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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Power, Influence, and Punctuation

What kind of power do I have? What kind of power do you have? Power that has the ability to influence. I think that Paul Watzlawick (1990) says it quite nicely, so I won’t try to offer my own analogy.

“Toward the end of 1988 a bizarre incident was reported in the local section of the Italian daily La Nzione. A psychotic woman who had been temporarily admitted to the general hospital of the city of Grosseto was to be transferred to a psychiatric clinic in her native Naples. As the Red Cross attendants came to take her to the waiting ambulance, she began to decompensate rapidly. She became abusive and belligerent began to depersonalize, claiming that she was somebody else, and had to be restrained. About an hour later, on the freeway outside of Rome, police intercepted the ambulance and directed it back to Grosseto as it had meanwhile been discovered that the woman in question was not the “real” patient but rather a visitor who had come to the hospital to see a friend who had undergone surgery. …”to be sane in insane places” (in this case within the frame of an administrative mistake) can create a situation in which any manifestation of sanity becomes further “proof” of insanity.” (p. 145)

Wow. Poor woman. How often does this happen today? Maybe we’re not sending someone to a psychiatric hospital, but how often does something similar occur? When someone is confiding in us and they say, “She’s crazy” or “He’s off his rocker.”  My eyes and thoughts have been intercepted by person A’s punctuation of person B. After person B’s actions have been punctuated, I only observe things that further proves what person A has told me.

How is that fair? How is that just? How does that offer grace?

These are my thoughts and questions:

I believe that we are a fallen world, a fallen humanity. It is impossible for us to maintain perfection or normalcy because of our fallen, sinful nature. Therefore, I am an imperfect person with the power and influence to punctuate another person’s imperfections. How can I keep this in mind when interacting/punctuating people?

How can I punctuate people in such a way that helps bring forth Life?

When I was working on my Master’s degree a Doctoral student did something wonderful with a client. The client was trying to convince the therapist that she had a particular diagnosis, that she was really ill. After much back and forth, the therapist said he would like to give her a new diagnosis. He said, “I diagnose you as Terminally Human.”

With the power that I have, with the influence that I have, how am I offering people grace?

Wonderful the matchless grace of Jesus,
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea;
Wonderful grace, all sufficient for me, for even me.
Broader than the scope of my transgressions,
Greater far than all my sin and shame,
O magnify the precious Name of Jesus.
Praise His Name!

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Ezekiel 47:1-12

Now he brought me back to the entrance to the Temple. I saw water pouring out from under the Temple porch to the east (the Temple faced east). The water poured from the south side of the Temple, south of the altar. He then took me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the gate complex on the east. The water was gushing from under the south front of the Temple.
He walked to the east with a measuring tape and measured off fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet, leading me through water waist-deep. He measured off another fifteen hundred feet. By now it was a river over my head, water to swim in, water no one could possibly walk through.
He said, “Son of man, have you had a good look?”
Then he took me back to the riverbank. While sitting on the bank, I noticed a lot of trees on both sides of the river.
He told me, “This water flows east, descends to the Arabah and then into the sea, the sea of stagnant waters. When it empties into those waters, the sea will become fresh. Wherever the river flows, life will flourish—great schools of fish—because the river is turning the salt sea into fresh water. Where the river flows, life abounds. Fishermen will stand shoulder to shoulder along the shore from En-gedi all the way north to En-eglaim, casting their nets. The sea will teem with fish of all kinds, like the fish of the Great Mediterranean.
“The swamps and marshes won’t become fresh. They’ll stay salty.
But the river itself, on both banks, will grow fruit trees of all kinds. Their leaves won’t wither, the fruit won’t fail. Every month they’ll bear fresh fruit because the river from the Sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.

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Life, Aqueducts, and the Body

Over the last year or so, the above passage has been very important to me. I love the visual of God’s goodness turning death to Life. The Water that flows from the Temple (or the Spirit that is an extension of God) spurs Life wherever it flows. The trees on the bank grow fruit, and their leaves don’t wither. God has given Life to that which was dead.

