I've been quiet, but the video above will gently ease you back into my brain (lyrics here).
I've been trapped in assumptions, restrained by institutional inertia, surrounded by posturing relationships. It's time to reconsider my patterns, examine preconceived notions, lose pretentious attitudes, dismantle barriers to God. I've an unashamedly metaphorical mind ... I think in images, concepts, parallels and analogues ... it helps me navigate complexity. Life is complex, not complicated. The difference is that "complicated" can be solved, while "complex" is nearly impossible to predict. A computer is complicated, a brain is complex. Institutions are complicated, relationships are complex. Traditional church is complicated - a system of rituals and norms presenting politeness. Christianity is complex - a relationship where everything can change in an instant. For all my life I have unconsciously expected church to be "complex" - dynamic and unpredictable. Yet this has been contrasted by my experiences of conventional and predictable church. As far as I can remember this tension has existed, and its growing. The inertia of the church culture's response to the changing world is stretching me to a breaking point. Its undeniable that the majority of the global church is failing to build a bridge into the complex dynamic of post-modern, internet-enabled lives: at best it indicates an ossified mindset, at worst an idolatry of tradition. It's not about theology, not about style. It's about understanding what would happen to purpose, attitude, and action if you really adopted what a thesaurus says about the word "relevance". In the docu-drama Eddie "the Eagle" (see here), Eddie has a moment at the 1988 winter Olympics when he takes the elevator to the top of the 90m ski jump - he's never done the 90m jump before. Eddie's an amateur of limited experience, but moved by an unrivaled passion to be an Olympian. Into the elevator steps Matti Nykänen, the youngest world champion ever. Matti turns to him and says "you and I are like one o'clock and eleven o'clock" and he holds up two fingers next to each other. "You see, we are closer to each other than to others. Winning and losing and all that stuff is for the little people. Men like us, we jump to free our souls ... if we do less than our best it will kill us inside". I'm trying to live at one o'clock and eleven o'clock - combining the parts of me that are the amateur and experienced in a common purpose. If 12 o'clock points true north to Truth - then 6 o'clock must be the antithesis: deceptive lies, evil. I suppose this makes 9 o'clock the direction of mysticism while 3 o'clock is atheism - both pointing at right angles to the truth. Mysticism resists advancing to 12 in favor of staying in its self-constructed comfort zone of intangibles; while atheism long ago reasoned it's way through truth and out the other side into a void of pride. On the whole I think it's easier to go back from 3 o'clock ... CS Lewis, Chesterton, and the like approached that way. Traditional church sits somewhere between 9 and 12 o'clock, but its like there's a rubber band holding it back from advancing to 12. I'm aim to live at eleventy-one ... bound by a history of preconditioned mystery while reasoning back from the abyss of atheism, in the hope of reaching the joy of pure music at high noon.
Come on now everybody
Come on now everyone We're like a locomotive Under the big hot sun We're chained to the gang of rhythm The song is never done Come on now everybody Come on now everyone Come on everyone We got this melody Bring in the harmonies like CSNY To write a tune you know will never die Let's gather round and sing a song There's no worries on the earth tonight We're all walkin' off the world tonight
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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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