Old hippy; autobiography

I hate and despise authority,

until my car does not submit to its designed purpose to deliver me to my destination

I hate and despise authority,

until my computer does not submit to the command entered.

I hate and despise authority,

until I become a manager at my job.

I hate and despise authority,

until I become a school teacher.

I hate and despise authority,

until I need some cops, to save my ass from some gangsters.

I hate and despise authority,

until I become a father.

I hate and despise authority,

until I become an authority.

I hate and despise all authority!

Until our Creator, the only truly good authority,

reaches out to me.

In 1969 after a Crosby Stills n Nash concert my friends and I were attacked by some gangsters. Guess who saved us; cops. We called cops pigs back then. I had an attitude about authority and caused a lot of trouble. Looking back I think it was mostly anger at my father. Now I see authority as something universal even inherent in nature. It is necessary for society. It is the abuse and perversion of authority that is ugly.

2 quotes on risk and courage

Still the last, sad memory hovers round and sometimes drifts across like floating mist, cutting of sunshine and chilling the remembrance of happier times. There have been joys too great to be described in words and there have been griefs upon which I have not dred to dwell; and with these in mind I say climb if you will but remember that courage and strength are not without prudence and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end.

Edward Whymper

This writing obtained from the ranger station at Jenny Lake, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal… lock it up safe in the coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket… it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable… The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”

C S Lewis

Truth Bleeds

On the on-academic aspect of truth for us western, platonic, hyper rational ists.

TRUTH BLEEDS

I looked on the mountain for truth

in the cracks, on the peaks.

I looked in schools and books

until my head hurt.

I cried like a poet seeking truth.

A taste, a nibble,

aroma of truth

is all I could find, damn my mind.

Then wisdom spoke

to me, she cried,

she felt, she loved,

she healed, and she gave birth.

She bowed her head and surrendered

her life on the bloody tree

for me.

I finally met one true Christian

You also may have been disappointed by the people you know who profess to be Christian but turn out to be hypocrites. I have been around a while and know a lot of church people, I am one myself. Sincere people, but the more we proclaim what should be right, the more we seem to fall short of it. People in authority are the biggest disappointment, including parents, teachers and religious leaders. Every once in a while I meet someone who seems like a true Christian, but then as I get to know them I see some flaw in their character like pride or dishonesty. Or maybe they are just unloving. Usually Christians profess great ideals but in reality their spirituality is very shallow.

Jesus said, “He who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” (John 7:18) This means that self-righteous people seeking their own egotistical glory are not really righteous at all! It means that true righteousness seeks the glory of God. What can we say? Is everyone deceived? Is everyone a hypocrite? Is there no one who is totally honest with themselves? I found a couple of thoughts about this in the Bible: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who truly seeks God.” (Romans 3:10) I have come to believe that the Bible does agree with our suspicions. It is bluntly honest about the perversion of man. It seems that everything that our Creator made good, we twist it when we put our hands on it, especially religion. In the Bible every hero, every king, every prophet, every priest fouled up in some way, even Moses.

Then the Bible presents the one True Man, or what we would call a “true Christian”, Jesus. He was the one of divine origin. He was totally human as we are, yet he was divine. It took God in human flesh to show us how to live the perfect live. He walked among us as one of us. Maybe we have all misunderstood what being Christian is all about. We may have assumed that it is all about showing how wonderful we are, as though God would be impressed. If I understand the Bible correctly, it is pointing me to trusting in God as my savior and living in relationship with him. It is focusing on him as my hero rather than myself. This is quite a bit different than living for the sake of my own self-righteous ego. Yes there is one true Christian, but it is not me, it is Jesus.

poem; Wind

When I feel disconnected

from your love, I feel

the tension of the form

without the substance

like a pen without ink

a car without gas

a house without people

and I feel

alone

Especially in church

When I’m doin my own thing,

and you yours

the emptiness grows, till I feel

like a cup with no coffee

a bowl with no soup

a can with no tuna,

alone

But, there’s a wind,

the wind of God a blowin

Genesis chapter 3; mankind’s problem

Now you can take this serpent as literal or metaphorical, I don’t care. But the story is talking about the source of mankind’s problems. I lean towards a metaphorical serpent because that is the genre of this section and because it is interpreted for us later in scripture as being a spiritual being.

