Archive for the ‘Rantings & Ravings’ Category

Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Church

Posted: April 13, 2013 in Rantings & Ravings, Religion
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Questions. I love questions. I see questions as ideas waiting to be realized, or information that is about to be birthed. But questions can be scary for some people, because the foundation of what they believe to be true can be shaken. (Which is funny, because if it is the truth, no question will be able to change it.) I love questions. I believe that questions hold the tools for living fully and walking this journey undaunted.

One of the parts of my job that I love is to teach. I love high-school age students because they are not afraid to ask questions. The questions they ask in class and outside of class are always so inspiring and mind-blowing. I am always encouraged by their questions, because to question shows you are willing to grow. To question shows you are humble enough to admit that you don’t understand it all. And to question is to show courage that you believe there could be something better. Questioning is one of the biggest ways that we show we are spiritual creatures, capable of choice and able to find or create a better answer, if one does not exist.

As a teacher, there is this thing called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a way to measure how a student learns, as well as what level of learning and thinking they are at. To be a good teacher means to encourage your students to be constantly growing higher in their level of thinking. Here’s what Bloom’s Taxonomy looks like:

bloom_taxonomy

As you can see, the first level of thinking and learning has to do with basic information, or “Knowledge”. In other words, know the facts about a subject and be able to remember what those facts are. The second level, “Understand”, deals with being able to understand the subject matter. In other words, how do you describe or explain, and how does it make sense. The third level of Bloom’s Taxonomy, “Apply”, is measuring whether the student can apply what he or she has learned and relate it to real life. These are the lower levels of thinking and learning. They are important, especially when learning a new topic or subject. But they are just lower levels and therefore stepping stones in getting to the higher levels of thinking. The next 3 levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are considered the higher levels of thinking and what all good teachers should strive for their students to attain to.

The fourth highest level of thinking, “Analyze”, has to do with the student being able to analyze the material. In other words, being able to contrast or compare it with other materials, and be able to defend, or choose, the right answer and then explain why it is the right answer. The fifth highest level of thinking is to “Evaluate”. This means to basically be able to take the subject and defend it, critique it, justify it, support it, and possibly prove it, etc. (Sounds a lot like asking questions, right?!) The highest level of thinking is to “Create”. In other words, to be able to take all the knowledge you have from all the previous levels, and put it into a product of your creation. This means that after the Evaluation part of thinking, if there was anything that needed changing or improving, you now change it and improve it. This is the highest level of thinking because it uses all the faculties of the brain to take the information and not only apply it, but create a way of expressing it to the world, as well as making it a part of yourself. If you are a good teacher, this will be your goal in getting your students to strive for, not only in the subject matter that you teach, but in life as well.

knowledge

So here’s the question: how are we doing in regards to Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Church? If the highest levels of thinking happen at the 3 higher tiers of Bloom’s (Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating), are we there as a church? Do we encourage and gently push each other towards these higher levels? Or is the church afraid of these higher levels of thinking? Is the church afraid of questions? Is the church worried what would happen to the truth if we promoted all people to not just be Analyzers and Evaluators, but ultimately Creators as well?

Don’t get me wrong. The lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy are very important. They have to be in place so that the higher levels can exist. If someone knows nothing about a subject, you can’t ask them to create or analyze it, without first learning it. But here’s what I see is the problem: We are stuck in the 3 lower levels of Bloom’s, when it comes to the Church, Spirituality or Religion. We focus on what you know, whether it’s true, and memorizing those facts. The church encourages people to understand truth – to describe and explain it. The church even encourages people to apply truth to their lives… and then we repeat those lower levels and never seem to move up to the higher levels of thinking and being. It seems that there are those who get very nervous when the 3 upper levels of thinking begin to take place within the church (which they naturally will, if a person is being encouraged to grow).

There are those who are very scared or worried when some begin to question, which, by the way, is just another form of Analyzing and Evaluating. There are some who will let others Create, just as long as they stay within the lines of the man-made box of politics and religion…which begs the question: Is that really creating? It’s almost like the scenario of a parent giving a child a coloring book. The child knows how to color, etc. But then the parent holds the child’s hand and guides the coloring. Is that creating? Why are some so afraid of questions, of growth, or of improvement?

