magic lantern with people running around it. Wow symbolism!!
Last, but not least, when the legendary Chinese gymnast began his run around the top of the stadium to light the torch, did you gasp when his harness tilted giving the impression that he was about to fall a very long way. I perceived that it was not going to be a good Chinese laundry moment for Mrs legendary Chinese gymnast when he got home, but no doubt he is made of tougher stuff then 3xl.
Impressive stuff, but anyone who watches the grand cinema of China would have seen many similarly impressive things, so it should not surprise us that China can put on a good show in more ways than one. When asked about the sheer scale of the production the producer said rather matter of factly, "well we have the people...: Oh yes they do.
Of course it would not be an eastern production with out some yin and some yang to go round?Yes contrasts are ever with us, and if strong enough, oft provoke a reaction in us.
The Olympics is about unity, and "brotherhood of man understanding," a humanistic effort to bring people together using the medium of sport. All the while war continues to rage in the Caucasus, Iraq, Afghanistan and on.
Along with the highest personal endeavor in sports there also comes national pride and tribalism, the desire to do your best but not just for yourself and for man but for your tribe and clan and country.
Michael Phelps appears to be very likable, level headed even gauche young man who has had enormous pressure put on him to perform and do well. All the talk is of the eight gold medals he could win breaking the record of the other guy who got seven, swimming, and I am old enough to remember watching that.
It just boggles my mind the amount of dedication and hard work that goes in to the performances that we see played out for glory or shame, in just a few short minutes, and then it is over. The Olympic mantra is that even to compete is a great honor and winning is not the main thing. Truly. it is a great honor to even be present to compete as the best and the brightest of each country duke it out with their other nation counterparts. However it is clear that being there is not going to cut it for many of the athletes who have poured their time, money , careers, lives and relationships into their sport and are not wanting to leave without some kind of metal gong around their necks. They truly put the sin in single minded and show clearly what or who, their number one priority is.
Then, by contrast again, you hear of one Polish athlete who sold her gold medal for $82,000 to donate it to children's cancer, and she only had one not seven. She is no fool who gives up that which she can not keep to gain that which she will never lose( as a certain one said before giving up that which was most precious to him). I salute her as a hero and someone who gave, whatever her motivation for that which she believed in. Contrasts, tribalism and values.
I was brought up in a small village in England. Our neighboring village was called Adlington, so imagine my pride in seeing that a UK swimmer called Adlington took a gold medal in swimming from a US favorite hopeful and another UK swimmer came third. A shock result.
Do not be perturbed however dear readers by this sudden display of old country nationalism, I am rooting for the US never fear. So to show off my new country pride, let me finish this segment, with something that anyone on this side of the Atlantic could not help but enjoy.
It is with great pleasure and with not a little schadenfreude and sang froid to use a fitting cultural reference, that I note the humbling of the team that brought us arrogance and le trash talk, the French relay swim team. They were favorites, they were world record holders, they were the team that everyone had to beat, but they could not resist a little jab at the US and a display of, how you say, the pomme fritte on the shoulder that makes us Europeans so endearing, when we say things that make us sound like has beens glorying in our ancient splendor.
Leave it to the French to put their pied in their bouche and say we came here to crush the Americans, I mean, do we need lessons in bombast, pomposity,jingoism,patriotism, I don't think so, I think we have that covered thanks.
Thus it was with contrasting delight I watched the French, all bluster and bellicosity, beaten by a finger tip in the last stretch by the men they were going to crush, in a World Record time, that smashed the French's previous record by four seconds. We were thus treated with a few of those(courtesy of the French), well what do you know moments, as it appeared that once again we did not know much of even what we knew.... As it were.
So 3xl being the blogger he is could not resist compiling a few aphoristic musings and lessons here for us, based on these events and happenings, in the hope that they will be of some benefit, nay amusement to you all.
Firstly,if you are the best you do not need to brag about it, because if you are not we will soon find out, and if you are, we will know already.
Secondly, and very important to me....The best do not always win.
(This was a source of comfort for me, both times I won.)
