Everything is Spiritual

Messy faith, “centered set” faith

vonwao — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 02:59:05 +0000

Dave Schmelzer is blogging about messy faith, as well as our own messes in life. It all sounds well, pretty messy, but it also reminds me that life is an adventure. How boring would life be if we always knew exactly what God was speaking to us, if we had all the answers, and all the rules? What would be the point of life if we never had any conflicts and never made any mistakes?

Something else I learned… a related topic that was discussed at the Center City Summit I recently attended: “centered set” faith. This means that even if we don’t have all the answers, even if we aren’t sure about our beliefs, even if we don’t share the same culture, we can still belong together in a community where Jesus is at the center, and we’re moving towards him. Jesus often said “follow me”, and he said this often to people who surely didn’t have all the answers, or shared the same beliefs.

Reasonable

vonwao — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:27:26 +0000

Human beings have become very reasonable.

We know the reasons that lightning precedes thunder, that spring follows winter, that apples fall to the ground, and salmon swim upstream.

We give our children reasons for why they should obey us. When something goes wrong, we ask God for a reason.

We go to therapy to look for reasons why we’re messed up, and we smash protons together understand the reason why the universe exists.

When we get to work late, or miss a deadline, we don’t give excuses, we give reasons. We have good reasons for everything.

But God is completely the opposite.

He gives us blessings for no reason, and he allows sickness and disaster without reason.

A field of wildflowers explodes with beauty when nobody is there to witness it. No good reason.

The spirit of God comes without a reason, and God doesn’t ask us for our reasons but only for obedience.

Is it any wonder that when God tries to talk to us, we don’t understand!

Water

vonwao — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:49:23 +0000

The other day I went swimming, something I like to do especially in the summer. I remember standing in the water, floating, and thinking: this is good. Feeling completely at peace. Enjoying the water. In-joy in the water.

Some days I swim laps. Some days I feel full of energy and I can swim for half an hour straight and I when I’m done I think: now I feel alive.

Other days, especially after a long day at work, I feel too fried to even swim a lot. On days that I’m stressed, I can’t get my mind to stop. Please stop. I’m in the water but swimming in my thoughts. And all of a sudden the water doesn’t feel that nice.

It ocurred to me that life is like the water. When I’m swimming in it, fully in it, with all my mind and body, I feel alive. Then I realize that G-d is all around me, that G-d is the water, that I’m swimming in the womb of G-d. Paul said “For in him we live and move and have our being”.

Current reading and what I’m learning

vonwao — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:39:37 +0000

I’m reading two books right now. “Not the Religious Type: Confessions of a Turncoat Atheist” by Dave Schmelzer and “Velvet Elvis” by Rob Bell (I had to put down the third one because two concurrent books is probably enough for me!)

There’s plenty of stuff in both books that is speaking to my heart and making me think. This chapter I was reading this morning (from Velvet Elvis) really rocked my mind. For example, the Rabbis in the time of Jesus had the authority to bind and loose, to interpret the Torah. This is the context of this saying of Jesus: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

See: http://www.cresourcei.org/bindloose.htm

Faith Benefit #2: It’s supernatural rather than abstract.

vonwao — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:10:07 +0000

#2 of top 3 (or 5?) faith benefits from Dave Schmelzer’s blog, Not The Religious Type.

…Of course God doesn’t always do what we want God to do at the moment we want it. But the explanation for that can’t be that we’re not advised to go after a God who actually does stuff. I’m not finding myself drawn to a faith that, at a head level, seems abstractly “true” but otherwise irrelevant. I’m more with the Psalmist in Psalm 116 who starts off “I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy. Because he bends down to listen, I will pray as long as I have breath!” And you?

Violence?

vonwao — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 22:53:22 +0000

A while ago, I found this note hanging on a tree along the bike trail in Conshohocken. It was handwritten and photocopied. As I was reading and walking, I looked up and there was another note. Anyway, I liked what it said and wanted to keep them but also wasn’t sure if it was meant for someone else (I thought it was from God… maybe it was for me, who knows?). So I went and made some more copies and later hung them back up nearby.

Violence?

Jesus said “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit” Matthew 7-V18. “A good man out the good treasures of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things” Matthew 12-V35. The problem with man today is the heart, no man can solve the problem of violence, drugs, etc. etc. It must start with a change of heart. Only Jesus Christ can change a man’s heart, man cannot do it, the mayor cannot do it, your honey cannot do it, and religion won’t do it, only Jesus. Jesus is as alive today as He was yesterday, only through His shed blood and His rising from the dead can a man get free from guilt of sin, I don’t care where you have been or what you have done. There is no other permanent cure for man, only temporary fixes or political ideas. We need to stop being fools and start trusting God, not man. As you can see, man doesn’t have the power.

