Beautiful Synergy

I saw the most bizarre thing today at walmart. The lady in front of me and the cashier had the most warped and unnecessary dialog that I've heard from adults. The dialog sounded like the entire thing was acted out by children, who were pretending they were at a grocery store, saying what they thought adults would say at a cash register.

It went Something like this:

Lady: These paper towels are on sale for $1. I got them from the display over there, which said they were on sale for $1.
Guy (ringing up towels, sounding genuinely pleased): Yes, you're right. They are $1.
Lady: And these sponges are 73 cents each.
Guy (ringing up sponges and a scrunchie:) I will put the sponges in the bag with your scrunchie. That will be a good idea.
Lady (fumbling through her purse): I hope I have an extra dime if this goes ten cents over.

They proceeded to talk like this until he was done ringing things up. She then hands him a stack of coupons, and proceeds to tell him as he scans them, exactly what each coupon is for, down to the specifics of, "I get $1 discount, because I bought three of these." When they were done, they thanked each other for the pleasant conversation, both seeming genuinely pleased to have had it.

It was the most bizarre, weird, off-kilter synergy between people I've ever seen. I suppose it just goes to show, that God has sown beauty into all things. It's just not often enough that you see such interesting - yet crazy - intricacies of His work.

What it is.

I have a grudge.

The grudge is against the statement, "It is what it is." The phrase is total crap. It is not what it is. It is what you make of it, unless you have surrendered to it. "It is what it is," is the mantra of the slave.

DO NOT BE A SLAVE - not to a man, or a God, or anything in between!

Do what you must because you choose to, not because you're told it's the right thing to do, or because someone else forces you to. If you're not acting of your own volition, your actions are worthless.

Do not let fear rule your life. The line between those who find true success and mediocrity is the courage to continue on. The strong are not strong and the smart are not smart simply because that is the way things are. They are the ones who have taken the time to learn and grow. They had the time, dedication, and courage to proceed until they have achieved what they have.

Call to God, and He shall walk with you. He is not your dictator, he is your father. Follow him because you choose, not because your commanded. Do what you must because you know it's right, not because you are told. If you are wrong, he will understand. He is love. He knows you will fall. He will be there when you do.

The key is to not be afraid of failure, and to have patience. We will all fall, all suffer, and all be humiliated. Those who rush back up to find a safe spot to avoid falling again are the ones who will suffer the worst. Those who fall, and then look at the ground below them to learn why they have fallen, and embrace their own shortcomings and press on, those are the ones who succeed.

God Almighty (Part 2): In the Garden of Eden

We all (pretty much) know the story of the Garden of Eden: God creates man and woman, and thrusts them into paradise. He lets them do as they please, except for one rule: Do not eat from the Tree of Knowledge*A*. They abide by this rule for awhile, and then are tempted by the serpent to break it. They do so, and God casts them out of paradise to suffer and toil, to have their knowledge kill them*B*.

Simple Enough.

But God is all powerful, isn't He? Doesn't the bible also make Him out to be omnipresent and otherwise omniscient? This brings to mind several very pressing questions:

Why did God put the tree of the knowledge in the Garden of Eden? Why did God allow the serpent into the garden? How did the serpent have the knowledge of good and evil? Why did God make no effort to stop the serpent from tempting us? Once we had eaten of its fruit, if he truly loved us and wanted us to be happy, why did he not just simply strip us of the knowledge and remove the tree so we could remain in the garden?

Two possible answers spring to mind:

1: God's a Dick. (Not very likely, unless you're religious)

2: God wanted us to eat of the tree.

He put the tree in the garden because he knew we would eat of it. He allowed the serpent*C* into the garden to tempt us, because he knew we would take the bait. Why? Because the unexamined life is not worth living. Would you choose a life of ignorant bliss over knowledge? It's easy to say you would, but in the end, it's the ability to fall and learn from the fall that gives life value. Imagine day in and day out the same thing over and over again. What kind of life is that, with no struggle, and with no worthwhile triumph over it?

On top of that, God gave us one of the most worthwhile gifts: the ability to choose for ourselves. Once we consumed the fruit, we were given a *very* strange option: the ability to turn from loving God. Now that we have the knowledge, we can choose to throw Him away if we so choose. This makes our love of Him worthwhile. We are not mindless robots loving him because we are told, we love him because we choose to.

When you look at it from the perspective of God being all powerful, the Garden of Eden story stops being a story of God booting us to the curb because we were bad, and starts being a story of a creator's true love for His creation: To let us go, to let us suffer and grow from that suffering all on our own, and to bring joy to the Lord because when we love him, it's because we choose to, and that is meaningful, and not just blind, love.