If you have a chip(french /freedom fry let the reader understand) on your shoulder, fry it in your own pan, and deal with it graciously and internally, rather than displaying it openly. If you do not, you are allowing it to subject you to more reasons to feel bad about yourself, when the next inevitable embarrassment occurs.
Never give up till it is finished, and never assume you have succeeded until you have. Some defeats turn around into glorious victories in 8 hundredths of a second and that last stretch may do it. Some victories however, go the same way.
A win by a finger tip is the same as a win by a length, so if you seem behind at the moment remember that it can all change, and if winning is important to you, then it is all that matters.
I know that a humble frenchman is an oxymoron, but we Brits have enough Breton in us to kind of love them for that anyway, so Vive la France and God Bless Americans and rule the waves Britannia, even if only a few hundred metres of them.
I, like many couch athletes, was watching the spectacular and wonderful games that are occurring in the Middle Kingdom over these next few weeks and I was struck by many things and many questions.
I mused on whether the opening event had to be quite so long and so lavish, breathtaking though it was? I heard though that China had lost 25% of the nation's industrial output to pay for the games and had closed factories to clean the air around the stadiums, so I guess they want their money's worth and 25% is quite some "bang" for buck.
I wondered how many of the drummers, had epileptic episodes as the strobes on their drums flashed on and off canceling their subscription to their brain's alpha waves?
What kind of harness rash do you get when you fly through the air for twenty minutes.
What kind of pins and needles do you get, as the harness drops your circulation to the level of the Alabama corn growers association weekly!
Did the men under the boxes going up and down so wonderfully, really have no other help, or was their something under their feet that jabbed them when they had to lift up their boxes.
One central imponderable for me was how they ever found Sarah Brightman, and then got her to sing in Chinese, on top of a magic lantern with people running around it. Wow symbolism!!
Last, but not least, when the legendary Chinese gymnast began his run around the top of the stadium to light the torch, did you gasp when his harness tilted giving the impression that he was about to fall a very long way. I perceived that it was not going to be a good Chinese laundry moment for Mrs legendary Chinese gymnast when he got home, but no doubt he is made of tougher stuff then 3xl.
Impressive stuff, but anyone who watches the grand cinema of China would have seen many similarly impressive things, so it should not surprise us that China can put on a good show in more ways than one. When asked about the sheer scale of the production the producer said rather matter of factly, "well we have the people...: Oh yes they do.
Of course it would not be an eastern production with out some yin and some yang to go round?Yes contrasts are ever with us, and if strong enough, oft provoke a reaction in us.
The Olympics is about unity, and "brotherhood of man understanding," a humanistic effort to bring people together using the medium of sport. All the while war continues to rage in the Caucasus, Iraq, Afghanistan and on.
Along with the highest personal endeavor in sports there also comes national pride and tribalism, the desire to do your best but not just for yourself and for man but for your tribe and clan and country.
Michael Phelps appears to be very likable, level headed even gauche young man who has had enormous pressure put on him to perform and do well. All the talk is of the eight gold medals he could win breaking the record of the other guy who got seven, swimming, and I am old enough to remember watching that.
It just boggles my mind the amount of dedication and hard work that goes in to the performances that we see played out for glory or shame, in just a few short minutes, and then it is over. The Olympic mantra is that even to compete is a great honor and winning is not the main thing. Truly. it is a great honor to even be present to compete as the best and the brightest of each country duke it out with their other nation counterparts. However it is clear that being there is not going to cut it for many of the athletes who have poured their time, money , careers, lives and relationships into their sport and are not wanting to leave without some kind of metal gong around their necks. They truly put the sin in single minded and show clearly what or who, their number one priority is.
Then, by contrast again, you hear of one Polish athlete who sold her gold medal for $82,000 to donate it to children's cancer, and she only had one not seven. She is no fool who gives up that which she can not keep to gain that which she will never lose( as a certain one said before giving up that which was most precious to him). I salute her as a hero and someone who gave, whatever her motivation for that which she believed in. Contrasts, tribalism and values.
I was brought up in a small village in England. Our neighboring village was called Adlington, so imagine my pride in seeing that a UK swimmer called Adlington took a gold medal in swimming from a US favorite hopeful and another UK swimmer came third. A shock result.
