During this week, there are many people reflecting about 2013, about their lives as we are about to turn the page to a new year. God has been doing amazing things in my life lately and despite all he had done, I have that feeling that he hasn't even warmed up yet. 2013 highlights were good but not many per say. The most stand-out ones was when OakTara confirmed at the beginning of this year that they would accept my books, then at the end of the year, they offered me a contract, not just for two books as I initially expected to have, but three. In the mean time I have continued to substitute for the Socorro ISD here in El Paso as I continue to search for a full-time teaching job. However, I have known that in the last few years, God has been putting together some big plans for me. I've had glimpses of it and what it could be with all I have been involved with and it looks like God is starting to put it all together and the ride is about to start.
So, I'll start with my books. I am writing a trilogy that depicts the battles we face spiritually through a fantasy setting. My first book is a re-release of the book I had out three years ago but did not have the final editing job I was hoping for, neither did it have the final cover art I was hoping for. But that is one of the dangers of going self-publishing relatively blind. Since then I have attended the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference twice and while there the first time, I met Ramona Tucker of OakTara Publishing. She expressed a very strong interest in my books when I met her there and as a result, I now have a contract for a trilogy. My first two books are in OakTara's hands. They are working on the type-setting (transferring it from Microsoft Word to the book format) and the cover art. I will be posting the back of the book summary when we get close to setting a release date and/or when the cover design is finalized. The second book will wait until we have a realistic time frame for finishing the third so that we can pace the releasing of the three books evenly. We don't want to release books 1 and 2 too close to each other if book 3 is a ways out. But I am working on it. Slower than preferred, but slower with fewer re-writes is better than faster and more re-writes. I will be announcing the release and info on where you can find it as soon as that information comes in.
There is more. I have been invited to the Creation Truth Foundation in Oklahoma City for their "Cadre" program. This is a rare invitation-only program that is designed to teach Biblical Foundations and Biblical Worldviews to students who will then take it back home and teach it in their home churches and beyond. It is a four-part program of five days each over two years. I will be going up in mid-January for the first leg, then return again in September/October, then back in January 2015 and against in September/Oct 2015. When it is all said and done, I will be in position to teach Biblical Foundations in a small group setting or more. I got the invitation through working Charles Jackson, the director of college ministries at the Creation Truth Foundation when I brought him to UTEP in 2011. Charles Jackson has read my first book and wants to promote my trilogy through the CTF bookstore.
There is more. At the end of the Colorado Christian Writer's Conference last year, another author and I have gotten to know each other quite well and we decided to check with the director to see about teaching a workshop on Spiritual Warfare at the 2014 conference. She liked the idea and while we did not get the 5-hr Continuing Session we would have preferred, we have been asked to teach a 1-hr workshop. I have not officially confirmed this yet as I need to check my finances. Being faculty would pay me $30 and give me half-my registration costs off, but I would still need to cover housing and transportation, which alone would be about $300, not including the $150 discounted registration costs. Once I get back from OKC and the first round of the Cadre, I'll be able to assess my finances and make a decision. I seek to go, but I just need to be sure I can with summer months of no pay due to no school.
There is more. A project I have taken up showed itself in the last couple weeks. In my variety of Facebook debates, primarily on the Creation/Evolution debate, I posted once about how with the new "longer" half-life of DNA (not for dating purposes but for how long it could last) does not match the numbers they give. To make a long story short without doing the math, a "Nature" article talked about how DNA will break down by about half after around 521 years, much longer than previously thought. The same article thought that DNA could be read if it was 1.5 million years old but would completely break down after 6.8 million years old. To put it simply, using this 521-year half-life, DNA will have completely broken down after a mere 15,000 years. And that got me thinking, if evolution-based data is this far off from reality, how much is their primary dating methods? So I've been looking into radiometric dating, using the data that is well-published and well-publicized and seeing if their own numbers actually work. For the longest time, I thought these guys were smart enough to make their numbers remotely work within the bounds of their theory, but I was wrong. And the deeper I am digging, the worse the numbers are looking. I am mathematically disproving radiometric dating with their own numbers and basic Algebra. I am not done yet, but when I go to the Cadre program, I plan to present my up-to-date results with the intention of getting this in the hands of the major Young-Earth Creationist organizations such as Answers in Genesis, Institute for Creation Research, Creation Ministries International, etc. I have yet to see something like this done. I've always heard about the assumptions that go into radiometric dating, but I've never seen anyone actually check out their numbers for realism under their worldview. I am and it's not looking good for Evolution's side.