Our church, and the Church at large, is ready for something. It’s ready for growth. In fact, the change, the spirituality, is happening. Some of it is happening within the church. And change, spirituality, higher levels of thinking, are happening outside the church, as well. Which raises the question: Is the church only contained within the walls of man-made institutions? Or could it be that it is growing beyond the walls of the box, because, as every good teacher knows, we were all made to live, know, and process on the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. And if the box does not promote that environment, it will still happen, but it may happen outside the box. We were all made to take what we have and know, and create something better. In education it is encouraged – that is, if you’re a good teacher. It’s high time we encouraged this within the church as well. If we don’t, the church will be stagnant. Could it be that it is already? But then again, could it be that the Church is alive and well – but it lives where the questions live, and it thrives where creations happen? Just some questions to ponder…

What if the Church – Part 3

Posted: September 12, 2012 in Rantings & Ravings
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There was a strange feel in the hot summer breeze – the kind of essence that brings goose bumps to your skin even in the heat of August.  There we were, in Memphis, TN to see some of the sights.  This was little over a month ago.  We thought it would be cool to swing by this famous city and experience a bit of it ourselves.  One of the places we went to was the National Civil Rights Museum, which is the old location of the Lorraine Hotel, the place where Martin Luther King was assassinated.  My husband, brother and I decided to travel from Union Street on foot to the museum.  The day was hot and muggy, as you can imagine the south in the summer.  The journey on foot took us about 20 minutes.  As we approached the block where the Lorraine Hotel is, the air suddenly felt different.

As we rounded the old brick wall, and spotted the front of the Lorraine Hotel, it was as if time stopped.  There was the front of the hotel, still in its 60’s décor, with two replicas of the cars Martin Luther King and his crew traveled in.  Looking up above you could see room 306, with a wreath of fresh flowers hanging on the hotel bannister in front of the place that Martin Luther King had breathed his last breath.  It felt like sacred ground.  We paused in that moment, sitting on some grass in the parking lot, and had a few moments of silence.  We hadn’t even entered the museum yet, and already the place pinged a resonance in my heart and soul of the commemoration of this incredible human.  This man, Martin Luther King, who had the audacity that a human being can indeed change the world.  The moment was potently powerful and brought tears to all of our eyes.

There is a plaque that overlooks the parking lot, that reads as follows:

What has become of his dream?  So much!  Yet so much is waiting to be realized.  I couldn’t help but wonder what if Martin Luther King had not been assassinated?  What would he have continued to challenge us to change?  What part of society would he want us to use our voice and agility to change?

It’s interesting to note that two things he was raising his voice against right before his untimely death was the Vietnam War and Poverty in the South and other places in our country.  The idea seemed to be that to follow justice and civil rights for all, must include all areas, especially the poverty within this nation.  His idea seemed to be that if I don’t help my brothers and sisters who are in need right next to me, how can I call myself a follower of the gospel of Jesus Christ?

What if the Church took up this cry?  Don’t get me wrong, the church at large has done so many things to help out humanity.  But we seem at times to get to the point of a plateau, adopting the mindset that others will take up “the cause” and it’s just not our calling.  But isn’t it our calling?  If we’ve been rescued from the poverty of human hopelessness because of the blood of Jesus, isn’t this the mission we then extend to every person we come in contact with?  It may not look the same as everyone else, because we do have callings and gifts.  But shouldn’t these gifts extend to wherever we find ourselves?

Here are some statistics for you in regard to what we can do here and now to help relieve poverty in the world.   These statistics are quoted from the book The Hole in Our Gospel, written by Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision.   Most of the stats have been taken from different surveys that were done in different years.  If there is a specific year that this survey was taken, that year will be included below.  If there is no year mentioned, the stat is an average for a regular year. I think you may be surprised at how “easy” it really is to help alleviate poverty right here, right now:

$168 Billion

-the extra money available if all American churchgoers tithed

(which sounds like a ton!  But check out these further numbers:) 

 

$705 billion

-the approximate amount Americans spend on Entertainment and recreation in a year

 (Kind of makes us look like we are more powerful than we realized!)

$179 Billion

-Amount spent by teenagers ages 12-17 (2006)

 

$65 Billion

-Amount spent on jewelry in 2008

$39.5 Billion

-total U.S.-government foreign assistance budget for the world

$58 Billion

-the amount spent on state lottery tickets (according to 2007 survey)

$31 Billion

-the amount spent on pets

$13 Billion

-the amount spent by Americans on cosmetic surgery (2007)

$5 Billion

-total Overseas ministries income to 700 Protestant mission agencies, including denominational, interdominational, and independent agencies.

$65 Billion (the same amount spent on jewelry in a year)

-amount needed to eliminate extreme poverty on the planet for more than a billion people

$6 billion (half of what is spent on cosmetic surgery)

-amount would bring universal primary education for children

$9 Billion

-the amount it would take to bring clean water to most of the world’s poor

$13 Billion (same as is spent on cosmetic surgery in the U.S.)

