new labels.

I was just talking to a family who lives in Egypt and our conversation, honestly, got really messed up when we insisted on using the words “Muslim” and “Christian”.

Muslims think this about Christians. (What kind of Muslims? What kind of Christians?) 

And the Christians (what kind?) act so weird toward the Muslims (which ones?) that... 

I just don’t find any of the conversations about those words fascinating anymore. Or not as fascinating as words like extremists, fundamentalists, agnostics, apathetic, and liberated. Those seem more valuable. 

To get even more simple, and follow Anthony DeMello’s lead, what if we just talked about humanity in terms of those who live in places of fear and those who live in places of love?

Anger, hate, resentment, vengeance, violence, shame, criticism, and the like seem to live in the land of fear. 

Contentedness, grace, breathing, accepting, awareness, trust, generosity, and the like seem to live in the land of love. 

It’s about love and fear. When it’s about that, the entire conversation becomes more interesting, helpful, inspiring, persuasive, and productive, and then we can talk about what kind of Atheists, Christians and Muslims we are and what those words mean to us.

Where do you live? Where does your faith pitch a tent? Where does your religion build a temple? In the land of fear or the land of love? 

That’s a fascinating conversation. 

eternal fire.

We might have really messed up what we think God wants to destroy. I’ve heard more people talk about God destroying actual people than God destroying the things that prevent people from actually seeing who they are. 

I think that’s the stuff that is more important to God to start burning: anything that prevents us from living in the light and realizing what we are. 

John the Baptist was out in the desert talking about unquenchable fires that burn up chaff. I once saw this verse on a billboard warning people of the fire that was coming to get them. 

Ironically, Luke, in that passage, called the fire, along with some other words, good news. 

When was the last time unquenchable fire was good news? More often than not, the unquenchable fire that we hear about is the main feature of the bad news that is supposedly why we need the good news - to save us from that fire. 

That’s messed up. 

This fire is great news. It’s burning up ego, boxes, shame and all the the other things (sin) that prevent us from living and being what we are.  

If there is fire, I hope it’s burning up that stuff. 

Forever.

empowerment. is often not.

I have good friends who work with refugees, teen moms, ex-convicts, gangs, at-risk youth, people with no homes, and all kinds of other amazing human beings on the fringes of society, trying to fight their way back in. I hear a common thread from all the people working with these people to improve their lives: those on the fringes need jobs. 

But, they don’t really mean that they just need jobs - we already employ enough human beings on the fringes of society. Sometimes that employment takes advantage of their placement on the fringe. What my friends mean is that these people need to believe they are worth something and that they matter. Jobs often tell them that, tangibly, for the first time. Jobs give them some hope that they can actually do this. 

There is another common thread to refugees, teen moms, ex-convicts, gang members, at-risk youth, people with no homes, and all kinds of other amazing human begins on the fringes of society trying to fight their way back in. They’ve been told they suck. Over and over in conscious and sub-conscious ways, in intentional and accidental ways, in individual and societal ways. They’ve heard the message loud and clear, repeatedly from a variety of sources: you are not worth a damn. You’re worthless and a piece of shit. 

This, of course, has all kinds of implications for all kinds of issues, including, but not limited to prison systems. 

Bastoy prison in Norway made the news for its treatment of its prisoners. At Bastoy, prisoners live on an island with no guards, no fences, and no cells. They are given houses, allowances, and told, in a wide variety of ways, they are worth something. (Ironic that all of this happens in a “secular” nation.)

The governor of the prison has said: “If we treat people like animals when they are in prison they are likely to behave like animals. Here we pay attention to you as human beings… They look at themselves in the mirror, and they think, ‘I am shit. I don’t care. I am nothing,’…This prison, gives them a chance to see they have worth, to discover, ‘I’m not such a bad guy.’”

Norway the country has one of the lowest re-offense rates in the world and Bastoy, as a prison, even lower. 

All of this comes to empowerment. It’s a sexy topic and for good reason: people need to be empowered. They need to get the job, to be treated as a human being, they need to believe that they are not a piece of shit. In fact, they are quite the opposite: pieces of humanity that are precious and whose worth can not be measured. 

But much of our “empowerment” is more like treating humans like animals, and sub-consciously telling them they are still worthless. Here’s your treat. Here’s you food. Here’s your shoes. I will take care of you because you can’t. 

Empowerment movements can be tricky. We need to be careful of the traps of easy empowerment: the kind of empowerment that doesn’t empower anyone except the person already in power because they helped someone who couldn’t help themselves. 

True empowerment requires seeing the world differently. It requires seeing human beings as equal to myself. It requires our time, our effort, our money, our investment, our everything… to assure them that they matter. Way more than they think. They matter as much as ourselves. 

It’s risky and revolutionary and it requires us to die to our egos… it’s painful. But the only way to truly tell someone they have power, is to give up a bit of my own, which might be why I find myself drawn to easy empowerment and nervous of the true. 