---

Subplot *A*
The Knowledge of Good and Evil:
What defines a sin? In the simplest of terms, it's defiance of the will of God. To do other than what God would want you to, is a Sin. Eating of the fruit gave us knowledge that there was a way that was other than what God feels is best for us.

Subplot *B*
If you eat of the tree, you shall surely die:
God tells Adam and Eve that eating of the tree will cause them to die. What does this mean? It means once they eat of the tree, a meaningful existence can occur. They now have choices. They can progress in their life, which has truly begun, now that they have knowledge. Now they are not mindless shells. Now that it has a beginning, it will have an end too.

Subplot *C*
The Serpent in the Garden:
The serpent, Ha-Satan, or even the devil have one thing in common:
But what is it? More in part three!

God Almighty (Part 1?): The Death of Jesus

There are hundreds of pages of the teachings of Jesus that are at least as important, if not more important, than his crucifiction. This is the reson why it seems bizzare to me that in a house that is dedicated to him and his Father, instead of one of the many examples of love, peace, and forgivness that he preached, we symbolize his most painful and violent moment. How do you think Jesus feels about the fact that we symbolize him through his dead or dying body, in his last, painful moments?

How would you feel if it were you?

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Ray, Jesus died for our sins. It is in his death that we are forgiven, and we symbolize it to show everything Jesus sacrificed for us."

Now, that's a great sentiment, but I'm calling bullshit.

God is Almighty, all powerful, omnipotent. Even, for some reason, He were not, I'm going to take a risk here and say that a being powerful enough to create life doesn't need to have any life destroyed in order to forgive, least of all his own son's. He could simply just do so.

He's God after all, isn't He?

So what, then, would be God's reason for allowing Jesus to die in such a way? There had to be a reason, didn't there? The bible seems to make it clear that Jesus not only knew what was coming, but had the power to prevent it, but made no move to do so.

Why?

To show us that his word meant so much that he was willing to die for it. That it was a Word so true, so valid, that it was better to die for it, then spend the rest of his life running from authority (on the lamb?) to preach it. As such, the crucifiction of Christ is not the main statement of the New Testament, it is the exclamation point at the end, meant to say with emphasis, This is the way!

To oversimplify. it's God's way of letting us know that the simple fact that the things that are worth the most in life, the things truly worth having or being a part of, require sacrifice.

(It's also a much better ending than, "Jesus did the whole love and forgivness thing for the next 20 or so years, and then retired in Nevada, popping back up to do the occasional show in Vegas.")

Dynamics.

So, on Saturday at Transform, we attended a Taizé service at the chapel. To overgeneralize, Taizé is basically worship, but it's short songs of about three lines or so sung over and over, similar to a mantra.

Now, worship has always been hit or miss for me, where I either feel it or I don't, and the deciding factor for me usually is the words/melody, and whether I like them, or know them. Since Taizé is very simplistic, it was incredibly easy to pick up the words, but this was different. As always, being a such man of monstrous ego, my words started off as a toneless mumble. As I became comfortable with them, the actual melody started to form, and sharp consonants made their way in as well, turning the mumble into a song. As it repeated, my voice grew louder, and I felt empowered. I was amazed, because for the first time ever in worship, I could hear my voice start to cut over those around me. It was a really beautiful experience.

We did three songs: Cantate Domino, Da Pacem Cordium, and Nada te Turbe. The room was broken up into three sections, With one starting, and the next starting the first verse one verse after the first group, and the third group starting the first verse one verse after the second, and we all just repeated for awhile. It was easily one of the most empowering worship sessions I'd ever been to. Words simply fail to describe how much they fail to describe what I felt there.

Now special thanks goes to Lauren, who was merrily humming Da Pacem Cordium as she was packing up to head out on Sunday. If not for her, I'd have probably forgotten Taizé completley, or at least, long enough that I wouldn't be able to remember words to find these songs via Google search. I know it probably sounds strange to hear me say that I was so moved by Taizé, and then three sentences later hear me say I would have forgotten it, so I have to mention that this past weekend I've been moved by God so much that I'm sure that possibly life changing bits and pieces may be lost forever.

So when I got home I googled up the lyrics I'd found and began tracking down these songs, and I listened to them as I drove around. As I listened to Da Pacem Cordium, It seemed that the verses had three distinct "feels" to them:
(you can listen along here - look in the song clips section.)

Verse 1: Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium / Slow, plodding, droning, moving forward without purpouse.
Verse 2: Da Pacem / Somewhat sorrowful, sounding like the statement of a fact
Verse 3: Da Pacem / The vivacious realization and proclamation of that fact

And then it loops, creating this (almost) cycle that grows from the slow droning to the soulful end over and over again. It was weird, because I had no idea what these words meant, but as I listened to them, drawn to sing along with them, I could feel their story:

Verse 1: Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium / I feel alone, without God, I feel alone, without God.
Verse 2: Da Pacem / God is with us.
Verse 3: Da Pacem / God IS with us!

