Case of the Shoulds

I have become increasingly aware of how often people, myself included, use the word "should." The word flows freely in our vocabulary of external governance. We are so quick to say what someone "should" or "should not" do.  Sometimes I hear it so frequently from people, I say "they have a case of the shoulds."

It's a form of captivity that we live in and so artfully impose on others. We do not stop to think that we haven't a good reason to tell someone else they should do such and such.  Nor do we know why we tell ourselves we should do this and that.

I find myself questioning should statements, whether my own or someone else's. I trace it back to ascertain if this imperative statement is appropriately placed and usually find it is not. Notwithstanding, people are often looking for advice in the form of a should statement. "What should I do?" comes the question either directly voiced or implied.

It's not that there may not be a good course of action, but it is that if a person needs to be told it by another they are most likely not doing it freely out of a place of love. So when I put my "should" on another person, I rob them of their choice. Sure they can disregard my opinion, but that obligatory should has lodged into their consciousness nagging them to do accordingly. Instead of being self-governed by the heart, they are feeling the weight of external governance imposed on them by an opinionated person.

Many should statements are well intended and come about with one person thinking the other should do this very good thing or stop doing this very bad thing.  However, we often end up keeping people captive, rather than showing them how to get set free.

Many times "shoulds" abound because we want to protect the person we love. We want them to do the right thing. Other times it is not even a matter of right and wrong. The should comes out when you tell your friend they really should go to your favorite restaurant or read your favorite book.  The should creates an imposed obligation that does not bring freedom and life to the recipient. Suddenly their task to go to that restaurant or read that book feels like an unwanted weight upon them, a chore rather than a fun idea.

Certainly we can share our experience with our friends of our fabulous dining experience.  But we may want to do so without using obligatory language.

Once you start to think about it, I imagine, you will be astonished at how often you hear the word should.  How many times do you find yourself saying it? How many times do those around you say it? And how many of those times was it really necessary to make such a declaration? I'm sure there are some necessary occasions worthy of the word.

Notice I refrained from saying one should not make should statements. I only wish to bring our attention to the matter and let people freely choose what they wish to do or not do in response.

Book Review: Letters to Malcolm -- Chiefly on Prayer by C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis’ Letters to Malcolm—Chiefly on Prayer is a rare gem amongst his brilliant works. The difference is that these letters are written to a dear friend rather than for public consumption. Reading them gives one a sense of sitting in the living room of the Kilns where Lewis lived within walking distance of Oxford University. It is like pulling up a chair and listening in on an intellectual, yet spiritual, conversation full of candid thoughts and mysterious postulations.

Each letter, building on the last, has something to do with the act of prayer.  The nature of heaven and the mystery of nature are ever present in the discussion.  Some of the foundational questions of this dialog are: What sort of creatures are we? What sort of world do we inhabit? What is the proper role of religion? How will the New Earth be like and yet unlike the old?  How does prayer affect us and how do our prayers affect the world?  Do they affect the Lord or are we their effect?

Lewis makes bold quotable statements throughout such as, “We have no non-religious activities; only religious and irreligious.” Or that “Heaven will display far more variety than Hell.” He speaks to the eternality of man bound by a linear progression of time by saying, “For though we cannot experience our life as an endless present, we are eternal in God’s eyes; that is, in our deepest reality.” He goes on to say that, “. . . our creaturely limitation is that our fundamentally timeless reality can be experienced by us only in the mode of succession.”

One very key component of discussion is the doctrine of the resurrection of the body.  Lewis laments that this is a very key doctrine for we often think that our new bodies will be only spiritual rather than also physical. But he says that this world was made for sense-beings—people who can experience the physical world and process it into our souls creating a “chord in the ultimate music.”  We often think of the “new earth” as something so otherworldly it bears no similitude to our physical world forgetting that it was a physical Eden before the Fall.  To remember that our physical nature is not a product of the fall is imperative to properly thinking of our connection with eternity. There is something special about humans that no other creatures enjoy. 

