Æther
The substance through which light travels.
Vulnerability
050 days
by Tanner
in Reflection
I’ve been on a journey the last few months that really started for me at an event called Men at the Cross (crossmg.org/matc.php) It’s been a predominant theme in a lot of my thoughts and interactions with people since then, and today a friend of mine posted a TED talk on facebook that just reinforces it all.
I’ve always been taught that true community only comes when people are open with one another. Light-hearted expressions like “nudity builds community” have been tossed out and hopes of “authentic community” have been expressed by participants of various groups in which I’ve been a part. But it wasn’t until the weekend at Men at the Cross where I really experienced how quickly and easily true community can be created when people are given a safe place where they can have the courage to be vulnerable.
The answer to this issue that Brown comes up with is for people to “believe” that they are worthy of love and connection. But she doesn’t really give any concrete evidence about why we should believe that. Naturalism doesn’t give any evidence for it, in fact it gives just the opposite: that eventually those people who fail to have this mentality actually aren’t worthy of it and will just get bred out of existence. But religion does give evidence for why we humans are worthy of love, and I believe Jesus gave the most succinct evidence when he said, For God so loved the world that He gave is only son. We are worthy of love because God loves us.
In fact, no other worldview fits the reality that we see around us as well as does the one that says we are all broken individuals who cannot experiencing the abundant life we were meant for until we recognize that we are worthy of it simply because God loves us.
The Principle of the Thing
0216 days
by Tanner
in Reflection
Listening To…
A Role is a Role…
Roles play a huge part in the way that I interact with other people. I see every relationship I have in terms of the respective role that I play in that relationship. With my manager, I am the employee interacting with the boss. With my sister, I am the big brother. With my parents, I am the son and the eldest child.
And with each role, there is an nebulous set of rules that guide how I act in each of those relationships. As an employee, I do my best to do everything that my boss asks me to do, taking orders with a smile and providing feedback when asked for it. As a big brother I am supposed to be supportive and protective of my sister. I’m not at all theatrical unless I’m in the role of an actor.
It is what allows me to be totally mellow and go-with-the flow when I’m not in charge, and completely focused and driven when put into a leadership role. I am equally at ease being the center of attention on a theater stage and completely anonymous at a party. But all of these norms that allow me to thrive in a variety of situations is a double edged sword.
A Toll is a Toll…
These roles are how I have learned to function socially and any time those roles are mixed or confused, I don’t know how to respond. I’m out of the house now and all of a sudden my parents are also people who want me as a friend. There is the possibility that girls who I have been friends with for a while could become romantic interests. I feel like these things are a normal part of human experience, but for me, the lines don’t blur easily and the “rules of engagement” that development in my interactions hold me back from behaviors that don’t fit the roles I play in my relationships.
If it Don’t Take no Toll, Then I Don’t Have no Role…
I usually don’t make a post like this unless I have some idea-ribbon to tie it all together and make a neat little package, but this is something I’ve grown up with and some insightful comment isn’t going to suddenly change my perspective. And while it can cause me to feel trapped or alone at times, it is the only framework I have for interacting with people. But I guess knowing is half the battle and by recognizing occasions when my behavior norms are holding me back from something I can take chances to step out of those norms.
Poverty
0234 days
There’s a power in poverty that breaks principalities;
that brings the authorities down to their knees.
There’s a brewing frustration and ageless temptation
to fight for control by some manipulation. But the God of the Kingdoms and God of the Nations,
the God of Creation sends this revelation
to the homeless and penniless: Jesus, the Son! The Poor will inherit the Kingdom to Come! Where will we turn when our world falls apart
and all of the treasures we’ve stored in our barns
can’t buy the Kingdom of God? And who will we praise when we’ve praised all our lives men who build kingdoms and men who build fame
when Heaven does not know their names? And what will we fear when all that remains
is God on the throne with a child in His arms
And love in His eyes,
and the sound of His heartcries?
that brings the authorities down to their knees.