This garden represents a deep yearning in the heart of mankind, we dream of a utopian garden state of life. Even in our denial of God we try to legislate perfect government where there are no poor, everyone has health care, no wars, etc. It is deep in the heart of mankind. We dream of beautiful peaceful marriages and families. We take a restful vacation to a place of perfect tranquility. Why can’t we just find a place of peace?

But there had to be a damned serpent in the garden! So why was there a serpent in the garden anyway? Do we blame God for the serpent? Many people do. Many accusers say that if God is good and powerful he should have created a world with no evil. In Genesis 1 we had God separating darkness from light, not creating darkness. And really God is not the one on trial here. But as all mankind asks the question in our hearts, “is God really good?” we must come to him and ask him ourselves, “God please show me who you are”. And we pray to trust our Creator to be totally good in spite of the evil in this world.

Please look at the Pages section on right side column for full discourse on Genesis chapter 3

Avatar, the movie

Loved it!! Breathtaking beautiful. I love the fantasy world, like the first time I saw Star Wars.

Themes on ethics;I sometimes felt preached to. Some themes I appreciate others not. Mankind’s greed will destroy the earth and people of other cultures, a great theme. The name of the valuable mineral being mined “unobtainium” indicates mankind’s unquenchable greed. Spirituality also was huge in the film. In our hyper rational world there is a huge vacuum in our hearts for spirituality. But I must be discerning to look beyond the creation to the Creator. There was also a minor point about their sexual mating creating a bond before Eywa the deity. Nice return to some great universal values.

Art and preaching; I guess it runs deep in our heritage to preach a message in art. Often it is the artist prophets who call out to society for change. It helps me appreciate the artistic aspects of the Bible. Certainly God used the prophets of Israel that way. I just hope that when Christians preach through art it is not judged with a double standard.

Sex, culture, morality

Often atheists will rant against the oppressive Christian morals inflicted upon our society. This reveals an ignorance of other cultures historically and currently. Many ancient cultures especially in Asia are very conservative morally and politically. Possibly the ancient cultures have learned through experience what America is playing around with like an adolescent. In Korea about 85% of all people, male and female are virgin when they marry. They learned that sex is a powerful force and is not to be toyed with.

Often humanists and atheists claim, “I don’t need a bible or god to help me be a good person” Well ok then please follow through on this! Please don’t use lack of religion as excuse to rebel against those values that really do preserve society. Looking over history we do in fact see that families really are the backbone of any society. Any evolutionist should see this plainly. And Christians often promote this polarizing effect when they claim to have sole ownership of family values. Many family values are aligned with Christianity but not exclusively. Looking again over history and other cultures we observe that most cultures embrace something similar to the Biblical 10 commandments. Most cultures teach things like; respect your parents, don’t steal, don’t murder, don’t have sex with another person’s spouse. But the Bible does add uniqueness saying, “Don’t make idols or have other gods”. My point is that as a society we may have a long way to grow in our maturity towards sexual purity.

A friend asked once, “Why does the Bible forbid fornication, sex outside of marriage?” I answered that I didn’t know why but accepted God’s authority on the issue. Over the years having time to struggle personally with the issue and when I was reading some psychology books on boundaries I came to some personal conclusions. I realize now that boundaries are a basic issue of healthy relationships and of personal mental health. The first basic boundary is physical, don’t touch another’s body without permission, don’t hit or abuse. That same boundary principle applies to mental and social issues. In sex we move profoundly into another’s physical and mental space. But unless this is rape we do it by mutual consent, right? So is this a violation of boundaries. Yes, I believe so. If people are not aware of or choose to ignore the potential damage, the boundaries are still defiled.  They don’t make condoms for the heart!

Applying boundaries is just the negative aspect of purity. What in the positive sense do we have to look to for fulfillment? We have as an ideal the goal of a lifetime commitment, a covenant, with a friend and lover. Again the ancient cultures show us the beautiful picture of elderly couples caring for each other through their whole lives. We have the positive image of a relationship of safety, safe to expose ourselves to each other because we have created an atmosphere of safety by our commitment to each other.

And finally we have the opportunity to honor our Creator by showing respect for an aspect of life that is given to us as a special gift. Even in the movie “Avatar” by James Cameron there is recognition that mating is a sacred bond before their deity. This is returning to some very ancient roots of our society. Jeremiah the prophet of Israel declares, “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls”.

Glow, an illustrated poem on codependency

Copyright Rachel Domingo

There were two baby sunflowers, bright and shiny yellow, reaching up to feel the warmth of the sun. Babies they were, young and tender with tender roots and weak knees, soft faces and happy hearts. Early in the morning they would come out with the other flowers to enjoy the morning sun listening to the birds singing praise.

