Sunday, February 26, 2012

a poem.

A Maiden Fair

By Matthew O’Brien

For Cristin Mahaffey

~

I heard some Angels sing a song

About a maiden fair,

And what it was that made her good:

A heart exceedingly rare,

She loved and loved and never quit;

She always told the truth,

If you met her in Bible times,

You’d swear that she was Ruth,

But the world gave her heart troubles,

She cried many heavy nights,

She locked herself in darkness

And tried to shut out light,

She wandered over all the earth

With nowhere she could stay,

She hacked herself to pieces,

And gave herself away,

As the Angels sang and sang,

I started, thus, to cry,

This Maiden’s tale of sadness could

Be lived by you or I,

But when they started up again,

My broken heart did leap,

They sang of Love redeeming;

Forgiveness mountains steep,

The Maiden’s sin was paid for,

God’s own Son did affect,

He gave her, then, a new heart,

His image to reflect,

Then He set her in the sky,

A diamond in the night,

And everyone she shined upon

Saw better by her light,

She started feeling lonely,

Way up there all alone,

She asked God for another star

With whom to make a home,

So God came down to see her, and said,

“I’ve just the thing in mind,

I’ve humbled and restored him;

He’s really just your kind,”

“He’s also very different,

He might not shine as bright,

You’ll know him when you see him;

You’ll find he fits just right.”

At this my heart was pounding,

For I knew I’d seen this star,

She danced across my deepest dreams,

Enchanting from afar,

And now I write this silly verse,

To you, My Darling Sweet,

For now in truth, I do believe,

Two stars can, happy, meet.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Pluralism

Aa a chaplain I have gotten extremely used to conversing about pluralism, as it is the environment in which I minister. It is, I believe, the environment in which we all minister. The Churches refusal to acknowledge this leads to a divisive conservatism that alienates and destroys credibility. The beauty of Pluralism is that it allows, even demands interfaith dialogue. Conservatives seem to be so obsessed with portraying the superiority of their religion, that they neglect the open seat at the table of ideas, and their opportunity for authentic discussion and consideration of others.

Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch in their book The Shaping of Things to Come make specific note that there seem to be two theories of how to encounter any culture, and in our western world, it is a culture of pluralism. One can attempt to create walls, and further barriers to God, in hopes of keeping the culture out, or one can venture into the culture and create wells, centers of life that people cannot help but stay away from. By necessity, we must be people of the well, joining a diverse and global community, living a faith that is not agreeable to people, but doing it in such a way that communicates love and respect despite our differences. Pluralism is not affirming other people's faith, it is affirming their right to believe. And without that, the church as it is today would not be possible.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Zen

A while ago, someone pointed out to me that there is a quality to my discourse, even to my faith that seems more like Zen than Christianity. I think that is worth noting, because, as I examine thought patterns such as the tao, I believe there is truth that is there, though I believe there are also lies that must be discerned.

Zen, especially as I have begun to practice yoga has a great deal of appeal to me. Being an Enneagram 9, my highest value is being at peace, both within and without. "Holding center in the midst of chaos" is one of my favorite phrases from my favorite yoga routine. I think there is a similarity in the cathartic nature of meditation and the open-handed mentality, and releasing things to God that my faith calls for.

However, the emphasis and end state of these ways of thinking are not compatible. Zen seeks nothingness, emptiness being it's own goal. Christ calls us to be renewed, to die (shivasana) that we might be raised, and to fill our minds with the goodness and love of God. The peace of Christ allows us not only to be at peace within ourselves, but to go forth into the world as peacemakers.

This is the difference between the peaces. Peace of mind retreats inward, Peace of Christ launches out into the lives of others, not passively letting them go, "dropping weight", but embracing them in love, bearing their burdens, and making peace. I believe this is in part what God is calling me to do, but it is always a struggle to step out of myself. So much of this lines up with my enneagram results. It has been truly challenging to grow through and I continue today to step into awareness, and embrace others in peace.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

School

There are a lot of differences between being in middle school and teaching it. I have never really thought much about my early education, but I never really knew much about my teachers. I just accepted that there were my teachers. I don't remember thinking about the personal life or normal non-school activities of my teachers. I viewed them as very 1-dimensional.

Someone just pointed out to me that this may mbe a much more west-coast mono-generational way of looking at things. As kids in Louisiana ask all sorts of questions about me, are they just being irritating and curious, or do they expect to relate to their teachers as people, not just teachers?

