So I'm pleased to say my relative has an alternative perspective on passion (see previous post, and the one prior to that). Well, good. Lets consider it. To start, I agree with their comments. Yes, my desire for the things unseen are often weaker than those pleasures that are tangible, accessible, and available. And so, as the argument would go, my passions and desires for God will then be weak and insubstantial compared to the attractions of the world around me. I also agree that a desire for the things of the Spirit and God come from the mysterious human spiritual sense of rightness. But I do not quite agree that this is "yet another costly duty to be observed". A passion for duty is fine, but duty for a passion is the death of desire. However, let me back up and consider the premise that desires for the intangible are inherently weaker. This does not automatically follow, in my view. When the tangible and intangible are alongside each other, established desire for the real object will battle strongly with the emotions about the intangible, but it does not imply anything about which wins the contest. It depends on how I have cultivated my desires. All desires start in the mind. All desires, until experienced, are theoretical. It begins when something plants a desire, and how it grows according to the way we cultivate it. This determines the power it has in our decisions. Chocolate, until tasted, is a theoretical desire. Once experienced, especially once repeatedly experienced, the desire for chocolate can overwhelm almost anything. Consider then all those intangible desires that have caused wars, rebellion, and complete society transformation? What about desires for justice, retribution, freedom, and love? What about all those intangible and nebulous things that have caused individuals to accomplish the unthinkable -- both honurable and treacherous? Those desires can be stronger than any physical temptation -- they can lead to self denial for the sake of the inexpressible. I argue that desire is not about whether the object is tangible or intangible, but that desire is the product of the choices we make and what we cultivate. For example, consider a boy and a girl. One is initially drawn to the other, and dwells on the idea of the other person. They turn over in their mind the persons attributes, they fantasize scenarios, they dream. There is an investment of time, energy, and emotion, ignoring practical difficulties (even about whether the other person likes them or not) and focus on the beautiful. In time this grows to love and a passion that can build the most beautiful thing in the world, or when denied can destroy all it touches. Such a passion is called love or hatred and is immensely powerful, yet you cannot touch it, show it, feel it, or smell it. I think this is partly why we are created with brain, body, and soul. My brain is creative: I can choose to dwell on something, contemplate, explore, conceptualize, imagine. My body through emotions and hormones can both respond to and drive this thinking. And my soul can place a value on this. When my soul says "this is valuable", so my passions, desires, and actions conform. When we try and think our way out of the unimaginable, our behavior becomes erratic. But when we allow thinking to lead to experience, when we allow ideas to inform our cultivation of something visceral, organic, and internal, then our actions reflect an intensity of passion that touches all who we are. Suppress a person's imagination and creativity, and passion dies with it. And so I say, worship the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Choose this, and the heart responds to the investment. Then will our soul takes hold of the seed of desire and nurture a wholesome and holy passion. We are defined by what we worship (and therein lies a tale), not by what we think, feel or know. Some questions in my mind: is it because our technological society presents almost unlimited choice of stimuli (unless you're poor) that our capacity for imagination is dying? And if so, is this partly why rich people struggle to know God? Is this one reason why poverty often engenders spirituality? Is it because our minds are so weak willed from being sapped by the endless propaganda of the media, that we don't know how to invest in the intangible? Is this why in the west we see so little passion for justice, righteousness, and duty? And perhaps most of all, what does this all mean in practice?