Do not be perturbed however dear readers by this sudden display of old country nationalism, I am rooting for the US never fear. So to show off my new country pride, let me finish this segment, with something that anyone on this side of the Atlantic could not help but enjoy.
It is with great pleasure and with not a little schadenfreude and sang froid to use a fitting cultural reference, that I note the humbling of the team that brought us arrogance and le trash talk, the French relay swim team. They were favorites, they were world record holders, they were the team that everyone had to beat, but they could not resist a little jab at the US and a display of, how you say, the pomme fritte on the shoulder that makes us Europeans so endearing, when we say things that make us sound like has beens glorying in our ancient splendor.
Leave it to the French to put their pied in their bouche and say we came here to crush the Americans, I mean, do we need lessons in bombast, pomposity,jingoism,patriotism, I don't think so, I think we have that covered thanks.
Thus it was with contrasting delight I watched the French, all bluster and bellicosity, beaten by a finger tip in the last stretch by the men they were going to crush, in a World Record time, that smashed the French's previous record by four seconds. We were thus treated with a few of those(courtesy of the French), well what do you know moments, as it appeared that once again we did not know much of even what we knew.... As it were.
So 3xl being the blogger he is could not resist compiling a few aphoristic musings and lessons here for us, based on these events and happenings, in the hope that they will be of some benefit, nay amusement to you all.
Firstly,if you are the best you do not need to brag about it, because if you are not we will soon find out, and if you are, we will know already.
Secondly, and very important to me....The best do not always win.
(This was a source of comfort for me, both times I won.)
If you have a chip(french /freedom fry let the reader understand) on your shoulder, fry it in your own pan, and deal with it graciously and internally, rather than displaying it openly. If you do not, you are allowing it to subject you to more reasons to feel bad about yourself, when the next inevitable embarrassment occurs.
Never give up till it is finished, and never assume you have succeeded until you have. Some defeats turn around into glorious victories in 8 hundredths of a second and that last stretch may do it. Some victories however, go the same way.
A win by a finger tip is the same as a win by a length, so if you seem behind at the moment remember that it can all change, and if winning is important to you, then it is all that matters.
I know that a humble frenchman is an oxymoron, but we Brits have enough Breton in us to kind of love them for that anyway, so Vive la France and God Bless Americans and rule the waves Britannia, even if only a few hundred metres of them.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Th.M... Thinking More...or how to dispense with premillenialism
3xl has not been involved in any formal education for quite a while and so it was with some whimsy and not a little wry smiling that he enrolled on a "spare" time internet masters program this week.
Now as he, and passions three and four were talking and relating they asked, if he would cease to be cool and different from the usual dads(you will have to ask them for their definitional sources). He had to ponder this whilst putting their minds at rest that he would be no different(unfortunately) for doing this course of study, but that he wanted to know more and be better able to chose things that he did and be accredited in what he did as these things were important to people.
What's the point of being a genius if no one knows about it? It is nice to be affirmed, and qualifications can do that for you. Of course the strange thing is that 3xl has been somewhat reticent and unwilling to take this step. Not that he is anti education, or anti academic, but that he has always sought to do that which is practical and useful, and has perhaps harbored secret anti smart thoughts, or pondered on the practical use of such things. I mean we all know clever idiots don't we?
Are all those letters not just affectations, or badges of merit for those who can afford the time and money to do such things? Elmer PhD, M.Scellaneous, B.A, B.A black sheep and the like and my own degrees already attained, LL.B W(Little leg before wicket, for non cricket people) and PGCE, (People Go Crazy Educating)!!!
What of the great old preachers and teachers who had no such appendages as letters after their name? Many preachers are a gold mine of wisdom and Biblical understanding and yet work all their days for God in secular employment whilst preaching faithfully and the Lord knows them.
3xl wondered if it was a particularly cultural thing. He being a not American, has a "different" slant on many things and brings different expectations to the table. 3xl was the first one in his family to go to University, but then imagine coming to a place where the head of the College has two doctorates not just one, and everyone on staff down to the IT guy has a doctorate?
He has not asked the cleaner yet....
