Havel's Hope

~~
“Hope is a state of mind, not of the world.
Hope, in this deep and powerful sense,
is not the same as joy that things are going well,
or willingness to invest in enterprises
that are obviously heading for success,
but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.”

Vaclav Havel

hate

Hate is a prolonged form of suicide.
Douglas V. Steere


"You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."
Anne Lamott

conflict & disillusionment

Conflict confirms individuation as persons face the inevitable challenge of dismissing neither their own nor the other’s place, perspective, and prerogative within the group.

Disillusionment affirms the process of authenticating genuine relationality as individuals are freed from their illusions about one another and their community.

absorption & transcendence

Self-absorption is a symptom of relational entropy.
It exacerbates fragmentation.

Self-transcendence, on the other hand, integrates the self within a greater meaning .
It paradoxically deepens identity and propels individuation.

"It takes all sorts to make a world; or a church. This may be even truer of a church. 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."

C.S. Lewis

innocence

The innocence we enjoy by way of ignorance is a gift given in secret. By its nature, it is invisible to its recipient.

Wisdom’s innocence, on the other hand, is heroically chosen in defiance of evidence that demands cynicism.

To know what life inevitably throws at us and yet choose to remain softhearted is the epitome of maturity. It is close to holiness.

filtered

“We all have ideas, images of God that are untrue, which the Holy Spirit would remove if we would let Him. These are cultural and doctrinal traditions which have become ingrained in our minds. The power of Christ’s life is filtered and proportionally diminished by the number of these wrong images existing within us.”

Francis Frangipane

worshipping and becoming

"That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

miracle

"There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle."

Albert Einstein

worry

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."
Corrie Ten Boom

mindset

“It is impossible to solve a problem with the same mindset that created it.”
Albert Einstein

calling

“The place where God calls you is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Frederick Buechner

obedience

Obedience is not the acknowledgement that an unintelligent being gives to an intelligent one. It is the compliment that a lover pays to a beloved. If obedience rested solely on the recognition of a superior intelligence, it would not last a week. We can always persuade ourselves that we know better...
Hubert van Zeller

light

"What is to give light must endure burning."
Viktor Frankl

presence

Is there a difference between the omnipresence of God (his ‘everywhere-ness’) and his real presence or manifest presence (his ‘right-here-ness’)?

It certainly feels different, but is that due to changes in us or changes in him? …Or both?

Is it our perception of God's closeness that changes as we yield our splintered wills to his One Will? ...Our cloudy truths to his Clear Truth? Or is God actually pressing nearer to us during certain holy moments?

ebb and flow

"Dear Lord, today I thought of the words of Vincent van Gogh: 'It is true there is an ebb and flow, but the sea remains the sea.' You are the sea. Although I experience many ups and downs in my emotions and often feel great shifts and changes in my inner life, you remain the same. Your sameness is not the sameness of a rock, but the sameness of a faithful lover. Out of your love I came to life; by your love I am sustained; and to your love I am always called back. There are days of sadness and days of joy; there are feelings of guilt and feelings of gratitude; there are moments of failure and moments of success; but all of them are embraced by your unwavering love.

My only real temptation is to doubt in your love, to think of myself as beyond the reach of your love, to remove myself from the healing radiance of your love. To do these things is to move into the darkness of despair.

O Lord, sea of love and goodness, let me not fear too much the storms and winds of my daily life, and let me know that there is ebb and flow but that the sea remains the sea. Amen."

Henri Nouwen
From A Cry for Mercy

absence

“The great temptation of the ministry is to celebrate only the presence of Jesus while forgetting his absence. Often the minister is most concerned to make people glad and to create an atmosphere of ‘I’m okay, you’re okay.’ But in this way everything gets filled up and there is no empty space left for the affirmation of our basic lack of fulfillment. In this way the presence of Jesus is enforced without connection with his absence. Almost inevitably this leads to artificial joy and superficial happiness. […] If we deny the pain of his absence we will not be able to taste his sustaining presence either.”

Henri Nouwen
From The Living Reminder

Speak to that rock

When the water dried up in Kadesh, and the people brought their pointed complaint to Moses, God told him to “speak to that rock… and it will pour out its water.” Moses chose to strike the rock twice with his staff instead. Water still gushed from the rock, but Moses lost something by not honoring God.

At times, people in authority over me have seemed like that rock: set in their ways, hardened, difficult to relate to… What if God’s word to me is the same as his word to Moses? Speak to that rock.

There are blessings that can only come through the people God has placed in authority over me – blessings like the water the Israelite community so desperately needed in Kadesh. In order to continue my journey, I need the water that flows from them: wisdom, protection, guidance, compassion, assistance...

When an authority figure has what I need, and I know I can’t go on without it, I'm faced with an age-old impasse: Will I speak to that rock or strike it? Often the temptation to strike the rock is strong. Dishonor takes many forms – some are harsh, some are cold, some are glossed with politeness. All of them make the person in authority over me a little less human.

I'm only just beginning to understand what my dishonoring actions have cost me over the years. Moses lost the dream of taking his people all the way into their promised homeland. He got what he wanted in the moment, but he fell short of his ultimate goal.

Lawn and Garden Care

An ideal lawn is completely uniform. The grass is one height, one texture, and one shade of green. Needless to say, weeds, moss, and wildflowers have no business there. It would never be confused with the wild; it is set apart from nature. It covers a clearly defined area like a cool, green carpet.

A garden, on the other hand, celebrates variety. It is home to an assortment of plants, each with its own needs and qualities. Deciduous, evergreen, creeping, climbing, twiggy, bushy, leafy, shade-loving, sun-craving, drought-resistant, frost-sensitive, hardy, showy, modest, etc… It is a place for wildly diverse expressions of planthood.

The ideal garden is a seamless, living truce between the tame and the wild – between humans and nature. Lawns, on the other hand, are human creations; nature has only a limited role with them. A proper lawn can’t exist without a lawnmower. Conversely, the thought of mowing a garden is as ludicrous as it is disturbing!

Is the church more like a lawn or a garden? It’s easier to manage a large group of people if their maintenance can be standardized. The same watering regimen, the same fertilizer and the same dose of weed-killer work for everyone. Measuring progress is far less complicated if the target is conformity to one standard.

Sameness isn’t holiness, though. Our challenge is to bring ourselves into alignment with Christ’s image, not conform to someone’s notion of the ideal Christian. It will require a host of believers, each reflecting Christ’s image according to their own unique styles, to even begin to express the vast loveliness of Jesus.

In my opinion, the Creator wants a garden. Jesus interacted with people in all sorts of ways; his approaches were as diverse as the people themselves were. The only group he tended to address in broad, generalized terms was the group that wanted to mow humanity: the religious elite. But it is obvious that his true passion was for individuals. He engaged people creatively and uniquely; he delighted in discovering and illuminating each person’s interior.

A lawn church is fertilized and weeded with a toxic concoction of religion and subculture. Legalism is its lawnmower. It is artificially sustained, separate from both God’s kingdom and the world.

Conversely, the garden church celebrates variety. It is home to assorted humans with assorted needs and qualities. Some are colorful, some muted – some kinetic, some reserved – some produce spiritual fruit continually, while some require seasons of rest after harvests. Some are as fussy as roses; some are as hardy (and occasionally as invasive…) as weeds. Some are as strong as trees, and some cling like vines. Some announce their yield of fruit with showy blossoms, and others bear their fruit invisibly underground. The garden church is a place for wildly diverse expressions of the human faith-journey.

perfectionism

"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life..."

Anne Lamott
from Bird By Bird

restraint

"It does not take many words to speak the truth."

Chief Joseph
Nez Perce