"beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God..."
interwoven we are;
different gifts, different faces;
blending together, not perceiving
where one stops and the other starts
seeing God through others' eyes,
we taste this mystery;
diversity finding its sweetness
in the unity that enfolds us
pieces of the same puzzle;
unique threads in a similar tapestry;
bringing forth wholistically
one body from many parts
the Spirit's unifying power;
being made new together;
pulling together the fragments
that by all rights should be left distinct
where is God?
where must i go to find him?
to arms of my brothers,
in the eyes of my sisters
he speaks to us;
gently wooing us from afar,
promising to transform us
through the lives of his people
working in the hearts of each of us,
powerfully, yet uniquely
he bears our burdens
through the love of his loved ones
may we be one as we seek his kingdom
18 January 2007
16 January 2007
wisdom, knowledge, and the source for change
"He contemplated the grandeur, and the presence of God; the eternity of the future, strange mystery; the eternity of the past, mystery yet more strange; all the infinities deep-hidden in every direction about him; and, without essaying to comprehend the incomprehensible, he saw it. He did not study God; he was dazzled by the thought He reflected upon these magnificent unions of atoms, which give visible forms to Nature, revealing forces in establishing them, creating individualities in unity, proportions in extension, the innumerable in the infinite, and through light producing beauty. These unions are forming and dissolving continually; thence life and death." Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
there is, seemingly, an ensuing battle between the acquisition of knowledge and the wisdom of experience. what the spoils happen to be of such a conflict can only be change. we fight for a brilliant consciousness of truth, pursuing it doggedly until we are more confounded than when we first began. we strive impatiently to penetrate the great mysteries of existence only to become increasingly exasperated. we believe knowledge to have transforming abilities, but in the end, it seems that life experience is what gives mould to our identity.
remarkably, we become increasingly better at living as the pages of our calenders are perseveringly ripped away. as if life itself, or at least the experience of living, has educated us in its own way. we begin to accept things for "how they are" in contrast with "how they came to be" or even "why they are what they have come to be." in contemplation, not penetration, we obtain that blissful joy and transformation we so ardently desire. of course, part of living is learning, and learning is influenced by the knowledge we obtain as we tread slowly over life's path.
and so, certainly, in our comparison of knowledge and wisdom, we see that each influences the other. wisdom is informed by knowledge and our pursuit of knowledge is dictated by the wisdom we possess. but knowledge, in my estimation, will only take us so far. even st. paul, in his epistle to the romans, after giving a lengthy discourse on the gospel and enumerating for us so aptly the knowledge that God has graciously given him, seems to throw his hands up in bewilderment exclaiming, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!"
knowledge, assuredly, is a gracious bestowal from Him who gives "all good and perfect gifts". we cannot function without it. but to effect change, in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds, and in our communities, perhaps we should seek to ponder anew the greatness of God and his grace, both things revealed and those shrouded in mystery, our goal not being one of discovery, but one of change for the good of our communities, our loved ones, and our selves.
if we forsake wisdom to the deceit that knowledge, left to itself, provides us, we profit nothing. if we pursue wisdom through experience, knowledge will come with it. the fool sees knowledge as an end in itself. the wise man employs knowledge in the appreciations he has for life, either now or in eternity, seeking change of self and his surroundings, savoring the sweetness that God offers experientially.
there is, seemingly, an ensuing battle between the acquisition of knowledge and the wisdom of experience. what the spoils happen to be of such a conflict can only be change. we fight for a brilliant consciousness of truth, pursuing it doggedly until we are more confounded than when we first began. we strive impatiently to penetrate the great mysteries of existence only to become increasingly exasperated. we believe knowledge to have transforming abilities, but in the end, it seems that life experience is what gives mould to our identity.
remarkably, we become increasingly better at living as the pages of our calenders are perseveringly ripped away. as if life itself, or at least the experience of living, has educated us in its own way. we begin to accept things for "how they are" in contrast with "how they came to be" or even "why they are what they have come to be." in contemplation, not penetration, we obtain that blissful joy and transformation we so ardently desire. of course, part of living is learning, and learning is influenced by the knowledge we obtain as we tread slowly over life's path.