Shortly after I fabricated my own little story around the song, It occurred to me that it sounded like the recording, which was sung the same way we sang it, pretty much had one group always singing each of the verses. I decided to perform experiment to see if this was true. What followed next was a soul crushing 45 seconds of Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium, Da Pacem Cordium over and over again, until some urge deep inside me could take it no more, broke out completely against my will a joyous "Da Pacem." Then it did it again, louder, and then louder still. My head may have had no idea what "Da Pacem" means, but my heart sure loved it.

The more I thought about it, as I switched around the verses in all sorts of orders, the more I was floored by the dynamics of a three words handful of notes. The fact that something so small and simple can be so powerful, and then cam become more powerful when you alter its form, is nothing short of a fabulous testament to the immaculate beauty of God.

And that's just one of the three. The other two have Dynamics all their own. Check them out.

EDIT: It occurs to me that I didn't put the real translation of "Da Pacem Cordium" The translation is (roughly):
Da -Give/Bestow
Pacem -Peace/Harmony
Cordium -Heart/Soul
"Give peace to the soul"

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Side note:

I was listening to the Taizé songs through my ipod's "recently added" playlist. I figured it was the safest way to listen to the songs by themselves without creating a new playlist for them. I had forgotten completley that I'd also recently added Basil Poledouris' "Rock Shop" from the Robocop soundtrack to the ipod. Oddly enough it fit in somewhat well, which is ironic, as I'd recently stumbled upon a video of Robocop director Paul Verhoeven stating that Robocop was a version of the Jesus story.

Babel

Today I participated in a fascinating workshop lead by Melvin Bray and Russel Rathbun. The purpose of the exercise was to reinterpret/retell a story from the book of Genesis. We were handed sheets of paper that contained a verse from Genesis, along with Good questions to help us flesh out the story.
The story I would up with (luckily one I knew!) was the story of the Tower of Babel. At the end of the class, Melvin recorded us telling our stories (if we were willing to.) So, if not now, you should soon be able to find a copy of me reciting the following story at http://findourselves.kidcultivators.org I encourage you to go there, as I'm sure the other stories Melvin is acquiring will all be thought provoking. I know that the ones I heard recorded were all worth hearing.
So here's my translation of the Babel story. I love the way God forces upon me the juxtaposition that right after I rewrite part of the end of the Bible, I find myself rewriting part of the beginning.

Genesis 11:
Babel

Now humanity had taken it upon itself to build a tower unto heaven. This tower was to serve not only as a symbol of humanity's accomplishments, but also to be a gateway into heaven, so once again man could stand beside God. God saw the tower, and understood that humanity had the ability to achieve the impossible when they worked together, as they were truly the children of the Lord.
But the tower to heaven was not only a symbol of the humanity's ability, but also as a symbol of its arrogance, and its carelessness to undertake the construction of a tower so tall that surely the lives of people would be lost in its construction, or when it topples.
To punish humanity for its arrogance, and to protect us spiritually from entering heaven wrongfully through the wrong path, and to protect us physically from the fall from or of the tower, God took humanity and broke apart its language so that the feat could not be accomplished.
God knew the travesty of taking away humanity's ability to accomplish the extraordinary , but was brought solace in the knowledge that each new language would produce new cultures whose beauty would surpass that of any lifeless structure that man could create.

Revelation 2.18, King James Version

The Book of the

REVELATION

of Jesus Christ

ver 2.18 (Cause version one was crap.)

And so it came to pass, in the man's darkest time, that man had forsaken the forgivness of the LORD, and chose instead to forgive himself.

So man turned not only from the forgivness of God, but from His word in its entirety, casting aside the book that for generations had contained the unequivical truth of the LORD.

Such departures from scripture brought debaucheries untold, from proclamations that man had divined that the world was created millions of years before God had done so, to the abomination of man lying with man, and ultimatley to man's casting out of God and his forgivness.

Instead, man chose to forgive himself and be done with the rigors of a church, or the word of the LORD.

Still, in these dark times, were there the chosen few, those who had not surrendered to man's creation of science, or any other of man's childish whims.

And they, in their fastidiousness and their righteousness, gathered daily to pray for the lost souls of the world, for they saw that it was their solemn duty to do the most they could to save their fallen brethren.

They did so through prayer.

One day, after the time of nightly prayers had begun, as the last light of the sun was leaving the sky, there came of a soft knock at the door.