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The previous post "Talking about desire", through a set of events led to a response from Hadassah's relative: Of course my desire for God is weak - He's given us brains that can only just barely understand the potential reward and it's not fun or natively satisfying. My desire to watch a fun movie, go downhill skiing, fly a plane, read a book - are all pleasure seeking, fueled by I don't know what in the human make up that seeks pleasure, but it requires no effort to desire these things! My desire for food/sleep are driven by chemical relations and are perhaps the strongest I have, while I know how to stoke them I don't generally, and spend plenty of effort subduing them rather. But desire for things that are good but humanly costly have to be stoked; to work, be productive, use my life, get up to go running on a dark cold morning, give of my time/money for someone else who isn't my friend, any compassionate response. I only seem to be willing to stoke these either out of (1) fear (a limited no-guarantee life), (2) experience of resulting personal gain (view, fun, health from running), (3) necessity for money(above chemical desire), or (4) some mysterious human spiritual sense of rightness. So where should a desire for the things of the Spirit and God come from? - it would be nice if it fell into the last category, but it seems to be yet another costly duty to be observed: "It's my duty to stoke up a strong desire for the things of God." I don't fully understand heaven, eternity, sin-forgiveness or Jesus' role in such, even heavenly reward - none of it. I can only just grasp enough to get myself out of bed in the cold dark morning and doggedly add "seeking God' to the long list of other costly duties that must be performed for the sake of later reward. So unfortunately, of course my desire is weak! What did He expect? Now, let me taste and see and understand. THEN my desire will be plenty strong, but there is nothing I can do to get those. After Pentecost, if we are to speak of agendas, our nature, and toilets ... http://tinyurl.com/p9zufyu To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either.” [Jane Austen] And when he comes, he will convict the world [John 16:8] The Bible says in Mathew 4:9 “All these things I will give you”. Sounds great, I want that! But in context this actually reads: “... the devil said to Him, all these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.” Oops. Not such a great line after all. Phil 4:13 says “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Wow ... I want that ... then I can do all things, nothing can hold me back, I will be on top of it all! But the context is on facing troubles and trials and not worrying about it because God will sustain me. Hmmm ... not sure I want that! So CONTEXT is critical. We're so attracted by the supernatural, to power, the unusual, the exotic ... we need to really, really understand the context of the gifts of the Spirit. Jesus introduces the idea that he will send the Spirit in John 14. Here he tells us WHO the Spirit is:
Our role? To choose to accept his presence! Then Jesus returns to the subject in John 16, where he tells us WHAT the spirit will do
Our role? To buy into his agenda to convict, guide into truth, and glorify Jesus. So lets think about the gifts of the Spirit in this context. The gifts are part of the Spirit's nature as a helper, comforter, teacher, reminder. The gifts are to enable his purpose to convict the world, guide into truth, and glorify Jesus. Our role: to make space in our lives for his presence and to work with him on his agenda. You know how people put bricks in their toilet's cistern to save water? The bricks reduce the volume of available water for each flush. It makes the toilet less effective, but sort of works. However, if there are too many bricks, the result can be a stinky residue of brown goo. Jesus says he will send the Spirit: we need to say OK, and take out the bricks in our life to make more room for him, and then he can flush things clean. What does it mean to remove the brick ... it starts with desire for the Spirits agenda. Do I want to see the world convicted? Do I want to see them find the truth? Do I want to see Jesus glorified? Do I really WANT (as in, do I feel a yearning)? They're easy words to say, but do I have desire behind that, or am I simply saying it? If there's no desire, what does that say about how I feel about Jesus? I desire my sports team to win and can't stop talking about it. I desire a relationship with someone and can't stop talking about them? I desire that new mobile phone and fixate on it. I desire ... I desire ... I desire so much. But how little of my heartfelt desire is around the the Spirit's agenda. Our churches can be a sad, sad place for many who go through the motions in their minds while their hearts play adultery with other agendas. Paul commands us to "Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy." He's saying, desire the gifts because you have a desire is to see the Spirit's agenda unfold. Desire prophecy most of all because you want to speak God's truth into the reality that surrounds you, to see the world convicted by the truth, and to see Jesus glorified. This is the foundation we ignore in our rush for the drama of spiritual gifts. The gifts should be based on our relationship with the Spirit and drive our desires, and serve the Spirit's agenda.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/bzzlhvb
Frustrated /frʌˈstreɪtɪd/ (defn): feeling annoyed and impatient because you are prevented from achieving something. God made all emotions. Like anger -- Jesus showed righteous anger. So there must also be holy frustration! Is there holy frustration in your life? Careful now, think before you answer. Pentecost is a time when I especially feel frustration. I want to live in the power of the Spirit as was seen at Pentecost. It is so sad when we approach Pentecost as a memorial to an event from long ago, instead of a time to express a deep desire to see the Spirit come and change us, our church, our community. You say "But I do desire that!" Careful now, do you really? Or do you desire it only on your terms? One thing I can be certain of is, when I allow the desires that God has given me to rise up, then life is never the same, things are turned upside down, everything is rearranged, and surprise becomes my new normal. Realize this: when the Spirit moves, he WILL bring change that many will not like. Church WILL change (but be careful to understand if the change is really of the Spirit or simply of human brokenness). Do you desire a move of the Spirit -- even if that thought disturbs you? I hope you do, but I fear so many only say this without any real yearning. We are so good at suppressing real spiritual desire, and so efficient at maintaining status quo ... if there's one thing about the Spirit it is that status quo is not maintained. So, if you are feeling spiritually frustrated, know that frustration is inevitable for all Christians this side of heaven; we yearn, but in this world we are not perfect and spiritual desires WILL to some extent be frustrated by the weakness in ourselves or in others. Deal with it. Expect it and give thanks that God works all things for good. The scary corollary: If I'm not feeling frustrated in my desires to see God's kingdom come, then something's probably wrong with my Christian walk. (And yet how often do we pray so unthinkingly "may your kingdom come") If I am feeling frustrated in my spiritual experience of Church, how do I, how should I understand it? First, ask what is the basis of my frustration: is it because I am denied a personal desire, or because others are being denied something I have already known from God? Usually it's some of both, but consider these separately:
What if I'm not a leader, but I'm frustrated by my leaders? Well, nothing new there. Ever since the dawn of time people have been frustrated with their leaders. The lesson here is, is my frustration because I think I know better (pride), or because I yearn to respond to the Spirit but the leadership holds me back. Be careful. Both situations are common, but we must be very clear in discerning which is driving us. And if I'm a leader of frustrated people? Well, people are God's gift to leaders. How can you be a leader unless you learn from those you lead? If you are not learning from those you lead, you are, by definition, failing as a leader (and this does not mean a leader just does what people want). Hence we know the essential need for humility by leaders so that they can learn from the Spirit's move among those they lead. Lastly: Frustration does not lead to instant change, but begins a process of change. This Pentecost, be blessed in your frustration, or pray for a motivating desire to get you moving, don't only remember a past event. Ask and allow the Spirit to bring new radical change; seek the Spirits relief to your frustration despite any fear of change. God's change is only scary before we submit, after which it's pure Joy.