Talking about equality is easy but living it is pretty hard, because I still don’t think most of us believe... 

I am enough.

ego.

I was headed to a meeting last week and I had a talk with my ego. This is not something I’ve done until recently, but I’m doing more. 

I address my ego by name. I looked over at the seat. “Rhino,” I said. (That’s my ego’s name.) 

“I love you. You are the man. You are awesome. I appreciate you for everything you do. You have helped to shape me into who I am today. But, right now, I don’t need you to come this meeting with me. In fact, I prefer if you stay in the car. I’m going to be good without you! I can handle it. So, I’ll see you later.” 

The ego. Rhino rides through life with me, making me do things I don’t want to do. But, I do want to do.  

Richard Rohr says that we should change “flesh” in the Bible, especially with Paul, to ego. 

I agree. It would make a lot more sense. (Especially when John begins his book with the idea of the Word becoming flesh... and that was apparently pretty awesome. So this flesh stuff is not all bad.) 

The ego has done some good for us as we’ve grown and become who we are. But now, it’s mostly damaging. It’s that thing that we are all fighting. 

I think we can boil it down to the ego and the divine in each of us. In constant battle. 

The ego loves to belittle to make itself feel better. 
The divine already knows its the best. 

The ego loves to congratulate itself that it’s not like them. 
The divine already knows we’re all the same. 

The ego says we earned it. 
The divine says it’s all a gift. 

The ego says they are evil. 
The divine says they are children. 

They ego loves bad religion. 
The divine is repelled by it. 

If we really want to know exactly what the ego looks like in human form, we can look at the Pharisees. 

If we really want to know exactly what the divine looks like in human form, we can look at Jesus. 

They don’t get along well at all. 

Jesus came to free the ego from its chains but in order to do so, the ego had to acknowledge the audacity of love for everyone. 

It couldn’t handle it. So it killed the divine. 

We’ve got be careful of the ego. It’s still killing the divine in people everywhere. It’s still killing the divine in us. 

You might want to let it know that you would prefer it didn’t.

letters

John Pavlovitz recently wrote a letter to Dan Turner in response to Dan's letter written to a judge, on behalf of his son Brock, asking for leniency for Brock's recent rape conviction. The victim of the assault recently wrote a letter as well - by far, the most moving (and difficult to read) of all of them. 

There are lots of letters going around... appropriately I guess, since humans tend to love letters, especially those in scarlet. 

And all of these letters have me thinking about some things. 

(I say all of these things with the obvious - maybe not - acknowledgement of being on the side of the victim. Her soul was shattered, horrifically, and we stand with her in every and any way we can to help her heal and to prevent such dehumanization of people in the future.) 

How far does grace extend?
Where does grace end?
What does it look like to extend grace to an assailant? 
What does it look like to humanize the rapist? 
What does empathy for the villain look like? 
What does empathy for the father of a criminal look like? 

Are the solutions "not giving a damn" about another human being - even if it is a human who carried out a heinous crime?

Is the solution more prison time? 

My main concern is this: Brock Turner (the rapist) did not see his victim as the human being that she is. That is a problem and it's a tremendously large problem that needs to be addressed. The solution, however, is not to move the blindness from him to ourselves. I fear this is often the course we take as a society.

We dehumanize the villain and throw him/her into a cell to appease justice.

It's as useful as throwing the adulteress into a volcano to appease the gods of lighting and thunder. 

It's just less primitive and barbaric language. 

The solution, I think, is to see her, the victim, him, the assaulter, his father, as the same: human beings created in the image of the Divine, worthy and capable of everything we, ourselves, are. 

Wow, that's difficult. (It's like dying in many ways.) 

But if we don't see him the way that we wish he had seen her, what have we truly solved or taught ourselves and society? 

I don't pretend this isn't complicated. I don't pretend this doesn't involve justice and prison time and guilt and retribution. I don't pretend 6 months is the right amount of time in prison. I don't pretend we don't live in a grossly misogynistic, racist, privileged culture. 

I also don't want to pretend that the participation in the de-humanization of any human ever gets us anywhere as a society, even if we're drunk on rage and it does feel good for a moment.  

re-moving.

It also might be useful, at this point, to give an illustration on two ways to look at human beings and their interaction with the divine. It could be helpful to be a little more blunt on some Christian perspectives and language on the world...

I did this as a sermon and I was shocked at the response. I thought I had been saying this all along but sometimes you just need to spell it out.  

Example one: Bulb World. 

Imagine a light. The light is not turned on but the bulb is sitting there. Many people live in a world where their religious job is to turn on the light in people. They come, tell them a story of a god, a prophet, or a way to live, the person believes that story and the light comes on. (Now, of course, there is all kinds of language and disagreement about who actually turns the light on but that doesn’t really matter.) The light needs to be turned on. Missionaries went to Brazil to turn on the lights. To bring something that was not there. To accomplish a divine mission.

