As i look into the eyes of a new year i find myself filled with excitement and anticipation. In shaping time and space the energies of the old year are almost used up and i am looking forward to new energy for the adventure and projects of the new year in time and space. Looking through the pages of God's conversation to us He says, "We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise." (The Message) This is where i want to find myself come January, shaping time and space in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory. How am i going to mold and shape space in my life this way? How am i going to change my lifestyle so as to live in these wide open spaces. Later on it says that "we cant round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit."
Shaping time with God's love in mind, shaping time with relevance in mind, shaping time with the needs of others in mind, shaping time with forethought and destinations in mind, shaping time in mind. Shaping space with simplicity, shaping space with thought of how my space impacts my world, shaping space with how i fill the space impacts the relevance i have in this world. Looking at how this shaping is to be lived in the atmosphere of the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory.
In looking into the swirling mists of the new year i see the potential and the opportunity of how my space and time can make a difference and cause clarity in the lives of those around me. I can see how my shaping time and space will affect my immediate culture and the dreams of those i bounce off and impact. The shape affects my dreams, direction, destination on the journey through the new year. I am looking forward to starting the new year with a new determination to take hold of my dreams on the journey.
As i work through these processes of planning shape i have to keep in mind that i am working in these open spaces of God's grace and glory.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Passages of Wonder
Sometimes direction in our world is consumed with surviving the culture in which we exist. The culture almost becomes like the atmosphere which we breath and we can't get away from it. Also culture is so difficult to mold and shape from a single entity but it does happen. Each person can carve out their own special ecosystem with that system only impacting a very small sphere of culture. I guess though there can be some impact on attitudes in that small sphere of culture. The other variable which in some ways is dependent and independent of culture is the effect of our relationship with God, our spiritual impact on our world. I wonder how this spiritual relationship can breath life into our culture and into all the different links we have with this complex material/spiritual world. In each of our separate ecosystems our converstation with God will have a concrete and permanent effect on the world around us in such a way as to change us and those around us thus impacting the atmospere which we breath, the culture around us. As I write and think I see how our relationship with eternity can have a great impact on our culture as we are not restricted to a small inert space when we relate to God. The tentacles of our thought and prayer can reach around the world, can reach into the most diverse hollows and closets of time.
This idea of impacting our time is kind of like the emerging conversations from the cold of winter. As the conversations get longer there is a melting of the cold and the emergence of spring, of hope, of change. Sometimes we come into the conversation looking at life as closed and neat and through the passage of wonder find that the conversations of life are open and messy, with continuing adventure and mystery. This is the point at where God enters and impacts our conversation, when our journey is filled with the messiness of adventure, mystery and growth. The unknowns of the future then fill us with hope, realizing that God has planned for us much more than we can see or know at this present time. Grasping the future challenges us to change and grow.
This idea of impacting our time is kind of like the emerging conversations from the cold of winter. As the conversations get longer there is a melting of the cold and the emergence of spring, of hope, of change. Sometimes we come into the conversation looking at life as closed and neat and through the passage of wonder find that the conversations of life are open and messy, with continuing adventure and mystery. This is the point at where God enters and impacts our conversation, when our journey is filled with the messiness of adventure, mystery and growth. The unknowns of the future then fill us with hope, realizing that God has planned for us much more than we can see or know at this present time. Grasping the future challenges us to change and grow.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Engaging the void
Sometimes navigating space and time has an absense of the sense of reality which is unusually surreal. When thinking is literally too intense to keep at it, it is time to enter a new environment of mystery. Here is where the void comes in, where the coordinates exist only momentarily and keep changing with the imagination leaving the void, without boundaries, without time. We have a tendancy of making boundaries for our imagination within the walls built by fear and excess. In the void these boundaries disappear along with the coldness of routine and familiarity. The void is made to be filled with whatever wonder is left outside of boundaries, outside of time. Within the void the normal energy used up in navigating time and space in its entirety is put into the imagination. Within the realm of the imagination anything is possible. As the imagination engages the void, the void becomes changed, renewed, warmed. The void becomes an environment where the possible merges the impossible and change becomes the usual. Life is usually lived within time and space but without the imagination the intrigue and excitement is stilled and we are left in a fog with what seems like a mirage. Time and space left without the input of the imagination becomes tenuously vacant and sterile.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
simplicity and complexity
In our image conscious world we like to make everything from animal behaviour to relationships look simple. With television, advertising, movies, and various cultural inputs everything looks well shaped and comlete in the settings they are given. Our culture which is technologically complex makes the things we have to use simple, such as phones, automobiles, radios. It is easy to become drivers, couch potatoes, internet gurus, etc. And it all looks so simple. Yet behind all this image and completeness there are complex sets of behaviours and relationships and yet these are the things that we don't take the time to deal with in our lives. Relationships with others are what last into eternity yet we put more time into our appetites for experience and accomplishment than we do into our relationships which have the most complexity.
