Real Love: Celebrating victories

Picture her,
face lit up with the false sun of some screen
scrolling,
scrolling like reaching…for
something

it will always slip
away, a balloon caught in wind-drift

Love does not envy…

It’s all too easy to be envious in this wide-web world. It’s at our fingertips–the success and beauty and brilliance of others. We attach to the perceived perfection and wish it was our own. We envy, wish we had that experience, physique, relationship, thing.

We forget:
a million likes can never equal love
someone else’s highlight reel cannot be compared to our behind-the-scenes.

We forget:
Envy is a thief. It steals our own joy and robs us of reasons to rejoice.

Merriam-webster says envy is “a painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another joined with a desire to possess the same advantage.”

So if love doesn’t do this, it must do the opposite.

Real Love must find pleasure in another’s ‘advantages,’ achievements, victories, experiences. Real love must be able to celebrate in another’s victory without making it hers. It must be content, at rest.

Love does not envy; it enjoys another’s success. Real love celebrates.

Real Love: love is kind

image1 (1) — Big thanks to my friend, Catie, who inspired me with this gem to keep writing & thinking about real love.

I looked at my wordpress stats from this past year, and I posted a meager four times! Sure, I posted on my website, for work and for a collaborative blog from time to time, but here, just. four. times.

The reason this is so not okay (with me) is because this site has been the home to my mental wanderings and spiritual searchings since college. This is the place where I spread paint on the paper, explore ideas, and share bits of my craft.

I began the real love series with an intent to finish it week by week… annnddd only got through week one. But 2016 is my year! I am committing to post (at least!) the 11 times it takes to cover this series with the hopes that I leave 2016 a better person and a more consistent writer.

How it began

It all started with a journey through Corinthians with some of the best people around and one of the most beloved, over-quoted and under-practiced passages of the bible–a passage even that even the ‘secular’ world can’t help but quote.

⁴^(A)Love is patient and ^(B)kind; love ^(C)does not envy or boast; it ^(D)is not arrogant ⁵or rude. It^(E)does not insist on its own way; it ^(F)is not irritable or resentful;^[a] ⁶it ^(G)does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but ^(H)rejoices with the truth. ⁷^(I)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, ^(J)endures all things.- Corinthians 13:4-7.

I want to dig into this, get it under my fingernails and stop taking it for granted. Because, quite simply, love is worth it.

I hope this journey is one you’ll join because my perspective is just a pinprick of light on a topic that deserves illumination. Check out the first post, fishermen lovers (love is patient) if you like, and join in to share your stories, comments, and wisdom on real love.

Continue reading “Real Love: love is kind” →

Politification Part II: Sugar with your tea,________ party?

Oh the parties.

What a horrible name by the way– party? There’s nothing partyish about a political group. Unless, of course, they win the election (the big one) and send their elephant/donkey confetti into the air, which is followed by a bit of high-fiving and pompous strutting in ____ party’s respective offices,… then followed by the realization that gas prices went up again and the cafeteria food still sucks.

Tea Time

Let’s imagine I sit down to tea with Mr. Elephant and Senior Donkey and get to ask them/challenge them on anything I want.

Stay with me for a bit…

Hello Elephant, Donkey.
How are you, you old wrinkly mammal… And you! you silly jackass—how’s life?

(chuckles and chortles exchanged; Donkey takes two large spoonfuls of sugar and Elephant says he prefers coffee anyway, so never mind.)

Okay gentlemen,
I’ve invited you here this afternoon to ask a few…tough questions.

First, what does Freedom and Democracy really mean to you?

Donkey, it seems that freedom to you, is leveling the playing field by reaching your hooves into pockets and forcing the “good” out of people.
But aren’t you, be forcing generosity, stealing the joy that humans naturally find in giving of themselves willingly? And don’t you trust the American people to take care of their neighbors friends?

And democracy to you, Elephant, seems to be ignoring the ensuing problems of the middle-lower class to watch as a Darwinism-type effect weeds out the weak and leaves only the strong. When you choose ignorance, are you not going against your moral traditions of helping those who are in need?

(Neither creature comments.)

Okay… Let’s touch on a less offensive issue…
Abortion.

So Donkey, you stand for women’s rights, correct?—the freedom for women to choose?
(Donkey shakes mane up and down vigorously, hee-hawing in agreement, a few recently printed bills slip out of his mane.)

What of the unborn child’s freedom to live? Is this not a violation of that human freedom and will to survive? … blobs of tissue? C’mon… you and I both know that’s how you started too, that’s how a lot of 40-year-old men still look, and the high-dollar abortion industry is either duping you or doing something shady to keep you quiet.