Interestingly Lewis often comments in these letters that the things he is saying is something he feels free to say because it is in the context of letters between friends.  I count it a joy to be able to peer into those private dialogues and experience a bit of Lewis behind the curtain of his public writings.  “Christianity,” he implores, “essentially involves the supernatural.” The level of mystery and transcendence of which he speaks bears greater depth than my simple understanding of his words. Great truths are buried in these pages waiting for readers to unveil them for a new generation.  

The Diversity of Heaven

I have started off the New Year with a regained desire to read. I am presently reading my forth book of the year, Letters To Malcolm by C.S. Lewis.  In it he writes a most interesting sentence.

“If grace perfects nature it must expand all our natures into the full richness of the diversity which God intended when He made them, and Heaven will display far more variety than Hell.” 

This concept is not new to me, but I am always excited when I can borrow the eloquence of Lewis. 

It is common to point out the uniformity and lack of diversity and creativity that exists within many institutionalized religions. Christianity is no exception.  It would seem that as soon as belief becomes a religion all diversity is sucked right out of it.

In some circles I find it rare to find a person who beats to a different drum. Even when I find them, I usually find them to be the ostracized one.  The misfit, the outcast, the one that is quite uncomfortable around those considered “normal” or “popular.” Even though they have this insatiable desire to be themselves, they feel they haven’t the permission from others to be thus. This is sad.  Conformity is often expected over diversity. 

This kind of social behavior is the story of many movies set in a school campus such as Never Been Kissed, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, or Mean Girls. Just the same, it is far too common inside one’s local church. 

Even our concept of heaven is often one of multitudes of believers dressed in fancy white robes singing the same wondrous chorus in praise before the throne of God. We seem inept to think outside of pristine uniformity.

If it is true then that the reality of heaven ought to be far more diverse than the realm of darkness, why is this not reflected in the Church to a visible degree?  I do know of ministries, churches, artist, musicians, and other individuals where a diverse creative flavor is continually produced.  But it is still at a level of being the exception rather than the rule. 

One reason, which may account for the lack of diversity, is that believers are often of the persuasion that they are earth bound and heaven hopeful.  By this, I mean, we often purport that we will go to heaven when we die, but haven’t much concept of presently living from the reality of heaven.  We put into the afterlife much of what is intended for the present life, to such an extent that we cannot see heaven without looking through earthly bound eyes.  Instead Jesus called us to see earth with heaven’s eyes.  We have the whole thing reversed.  Our template has not been the creativity of heaven, but the predictability of a fallen earth. 

We have turned the truth of God into a religion of man that filters that truth through our earthly perspectives instead of receiving the truth and the perspective of heaven.  As a result we are very boring, mundane, conformed, and unified without real unity.  We unify around doctrines and practices instead of around Jesus.  With Jesus at the center there is much room for diversity, but with doctrines at the center there is only room for conformity. 

If a person’s relationship with another person was based on believing a list of facts about them rather than knowing them by experience, the relationship would be stagnant and old.  It would be based on fact-knowledge rather than experienced-knowing; the former being stationary and the latter being ever growing and expanding. 

We can see that God is creative. I find it fascinating that Revelation mentions creatures in heaven that are unlike anything on this earth.  If God is a Creator God then those who claim to know Him and have Him living inside them, should be very creative people.  They should be originally themselves copying not their friends, family, church, or pastor, but the Lord Himself. We become more and more who we are without fear or wounds keeping us from being that person as we get closer to Jesus.  As He conforms us to the image of Himself, we become more like ourselves than ever before and less like anyone else.  That is the beauty of the diversity of heaven. 

Wonder & Mystery

As a writer, I do a lot of reading. As one who enjoys learning about how others think, I read a lot of different view points on a variety of topics.  One thing I have come to notice is that people generally either want things clearly defined and understood in order to accept it as true, or they enjoy the mystery of not knowing and do not want anyone to remove that mystery even for the sake of truth. Some actually see truth as less important than the wonder of not knowing. A few see the benefits of both and understand that the grandeur of wonder far exceeds any defining knowledge we may have. Still sometimes wonder and mysteries are lost when knowledge is gained.