3xl has never seen himself as academic in either sense of that word and never wants to be full of knowledge that is of no use to anyone.... but who does?
Education and wisdom do not always play nicely together. The clash of desiring to know, synthesize, apply, disseminate, propagate, promulgate and inculcate known knowledge , seems sometimes to not mesh with the wisdom that brings life, light, release and that which can only be known through revelation, rather than just reading, whatever book it is, and this is something to be acutely aware of.
So let 3xl opine a little more here and try to grasp for himself and work through the difference between the knowledge that puffs up and the learning that transforms and brings life to others.
If that which goes in to us does not defile us, yet that which comes out of us does, then it seems vital that what goes in does not affect us, so that which comes out of us is malignant and defiling, rather than life giving and eternal. As any computer handler will tell you, garbage in and garbage out. However what happens when the facts, the learning and the input mix with the internal issues that are not kingdom aligned.
When "thou shalt not...." is heard by a person, it hits different targets and can be given different receptions by different people. It can stir wildly different reactions to the same comment, some that produce the beauty that nurtures, others, the bitterness that defiles when it comes in to the daylight.
The rebellious and proud see it as an affront to their self determination and independence and may respond with anger and rejection.
The downtrodden may receive it with the pained acceptance and impotence of those who feel powerless, an edict from above that holds down and crushes and their speech accordingly speaks of harshness with passive aggression.
The optimistic and accepting may see it is a vindication of what they always felt and a release from the pressure to conform to a culture that they found themselves at constant variance with and so it goes on.
The point is that the input is the same, constant and regular, and is good, but the responses produced show the ground and soil that it is being planted in. So as I embark on my new journey of learning, what is my hope and prayer dear readers?
That the ground in my heart will be fertile to receive instruction and knowledge and that the fruit and harvest of such planting will be pure meaningful and bring life to many others . If that is found to be true then it will have been good for 3xl to take the time to...
Th.ink M.ore
Now as he, and passions three and four were talking and relating they asked, if he would cease to be cool and different from the usual dads(you will have to ask them for their definitional sources). He had to ponder this whilst putting their minds at rest that he would be no different(unfortunately) for doing this course of study, but that he wanted to know more and be better able to chose things that he did and be accredited in what he did as these things were important to people.
What's the point of being a genius if no one knows about it? It is nice to be affirmed, and qualifications can do that for you. Of course the strange thing is that 3xl has been somewhat reticent and unwilling to take this step. Not that he is anti education, or anti academic, but that he has always sought to do that which is practical and useful, and has perhaps harbored secret anti smart thoughts, or pondered on the practical use of such things. I mean we all know clever idiots don't we?
Are all those letters not just affectations, or badges of merit for those who can afford the time and money to do such things? Elmer PhD, M.Scellaneous, B.A, B.A black sheep and the like and my own degrees already attained, LL.B W(Little leg before wicket, for non cricket people) and PGCE, (People Go Crazy Educating)!!!
What of the great old preachers and teachers who had no such appendages as letters after their name? Many preachers are a gold mine of wisdom and Biblical understanding and yet work all their days for God in secular employment whilst preaching faithfully and the Lord knows them.
3xl wondered if it was a particularly cultural thing. He being a not American, has a "different" slant on many things and brings different expectations to the table. 3xl was the first one in his family to go to University, but then imagine coming to a place where the head of the College has two doctorates not just one, and everyone on staff down to the IT guy has a doctorate?
He has not asked the cleaner yet....
3xl has never seen himself as academic in either sense of that word and never wants to be full of knowledge that is of no use to anyone.... but who does?
Education and wisdom do not always play nicely together. The clash of desiring to know, synthesize, apply, disseminate, propagate, promulgate and inculcate known knowledge , seems sometimes to not mesh with the wisdom that brings life, light, release and that which can only be known through revelation, rather than just reading, whatever book it is, and this is something to be acutely aware of.
So let 3xl opine a little more here and try to grasp for himself and work through the difference between the knowledge that puffs up and the learning that transforms and brings life to others.
If that which goes in to us does not defile us, yet that which comes out of us does, then it seems vital that what goes in does not affect us, so that which comes out of us is malignant and defiling, rather than life giving and eternal. As any computer handler will tell you, garbage in and garbage out. However what happens when the facts, the learning and the input mix with the internal issues that are not kingdom aligned.
