The Point

Jesus answered, 

“I am the way and the truth and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through me. 

If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.

 From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

John 14:6-7 (NIV)

I tried reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Tried, I suppose, is the operative word. I think I'd had just enough physics to get myself in trouble in wrapping my mind around what he wrote. Ya know what I mean? Just enough to feel like I was on the verge of a great and powerful understanding.

But I finally stopped. Reading, I mean. The man really is genius; I'm not. At least, not in the same way. And I guess that's the point of this writing, this post. See, there was one concept he wrote about, he actually drew a picture of - and that was the possibility of multiple universes. Which I kind of like. What he drew, to explain the concept, was something that reminded me of two funnels, one placed on top of the other, mirroring each other, with the funnel parts touching. And actually, they weren't exactly funnels because instead of tubes, they ended in points. So the points of the funnels touched.

And at that intersection, he envisioned us. The funnels were like all of the possibilities of all of the universes in the future (picture the funnel on top here), and all of the possibilities of all of the universes from the past (picture the funnel on the bottom). We stand at the intersection. The actual, only possible point in the now. Present tense, emphasis on possible. He used some calculus stuff too - calling it the sum of histories. Calculus is that branch of math that calculates possibilities and makes them handle-able and quantifiable.

The world. See, I picture our world at the point of all of these possibilities, past and future. There is nothing we can do to change the past, that funnel is closed. But there are an infinite number of choices to the future. I want right choices to be made. In the nexus, in the now.

God. I picture our God into this model. He surrounds it, infuses it, because He is not limited to a single point. But his plan, his great, good plan guides us to a single point. That point between infinite futures and infinite pasts is Jesus. He is the Way. He is the Truth. He is the Life.

Linking with Five-Minute Friday

*** Five-Minute Friday is a free-write based on a prompt word. The time limit is five minutes which means: no editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation.
Just write.

Warp and Weft

You are the light of the world. 

A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. 

Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 

Matthew 5:14-15

I want my rose-colored, Pollyanna glasses to take away the pain.  I want to turn up the volume of praise music so I won't hear the heartache, or change the channel to entertain, or read a book and escape.   I want to move away from the crime, and the crowded, and the prejudice and live in an old-town community of barn-raising and pot-lucks and quilting bees.  But I can't seem to get away from this world.

Perhaps because this world is in me.  It is part of me.  It helps define me just as much as I define it.  Sometimes the differences overwhelm the similarities.  Sometimes the hurt outweighs the hope, and love is lost in a labyrinth of discontent.  Sometimes I feel like I'm at the bottom of a half-empty glass and can't find my way to half-full.  Sometimes we're on that forever treadmill, running and running away and discovering we haven't moved at all.

I can't run away from who I am, and neither can you.

Maybe it's not a question of running from, but a determination to run toward.

“Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike? 

May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion? 

Without all doubt, we may. 

Herein all the children of God may unite, 

notwithstanding these smaller differences.” 

― John Wesley

They say there needs to be a separation of church and state, and so prayer and mention of God has been taken out of our schools.  

They say there needs to be a separation of church and state, and so prayer and mention of God has been taken out of our military and our law enforcement.

They say there needs to be a separation of church and state, and so prayer and mention of God has been taken away from our legislators and our court systems.

But we are children of God; we believe in Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life and following him has changed us.  You, who are starting school, who have to follow rules and regulations about what to say and when to say it - it's ok.  You will speak volumes through your actions, because Christ is in you.  Remember him.  

You who patrol the every-day streets, who safeguard our freedoms at home and on foreign soil, you who are trained in battle and war-weary, you who work within a roiling soup of disrespect and discontent, who dedicate yourselves to serve and protect, you who have to make life-and-death decisions in split-second time on snapshots of information - You, too, are a child of God.  Christ is in you.  Remember him.  Pray.  Nothing can separate you from the love of God, and his love will guide you.  You will speak volumes through your actions.

You who sit in judgment - officially and unofficially.  You who write laws and guidelines and handbooks and directions.  You are a child of God.  He is with you when you ask.  You don't need to pray out loud.  You don't need to call attention to yourself.  You may carefully choose your words, but you have the gift of words and He will guide you. 

You are like a tapestry, intersecting threads across the loom of your life.  The warp threads, the foundation of the weaving, is Jesus.  He stabilizes you; He strengthens you; He is your constant.  The weft threads, woven in and around, the changing colors, the design - those are you.  They are your experiences, your beliefs, your knowledge, your emotions; they are the different sides of you.  Together, warp and weft,  you are strong and beautiful - a work of art.  A child of God.  

The warp cannot be separated from the tapestry.  You cannot be separated from your Savior.  And this world needs you to be strong and beautiful.  Different and unique.  A work of art.  A child of God.