-the amount to be able to provide basic health and nutrition for EVERONE in the world

$5.2 Trillion

-the total yearly income of American churchgoers

(it would take just a little over 1 percent of the income of American Christians to lift the poorest one billion people in the world out of extreme poverty.  U.S. Christians, who make up 5% of the church worldwide, control half of the global Christian wealth)

(The Hole in Our Gospel, pg. 218)

It’s that easy.  Even teenagers could do it!

But some have said, “Is it really about money that much?  Isn’t it more about my heart and my time?”  Absolutely!  However, in my opinion, it goes a step further.  I vote with my dollar.  I am owned by what I buy to a certain extent.  I only pay for that which I believe in, that which I need or that which I want.  And what I use my money for is what I end up cherishing and protecting.  Jesus put it this way: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21).  Money is the tool I use to cast my vote of where my heart is.  Money is a necessity for living on this planet – yes.  It is also the tool to help alleviate pain and suffering around me.

This topic of money can be a touchy one.  It can make people feel guilty, or feel controlled…which perhaps proves that money indeed has a hold on us more than we realize.  And many times, people ask:  ”Well, I don’t know where to even start!  There’s so much need…” and it’s true – it can seem overwhelming.  The best place to start is asking ourselves this:  What do I really need? And what do I merely want?  (For some ideas on where to start, check out my post “A Lifestyle of Love but Where to Start?“.  Also, I’ll be including more ideas in some later posts.  In the meantime, get creative!  You know more than you realize.)

What if the Church helped take up the cause that Martin Luther King was just beginning to expose and actually started doing what we can do right here and right now for those who need it the most?  But wasn’t this all exposed before Martin Luther King ever came on the scene?  So then, what if the church actually continued to DO what Jesus Christ Himself started here on this planet?  He started the revolution when He spoke these words at the beginning of His ministry:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see,
that the oppressed will be set free,
   and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” (Luke 4:18, 19)

What if the church continued that revolution not just in word and speaking of a someday, somewhere, but actually lived out what it means to be the body of Christ on this earth right now?  What if tithes and offerings were to go beyond just paying for pastors – what if they were to actually pay for the alleviation of poverty and suffering on this planet?  That’s what the early church did.  In Acts 2 we’re told   ”Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need….”  (Acts 2:44, 45).  The revolution has already been started.  The need is overwhelming.  Jesus is waiting for us in the form of the least of these.  What are we waiting for?

I will end this segment of this subject with this amazing quote from Martin Luther King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail:

“The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often
the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s often vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century…”    

- Martin Luther King, Jr - Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Awakenings

Posted: April 30, 2012 in Rantings & Ravings
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My husband is an entertaining sleeper.  He has very real dreams that toy with his emotions, getting him to believe the impossible.  For example, one night at 3am (this is usually the time it happens), he goes flying out of bed.  He’s looking frantically out the windows in our bedroom, as if something is wrong.  I, being a very light sleeper, wake up and am freaking out.  Is there a prowler out there?  I ask him what’s wrong.  He grunts something and then leaves the house – that’s right!  He walks out the door.  I hear the jeep start up.  And then I hear the jeep drive away.  Now I’m worried.  After about 5 minutes or so, I hear the jeep pull back into the driveway.  The front door opens and I hear him come into the house.  He enters the bedroom, and I ask him what’s going on.  He mumbles, “I don’t want  to talk about it.”  He falls back into bed and after about an hour, I finally go back to sleep.  In the morning, I ask him again what happened.  He looks at me sheepishly and tells me the story.  Apparently, he was dreaming about work and when he woke up, he just knew that there were homeless people just down the hill waiting to eat.  He felt like he was late and that everyone was disappointed in him.  He said that as he drove down the hill, he knew it couldn’t be real, but he had to prove it to himself.  We had a good laugh…until it happened again.  (But that’s another story).

There’s a great movie called Awakenings starring Robin Williams and Robert Di Nero.  The movie tells the true story of neurologist Oliver Sack’s experience of waking up patients who had been in a catatonic state for years with doses of the drug L-Dopa.  Most of these patients hadn’t been awake for decades, and the movie tells the story of what it was like to wake up in a whole new era.  However, the “awakenings” didn’t last, and the people slowly returned to their catatonic state.  The doctor, who was a recluse, also had an awakening of sorts through the whole experience, and decided to step out of his box and live life to the fullest.  He realized that he had been existing most of his life in fear of life, even though he ironically brought a period of life back to his patients.