Well mission accomplished. Once the person says a prayer, gets dunked, or whatever sign indicates that the light is on, the person whose job it is to turn on lights can move on to the next bulb that has not yet been “activated”. 

If the person is starving, that is unfortunate, but at least the light has now been turned on and eternal salvation awaits! After they starve to death, but still. 

Example two: Light World. 

Imagine the same light. This time it is on and shining brightly. In fact, it’s shining in everyone. All humans are already lit. The lights are burning bright. 

However, it’s not all “as it should be”. There are dark blankets covering up those lights. Hiding them from ourselves, from others, from the world. We do all kinds of things to cover up those lights. We cover them in shame, in “sin”, in violence, in ego, in jealousy, addiction, materialism, fear, and on and on it goes. 

In this perspective, no one has the job of turning on the light, but we all have the job of removing dark things that are blocking the light. 

(With this in mind, I’m definitely cool with Jesus “dying for our sins”. Jesus died for all the crap that covers the light inside of us including a sacrificial system based on shame and violence in the hopes of becoming “enough”.)  

In this case, the mission does change.  

Feeding someone removes something covering the light. Relieving someone of addictive behavior can remove a layer that is covering the light. There are all kinds of ways to remove the layers that block that light and these things are divine and sacred and powerful and “missionary”. When Jesus talked about feeding people and feeding him, I don’t think he meant that literally but he did mean there was something in him that’s in them. 

The mystics, for what it’s worth, have generally seen things more like example two - I also include Jesus in this category. He did say he came to help the blind “see” and I don’t think he meant that literally. 

With example two, spirituality becomes more about subtraction - not addition. It becomes more about becoming aware of what is real and removing the things that hide that reality. It becomes more about helping others to do the same thing. I’ve got nothing to bring, that isn’t already there. 

Interestingly enough, athletes will often speak in a similar manner - what makes them great is their ability to focus on what is important and to ignore the distraction, the irrelevant, and unnecessary information. 

There is a lot of distraction, irrelevant and unnecessary information in religion today that, I think, should be ignored in order to enable us to focus on what is actually important. 

Seeing who we are and what we are capable of. 

operating systems.

With all this talk of evolution and change and adapting, maybe it’s a good spot to compare it to something else, always changing: 

Operating systems. 

With every new operating system release, the same kind of things happen. It doesn’t matter whether the operating system is Android, Mac OS, Windows, or simply a change in websites...

Some complain that it’s more confusing. 
Some complain that they liked the old one better. 
Some don’t understand the new functionality. 
Some don’t understand why they changed it again. 
Some try to learn. 
Some love it. 
Some can’t believe how much better it is. 
Some can’t imagine how they ever did work in the old one. 

No matter the response, if someone doesn’t keep up on the iterations, at some point, they will not be able to use the machine. Unfortunately, it’s often the elderly at the butt of these jokes. It moved too fast and they haven’t kept up. They’re now lost. 

Then, inevitably, the talk of a time when we didn’t need that specific machine begins...  to make ourselves feel better for not being able to operate the machine in question. 

When I grew up no one had a computer! How ridiculous! 

But the universe keeps putting out new operating systems because that’s what the universe does. It moves. It advances. It evolves whether we like it or not. The driving force of the universe is a little new, then some more new, and then a sprinkle and dash of a little more new and then a lot of new just to pile on the new that we haven’t quite caught up with yet. 

By default, that means there are constant mysteries, unknowns, uncertainty, and new operating systems to make us look stupid. As the Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli puts it “It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy— or in our physics. We did not even suspect the existence of radio waves and neutrinos, which fill the universe, until recently.” 

Science gets this. They are fine being found stupid - in fact it means that something new has been discovered. Stupidity is almost celebrated. Mystery and searching demands admitting some stupidity. 

Religion is the same. There is always new. Some religious followers insist that we have figured out everything because somewhere along the lines mixing religion and stupidity was dangerous -  but that is like a scientist insisting that Newton was correct in the way he saw the universe. You’d be laughed out of the building. 

Religion, to keep up with this universe (and God) is no different. It has to evolve. It’s got to move. It can’t sit still or it becomes useless... and one of my favorite things about Christianity is that it has done exactly that. This is not a knock, this is a gift. 

I assume we are somewhere around Christianity version 43174.3 at this point. Roughly. 

And like all updates, there are many who say they don’t understand the language. It’s confusing. They liked the old one better. They don’t understand the new functionality or why it was changed. Others embrace it and try to keep learning and can’t believe how much bigger and better it is. 

These trends tend to stick with generations.

The Macintosh operating system is now over 30 years old. The first iteration looks nothing like the most recent one.. and yet it does. It works the same basic way. It was built on it. It wouldn’t exist without it. It’s so new and yet, so not. 

