Anticipation, Hope, and Waiting

  

...For years He was anticipated. 

...For years people waited. 

...For years people hoped for a Savior.

As God's people waited, He new how he would save the world. The hope of the world is fulfilled in Christ's birth. The hope of the world rests on a child's shoulders.

Isaiah 9:6-7

us a child is born,    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this

As I prepare for this Christmas season, I am overwhelmed with a sense of excitement and wonder of the baby born so long ago. He was sent for all mankind and will one day return. As I wait in anticipation for our little one, I also wait and hope for Christ the King.

Come thou long expected Jesus.

6 

http://www.worshiphousemedia.com/mini-movies/35133/Come-Thou-Long-Expected-Jesus

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Love, Grace, and Les Mis

So, it's been quite a while since I have posted something.... Life has been busy! 

I have a confession - I've seen Les Mis four times. That only includes the movie version.... I Love this musical! I have yet to read the book (embarrassed face), but it's on my short list! This musical has so many wonderful messages to me. Hopefully, I can explain myself here...

Life is really Hell sometimes. I mean, the world is full of sin and fallen from Him. It is such a battlefield. There's constantly something to fight. Darkness surrounds us! But the priest  sings an age old truth, "God has raised you from the darkness".

Throughout the musical there is a recurring theme of 'New Beginnings'.  He has given us an opportunity to raise up from the darkness and become honest men - in giving the sacrifice of His son. Jean Valjean sings, "You are free. There are no conditions, bargains, or petitions". A  life with Him is full of Grace and Love and Forgiveness. He has offered freedom while in the midst of battle. He has shown mercy and grace to those that are thought to be beyond redemption. 

Do you hear the people sing

Lost in the valley of the night?

It is the music of a people

who are climbing to the light.

For the wretched of the earth

there is a flame that never dies.

Even the darkest night will end

and the sun will rise.

They will live again in freedom

in the garden of the Lord.

They will walk behind the ploughshare;

they will put away the sword.

The chain will be broken

and all men will have their reward.

Will you join in our crusade?

Who will be strong and stand with me?

Somewhere beyond the barricade

is there a world you long to see?

Do you hear the people sing?

Say, do you hear the distant drums?

It is the future that they bring

when tomorrow comes!

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Trees, Knowledge, and Insight

Often, I think about things that I should know. As a therapist, people often think that I should have the answers. Quite the contrary… I do not.

I think that humanity has a desire to pursue knowledge. In the beginning, Adam and Eve ate from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The key word, for me, is ‘Knowledge’. After eating of the fruit, they acquired knowledge. They had the ability to ‘know’ their nakedness and to ‘know’ to be ashamed. Such is the beginning of humanity's pursuit of knowledge, and humanity's tendency to gravitate towards sin.

I believe that we are a fallen people. Humanity, as a fallen race, has a tendency to gravitate towards sin. We take knowledge and pervert it because of our sinful nature. We use knowledge as power, knowledge as manipulation, knowledge as ‘Truth’.

Nevertheless, I think that I should know things. I should have insight and knowledge. After all, I’m studying philosophy and relationships, right? While reviewing some of my previous writings, I found the following bit of insight that I apparently wrote out of a moment of clarity: “The very insight that one needs to remember is that one does not need insight. The “real” insight into the problem cannot be seen in the midst of the problem. Insight is only discovered after acting. Act; then you will be. Then, in being you will see.”

These are my thoughts and questions:

I can only act. By acting in a situation, I can begin to see - - or in my case, have insight and knowledge.

If I act as if and draw attention to peoples’ behavior in a way that solidifies their explanation of themselves, then they have no other opportunity but to continuing being as they are. However, if I act as if peoples’ actions have a purpose in their context, a new opportunity is created. They can now view themselves differently; therefore, a new reality is created; a new perception is created. There is insight and knowledge.

If I did have the answers, they would only be my own answers. My own answers would do little to help another person.

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Light, Circularity, and Relationships

This has been on my mind for quite some time. I believe in circles. I believe that things are created to be in relationship with one another, and the relationship follows a infinitely circular pattern. This started in, what I believe is, the beginning.

Genesis 1:1-5

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

 ³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

According to the Bible, God devoted His first day of creation to drawing a distinction between light and darkness. Without the darkness, there would be no light and vice versa. Without the light, there would be no darkness. The interaction between the entities is needed to create the working system of day and night. They follow an infinitely circular pattern of light slowly moving toward darkness and darkness slowing moving toward light.

