kind over matter: every day is sacred

When you arise in the morning,

think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive -

to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

-

Marcus Aurelius

via kind over matter: every day is sacred.

Looking up

A couple of weeks ago, I recommended Dr. Cynthia Kunsman’s youtube videos about patriocentricity. She’s back on Karen’s podcast at Thatmom talking about Spiritual Abuse. I highly, highly recommend this series of podcasts. It certainly explained a lot to me as to why I was so susceptible to the legalistic teaching that circle within the homeschooling community even though it wasn’t coming from the church I attended.

There was thing I found especially fascinating. I took the liberty of transcribing minutes 10 – 15 and here Cindy Kunsman is speaking about beta and alpha brain waves:

There is another another brain pattern that comes into play here. There are actually four major ones but the other one of interest in this area is the alpha state. It’s a little bit slower of a brain wave pattern; the oscillations are little slower and it’s associated with relaxed alertness and awareness. You are very alert but your body is very relaxed. It’s a very pleasant state. This is the state children are in until they turn about ten years old or so. They’re always in an alpha state. If you think about it that way you are actually as a parent functioning as the front part of their brain until theirs kicks in. That’s why classical education works so well. Because those children will remember and absorb everything that you give them without critically evaluating it. So you can just throw all kinds of information at them for them to absorb. Because they aren’t going to process it and say, “Well, is this right?” “Do I believe this” “what exactly does this mean in terms of whatever?” because this is just the brain wave state they are in.

Adults move in and out of this state of consciousness all day long as they should do. It’s a state of healthy relaxation and contemplation and it’s what your brain generates when you’re in that kind of state of consciousness. But you’re very highly suggestible when you’re in an alpha state as opposed to the beta state when you’re thinking. Music, breathing patterns, colors, movement, language and all sorts of other factors can move us in and out of this alpha state. Religious settings promote and take advantage of this through music and things like prayer. Another way of going into an alpha state is through deep breathing. Eye movement is another very powerful one.

it is very interesting and very important to note that when a person looks up at a 30 degree angle, their mind will automatically shift into an alpha state and you’ll get very relaxed so that alpha brain waves are a physiological response to this type of eye movement. Now I’m going to really blow your mind. Think of a lecture hall and a film and an academic lecture hall. The instructor’s down at the bottom of the room and the students are seated sort of staircased above the lecturer. What’s the goal in the classroom? Critical thought. beta waves. thinking. Now think of most traditional church settings, balconies not included. There’s a raised platform where the speaker stands and the seated congregation does what? they look up about thirty degrees. So the layout of most churches automatically predisposes a person to physiologically go into an alpha state of consciousness where they’re going to be highly suggestible and they’re likely not apt to critically evaluate what the speakers saying. Which can be good if the teacher is good. Praise God if they actually ask you to follow along in your bible cause that’s going to stimluate you like the students in that academic lecture hall would be stimulated to use your reasoning abilities and hopefully you’ll have more of a balanced state. Think about it, if the speaker walks around on the platform consider that you may be watching a human pendulum much like the stereotypical hypnotists used to use. In one way, you oudl say that spiritual abusers like to keep people in a alpha state by expressing or perhaps even punishing reasoning or critical thought by keeping their followers in that childlike state of consciousness.

I am nearly jumping out of my seat! Think about especially our contemporary church settings and services … there is no following along in the Bible or the hymnbook or the bulletin … it is all up on the screens. I just wondering if the lamenting that we don’t have critical thinking mature Christian may have something to do with the layout of our buildings and services and how it is physiologically causing us to tune out. It’s interesting, don’t you think?

But then I grew up in churches where critical thinking was not encouraged. Just believe, follow the spirit, have faith. Hey, now I am the one who interprets mainly by feeling but I like to think through things as well. In fact, my goal is to keep that all in balance.