A friend of mine was going to the store to buy listerine as i was thinking about simplicity and complexity. Listerine became the focus of my thinking as listerine was a symbol of this image of simplicity. We think listerine will help us become more acceptable, more likeable, with whiter teeth less cavities, better breath, and teeth which others would envy. Listerine would be the vehicle to change how others see us (and smell us) and make it easier for others to relate to us. Yet will it change our attitudes? Will it change how we see others? Will it change the inner self? How does the image we have of ourselves affect the image others have of us? How does small changes in our outside image affect our inner being in eternity? What is the difference from changing from the inside out or changing from the outside in? These questions give me the idea of some of the complexity to all this but at the same time we crave simplicity and postitive flowing relationships. What are the symbols and processes that affect how i think about others on my daily journey?
A friend of mine was going to the store to buy listerine as i was thinking about simplicity and complexity. Listerine became the focus of my thinking as listerine was a symbol of this image of simplicity. We think listerine will help us become more acceptable, more likeable, with whiter teeth less cavities, better breath, and teeth which others would envy. Listerine would be the vehicle to change how others see us (and smell us) and make it easier for others to relate to us. Yet will it change our attitudes? Will it change how we see others? Will it change the inner self? How does the image we have of ourselves affect the image others have of us? How does small changes in our outside image affect our inner being in eternity? What is the difference from changing from the inside out or changing from the outside in? These questions give me the idea of some of the complexity to all this but at the same time we crave simplicity and postitive flowing relationships. What are the symbols and processes that affect how i think about others on my daily journey?
Friday, October 22, 2004
Observing Dead Fish
Our team at work is going to see the salmon spawning on Monday. In a way it is a place to observe fish dying at the end of their life cycle and a place of dead fish. This may seem like an unlikely place for people to meet together and visit but purpose in life is found in the most unlikely places. Growth is often found not as much in the pleasure centered activities as in the meaning centered activities. In building relationships we need to be able to come alongside each other not only in the joys of life but in the sorrows and crises of life.
In the river we see the fish accomplishing their destiny, fulfilling their purpose. Here we see meaning in terms of fish meaning. Here we can talk about the parallels of meaning and purpose in our lives and the deeper sense of what we do to apply and accomplish meaning in our lives. All of us tend to carry with us the corpses of dead things which we think will embellish who we are and what we are here for. Relationships help us to identify and bury these dead things (whether attitudes or the excesses of our material world or unreliable knowledge) and give us the freedom to be who we were made to be. Looking at and meditating on dead fish together help to build trust and help us bond together making us a more cohesive, caring group who will be able to impact our world beneficially in our work environment and in this life. The fish leave behind them the seeds of new life and their genetic code to carry on their identity in this world. What will we leave behind when we are at the point of our 'spawning ground'? What are the seeds we leave behind in this world? How are we leaving our 'genetic code' in the lives of the people we impact every day? Are we fulfilling the purpose for which we were originally created? Are we learning from dead fish or are we dead to the life of this world?
There are interesting facets to the lives of these fish. They give all their energy and effort, their lives to get to the spawning ground just to die. They give everything they have to fulfill this purpose. Do we have anything in our lives that we would give so much in order to have that purpose fulfilled in our lives? Jesus said 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?' In light of this quotation how am I fulfilling the purpose God has given me in this life? Am I willing to sacrifice myself to fulfill my purpose on earth and leave Godseeds in the lives of others?
Dead fish are not just dead fish. Dead fish are there for our imagination and for our creativity in living. Dead fish build character and cause growth. Dead fish make life more meaningful.