There is still more. Just this morning, I have been formally invited to join a ministry called Worldview Warriors based out of Ohio. Their vision and goal is to train this next generation not just with a Biblical Worldview but also practical skills on how to live the Christian life. I met the director on-line via Facebook and he's seen some of the stuff I post often on the Creation/Evolution debate. So I have been asked to come on board, not as a paid position, which is fine, as a regular blogger to post things about the science and math that back up the Biblical account. I will also be blogging about how Christian doctrine traces back its roots to the book of Genesis. This may open the door for public speaking events as well. Worldview Warriors has more than just their blog. They have a two-hour weekly radio show called "Do Not Be Silent" and they offer opportunities for public speaking events, conferences, and seminars. I will be gradually weened into a regular blogging post so the audience can get to know me with suddenly being exposed to a lot of me at once. My posts will show up Wednesday mornings either weekly or bi-weekly, we have not decided yet. Not only can I provide this ministry with the loads of stuff God has give me both scientifically and theologically to help them strengthen youth in their faith in Christ, but they can provide me a platform that I have not yet had to expand the ministries God has given me through fencing, my books, and the rest of this. What is more is that this invitation comes right at the same time as I will be going to the Cadre Program. Here is the link to their website. http://www.worldviewwarriors.org/
I'm not even sure I have covered everything yet. I may have an opportunity to do my fencing presentation at another church here in El Paso that I am exploring. The only thing I know for sure is that God has called me to full time ministry working with youth and that he has BIG plans for me. And seeing ALL this coming together at once, I cannot help but think that this is just about to start. I am so excited to see what God is going to do. And all this is WITHOUT getting a full-time teaching position...yet. God has not told me to stop pursing one, so I will still be seeking one. I'm still trying to fathom putting all this together, and I know BIG stuff is about to go down. And all I can think of to say about it is "Bring it on!" Going to be such an awesome year.
Monday, December 30, 2013
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
The Terrain of Greed vs Management
This is Part 7 of the 7-Part Series on the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. In the previous six posts, I have discussed Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, Wrath, Envy, and Gluttony. Now is the last of the Seven: Greed. As with all the others, everything I describe is meant to be a metaphor of the actual Greed and stuff we deal with.
Greed has another name that likes to show itself more frequently and that is Control. Greed is not looking at something and wanting it "greedily". Greed is having possession of it and wanting control of how it is used. It is wanting more and more, not merely because you want it or need it, but because you want to control it. Greed and Control are essentially one and the same. The opposite of Greed however is Good Management. Because Greed is about control, geared towards self, Management is about directing the resources God has given us to an outward-focus.
A good example of where we see this distinction is in administration of a school classroom. There are two types of administrations that I will discuss. One type will tell the teachers what they need to teach, how they need to teach it, what techniques they need to employ, and what kind of grades need to be expected. This type of behavior is well-known as micromanaging. When the manager of a project must determine every little step of how everything must be done. While this may not be intentional, the root of this issue is Greed. But the other type of administration in a school classroom is the autonomous classroom. Here the administration tells the teacher what is expected, but how the classroom is run, how the subject is taught, etc is up to the teacher. A classroom can be autonomous while still working together with other teachers on a common topic. A good manager will delegate the tasks to those that need to do it and let those people do their job.
So now we get to the terrain of Catharsis Hall. What type of land formations would we see that is a metaphor of how Greed would rule it or how good Management would rule it? My friend and I, as we were discussing this, came up with two things: open, unexplored land, and the ocean. So why not put them together. I have 22 years of experience in missions, working primarily in Juarez, Mexico, and one thing I have learned about the mission field is the need for structure. If everyone was allowed to just do their own thing, it would quickly lead to chaos. But if everyone did their task within an organized, structured system, it works perfectly. There is a greater freedom in a structure than you could ever do without said structure. If you have a bunch of kids and a playground, you will see two types of behaviors. If you have a fence, the kids will play all over the place, even going as far as hanging out right against the fence. But without a fence, the kids will hardly move about because they have no sense of boundary of where they can or cannot go. A few would venture out but without knowing where they are or what defines them, they cannot do much or go far. The ocean is a great example. If left to our own, we cannot swim very far, nor can we handle many waves, let alone storms. Yet, if we confine ourselves to the bounds of a boat or a ship, the entire ocean is explorable for us. It is the structure of a ship that enables us to sail the ocean blue.
