3 responses to Mother's Day

To me as a kid growing up, Mother's Day was one of the biggest days, if not the biggest day, of the Spring.  It had all the hype of Easter, but where as Easter seemed to disappear into being just another Sunday, Mother's Day had meaning throughout the morning.

Celebrating Mother's Day would start a few days before Sunday.  Someone would order Carnations that would be picked up on Saturday and all the males would wear boutonnieres and the women would wear corsages.  The ones who had living mothers would wear red and if your mother had died then the flower would be white.  We would wear these on our Easter outfits.

The whole morning church service would be focused on Mothers and all that they do.  It would not be uncommon for families to travel back into town and attend the church service, just to be with their mothers.

Then about 20 years ago my family encountered a teaching that came from one of the local seminaries that stated that celebrating Mother's Day was evil and sinful because it shamed women who wanted to have kids, but for some reason couldn't.  While I understand the hurt that can come from this, I also thought that it would be wrong to penalize people that wanted to show honor to the women that played an important part of their lives (no matter if they were blood related or not).

This leads me to a 3rd response.  I saw a man who had been severely abused by his mother and step-dad as he grew up show honor to his mother.  This was not done on Mother's day, but throughout the year.  His mother was very elderly and so the kids would take turns housing and taking care of her for about a month at a time.  They came from a large family, so that the stay would only happen about once a year.  Even though this man would be justified in denying any aid to his Mom, he cared for her when it was his time to do so. He did not let her actions determine his response.  To me this was a Christlike love for someone. I have thought about this often these past 20 years as I have gone through some emotionally tough times in my life.  It also seems to me that society has forgotten this type of love for people.

Looking for the good in people like The Flash

As I sit to write this blog, the TV show, The Flash has just completed its 3rd season.  If you watch the show for any length of time, you come across a scene where Barry Allen (The Flash) will reach out to the antagonist and try to find and bring out the good in that person.  Many people who watch the show find this annoying, but I find this quality to be very meaningful.

I think that when you reach out and to try to find the good within a person, who is doing things that you dislike, gives depth to that person.  This will keep you from reducing the person to a two dimensional comic character.  I find it ironic that a fictitious comic book character on this show is showing more depth of being, than many real people are doing in our country and world at this time.

This also reminds me of what the Christ (God) of Christianity did during his time here on Earth.  The people who taught the Bible (The Pharisees) had imposed the laws, & the lifestyle that they understood from scriptures upon the people, and divided their fellow countrymen into two groups, either law-keepers, or sinners (the people who did not live as the Pharisees thought that they should).

Jesus, The Christ, came on the scene and He was different.  He saw the good in people.  He saw people like Zacchaeus and Matthew, who were the classic bad guys from a Robin Hood or Zorro TV show and saw the good in them.  Both Zacchaeus and Matthew were employed by the Roman Government to squeeze money out of their fellow countrymen for the Roman rulers as well as themselves.  Jesus, however saw the good in them, and they became heroes.  This is one of the themes that is repeated over and over in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The Pharisees tried to enforce a moral code, that they saw in scriptures and punish people.  Jesus chose to hang out with these same people, and He saw the good in them, and because He did, they became good.

I can't help but think that if the people who claim to be followers of this same Jesus today, would act this same way, then our country would be a lot better off.  Now I not siding with one political side or the other in this blog, because my honest personal opinion is that both sides are equally guilty of this.  Both sides are trying to impose moralistic code of conduct upon people as they see fit, which makes both sides no different than the religious rulers of Jesus' day. 

What if instead of being Pharisees, we became more like the Flash if not like Jesus.  I love to see the results, if that were to happen.

The cost of "Imposing our will on others".

It seems to me that every bad thing that has happened, that is happening, and will happen can be traced to this one statement: "you will be as gods, having knowledge of good and evil.".  When the first beings believed this statement, and ate the forbidden fruit, a change took place as we (from that point on) have been trying to elevate ourselves to a God like status.  Even today, all across our planet, everything can be linked to someone or some group trying to gain power to impose their wills on everyone else.

That is what life here on Earth, is now all about and you can see it every everywhere -  from politics to churches, from schools to social gatherings.  The people who we honor in society are generally those who have successfully done this. Every time we force our will on someone else, we hurt and make the other person a victim.  Every crime can be traced to this one thing of someone elevating themselves and forcing what they want on someone else. So instead of us living a live of peace. love, and harmony in a paradise, we have made an urban jungle and this society where most people look to escape from their realities.