The leader of the faithful stood up and cried to God, "Alleighluia!" as theie years of endless prayer had finally turned profit and brought a sinner to their door to find redemption.

The faithfull all turned, their attention fixed on the oaken doors of their church. No one moved for fear of commit an offense and scaring away their repentant visitor.

Another knock cut through the silence of the church. When it too went unanswered, the oaken door creaked open, and a man walked through.

The faithful gasped, for no matter how plain a man might appear, no one can mistake the glord of the son of the LORD, Jesus Christ.

Already on their knees, the faithful bent lower, both awed and silenced of the return of the son of God.

After a time of silence, the leader of the faithful gathered up the courage to speak:

"Lord Jesus, Son of God, savior of man, you have returned to us! We have done as you have asked, and kept your word sacred, and our hearts pure for you."

Jesus smiled lovingly, and held out his right hand, with his palm downward, and his fingers extended out. He then rocked his hand back and forth from left to right, stating, "Eh....Kind of."

The faithful gasped in awe, as fear spread quicly across their lot. The crowd shuffled, restlessly. Finally, their leader spoke:

"What could you mean, O Lord. How have we not done as you have commanded?"

Jesus put his hand on the man's shoulder, which calmed not only the man, but his followers as well.

"It is not that I do not appreciate your devotion," Jesus spoke, "It is more based around the apparent fact that you have been a little misguided.

"For I came for you, and was crucified to do so, to bring you the word of the LORD

"And that word was unconditional love for all who asked, and to help your fellow man through his plight, it was unconditional forgivness for you, and a request to extend that forgivness and love that you have received to all men, and to not be blinded by doing so by any commandment, man or God made.

"Not only did you make rules that encouraged hatred and discrimination against your fellow brothers and sisters for not following your rules, which blinded you to their plight,"

"Not only have you done so, but you have used my image and my suffering as the banner for your hatred, sealing me as the keystone in using your religion to not only ignore the plight of your fellow brothers and sisters, but to scorn them, and use my visage to attempt to deny them the forgivness and love they are freely given.

"These are the very things I suffered to prevent."

The wail of an old woman broke the silence after Jesus had spoken. "Woe unto us," she cried, "us who have wronged you so. Can we ever be forgiven?"

"Without question," Jesus replied, extending his arms outward, as if to embrace the entire goup of the faithful.

"Just as I am the son of the LORD, so to are you his sons and daughters. His infinite love for us extends to all, and grants forgiveness."

Then, as if by the commandment of the Lord himself, the faithful burst into song, lauding not only the glory of God, but the mercy of Jesus.

When the worship had finished, the leader of the faithful turned and asked a question of Jesus:

"O, great and merciful Jesus, son of God, we have waited long for your return to the Earth,"

At that statement, Jesus bowed his head slightly, and cradled his forehead in the palm of his hand.*

"Return to the Earth?" Jesus asked, moving his hand slightly so as to make eye contact with the leader, "Where would you get such a notion? How is it possible for me to return when I've nevere left?"

"But LORD!" a cry arose from the faithful, "Where have you been?"

When Jesus began speaking, his voice was but a whisper, elevating in volume as he progressed:

"I have been in the darkest trenches of humanity. Time and again, i have made myself known to man in his moments of despair.

"I am the needed phone call from a friend that prevents what could have been the end of a precious life. I have been the twinkle in the eye of a newborn babe that prevents the departure of a would-be fleet footed father. I have been the song that stirs the memory of the fact that it has been too long since you last told your loved ones that they are indeed loved. i have been both the moment of ridiculousness that diffuses the intensity of anger that would be the end of a friendship, and the humility that ensures such anger is buried and forgotten.

"I have been the wind in the sails of those who might become lost at sea.

...Where have YOU been?"

*The New International Version of the Bible translates this verse as “Jesus Facepalmed.” making it the second shortest verse in the NIV printing of the bible!

Condemn the Condemner.

What if God is petty? What if he created us out of some selfish whim, for no purpouse other than to amuse and entertain Him? What if we meant so little to him that he would condemn us to suffering for eternity at the slightest offense?

Consider the implications of a God so hateful that if we do not follow his word to the letter, he would not be content with just destroying us, He would be as merciless as to prolong our existence for eternity, so that we may live in constant agony as we have disobeyed him.

Consider, also, those who cannot hear His word, or have a cultural or language barrier. They are all condemned to hell. What about those overseas, whose descendants would not hear about this God for thousands of years. More hell.

Would you follow such a God? Would you kneel down and love Him, as your creator? Could you love him legitamitley knowing his hatred, or complete disinterest, in those who cannot or do not follow Him, or would you just blindly love him for fear of being condemned?

I wouldn't love any God like that.
I'd declare war on Him.