For those who want to go back to the old operating system, there are no current machines that run it. No software. No capability to do anything. And if you were to insist on using an old machine, you would be missing out on so much. 

And to say that Apple is no longer the creators of the new operating system because it’s so different than the first one… that would be ignorant and foolish. And imply that Apple was so content with their original creation that they became something other than Apple. Apple thinks differently. Apple creates. It’s who they are. 

They can’t stop. 

I hope Apple is not more creative than the creative force behind all creativity. That would seem a little strange. To quote Pope Francis, “God is not afraid of new things.” 

To add to it, God insists on new operating systems. 

ordinary is not.

First, if you have never read Tattoos on the Heart by Father Greg Boyle (Father G) maybe you should stop reading this bloog and read that one and then come back to this. It’s life-changing. 

Father G says: “The incarnation is not that we forget the eucharist is sacred - it’s that we forget it’s ordinary.” 

Denise Scott Brown, the architect, says “Basically, the idea is that with everyone striving to be revolutionary, you will be most revolutionary if you try to be ordinary.” 

That was not the way my thinking generally went for years. Someone recently asked me how I was doing spiritually.  When I told them I was doing great spiritually because I've realized that there is no "spiritual" part of my life, I realized how much I've changed. 

Our biggest danger is not that we might forget that there are sacred things in this world, it’s that we might forget that there are only sacred things. 

That piece of fruit. 
That kiss. 
That feeling of the keyboard against your fingertips. 
Those blades of grass swaying in the breeze. 
The homeless vet with the cardboard sign. 
The bored moments. 

They are all sacred spaces because there are no ordinary spaces or people or actions. 

That, truly, changes everything. It has changed things for me more than any other single concept or thought or idea. 

pick your run.

We can run one of three ways. 

Many people feel like they are running from something. The monster is chasing them. 

They are fleeing from Hell. From regret. From shame. From punishment. On and on the list goes, but whenever we are running from something, we are in living in a place of fear. 

Many people are running toward something. The reward is in front of them. 

Toward grace. Toward freedom. Toward reward. Toward enough. Toward love. On and on the list goes, but whenever we are running toward something, we are living in a place of love.

There’s not a scary, falling apart, going-to-Hell world out there that we need to run away from. There’s a big beautiful world full of humans that we are called to run full speed ahead into, anticipating big beautiful things. 

Many people are running in the moment. Just aware of what is happening around them.

We can still run to something and be aware of what’s around us. It's much more difficult to run from something and be aware of what’s around us. There’s too much fear and adrenaline and panic. 

Run to. See now. Run to.

you are.

When I made video games for a living, my boss gave me an Eeyore to hold my business cards. I was grumpy, pessimistic, negative... I was Eeyore. 

And then something happened, and that something had a lot to do with faith and God and Christianity. I don’t want to say it was solely responsible but it’s amazinghow often a bad faith story will affect the rest of someone’s life story and perspective. 

I found a faith that said to celebrate more. Be proud of myself more. Acknowledge that I’ve grown, evolved, that I’m learning, that I’ve failed - and learned from that - and that I am moving. At least a little. I know I have. And you have. Everyone has. But negative thoughts stick to our brain much more easily than positive. You have to work to make those positive thoughts stick.  

Instead of focusing on all the things that you have not done correctly, (often for which you think God is about to roast you) start focusing on the good things you are doing. Focus on how proud God is of you. Focus on how proud you are of yourself. Focus on how often you can relate to people trying to figure out life. 

Sometimes you feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick. You reject money for something more important. You take time to rest and breathe and appreciate the moment. 

And on and on it goes. Religion is often just affirming that the things that feel like they bring you life, actually are. So be grateful, pat yourself on the back and smile.

enough is hard.

Yeah, yeah, we hear it and you’ve heard it. But seriously, this enough stuff. Can anyone actually live it?  Can anyone actually go through life believing and living "enough"?

This is so frustrating. We resist the most, that which makes us a better person. I know I do, at least. 

Not because we don’t want to be better people. I know I do. 

But because to be better we have to give up the struggle to be enough and we have to realize we are and we have to 

be naked and vulnerable
risk the most important thing we think we own - our own  merit and worth
give up control of the things we think we control
say no to the comforting, intoxicating whisper of the ego and its power and
acknowledge mystery and doubt and admit we don’t know more than we think we know. 

You have to lose your life to find it. 

enough more.

I’ll be honest, I struggle with these words and I don’t think I’m the only one. 

How do I be grateful for what I have? 
And still want more? 

How do I be content with the way things are?
And still push for better and bigger?

How do I live in the now? 
And dream about a brighter future?

How do I continue to evolve? 
And appreciate where I’m at.  

I’m always nervous to boil things down too much but, it seems, at the end of the day, there are two approaches we can take:

we can pursue more to get to enough. 
we can realize enough and pursue more out of that. 