I recently read an opinion piece where someone was advocating that they did not wish to see the world through science nor religion because they wanted the mystery of the world kept alive.  I thought this interesting because typically one chooses either a scientific or a religious approach.  Few realize the two can work in tandem, but some are now seeing them both as instruments of modernism and rejecting them as such. 

In a manner of speaking, I agree that religion and science can both attempt to be so defining that one feels the wonder sucked right out of their soul.  Yesterday as a surprise snow fell, I was at first filled with wonder as I felt the joy of a child peaking out the window on a snow filled morning. Then thoughts arrested my attention of the condition of the roads and what things I might not be able to do. I thought of what the salt on the roads would do to the car.  Then I started wishing I had no such knowledge of impediments to safety and other adverse affects of snow.  It had muddled my affections for the winter wonder.  I sought to push these unwanted thoughts from my mind and enjoy the soft white snow atop the bare tree branches. 

There is a desire resonate within us for wonder, mystery, intrigue.  We actually enjoy, at times, not knowing how things work, because we want to experience a magical nature.  We reminisce of the days where we watched for Santa’s sleigh.   We wish for the days when we had no cares about what things cost as we anticipated gifts under the Christmas tree. 

The greater the knowledge the more the responsibly and the less we feel we have yet to know. However, it is wisdom to know that no matter how much knowledge we have we are far from knowing even a fraction of what can be known.  Still knowledge is not something that can be measured by how many books it can fill for there is a large element that cannot be fully communicated by words on a page.

The best transcript of what snow looks like including personal accounts of what it is like to see and feel it will do little to bring real knowledge to someone who has never experienced it.  The same can be said for a sunrise over the ocean or seeing mountains for the first time. The written transcript of an eye witness cannot communicate its grandeur. Even a most excellent photograph or painting could never do it justice.  Copies and shadows of the real will never produce the mystery and wonder of the real thing. 

We may think that knowing all about something robs us of the mystery and wonder of its actual substance, but it does not.  We can allow it to at times, but it doesn’t have to.  For instance, I enjoy theology immensely.  Some find such a study as something that detracts from the splendor of God, but for me I see how much greater He is then the theology about Him.  The more I stretch my intellectual understanding the more mystery explodes in my heart. 

I think that religion as it is typically known often reduces God to its doctrines just as science can reduce nature to its theories.  But neither really have this power for nature is greater than the science about it, and God is much greater than the doctrines concerning Him. When doctrines have become more vital than personal encounters with God, religion has taken shape, but where personal life with God enlightens towards a theological understanding religion has no hold.  

I think that knowledge and mystery do not need to be opposites, but rather are different sides of the same coin.  This is true whether we are talking about science and nature or theology and God. It’s a matter of perception and having tangible contact with what is substantially real whether seen or unseen.   

A Note to Christians

Christianity is often curtailed as a system of private belief relegated to pertaining only to matters of spirituality and morality.  In reality, Christianity is a system of life. It is a way of living that involves every aspect of one’s life from basic beliefs and worldview to culture and family.  It also pertains to how one interacts in life, in the marketplace, and in the community both inside and outside of church.  

Being a Christian is not just about what you believe and where you are on Sunday morning. It’s about so much more. It is an assignment, a worldview, a mission, and a way of life that stems out of a relationship with Jesus.  Jesus on the inside of you causes an infusion of all that is Jesus to come out of you in all that you do.  It is an identity that affects all areas of life from the smallest of choices to the largest.  It is an identity of who you are when you are sitting still.

Jesus said that a good tree bears good fruit. Thus a Christian, being in a tangible relationship with Jesus, bears that reality that is inside him.  That reality does not just manifest on Sunday mornings or in religious conversations, it is who you are all the time. 

Many people try to be Christian. They wear Christianity on their shoulder by carrying a Bible, wearing a Christian tee-shirt, sporting a WWJD bracelet, or tuning their work radio to Praise and Worship Music to broadcast their identity.  They think this is what Jesus meant when he said not to hide your light under a bushel. 