But what Greed does is place extra barriers where there should be no barriers. It is like subdividing the 100-Acre Wood and even going as far as regulating how one can have fun. The 100-Acre Wood is itself a boundary that while you are inside it, you have freedom to enjoy yourself. But if you zone-restrict a free territory, it loses its appeal. Good management will allow you to maximize your options. Sports has rules for safety but also so everyone can be on the same playing field. The rules are not meant to micromanage what can be done or not, but to give a structure for how the game can be played so all can enjoy it. But it can be micromanaged by referees, owners, coaches, or even some players. Greed will direct everything so the person can benefit from it. Management will direct so that the organization will benefit without concern about self.
And a lot of what it boils down to is this question: Do you want to write your own rules to the system? Or do you want to work with the system to bring out its maximal usefulness? Greed wants to write its own rules. It wasn't to dictate the pace, the production, the work, the everything. It was to dictate the who, what, where, when, and how. Management will see an end goal, set up the system that will most effectively reach that goal, and allow the powers that need it to be properly delegated to do so. A man cannot grab a bunch of feathers and jump off a cliff, hoping to fly. Greed will try to write the rules that say he could eventually do that. But no matter how much Greed wants to write the rules, it will never be able to. God's rules will never be revoked or removed. And those rules include the laws of science we have discovered. However, Management will design a lightweight aircraft that will use the laws of physics which God ordained, and use them to overcome gravity.
So now it comes to us. Who is ruling our terrain? Greed or God. If Greed is ruling, you will notice that you are trying to control and direct everything. If God is ruling, he will lead you in how to manage your resources. And God will often allow us autonomy to act as we will, especially when we work within the boundaries he has set up. God is not a micro-manager. He will not tell you what pair of socks to wear when you wake up. He will direct you and lead you as you need to be lead for the tasks God has in store for you but God does not want a "Yes Man". He wants people who will have a relationship with him, not people who will just say "yes" to everything he says just because. He gave Adam dominion over the creation. He let Adam choose the names of the animals. He tells us the list of what not to do because that list is far shorter than the list of what we can do. He sets the boundaries but allows us the freedom to live within those boundaries. And those boundaries are not chains. But Greed's boundaries are chain. Which one is ruling your terrain?
That concludes my 7-part series on the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. I will have a couple more posts on this topic that will show how some of these terrains will overlap but this is the end of the primary set of posts. If you see yourself struggling in any one of these areas, place yourself in this terrain. Look around you. What do you see? It may vary from person to person. Each object you see in this terrain is a metaphor of something in your life that you may or may not know about. What you see something, ask what it is and why it is there. God will play this 'game' with you, and he will change your life when you play with him. And some issues you are dealing with have roots coming from two or more of the terrains I have described. I'll describe a few of those issues in my next couple posts.
Greed has another name that likes to show itself more frequently and that is Control. Greed is not looking at something and wanting it "greedily". Greed is having possession of it and wanting control of how it is used. It is wanting more and more, not merely because you want it or need it, but because you want to control it. Greed and Control are essentially one and the same. The opposite of Greed however is Good Management. Because Greed is about control, geared towards self, Management is about directing the resources God has given us to an outward-focus.
A good example of where we see this distinction is in administration of a school classroom. There are two types of administrations that I will discuss. One type will tell the teachers what they need to teach, how they need to teach it, what techniques they need to employ, and what kind of grades need to be expected. This type of behavior is well-known as micromanaging. When the manager of a project must determine every little step of how everything must be done. While this may not be intentional, the root of this issue is Greed. But the other type of administration in a school classroom is the autonomous classroom. Here the administration tells the teacher what is expected, but how the classroom is run, how the subject is taught, etc is up to the teacher. A classroom can be autonomous while still working together with other teachers on a common topic. A good manager will delegate the tasks to those that need to do it and let those people do their job.