and so, certainly, in our comparison of knowledge and wisdom, we see that each influences the other. wisdom is informed by knowledge and our pursuit of knowledge is dictated by the wisdom we possess. but knowledge, in my estimation, will only take us so far. even st. paul, in his epistle to the romans, after giving a lengthy discourse on the gospel and enumerating for us so aptly the knowledge that God has graciously given him, seems to throw his hands up in bewilderment exclaiming, "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!"
knowledge, assuredly, is a gracious bestowal from Him who gives "all good and perfect gifts". we cannot function without it. but to effect change, in our lives, in our hearts, in our minds, and in our communities, perhaps we should seek to ponder anew the greatness of God and his grace, both things revealed and those shrouded in mystery, our goal not being one of discovery, but one of change for the good of our communities, our loved ones, and our selves.
if we forsake wisdom to the deceit that knowledge, left to itself, provides us, we profit nothing. if we pursue wisdom through experience, knowledge will come with it. the fool sees knowledge as an end in itself. the wise man employs knowledge in the appreciations he has for life, either now or in eternity, seeking change of self and his surroundings, savoring the sweetness that God offers experientially.
15 January 2007
struggling with identity
learning about ourselves (or perhaps this quandary is exclusively mine) seems to be a particularly difficult and painstaking process. we unearth a layer of our hearts in order to discover the miscellaneous secrets underneath these callous exteriors only to experience a shocking dismay.
upon completion of burrowing through any given layer of our core, we become startlingly frightened of what we perceive thriving abundantly in these more interior compartments of our hearts. we experience despair that hitherto has been completely unknown to us, driving us to quickly conceal the aforementioned grotesqueness or fill in what we have only recently uncovered. we fear that another might also see what we have seen or that we cannot even admit to ourselves the perfidious nature of so profane a reality.
inevitably, this results in our inability to reveal to others and ourselves the true identity that we possess. constantly bombarded by fear of compromising the image that we have so expertly crafted, we continue to pile on a fabricated layer of shit that is neither genuine nor aromatic. this process builds upon foundations already laid to the point that we cannot even distinguish for ourselves who we are or what we have become.
behold the changing work of the Spirit of God...
the promise begins to linger on the edge of our consciousness... "i will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh... i will put my Spirit within you..." the spark of joy from such a concept is slowly and enduringly fanned into inquenchable flame. we contemplate in disbelief that such a miraculous work could exist.
we are forced into the unbearable heat of God's presence. we experience the excruciating pain of change as the fire hardens our exterior. it begins to crack and flake, and at the moment at which we are certain of destruction that the revelation of God's righteousness surely brings, the soothing wind of the spirit carries away from us the shattered shell of our artificial image to reveal something fresh. we hear faintly on the whispers of this wind, "i am making all things new..."
we embrace the newness. we savor it. we have seen the identity which we had fictitiously built in our minds gloriously swept away and replaced with a new one. we have become "new creations... the old have passed away... the new have come."
do not be afraid.
upon completion of burrowing through any given layer of our core, we become startlingly frightened of what we perceive thriving abundantly in these more interior compartments of our hearts. we experience despair that hitherto has been completely unknown to us, driving us to quickly conceal the aforementioned grotesqueness or fill in what we have only recently uncovered. we fear that another might also see what we have seen or that we cannot even admit to ourselves the perfidious nature of so profane a reality.
inevitably, this results in our inability to reveal to others and ourselves the true identity that we possess. constantly bombarded by fear of compromising the image that we have so expertly crafted, we continue to pile on a fabricated layer of shit that is neither genuine nor aromatic. this process builds upon foundations already laid to the point that we cannot even distinguish for ourselves who we are or what we have become.
behold the changing work of the Spirit of God...
the promise begins to linger on the edge of our consciousness... "i will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh... i will put my Spirit within you..." the spark of joy from such a concept is slowly and enduringly fanned into inquenchable flame. we contemplate in disbelief that such a miraculous work could exist.
we are forced into the unbearable heat of God's presence. we experience the excruciating pain of change as the fire hardens our exterior. it begins to crack and flake, and at the moment at which we are certain of destruction that the revelation of God's righteousness surely brings, the soothing wind of the spirit carries away from us the shattered shell of our artificial image to reveal something fresh. we hear faintly on the whispers of this wind, "i am making all things new..."
we embrace the newness. we savor it. we have seen the identity which we had fictitiously built in our minds gloriously swept away and replaced with a new one. we have become "new creations... the old have passed away... the new have come."
do not be afraid.
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