In the river we see the fish accomplishing their destiny, fulfilling their purpose. Here we see meaning in terms of fish meaning. Here we can talk about the parallels of meaning and purpose in our lives and the deeper sense of what we do to apply and accomplish meaning in our lives. All of us tend to carry with us the corpses of dead things which we think will embellish who we are and what we are here for. Relationships help us to identify and bury these dead things (whether attitudes or the excesses of our material world or unreliable knowledge) and give us the freedom to be who we were made to be. Looking at and meditating on dead fish together help to build trust and help us bond together making us a more cohesive, caring group who will be able to impact our world beneficially in our work environment and in this life. The fish leave behind them the seeds of new life and their genetic code to carry on their identity in this world. What will we leave behind when we are at the point of our 'spawning ground'? What are the seeds we leave behind in this world? How are we leaving our 'genetic code' in the lives of the people we impact every day? Are we fulfilling the purpose for which we were originally created? Are we learning from dead fish or are we dead to the life of this world?
There are interesting facets to the lives of these fish. They give all their energy and effort, their lives to get to the spawning ground just to die. They give everything they have to fulfill this purpose. Do we have anything in our lives that we would give so much in order to have that purpose fulfilled in our lives? Jesus said 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?' In light of this quotation how am I fulfilling the purpose God has given me in this life? Am I willing to sacrifice myself to fulfill my purpose on earth and leave Godseeds in the lives of others?
Dead fish are not just dead fish. Dead fish are there for our imagination and for our creativity in living. Dead fish build character and cause growth. Dead fish make life more meaningful.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
journeyings
Traveling in a state of wonder with music playing from the rocks, trees and streams, my mind contemplates the strange ways that the beings of twoworlds seem to interact. The sources of behavior are so often hidden in the mists, where just like in the mountains only the treetops can be seen, from the mind only the tops of conversation can be seen and the communication is hidden in the silences of solitude. Expressions of the journey can only be extracted in the aura of relationship. Relationship in solitude. What does this look like on the journey and how are we to access intimacy in such secret surroundings?
Thursday, September 30, 2004
Wonder
What place does wonder play on our lives as we journey through the void of daily life? Wonder has to do with the mystery of life, with our imagination, with our attitudes, with the things that we cannot see. What we don't see is often more important than what we can see. Wonder affects us in such a way that takes us out of the mundane moments of life and transports us to a world of delight where anything is possible. Wonder in our lives will bring more passion to our daily routines and relationships. How much awe, how much curiosity, how much of the unknown is pondered in our lives as we travel through our dreams and daily meditations. As I'm sitting here thinking about this idea of wonder a stream of sunlight is passing before my eyes and I'm seeing myriads of dust particles dancing through the lightbeam illuminated and shining as they turn and twist on their journey. Am I illuminated and dancing with wonder on my journey through life or am I hiding in the shadows invisible to the wonders around me?
Friday, September 24, 2004
invisibleness
Yesterday I was at my optomatrist getting my eyes checked out. As he was looking at the back of my eyeballs I asked him if he could take a picture of them and email them to me. He said he could but his camera was broken and he couldnt get a part for it. After that he put these drops in my eyes to make the pupils bigger to check them out. When I left his office he gave me sunglasses so the bright light wouldnt affect me on the outside. Not being used to sunglasses when I went outside I felt invisible. I think the reason I felt invisible was that the colours were all dim and really it was I who wasn't seeing as well, but in my mind the perception was changed so I felt everyone else couldn't see or here me, so off I walked home singing realizing I was invisible.
Sometimes in our world the visible and the invisible connect in really unique ways. What is visible isn't always what is there. There is always more invisible than there is the visible especially with people. Vision takes in a great amount of information but at the same time leaves out a great amount of information. As we're processing the information the visible is a lot easier to process than the invisible. And this is even more true of relationships, kind of like the freudian iceburg.
How am I invisible and how does that affect my relationships?
Sometimes in our world the visible and the invisible connect in really unique ways. What is visible isn't always what is there. There is always more invisible than there is the visible especially with people. Vision takes in a great amount of information but at the same time leaves out a great amount of information. As we're processing the information the visible is a lot easier to process than the invisible. And this is even more true of relationships, kind of like the freudian iceburg.
How am I invisible and how does that affect my relationships?
Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Slicing Twoworlds
'''Didn't we feel on fire as He conversed with us on the road, as He opened the Scriptures for us?''' What is it I hear on the road in Twoworlds? On the journey is my heart on fire or cold as ice? On the road who am I becoming?
Outside Silence
Inner silence is sometimes unable to hear the outside silence as the world is passing beneath my feet. Wonder is a commodity that is lacking when the noise carries me away on its wings and silence is unheard in the effort. How we react to the noise creates our space with turmoil or peace. What does the noise do to my inner space? How does the noise affect my inner being, my contentment, attitudes, interactions with my environment? What does the noise do to my hearing God speak?
