we dream in black
or white
we dream in colour
we dream blind
or with sight
we run or fall
or love
we may love none
we may love all
some gamble
bet everything
put the world at stake
no matter what you dream
whether life or death
or sleep…no matter
from every dream,
I guarantee –
you will awake
Month: September 2013
Another Autumn Day
light falls like a silver shroud
to brighten the wilting world
as leaves are yellow diamonds
disguised from the coming end
even the most delightful things
like campfire smoke in the cold
remind that the dead give life
Constantine’s Christ
the masons’ children
are tearing bricks of gold
like 2,000 year old scabs
like a safe nsarcophagus shell
from the western idol that is
Constantine’s Christ
in protest of any god
that makes them hate themselves
revealing torn, weeping flesh beneath
and in his fresh flowing blood
is the healing of the nations
Judge Not Lest Ye Be Judged…
Do you like that title? It’s a little old school certainly but maybe we need a little old school these days.
Thrust to the forefront of my mind today was the issue of judgement (and this was not triggered by what you might think it was, I guarantee you…y’all know who y’all are gentle readers).
I think I am beginning to understand why Christ was so exceptionally clear in his prohibition of judgement, that being the providence of God and God alone.
We are little gods in our own right to be sure. Small child-like images of a loving creator and so we have these understandable urges to be like our Holy Parent. We act like four year old’s putting on mama’s dress and shoes or papa’s work boots and hard hat…we stomp around the house to the great delight of our parent as we practice what we will one day get to do for real.
However – there is a reason we are not allowed to wander out of the house, hard hat and work boots in tow, to take control of the closest backhoe…because we will damage ourselves and everyone around us…maybe even become bringers of death. We are not ready to do the things our loving God does. We will never be ready to do most of the things our loving God does. Judgement is one of those things that has been forbidden of us this side of eternity.
Judge – According to the Oxford Dictionary it means “a person able or qualified to give an opinion on something: she was a good judge of character”
The key here is the word “qualified”. We are not qualified to judge one-another…we are not qualified to judge ourselves even.
What does judging look like? It can take on so many forms I do not think I can list them all here (if you have ideas add them as comments):
– It looks like gossip
– It looks like envy
– It looks like distance in relationships/friendships/family
– It looks like unsolicited advice about something/someone given in the guise of concern
– It looks like cold where once was warm
– It looks like rationalizations for why I don’t call or visit as much as I used to
– It looks like a verdict “You are where you are because of what you have done…”
To judge is to succumb to temptation and commit the very first sin – to take on the role of God and damage the world, oursleves and the ones we love as a result.
Judgement betrays a very deep lack of trust in the God who is often dragged into the courtroom as witness to corroborate our judgement thus reversing the roles we have been assigned.
We do not trust that the judgement of God will be enough to pay for the hurt we feel we have been caused. We do not believe it will come soon enough and so we assign ourselves the role and assume we have become instruments of judgement in the hands of a judging God when in fact we have thrust God to the corner and decided we can do this thing better than God.
To judge is to fall into the same pit that Asaph did in my favorite Psalm…Psalm 73 (A Psalm of Asaph)
Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.[a]
5 They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity[b];
their evil imaginations have no limits.
8 They scoff, and speak with malice;
with arrogance they threaten oppression.
9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10 Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.[c]
11 They say, “How would God know?
Does the Most High know anything?”
12 This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
13 Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
14 All day long I have been afflicted,
and every morning brings new punishments.
15 If I had spoken out like that,
I would have betrayed your children.
16 When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
18 Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
19 How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
20 They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.
21 When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
22 I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.
Do you see the mistake Asaph made? He lost hope and faith as a result of his judgement over the wealthy and Godless in Israel. It is interesting that by attempting consciously or sub-consciously to take up the role that is only for God to take up it is Asaph who is hurt – not the people he is directing his judgement at. As worship leader for Israel the potential form his judgement and pain to hurt the nation is enormous as well.
Thankfully Asaph is awakened to his mistake before it can go too far. How does Asaph become aware of his sin?
“When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.”
