change

dissolving chaos.

June 17, 2010 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

In every whirlwind hides a potential for form, just as in chaos there is a potential cosmos. Let me possess an infinite number of unrealized, potential forms! Let everything vibrate in me with the universal anxiety of the beginning, just awakening from nothingness!

inconsistency, uncohesion, confusion, chaos these are all necessary in the world. all of these things allow space for creation to happen. war*, pain, abuse, hatred, injustice, darkness, sin, death are all necessary so the opportunity of creation can exist. if we lived in paradise we would never have the opportunity to create.

without chaos we couldn’t live out our god-embedded responsibility to create.

it’s because of our need to be in control that we have become demi-gods of structure. it’s because of our need to make sense of inconsistency that we have become kings and gods of a world we do not own. its because of our fear of the other that we need structures, labels, and names that categorize those who don’t fit into social structures. these labels make us feel more powerful than we really are, and more powerful than we really should be.

when we become disciples of chaosmos (chaosmos: where structures form and dissolve) we begin to see that killing our neighbour isn’t just metaphorically killing a piece of ourselves, it is ontologically destroying a deep part of our humanity. we become less human when we deny that we are not connected or don’t have a symbiotic connection to the child who has just needlessly shot thousands of miles away.

because of our fences, our labels, our need to control our world, we word-by-word, label-by-label dissolve the world around us. in the hope of healing the world, through our labels, we have a hand in dissolving it.

we have a hand in making something complicated rather than the opposite.

we need more dissolution between another, so we can people who see the divine spark in all people which can empower us to do something about inustice, death, war, pain, abuse and all the other atrocious acts that are bortn out of someone’s need to control their world. think about that, most of the globally tragic things (not all) tend to stem from our need to be kings of our domain.

dominionism needs to be dissolved. olympus must fall. kingdom of god rhetoric must find become unspekable. the more language we have that empowers us to be the very things we are against, the more become the tyrrants we despise so much. the more we go beyond labels and see each other as God has made us, the world slowly becomes a better and better place to be.

when we remove the need for structures or systems, we have a world at ease. this doesn’t mean we don’t need them, it means we don’t look to them to lead us. this doesn’t mean that without these things our world would fall apart. what we have to understand is that god who holds all the chaos together, calls that creation. he is suspending the chaos in the middle of the universal expanse and while we are suspended he calls that ‘good’. our beliefs, our bible, truths, philosophies, inventions, sciences and religions need to be held in suspension (rather than solid deities) held in the tension between valuable and invaluable are where our worlds should lie.

when we try to ground the things we think we need, we then bring those things from suspension (‘creation’) back into chaos, and when we do this, than we become the one’s who think we are capable of being god enough to re-suspend them. we need to learn to live in chaos so that god sustains his divinity. having said that, he invites us all to creat with him. its a partnership that begins in the dissolution of our belief systems. if god is a universal being than he is both inside and outside of our worldviews; so, we must be willing to go inside and outside of our own beliefs to find him.

think about this on all levels, in all subjects.

if we began to see that our role isn’t about invading other contexts, but first dissolving our contexts to see that contexts are really a context. that peace isnt pluralized. that hope isn’t hopes. that love isn’t loves, but love. that we all seek love to steer the shipp. that love can really change everything. when we see this, we can begin creating in the midst of chaos.

* i am in no way endorsing any of these atrocious events or behaviours

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: bible, change, chaos, chaosmos, everything, god, inconsistency, jesus, love, seek, ship

we all have condemned

May 30, 2010 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

we all have condemned. we all have pointed the finger, whether verbally or mentally we have all done it at least one time or another. but condemning is even deeper than simply pointing the finger, if we condemn others we damn them. that is part of the structure of the word itself, to damn someone to hell. we may not even intend to, but sometimes with the choice of our words, body language, silence, and etc. we end up choosing the direction of one’s soul.

in some jewish circles they believed the best way to speak against something, was to do the exact opposite. so, if you disagreed with intolerance, the best way to respond to it, is by being tolerant. if you disagreed with indifferance then you would embrace diversity. if you embraced plurality than you were telling others that you have come to realize that your worldview isn’t the only one.

the hebrew word for condemn is chata. it means to be led away from a goal. or to bear the blame of one’s own choice. the condemning isn’t done by another person. the condemning is done in the aftermath of that persons’ choices. his own choices will condemn him rather than others. a person steals, he goes to jail, this is him being condemned. When we accept him, we agree that condemnation doesn’t have the last word. when we look beyond what he or she has done, we embrace them for who they meant to be and help others see that love is better than hate. when we do this, we confess that love really does change everything.