Tom

Do you depend on God?

vonwao — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:24:57 +0000

Sure, you can say “I depend on God”, in a spiritual sense, or an emotional sense. But do we actually physically depend on God? How can we depend on God if we can go to the supermarket whenever we are hungry? Anytime we want, we can hop in our car, ride over to the supermarket, only five minutes away, and choose from hundreds of fruits and vegetables, any kind of meat, thousands of deserts and drinks. Solomon’s jaw would have dropped to see the kind of variety of food we have available at our fingertips. When was the last time you went hungry because of a drought? If we get sick, we have health insurance. We have access to drugs and the most sophisticated medical procedures. If there’s a fire or a flood, we have homeowners insurance. We have savings accounts, retirment accounts, pension plans. If we lose everything, we have social security. We have people around us with money, who would gladly would give us food if we are in need. Do we really depend on God?

Miracles…

A lot of people might ask “if God still works as much today as he did in the time of Jesus and the early church, how come we don’t see the same miracles today? Are you saying I don’t have enough faith?” Perhaps the reason we don’t experience many miracles today is because we just don’t depend on God that much. We say we have faith, but maybe it takes more than our faith to see the big miracles. Maybe God says “I do big miracles for those who depend on me big”. Maybe it’s not that God doesn’t love us, it’s just a universal law of how things work, just like the law of free will, and the law of sowing and reaping.

The kingdom of heaven is here and now

vonwao — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:09:08 +0000

The Good News.. what is the Good News?

It’s something that I’ve been pondering in my heart over the last year, since the time I was reading a book by Brian McLaren. What is the good news? Is it that we’re going to heaven some day? Is it that Christ died for our sins so that we could be made right with God? That is certainly good news.. it’s great news. But is that what Jesus meant when he said “the kingdom of heaven is at hand”?

The kingdom of heaven is at hand… good news… what does it mean?

And then recently an answer came to me. What does “at hand” or “near” mean? Does it mean heaven is close, yet elusive, out of reach, until we get to heaven?

The adjective at hand has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1: close in space; within reach
Meaning #2: close in time; about to occur

Maybe when Jesus said the kingdom of God is at hand, he meant that the kingdom of heaven is here and now. Anything that happened in the past, anything that can happen in the future, doesn’t ultimately matter that much. In the realm of circumstances, of this world, I may be feeling sad or bored or angry or anxious. But these emotions only exist in the realm of this world, in the realm of time. In the realm of heaven, of the eternal, they lose their heaviness, their solidity, and become translucent to the light of God. And the realm of heaven is available to us here and now. It is not available to us when we’re thinking about the past (Luke 9:62) or worrying about the future (Matt 6:25-27). It is not available when we’re thinking about or debating about theology (Luke 17:20-21). Only when we are really present can we enter, and experience “the peace of God which transcends all understanding”. So how do we enter the kingdom of heaven? Surrender to the present moment. We can practice this simply by having awareness of the present moment. When we’re thinking about anything else, we are resisting the life that God has put in front of us.

Bumping Into Love

vonwao — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:58:25 +0000

I just came across this guy’s blog which I liked:

a new life emerging
Jesus didn’t come to give us an intellectual belief…
For those who claim to be “Christian”– followers of The Way–
the way is Love, God’s very nature, embodied in Jesus.

Christianity isn’t a “belief system”; it’s a way.
Jesus came to show the way;
to be the way– and his way was Love.
to be the truth–and his truth was Love.
And to be the life– and his life was Love.

And if we truly want to know God,
then we too must walk in the way of his Love.
We too must walk in the truth of his Love.
We too must walk in life of his Love.

If somewhere along your journey you have managed to bump into Jesus,
then you have bumped into God– you have bumped into Love; better yet,
Love has bumped into you.

“And this is how you will know– by the way you love one another.”

My journey

vonwao — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:02:33 +0000

I want to share more about my life in this blog. I still haven’t really gotten into the blogging thing fully. Initially I thought I would use it just to share some thoughts, ideas, poetry, etc. about spirituality and religion, which has been a pretty significant part of my journey lately. Especially since a few friends at my church also have blogs, it seemed a very safe place to post my abstract ideas without getting into the messy reality of my own life. I have come to the realization that it’s really hard for me to share my life journey with others, that a part of me (i.e. ego) is always putting up walls.

About half a year ago I decided to explore new career possibilities. I have been a software developer/consultant for about the last seven years. I really enjoy the problem solving and the creativity involved in developing software apps. At the same time, I don’t enjoy the isolation of working with computers more than with humans, and I have become less and less interested in business, and even technology. At least technology as the center of our life. In a world ruled by modern economics where efficiency is God, progress is salvation, this is the direction that the world is headed in, the direction that is hard to escape if I’m in the business world.

At the same time that I’ve become less interested in business and technology, I have serious questions about giving my time, mind, focus to the goals of business and “progress”. What does God want me to do with my life? In what role will I use my full potential, so I don’t waste the gift that God gave me? I know the possibilities are endless, it is only a matter of God showing the way. I have the privilege at this point in my life of not needing to make much money as I don’t have anyone to support but myself. I also know that that a lot of necessity is imagined. We always have many more choices than we think we have. In America, many people have a lot of necessities because they feel they always need to follow what their neighbor is doing.

I look forward to sharing more about my journey in the days ahead.