When "thou shalt not...." is heard by a person, it hits different targets and can be given different receptions by different people. It can stir wildly different reactions to the same comment, some that produce the beauty that nurtures, others, the bitterness that defiles when it comes in to the daylight.
The rebellious and proud see it as an affront to their self determination and independence and may respond with anger and rejection.
The downtrodden may receive it with the pained acceptance and impotence of those who feel powerless, an edict from above that holds down and crushes and their speech accordingly speaks of harshness with passive aggression.
The optimistic and accepting may see it is a vindication of what they always felt and a release from the pressure to conform to a culture that they found themselves at constant variance with and so it goes on.
The point is that the input is the same, constant and regular, and is good, but the responses produced show the ground and soil that it is being planted in. So as I embark on my new journey of learning, what is my hope and prayer dear readers?
That the ground in my heart will be fertile to receive instruction and knowledge and that the fruit and harvest of such planting will be pure meaningful and bring life to many others . If that is found to be true then it will have been good for 3xl to take the time to...
Th.ink M.ore
Monday, August 4, 2008
I was reading the book called "a serious call to a devout life" the other day and was struck by the power of intention, or setting your mind to something, like flint, or stone. The writer's point was that people failed in their life of constant dynamic faith, simply because they never really intended to succeed, at least as evidenced by the way they prepared for and acted in their life with Christ. Sola scriptura, rather like solar panels, does not get you anywhere, unless connected to something, that can conduct these entities to the place they were intended to go, and the purpose they were intended to meet.
The rigidity and passive solidity of granite and flint, the firmness to withstand, or stand against, rather than the progressive, walking, approaching and moving implication that, "to," gives this phrase caused me to think.
Setting your mind to something sounds like you are going somewhere and doing something, but jittery, purposeful, strident rocks and minerals are hard to find. Dynamothermal metamorphism sounds like a new religion but is, when all is said and done, just more heat and pressure formed solid rock!!!
Radio 4 listeners in the UK are treated to a shipping forecast, where they are inducted in to the mystic speak of the shipping lanes, "Silly Aisles," Dogger Bank, and the legendary Rockall, so mystically named as some have said because there is rockall to do there.
Actually it should be named All Rock, since it is a piece of Rock in the middle of a Large Ocean, the remains of a once active volcano now extinct leaving just a piece of rock standing proud in the middle of nowhere,187 miles from any other pieces of rock, "nowhere," to be precise. A dynamothermal metamorphic shadow of its former self. Those who have found it unawares have regretted it to their loss, as it stands proud and jagged in a sea of nothing. A picture of obduracy, stubborn, dogged and demanding in its insistence to existence. If anything was set, then, it is. Being a rock is all well and good, but it gets you nowhere.
I fear sometimes that we(speaking royally here) have been guilty of imitating the rock, rather than setting our mind to life in all its fullness and abundance. Holding the line, standing firm, being steadfast while the billows roll, fastened to the rock that cannot move, guarding our lentil patch, and the like. Our idea of faithfulness requires non movement as we have the last word on things, we stand firm(or try to) against all comers and assaults upon us, and the "truth" we hold to. All the while however we are talking life, but living death, and rigidity, and we become in danger of falling into an ironic petrification of the very faith, that is supposed to move mountains rather than create them, nail them down, fortify and defend them.
I think it not insignificant that the Lord's ministry was marked by much walking, movement and a refusal to set up HQ/healing and retreat center, day spa, etc, where the people could come to Him. He did not stake his claim and hunker down to receive all onslaughts, he set his mind to go and to do in certain places... and then did it. He invaded, not evaded. In Jesus' case, His face of flint and granite was connected to some pretty active legs that got to movement and intention on the road pretty frequently.
It would have been easy for him to stay in one place and cause others to come to him. However this was no hermit you visited, you had to chase this guy, because he was not hanging around and he was not selling tickets to the show either. If you came to Jesus you did not reside you accompanied and walked as He walked. No situating here, just perambulating there.