(silence)

And you, Elephant. You believe abrotion wrong. Morally abase, inhumane and wrong.
(Elephant rears giant back, standing on 2 hind legs and lands, violently shaking ground, …several old people nearby call into a local news station, report experiencing a mild earthquake.)

But what about funding programs for single mothers, funding educational programs for impoverished communities, standing up for not just the unborn babies, but the now living children?

(silence)

End scene.

In my own life, I’ve struggled with the hypocrisy within each political party; these blaring inconsistencies so often go unquestioned. With such little knowledge of what happens day to day on capitol hill, I know I’m not the right person to start a political revolution. But I hope to be part of a revolution of new thinking for those in our generation. From birth we’ve been fed the breast-milk of divisive intolerance which has led to our fully matured political division.
Before it becomes a national division, what can we do to re-unify?

If you could sit down to tea or coffee with Mr. Donkey or Senior Elephant, what would you ask?

If you’re a believer, how do we pull away from corrupted ties to political parties and truly represent our God?

Getting Schooled by the Spirit

On the way home from work tonight, I feel it.
Heaviness.

It’s easy enough to ignore it, distract myself with the radio or listening to a podcast during my forty minute commute.
But I am compelled to be silent–turn it all off and tune in.
The heaviness is still there.
I’m swallowed by it.
Thoughts of failure, rejection, worthlessness. I feel as surrounded spiritually as I do physically, cars on all sides, buildings, motion. But amidst my own prideful, self-centeredness, I hear the Spirit compelling me. Hushing my harried mind, He invites me
to be silent and learn.

Rejection or acceptance by others (humans) holds no weight on the scale of worth.
(Is 2:22)

I struggle with this. It’s not so much struggling with how people view me, how they react to me, but rather the joy or pain I find in them. I, and we, are created to be in relationship, right? Naturally we feel good when others accept us and love us well. I am struggling to believe God alone satisfies this part of humanity. He speaks again.

It’s true. I do.
Imagine a feast– all you can eat, more!–the banquet table of the lamb. When you eat from my bounty, when you feast with me, you are full and over-flowing. You are satisfied and need no more. (Is. 55)

Then what is this pleasure, this goodness that comes from those you’ve put in our lives?

Chewing Gum. It is good, flavorful, and created for your delight, but never to fill you, never to make you full.

** Words in italics represent the illumination that God provided for me, not what I would consider the authoritative word of God. :}

Present to His Presence

The universe operates as an orderly system, not by impersonal laws but by the creative voice of the immanent and universal Presence, the Logos.

Tonight on my run, I stopped.
This is not good, because, you see, I am trying to train for a half marathon.
Real runners don’t stop. They pee their own britches before they stop.
Wellp.

In my defense, I was captivated.
There is nothing quite so beautiful as a fall evening–no wind, just sun– reflected and rippling on the lake, infusing with into almost unnatural hues. The lake was so still too. A lone duck drifting securely on the surface, leaving behind a soft, misshapen V.

I had been trying to listen to God for the last three miles. Praying and then waiting, and then suddenly coming to a conscious realization that I was thinking about something else again. Ugh.

Father, I just ask for voice, for your presence.

Then I had a realization (thank you Jesus). I’ve been praying the wrong prayer entirely. I need to ask to be more present to Him. He’s the unchanging One, the always present.

Some truth came to mind. In Him all things live and move and have their being. My mind rested on each of these concepts, and I thought of the duck– how securely she lived, moved, and existed on and in the lake. How I, and all of creation, are upheld, hemmed in, and literally unable to remove ourselves from His presence.
… if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, your right hand shall uphold me.

Whether we skate the surface of His presence, nearly unaware, or dive in deep, it can not change His permanant presence. I hope this brings you great comfort, great joy, and great desire to be present to Him as He is to you.

Check these bible passages out, yo! Psalm 139 (the whole thing, but especially vs. 7-10) Acts 17: 27-28; Colossians 1:17

True Humanity

This is how we know we are in Him [God the Father] Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6

I read this and stopped.
You see, Jesus walked on water. This is a problem, because… I can’t.

Before I get too far into this, I just want to say–

1. This is me thinking on paper and
2. I don’t have it all figured out. (I don’t plan on that happening any time soon, either.)

Back to walking like Jesus.
So, I’m almost positive 1 John 2:6 is not meant to be taken quite that literally. In other translations this verse says “walk in the same manner” and stuff like that. So, it’s about life and our “walk” of life.

But it STILL rocks me. Because Jesus “walked” so radically–did some very very unconventional, darn near impossible things. I mean, the guy rose people from the dead. So even if I don’t take 1 John 3:6 literally, I need to take His life’s work seriously and put it up next to the arch of my own life.

This is the part where everyone’s Sunday school self begins to shout at them, but Jesus is God! And then we all feel better about ourselves because we’re not and so the pressure to live like the God-man suddenly melts away and we’re back to our average, everyday, walking-down-cement-side walks.

