Old, New Ways

Well, it seems that I’ve fallen back into my old ways; posting once a month or so.  At least that’s the case with this past month.  And, gazing through hindsight, I’m pretty sure I can nail down a couple good reasons.

First, though really not a good reason, my wife and I have been considering a pretty major move, both geographically and career related.  Second, I’ve found that over the course of the past year or so, most of my posts have been somewhat of a reaction, often an angry or negative one, to something that has rubbed me wrong.  Particularly, most of my posts were born out of my frustrations with the established religious systems, and for me, specifically in small town, rural Oklahoma.  So, in putting two and two together, I guess I haven’t really been angry at much over the past three or four weeks.  Either that, or I’ve not been good at verbalizing those frustrations, if blogging can actually be called a verbalization.

So in line with the career change, I feel it’s necessary to make a bit of a writing change as well.  Especially since I’m not really sure I’ve made much impact over the past twelve months.  Now, that’s not to say I’m not going to challenge the system, because I think that’s the kind of person I’ve always been, just cautious and fearful of actually living it.  Instead I’m going to be working on a different way of seeing the world.

I’m not sure how many of you (my four readers) have ever picked up a documentary before, but there is one in particular that has, strangely enough, had a profound impact on my thinking.  The film is called The Beautiful Losers if you’d like to check it out.  In short, it’s a chronicle of some street artists from all over the country that are not afraid to be who they are, producing art that is specific to their personality, not something someone else tells them to regurgitate.

There’s really a lot of freedom in the premise.  You see, I’ve lived my life gauging all my interactions based upon what I perceived other people to be wanting me to do, act and say.  Essentially, I’ve not really lived my life, the one I see myself living, and I’ve more closely resembled a robot, performing my basic programming and that’s it.  So things are going to change.  Sadly it’s taken me the better part of 28 years to find that out, but hey, progress is progress.

Finally for today, I’ve always had a quote from my dad in the back of my brain that’s just been slowly etching away the crust of this sterile life I’ve assumed everyone else wants me to live.  It goes as follows, and has, when paralleled with the Beautiful Losers, given me a wonderful launching point for some new ways: “You don’t ever have to ask anyone’s permission to serve God.”

I guess what I needed to hear, and really hear, was this: I don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to be the person that I know I should be.  I am not going to serve the Creator in the same sorts of ways as someone else, though lines may cross.  I’m not going to generate the same artistic pieces as another artist, and that’s okay!  Our world needs a bit of variety, diversity.  We aren’t all cut with a cookie cutter.  My experience with God is different than anyone else’s and when I can figure out that connection, I can more fully and purposefully participate in the greater community around me.  When I live as I think other people are telling me, I’m not able to offer my unique perspective.

May these plain words allow you to be free, to be yourself, from your core.  In doing so, you will realize your place in this world, how you can make it better, and who’s opening to journeying with you along the way.

Submission-Part 2

It’s entirely possible that this post could end up in a parallel flight pattern as one I’ve written a few months ago.  Even still, this is something that’s kind of been gnawing at me for quite some time and was lured up from the cellar of my mind a few days ago.

Concerning submission.  Now, realize I grew up within a particular flavor of Christianity that basically rode the fence between conservative and fundamental thought.  There’s probably no way for me to remember all the times when I heard things like “submit to the authorities,” or “children submit to your parents.”  Just to make sure we are clear before I get rolling, I’m not advocating any sort of anarchy or blatant parental disobedience, per se.  Above all, I believe we’ve been given a marvelous organ called a brain, and far too often, we DON’T use them.

Moving on.  I want to refer back to another post I recently posted entitled “Sinless.”  Essentially, I posed the question, was Jesus really sinless, as we have come to describe sin (based upon laws of the land, religious laws, etc.)?  Now, to continue that line of thinking a bit further.  My opinion is this.  According to the standard definitions we apply to sin, Jesus sinned.  Understand that it was not ever his intention to undermine, dismantle and rebuild Judaism.  He is often quote in the Bible as saying, “I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”  Essentially, there was some sort of disconnect.  The religious folks seemed to be a bit more concerned about making sure they behaved and believed in “right” sorts of ways.  Thus, that focus on not doing wrong things spawned this whole conversation of our traditional argument that we are required, by the absolute authority of scripture, to obey the laws of the land.

For all intensive purposes, that’s what was expected each time the submit card was played.  So, my question is this.  What does it mean to submit to authorities?  Further, is this even the right question to ask?  If not, what is a better question?

If we take an honest look at scripture, Jesus really wasn’t all that interested in jumping into the flow of society and keeping his head low, which could be another way to describe submission.  We often just tuck our tails and crawl back to our houses, obeying the traffic laws, paying our taxes (most of which goes to military spending), standing idly by as someone get their face knocked in at school because we don’t want to “get in trouble for fighting.”  See where I’m going with this?

Please don’t hear me say I think laws are evil, because we all need some sort of boundaries.  But, if we are to fully embrace the way of Jesus, to follow him honestly and sincerely, we’ll almost assuredly find ourselves having to decide whether we’ll obey the law or save a life.

The difficulty then with this entire discussion is that we’ve got to deprogram ourselves from the notion that the spiritual world (however we want to define that) is intimately connected to the physical world.  If Jesus were to speak a word to us today, I imagine it would sound almost blasphemous, as we are unable to release ourselves from the bonds that religion has put on us.

So, in layman’s terms.  If you call yourself a follower of Jesus, yet live blindly, without purpose and intention, why follow?  If you follow the way of Jesus, is the prize of heaven worth watching this world crumble?  My argument is that the man, Jesus, lived totally differently.  What he carried seems not to be the sin of the world but the responsibility of the world, essentially telling us that if we follow him, we must take up our cross, carry the responsibility of participating in screwing up this world, yet choosing to make a difference.  And, we like Jesus, as we begin to take responsibility for the world around us is, we die.  Yes, I mean literally.  Jesus didn’t die because it was required by God, he died because that’s what happens to people who live an alternative life, contrary to empire.  Jesus was a threat to the oppressive society in which he lived.

The same is true today.  Jesus was interested in freeing slaves, literally.  Setting the captives free, literally.  Living, and living abundantly, literally, here and now.  Jesus’ was of living in and interacting with the world around him was so offensive that there really wasn’t anything else to do accept to kill him.  Similarly, some of the peaceful rallies that happen here in our nation, fighting for people, are so awkward in our violent world that most of the time we end up throwing tear gas, punches and billy clubs anyway because it’s much easier to oppress someone than release them from bondage.

All this to say: I don’t think blatant civil or even religious disobedience is the best choice.  However, we do have brains, and I would argue we’ve got them so that we’ll use them, and decide how best to live out the way of Jesus in our world, which, much like in his day, will probably end up breaking a law or offending the religious folks.

But, let’s keep on pushing a new way, no matter the resistance.  I don’t want to just think the same as Jesus, I want to live and breathe as he did, submitting to that which drew him into authentic relationship and community with EVERY PERSON he came across.