So now we get to the terrain of Catharsis Hall. What type of land formations would we see that is a metaphor of how Greed would rule it or how good Management would rule it? My friend and I, as we were discussing this, came up with two things: open, unexplored land, and the ocean. So why not put them together. I have 22 years of experience in missions, working primarily in Juarez, Mexico, and one thing I have learned about the mission field is the need for structure. If everyone was allowed to just do their own thing, it would quickly lead to chaos. But if everyone did their task within an organized, structured system, it works perfectly. There is a greater freedom in a structure than you could ever do without said structure. If you have a bunch of kids and a playground, you will see two types of behaviors. If you have a fence, the kids will play all over the place, even going as far as hanging out right against the fence. But without a fence, the kids will hardly move about because they have no sense of boundary of where they can or cannot go. A few would venture out but without knowing where they are or what defines them, they cannot do much or go far. The ocean is a great example. If left to our own, we cannot swim very far, nor can we handle many waves, let alone storms. Yet, if we confine ourselves to the bounds of a boat or a ship, the entire ocean is explorable for us. It is the structure of a ship that enables us to sail the ocean blue.
But what Greed does is place extra barriers where there should be no barriers. It is like subdividing the 100-Acre Wood and even going as far as regulating how one can have fun. The 100-Acre Wood is itself a boundary that while you are inside it, you have freedom to enjoy yourself. But if you zone-restrict a free territory, it loses its appeal. Good management will allow you to maximize your options. Sports has rules for safety but also so everyone can be on the same playing field. The rules are not meant to micromanage what can be done or not, but to give a structure for how the game can be played so all can enjoy it. But it can be micromanaged by referees, owners, coaches, or even some players. Greed will direct everything so the person can benefit from it. Management will direct so that the organization will benefit without concern about self.
And a lot of what it boils down to is this question: Do you want to write your own rules to the system? Or do you want to work with the system to bring out its maximal usefulness? Greed wants to write its own rules. It wasn't to dictate the pace, the production, the work, the everything. It was to dictate the who, what, where, when, and how. Management will see an end goal, set up the system that will most effectively reach that goal, and allow the powers that need it to be properly delegated to do so. A man cannot grab a bunch of feathers and jump off a cliff, hoping to fly. Greed will try to write the rules that say he could eventually do that. But no matter how much Greed wants to write the rules, it will never be able to. God's rules will never be revoked or removed. And those rules include the laws of science we have discovered. However, Management will design a lightweight aircraft that will use the laws of physics which God ordained, and use them to overcome gravity.
So now it comes to us. Who is ruling our terrain? Greed or God. If Greed is ruling, you will notice that you are trying to control and direct everything. If God is ruling, he will lead you in how to manage your resources. And God will often allow us autonomy to act as we will, especially when we work within the boundaries he has set up. God is not a micro-manager. He will not tell you what pair of socks to wear when you wake up. He will direct you and lead you as you need to be lead for the tasks God has in store for you but God does not want a "Yes Man". He wants people who will have a relationship with him, not people who will just say "yes" to everything he says just because. He gave Adam dominion over the creation. He let Adam choose the names of the animals. He tells us the list of what not to do because that list is far shorter than the list of what we can do. He sets the boundaries but allows us the freedom to live within those boundaries. And those boundaries are not chains. But Greed's boundaries are chain. Which one is ruling your terrain?
That concludes my 7-part series on the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. I will have a couple more posts on this topic that will show how some of these terrains will overlap but this is the end of the primary set of posts. If you see yourself struggling in any one of these areas, place yourself in this terrain. Look around you. What do you see? It may vary from person to person. Each object you see in this terrain is a metaphor of something in your life that you may or may not know about. What you see something, ask what it is and why it is there. God will play this 'game' with you, and he will change your life when you play with him. And some issues you are dealing with have roots coming from two or more of the terrains I have described. I'll describe a few of those issues in my next couple posts.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
The Terrain of Gluttony vs Internal Satisfaction
Here is Part 6 of my series "The Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins". My previous posts dealt with Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, Wrath, and Envy. This one will deal with Gluttony and my last one of the series will deal with Greed. As with everything in this series, what I describe here is meant to be a metaphor of what we actually deal with and by dealing with the metaphor that is a tangible thing we can address, we effectively also deal with the issues we face. So now once again we delve into the world of "Catharsis Hall" and as Gluttony deals with internal issues, we will go deep underground.
The land is a metaphor for our soul, or our "flesh". The terrain is the land where the battle between Sin and God takes place and the how the terrain will look depends on who rules it. Gluttony is most known to reference food. But it also deals with anything we take in to feed and fuel our bodies. And it can be good things or bad things. Food is just the most common area where we see gluttony. But drinking or doing drugs also counts for this. Alcoholism is a drinking form of gluttony. So is addiction to drugs. If it goes into your body, it is subject to this terrain. The opposite of this is Internal Satisfaction. It is knowing what is good for your body, feeding it what it needs, but in proper moderation. It knows when to stop and it feeds the body with the right stuff.
