Ancient Wisdom – Two Wolves
I heard this story recently and it resonate with me in regards to the Genesis story. I think at the deepest of levels of spiritual formation, what changes is our understanding of the dignity of humanity.
——————————————————————————–
The Wolves Within
An old Grandfather said to his grandson, who came to him with anger at a friend who had done him an injustice… “Let me tell you a story.”
“I too, at times, have felt great hate for those who have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It’s like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times. ”
“It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.”
“But…the other wolf… ah! The littlest thing will send him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all of the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing.”
“Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit.”
The boy looked intently into his Grandfather’s eyes and asked, “Which one wins, Grandfather ?”
The Grandfather smiled and quietly said, “The one I feed.”
Where Does Your Story Begin
The more I take a critical approach to my own faith the more it comes into focus. And it gives me hope.
Recently I had a conversation with someone who was deeply concerned about my approach to faith. This person was so sure I had fallen off the slippery slope and was doomed to hell. And ten years ago this would have really concerned me. I would have been racked with fear and guilt, wondering how I could have gone so astray. But a long the way I realized one really important lesson. If orthodoxy is true it will always present a good wrestling partner.
You see I made the distinction that truth by its very nature will always be true. So the problem isn’t truth. It’s me. And to arrest the brokenness that is in my soul means being honest about my own brokenness, so that I can let it go.
This approach has given me a tremendous freedom to fail…and succeed. The more I wrestle with Scripture the more I feel that it is my own and not someone else’s version. This deepening, this clarifying has allowed me to take on huge obstacles that would once define me, making me cower in fear. But in facing them, I have now discovered them for what they are: paper tigers.
Perhaps the greatest shift I have made in my faith came in my own examination with the beginning of the story. But it was only recently that I have been able to articulate the difference. The greatest shift in my faith came when I anchored my faith to the entire story of God. In hindsight I realized that much of the theology that I grew up in began in Genesis 3. Humanity, myself included, was defined by what happened in the fall.
Much of my own faith has been in rediscovering these two little chapters, in really listening to how the story began. Because when I began in Gen 3, all I could see was my own brokenness. I was helpless, a little toad, and defined by my brokenness. But when I began in Gen 1, I could see the radiance of God’s love defining me. I could see that restoration meant recapturing the vision of the Garden for my own life, one that declared I was very good, that I was worth fighting for. The cross became the crowning symbol of that love.
I now believe that this recapturing of the Gen 1-2 story will be the defining change in the church over the next thirty years. It will be a slow generational shift. It will be painful, but it will be good. We’ve lived too long in the shadow of an incomplete story.
Church In The Future
This is a fascinating article on the future of the church. It breaks down what churches will look like in the year 2034 and the role technology will play. One sentence stuck out to me:
Gigachurches, having more resources at their disposal than their diminutive brethren, consistently embrace and upgrade the technological aspects of their campuses in order to facilitate a user experience designed to rival that of any amusement park, hotel, or tourist attraction.
The rest of the article reminded me of a Stanley Kubrick world that is infiltrated by technology. It was kind of weird. On one hand you have those who have bathed themselves in technology. And on the other hand you have those who resist it at all costs.
Thrive Conference Call Today
I’m hosting our a conference call today for Thrive.
This call is for anyone who is interested in developing a missional discipleship approach in their community, home network, or church. This includes elders, leaders, small group community leaders, pastors, and those who want to follow Jesus in an intentional way.
Participation is by request. Just leave a comment or send us an email with your interest and we will provide you with instructions for joining us on the call. We also ask that you provide specific questions for the call, if you have them.
Poets, Prophets, & Preachers
Rarely can I say I’d rather be in Grand Rapids, Michigan but today is one of those days. Poets, Prophets, and Preachers is a conference with Rob Bell, Peter Rollins, and Shane Hipps. I love the way all three of these guys think and can feel the energy thousands of miles away.
Adam Moore has a run down on those who are blogging the conference. Jeremy Bouma is officially live blogging the event for Zondervan. Nice gig. I haven’t gotten to all of them but one did stand out to me. Tim wrote about Guerilla Theatre. But what caught my attention was his attention to the lack of recording devices allowed in the conference. Given that Rob has made his entire persona about being a subversive, the following made me laugh. Tim said:
“Here are some of the notes I took and my interpretation of what I think I was said. They made subtle point that they didn’t want open laptops or phones on during the sessions. So no twittering. Similar to the Q Conference, I understand that they want you to be here and be conscious of those who are gathered with you. I’ll respect it but when I put on my own conference, “Posers, Players, and Punks”, I’ll let whoever do whatever they want. Anyway, they say that they will release video of this one day but in the meantime you’ll have to deal with my subjectivity until you’re able to have your own.”