God continued to form circular patterns in the creation story. In fact, according to the bible, God dedicated His first four days to making distinctions to create the circular system of the earth. Day two – the distinction of water from sky. Day three – the distinction of water from land. Day four – the distinction of night from day. Through distinctions, God created the system of the heavens and the earth. Each of the seemingly opposite entities interact with one another to create a circular relationship. 

Here are my thoughts and questions:

This idea of circular relationship is a recurring theme in creation large and small. Some quick examples: the Water Cycle, Planets orbiting the Sun, Personal Relationships.

God set in motion the fundamental aspect of human life - - Relationship. All things about us are designed to interact with others through relationship.

Often times, people try to solve problems in a linear fashion. We tend to forget the circular pattern that God set in motion. We try to solve problems apart from all that are involved, contributing, and are in relationship to the problem. If God designed us to be in relationship, how can we view problems independent from other people?

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Gate-Keeping, Seeds, and Responsibility

Over the last twenty years, my parents have done a wonderful job of building a home that our family has grown up in, out in, and in and out of. They decided to build the house, which got them the design they wanted, but left the landscape lacking. The nice new house situated in red Louisiana dirt seemed less than picturesque. So, my Grandfather started throwing seeds. I vividly remember him wearing his coveralls in the Louisiana heat and walking around the backyard while spinning the seed thrower.  Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. The seeds just flew out as he walked and spinned, walked and spinned. This image has stuck with me through the years.

Matthew 13: 3-8

³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

I think the important part of this passage is that the farmer threw the seed. He didn’t pick and choose where to throw the seed; he just threw it. Just like my Grandfather, tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. Walk and spin, walk and spin. He just threw the seed. 

I think that as Christians we often times take on the role of gate-keeping for the church. We’ve ‘gifted’ ourselves with the job of deciding what is and what isn’t. In doing this, we’ve created guidelines and have determined what things/people are ‘supposed’ to look like or ‘supposed’ to be. With the gate-keeping role that we’ve given ourselves, I think we’ve limited our view of where to throw seeds. I think that we trample on The Gift that God has given us - - we miss opportunities to share Love, Life, and Grace with others. We take the role of God by debating, defining, and practicing our theology while imposing our methodologies on others. Is this our responsibility?

Here are my thoughts and questions:

What is my responsibility?

In the movie The Nativity Story (2006) a shepherd timidly approaches baby Jesus. The shepherd reaches to touch Him and then pulls away, as if he wasn’t good enough to touch the King. Mary leans Jesus close to the shepherd and says, “He is for all mankind.”

How am I throwing the seed?

How can I remind myself and others to simply throw the seed? To not focus on gate-keeping who can participate in community, communion, or collective worship - - He is for all mankind.

We don’t make the seeds take root and grow. No amount of our gate-keeping can add to or take away from the Life that God creates in the seed. 

Again, what is my responsibility?

My awesome and talented sister took both of these pictures at our family farm.

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The Lord's Prayer Revisited

Trey's interpretation of the Lord's Prayer. I appreciate the flow, and the reminder of Relationship.

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Paper, Rocks, and Research

I was asked to be a guest lecturer in a graduate research class. The professor wanted me to give an introduction to graduate level research. As I was preparing for the lecture, I thought a youtube video might assist the class in their learning. Hence, the above video.

What does this video have to do with research? While watching the video, my mind quickly jumped to a metalogue written by Gregory Bateson (1953) entitled Metalogue: How Much Do You Know? Below is an excerpt between Bateson and his daughter.

“ Daughter: Daddy—has anybody ever measured how much anybody knew?

Father: Oh yes. Often. But I don’t quite know what the answers meant. They do it with examinations and tests and quizzes, but it’s like trying to find out how big a piece of paper is by throwing stones at it.

Daughter: How do you mean?

Father: I mean – if you throw stones at two pieces of paper from the same distance and you find that you hit one piece more often than the other, then probably the one that you hit most will be bigger than the other. In the same way, in an examination you throw a lot of questions at the students, and if you find that you hit more pieces of knowledge in one student than in the others, then you think that student must know more. That’s the idea.

Daughter: But could one measure a piece of paper that way?

Father: Surely one could. It might even be quite a good way of doing it. We do measure a lot of things that way. For example, we judge how strong a cup of coffee is by looking to see how black it is - - that is, we look to see how much light is stopped. We throw light waves at it instead of stones, it’s the same idea.”

I think research is similar to this idea. We manipulate and ‘test’ humans and fit them into categories that we’ve already created. We throw rocks at them and when we hit the same idea over and over, we treat it as scientific understanding. We fail to step back and consider that we may be throwing the rock in such a way that it will always hit the one piece of paper. It doesn’t necessarily mean that that piece of paper is bigger, it may only mean that we have a tendency to throw rocks in one particular direction.

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