Which just brings me to something I heard in a church today, while I was looking up at the screen but it didn’t prevent me from examining the teaching. (maybe I am just more aware of engaging my mind or maybe as my husband said, all that looking down while I am drawing or painting has stimulated my thinking side). Here’s the verse:

I Thessalonions 5:23

23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, the premise was laid out that the ideal way was that with the soul being defined as the mind, will and emotions, the spirit controlled the mind which controlled the body and that is what would keep us blameless before the Lord. Those three things were given as a hierarchy of sorts with the spirit playing the eminent role. I can’t say that I agree with the conclusions. First, let me add the next verse which I believe shouldn’t have been left out:

I Thessalonions 5:23

23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

Now, I will not claim to have researched this thoroughly yet and haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking it through, praying about it, talking with anyone else about the meaning of this passage. But just from the cursory reading, I don’t think this is about my spirit controlling my mind controlling my body. This is about the work that God will do, the God of peace, who is faithful. There isn’t a hierarchy of the elements of who I am and the work I must do. It is God who will guard me, keep me blameless.

From Bible.org

Regardless of one’s view of this passage, clearly, the emphasis is on the completeness of the sanctification that God is committed to promoting in the believer in all aspects of his being.

The word “blameless,” amemptos, meaning “free from blame,” is an adverb and modifies the verb “kept.” “Kept” is tereo, which means (1) “keep, guard, watch over,” and (2) “keep, hold, preserve someone.” In this last sense, it has the following uses: (a) “keep for a definite purpose or suitable time” (1 Pet. 1:4; 2 Pet. 2:4), and (b) “keep unharmed, protected, preserved with an emphasis on the condition that is to be kept unharmed or sound” (1 Cor. 7:37; 1 Tim. 6:14; 1 Tim. 5:22; 1 Thess. 5:23).¹⁷³ What is kept is the “whole spirit, soul, and body,” the complete person. Though not expressed, God is the one doing the keeping. This expresses the Apostle’s dependence on the Lord to accomplish this keeping work in believers.

I had so many years of guilt for not doing enough to keep myself blameless, the call was always to work harder, to do more. When I finally gave up in exhaustion and desperation, I feel completely into a state of grace. Jesus was victorious in His resurrection and because of that I am blameless. It is the knowledge of how God sees me that compels me to be pure before God. I want to live my life in alignment to what God already sees.

It’s late. I need to be done thinking for tonight. Maybe a few minutes of laying in bed, looking up at a thirty degree angle at my television will take me to a state of complete relaxation and ready for sleep. LOL!

~~ Grace and Peace ~~

Life Matters

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Heath Ledger

The best comments I have read about the death of Heath Ledger are by Jamie Tworkowski at To Write Love on Her Arms. By the way, if you are not familiar with his organization, spend some time over there reading and support, what I believe is, one of the most beautiful and needed ministries in our culture.

Why is it that tears welled up when I heard the news of his death? I didn’t know him and had really only seen two or three of his movies. My first thoughts were not that we had lost an actor but that a mother had lost a son, a daughter had lost a father, friends had lost a friend. I ached for those left behind and for those who would die similar deaths, whether purposeful or accidental; those the six 0′clock news wouldn’t report.

The first post about Heath Ledger that came through my Googlereader the next morning was cynical at best and harshly judgemental at worse. The most troublesome statement the author made was that this is a storyline he finds more boring than tragic. That makes me sad. My simple thought is that Life Matters and when a life ends, there are those left behind mourning. May we never be bored with mourning with those who are mourning.

May we take a moment to remember that Life Matters. Our lives matter and may we pray that God will give us opportunities to impress that truth into the hearts of those around us.

Grace and Peace.

Related Tags: Heath Ledger, To Write Love on Her Arms

Dear Mr. President

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Mr. President, Pink

too much emotion this morning … commentary forthcoming.

Related Tags: Mr. President, Pink

The singer makes me think

Check out this interview with Derek Webb at Infuze.

Here’s a selection of quotes:

So much of this is me just chasing my own tail, figuring out what concerns me individually and then using the gifts that I have and the resources that I have to engage those concerns professionally. How do I use the tools that I have lyrically and musically or melodically in order to agitate people toward engaging issues that I think are important to engage?