The first is generally the way our economy and culture functions and it wants it that way because it makes a lot of money for a lot of people: Keep getting more and someday you will have enough. There is little talk about what “enough” actually looks like because, in that model, “enough” doesn’t actually exist. There is always more to get. And enough is always in the future meaning that more never stops... more shoes, more shirts, more apps, more knowledge, more songs, more articles... 

Not to get too political here, but in a capitalistic system there is never enough. Otherwise the system would crumble. 

There are also some religious cultures that prefers this way of living. Religious production and consumption benefits many people in religious power. You need to do more, to get to enough and the people who are providing more and determining enough are very powerful and in control. The never-ending desire to be enough (thus attaining more) is just where they want people. Religious capitalism. 

The second concept is different. 

How do I pursue an awareness that I am enough? 

How do you pursue an awareness that you are enough? 

How do we really live in a world of enough? 

Enough money, enough awards, enough prestige, enough power, enough worth, enough...

Once we have thoroughly understood enough, experienced enough, and lived enough… more appears and moves very differently. And when it does it’s usually more generosity, more joy, more patience, more color, more calm, more giving, more rest, more creativity, more diversity, more experiences, and more love.

The Jesuits call this the “magis”. The first time I heard about the “magis” I almost started crying because it was the first time I felt pursuing more was okay. Magis is Latin for “more”. 

James Martin writes that “the magis means doing the more, the greater, for God. When you work, give your all, When you make plans, plan boldly. And when you dream, dream big... Ultimately, ‘eliciting great desires’ and inviting people to think big is the seed for accomplishing great things for God.” 

There is a pursuit of more that is absolutely beautiful and inspiring... scientists say that Dark Energy - that thing that makes up a huge percentage of our universe that we don’t really know what it is - contains the universe and propels it forward. 

Contains and propels. 

We can’t propel to find containment. We have to realize we are contained and then propel as contained beings. 

Mixing up our pursuit of more and our pursuit of enough can be exhausting, debilitating, and even deadly. I see it constantly. I’ve lived it. 

Again, you are enough. Right now. 
Get that, and then get more. 
Don’t try to get more to get that. 

Seek first the Kingdom of God (and its perspective on the world) and everything else will come when it should, is how, I believe, Jesus worded it. 

silence.

I recently found myself on a long run in a time of a lot of stress. The run ended up feeling like I imagine Native American teenagers felt as they searched to find their spirit animal. I know I hadn’t smoked anything but, at times I felt like I had. 

My only goal in starting the run was to listen. I promised myself to simply listen to everything that came my way. 

Amazingly enough, as soon as I left my house a little girl (in the middle of the day - I’m still not sure what she was doing out there alone) said “hello” to me. It was as though the world was saying “Welcome, Ryan”. 

It was difficult at first. I wanted to think and solve and forecast the future so I could think and solve imaginary problems too. But then I kept saying “listen”. Listen to my feet, to birds, to cars, to my breathing. 

I found myself running my some lions in cages. (We have a zoo called Cat Tales not far from my house. It’s filled with lions, tigers, and other felines.) I noticed that the animals were making noises as they pranced around their cages and I noticed that the humans in their houses were making similar noises across the street as they pounced around in their caged yards. 

Where is all the promised freedom, I asked. I kept running and listening. Which I soon noticed I do a lot. I keep running. From whatever it is. 

So, I stopped running and listened more intently. After every stop I found myself running with more energy and inspiration. Another lesson. 

Then I realized I always run the same path. So I started running on different paths, on different roads, on hills. At one point I stopped at the top of a hill, listening for a while and raised my hands in the air as though I had just won a race. I was either crazy or symbolically expressing what stopping and listening is: it’s winning. 

I don’t know how far I ran or how I long. I know I kept listening. Whenever stress came, I listened. I ran by some cows and they all yelled at me. Maybe they were simply saying hi or maybe they were saying hey, we feel you man. It’s good to listen and we hope you’re enjoying it. Life is better when you do. 

By the time I came home, I was overwhelmed with silence. The overwhelming sense of stress and solving and planning and finding solutions and running was silenced by silence. 

By just listening. Literally and metaphorically and spiritually. 

It’s called noise pollution. It’s everywhere. Our machines alter environments not just visibly but audibly. Our noise, like the cars I heard, drastically affect animals and eco-systems. Our noise alone changes our world. 

John Cage wrote the song 4’33” in 1952. During the first performance of the song David Tudor opens his piano and sits there for 30 seconds. He then closes the piano, opens it again and sits there for 2 minutes and 23 seconds. He then closes and opens again for a final 1 minute and 40 seconds. The song is 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence. 

Of course there are all kinds of jokes and ridicule about the “song” and its ridiculousness and absurdity.

Yves Klein showcased an art exhibit of blank walls at the Galerie Iris Clert in Paris in 1958. There was literally nothing there but blank white walls. The Pompideu in Paris recently duplicated the exhibit. 