Love that. I’m fairly sure this is a Zondervan thing though.
Apparently the first day was as good as everyone expected. You can catch the live streaming Tweets about the conference here.
The Road To Totalitarianism
I rarely post on polity but seeing this is the 4th of July, this caught my attention because it was so interesting. Naomi Wolf wrote, The End Of America: Letter Of Warning To A Young Patriot. In it she details the ten steps dictators make towards the road to totalitarianism. All ten were in place during the Bush Era. A movie was made about the book. If you want to watch the film for free you can do that here (if you don’t mind commercials).
Here are the 10 Steps That Close An Open Society.
1. Invoke an internal and external threat
People who are afraid are willing to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise do.
2. Establish secret (unaccountable) prisons where torture takes place
In a secret system, the government does not have to provide any proof of wrongdoing by those it holds, so it can incarcerate anyone it wants.
3. Develop a paramilitary force
A private military force — under the exclusive direction of the “commander in chief” with no accountability to Congress, the courts, or the public — blurs the line between a civilian police force and a militarized police state.
4. Surveil ordinary citizens
People who believe they are being watched are less likely to voice opposition. To scare a population into silence, the government need only monitor the activities of a few to make everyone fear that they are being surveilled. Every closed society keeps a “list” of so-called opponents it tracks.
5. Infiltrate citizen’s groups
Spies in activist groups put psychological pressure on genuine activists by undermining their trust in one another. They may also disrupt legal activities, undermining the effectiveness of group efforts.
6. Detain and release ordinary citizens
Detention intimidates or psychologically damages those arrested and also lets everyone know that anyone could be labeled an “enemy combatant” and “disappeared.”
7. Target key individuals
People are less likely to speak out when those who are highly visible, like journalists, scholars, artists, or celebrities, are intimidated or have the livelihoods threatened. Targeting those who are especially visible makes it less likely that people will speak out and robs society of leaders and others who might inspire opposition.
8. Restrict the press
The public is less likely to fi nd out about government wrongdoing if the government can threaten to prosecute anyone who publishes or broadcasts reports that are critical of the government.
9. Recast criticism as espionage and dissent as treason
People who protest can be charged with terrorism or treason when laws criminalize or limit free speech rather than protect it.
10. Subvert the rule of law
The disappearance of checks and balances makes it easier to declare martial law, especially if the judiciary branch continues to exercise authority over individuals but has no authority over the Executive branch.
What’s Wrong With Missional
Josh Reich at Revolution put this together the short but funny video and it illustrates a unique problem. It’s possible to find our identity in what we do, even serving, in such a way that we miss why we do it. And in the process we miss love.
Looking For My Definition
Do you know your definition?
Over the last couple of of weeks I’ve been going through a period of testing. God has brought me to a place both deep sorrow, and elation. I have been called to the seat of judgment and asked to lay down some of my deepest fears, judgments, and burdens in the name of love.
Through this experience I have begun to see something that I previously didn’t. I am looking for my definition. In the darkest of moments in my life, I have given in to the idea that what happened to me defined me, that the scene ofthe crime could in some way taint who I am. And in each case I unknowingly handed my dignity over to my perpetrator. I chose to believe the lie that what happened to me could change me.
But as I learn what it means to follow Jesus, I find him asking me over and over again to return to the scene of the crime, to return to those moments that I got it wrong. I don’t like it. But it’s good. Each time I come kicking and screaming, begging God to take the pain away. And yet each time I walk away grateful for the experience of redemption. Each time God takes me through these experiences, it redefines me in such a wholistic way.
I am consistently reminded that I am not defined by what I do or what is done to me. I am not defined by my circumstance, preference, sex, height, eye color, skin color, nationality, and yes, even my faith. When I attempt to find my definition in each of these things I become the other. I compare and contrast in a way that separates me. I don’t want to do that anymore.
I am beginning to see that love is to return to the original definition. I am first, before all other definitions, a child of the living God, created in His image, and so very good. Nothing can change that. I can only embrace it.
Go Big With God
Sometimes I am clearly reminded of my own humanity.