However, living and breathing the way of the Christian life is living and breathing Jesus in all that you do.  This looks more like going the extra mile, doing good to those who do wrong to you, talking well of those who talk bad about you, not participating in office gossip while at the same time not broadcasting your disdain. In fact, it means not having contempt for others, but instead a very powerful real love. This looks like being a cheerful giver of your time, things, and money.  This looks like loving your wife, or a wife loving her husband.  This looks like speaking well of your children.  This looks like enjoying life with an open heart.  It looks like love. 

Christianity being a way of life means it is first a way of the heart.  It means that one’s heart is fully immersed in Him and He flows out of you without trying. Religion is an imitation of what this looks like. Religion is trying to look like a good Christian by exerting natural effort to do the right thing even when your heart bears contempt.  The way of Jesus is doing the right thing because the right thing is naturally what flows out of you.

This is not to say that there is no struggle. Paul had the struggle, so do we.  We do the things we know we ought not to do, but each moment is a new moment to remember we are of Christ and we are dead to sin and alive in Him. 

We have to understand though it is not a matter of doing, but being. If we try to do or even try to be, we will be copying, imitating, promoting rules and religion because we want others to try as hard as we.   Relax.  Rest in Him.  The only striving we are called upon to do is to strive to enter His rest.  When we rest in Him, our effort is light and His is strong.  He does all the heavy lifting.  

If only a few thousand Christians in a nation realize who they are in Christ thereby having Jesus be their way of life, we could transform every nation on this planet in a matter of years to reflect the glory of the Kingdom of God.  Will you be counted among that number? 

Book Review: Socrates Meets Kant by Peter Kreeft

What if Socrates and Kant could be brought to life to engage in a dialogue about key philosophical questions?  Peter Kreeft creatively resurrects the two noble philosophers and transcribes for us their fascinating discussion in his book Socrates Meets Kant. 

In full iconic style, Kreeft, creates a book where the Father of Philosophy, Socrates, meets his most influential modern child, Immanuel Kant.  Naturally using the Socratic Method, Socrates gives an insightful cross-examination of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. 

Even more intriguing is Kreeft’s way of giving Socrates an understanding of modern life enabling the conversation to be relevant for today’s readers.  In contrast, the portrayal of Kant stays strictly within the confines of his own time period. Thus when Socrates analogously refers to a computer, Kant has no idea what he is talking about.  This helps add to the humorous nature of the book. 

It is truly a creative idea to bring Socrates to life because students of philosophy and the academy at large thrive on the Socratic Method.  Learning about Kant through a fictional dialogue with Socrates is quite ingenious.   Kreeft sets the dialogue in the realm of the afterlife where the two meet for the first time.  

To Read the Entirety of this Review Click Here. 

Hearing God

While even many Christians profess that they cannot hear God, God is speaking and once we learn how He speaks we find that we have been hearing all along.  Even those who do not see themselves as people of faith often have had experiences of hearing Him in some form or fashion.  Once they are awakened to His reality, they realize just how much He has been with them before they even knew Him.

God has always been a relational God. The Trinity is proof of this. God is all about having intimate community and that involves communication.  When He created the first couple, He spent time walking with them in the cool of the evening through the Garden of Eden.  This was the ideal to have His creation have personal communion with Him.  When sin entered the world it became difficult for us to hear Him.  Our connection was no longer pure and unbridled by the bondage of sin.

Now, for most, our hearing is faulty and we do not perceive well the voice of the Lord.  However, the good news is that He is the way back to that communion with Him.  Jesus did the work necessary to redeem what was lost and open up the communication again.  When we live in relationship with Him we learn His voice just as a baby learns his parent’s voice and can distinguish it from others.  Just the same, we learn the sound of our Father’s voice.  The more time we spend with Him the more fine tuned our hearing gets.

God is speaking to each of us to come near and receive His grace and love.  He is also speaking to help direct our path to the good path.  We do have a responsibility to listen.  He doesn’t make us listen.  Sometimes people will hear of the rare story where God really jolted their hearing to realize that He was talking.  But most the time it is a partnership of relationship.  To hear without the relationship would not usually be beneficial to us.  The greater the relationship grows the greater He can trust us with what He wants to say. 