Again the laughs of art history professors everywhere. (I’m hearing by art history professor brother right now and I know this kind of stuff drives him crazy.) 

But, let’s step back for a second. 

Elizabeth Gilbert says 4 words profoundly changed her life: “shut the fuck up.” She realized that her parents were not asking her for all of her great advice on their marriage and that, unless they asked, she should simply remain silent. 

Speaking wouldn’t change them anyway. 

This epiphany extended far beyond her parents. Why do we insist on speaking to people who are not asking for our opinion? 

Every time I go on Facebook now, I can’t help but think of that f in the logo as a giant symbol of shut the f up. Facebook is perhaps one of the greatest noise pollutants in our society (no offense Mark). 

What kind of things would your hear and notice if you had to sit still for 4 minutes and 33 seconds? 

What kind of things would you begin to think of if you entered into an empty room for a few moments? 

Be quiet. Just listen. Listen to God, the Universe, the Divine, or whatever other name you want to put on the power that is rolling through it and you and everyone around you. Listen to it. Pay attention. Paying attention is prayer. 

Listen to the Earth. To the birds, to water, to air rushing through your windows, to rain, to the leaves rustling and to the vastness of space. 

Listen to others. They have amazing stories. They are invaluable as contributors to this planet, humanity, and your own story. 

Listen to what they have to teach you. Even your biggest adversary. The one who disagrees with you the most. What do you learn about yourself when you stop and listen? 

Harriet Lerner, via Brené Brown says, “Change requires listening with the same level of passion that we feel when we speak.”

Listen to yourself. The divine dwells in you. Your body is speaking. Your mind is speaking. Your soul is speaking if you just listen. 

It’s a loud world. Find quiet and space to breathe, to contemplate and to just listen. 

If continued evolution, growth, adaptation is our point, listening might be one of the most powerful things on Earth. 

that power.

There is the power of dropping bombs
and there is the power of a painting. 

There is the power of a jet engine
and there is the power of a melody. 

What kind of all-powerful is your god? 

This seems like a very important question. 

One of my favorites stories might help with an answer.  

Many years ago, in a far away land, there had been a drought for a long time and, of course, the gods were being blamed, as they often were. And are. The king of the land worshiped a god of rain and he was convinced that his god was not the problem, this time...  but that another god was the problem. The god of a prophet. 

So, the prophet and the king agreed, in the only way that makes sense, to a battle of the gods to see which god was more powerful and to determine who was to blame for the drought and famine that was killing the land.

Was it the god of the king or the god of the prophet? 

The king had his own prophets - around 450 of them - show up at the event. I imagine flags and trumpets and spectacle. The goal of the competition was to bring down some fire - to prove which god was more powerful. (Again, if you’re going to have your gods do something - bringing down fire seems pretty cool.)

In the story, the 450 prophets of the king, after a lot of drama, aren’t able to get their god to do anything. No fire. No anything really. It’s not going well for them.  

The prophet of the other god, ever the performer and antagonizer, then asks everyone to make the challenge a little more difficult - just to prove a point - before asking his god to send down fire to consume a bull, now surrounded by water, that had been set up.

Fire comes from heaven. Drama. Power. Slam dunk. Home run. 

Drop the mic. Challenge over. The god of the prophet wins. 

The prophet looks at the king and says maybe my favorite line of any story, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of heavy rain.” 

Boom.

The prophet then finds himself on the run, scared for his life. 

I can’t say that’s what I was expecting the first time I read the story. Not the normal thing course of action after your god beats the other god. 

The prophet finds himself out in the wilderness for 40 days. (By the way, tons of stories have 40:  the Hebrew people were in the wilderness 40 years, Noah was on a boat while it rained for 40 days, Moses was on Mt. Sinai for 40 days, Jonah warned Ninevah for 40 days, and Jesus was in the wilderness 40 days and after the resurrection was on Earth for 40 days. According to the rabbis, 40 represents transition or change.) 

Apparently the challenge and battle of the gods didn’t really work. The “winner” is out in the desert, changing, while the “loser” is eating bread and drinking wine in his castle. Interesting.   

Around this 40 day (transition) point, the prophet’s god comes by and asks him what he is doing there. Interesting question. I would have answered “running for my life because of you.”  The prophet didn’t. 

The god then says go up to a mountain - I’m going to pass by. 

The story then says there were earthquakes, more fire, and wind. All very powerful things. But, the story tells us that the god was not in any of those powerful things. 

There was, however, a gentle whisper. That’s where God was, the story insists. In the whisper. After fire and earthquakes and wind. I wonder if those 40 days made the prophet change, transition or evolve his views on where the power of his god actually was.