Jesus said to love your enemies.  He said the world would not be fair.  He said treat others as you would like to be treated.  He said love God and love your neighbor.

This is our warp.  This is our foundation.  This is what we should be running toward.

Heavenly Father, 
In these days of Fergusons, and shooters at Army posts, and mountaintops in foreign places, 
in these days of separation of church and state, of violence and evil - 

help us to remember that we cannot be separated from you. 

Help us to embrace you in the stillness of listening and to find you in the heat of arguing.   

Help us, even in the hard stuff, the want-to-run-away-from stuff.  

Help us to glorify you through our words and our actions. 

Help us to do what Jesus taught us to do.

Heavenly Father, come.

Linking with #TellHisStory, ThreeWordWednesday

The World

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. 

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 

I John 4:7

"It's 6:30 - s'Labor Day - the office is closed."

My daughter stood on the other side of my desk - competing with the view through the window and the blog I was reading on my computer screen.  She was already dressed - pink shorts, tie-dyed t-shirt, pink hat - and she was determined to get my attention.

"Mom, i'sLabor Day - a holiday - the office is closed."

Yes, I squished the words together on purpose.  It's how Sierra talks, sometimes.  Putting the back half of some words with the front half of others.  It's how she hears them.  So Labor Day became s'Labor Day.  And it was as much the charm of that label as the announcement that the office was closed that made me shut my computer off and let my blog go.  Unfinished.  Which would normally bother my OCDness, but was actually fine.  Freeing.  Liberating.

Then she told me the breakfast bell had rung.  Where in the world did I GET this girl.  This child - no, young woman (as she reminds me on a regular basis...).  Yes, the one who years ago would have been left out in a wild place to die, or locked away for life in isolation, who would not have been exposed to education or social situations, who would not have received the medical care she needed - because she was different.  Not only different, but in a medieval way of thinking, less able to be, to do, to live.  My daughter.  Who does NOT suffer from Down Syndrome, but pushes it's boundaries.  Every. Single. Day.

This is the girl who hears of a disaster on the news, a missing person, loss of jobs, wildfires, weather and immediately announces that she will pray for them.  Not only pray for them, if names were mentioned - she will pray for them by name.  Because she cares about people.  Even strangers.  This is a girl who analyzes peoples' names, finds the common letters in her own - and creates relationship - she's my sister, there is i and a.... he's my brother, starts with s....  This is the girl who has started asking every nurse and aid she encounters their name - and then introduces herself with a handshake.  This is the girl who looked at me this weekend and added a new phrase to her litany about being a leader for the high school youth group.  "I am a leader this year.  Are you amazed?"

How did she know!  Yes, I am amazed.

And yet, occasionally, the world steps in and gives me a huge reality check.  It was Mission Sunday last weekend, and our entire church had multiple programs for the congregation to take part in.  Due to a minor miscommunication with her Sunday School, my daughter and I showed up to help with a mission group that wasn't prepared for us.  It was difficult to see the judgement and panic in the eyes of the group when they saw Sierra.  "We're full", they said.  "There just isn't room."  They said.  "No one told us you were coming."  They said.

"It's ok."  I smiled through the start of tears.  "We'll find another group."

So we made our way to the lobby where several activities were going on.  It looked like several groups were busy with their assignments.  One of the church leaders came up to us; we were standing, assessing the situation, deciding where we could help.  He looked at Sierra first, smiling, then at me.

"We've got it all taken care of, here," he said.  "There just isn't any more work to do."  He said.  "No one told us you were coming."  He said.

I am sure that no one intended to marginalize my daughter and me.  I know most of these people and they love my daughter, and they love one another, and they had come to church early to serve,  to love the world through their missions.   But the judgement, the marginalization - it happens.

Here are some suggestions:

• When someone asks to be put to work, find something for them - even Sierra can fold and count sets of programs, or stuff envelopes.  She ended up putting bookmarks into pews - working together with a partner to ensure there were five in each slot... Jobs may take a little more explanation and a couple of examples, but the reward is priceless.

• Always start with high expectations, then adjust and break things down.  It's like teaching someone to fish or giving them a fish.  The teaching is better in the long run - for everyone. 

• Don't ever assume you know someone's capabilities by looking at them.  They can and will surprise you if you use more than your eyes in judgement. 

Jesus said the world will happen - it is the nature of the world.  Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come... Matthew 18:7   The world is kind of our first nature.  So we need to be aware of when the world limits our vision; we need to learn again how to see without labels; we need to humble ourselves to serve.  God gave us a multitude of gifts, each different, each valuable.  Use them.  Appreciate them.  Find joy in them.

Father, thank you for Sierra!  Thank you for our church.  Help us all to help one another live as you would have us live.  