Just like a little child cannot learn all the wisdom from his parents while he is learning to walk, but as he masters walking, talking, and takes on more and more responsibility of being alive the more he can be trusted with the wisdom of living.  The key is not to blame God or ourselves for not hearing.  Blame was dealt with once and for all at the Cross.  Blame need not be shouldered upon ourselves; we just simply need to start today afresh.  Start today spending time with Jesus.  Start today listening. 

Listen not with your natural ears, but with your spirit.  Listen with your heart. What is He saying? Don’t try to see a vision, or hear audible sounds. Just wait and reflect quietly upon Him.  Ask the Holy Spirit to come and wash you in His love.  Just sit, listen on the inside.   You may not hear right now while you sit, but that time spent will be instrumental in hearing later when you least expect it.  You may be in the shower or writing a composition and suddenly knowledge will fill you that you know is coming from an external source right into your being.  Listen and then write it down.  This helps you to later remember God is speaking to you.  Don’t try to hear, just rest and His presence will carry to you His words for you.  He is speaking, just rest in Him and listen.  

2012

The world has experienced many ends since its birth, 2012 is no different.  Many life cycles have swept the world for a time. They meet their death and a new cycle, a new season is born.  For new life to come, the old must pass away to give way to it. 

The old that passes is not all that exists, but all that exist in an old paradigm.  The things that end are the things that are out of alignment with the new season.  It’s like a spiritual surgery of culture, systems, and people.  However, there will be those who hold on to the old and prevent the new from affecting their lives. They will not experience the ending and this will not be healthy for them as the new will be out of their reach as it will be beyond their sight. 

The cessation of the Mayan calendar in December 2012 need not be seen as the end of time, but the end of a time.  They could not see beyond into the coming years because something so fresh, something so new, something so amazing was coming.   The world needed to have an awakening to the coming of this end and beginning, thus, the calendar stopped with no explanation.  This created a world that is watching. 

It is possible the season would pass us by otherwise.  But yet we watch, wait, anticipate, and talk amongst ourselves of what awaits humanity.  This is not a time for panic, but a time for reflection and foresight to align oneself with what is being released in the new season. 

With any birth comes pain. Labor is involved. Preparation is involved. Holding fast to that hope of the new that is coming will help align ourselves with the forward season rather than allowing fear to keep us bound to the dying season. 

For those who are already seeing what is coming they can begin to walk in it now.  Others will do a fast adjustment and have a premature birth into the new.  This will cause some difficulties in transition, but the transition will come though they will have more growing to do on the other side than others.  Still others will be still born always living like the change never happened. The only affect of this change upon them will be negative rather than positive because it goes against their positioning instead of them riding its positioning. 

2012 does bring an end, but a good end. The change is already in the air.  It will not be the end of the physical world or of humanity.  But it will be an end of an age and the beginning of a new age for the world.  This is something to celebrate rather than to fear.  Good things are coming for those who have the eyes to see and the ears to hear.  

Revisiting Moral Subjectivity and Absolutism

Arguments pertaining to moral subjectivism or absolutism are difficult to navigate.  Both positions have elements of truth weaved throughout to such a degree that is difficult for some to pick one.  Others hold fast to one ideal or the other without ever conceding any validity to the other position. 

Any conceived idea always has an element of truth. Some are closer to what is real than others, but each have a truth mixed into the concept.  Approaching the topic with this in mind one can navigate the waters of moral philosophy with greater ability to perceive a more accurate perspective on the matter. 

The extremes always lend themselves to showing their flaws.  On one extreme is the moral subjectivist who maintains with absolute certainty that morality is one hundred percent subjective. This position is usually maintained by those who believe it is impossible to know anything for certain from any external compass and therefore it is imperative to be certain that we cannot know anything for certain.  The philosophical trappings are apparent. 

Notwithstanding, the tendency to discount the entire proposed philosophy due to this error of extremes does an injustice to the topic.  Many throw out the baby with the bath water and refuse to allow any acceptance of subjective morality. 

Read the rest of the article at Helium.com by clicking HERE.

Link to Article by Paul Copan

God of Love & Old Testament Killings

Check out the above link. I've never heard this before, it's a fascinating theory.