There are so many of us who are asleep.  There are so many of us who walk around this world in our catatonic state, longing for an awakening.  Trapped inside our insecurities, our fears, or the expectations of others or ourselves, we watch from a window inside our soul.  Hands pressed against the glass, we long to leave our prison we’ve created, but the risk seems too great, and normalcy screams the safer option.  And so we learn to be catatonic sleep-walkers.  We are great actors. We learn all the cues of how to look awake.  We learn what “awake” words and phrases sound like.  We learn all the “normal” ways of how society wants us to be authentic and we become that character.  All the while yearning to let our true self out to dance, play and change the world we were meant to change for such a time as this.

The ironic part is that as we play the role, the world is longing for sleepers to awake.  Enough with the games.  Enough with the politics.  Enough with the fears of social stigma.  And I am speaking from a small place of experience.  These past couple of years have been and continue to be an awakening for me. But it’s also a struggle because “sleeping” is so comfortable.  Blending in is safe…but it’s also boring. (But more of that in Part 2!)  Let us be who we were made to be for this moment in history!  Let us pull off the covers that try to hide the beauty that is our unique self and let us unite that uniqueness with the God of love and grace who will heal us and give us the freedom and ability to dance this beautiful dance we call life.

To wake up takes an alarm. Little alarms go off every day.  Have you seen or heard or felt some today?  They come in different ways:  a child asking you to play; a song moving you to tears or moving you to dance; the sunlight glistening through the spring-time trees; a baby’s tiny fingers with their firm grip; sitting by the bedside of a dying loved one; the peace of a silent moment; the stress of a too-busy schedule that screams inside you to stop and slow down; a phone call; an email; the tiny pull of a string that whispers at you to let go of that grudge you’ve been carrying so long; the anger at injustices that are allowed to happen around the world and the intense need to do your part to stop it; that inner call to repair that broken bridge with that friend; the disappointment that comes after watching too much tv and you still feel empty; and the list could go on.  Little alarms go off every day…let’s stop tuning them out.  Let’s listen to them.  We only have one life – and I believe we are here for such a time as this.  So let’s stop numbing our existence.  Let’s find the healing we need and let’s live wide open!  As the chorus from a great song puts it,

I want to laugh from the belly and cry from my soul

I want to sing out loud as far as my voice will go

I want to let go of every demon that cuts me like a knife

I want to drink every drop of this one sweet wild life!

Listen to the song by clicking here:  “One Sweet Wild Life”

(from Trent Yaconelli‘s song, One Sweet Wild Life from his CD Birdwings.  To hear more from Trent Yaconelli, visit his website at trentyaconelli.com)

A Different Kind of Poverty – Part 2

Posted: April 4, 2012 in Rantings & Ravings
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We put on our rubber boots and showered ourselves in deet.  We were gonna take a trek in the jungle surrounding our village, led by the village leader – our new friend, Walter.  It was the day before the well-drilling in the village.  So we packed some water and headed out, following our guide into the deep green of the Amazon rain forest.

What followed was 2 hours of some amazing sights, sounds and tastes.  Walter would stop along the way, look at what appeared to us as a random root or branch, and then explain through a translator what it was all about and how it could help anyone in the jungle and world.  We saw Cat’s Claw; 6 different kinds of fruits; a vine that naturally holds water; and many different animals and bugs and plants.

Walking into the jungle

Drinking fresh, clear water out of a wild vine - too cool!

Cat's Claw - a natural cancer-fighting agent

A plant that contains natural dye used for face paints and clothing dye

Our group in the middle of our trek - after eating some freshly picked jungle fruits.

Once again I was struck with the wealth of this experience and this man and his village.  I was reminded with how much I trust in the supermarket and other retailers to provide for my needs…and even though it offers me convenience and I can go down and buy (assuming I have the money) anything I want or “need”, perhaps we have lost the power and awe of the sacrifice involved in hunting and gathering for our survival.   And here was this man who could just walk into the rain forest and identify every branch, leaf, root, fruit, etc. and know exactly what it was for and how it could best help anyone.  All the “hunting” and “gathering” I know how to do involves a 15-minute drive down to Safeway, filling up my shopping cart, then getting annoyed cuz I have to wait in line to pay for my “catch”, and then driving home.  Sheesh!

What society calls “wealth” and “success” can many times be deceiving, and someone with all the conveniences and “stuff” in the world can still find themselves in the greatest poverty of all.  As Mother Teresa put it:

  ”Loneliness and feeling unwanted is the greatest poverty of all.”

 And when we look at most advertisements, they try to promise an answer to the emptiness we struggle with.  If we could only buy this product, then we would finally be fulfilled and happy.  Just check out the following images taken from advertisements and look for the underlying longing of the human race portrayed:

Can a diamond really bring about true connection?

Wait: is this referring to the baby or the car??

Really? Budweiser can provide me with these kinds of buddies?

And it's important for everyone to know this because...?

Is this better than transforming my real life?