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: change, condemn, confess, everything, hell, jewish, love, meant to be, opposite

Losing Our Muchness: A Chapter from the New Book

May 21, 2010 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

Hey everyone here is a link to my first chapter of my new book called Colloquial Christianity: Finding God Outside of Theology

Feel free to leave thoughts, critiques and praises. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read it, and try to be nice as possible…thanks!!

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: change, colloquial, critique, finding, george elerick, god, new book, theology, time, work

a new article over at distrubed christians

April 14, 2010 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

check it out, leave a comment..

http://www.disturbedchristians.com/2010/03/death-of-presumption.html

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: bible, change, disturbed christians, god, hume, jesus, life, love, patience, philosophy, theology, Truth

what does it mean to be a Body?

April 8, 2010 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

paul used the metaphor of the Church being a body. what is a body? it is something that matures, changes (doesn’t stay the same), challenges itself, and even at time has to divorce itself from the very things it once thought were true. a body is a live, organic and moving. i think we need to find that Church somewhere out there….

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: body, challenge, change, church, live, mature, moving, organic, Paul, stale

filtered vs. unfiltered love.

March 25, 2010 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

love can really frustrate you. it can inspire you. it can move you to tears, and also move you to scream into a pillow. it can give you the pen to write poetry. but any what i just wrote can seem exclusive when talking about love. because love isn’t exclusive.

the word in the greek for the greatest of all loves is agape. a loose translation would be something like this, love is: dying to our own egos and agendas and seeking the best for the ‘other’ without anything in return. no expectation of a return response.

i was talking with someone today about the ‘gay debate’,which i think is a complete misnomer and very condescending. it assumes that a person in the gay community is somehow valueless unless they change their behaviour. how is that loving? it also assume that homosexuality is a sin. (Check out this link on all the verses that tend to get misinterpreted — www.gaychristian101.com). But that’s not what this blog is about.

Some christians try to convert people into the Kingdom of God. Some people become friends with others solely to convert them. I used to do this. But agape expects nothing in return. If we come into any relationship (unless otherwise specified; ex — business contract) and expect something in return than it isn’t agape.

if are our hope in a discussion is to change the other person, than we are coming with an agenda. we are coming in with filtered love. that is a love that is filtered either by theology or a specific worldview that (maybe unintentionally) attach expectations on the end result of the relationship.

unfiltered love says i want to do the best i can for you. whatever i have to sacrifice to do it, i will do it. and i won’t expect anything in return.

some might be asking well how far is too far? (usually this comes with the idea that we are to move people from away from their sin) — peter and the teacher of the law both asked the question ‘how far is too far?’ and jesus responds to both and says ‘thats the wrong question’. just forgive. just be a neighbour. agape love sacrifices ourselves, our worldviews, our egos and theologies to meet the other right where they are and meet them at the point of their need. without expectation.

maybe we can be people who learn how to be unfiltered lovers. the better we get at this, the less important that behaviours people are into become the center of our intentions. let love do the changing. and don’t be surprised if the person that ends being changed is you.

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: behaviour, center, change, condescending. truth, filter, gay, intentions, love, our, person, surprised, the, unfiltered

Cruise Hilight #3: Rights versus Responsibilities

March 21, 2010 By theloverevolution 1 Comment

Cruise HiLight #3 — I recently went on a cruise, experienced some interesting Pentecostal church experience along with some other god- moments…here they are…

While I was on the cruise I listened to this podcast from the Guardian (a newspaper here in the UK) and it was asking the question if we needed a new morality in light of all of the recent changes in the definition of what it means to be in a nuclear family, also in light of all of the technological progress that is conceivably changing how the world interacts with another and how they may effect rights and responsibilities, and there are many other topics included on the forefront of this all too important ongoing discussion. But something a Rabbi said stuck with me: “Rights leave no room for tolerance”. These words reverberate in the back of my head.

What we have, what we think is ours can draw us into a blind reality where we think what is mine is mine alone. And the aggressive assertion that what is mine could lead to a pseudo-reality where we think we have to fight to keep what is ‘mine’. And so we oppress, judge, murder, kill and steal (physically and metaphorically) to make sure that what we own stays mine.