In the middle of the day when the sun rose up high it became quite hot and their soft young petals began to wilt in the heat of the midday sun. It was very hot and they were young, with tender roots and weak knees, soft faces and happy hearts.

Near by were two big sunflowers with thick roots and strong knees, glowing bold faces and generous hearts. The two baby said to the two big sunflowers, “May we stand in your shade in the middle of the day when the sun is so hot that it begins to wilt our soft young petals? For we are young, with tender roots and weak knees, soft faces and happy hearts.” The two big sunflowers said, “Of course we would love to share our shade with you for we were once young too. We have think roots and strong knees, glowing bold faces and generous hearts.” So the two young flowers moved close to the two big flowers during the heat of the day and they were safe in the shade of their big friends.

One of the big sunflowers that was giving shade turned to the young flower in it’s shadow and said, “How small you are, I was once like you. I will give you shade and cover you always, even if we do not grow.” So these two sunflowers gazed upon each other gradually forgetting the sun. Their faces lost their shiny yellow glow, like sleeping flowers their heads sank low. But the other big flower said to the young flower in its shade, “You may share my shade, a welcome friend ou are. But I must fix my gaze on the sun always, for I am a sunflower and I get my shiny yellow glow from the sun.

The little sunflower in the shade of the big flower that kept on gazing at the sun gradually started to grow up and gaze upon the sun all day long. The shadow of the big sunflower became too small for the young flower, it needed more room to grow. So it said, “I want to gaze upon the sun and your shadow has become darkness to me. For I am a sunflower and get my shiny yellow glow from the sun.” Her roots began to grow thick and her knees strong, her face was growing boldly and she now had a generous heart. The two flowers continued side by side both gazing upon the sun. For they are sunflowers, with think roots and strong knees, glowing faces and thankful hearts.

For the complete illustrated version see the pages under “Glow” at the right. Please respect our copyrights on this. Copyrights by Mark Anderson and Rachael Domingo; rachaeldomingo.com

Balance; faith, love and hope

In the New Testament scriptures the triad of faith, love and hope are combined to portray a complete picture of healthy spirituality; “since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” (ESV Col 1:45), and “your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (ESV Thess 1:3).  I believe that this triad gives spiritual balance or wholeness to life, avoiding what our natural natures try to distort or turn into fanaticism, unhealthy religion.  Combining the elements of faith, love and hope makes our spirituality whole and complete.

I read a book on the teachings of Jesus that focused on faith as the primary virtue and left me lacking in several areas. Faith alone without the other elements becomes simply power of my own mind in isolation. Faith without love is academic intellectualism. Love is what moves faith into relationship with God and others. Faith alone becomes fanatical because it lacks the humility that comes with love. By combining these elements Paul is totally in harmony with the teaching of Jesus who always taught religion without love is not God’s way. The true Biblical faith is not self centered, but God centered and moves us out of ourselves into relationship with God and others. Without love, faith will never have sacrificial passion, “For God so loved the world that he gave”. And Paul even goes so far to say that “faith works through love”.

However love is dependent upon faith because love requires risk and trust. True love involves giving of myself and this giving may not be returned the way I expect. It may in fact get the response of indifference or hatred. Everyday God takes the risk of love as He extends Himself to us giving us the option of responding in love. For me to love means that I am a reflection of God’s love with dependence upon God as the first great lover.

We all know of the religious folks who are all about love and only love. To them love is nothing but a good feeling like, “let’s all get together and feel good!” Love without faith has no backbone and is not really love anyway. Love without faith excludes God. Love without faith is self centered and unholy.  Love without faith becomes codependent, without boundaries, unhealthy and sick.

Hope; to dream and desire a better life for ourselves, others, or for the world is natural and certainly a good thing, the basic universal hope. I certainly desire and dream of having a good marriage, a good job, a beautiful creative lifestyle, but if that is as far as my hope goes I may be sorely disappointed with life and angry with God. Biblical hope looks beyond the beauty of this life to the Giver of life. And hope is more than confidence in myself to accomplish something. Hope is taking the hand of God reaching out to me. Hope gives us the perspective of a greater life than our own. This keeps us from turning our religion into a self serving, human kingdom. My hope is in God, that he has reached out to me and is my Savior. It is this hope which is the root of these virtues of faith and love. It is this hope which gives universal attributes of faith and love a quality which is uniquely Christian.