Linking with Women Helping Women

Your Beauty in Our World

For what they were not told, they will see,

and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Isaiah 52:15

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  I had to look it up.  Apparently it first appeared in the third century, BC, in Greek.  Then made its way through literature in various forms, until it showed up as a line in Molly Brown, a book written in 1878, by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford.  Fascinating?  Probably not for everyone.  But I love words.  I like the way they're crafted.   I even like to pull them apart - find their pieces - those little morphemes of meaning - that knit together into the thing, the description, the action.  I like the precision of grammar - I like the ambiguity.  I am fascinated by language, verbal and non-verbal communication - written communication.  Taking an idea, an emotion, a story, that's hidden inside the head or heart and making it accessible to the world.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  True.  

We teach it to our kids in school.  Schema.  Background knowledge and experience.  You have to bring your schema to bear in reading for comprehension.  There has to be an anchor to hook new information to - to hold when swimming in new ideas and new information.  There has to be context to bump up understanding.  It works across the board - in all subjects.  Use what you know to learn what you need to know.  Inference - combine the knowledge in your head with the knowledge you are accessing.  You wouldn't think we'd need to teach it - no, it's more like we need to make students aware that they are using it - schema - background knowledge - based on experience and prior learning.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  Yes.

Surrounded everyday by images and videos.  On the television.  In magazines.  My fifth-graders knew about WWII because of a video game.  I don't even know which one - google video game WWII and you get a list that scrolls off the computer screen.  For awhile.  Clothing manufacturers strive to have multi-national models.  Shiny new cars rev around the mudflats; big trucks climb mountains and ford rivers; successful clydesdales form everlasting friendships with long-lost trainers and encourage their up-and-coming offspring.  Cyber players in chrome armor jump and dance at the corners of our football broadcasts - game warriors of the future.  Entire movies are created with computer-generated graphics.  We are inundated by digital reality - idealistic reality.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  As is truth.  And faith.  And belief.

There's a story about a little girl in Sunday school, drawing a picture of God.  Her Sunday school teacher points out that she can't draw a picture of God.  No one has ever seen God.  No one knows what God looks like.  The little girl looks up at her teacher, then down at her drawing, then back up and replies in a voice-of-little-girl-wisdom,  "Well, they'll know in a minute."

In high school, I was fortunate to have had an English teacher who was transparently passionate about literature and writing.  His enthusiasm infected many of my peers, me included.  He left our school, right after my graduation, to teach at a Christian College, and to write.  Prolifically.  Christian stories - short and long.  I still follow his blog.  Several years ago, I rediscovered him.  I googled him and found a list of essays and titles.  One of his essays resonated with me.  How, he asks, can a Christian writer overcome the issue of characters and situations that aren't necessarily Christian.  Believable characters have flaws, some are truly evil.  Life situations revolve around choices - the road less traveled versus the way of the world.  A writer needs to understand - needs to have schema - to access these characters, to create these situations.  How can they also be Christian?  Living in the world - writing of the world.

I just finished reading an article about Christian art.  You can read it here.  There are several phrases that stick in my head.  Art points us toward eternity; it re-imagines and re-expresses the beauty of God, lifting our sights and changing our vision of reality.  One artist, Ruth Naomi Floyd, speaks of facing the darkness while still believing in the light - like my English professor - sensing God's silence and sorrow.  Another artist, Makoto Fujimura, in discussing art as evangelism, goes into the gospel itself:  The gospel is life. The gospel is about the Creator God, who is an artist, who is trying to communicate. And his art is the church. We are the artwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works. If we don't realize that fully, then the gospel itself is truncated and art itself suffers.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  And understanding.  And illumination.  Our eyes, our vision, the sum total of our lifetime of experience and information.  In an age of information.  Being Christian is a responsibility.  Who we are by what we do.  In art, in words and in actions.  We are Christ's representatives.  In second Corinthians, Paul writes about this very thing.  The world we live in cannot define who we are, cannot define our perception of beauty.  Instead, we must access divine power, divine strength and wisdom, to fight - right against wrong - light against darkness - evil against good.  Without recognizing and acknowledging the things of this world, how can we ever defeat them?  To find the beauty.  To find God.

Heavenly Father, thank you for artists and writers, actors and dancers who sometimes lead us into the darkness of this world - then through your divine strength and help, guide us back to your light.  Thank you for the gospel of art.  Thank you for the gift of these brave men and women who express our doubts and our failings - who show us hope and faith.  Hold them close and keep them safe within Your hand, beneath the wings of Your angels.  Help us all to understand the things that have influenced our eyes and ears, things that have molded our comprehension; help us to make sense of bombarding information.  Help us to find Your beauty in our world.