This is also how a lot of people might treat faith. That my faith tradition is mine and I will do whatever it takes to protect it. My understanding of God is mine and I will stand by His side and fight against anyone who thinks otherwise. My ethics are the world I live in, and if you don’t fit those ethics than I will do all I can to make sure you never enter my world. This is the danger of having rights.

The ancient nomadic followers of Yahweh believed no one ever had rights, but that everyone had responsibilities. That we are responsibility for peace, not that we had a right to it. That we had a responsibility to not just uphold our beliefs, but that if we uphold ours than we are responsible to uphold the beliefs of others. This is very much the case within Christianity and the idea that there needs to be a ‘versus’ other religions in there. That somehow we have a right for God to be a Christian God. That we have a right to convert God to our faith.

Or even in the ‘gay debate’. People think they have right to assert their beliefs onto the lives of others. They believe they have a right to use the Bible as a tool for ideological destruction. I have many good friends that are part of the gay community who I know that love and follow Jesus. And to assert that one person knows better than another what the ethics of God are is not only arrogant but another of many reasons why we can’t afford to have rights any longer. That we all have a responsibility to and for one another. And this reality,changes everything. It really does.

Because if we embrace ‘rights’ as a way of life than we embrace inequality as a way of life too. And where there is inequality there is no room for equality. It’s not like creamer or half-and-half. You can’t have one with the other. Not in the arena of love. Love is tolerant and embraces above all ethics, truth, religious affiliations. Love doesn’t convert to any worldview. It is what it is without my, yours or anyone’s worldview effecting it. And so, maybe like my tag line says: love can change everything.

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: affiliation, against, change, danger, debate, enter, ethics, faith, gay, god, have, how, love, mine, ours, responsibilities, rights, tradition, treat, Truth, versus, world, yours

self-fulfilled prophecy and other stories….

February 19, 2010 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

we live out what we believe about ourselves to be true.

a few years ago i went through some counseling. and something that my counselor at the time stuck with me ever since. i am re-rendering what he said, but the gist of it was ‘you live the life that you want to live’. it was so true though. i mean, how we see the world, how we were treated as children, how we were taught to interact with the world around us, all these things and more effect how we do what we do. they also have a hand in how we turn out, but the danger is that we become the victims of our past or even our past choices. and the problem with that is that in reality is, were not always the victim. i was talking with a friend yesterday about life experiences and how they shape us. and the phrase ‘self-fulfilled propechy (sfp)’ came up. its a powerful tool for self-awareness. the idea behind sfp is that we live out what we expect. let me give you an example. if you have to talk to your roommate about how loud her music is and you are a person who hates confrontation already, then the danger is that you become what you expect. so in your head you’ve already played out the scenario and how its going to end, and in your daydream it doesn’t end well. and so what you have already done in thinking out the process in such minute detail is you have created a situation that may have never happened. your body tenses. your blood begins to rush. your mind goes on overkill through all the possible outcomes and how you might even defend yourself. the chemicals are in control and from that point on, you are not. and so you walk into this, what might just be a conversation to your roommate, expecting world war three but ends up being quite peaceful and you come to an amicable consensus on the issue. or because you have already set yourself up to go in with guns blazing, then people end up getting hurt. and the casualties are too much to bear.

so how do you deal with this? what do you do to deal with these kinds of issues that come out of SFP? i think first and foremost is to realize its’ not going to be world war three. second of all, i think we have to come to realize that all people on this earth are in some way shape or from afraid of some sort of rejection. and that that makes the conversation always equal, not a one-up – who can be the best at arguing escapade. and also that at the core of things like SFP is the fear of rejection. and if you think of SFP like a wall, the only way over a wall is through. so, yep, you’ve guessed it — put yourself in the line of fire. find some close friends and purposefully (not aggressively) share your views on a issue that you might differ on that you haven’t done before, or try something you would naturally be afraid of (within reason) at your own pace. but to overcome this kind of thinking also inserts a new worldview for those who struggle with SFP — the world can be different and that is okay. you don’t have to be in control. you don’t always have to be right. others can add value too. and i think this is a good start. a good place to begin is with the desire to change and challenge ourselves to grow. once we decide not to, is the moment that we accept the SFP that nothing will ever change. and things are changing every-day, including us, whether we like it or not.