http://tinyurl.com/c5osclp
I'm worried because I think Giglio has presented half a theology. He presents it wonderfully and powerfully, but doesn't he miss the better half of the message? In our church we've just finished a discussion based on Louie Giglio's "Indescribable" talks (how he remembers all the numbers I just don't know). It was good ... valuable ... lots of discussion ... but ... The universe is incredible, yes. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, yes. God paid incredible detail to making me. Wow. Now the question: what makes me ME? In Giglio's talk he marvels (as we all should) at the attention God lavished in making me. I am fearfully and wonderfully made ... no dispute. Trillions of cells in complexity ... no quarrel. But ... but ... elephants have many, many, many times more cells, molecules, and atoms than I, and they are not loved in the same way God loves "little" me. The numbers Giglio quotes come with the implied message that this biological detail is the amazing focus of God creating me. But this is not the message God is making, its only one starting point. I am made in God's image ... and what make me ME, is the soul he breaths into me. The indescribable greatness of God in making "me" is not the biological detail, but that God gives me a soul in His spiritual image ... now that's really WOW. My DNA gives me physical uniqueness, but it is my soul that defines my spiritual identity that is loved by God. My soul and body are intimately bound together, but the "me" that worships, praises, and serves starts in my soul. When my body is turned to ashes (and my decomposed DNA adds CO2 into atmosphere!) that is not the end of me, because that is not ME. Sigh: I remember Giglio's great description of the trillions and trillions ... but where is the awesomeness of God creating my soul? A major missed opportunity for this lost, yet spiritually sensitive generation? An ode (This is NOT my normal type of posting!) O bathroom and lavatory Shower, water closet, and toilet Sanctuary from this busy world Cohabitation of hygiene and base bodily function Compulsory, unavoidable, a cultural universal The only respite for the weary Where else is one alone? Who knows of another like this? This last refuge of the sane. That small room, the locked home Bigger on the inside A world alone There once was a time that we lived so on top of each other in our communities and villages. We were so connected that we had a name for that exceptional person who escaped: a hermit. Even the aristocracy in their castles were surrounded by servants, personal space hardly existed. Then came the age of the suburbs: drawing rooms, dining rooms, sitting rooms, living rooms, knitting rooms, computer rooms, work rooms, separate bedrooms ... dedicated spaces where one could escape and be alone.
Now we have come full circle back where we started: ever surrounded by people. Virtual people, real people, virtually real people, even really virtual people. Continually in contact, social boundaries eroded, in a sea of never ending communication. The result? No respite from questions, requests, argument, debate, meaningless chatter, and ego-inflating bluster. There is only one place left where one can barely escape (pun intended). The bathroom. Ubiquitous, never denied, an ever ready shelter, known by a wide variety of affectionate names, found everywhere from the hyper-extravagant home to the barely functional hovel, yet always the same. When I'm in there it's MY space. Here one can have the expectation of being alone, no intrusion. Read a book, reflect in the bath, sing in the shower, perform rituals at the basin, contemplate in the mirror. It's all yours, a time for your thoughts and emotions to renew their relationship. Until, of course, the sibling bangs on the door, someone shouts a question, the house mate demands access, or there's the call to dinner. Then it's over. The peace shattered, and the irritation multiplied by the intrusion into your thoughts. We know of no other place quite like this. Protect this last bastion of sanity with all your strength. |
Why?
Probably the best therapy is to express yourself. Why do you think psychiatrists make you lie on the couch and talk, while all they do is murmur "hmmm", "uhuh", or "go on"? Archives
May 2017
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