Because Gluttony deals with internal issues, once again we go underground. Lust and Gluttony are actually related in how they deal with these issues. In this terrain, we are not just in a mere cave, we are going deep underground. We have large caverns where it is easy to get into but hard to get out. As with any addiction, the way is easy. Sometimes it is a soft decent for a while but other times it is a steep decent. In this deep underground cavern there is everything you would want to live off. Water flows in from above ground into a fresh water pool. From the pool, all sorts of drinks are made. There is a wine refinery as well as a beer refinery.
Light is provided for the cave by a series of mirrors. This light can be provided by natural sunlight or by a beacon. In a large room around a corner, the light is concentrated to provide for crops. What is grown depends on who rules the land. The ground here is very fertile and with the ambient temperature of a cave always at a constant 58 degrees no matter what is going with the weather outside, there is always a growing season, so all the crops are always producing. If you were to pluck all the ears of corn from the stalks, the next day, there would be more, fresh and ready to go. If Gluttony is ruling, you will grow what you want, not what you need. You could end up growing drugs or foods that merely taste good rather than help you out. If God is ruling, you will be satisfied internally. You will grow what you need, including the right foods. You won't grow the bad stuff and when you have excess, you will store it for when you need it later or you will provide it for who needs it.
Where Gluttony has great danger is that it can provide all you want to live. It is easy to go down to this cavern and never come out. You can live in this cavern and indulge yourself. As if you indulge beyond proper moderation, it will not take long for the other Sins to join hands. Slothfulness and Gluttony can go hand-in-hand pretty well. When you are underground, it is very easy to lose track of time, having no clue what time or season it is. And if you stay and indulge too long, you will not be able to physically get out of the cave, even if you know how without having to work it out the excess. And we know from the testimonies of those who have tried to lose weight or get off addictions, it does not happen overnight without divine intervention.
The way to get rid of Gluttony is to drive it out of the terrain. As long as Gluttony has permission to dwell in just one area, it will rule it. And Gluttony does not want you to leave the cavern...EVER. And with cavern systems, you must be careful about the trails you leave. Many caves have circuitous tunnels that will only lead you back to where you came from. And Gluttony will sabotage the routes out so you cannot take them. It will knock down boulders from the ceiling to destroy paths or natural bridges over chasms. But when God is the ruler, he will restore the cavern to its natural state. He will repair the paths. He will remove the crops that damage us and replace them with crops that will feed us. God's crops don't just feed the body. They feed the soul. When God rules our terrain, he will plant love, joy, peace, patience, as well as the physical internal needs we have as well. When Gluttony rules, it will plant the crops of its brothers including Pride, Envy, Wrath, and Lust. It will rip out the crops of God and not let them grow. And what is in the cavern is determined by who rules it.
So that is what is off the top of my head on Gluttony. I cannot think of much else to say right now without merely rambling. As I've been saying in this series, nothing here is a finished product but just a foundation of what should be there. It will need many more details and descriptions including maps and locations for everything. My last post of this Seven Part Series will come shortly and it will cover the terrain that could be ruled by Greed. After that one, I will have a few posts on how the terrains can overlap and how something like Depression is a joint ruling of Pride (or more realistically, Shame) and Slothfulness. There are many other issues we deal with that is some combination of these Seven Deadly Sins. In fact, I cannot think of any sin or area we deal with that does not have some root or combination of one of these Seven Deadly Sins. And if we know how to deal with each of the Seven, we can learn how to deal with all their children.
The land is a metaphor for our soul, or our "flesh". The terrain is the land where the battle between Sin and God takes place and the how the terrain will look depends on who rules it. Gluttony is most known to reference food. But it also deals with anything we take in to feed and fuel our bodies. And it can be good things or bad things. Food is just the most common area where we see gluttony. But drinking or doing drugs also counts for this. Alcoholism is a drinking form of gluttony. So is addiction to drugs. If it goes into your body, it is subject to this terrain. The opposite of this is Internal Satisfaction. It is knowing what is good for your body, feeding it what it needs, but in proper moderation. It knows when to stop and it feeds the body with the right stuff.