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: change, counselor, ever, fulfilled, love, moment, not, nothing, prophecy, psychology, roommate, self, things, Truth

why i question

February 13, 2010 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

i had a conversation this morning about why i deconstruct things? which i think is an incedibly important to ask. and i want to make this point, if our deconstruction leads nowhere than the act of deconstruction is useless as my friend Samir recently said. But, I think the act of asking a question upsets people because the question itself might be worded in such a way that it seems to mess with the balance of their presuppositions. i think its important to define words like doctrine not as immovable or label them as things that can’t be challenged. especially when the word itself means teaching or instruction. the word has evolved and been subversively immersed in religious rhetoric to come to mean ‘things we should never challenge’. yet, the word itself assume subjectivity. and so, why do i question? because it leads to other questions. but even more so, i think the art of questioning helps me learn what it means to ask the right ones. the tendency is to assume that when someone asks a question then that question must lead to answer of some sort. but if our journey is toward God and the answers become God, then which God are we serving? the god of our answers? God isn’t a summarization of our discoveries about him. to label him as thus, would make him nothing less than we already assume about him. questions are part of the journey that yes, should lead somewhere, but that somewhere doesn’t have to be called an answer. because once we call it answer, in terms of a journey, it becomes the stop on the journey. or the end of the road for that specific topic. yet, to the ancient jews, wrestling with anything they could get their hands was indicative of someone who was in tune with the divine. if you have more ‘stops’ than ‘go’s', then are you really journeying? this is essentially the challenge to the 99 sheep who weren’t taking their first steps. the religious leaders of 99 sheep in the story thought they had arrived. and jesus was saying that they needed to keep journeying, and in that process unlearn all they know. the idea there is ‘become like little children’, go back and rediscover life. for the most part people are okay with the ‘life as a journey metaphor’, but tend to like to dictate which roads are acceptable to travel and which aren’t. and there are definitely certain roads we should stay away from that might lead us into a habitually evil lifestyle. but, the need for good questions over good answers has been a discussion that has been a long time coming. and one that is important. one that needs to continue. for both sides, if there are sides, and if there are sides, there shouldn’t be.

but the moment we stop questioning is the moment our search stops. if the ancient jews were right and truth is unfolding, then the moment we call our findings absolute is the moment that truth has stopped unfolding. this doesn’t mean that was has been offered within Christianity hasn’t been valuable. what it means is that truth doesn’t end with what was canonized (e.g., scripture and etc.) or at any certain amount of councils that were held to create creeds. as important as they were/are, they are still limited. and asking good questions can lead to even deeper discoveries about who God is and who we are in light of Him. this is why i ask questions, because i want a richer experience of God. and naturally, because the questions by their own admittance ‘question’ everything, it will lead me into the vastness that is God. which isn’t converted to one religion or one ‘right’ way of thinking. it is seeing that truth is bound up in this endless journey of questions that lead to answers that lead to more questions that hopefully will inspire us to give feet to. again, i think i need to end with the reality that questioning is useless if it doesn’t somehow change us, others or the world or all three.

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: ancient, bible, change, deconstruct, end, god, i, jesus, jews, morning, question, reality, somehow, three, transform, truth unfolding, useless, with

the need for a return: a jewish parable.

December 20, 2009 By theloverevolution Leave a Comment

i think when coming to our senses, it is good to realize that the relationships we have had during our ‘time away’ haven’t changed. (unless of course your time away was directly relating to that specific relationship). and even if the rift you had with someone was what caused the need for a return, that relationship is still there, it might be fragmented and disjointed and might need space for healing. but i think its important when you are dealing any kind of return that the fear of the relationship dissolving or changing should not be the driving force behind our desire for reparation. but that our need for reconciliation is stronger than our fear. as seen in the jewish parable below.

It is like the son of a king who took to evil ways. The
king sent a tutor to him who appealed to him, saying: ‘Repent my son.’ But
the son sent him back to his father [with a message], ‘How can I have the
effrontery to return? I am ashamed to come before you.’ Thereupon his father
sent back word: ‘My son, is a son ever ashamed to return to his father?
And is it not to your father that you will be returning?’”

Filed Under: The Emergent Conversation Tagged With: behind, below, change, desire, fear, force, forgiveness, jewish, king, parable, peace, repair, return, senses, son