Vine charcoal
Looking at pieces like this for a long period of time can assist me in the processing of thoughts. Soon, the image no longer matters and my time becomes devoted to a meditative experience for a better understanding of self, or god, or life.
Reflective thought is rare in my students. Sound-bite entertainment is what most crave. What inspires deep thought in you?
As I grow older, I find something comforting about conversations like this.
Chicago – Union Train Station
Movies have been filmed here. I am struck by the ionic columns and my perception of how these ought to be “outside” of a building. When I look at these pillars, I am in a paradox. According to my perception, I ought to be outside looking in. Instead, I am inside looking out. Things are not what they seem or what I expect them to be. I expect that God is like this for some of us. He is not what we expect or what we have been trained to believe.
I heard a wonderful illustration of how God shines through our brokenness. Imagine a cardboard box. Imagine beating it with a stick. Imagine setting it on a light. Imagine the light shining through all the broken parts. Imagine that this is like us and the power of Christ shines through our broken parts. Now imagine ignorant people criticizing our broken parts. Sad isn’t it?
God is not a legalist. He compels us by love, not by shame or guilt.
Chagall Church Window detail
How do we protect our children from the dirt of the world? The world is dirty. I do not want my children contaminated by the world. Shall I shield them from the ugliness and sinfulness of those who do not follow my God? I could build them a window that colors the light of truth in a pleasing manner – one that is gentle and easy to stomach.
The Truth Will Set You Free.
Chicago Art Institute – Lions with Hockey Helmets
I went to the Chicago Art Institute with Dr. Stone. It was during the 2010 hockey season when the Blackhawks were in the running for the Stanley Cup. The museum honored the fans by putting hockey helmets on the stone lions flanking the front entrance. This was a paradox for me. Sports and fine art usually clash. As we worked our way through the museum, we spent time with the work of Matisse. The museum was displaying the sketch book drawings of Matisse. The drawings were not meant for display. They were works meant for leaning – Matisse’s observational learning. I saw an older man leaning over a very young girl – 5 yrs. old or so. She was wearing a white dress that reminded me of Easter. The man was explaining a Matisse painting to her. The painting was – for the most part – abstract and incomplete. I pointed this scene out to Dr. Stone. He chuckled and frowned. “Boarder-line child abuse.” He suggested.
We create for ourselves an image that makes us feel good about how others see us. I sense that many people came to see the works of Matisse because he is a big name in art. I do not think that there is universal authenticity in this act. I do not think that the truth of the art was a primary concern. As we walked through the museum, we found ourselves in a hall with a large number of stone carvings. Most of them were from various Buddhist temples in India. It is in this hall that I saw the most disturbing sight of the day.
Chicago Art Institute – Buddhist Statue
I saw a beautiful Asian woman – most likely in her 20′s – bowing in prayer before this statue. We were in a museum that set apart objects as historic artifacts and before one of these artifacts, a woman was bowed in prayer. Museum and temple were merging….sports and museum merged… This was a strange day for me. I had processing to do.
Context is so important, and God is not to be confined to a formula or box. AND YET…we…I … sometimes you… do this very thing. I am sorry.
You may not be sorry, and you may not need to be, but maybe you do… or will.
In any case, I love you. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for your prayers and support. Thank you for calling me and meeting me for coffee and asking me directly about the events in my life. You are an honest and beautiful person. I appreciate you. . . and to those of you who did not invite me to coffee or ask me directly about the events of my life… thanks for nothing 
There was a time when people believed that the earth was flat. It was a comfortable notion, and made God easier to understand. Believing it did not make it true, and when the truth began to come forth resistance was great. The Bible was used to show with certainty that the earth was flat. Christians were upset at Scientist. Some scientists were put to death as heretics by Christians on the point.
God is great, and our attempt to keep Him on a flat earth will not avail us.
I would be pleased if my brothers and sisters would let God be God and not try so hard to define the world around them in such small terms. God is not safe or easy to understand. He allows some crazy things to take place and He even blesses some crazy things. He invites us on amazing adventures and it is our great delight to join Him in His flow.
Stuart Briscoe suggests that the American church is deeply concerned about creating channels in God’s Spirit Flow to serve their own little ponds that soon grow stagnant. How big is your God? I encourage you to find the good in what you see and praise it. Let your words be seasoned with salt and encourage one another in the Spirit. Do not be so quick to judge, but remember to find the good in each other and praise it. God does not shame or coerce us into rightness, He loves us there. Let us then be like God. Since we live by faith, not by sight, we must be patient with each other and try to see God at work in our Brother and Sister. Remove the Beam from your own eye before you attempt to remove the speck from someone else’s. The Measure you use to judge will be used to judge you. So often it is true that when we criticize others we are simply deflecting to keep our own shortcomings from being attended to.
What is it that you need to work on? Work on it. Your relationship with God is yours, and if you want me to follow you, be a witness to me by your life, not by your words or dictations. I will follow the one who follows God. I will know this person by the fruit of the Spirit – Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Why do you want to control someone else? It is likely that you are insecure about your own life – and that you must move away from comfort and security to find a deeper understanding of God as He deals with man in a way you are not yet accustomed to.
So much more can be said here, but perhaps it is best to let God say it to you. I encourage you to join in God’s work, and not deter it with our own attempt to BE God.
Peace.
In Christ we are clean. SO…it is Clean. Though, sometimes, we get dirty.
I heard a great word this evening about a time when women would help each other out by telling each other if their slip was showing. If they didn’t tell each other, offense was taken. To tell a person that their slip is showing or that a bugger is hanging from their nose or that a piece of lint is dangling from their left shoulder blade is a good thing. It is required of friends, and appreciated.