Because Gluttony deals with internal issues, once again we go underground. Lust and Gluttony are actually related in how they deal with these issues. In this terrain, we are not just in a mere cave, we are going deep underground. We have large caverns where it is easy to get into but hard to get out. As with any addiction, the way is easy. Sometimes it is a soft decent for a while but other times it is a steep decent. In this deep underground cavern there is everything you would want to live off. Water flows in from above ground into a fresh water pool. From the pool, all sorts of drinks are made. There is a wine refinery as well as a beer refinery.
Light is provided for the cave by a series of mirrors. This light can be provided by natural sunlight or by a beacon. In a large room around a corner, the light is concentrated to provide for crops. What is grown depends on who rules the land. The ground here is very fertile and with the ambient temperature of a cave always at a constant 58 degrees no matter what is going with the weather outside, there is always a growing season, so all the crops are always producing. If you were to pluck all the ears of corn from the stalks, the next day, there would be more, fresh and ready to go. If Gluttony is ruling, you will grow what you want, not what you need. You could end up growing drugs or foods that merely taste good rather than help you out. If God is ruling, you will be satisfied internally. You will grow what you need, including the right foods. You won't grow the bad stuff and when you have excess, you will store it for when you need it later or you will provide it for who needs it.
Where Gluttony has great danger is that it can provide all you want to live. It is easy to go down to this cavern and never come out. You can live in this cavern and indulge yourself. As if you indulge beyond proper moderation, it will not take long for the other Sins to join hands. Slothfulness and Gluttony can go hand-in-hand pretty well. When you are underground, it is very easy to lose track of time, having no clue what time or season it is. And if you stay and indulge too long, you will not be able to physically get out of the cave, even if you know how without having to work it out the excess. And we know from the testimonies of those who have tried to lose weight or get off addictions, it does not happen overnight without divine intervention.
The way to get rid of Gluttony is to drive it out of the terrain. As long as Gluttony has permission to dwell in just one area, it will rule it. And Gluttony does not want you to leave the cavern...EVER. And with cavern systems, you must be careful about the trails you leave. Many caves have circuitous tunnels that will only lead you back to where you came from. And Gluttony will sabotage the routes out so you cannot take them. It will knock down boulders from the ceiling to destroy paths or natural bridges over chasms. But when God is the ruler, he will restore the cavern to its natural state. He will repair the paths. He will remove the crops that damage us and replace them with crops that will feed us. God's crops don't just feed the body. They feed the soul. When God rules our terrain, he will plant love, joy, peace, patience, as well as the physical internal needs we have as well. When Gluttony rules, it will plant the crops of its brothers including Pride, Envy, Wrath, and Lust. It will rip out the crops of God and not let them grow. And what is in the cavern is determined by who rules it.
So that is what is off the top of my head on Gluttony. I cannot think of much else to say right now without merely rambling. As I've been saying in this series, nothing here is a finished product but just a foundation of what should be there. It will need many more details and descriptions including maps and locations for everything. My last post of this Seven Part Series will come shortly and it will cover the terrain that could be ruled by Greed. After that one, I will have a few posts on how the terrains can overlap and how something like Depression is a joint ruling of Pride (or more realistically, Shame) and Slothfulness. There are many other issues we deal with that is some combination of these Seven Deadly Sins. In fact, I cannot think of any sin or area we deal with that does not have some root or combination of one of these Seven Deadly Sins. And if we know how to deal with each of the Seven, we can learn how to deal with all their children.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
The Terrain of Envy vs External Provision
This is Part 5 of my series "The Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins". I've already discussed Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, and Wrath. Here I will address Envy and it's counterpart, "External Provision". Then in Part 6 and 7 I will address Gluttony and Greed. After that, I will start to put some of the pieces together because it all forms one big terrain and map. And as a reminded, everything in this description is metaphorical. It is a picture, a concrete object that represents the issues we deal with in regards to the Seven Deadly Sins and what they corrupt of God's original creation.
Envy is closely associated with coveting. It is seeing something that someone else has and desiring that something as though it is your right to have it. The common cliche that is well associated to this behavior is "the grass is always greener on the other side". Envy is not being satisfied with what God has provided you and it is effectively saying "You aren't giving me enough." What this attitude actually says is "God, you aren't giving me what I want." There is a big difference between our wants and our needs. God promises to provide what we need, and that often is less than what we want. What we need goes beyond just food, clothing, and shelter. It includes everything we need to do the job God wants us to do. For some that includes some wealth and means of transportation. For others it may mean getting by on what we have. Now before I go further, I want to clarify that the poorest of the poor, the homeless, etc, are not necessarily that was because God wants them that way. God providing and our means of using what he provides are not always the same thing too. If God gives us a job, it is our responsibility to work that job. And if we don't have a job, it is our responsibility to go do something to be productive with our time. So there is one issue of God's provision and our responsibility to manage them. But there is the other issue of seeing God provide for someone else or seeing someone else manage their resources for pleasure rather than God's intention that will get us into trouble. Envy is not being satisfied with what God has provided for us externally and wanted something more. Envy does not deal with internal issues. That is reserved for Gluttony.