So Dell can give me Beautiful, but she doesn't look too happy...

Haha - and I have to spend more money. Again.

Compared to???

I'm sorry - this is just too funny - what are they promising me here?

(Notice the fine print and the reference to "smart" women)

These images are proof that we all long for something deeper, and the advertisement specialists are trying to tap into that longing and get our hopes up that maybe this product will help deliver a morsel of what we ache for.  Whether it be connection, or to be seen as beautiful, or to be regarded as smart, or to please people around us and prove to them our significance and value…  Yet so many times we can find ourselves stuck in a poverty of debt, or shallow living, or loneliness caused from having to protect all our brand new stuff.  Or we find ourselves trapped in the cycle of needing to buy more and more as the products become old and the “high” of a new item wears off, and so we find ourselves shopping, trying to feed that inner addiction and longing.  But what if we already have what we’re looking for?  Wealth is truly available for every single person on this planet – but it may mean laying down a plank or two of our impoverished walls of greed so that we can partake in the riches of  love and community and grace.  It may mean listening to the underlying longing of each advertisement, and then answering that longing with the real deal:  To stop chasing mirages and realize that maybe the answer to complete happiness and fulfillment has already been given to us by God.  That “simple” things are truly profound.  The paradox is that we can lose that inner peace, happiness and love when we begin to believe the lie that we must sell ourselves in order to capture the things which we already contain within us.  To identify this truth and be free from the false promises of advertisements, and to live purely and happily and freely with no attachment to “stuff”, this is what it means to be truly wealthy!

Bullhorn Religion

Posted: March 3, 2012 in Rantings & Ravings
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It was a beautiful day.  Sun out, birds singing.  It was the kind of day you feel free and there are 101 things to do, and they all seem possible. But then it happened.  I could see them coming from afar, agenda written all over their face.  Smiling on the outside, overly excited, but you know the cartoon dollar signs that appear in cartoon eyes?  That’s what I could see when they looked at me.   Like a moth being drawn to the flame, they came at me – assuming that I so desperately need what they have to offer.  Assuming that I am lost.  And so, there I was – whittled down to a number, an agenda, a goal to reach and push.  I was a box to put a check mark in.  And even though the sun was still shining, it was as if a small cloud appeared.

I’m sure you’ve experienced or seen the same thing.  People who are convicted that they need to push their ideas or views of “God” on others, and that’s the highlight of their existence. They can appear as people thrusting religious tracts into your hands, or holding signs claiming that “God” feels a certain way about other people’s sins, or maybe they’re yelling into a bullhorn informing everyone of coming doom or of a “hell” that should motivate us to make a change. It makes me sad and embarrassed.

And to vent for a moment, when have you ever seen people swarming to an angry religious person yelling into a bullhorn, telling everyone that they’re gonna die?  When have you ever seen people come to them and say, “tell me more!  This is so interesting! Wow, you’ve changed my life!” ?  And to be honest, when a tract is being pushed into my hands, I always wonder, “why doesn’t this person want to look me in the eye and have a conversation?  Does this person want to hear about my heart and how my day is?”  And then there are the signs saying horribly degrading things about “God’s” thoughts towards others…really?  That’s your best way to spread your opinion and try to get everyone to believe and follow your “God”?  Really??

I like this guy's approach to the other signs :)

Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m sure tracts have a place for some people.  And maybe bullhorns are good if you’re trying to get people’s attention in a large crowd at a certain event. And picketing with signs can be a good thing for some events, but when it comes to a concept of God and His love (or hate) and thoughts about people, it’s just so tacky and disgusting. The time and energy that is put into making tracts, or yelling at people, or making signs, I feel could be better spent in actually doing acts of love, justice, and compassion for others.  Or maybe listening to people with no agenda at all, except to just listen and hear a human soul.  Or maybe to really look into the eyes of another sacred human brother or sister, and just see them for the beautiful creation they are, right here, right now.  What if all the time that is spent in creating ways to push religion on others, would rather be spent in living a life of love to others and for others?  But to listen to someone, or see someone, or come alongside someone…well, that would take way too much time and energy – it’s much easier and much more safe and sterile to just hand someone a tract…

It’s crazy how people can believe in a Being called “GOD” and there are so many different ideas and versions about Who this Being is. I don’t believe in a God that is yelled about, or put on a sign, or confined to a tract.  The God I believe in cannot be caged.  The God I know has a nickname, and in case you haven’t heard it, it’s “LOVE.”  The God I know, loved hanging out with real, everyday people, and never treated any human soul as an agenda or a number or a box to put a check mark in.  The God I know went to hell already, so we don’t have to.  In fact, the God I know is with me and you and everyone else in the world (regardless of race, gender, social class, or religious beliefs) in every situation we find ourselves in – there’s nothing that can shock Him or offend Him.  The God I know is at the receiving end of slurs, hate crimes, and is NOT the one holding the signs condemning people, nor did He commission people to do so.  In fact, I believe the way we “take the name of the Lord in vain” (mentioned from the 10 commandments) is not necessarily saying OMG, but rather it is when we claim we know God, but then misrepresent His character of Love and screw His reputation to others, by doing things in the name of God that are not of God at all (don’t forget God’s nickname:  LOVE).