Generations later, the disciples of Jesus were hanging out and getting really upset at a group of people that they already generally hated (and found to be ignorant and wrong and stupid). That same group had not welcomed them and accepted their message. So, obviously, they asked Jesus if they should call down fire on the village just like the prophet in the story had. (Before we get all high and mighty, most people still ask their god to send down fire on their enemies. Or at least bless the fire of their bombs and missiles.)

And Jesus turns and rebukes them, and says, quite astoundingly, you don’t know what spirit you are talking about here… 

There were not that many spirits to choose from in that worldview - spirits from god (the source of all good) and spirits from the devil (the source of all evil).

Which kind of all-powerful is the god of the Bible? 

It would seem to not be the power of bombs, of jet engines, of judges handing out verdicts, of fire, of earthquakes, of the things that rattle the windows of our souls with fear, but instead...

more like the power of paintings, songs, stories of grace and tenderness, laying down, resting, and quiet whispers that soften our souls with love. 

That’s the kind of power that changes humanity for the better.

That’s Godly power.

god is everywhere, except there.

This came from Dave, a friend I always have very deep, paradoxical, confusing and fun conversations with. I gave Dave the “best heretic” award at our church’s five year anniversary party because of our conversations. 

This, in a nutshell, is one of our conversations: 

God is everywhere, 
except in the places that we refuse to acknowledge God is. 

Of course, God is actually there
but if God is there and we don’t care, 
is God really there? 

God exists in the acknowledgment or awareness of God. 

In a sense, 
we control where God exists, 
because God (and love) allow us to.

So maybe the atheist and the theist are both correct in their reality. 

Maybe instead of trying to correct reality, we should seek to acknowledge another reality.

instead of hate the sin, love the sinner.

Love the God in every human
hate anything that blocks you, or them, 
from seeing God
and realizing who they are
and what they are capable of. 

That’s all sin is anyway. 

pride isn't about you.

Oh man, I was one of the most arrogant people around. I once had a co-worker tell me that it was a good thing that I wasn’t good at fighting, because I just had this look of arrogance on me all the time. The look was somewhat intimidating. I loved to argue and I loved to be right. 

What an act... Always out to prove something... to someone... mainly myself.

I don’t think most humans appreciate arrogance in another human.  

But, at the same time, there’s confidence. We see it in others and it’s so appealing and beautiful. It’s not arrogant - there’s nothing to prove -but it’s so... content with what exists. It’s free!

The balance of those is sometimes difficult, especially when we try to address them the wrong way. 

We’ve got to think better of ourselves. The reason I acted arrogant was because I wasn’t confident enough. We all know this. It always starts with enough. 

Once we think of ourselves as the center of the universe and properly loved and worthy, many will start to sound alarms of pride and/or arrogance, often in Christian circles. They always did to me. 

Don’t you know you’re supposed to give up your life and serve? You can’t think so highly of yourself! 

I don’t think that’s the problem. I never think that thinking the world of yourself is a problem. Unless you think you’re the only one in the world. 

I think the problem comes when we don’t view everyone else as the center of the universe and properly loved and worthy... the exact same as us. That was definitely my problem. 

Once we get the value of ourselves as amazing, powerful, incredible and awesome humans (confidence), we shouldn’t spend time trying to undo that or listen to any religion that tells us to. 

We need to spend time trying to get our worst enemy up to that same spot, not lowering ourselves to them. 

Really, once you realize how enough you are, pride has nothing to do with you and everything to do with everyone around you. (In more ways than one.)

at least look down.

An absence of any ladders/pyramids would be ideal. But before we get there, realistically, we should probably acknowledge we’re all on them. The ladders of success, of money, of rank, of whatever other word or label we want to put on it. 

And most of us are trying to climb. 

I’m suggesting we start looking down on our ladders. Actually moving down would be even better, but at least we can start looking down. 

Looking up has some serious issues. 

For one, we’re just looking at people’s backs. We just see asses. We start to think the world is filled with asses and we become an ass ourselves. No human can stand looking up at all those asses above us, without becoming one ourself.

You know, you’ve met that person. Or been that person. Bitter, cynical, sarcastic… muttering how the world is filled with a bunch of greedy, selfish, bastards… because it’s all we see as we struggle to push them aside and get higher. 

If, however, we decide to look down, it’s a very different view. We see faces. We see hands reaching out for our help. We start to realize that there are faces behind all those asses and we start to realize that we’ve come a lot further than we think and what’s the point of trying to climb higher when we can reach out our own hand and try to pull someone up instead. 

We’ll suddenly be grateful instead of jealous. 

We’ll suddenly be generous instead of anxious. 

We’ll suddenly find the world, and life, to generally be a better place. 

(Side note: If someone in your life is using you to get higher, they are not a friend. If they are jealous of your spot or anxious of their own, they are also not a friend. They are an equally valuable human, but not a friend.)

The more we look down and pull others up, the less we start to care about the ladders at all. They, conceivably, could even end up collapsing. 

