More To Learn

There may be more to learn, but is there a real need to know it?  At what point is there diminishing returns, with the effort to learn providing less worth knowing?

Learning to Let Go

To let go of parts of life is easier than letting go of others.  Big things are more readily set aside.  They are less important.  What seems more fragile we do not readily let go of, but it will not be free until we do.  In their freedom is our own as well, and it may be that our protecting was not always as protective as it seemed.  If sometimes it has been, at other times it may not have been.  Despite their vulnerability and our fear we will at some point have to trust they will be all right, but trust remains the harder part.

Only Cultural

What seems intolerable enough to be universally wrong may still be only cultural.

Laughter or Anger

The pizza store was crowded, too many customers and too few workers.  The choice was to laugh to be angry.  Those who laughed did not get indigestion.

Memories

Wonderful memories contain the sad realization that those times are over.

A Little Rage and Shouting

I have been too long at this to think raging and shouting are of value, but I would sometimes like to pretend.  I would once in awhile like to shout and stomp around, but I would feel foolish more than anything else.

Conversations With God

I propose such wonderful plans which you seem to ignore, which I find annoying; and the plans you offer, if you actually are offering them, are frightfully vague.  Being God does not require you to do otherwise, but I would like to review alternatives and you might want to consider lapses in your communication skills.

Must-Ness

The sign reads, "You Must Be Born Again."  The "mustness" of it is annoying.  It does away with even a semblance of freedom.  If it were instead to say, "You May (Might Want To, Could If You Like, Can Try To) Be Born Again," I would not take a different road to avoid it.

False Forgiveness

They make sure to notice the weakness of others.  It enables them to be so much more magnanimous in their understanding.  Standing in for God (who, they are sure, would want them to) they can also forgive with an enthusiasm to make him proud.

Overstating Adam's Sin

We overstate Adam's sin, whatever it might be, since there is nothing so great it can exceed God's goodness and willingness, and even eagerness, to forgive.  Understanding and care are the nature of God.  Being offended and vindictive are the lesser aspects of our own.

Entangled in Gratitude

If what Jesus offers is freely given wouldn't "thank you" suffice?  We can recognize without becoming entangled in the eternal gratitude that dominates the freedom of the gift.

Not So Eternal

It is odd how quickly things that seemed eternal are undone by the simplest acts.

Life Goes On

The process of life is eternal.  Specific lives begin and end.  Participation of individuals -- what they take from or offer -- is less significant, because the process goes on.  In one form or another it continues, and life is uncritical, making no judgment on how individual lives are lived.

Path to the Obvious

I would like to take a less tortuous path to the obvious, but it remains what I do.

Embrace the Center

We are, for much of life, in flight from the center of our being, aware of its emptiness and silence, fearing perhaps that it must also be a sad place, too sad to be so essential.  To avoid it we can surround ourselves with people and noises, with thoughts and discussions too profound to have importance.  Perhaps when we can embrace the center we will become free.  Maybe we will then be secure enough to be alone, satisfied to find the silence and at ease within ourselves.

Settling Into A Moment

Much of the time spent in pursuit of meaning is poorly utilized.  Better to settle into the moment than to try to eternalize it with a significance it need not have.

Centering Oneself

To base one's own life on the significance it has to others or to see it only in terms of someone else's definition is to build a false edifice.  It is an outer layer, built from outside, with no central core.  Ideally, the individual should be able to set aside what others might think is life's meaning or significance, or what anyone else considers essential to it.  He should be able to own the center of his own self and there make the decisions about his being.

Asking Too Much

There is probably a limitation to most things, to relationships too, and asking that they continually provide more is to overtax them and so they can offer less.

To see anything is to be aware also of its opposite

The Value We Assign

The value we assign our lives and the significance we assign the lives of others is subjective.  Drawing upon a number of sources (cultural, religious, familial) we assign a value, but it remains of value only so long as we maintain it as something of significance and provide reinforcement of the initial valuation.

Sense of Self

It may speak more of their sense of self than it does their opinion of Jesus that people from their town should not be successful.

Discourteous God

Being God ought not mean you can overlook the requirements of courtesy and remain unresponsive, as you do.  This arrangement where I talk and you say nothing does not work, at least from my perspective.  I do not know what you derive from it but I am tiring of it pretty quickly.

Not Wanting to Change

It is not that change is impossible, but he just does not want to make that "one more" adjustment, and there will always be one more to make, which is not so bad except that he says he has made enough.  There are always more and no matter how long life might be it would always be incomplete.  There would always be something else to do, or to consider; another thought, idea or option; something to be seen or experienced; and people we had not yet met.  He would rather stop than pursue them.  I am not sure that is a choice.

Helmets

People on bicycles are starting to wear helmets.  Those on motorcycles are taking them off.  In this there is a lesson, probably a silly one.

Back on Track

"Miracles happen" was what seemed the gospel message, and they occurred equally in the life of the official who asked the woman too timid to speak.  Neither event called for the altering of nature.  Instead they were the restoring of its expected course, and so the little girl lived, as little girls should, and the hemorrhage ended, as it should never have occurred.

God's Absence

My friend said he can see God's hand not only in looking back and bringing forward the recognition that time and distance provide, but also in the moment.  I thought there were times when I could say perhaps it was God who had provided opportunities and indicated options, but when looking at other aspects it was not so readily seen.  I am not at all sure what might be God's role in individual lives and in many there is scant indication that a benevolent presence is at work within or around them.

I wonder is my friend inclined to give God's name only to some of life's directions and might there have been few enough tragic turns to make him wonder might it be not God but chance that was taking a hand.  Perhaps it is when we look out of desperation for God's presence that we find it hardest to discern and maybe this is a question only those who have not seen it can answer.

Choosing Not to Change

Knowing what is at the center and the reason for our concern will not necessarily alter the choices we make, since we can prefer old ways to new, and no matter how true the discovery we can dismiss or decline incorporation of it.

What Ought To Be

At times, as there is less basis for it, I feel that much more confident, thinking perhaps (in spite of past experience) that what ought to be will be.

Pretending

There is a certain safety in pretending it is all alright, and maybe sometimes it will be.

Jesus's Life

How might it have differed if instead of the drama afforded by an untimely and tragic death, Jesus had been asked to live out a normal span of years.  Were there no martyr's death, would it have enhanced or diminished his role?

Saying No

He says "no" within himself and every so often he says it aloud.  The specific focus of the "no" is unclear.  It may well be to all of life or to only what is currently before him.  Whatever the source, he needs to shout away the prospect of its realization.  The "no" must drive away the intruding "yes," and maybe what is so offensive is the intrusion of hope.