Love, Love, Love

The article by Nancy Gibbs to which I referred in yesterday’s post closes with this thought, “…science alone will not resolve questions that reach this deep into our relations with one another.” Gibbs was, of course, speaking of the Pill and the multitude of issues surrounding it. Her statement is most appropriate, however, in a very general sense. We live in a society which is pretty much the opposite of the sola scriptura thinking which predominated before the scientific era. Perhaps the pendulum really does have to swing from one extreme to the other before the wisdom of the center can be truly appreciated. I have devoted myself to theology and am therefore committed to what is meant by a statement such as “God is love.” If love is the answer, if love is our salvation, then our understanding of love must be made real and practical. As Gibbs said, science alone will not resolve such questions.

I've Been Thinking (Again)

I just finished reading Nancy Gibbs’ article in the current issue of TIME, The Pill at 50: Sex, Freedom and Paradox. It revived in me sentiments of just what a remarkable time we live in. While it is true of any point in history that the current moment is unlike any before it, I am convinced that the 20th Century was uniquely transformational. The pace of change is ever on the increase. That, combined with the corresponding deluge of information technology, has placed the human mind in an unprecedented position of having to think through matters that were unimaginable to those living hundreds or thousands of years ago. For millennia the acceptable purpose of sex was procreation. Yet today science has enabled enlightened minds to conceive (didn’t mean for that to be a pun) of sex as something more, or less. Just as did the atomic bomb, the pill raised a whole new set of questions about what it means to be human, about how to encourage or prevent new life from coming into our world, and about how it becomes a moral dilemma to give or take life on a massive scale. Of this one thing I am relatively sure: the continuing advancement of science without equal progress in morality to accompany it probably does spell eventual doom.

Ask…

…and you will receive. The minor tragedy of which I wrote yesterday prompted an outpouring of generosity. Mary is letting me use hers until I get another of my own. Rachel doesn’t use hers and is negotiating a swap for the wireless camera card she and Steve gave me for Christmas that doesn’t fit our Fuji while telling me that the new ipod shuffles are getting horrible reviews. How’s that for inciting a response?

Beyond my selfish need being met, I see a far more meaningful context behind all this. It is love at work. People who love one another help each other whether it’s paying it forward or backwards. The text from Matthew 21.22 from which I borrowed my opening line actually says, “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.” If I had to summarize the gospel in six words, they would be that hope comes from faith in love. Love doesn’t have to save the whole world at once. Like a tiny mustard seed, it grows and grows from one loving another at a time.

Tragedy in A Minor

I have to admit that the past is becoming more and more of a blur, and details such as what year Mary gave me my ipod shuffle are simply lost (I do remember that it was either for Christmas or my birthday). Suffice it to say that it was several years ago and I have been hooked on the soundtrack of my life ever since. This is why I can hardly believe my ineptitude by misplacing my shuffle last Wednesday. Last Thursday was the first day of cold-turkey withdrawal and I imagine that I am becoming less peaceful by the second; (Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast. – William Congreve, The mourning bride, 1697). Mary gives me things that I use daily (e.g. my wristwatch) but my shuffle was among my most prized possessions. I think that I may have inadvertently left it on my desk as I was packing up to leave work last Wednesday, but because I do not know for sure I must refrain from suspecting theft. Whatever happened, my daily tasks are no longer accompanied by the strains of my favorite itunes. I’m going for a high degree of agreement today that I should be forgiven my stupidity and be given permission to replace my shuffle before next Christmas.

Not Always From the Mouths of Babes

Stop worrying about whose name gets in the paper and start doing something about rats, and day care, and low wages ... We must try to take our task more seriously and ourselves more lightly.

- Dorothy I. Height, 98, a founding matriarch of the American civil rights movement whose crusade for racial justice and gender equality spanned more than six decades, died Tuesday. (Source: The Washington Post)

courtesy of SOJOMAIL

Happy Earth Day!

Forty years ago I was head over heels in love with one Mary Jean James. I’ve told you how we met on a blind date on Valentine’s Day, 1970. From the first moment on I was looking for any reason to be with her and providence came to my assistance. The first official Earth Day in history was the occasion. Our mutual Methodist background in stewardship provided a shared recognition of this most sacred of reasons to pick up litter from the Wesleyan campus as an opportunity to be together. Well, friend, we’ve been recycling ever since. And even at the risk of bragging I have to tell you that we’re leaving the Earth better than we found it by our two beautiful daughters. Love is what got me interested in Earth Day in the first place, and it’s held my attention ever since. As Rebecca’s bumper sticker reads: Love Your Mother (Earth).