I think when Jesus told the rich man to go and sell all his possessions, he was just saying this: go down the ladder. Life is better there. 

The man went away sad because he had so much. It’s hard to go down the ladder when we’re so high up it.

the angry god.

I used to really love the angry god, because I loved to be angry. I mean if god is angry and I’m supposed to be like God, well... that’s a great fit, right? Fun times. I get to be angry and I get to be like god… all at the same time. 

I think the angry god is generally the god of angry people.

Others call this god the lifeguard god or the mafia god or the bad parent god and those are not meant as compliments. But, again, if they permit - or, even better, demand - us to be the lifeguards, the mafia, or the parents of the world, well that feels pretty good. 

As long as the boss doesn’t come after you, of course. 

Others call this the god of justice and that is meant as a compliment although I don’t take it as one. I mean if someone asked a friend of mine what I was like and they said, “Ryan? Oh he’s, a man of justice.” I don’t think anyone would want to hang out with me. I wouldn’t want to. 

That god, or type of god, also seems to contradict everything I know about transformation and how it works. So, I don’t believe in that god anymore. I think god is always about transformation - the kind of transformation that happens when people realize that the love being offered by the god in question doesn’t depend on their transformation.

All of that said, I do think there are some things that get god upset or even angry. (Please remember when I use the word god, I might not be talking about the god you think.) I do think there are some things that get the divine force of good in the universe upset, sometimes even to the point of tears. There are quite a few anger inducing qualifications in the Bible and most of those that matter, can be boiled down to one ingredient: inequality.

When you start looking, it seems like just about all of the anger of God comes back to that word and concept.  Inequality, of course, can mean many things but I’m speaking about the perceived value of a human being. Seeing a human as not as worthy, or more worthy, in comparison to another human being is the root of inequality. 

Oppression, slavery, racism, sexism, unfair wages... or even viewing yourself as more human than ISIS or a pedophile... one can make a long list of things that center around inequality of one kind or another. 

Inequality has all kinds of ripples… and these are where the manifestations of a wrong view of the world start to make trouble. Inequality initiates ladders. If some people are worth more than others, there is a top. If there is a top to the ladder, top to the pyramid, top to whatever structure or system it is than we will all be fighting for that top. 

If we have pyramids/ladders/structures, we are going to need some people to make bricks for the pyramid. And, generally, since making bricks is terrible work (no offense masonry workers - I’m talking about historically) we get the slaves to make bricks. The less thans. 

No better way to get to the top than to start some people working on the very thing you are trying to climb. 

Once we have pyramids and ladder and brick makers, we have fear - fear I’ll never get to the top (or at least higher than my current location) and fear I’ll lose my spot if I do get up there, and someone else will take it from below - mainly those brick makers.

Once we have fear, we have violence… to cover and hide and protect… all those fears. We will do what it takes to get higher or protect our spot. (Violence doesn’t always mean blood and guns. The Big Short is one of the most violent movies ever and it’s about the housing collapse and big banks killing humanity in all kinds of metaphorical ways). 

All of this leads to a further commodification of people, of industry, of anything we need to get up or stay up or not go down. 

We have shame, we have ego, we have other gods, we have sacrifices to those gods, we have judgment, we have addiction, we have hypocrisy, we have all kinds of things to try to convince us that we matter more, and they matter less so that we can get higher and stop being lower. 

We have blessed and sacred mafia and police and parents and justice, in the name of a god.

The God I believe in isn’t down with some people being perceived as less worthy, valued, empowered, and loved than others. And most of the prophets could be summed up with that. I include Jesus with the prophets as well. 

I agree that God hates sin... God hates the barriers to equality. (Check out Jubilee, for example. Every 50 years, in Jewish culture, the Monopoly board was reset. Everything was re-distributed equally, debt erased.) 

I think this is why Jesus said that someone with lots of money will have a hard time perceiving the world as God does. Money tends to hi-light, enable, and value inequality. 

The Divine is never down with someone being seen as less than. And, in that case, God is all about justice. It's never just to view someone as less. 

The Divine in us shouldn’t be down with inequality either, in any form, no matter how good it makes our ego feel. As good as our ego feels, is as supressed as the Divine in us feels.

just paradox.

Alright, so none of this really makes sense. Not like that. 

And, I think, that makes perfect sense to me.

This kind of logic - or lack thereof - can drive people crazy... or to freedom. 

To be perfect, you have to stop trying to be perfect. 

To know anything, you have to admit you know nothing. 

From dust we have come and dust we go, and we are the center of the universe.

The most sacred things are the most ordinary because the sacred is most contained in the ordinary.

Only when we doubt can we have faith. 

The questions are more important than the answers.

In dying we live. 

In surrendering everything, we find everything. 

You yourself are not it. And yet, you are it. 

The most powerful thing in all the world is to give up power. 

Of course God can’t make sense either, right? 

And then we have freedom.