The idea of death to Life is something that I think about quite often. I fully desire to be a person that swims in the River flowing from the Temple. I desire to be a person that is sensitive to the movement of the Spirit in my life. I desire to be a tool that God uses to help people go from death to Life.

I told my husband, “I want to be a tributary of the River.”

He said, “No, Gail. You want to be an aqueduct! You want to extend the Water to places beyond the river’s reach to help bring Life to the area.”

After thinking on how I can be an aqueduct, I decided that I want to be in a community of aqueducts. Then, I realized that all people carry the Water differently. So, I amended my thought process and decided that I want to be in a community of Water carriers.

In closing, here are my thoughts and questions:

Am I swimming in the Water in such a way that the Water is allowed to bring Life to that which was dead?

Water carrying connects to the body of Christ. Am I carrying the Water to bring Life from death in other areas outside the river? Ultimately, how can I be an aqueduct for the Life-giving water of Christ?

How can we, as the church, be sensitive to the movement of the Spirit in the church? How is He directing us to carry the Water to those that need its Life-giving powers?

Is the community, of which I am a part, swimming the Water in such a way that it helps bring forth Life? Is the community inviting others to join in the swim? I believe this extends beyond the walls of the church! This is in the coffee shop, the park, the grocery store, with my extended family, in school, the gas station, with neighbors, etc. Ultimately, is the community of which I am a part carrying the Water to other people and places to help bring forth Life?

How can I interact with the community to encourage them to share the Water with others outside the community?

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Structure, Relationships, Clay

Structure ranges broadly on a linear scale. One side of the scale represents rigid structure and the opposite side represents no structure. Depending on the form of structure, foreign objects may or may not be able to enter the structure.

PVC pipe, for example, is a good example of a rigid structure. It’s firm, solid, withstands pressure, and is extremely useful in certain systems. The rigidity of the structure does not allow easy access for foreign objects; the rigidity of the structure resists them. So, if I were to take my hand (foreign object) and attempt to enter the rigidly structured system (PVC pipe), I wouldn’t be successful because of the rigidity of structure in the system.

On the other side of this linear structure scale, is no structure. Some may refer to this as chaos. Chaos holds no structure and allows foreign objects easy access when entering and exiting the system. A good example of a system with no structure is water. If I were to take my hand (foreign object) and enter it into the water (chaotic system), I would face little to no resistance.

In the middle of the linear structure scale is a balance between rigid structure and chaos. Silly putty or clay comes to mind. It holds structure, yet it isn’t opposed to foreign objects. I can easily manipulate the structure with my hand. 

So, what does this have to do with anything?

Rigid structures are needed and chaos is needed. Being too rigid in structure doesn’t allow for movement or growth, and being too chaotic doesn’t sustain movement or growth. Chaos and rigidity form a relationship that both allows movement/growth and sustains movement/growth. The linear structure scale has now progressed into a circular relationship where both are needed to produce change.

This leads me to several thoughts/ questions:

How can we, as the church, be the balance of rigidity and chaos to allow foreigners into the system of the church? How can we encourage structure and embrace chaos in such a way that foreigners feel comfortable and connected to the love of Christ?

When my life is in a state of chaos, I can be assured that the circular relationship between chaos and rigidity will eventually move my life to something more structured. And, when my life is so structured that it is oppressive, chaos will eventual enter to relieve the structure.

Those times in the lovely, delicate balance between chaos and rigidity are so welcomed and enjoyed.

Relationships (marriage, family, friendships) may follow a similar structured/ chaos circularity.

How can I interact with different systems to encourage more or less structure and more or less chaos?

Yet, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our Potter, and we all are the work of Your hand. Isaiah 64:8

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Gregory Bateson, 1972

…we social scientists would do well to hold back our our eagerness to control that world which we so imperfectly understand. The fact of our imperfect understanding should not be allowed to feed our anxiety and so increase the need to control. Rather, our studies could be inspired by a more ancient, but today less honored, motive: a curiosity about the world of which we are part. The rewards of such work are not power but beauty.

 

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