When Do We Begin?

I read in Reader’s Digest this morning of a three year old boy who started to become antsy his first time attending church, asking “What time does Jesus get here?” From the mouths of babes… It wouldn’t hurt some of us adults to be asking the same question, even if it is couched in figurative abstraction. I continue to be perplexed by what is passing for Christianity these days. I’d hate to think of what might happen if the actual Jesus of Nazareth somehow showed up to a Tea Party rally or the “peaceful” rally in Washington, D.C. to support possession of firearms. With two millennia between us and the event, with a dash of fundamentalism thrown in for good measure, we can actually let ourselves believe that Jesus died on the cross because that is what God ordained. Let’s be honest. Jesus was crucified because he pissed off the conservatives of his time and would just as surely be dismissed by the religious and political Right of our own times. I have no qualms about declaring Barack Obama the American messiah, and I’m sure he has no delusions about what fate some of his opponents would like to impose. Two thousand long years and we don’t seem to have learned a damned thing.

Happy 420!

Not only is this my nephew Konner’s birthday but today is increasingly recognized as the unofficial National Weed Day (unofficial, I presume, because marijuana is still, for the most part, illegal). I am pleased by reports from my native Colorado of a more progressive, enlightened attitude toward cannabis. Some surprisingly famous people of the libertarian ilk are also encouraging legalization of the herb which was insanely made illegal to support the cotton industry and discriminate against Mexicans. I have lived to see Barack Obama elected President of the United States, and so I have hope that in my lifetime I may yet see the government’s withdrawal of its prohibition against God’s growing green stuff.

A Great Loss

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. --Andre Gide

I just received word from Kim that Kirby’s father died. Once again the human dilemma surfaces between knowing that this was inevitable and that knowledge providing very little comfort at the time of loss. Bob Schmitz was a good man. I doubt that his death will be reported as a milestone in TIME but that doesn’t mean his life was without purpose and significance. I am grateful that I got to see Bob and Natalie last summer, and that he had the opportunity to see his first great-grandchild. Time marches on and we all do well to be mindful of that fact.

Status Update

I write to you who compose the average 12 visitors per day. Thank you! I've never been good at statistics but there may actually be more than 12 of you who create the average (which not one of you is). I so look forward to growing with you as we begin to clarify what the practice of love entails. There really needs to be more commentary! The genius of the Internet is that it gives equal voice to nearly everyone. Beware the opponents of neutrality. Our world approaches a precipice which plunges into violence and destruction when crossed. It has happened before, and it will happen again unless we begin to love one another. I personally can't think of anything more important.

The Virtue of Cooperation

Those now identified as Christians originally considered themselves followers of The Way. This makes sense because primitive Christianity was not so much an institution to belong to as a way of life to be practiced. It goes without saying that a literal interpretation of the New Testament is disingenuous because it was never compiled as a factual document. It is what it says it is: a testimony to a phenomenon which turned conventional human understanding on its head. This being said, scripture more than fulfills its purpose when understood as a general portrayal painted with broad strokes. Let me give an example of what I mean. Jesus might have encouraged intramural competition among his followers as a way to identify the best disciple as the last one standing. He might have done this, but there is nothing in the scriptural account to indicate he did. What scripture does point to is the exact opposite: the best disciple is the whole which harmoniously incorporates the many. Such a notion was counter intuitive then just as it is now. I cringed as Sarah Palin exclaimed at yesterday’s Tea Party rally in Boston, “Is this what their ‘change’ is all about? I want to tell ‘em, nah, we’ll keep clinging to our Constitution and our guns and religion—and you can keep the change.” Ms. Palin and her ilk may consider themselves Christians but they are definitely not followers of The Way.

Three Cheers for Las Vegas!