You did not come and then hang around waiting for some event or special festival. You walked with Jesus because He was not sitting and waiting for people to come to him, I repeat this because I believe it is central and intrinsic to dynamic living faith that saves, heals, ignites and transforms those around you wherever that may be. You had to chase Jesus if you wanted to hear Him, and you still do. This is one good intention that does not pave the path to Hell. but to the kind of life with Christ that begins here, and like Enoch walking with God, just translates to the eternal, in the flutter of an eye, the exhalation of a breath or the up shift of celestial gear that catapults us in to new dimensions and atmospheres. Some came to Jesus received a healing or a blessing and then went home, to live it all out and do their best with their new revelation and belief.
Others stayed with Jesus and showed the kind of dogged intention to accompany that resulted in the kind of growth that never needs to end. They walked with, listened to, responded to, asked of, and received from Jesus. He said where I am, there will my servant also be, or is that not clear enough for us, not systematic enough or complex and intricate enough a system of faith for us.
Peter's insightful, visceral, yet desperate cry of, "to who else will we go, for you have the words of eternal life," should be enough for any and all, that feel they need to go home, hang up their spurs, pull up the stumps or take it to the bank.
When I understand and believe this, my "karma" will run over my dogma every time.
Being with Jesus meant walking with Jesus and does still....
The wind blows, the river flows, the mustard seed grows, and without faith, mountains stay put, That is rockall use to me and rockall use to Jesus. Burying rocks, talents or treasure never made them grow. Faith that moves this 3xl mountain is what I want to see by, live by and walk by.
Never let our song be:-
"Lord make me an obstacle, an obstacle to others,
I stand in the way of their faith."
Rather let it be sung of me, that "he has decided to Follow Jesus" rather than wait for Him to come back as some seem happy to do.
I once described missions work as "the unwilling, and unprepared being sent by the ill informed to the disinterested.
Some doctrine leaves me feeling like a new definition coming on, such as the disconnected, defending the undefendable and unassailable from the disassociated and disparaging.
Who wants to defend the line, next to the rock, in the ocean, by the desert, in the wilderness, where no one else but devils really care to go anyway.
I want to be part of a jumpy rock that all of a sudden crashes in to some gates and knocks them down, that makes "H.E double hockey sticks " jumpy and whiney, about infiltrators, immigrants and "wetbacks" escaping because their border security has been compromised, due to the inability of their gates to withstand that rock. Oh yes, that is the Jesus rock on which we are built and He continues to build as we walk and accompany Him.
As a lone bastion of dark hair(with chromed highlights, as my third passion likes to tell me),surrounded by a sea of female yellow hair(mostly natural) I can tell this joke, since no blondes will ever read my blog....
Two blondes were standing on opposing banks of a river, and one shouted I want to get over to the other side. The other blonde looked up the river for a bridge but saw none, then down for a bridge but saw none. Finally in a flash of inspiration and revelation she cried out to her new companion with a beaming smile....
"you are on the other side."
I guess it all depends on how you look at it, and where you are standing.
Siding with no one but Jesus, 3xl signs out..
The rigidity and passive solidity of granite and flint, the firmness to withstand, or stand against, rather than the progressive, walking, approaching and moving implication that, "to," gives this phrase caused me to think.
Setting your mind to something sounds like you are going somewhere and doing something, but jittery, purposeful, strident rocks and minerals are hard to find. Dynamothermal metamorphism sounds like a new religion but is, when all is said and done, just more heat and pressure formed solid rock!!!
Radio 4 listeners in the UK are treated to a shipping forecast, where they are inducted in to the mystic speak of the shipping lanes, "Silly Aisles," Dogger Bank, and the legendary Rockall, so mystically named as some have said because there is rockall to do there.
Actually it should be named All Rock, since it is a piece of Rock in the middle of a Large Ocean, the remains of a once active volcano now extinct leaving just a piece of rock standing proud in the middle of nowhere,187 miles from any other pieces of rock, "nowhere," to be precise. A dynamothermal metamorphic shadow of its former self. Those who have found it unawares have regretted it to their loss, as it stands proud and jagged in a sea of nothing. A picture of obduracy, stubborn, dogged and demanding in its insistence to existence. If anything was set, then, it is. Being a rock is all well and good, but it gets you nowhere.