So when God gave His commandments, I don't believe that it was because we were now "sinners in the hands of a angry God", but a loving God showing us how bad this belief has made us.  I don't believe that God has ever been hurt by our actions, but that we have hurt ourselves and each other.  God does not "buddy" around with people like He did in the garden, not because our sin affects Him, but because His Perfection would destroy us.

The true difference between people living in "The Way" and others is not one of us being better than them, but because of what Jesus did on the cross, as caused God to be able to "buddy" with us, through His Spirit"who dwells within those of us who desire to have that intimate relationship with Him.

Thoughts about death

This past week my Facebook news feed has talked a lot about funerals, near death experiences,  & people who are close to death.  This has caused me to once again think and meditate on life and death.  The following comes from those thoughts and meditations.

Genesis 3:22 And the Lord Godsaid, “Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

This is a verse that you do not see mentioned at funerals, but it means a lot to me.  It shows me the mercy of God and the love that God has for us.  Let me explain.

When God created this world, He created a perfect paradise.  In this paradise, we had two responsibilities. The first was that man and woman were to have lots of sex with each other.  The second was that we were to learn what God did in creation of the garden and to make the rest of the world a paradise.  There was no trouble, hardships, or anything bad in this place.

Everything bad that takes place in this world, does so because of us.  When Adam and Eve rebelled by eating that fruit, they started a chain of rebellion that has been passed down to each and every one of us.  It is this rebellion that has resulted in every bad thing that happens.

When I read this verse that I quoted, I see that God does not want us to live forever with all these bad things that have been caused by us.  You see God wants all of us (who want to be with Him) to live in that perfect paradise and death is now the door to get there.  That is what this passage is really all about.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I am not arguing for purposely ending life on a whim.  I am just commenting on the attitudes that we have.

It seems to me that if we really believed in this paradise after death, it would affect the decisions that we make towards life and death.  We would not be so afraid of death for us or our friends and family.  

What is Christmas?

What is Christmas?

Is it the getting and giving of gifts?

Is it having fun and food with friends and family?

Is it an excuse to tolerate snow?

Is it about the decorations?

Is this really a time of peace and love?

Are we really celebrating the birth of a baby who was born over 2000 years ago and probably not on Dec. 25?

If Christmas is a time of holiday bliss, then why do a lot of the songs that we cherish are songs that deal with hardships, loss, and separations?

Is it possible that the greatest, attribute of Christmas is that no matter what hardships, losses, or separations that you are now enduring, there is a hope and love that can sustain you through these things?

Vertical and Horizontal

It seems to me that people these days are either into vertical or horizontal, but very seldom both.  I believe that this makes for a sad situation.  People who are only into vertical, are only fooling themselves into believing that they have something when they really do not have it.  Horizontal people find themselves in empty and shallow lives and are constantly looking for an escape or for a quick fix to  the emptiness that they feel inside.

It is the few who are really both vertical and horizontal, who have the best of both worlds.  I have found that the horizontal finds its meaning from vertical and vertical finds its expression through horizontal.

For you see it is not vertical or horizontal.  It is either both or nothing.

Living In Eden

They spend time playing with the animals as all the wild animals are as tame as our house pets.  They go find the fruit of their choice to eat.  Maybe a peach or a mango.  After eating the fruit they decide to plant the seeds so they go to the edge of the garden to a clearing and plant the seeds.  As they plant, they start slinging dirt at each other and that leads to wrestling with each other.  As they roll on the ground, staring in each other's eyes, their hearts are full of love and so they make love right there and God is pleased with all of this.  

You see that is the life that we were created to live.  Everything else in our lives is there because we have added it.  

So, when any of us looks and see a glimpse of paradise, we see a glimpse of Eden and the longing that we have to be there is a reminder of what we were created for.  

When someone talks about being married to their soulmate, they have a glimpse of Eden and they are experiencing the relationship that we were created to experience.  

When we can understand what life was like in Eden, then we can understand the relationships that causes God to smile now.  We can also start to understand how things will be in the next kingdom.

Those are the thoughts that I have been pondering about these past few months.