I don't know, but I tend to be a very accepting person, and sometimes that is to my detriment, so maybe it's a healthy curiosity. Either way, Louisiana kids are not very good at staying on task :(

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Lent

This year I'm celebrating Lent for the first time, and I'm actually going about it in kind of an extreme way, rather than in a small or simple way. Which might lead to problems in being successful. I've always been a lofty goals type of person, and somewhat of an extremist.

So today, I begin the journey of Lent. I went to a catholic mass for the first time (unless you count catholic field services back when I was a Chaplain for ROTC cadets, which I don't) and it happened to be the Ash Wednesday today.

The homily was very good, it was essentially that Lent is a celebration, not a hardship. It is a celebration of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ for sinners, and an opportunity for us to step into the redemption process, and to grow in ways that God wants us to grow as people, through denying that which may distract or threaten us, and embracing that will enhance and challenge us.

So, I don't feel like listing my Lent stuff in full, the two main things are that 1) I will be attempting to blog everyday. 2) Cristin and I are doing a Paleo Diet Cleanse. I'm very excited about the opportunities to grow through these challenges, and to enbrace a more disciplined life than before.

Right now I'm more excited about this than I was about Mardi Gras, which was a complete success full of awesome people and good times. Also, I've been horrible about taking pictures since I moved here, and that's not a Lent thing, but I am going to take out and charge my camera, so that might start happening.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Letter to God

Dear God,

I am messed up. Life is this awful mess, just a 7-layer dip of emotions and sinfulness, and somewhere in it you have plunged, like the Dorito chip of life, like a divine instrument of deliverance, to fetch my perishing ass. I love chaos too much. Genesis 1:2 is me, a pandemonium of cyanide cocktails and death-dealing blows to the head, a senseless rubrich of all that is wrong.

And Yet, Christ is for me. I know that, like an undeniable fact, but not a mere fact. It is a riot of positive energy overtaking my like the fog. There is nowhere to run from your awesome love and goodness when I commune with you, when I surrender and come in, it's as though I've known an old friend from before the war. Like a grandma in a cookie kitchen, you welcome me in, take care of m
e, put me at ease, and comfort my broken heart. You restore me to a good conscience, and break the bonds that hold me fast. Your love opens all doors, restores all walls, builds all foundations anew, desires all
good, and magnifies all that is glorious and honorable. You are the only Blessing and in you are all blessings.

God give me strength that I cannot claim as my own, clarity like light, and a heart that won't give up. You love me so much, allow me to hurt with love for others, and alert my conciousness to your sublime presence in all things.



Friday, February 03, 2012

Writing

ANNOUNCEMENT:
I am hoping to get back into the spirit of blogging by posting a lot more, my hopefully faithful handful of readers.

Probably at the expense of quality.

That is all.


Thursday, February 02, 2012

Jesus and Religion

So this video is blowing up on youtube, and while many commentators have pointed out some of its more obvious flaws, I thought I'd just post about it.




Apart from one of the worst quotables "I'm not judgin', I'm just sayin', 'Quit putting on a fake look!' That's called judging, friend.

So, obviously the problem is that he doesn't really clearly define religion. Because religion could be defined in a lot of different ways. Most everyone does something religiously, be it watch sports, drink coffee, go to church, whatever. The question to me isn't are you religions, but are you religious about what you say you believe in? He also talks about Christ's obediene, the object of which is true religion, and that is defined in James 1:26-27, Micah 6:8, and a variety of other scriptures.

In a way it's almost like he's saying he hate religion, because religion is religious about the wrong things, and you should be religious about Jesus. But then he says being religious about Jesus means being religious about doing works and abstaining from behaviors. So, maybe that's just what I'm hearing but, it sounds horribly confusing with the language he uses.

Also, I think this guy resonates with a lot of millenials who have horrible experiences with institutions, politics and cultures, but not with what James calls true religion, which addresses all the issues this guy raises.

That's all. Oh, one of the critique videos by TheAmazingAtheist had a hilarious bit in it about how what this guy was saying made no sense, and was as much hype as any commercial on TV. When you replace "Jesus" with "Coke", and "Religion" with "Soda" in parts of his discourse, you really see what he means.

Just some thoughts, trying to get back into the blog swing.