Living in Twoworlds creates a tension when I am not allowing God's wisdom to permeate my life. When this doesn't happen I lose touch with Twoworlds and am unable to engage Twoworlds and am lost in the unworld of my own misery.
Living in Twoworlds creates a tension when I am not allowing God's wisdom to permeate my life. When this doesn't happen I lose touch with Twoworlds and am unable to engage Twoworlds and am lost in the unworld of my own misery.
Monday, September 20, 2004
slicing twoworlds
Living in Twoworlds has with it an exciting expanse of adventure. Merely walking through the back alley of time presents with it dangers of anticipation. Reality, even in the back alleys of time seems to stream in like rays of sunshine from breaks in the clouds. The busyness of random reality appears to strike at the center of deepest solitude. Also navigating these obtuse passages, wandering from the temporal to the eternal creates tensions that are not always easy to anticipate and deal with.
This morning reading in the Bible, the Message, one passage had me pondering on windows and freedom. "Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have! (Eugene Peterskon from the Message). From this we shape our space by the bent of the eyes of our heart. Windows with blinds aren't always conducive to seeing wonder. What do my blinds look like? How do I shut out the light of wonder and belief? As one living in Twoworlds following Jesus Christ, am I conformed in my thinking to closed windows and empty sparse hallways ending in a blank wall? Am I being shaped by the values and desires of my culture or by wonder and belief, the content of eternity?
How is freedom linked to Twoworlds? And also how is freedom related to relationship and knowledge?
This morning reading in the Bible, the Message, one passage had me pondering on windows and freedom. "Your eyes are windows into your body. If you open your eyes wide in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. If you pull the blinds on your windows, what a dark life you will have! (Eugene Peterskon from the Message). From this we shape our space by the bent of the eyes of our heart. Windows with blinds aren't always conducive to seeing wonder. What do my blinds look like? How do I shut out the light of wonder and belief? As one living in Twoworlds following Jesus Christ, am I conformed in my thinking to closed windows and empty sparse hallways ending in a blank wall? Am I being shaped by the values and desires of my culture or by wonder and belief, the content of eternity?
How is freedom linked to Twoworlds? And also how is freedom related to relationship and knowledge?
Friday, September 17, 2004
Slicing Twoworlds
This morning in the solitude of shaping space, with dark clouds overhead and the threat of downpour, I pondered the state of Twoworlds. Within my solitude I could see wonder and mystery intersecting with purpose, love, and joy. Not exactly sure how far to pursue my line of thinking I went back to my wonders on my walk through Twoworlds. Rain had created an aura of a changing world, a world shrouded in glistening beauty that would only last for a short time. In our world of time change is inevitable, but necessary. In our world of personal space change is inevitable, but necessary. As I was at the point of finishing my walk through the back alley of time for this passing moment I started wondering about my slicing through twoworlds and what it meant. Living in the arena of twoworlds, the world of time and the world of eternity has always had its dangers. Adventure seems to be the norm living in Twoworlds.
Reality is spent looking through windows from different perspectives. My cat has different windows she likes to stare out. At the same time staring out there is a passion in her to engage the reality outside the window, whether it be bird, cat or other moving subject. In twoworlds I am looking out different windows and spend more time wondering about the outside than engaging the outside. In shaping my space I have created boundaries that discourage my slicing Twoworlds. Yet I am here to function in engaging reality, embracing change in Twoworlds. How am I engaging the world I see outside the windows I face. How am I shaping my space in such a way as a learner in time and eternity. I think it was st Jerome who said 'Let us learn upon earth those things which can prepare us for heaven.' This idea of being prepared for earth and prepared for heaven. This idea of slicing twoworlds has to do a lot with learning and change.
Reality is spent looking through windows from different perspectives. My cat has different windows she likes to stare out. At the same time staring out there is a passion in her to engage the reality outside the window, whether it be bird, cat or other moving subject. In twoworlds I am looking out different windows and spend more time wondering about the outside than engaging the outside. In shaping my space I have created boundaries that discourage my slicing Twoworlds. Yet I am here to function in engaging reality, embracing change in Twoworlds. How am I engaging the world I see outside the windows I face. How am I shaping my space in such a way as a learner in time and eternity. I think it was st Jerome who said 'Let us learn upon earth those things which can prepare us for heaven.' This idea of being prepared for earth and prepared for heaven. This idea of slicing twoworlds has to do a lot with learning and change.
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