I fear sometimes that we(speaking royally here) have been guilty of imitating the rock, rather than setting our mind to life in all its fullness and abundance. Holding the line, standing firm, being steadfast while the billows roll, fastened to the rock that cannot move, guarding our lentil patch, and the like. Our idea of faithfulness requires non movement as we have the last word on things, we stand firm(or try to) against all comers and assaults upon us, and the "truth" we hold to. All the while however we are talking life, but living death, and rigidity, and we become in danger of falling into an ironic petrification of the very faith, that is supposed to move mountains rather than create them, nail them down, fortify and defend them.
I think it not insignificant that the Lord's ministry was marked by much walking, movement and a refusal to set up HQ/healing and retreat center, day spa, etc, where the people could come to Him. He did not stake his claim and hunker down to receive all onslaughts, he set his mind to go and to do in certain places... and then did it. He invaded, not evaded. In Jesus' case, His face of flint and granite was connected to some pretty active legs that got to movement and intention on the road pretty frequently.
It would have been easy for him to stay in one place and cause others to come to him. However this was no hermit you visited, you had to chase this guy, because he was not hanging around and he was not selling tickets to the show either. If you came to Jesus you did not reside you accompanied and walked as He walked. No situating here, just perambulating there.
You did not come and then hang around waiting for some event or special festival. You walked with Jesus because He was not sitting and waiting for people to come to him, I repeat this because I believe it is central and intrinsic to dynamic living faith that saves, heals, ignites and transforms those around you wherever that may be. You had to chase Jesus if you wanted to hear Him, and you still do. This is one good intention that does not pave the path to Hell. but to the kind of life with Christ that begins here, and like Enoch walking with God, just translates to the eternal, in the flutter of an eye, the exhalation of a breath or the up shift of celestial gear that catapults us in to new dimensions and atmospheres. Some came to Jesus received a healing or a blessing and then went home, to live it all out and do their best with their new revelation and belief.
Others stayed with Jesus and showed the kind of dogged intention to accompany that resulted in the kind of growth that never needs to end. They walked with, listened to, responded to, asked of, and received from Jesus. He said where I am, there will my servant also be, or is that not clear enough for us, not systematic enough or complex and intricate enough a system of faith for us.
Peter's insightful, visceral, yet desperate cry of, "to who else will we go, for you have the words of eternal life," should be enough for any and all, that feel they need to go home, hang up their spurs, pull up the stumps or take it to the bank.
When I understand and believe this, my "karma" will run over my dogma every time.
Being with Jesus meant walking with Jesus and does still....
The wind blows, the river flows, the mustard seed grows, and without faith, mountains stay put, That is rockall use to me and rockall use to Jesus. Burying rocks, talents or treasure never made them grow. Faith that moves this 3xl mountain is what I want to see by, live by and walk by.
Never let our song be:-
"Lord make me an obstacle, an obstacle to others,
I stand in the way of their faith."
Rather let it be sung of me, that "he has decided to Follow Jesus" rather than wait for Him to come back as some seem happy to do.
I once described missions work as "the unwilling, and unprepared being sent by the ill informed to the disinterested.
Some doctrine leaves me feeling like a new definition coming on, such as the disconnected, defending the undefendable and unassailable from the disassociated and disparaging.
Who wants to defend the line, next to the rock, in the ocean, by the desert, in the wilderness, where no one else but devils really care to go anyway.
I want to be part of a jumpy rock that all of a sudden crashes in to some gates and knocks them down, that makes "H.E double hockey sticks " jumpy and whiney, about infiltrators, immigrants and "wetbacks" escaping because their border security has been compromised, due to the inability of their gates to withstand that rock. Oh yes, that is the Jesus rock on which we are built and He continues to build as we walk and accompany Him.
As a lone bastion of dark hair(with chromed highlights, as my third passion likes to tell me),surrounded by a sea of female yellow hair(mostly natural) I can tell this joke, since no blondes will ever read my blog....