And yet, Jesus, (now this blows my mind) tells His buddies, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

There’s lots of argument about what this means. I don’t fully know. BUT, I do think, looking at the surrounding context, Jesus is making a point: I’m human, you’re human. You can do what I have done. It’s possible.

It’s possible.

How? Well– surrounding context–Go to the Father. That’s what Jesus did. I wish I knew the number of times he said “…The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:10)

It’s not really amazing that Jesus is God. He’s always been God.
What’s amazing is that Jesus is human. That he was fully human and yet lived a perfect, powerful life. How? Through the power of the Holy Spirit at the feet of the Father.

He was submissive, humble, and willing. He, as God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was humble and human. Yet, he did not let living in His human husk for thirty years stop Him from living a radical, divine life. He asked the Father, believed, and obeyed.

He became humanity not just to die for us as the perfect substitute, but to show us what true humanity is.

The Curse of Knowledge

Picture this: Two groups of people. One group, the “tappers” have to tap out a tune using only their knuckles on a hard surface. “Listeners” listen to the taps and try to decipher which song it is out of a well-known list of twenty-five.

Tappers predicted Listeners had about %50 chance of guessing their song. The results: 3 out of 120 listeners guessed the song right. *

Imagine the frustration of the tappers—the song was so obvious, so easy! Yes, for them it was. Yet they were playing the song in the heads! All the listeners heard were raps on a table that sounded like nothing more than Morris code.

It’s called the “curse of knowledge” and it’s not a new idea. But! I think it’s something we often overlook when it comes to sharing our beliefs. We’ve been served knowledge, fed ideologies and eaten our own share of information for years. It makes sense to us, and eventually we forget what it was like to have a lack of that knowledge. So when we spit it back out: green-gray mess.

I’m fond of a man named Jesus. He had a crazy-vast amount of knowledge and wisdom, yet it wasn’t His brilliance that made Him stand out. It was His ability to spread an idea** which set Him apart. He did it with story, simplicity, concrete examples, credibility (integrity) and element of surprise that shocked the world. Ironically, His approaches are now widely used as marketing techniques and by social media gurus.

My point is this: If we want to do it (be a good teacher, share our story, start–or even carry on a movement) we’ve got to do it right! We’ve got to make ourselves memorable, spreadable, understandable. We’ve got to do it like Jesus did!

* This is a real study conducted by a woman named Elizabeth Newton at Stanford. Super fascinating. Check it out!

* *People need a Savior to reconcile them to God, and He would die for them to be that Savior

Taking Communion

I’ve been thinking about communion.

How the word itself is like an invitation. When whispered one might hear, “Come—union,” and then God is waiting there to meet us.

I am thinking about the thin, tasteless cracker and the small plastic cup. How we down it like a shot, licking purpled lips and coughing quick confessions. And God is still waiting. Come—have communion with me.

And I wonder, how it became this— our tasting of God a stale, small cracker, our life-water a one ounce cup? “I will hide you in the crevice of rock,” God said to Moses, “And show you my glory.” Moses understood true communion with God—meeting with him, yes. But wanting to see his glory! And God, our Father, the faithful and good, said, I will show you only my back, for you cannot look upon my face. God knew what was good for this part-time oracle. He knows what’s good for us. He intimately knows our every need, and how to reveal Himself to each and every personality.

So often we pass around a stale and over-used understanding of an infinite God. Have we lost the desire and passion of our predecessors to truly know God’s glory for ourselves? I challenge myself (and anyone who’s stuck around to read this) to ask! To ask a good God to reveal his glory and tell him you’re ready (who’s ever truly ready?), but at least willing to know Him as He wants to be known. Then get ready to taste and see a God beautiful and good as He so desires; get ready to leave behind your pre-packaged understanding. Take communion.

Just Ask

164539_10150110302358000_624212999_7486946_2953585_n — photo by Amanda Sinnen

“…The Bible is as much a book about men and women questioning God as it is about their obeying God. We Christians in some misguided definition of faith have seemed fearful of acknowledging this” Katherine Paterson

Something I’ve recently been introduced to is the freedom to question. Okay, so it’s true that I’ve probably always done it. But I think I tried so often to keep it a secret, somehow scolding myself through the process.

As a result of this type of reaction to questions, much of Christianity focuses on the answers (something I’m sure I’ve been guilty of before!). But like Paterson said, God invites us to ask things of Him—it means we’re in true relationship with Him! Just as Jacob in the bible wrestled with the angel of the Lord for His blessing, I think God is waiting for us to come seeking Him for ours. Like any good Father, He could take us down at any moment, but He wants us to win!

Meg Writes Life

stories & essays on life and living with loss

Tag: Christianity