There’s a brewing frustration and ageless temptation
to fight for control by some manipulation. But the God of the Kingdoms and God of the Nations,
the God of Creation sends this revelation
to the homeless and penniless: Jesus, the Son! The Poor will inherit the Kingdom to Come! Where will we turn when our world falls apart
and all of the treasures we’ve stored in our barns
can’t buy the Kingdom of God? And who will we praise when we’ve praised all our lives men who build kingdoms and men who build fame
when Heaven does not know their names? And what will we fear when all that remains
is God on the throne with a child in His arms
And love in His eyes,
and the sound of His heartcries?
I’ve been re-re-reading Crazy Love and Chan mentions a question that one of his professors in college would ask: “What are you doing today that requires faith?” That question resonated with me because honestly, there isn’t anything going on in my life right now that requires me to have faith. I have a steady income, good health insurance, a grocery store down the street, and the biggest anxiety I face is if it’s going to be good hiking weather this weekend.
I live in a bubble where there isn’t room for faith. Faith is risky and it’s so much easier to settle into security, comfort, and status quo. We congratulate ourselves for not being like those silly Israelites who went around worshipping wood and gold statues immediately after witnessing God’s work in their midst, but how quickly do we lay our offerings at the feet of Retirement Plan and worship Flat Panel Screen?
What would it look like for an American Christian to truly live in a way that required faith? My mind goes first to money because we are filthy, stinking rich, but there are certainly other things that require faith of us. It takes faith to step into situations where you could be in trouble if God doesn’t come through. That could mean standing for justice at my job or speaking truth that might cause me to lose relationships. But mostly it’s about money, because that is what we have faith in in this country.
The Blind Men and The Elephant
0304 days
by Tanner
in Reflection
The Blind Men and The Elephant is a poem adapted from a very old Indian story by John Godfrey Saxe about a group of blind men who stumble across an elephant. They go about trying to describe what an elephant is by examining it with their hands, each one touching a different part and making vastly different claims about what it is. One grabs the tail and says it’s like a rope. One touches a leg and says it’s a tree. Another feels it’s tusk and proclaims it to be like a spear. The obvious point of the story being that while each was correct in describing one aspect of the elephant, none were correct in that the elephant, taken as a whole is not like anything they put forth. It hints at the relativity and inexpressibility of truth.
The Subtle, Reasoned Harmony
Often this story is used by those who would say that all religions and worldviews are basically saying the same thing. That the aspects where they differ are simply the result of each religion taking hold of a different aspect of the same god and making it central. On the surface, this sounds really good. How better to bring the world religions into harmony than to help them to understand that they are all speaking about the same thing seen from different perspectives?
There is a flaw in this proposal that is just as apparent in the story and it is that in order for the story to make any sense it must be told from the perspective of one who can see. Once we realize the narrator is actually an actor in this drama, the moral has a completely different tone. Instead of being a humble statement of, “Who can know with all these different views?”, the narrator (and we by extension) look down on these blind men and say, “Actually, we have the absolute truth and all of you are only seeing aspects of it.”
The Religion of Modern Man
And now we see the modern man, like the condescending narrator, in order to unify the religions of man, must actually put forth that he has been able to grasp what all others have missed and that his religion has claim to absolute truth. If he does not, his views must be evaluated on exactly the same plane as the religions he is purporting to unite. His claims mask themselves as tolerance, saying that your religion and mine are simply seeing different aspects of the same thing, but it is extremely disrespectful to look at two people well versed in differing religions and essentially say to them, “Actually, I know both of your religions better than you do and neither of you are seeing the whole picture like I am.”
If we truly want tolerance, it must be in the respect found when a person of one worldview can meet a person of another worldview with the understanding that neither comes to their beliefs flippantly. To ignore that there are irreconcilable differences in major world religions is to treat them with the same patronising manner that this modern unity theory purports to do away with.