Two blondes were standing on opposing banks of a river, and one shouted I want to get over to the other side. The other blonde looked up the river for a bridge but saw none, then down for a bridge but saw none. Finally in a flash of inspiration and revelation she cried out to her new companion with a beaming smile....
"you are on the other side."
I guess it all depends on how you look at it, and where you are standing.
Siding with no one but Jesus, 3xl signs out..
Friday, August 1, 2008
of mice, men, and motorbikes
This is a shot across my literary bow, a dipping of the toe, sniffing of the air and a wetting of the finger, held aloft in flurry of nothing sliding down the barometric slide, or perhaps a man just walked in to an isobar....
I have seen blogs before, and read a few that were intriguing, irritating and somewhat, at times at least, revealing. In fact perhaps if more of us could just conduct our relationships via blogs, we would be more able to reveal that which is within, without having to take emotional responsibility for it, owning it or fessing up to a real person with a face and an opinion that can shoot back in unexpected ways we fear. A kind of intimacy by proxy, or being a moron by oxy perhaps?
In fact the current desire to be "known, " the type and tell mania evidenced by the rash of sites like facebook, my space, blogs podcasts and the like, is an interesting phenomena enabled by recent advances in communication technology, but really powered by something even more inscrutable than a chip, enormous memory space or super cool semi conductor, double gated processors and all that...It is the inherent and powerful desire to be heard, known loved and received for who you are. To know and be known. What a powerful thing that is, what a very human condition.
A few years ago, I shared with a Sunday school class at church the revelation to them, that in the modern suburbs the biggest problem we face is the privacy that we think we enjoy. It starts with automated garage door openers that keep us cocooned in our metal tombs on wheels and that have us traversing our daily existence in one smooth movement from bed through breakfast to work and back again without even so much as tasting some fresh air or enjoying a word with a neighbor on the way to work.
It seems however that we are becoming aware that people, and the relationships that should ensue from meeting them, are not so much threats as treasures that we need to nurture, by wasting time with them and hearing their stories, rather than making up our own about them, however kindly we feel we do it.
Maybe this then is the first stage in pushing back the insidious power of the planners, giving us our private space, that has become more cell than range, and more cloister than community.
So here is my opening salvo to the new freedom, the open range of cyberspace and the open wagons or two wheeled horses that propel us in to the new frontier of communication, collaboration and open communion around a blog,walking the dog, or riding the Hawg.
God Bless Americans.
I have seen blogs before, and read a few that were intriguing, irritating and somewhat, at times at least, revealing. In fact perhaps if more of us could just conduct our relationships via blogs, we would be more able to reveal that which is within, without having to take emotional responsibility for it, owning it or fessing up to a real person with a face and an opinion that can shoot back in unexpected ways we fear. A kind of intimacy by proxy, or being a moron by oxy perhaps?
In fact the current desire to be "known, " the type and tell mania evidenced by the rash of sites like facebook, my space, blogs podcasts and the like, is an interesting phenomena enabled by recent advances in communication technology, but really powered by something even more inscrutable than a chip, enormous memory space or super cool semi conductor, double gated processors and all that...It is the inherent and powerful desire to be heard, known loved and received for who you are. To know and be known. What a powerful thing that is, what a very human condition.
A few years ago, I shared with a Sunday school class at church the revelation to them, that in the modern suburbs the biggest problem we face is the privacy that we think we enjoy. It starts with automated garage door openers that keep us cocooned in our metal tombs on wheels and that have us traversing our daily existence in one smooth movement from bed through breakfast to work and back again without even so much as tasting some fresh air or enjoying a word with a neighbor on the way to work.
It seems however that we are becoming aware that people, and the relationships that should ensue from meeting them, are not so much threats as treasures that we need to nurture, by wasting time with them and hearing their stories, rather than making up our own about them, however kindly we feel we do it.
Maybe this then is the first stage in pushing back the insidious power of the planners, giving us our private space, that has become more cell than range, and more cloister than community.
So here is my opening salvo to the new freedom, the open range of cyberspace and the open wagons or two wheeled horses that propel us in to the new frontier of communication, collaboration and open communion around a blog,walking the dog, or riding the Hawg.
God Bless Americans.
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