All I know is that the majority of Christian art, or that which is categorized as Christian art, only deals in the most spiritual 2% of life. I don’t know why that is. It’s a mystery to me – us talking only about transcendent moments of worship and the afterlife. It’s no wonder most people view Christianity as irrelevant to modern life. If you look at what is being expressed about the Christian worldview by way of its art, then it is irrelevant to modern life.

So I’m happy with low to moderate success and low to moderate record sales. I hope I never sell more than I sell right now. I’m well off the radar. I get to do what I want exactly the way that I want.

I think our culture needs a lot of different types of art and a lot of different artists speaking to a lot of different things in different ways. I’m cool with people not liking my music. My music is not for everybody. I’m a niche within a niche within a niche and I’m happy doing that.

Here’s the bottom line, and this is what the church constantly forgets, is that we’re diverse members of one body. Hard as it is for even me to remember, we are all called into different types of work. It’s completely natural and normal and fine for all of us to totally disagree in terms of how to do the work that’s set before us. It’s okay for us to reach different conclusions on how to do the work, what that work looks like, and the way we do it. What it amounts to is me coming in through the window and someone else through the door, but we’re building the same kingdom. We’re all working toward the same ultimate goals of bringing the kingdom to bear, the being made right of all things. That’s really ultimately the work we are all engaged in.

The problem comes when we try to convince one another that the way that we do it is the more correct or more spiritual way of doing it. We’re members of a diverse body. Every word in that sentence is important. So I’m satisfied to be just a cog in the wheel in the kingdom building machine. I’m okay with others doing it in different ways that I don’t necessarily understand. I’m not gifted to do it their way, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to do it their way. But I am not going to frame it that we all have to be doing the same thing, living in the same part of town, engaged in the same things. That’s when we run into problems.

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Immersed in the Mystery,

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Related Tags: Derek Webb, Infuze Magazine

Community, community, community

Cell groups, small groups and now life groups. Dinner on the ground, pot lock suppers, connection dinners. Encounters, retreats, fellowships.

All the various ways of trying to do community, trying to make community, trying to create community. I have been saying that it doesn’t work but I couldn’t quite figure out what the problem was. Finally, I identified that the times that we have experienced true community, really lived life authentically with people, were in the midst of working toward a common goal. It was after having shed blood, sweat and tears while accomplishing work toward a vision, something bigger than ourselves.

Honestly, I haven’t had this happen very often in church. All the work seems to have been done. We are mere participants. But churches keep talking about creating community, being community. I haven’t been able to really communicate my thoughts about this issue.

Then today, this:

. . . we are making a mistake when we focus on community and present community as something we are. In his mind (and I happen to agree with him), we are putting the cart before the horse. Community is not something to aim for; it is something that happens as a byproduct. Says he: “I always felt that friendship, community and personal development are the kinds of things that never happen when you aim for them to happen, like aiming for happiness. They are the byproducts of risk and struggle.”

I’m afraid that my friend is pointing out a rather silly mistake we all have made. We thought that we could hang out a shingle and sell ourselves as communities, when in fact we had no idea how to be communities. Community, says my friend, is what you have on the other side of crises, when you have weathered the storms together. Before that, all you have is “a nice togetherness.”

You cannot organize community. You only get it by weathering the storms, going through the fire, standing tall when all fall away, coming to your friend’s defense when no one else will, and being the last ones left when the fight is over.

AMEN!

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Immersed in the Mystery,
Cynthia

Doing it best?

“Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do the best.”
– Marva Collins

It is late, I am tired and my head is pounding so I don’t know that I will write all that this quote stirs up in me right now. Tomorrow will bring another visitation but for now, I am just struck with what I could do the best if I took the time to do it the most … draw, paint, write, read, love, serve.

Interestingly, this can work in the opposite. If I spend most of my time complaining, whining, nurturing a negative attitude, then what will I do the best? I will be the best complainer, the best whiner, have the best negative attitude. Yuck! Not at all what I want for my life.

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Immersed in the Mystery,
Cynthia

Related Tags: marva collins