Living Spirituality

Monday, January 21, 2019

Reflection for the Week - January 21

The significance of Picasso attempting to paint a painting without any trace of Picasso in it should give rise to thought. Could he do it? Was it possible for him to be so disengaged from the work that its meaning and interpretation would be entirely up to the viewer? Picasso, intriguingly, may have set out to accomplish this, but I would wager he failed. What he was attempting – a total distinction of the subject from the object – is a deceptive goal. Neutrality is not a plausible option for us, since intentionality is an unrelenting dimension of who we are. After all, being erased, unnoticed, excluded from participation in creativity would not be human. We are present, involved, and continually leaving traces of ourselves in time. This dynamic truth amounts to the gift of a perspective of the world and humanity that shows us the subject and the object are commissioned to interact with each other. Meaning and interpretation, therefore, cannot ever be reduced to the viewer, as the creator - painter always plays a role in what’s created - painted.

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Thursday Thoughts - January 17

Real relationships offer us dynamic possibilities to take part in a productive spiral towards mutuality—the narrative drama of a shared space to be and be with the other. Being enmeshed in the beauty of mutuality does not undermine individual freedom, but enhances it. For where responsible trust increases and unreliable suspicion diminishes within the theater of a redemptive life, we discover that a poetics of loving and being loved is a marvel. Sameness and separation, which both happen in a perpetual moment of embrace and release are located in, yet transcend words and actions, as we draw ever closer to who we were meant to be.

Monday, January 14, 2019

Reflection for the Week - January 14

As crucial as it is to endeavor to read the early Genesis stories through ancient eyes, it is all the more essential to consider current scientific informers when it comes to drawing theological conclusions about these texts today. Attempts to do theology without science are like trying to fly a kite without wind.

Friday, January 11, 2019

Ski de fond - Alpes Suisse

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Thursday Thoughts - January 10

Disease, suffering, and death are awful, though I’d wager they’re not awful because ‘it should not be this way,’ but rather because of the terrible personal, familial, and relational consequences that are unleashed in such circumstances. As far as I can tell the actual world has never been any different. That is, there was no golden age; an illusory perfection or a paradise way back when, which means there’s no ultimate standard to compare with this actual world. Thus, a better direction than turning to the past, or at least so it seems, is to envision an imaginary future possible world through which God will generate a thorough going transformation of the actual world, so it won’t any longer be as it always has been.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Living Spiritual Rhythms - January 9

The powerful and enticing character of death sometimes sweeps over me like pelting sheets of freezing rain. In this fast paced narrative of destruction I find myself out on the edge of time, relentlessly attempting to avoid the closure of the legendary gates of the garden, but to no avail. The direction now, however, is not to be found in an elusive past, but is rather to be connected to a future imagined life in the illumined city; and God will be there, somewhere.

Monday, January 7, 2019

Reflection for the Week - January 7

Pain and tragedy may beset us and it is helpful, though not always satisfactory, to know that we’re in the good company of many others, including the biblical characters Sarah, Job, Jeremiah, Mary, and Jesus. Their plight and its expression may offer us a direction. That is, we too may clamor for forms of speech that will give voice to our cry in the wilderness, as we long to be heard, responded to, released, and redeemed.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Living Spiritual Rhythms - January 2

Imagination is an essential of life and a pathway to the discovery of truth. Reason, sense observation, feeling, and our experience all suffer severe impoverishment without the recognition that imagination is the lynch pin that holds them together in a related, yet distinct manner. To be sure, God is a possibility that becomes much more of an accessible reality in and through imagination.

Excellent film!

The brilliant film by director Hirokazu Kore-eda is much better titled – Une Affaire de Famille, than Shoplifters. It’s a remarkable movie, in spite of this misleading English designation.

The Gospel of Mark

If you’re interested in the Jesus story recounted in Mark’s gospel, this little narrative commentary on the topic is almost free at less than $1.00 in pb.

Reading the Gospel of Mark is a fascinating adventure, with the destiny of humanity hanging in the balance. Where’s it all going? To read and hear this story is to enter a possible world; a world of subversive reversals of perspective, intrigue, mystery, and strange riddles, with Jesus as its central protagonist. Since the world of self-serving power, fame, and control is decaying, only the embrace of a possible world and all it offers, according to Mark, will lead to life after death.

https://www.amazon.com/Living-Marks-Story-Gregory-Laughery/dp/1938367359/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516031573&sr=1-2&keywords=laughery