I’m not adept enough to embed the video, but I can cut-and-paste. If you go to this link: http://www.mynews3.com/news.php you may be able to pull up the news story I saw this morning about an innovative way of collecting money for Las Vegas’ homeless. Looking very much like a parking meter, the brightly colored stations stand ready to accept change from passersby. According to the story, monies collected will be used to provide food, clothing and shelter to this city’s homeless. I intend to follow the development of this idea and report what becomes of it. Now that our office has moved to the burbs where there are no homeless littering the sidewalks and benches, I will have to be intentional about keeping up with the fate of those silent “friends” I passed each day on my walks downtown. I’m glad, however, to see that government has acknowledged a need and is doing something about it.

Being a friend...

...took precedence over blogging today. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Love is the answer.

To Mary

Oh, to have Lennon's gifts!

Woman I can hardly express,
My mixed emotion at my thoughtlessness,
After all I'm forever in your debt,
And woman I will try express,
My inner feelings and thankfullness,
For showing me the meaning of succsess,
oooh well, well,
oooh well, well,

Woman I know you understand
The little child inside the man,
Please remember my life is in your hands,
And woman hold me close to your heart,
However, distant don't keep us apart,
After all it is written in the stars,
oooh well, well,
oooh well, well,

Woman please let me explain,
I never mean(t) to cause you sorrow or pain,
So let me tell you again and again and again,
I love you (yeah, yeah) now and forever,
I love you (yeah, yeah) now and forever,
I love you (yeah, yeah) now and forever,
I love you (yeah, yeah)...

I Love You, Too

I received the following email at 11:35 AM (PDT):

The blog for April 7 is the end of the line between us. You can adore and glorify your mother all you wish--- but I am not ready for your announcement of my "betryal" without ever having the courage to hear about my perspective of issues that ended the marriage.

Mark-- I marvel at your "divine capacity" to make such judgments. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Your wisdom is above my imagination.

IN VIEW OF THIS DEVELOPMENT WE ARE CANCE3LLING OUR PLANS TO BE WITH YOU NEXT WEEK.

THE BETRAYER---

It was followed by a second email at 12:24 PM (PDT):

ONE ADDITIONAL THOUGHT--

If you continue this issue on your blog... I will be conferring with my attorney. I hope we can avoid such an experience.

THE BETRAYER

I know that there are many who wonder how I could be estranged from "the most wonderful minister in the world." I offer this cut-and-pasted insight into my father's true nature as an explanation. Dad has counted on his family's silence for decades, but now that the relationship is over that pathological tradition is no longer necessary.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I don’t think Mom will mind my announcing that today she is eighty-two years young! Part of the reason for our Spring Break trek to Billings was to celebrate the occasion in advance. While age has taken its toll on her painfully crippled body, her mind and spirit are as young as ever. I am blessed to be the son of this remarkable woman who is, as I’ve said before, the most well-read and intelligent person I know. Every time I tie my shoe laces, I remember who taught me how. Every time I read or write, I remember who encouraged me by her own example. Every time I think of my relationship with God, I remember her quiet and patient tutelage in the ways of prayer and devotion. It would be hard to accurately calculate the number of lives that have been touched by Mom, but I am safe in saying that it is in the thousands. Having suffered much, not the least of which included the betrayal of her love, she has risen above it all and continues to be a shining light in my life. I am who and what I am today because Mom never faltered in showering me with the blessing of her love.

What Does That Mean?

“Language is the source of misunderstandings.” --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

We are bound to it, ever wrestling to free ourselves from language. The arts and religion have evolved as means to transcend mere language for the expression of deep and profound human emotions. Even though I use a highly sophisticated technology to blog, I am ever aware of the archaic medium I employ. The future truly will belong to those who can capture the essence of the human soul without using words. Until then, however, we are slaves of language.

A New Day

The unknown is now known. I’m able to continue with my lunch hour ruminations from our new location which is conveniently 50% farther from where we live. Greystone is truly a vast improvement over Clark Place as far as furnishings and equipment go, and Prudence the Prius will help minimize the impact of the longer commute. For the first time in years the intake unit to which I’m assigned is centrally located. All in all, it appears to be a move in the right direction.

I celebrated Easter with my family (Rebecca being the much missed exception) in Billings, Montana, as well as the birthdays that crop up this time of year. My personal approach to Holy Week this year was an attempt to regard each day as my last, a practice which proved to be much more challenging than I had anticipated. Life flows so naturally from one day to the next that it requires a degree of discipline not readily available to me to, so to speak, keep my eye on the ball. Nonetheless, I cultivated a greater appreciation for the miracle of life and the creation all around me.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. Amen.