So put down the bullhorn and let acts of LOVE, JUSTICE, COMPASSIONATE ACTION, AND MERCY shout out from every pore of your being!  Instead of passing out religious tracts with mere words on them, become what James 1:27 speaks of when it says, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress…” – take the time and investment to become more than mere words to someone.  Put down the hateful signs, and show true signs of love, justice, compassionate action and mercy to others. Perhaps what it comes down to, is that to believe in a God of LOVE is to let go of control.  Cuz when there are no agendas, when there are no ways to keep track of my righteousness weighed against other’s sins, when I let go of my control and just love and live in active compassion and just BE, that is a moment of the Divine.  That is when the mystery of God’s character can be glimpsed in the mundane of human imperfection!

 

Connected

Posted: February 7, 2012 in Rantings & Ravings
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You know, driving a vehicle is weird.  We get inside these huge machines and head down this space that’s designated for the machines, and then we accelerate to high speeds that could kill us if we happen to collide into other “machines.”  It’s like another world out there on the highway.  Different car styles, shapes and colors.  Loud trucks that drive slowly and get into the passing lane just when you want to pass another car…and then you’re stuck behind the truck.  And is it just me, or does it seem like the truck suddenly gets slower once it gets into the passing lane?!  (As you can tell, trucks can make me very annoyed when I drive). And then there are motercycles and all the different looking people who ride them.  It’s like this other reality takes place when we’re all driving together.  A reality of rights and violations and unfairness, or of busy thoughts as we think about where we’re headed to.  We seem to forget that we are all sacred human souls with our different stories and journeys and loved ones.  We seem to take on this defensiveness when we get behind the wheel, this feeling that “all are out to get me.”

I was driving the other day when I ran into a traffic jam.  You know the kind, where it seems to materialize out of nowhere.  We were all flying down the road with all our appointments and agendas nagging, when suddenly, life as we knew it came to a crawl.  Red tail lights everywhere, vehicles inching along.  And then you have the idiots who think honking will somehow help.  Really?  Anyway, there we all were, inching along.  Of course we’re all wondering what is causing the holdup.  Is it an accident? (Which, by the way, definantly brings us back to reality when we are flying down the road in these huge machines.  An accident reminds us that we are mortal and fragile and that the agenda is really not that important).  Was it a cop stopping someone?  What could is possibly be?

After what seemed like forever, I inched closer to where I could catch a view of the cause of the traffic jam.  On this 3-lane highway, one lane was merging into the other two, so that it was becoming a 2-lane highway.  But that’s not what was causing the delay.  The traffic jam was being caused because every car was trying to speed ahead on the merging lane, and then at the last-minute trying to swerve into the next lane.  It’s as if the drivers were thinking: “if I can just get up close enough, then I can beat 3 cars and get ahead.”  What they didn’t seem to realize was the fact that this action was causing a reaction for every car behind them, in every lane!  And it was progressing backwards, causing more and more cars behind them to have to put on the brakes.

After being annoyed that this selfishness was causing all of us to suffer, it occurred to me that we do the same thing in a lot of other places in life, not just on a highway while driving.  We think about “getting ahead” and if we can cut corners so that we can get our ever-so-important agenda done, we’ve won for that day.  We don’t think about all the people behind us and around us that will have to react to the actions we set in motion.  We don’t realize that we can cause others in their journey to slow down and be effected by our mistakes.  What we don’t seem to understand is that every decision or choice we make, does effect others for either good or bad.  We are that powerful!

I like this music video I saw on a friend’s Facebook post.  It’s called Forgotten Promises.  It’s talking about ending world hunger.  At first I wasn’t sure about the title of the video, but now I think I understand.  Most of us don’t like to see someone starving or in pain or suffering.  And so we make promises of one kind or another.  Maybe it’s to sponsor a child.  Maybe it’s to choose more ethically in the way we spend our money.  Maybe it’s to eat less and not be a glutton.  But sometimes, a lot of times, we forget these promises.  We get caught up in the game of life.  We get distracted in the hurry of the rat race, and like the drivers on a highway, we forget that we are all fragile creatures connected with the same stuff.  We are all human.  We all have our stories.  We all have our journeys and our loved ones.  We forget that our actions will cause reactions, either for good or bad to others around the world.  And my choice to try to selfishly cut corners and “get ahead”, may result in a huge “traffic jam” of people who are held back from their destinations that they were created for.  We are more powerful than we realize.  May we all remember and celebrate the fact that we are connected and that every action has direct, immediate repercussions on other sacred souls.  Let’s remember that we’re all made of the same stuff.  We’re all brothers and sisters.  And if we are this powerful alone, how crazy powerful we are when we choose to connect and unite to change the world for the better.