This last week I had a work project that required very specific actions. And as I woke up the project instantly hit my mind, consuming my thoughts. It was literally overwhelming me. And in that moment I stopped and just asked God, “What would you have me do?”
And God instantly came back, “Go big today.”
How’s that for God answering prayer? My Father was inviting me to take not just a risk, but a very big risk and put it on the line. Several thousand possibilities swirled through my head, most of which had something to do with why it was not a good idea to go big right now. In some ways I kind of felt like David the moment before he was facing Goliath. I can imagine he must have said to himself, “On the surface this looks really stupid.”
So what did I do?
I went kind of big. About two-thirds big. How’s that for chickening out? And then, like I should have expected, things really started to turn out…just like God said. The return on investment was substantial. And then I couldn’t stop wondering about how much I missed out because I didn’t really go big. I just went kind of big. I missed out.
And then at the first sign of trouble, I bailed out. Yes, it turned out to be a good risk, but I couldn’t help think that maybe it was just supposed to be a good day, not a great one. Going big was just…kind of good.
And then wouldn’t it be just like God to show up and made things really, really good. But mind you, I had already bailed. I had missed out on going big all the way. I had missed out on God’s full blessing. I could have kicked myself.
Have you ever had God say Go big?
Who Are They?
Have you ever wonder who “They” are?
Last week I had an interesting conversation in a post regarding NT Wright’s video on women in ministry. I realize that my choice to agree with NT is counter to some traditions, one of which was the one I grew up in. My response came in the form of this post on Paul’s Admonition To Women, which explored Paul’s specific words in the passage.
But in the original post I asked a question about a curious statement he made. I asked:
“…Can you explain the rule of thumb that says, “let the didactic passages explain the narrative ones.”
And he posted the following statement:
“It’s an extrapolation of the universal maxim, “the explicit passages explain the implicit ones.”
And my first thought was, “Did I not get the memo?” If it’s universal then I must have been sick the day they passed that one out. But I doubt it. I have over twelve years of specific Christian education in conservative Reformed schools, a degree in Bible and have spent the last fifteen years of my life studying spiritual formation. And I have never heard that as “universal maxim.”
It’s easy to do that isn’t it? Reference an idea as universally accepted, which immediately has the potential to make us feel as though we just were left out in the cold. Someone didn’t tell us so we must be somehow missing that one piece of evidence that would sway us. It’s a very powerful mechanism for making us question our own thoughts. Render an idea as universally accepted and how can someone argue with it.
And the interesting thing people tend to do is hope that their argument of “they” is enough to sway me to doubt about my own thinking. “Universal” presents the notion that it’s accepted by everybody. And I just need to get in line. It fosters a culture of, “Just Tell Me How To Think.”
In some countries they call that fascism.
But I am learning to ask, “By who?” Who is this outside source of “They” that has come to this conclusion? Somewhere out there, there is a body of people who have universally concluding everything for us. And we just need to get with the program.
The problem is I tried that. And it didn’t work.
You see, one of the really cool things about Scripture is that I get a copy. I get to wrestle with the passage. I get to made judgments about what it says, as I have done here. I get to come to a conclusion of Scripture by myself, with the help of “Sophia.” And no matter how many degrees, and doctorates, and pedigrees, and dead guys they have behind them, we’re still operating from the same text.
And to be honest, I realize and declare up front that I’m gonna get some of it wrong. That’s a foregone conclusion. But that’s why I need the Spirit to inform me. In fact my reliance on the Spirit, as opposed to people is paramount to getting it right.
And I want to be clear. I respect Robert’s conclusions as his own. He has accepted the supposed universal maxim. It works for him. Great. But it doesn’t for me. This is not about Robert. It is about a way of thinking that stifles true thought. It’s about a culture that eliminates dissension and dialog.
And I simply can’t participate in that anymore. I just can’t.
The more I have asked who they are, the more I have come to the conclusion that there are just as many people who disagree as agree. There are just as many dissenting opinions as the supposed accepted one. There is no universal notion of just about any idea. We’re constantly learning and forming and growing. In fact, the very Reformed tradition the commenter comes from is based on that very idea.
What I have found is that by removing they, I am free to agree with the truth as the Spirit leads. I may learn from a dead white guy or a my neighbor, but my answers are not tied to them, They are tied to the living breathing expression of God moving through me.
And I like that.