WELL, the Spirit leads us to amazing adventures in Christ, but the Soul can sometimes impersonate the spirit and introduce fear and selfishness. This would confuse anyone. Proof of this can be found in Roman’s 7 where Paul talks about doing what he does not want to do and not doing what he wants to do. That confusion does not come from the spirit, but from the flesh.
When you find someone straying from grace and beauty,
you might want to mention that their soul is showing.
It came to me as an anonymous prayer request which I later found out was about me, and full of errors!!
Do you laugh or cry? If you have a concern for your brother or sister, go directly to them. Do not go to others and disguise your gossip as a concerned prayer request. Whispered concerns shared in the strictest of confidence have ways of clustering on the local grapevine – which becomes fodder for speculation and further dissemination without any prayer ever taking place.
I am blessed with people who heard things about me and came directly to me to find out the truth. I was treated with kindness and love, as well as a cup of coffee. I am grateful for such friends. They are true friends indeed.
I stumbled upon written information about me that was disguised as a prayer request. It was full of errors and quite damaging to my character. My mind went to Psalm 71:19-21:
Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God, you who have done great things. Who, O God, is like you? Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. You will increase my honor and comfort me once again. NIV
We all wish to be approved of by our fellow men, but the truth is, we will not be approved of by all. The primary concern we must have is to be approved of by God. Saying this, I must also say how sweet it is to have friends who do not gossip and who come directly to me with questions and concerns where gossip and slander have played a damaging role.
How often have you heard a rumor and shared it without verifying it? How often have you shared gossip disguised as a prayer concern for someone in your life without actually talking to the person to find out the truth?
Other scriptures come to mind as I think about these recent events:
“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to all who hear it” (Ephesians 4:29).
“But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36).
“Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.” (Colossians 4:6)
According to Ephesians 4:29, we grieve the Holy Spirit if we gossip, slander, rumor, disparage, malign, slur, smear, defame, spread scandal, allow unwholesome language, bitterness, or have bad attitudes toward others.
A man’s words are a reflection of his heart. Where is your heart? So how do we guard ourselves from being gossips?
Gossip violates trust and destroys relationships as well as reputations. It is a way of avoiding our own issues – making us observers of life and not participants. It puts us at a safe and lonely distance from those we are called to love and encourage.
Gossip is a form of accusation without allowing the accused to speak. It is a cowardly act and one that aligns itself with the father of lies and our chief accuser – Satan.
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). Thoughts.
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Section II |
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The Misery Of Man Without God |
80
How comes it that a cripple does not offend us, but that a fool does? Because a cripple recognizes that we walk straight, whereas a fool declares that it is we who are silly; if it were not so, we should feel pity and not anger.
Epictetus asks still more strongly: “Why are we not angry if we are told that we have a headache, and why are we angry if we are told that we reason badly, or choose wrongly?” The reason is that we are quite certain that we have not a headache, or are not lame, but we are not so sure that we make a true choice. So having assurance only because we see with our whole sight, it puts us into suspense and surprise when another with his whole sight sees the opposite, and still more so when a thousand others deride our choice. For we must prefer our own lights to those of so many others, and that is bold and difficult. There is never this contradiction in the feelings towards a cripple.
81
It is natural for the mind to believe, and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.
What is it you have become attached to?
What part does this play in your walk with God?
By what do you judge the honesty and integrity of your actions/answers?
Bill Gates already said them… at a graduation no less.
Insights from Bill Gates at a High School Graduation:
Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try de lousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time..
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
If you can read this, thank a teacher.
Some time ago, I drove my 14 year old daughter 30 miles to stay with a friend. The mother of this friend is, I noticed, a very loving person. I was moved by the way she greeted and embraced my daughter at the door. It touched something in me and I stopped a few miles away to write the following in my sketch book:
I saw you kiss my daughter. Your eyes were bright as you embraced her in your arms and smiled. Squeezing her close to your bosom, you kissed her gently and lovingly on her forehead. I was touched by the motherly love you gave her and I was slightly jealous – wanting that connection. I knew in my heart that she would be ok as I backed out of your driveway. You smiled at me as I quickly pulled my car forward again to prevent myself from backing into your mailbox and hitting the oncoming car.
What is greatness? What does it mean to be great? I was told recently that if I accomplished nothing great before the age of 30, then it was not likely that I ever would. What is greatness? Frank Lloyd Wright produced his best work after the age of 80. Perception and culture and faith matter in determining greatness. I often turn to the words of Kierkegaard for clarity of thought:
No! No one who was great in the world will be forgotten, but everyone was great in his own way, and everyone in proportion to the greatness of that which he loved.
He who loved himself became great by virtue of himself,
and he who loved other men became great by his devotedness,
but he who loved God became the greatest of all.
Everyone shall be remembered, but everyone became great in proportion to his expectancy.
One became great by expecting the possible,
another by expecting the eternal;
but he who expected the impossible became the greatest of all.
Everyone shall be remembered, but everyone was great wholly in proportion to the magnitude of that with which he struggled.
For he who struggled with the world became great by conquering the world,
and he who struggled with himself became great by conquering himself,
but he who struggled with God became the greatest of all.
Thus did they struggle in the world,
man against man,
one against thousands,
but he who struggled with God was the greatest of all.
Thus did they struggle on earth:
there was one who conquered everything by his power,
and there was one who conquered God by his powerlessness.
There was one who relied upon himself and gained everything;
there was one who in the security of his own strength sacrificed everything;
but the one who believed God was the greatest of all.
There was one who was great by virtue of his power,
and one who was great by virtue of his hope,
and one who was great by virtue of his love,
but Abraham was the greatest of all,
great by that power whose strength is powerlessness,
great by that wisdom which is foolishness,
great by that hope whose form is madness,
great by the love that is hatred to oneself.
Søren Kierkegaard
Fear and Trembling
“Eulogy on Abraham”