Be the Church

Posted: January 23, 2012 in Rantings & Ravings
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I get really irritated when I hear people complain about certain things that they have the power to change.  One of these things is “church”.  I find it interesting when I hear people say things like “church this week just didn’t feed me” or “I don’t like going to that church cuz I feel like I’m working – I don’t get anything out of it.”  What gets to me is that these types of statements reveal that we don’t understand what church is.

What we don’t realize is that church does not consist in just a 1-hour-a-week service.  Church is not a building, it’s not a program.  It’s not a ceremony or a bulletin.  It’s not a song service or a sermon.  Church is not the carpet color, or whether there is a drum set on the stage.  Church is not who’s wearing what, or whether the pastor is male or female. Church is not the Republican party.  The concept of church is on a whole different level.

Church consists of every moment of my life.  I carry church with me where ever I go.  I am church.  You are church.  We are church.  It is not a thing outside of me that is provided for me that I sit back and critique like a movie columnist.  It’s not a spectator sport where I cheer from the sidelines or the grandstands while wearing my team’s colors.  It’s not a spiritual restaurant where I can hopefully get “fed”, and if I don’t, I can write a review warning all my peeps out there of its lack of “real food”.   If there is something wrong with church as I see it, it is up to me to change it and do something about it – cuz I am church, as well as you.  If there is a problem, we are all responsible for it because we are church. Wherever we go.

Every moment of every day has the potential of the divine.  The random moments of the day are significant holy possibilities waiting to be realized and grasped and turned into acts of worship.  The way I treat my colleages; how I respond to my spouse after a long day of work; what I choose to spend my money on and how it will effect those on the other end of the supply chain; treating every human I come in contact with, with the dignity and sacredness they deserve.  These are just a few examples of what it looks like to be church in the humdrum moments of life.  And even when the 1-hour service comes along once a week, it’s just 1 hour in my day, of my week, of my reality of being church!  It will be then that the 1-hour service traditionally known as “church” will begin to look like a different gathering, as all people present will actually be the church instead of sit in church.

So what do you do if you have a problem with “church”?  I like what Shane Claiborne says:  ”We need to stop complaining about the church we’ve experienced and work on becoming the church we dream of.”  I would go even further and say that we become the church God dreams of.  Because God has already told us what church is and what it means and what it looks like.  It’s us humans who have screwed things up.  It’s time to set it right again, and this starts when we realize that church happens every moment of every day wherever I show up – because I, and you, and we are the church.

No Borders

Posted: January 10, 2012 in Rantings & Ravings
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You know, we are are funny creatures, us humans. We dare to think that we have the power to box-in our own species with borders; with laws based on man-made lines drawn on a piece of paper. And I’m not just talking about physical, geographical boundaries.  We dare to limit our own race, the human race,   with our bigoted viewpoints of skin color, country of origin, religious affiliation, political views, gender or social status. We have the audacity to treat some humans as sub-par, less-than- equal to us, or a nuisance to our way of living. We forget that we are all made of the same stuff: we are all dust.   Where do we get the illusion that some dust is more valuable than other dust?  I can look at any of my kind and know that we are the same -the ground is level – we are united by our dust – our clay bodies move and breath and live.  Our blood is the same color.  We all laugh, cry, feel pain and have the greatest need of all – LOVE.   We exist in the miracle of dirt-clod people who carry the choice every second to be lovers or haters on this spinning ball we call earth.

But just as dust is what unites us, so also does the sanctity of life – the fact that we breathe and move and love.  This breath comes from a Source outside our clay-formed bodies, and so we are the same in the fact that the only thing that elevates us to a status above dust is God’s breath of life.  Therefore we are all the same -the ground is level- we are united by the sanctity of God’s life-giving breath.  And so we have no right to play the part of god and box each other in our man-made agendas and borders.  Instead we should celebrate each other, protect the sanctity of each other, and join hands in the commonality that we are no longer just dust anymore – we are sacred clay containers of love and life!