Asaph entered the sanctuary of God; that is he intentionally sought out the presence of God. For Asaph this most certainly meant the tabernacle, for us it might mean a church sanctuary or a sun room in the morning with coffee and our Bible as we actively wait on God or even a table at a busy Starbucks with our headphones on listening to the latest Avicii album – the key is intentionality.
When we actively and humbly come before God and present the problem (real or perceived) of other people in our lives I can guarantee you the response will not be – “You need to continue to judge them and ensure they know how horrible you think they have been”. More likely you will hear words or promptings along the lines of “this is a child of mine, as you are a child of mine…leave them to me and continue to do as I have commanded – love, pray, forgive, be merciful and worship me in peace and joy”.
i like the darker days
i like the darker days
the early coming night
i like the oppressive times
they help me see my pale light
it stands out
i like the colder days
of bone-scouring wild wind
these frozen moments
they help me see that
………………while i have sinned
there is a warmth within
i like the heavy days
rain sodden, world crushing
a pressing down upon me
til’ the air within comes rushing
that i might rise above it all
My Constipated Brain and thoughts on Eternal Consciouness
My brain has been constipated lately.
At least that is the best way I can describe it when a thought is bursting to come out but the words just won’t come and so it sits in there getting bigger and uncomfortable til’ my head feels like it will explode.
Well Stephen Hawking may have provided me with the mental prune juice I require (how do you like the imagery so far).
Hawking has released his atheistic idea on how life after death could be achieved via this article. The very basic premise is that one could copy the brain’s content onto a computer thus providing a form of life after death.
I honestly was just having this conversation with one of my incredibly brilliant friends and I have struggled to get across my primary objection to the whole idea.
Essentially I do believe we will advance technologically to a point where we will be able to make exact duplicates of people’s brains. However a duplicate/clone is not the same as me. I do not believe a duplicate or clone is the key to eternal life or whatever you want to call it…even if the duplicate has all of the same memories etc.
The primary issue I have is the lack of consciousness continuity.
What I mean is that a duplicate is simply that, a copy; it may believe it’s consciousness extends as far back as mine (and in fact it could) but it is not me in the sense that I no longer exist. My primary consciousness has ended and another duplicate has taken its place like a doppelganger. For the external world it would be as if I never died but to the original me this is not so. I will die.
I suppose the point I am making is that I do not believe consciousness can be transferred. We might be able to re-create consciousness but to extend it…that is the question. The core of my belief here is metaphysical I suppose. I believe consciousness is more than the sum of our parts…more than the sum of my brain cells. I believe something outside of myself is necessary for my consciousness to be sustained.
To go all Christian theological on you I believe we will be resurrected physically, spiritually and emotionally into an eternal existence that maintains continuity with my current existence. I believe this to be supported by scripture and I believe that who I understand God to be is the source or glue of consciousness (the soul).
You see my struggle? I agree with Hawking at a physical level but cannot agree with him at the metaphysical level and trying to communicate this has been challenging. Honestly I am not sure I have become fully “unblocked” as it were but at least this post relieves some of the pressure.
1,600
This is my 1,600th post.
e n t a n g l e m e n t
i am
e n t a n g l e d
in my centre and
to the outer edge
where a thought begins
it is finished elsewhere
and a word, a sentence
finds its completion
beyond my pale
some strange
some quantum mystery
has paired a shadow heart
a shadow mind to mine
delightful doppelgangers
breathing in and in again
beating now and now again
til’ distance is illusion, meaningless
and when i look to the shaded, blue skies
i see the world with more than two eyes
the path
in the midst of
a thingstodo kind of day
i get lost
i get lost in myself
in the forest of random thought
from a path of effort
watch as a glimpse of red
pulls me deep and away
back to the main again
only to be drawn by song
to the welcome shelter
of away branches
beneath a lost canopy
green and amnesia-inducing sleep…
while the path,
the path is ever present
Schrodinger’s Heart
this brightness
in my heart
it speaks of life
it speaks of death
it burns to consume
as if it is held within a lens
magnified, studied at a distance
focusing some otherly
some beyond light
will observing destroy?
will curiosity kill this cat?
i feel warm like glass
bending, reshaping
what will i become
when i am done and undone?
Harnessing Chaos 