I wrote the following poem after spending a week living with the beautiful hill tribe people of Thailand. We lived in their houses with them, slept on their mats, bathed in their water, ate their food, and played in the streets with them. We danced with them, and worked side-by-side with them. We became one – our assumed differences dissolved as we realized we were the same – we were human brothers and sisters.  And when we said goodbye, it felt like leaving family. I wrote this poem the day after we left while we were in the air:

Thailand Woman in our village. Picture taken by Casey Miller.

No Borders

Your skin and my skin
Laughter the same
Tears just as salty
Emotions run deep
Love stirs strong.
Hands clutch for affection
Wanting to be understood
Yearning to communicate.

Hearts intertwined
Locked by commonality
We are the same
I look at you
And I see my face
I work with you
And I feel your heart
I smile with you
And we are one
No borders. No countries.
No race. No religion.
No barriers. No status.
No us versus them.
Just beautiful connection
Familial bond
We are the same
You and I.

Beautiful tears of separation
Tokens and evidence
That we are forever bound – glued
Of the same soul
Of the same dust
Of the same heart
Brothers and sisters
Soul mates.

No language can separate
No skin color can divide
Proof that we are
All made of the same stuff
Proof that love overrides
The barriers we as humans
Like to box each other in.
When will we learn
That we tie ourselves down
And limit our potential for power
With our borders?

O tiny human selfish mind!
Stop! Stop looking in the mirror
Stop your paper-castle-building
Instead: Love, and love, and love!
My nationality
Is all humankind
My kingdom is you.
No Borders.


What is Church – Interlude

Posted: December 16, 2011 in Rantings & Ravings
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So I saw this post from one of my students on facebook and with permission, I’ve included it here.  It brought a smile to my face, but also made me think.  Check it out:

“Today in church I was going through the motions. Searching for a way to connect with Jesus (especially after realizing that everyone was already transitioning into that oh so jolly Christmas spirit.) Even though many of us try, we can never manufacture the true meaning of church, But after saying a prayer and collecting myself, I was determined. A particular face grabbed my attention, after examining the church congregation. quite honestly, it humored me. I just had take a picture with him. I know its not Jesus, but it definitely made my sabbath a lot better. haha.”

This facebook post and picture got me thinking: What if Jesus literally walked into church today –  Would we recognize Him?  Would we greet Him?  Would we feel awkward?  Would we convince ourselves it’s not Him?  Would we wonder why He came?  Would He even look like “Jesus” (the Jesus-image we’ve conjured up in our minds)?  Would He have a backpack on?  Jeans or a suit?  But then, wait:  Jesus does come into our churches – and our homes, and our spaces of time.  He comes into our crazy schedule, both the boring parts, exciting parts, the crazy parts and the routine-rut parts.  He’s on the commute to work; in the mall; standing in line at the DMV; on that street corner holding that sign up; and the list could go on… If Jesus is in “the least of these”, if we, as humans, carry His persona within our beings, if He is represented in every flesh-and-blood human canister, then I “see” Him every day…or do I?  Do I make space to be present enough to recognize the miracle of every-moment-living?  How many times have I missed moments of the divine due to my schedule; my calendar; my to-do list; my social, political or religious agenda;  my own little world of what I deem important at the time.  Jesus is present; the real question is, are we?

What is Church – Part 2

Posted: December 5, 2011 in Rantings & Ravings
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The parking lot was full – maybe this was a good sign!  The building was beautiful with a spanish-style architecture, yet it was newly renovated.  I had to walk a bit from where I finally found a parking spot.  Anticipation swelled because I had found this place online and was excited about what I would experience here.  I crept into the building and looked for a spot to sit.  I sat for a while, enjoying the inside decor, yet, after a few minutes, a slight feeling of estrangement began to grow, as if I was an on-looker watching others have an experience, but I, myself, was not included.  Eyes met mine, but no smiles – almost a protective, comparative glance back – as if I was there to steal the God-experience from the place.  It felt as if we all were a separate island, coming to experience the show, and ready to leave when it was over.  Maybe I had traveled into a Sims world, where everyone had been dressed by a computer gamer controlling the whole scene?  Then suddenly, one lady, like a fish swimming upstream, was walking aisle-by-aisle greeting everyone, and as she came to me, she touched my shoulder and shook my hand.  I felt a slight connection – like I was seen for the first time, and not some invisible creature. Here she was,  one real, non-stepford-person looking outside her walls  - strong enough in her own skin to step out of it and reach out to a stranger.  After she passed on, I slipped out after a few minutes.  I decided to try another place where a friend was at, not far down the road.  As I walked back out into the parking lot, I remembered the evening I had just had at the line-dance Honky Tonk…both atmoshpheres standing in stark contrast to each other.  I got in my car and drove away from the Church…

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