So what type of terrain would display this scenario where we must be content with what we have or be envious of what others have, or envious of what we don't have? The issues brought up here are well illustrated in the Parable of the Talents where one servant was given five talents, another two, and another one, each in accordance to their ability. That is an important phrase that is often forgotten: "in accordance to their ability". Someone who is given five talents is expected to be able to manage and use five talents. Someone who only has one talent, is only responsible for that one talent. But we often think "if only we had more talents, we could do more with it", failing to understand that if we had more talents we would be responsible for those extra talents. We are not called to get extra talents just to use one. The servant who had five talents would be questioned differently if he only used four of those five talents. He is expected to use all five, not just two, three, or four of them. And likewise, the servant who only has one was only expected to use that one. And all in accordance to their abilities. God gave us each skills and abilities for a particular set of tasks and some tasks requires only a certain set of talents. And too often, instead of trying to use the talents we have, we look at other's talents and we become envious of them.
The terrain that best describes this type of setting is a arid farmland. It is not a lush, overabundant farmland where hardly any work needs to be done for it to produce. It produces precisely what you need. The land is rich enough to provide sod to build a sod house, it is watered enough to grow the crops, but not in overabundance where you can go several seasons without planting. It is just enough to get you by day to day so you can plant and harvest in the next season. You have sufficient cattle and herds to provide you with clothes, meat, milk, etc. This terrain teaches you to depend on the provision God has for you. It is a lesson I have learned growing up. I recall a six-month period when I was between 12-15 (ish) when all my family had to eat was day-old bagels, yogurt, and eggs. It wasn't much. But it got us by. We had bagels served in more way that we would like to imagine and it was still 'better' than what the Israelites had with Manna. The difference? We had different flavors. It was enough, but God provided. And though we had the opportunity, we did not envy those who had full fridges and pantries next door to us. We could have, but we didn't, because we chose to rely on the Lord providing for us.
Envy rears its ugly head with neighbors who produce more lush fields. The problem is that we want that excess for ourselves and don't understand that God intended that excess to be given away. Any excess we get is not meant to be spent on ourselves, but to provide for those who do not have means of getting their needs met. But envy does not come just in the form of a better crop or more cattle and stock. It can come in the form of a better house. If you are living in a sod house, and you see someone in a mansion, it may be hard to avoid being envious. But what if that person also had a sod house, just in a different size or shape, or layout? I have heard stories of people being envious of a simple think like a porch roof over their front door. The grass is always greener on the other side.
But Envy has a reverse effect as well. I was describing the not-so-wealthy being envious of the wealthy. But the reverse also has the same effect. What if the wealthy person did not like having the over abundant provision to aid the poor and would rather bury his talents instead of using them? Is it not possible for the rich to be envious of the poor because they would prefer a simpler lifestyle? One could answer, "Yes, but they could simply downsize and give away their resources." If one has a mind-set of God's provision and being generous, yes. But envy is self-focused. Envy won't release the resources it has because it is thinking of that rainy day occasion. Envy may want to live simpler but can't. This can quickly overlap with Pride/Shame.
We may live in a not so comfortable region with the not so best co-workers or neighbors, and we may not have all the resources or toys we would like to have. If we trust in God's provision, he will give us all we need and as along as we align our desires to his desires, he will give us the desires of our heart. But Envy will always seek what we think is the better situation instead of taking advantage of the resources we already have. Envy focuses on the resources we don't have and as a result, we will miss what we do have. Envy has a partner in crime as well: the Devourer. If we serve money (for example) far greater riches will only go half the distance they should than smaller riches. And I can attest to this myself. In my family, I know we have way more money going out on expenditures, bills, and giving, than we have coming in. It's a significant more going out than coming in. Yet the bills are always paid for on time. I'm a math person and I know this is numerically impossible. So we call it God math because he is providing for us where in the natural we would not have it. But Envy's partner is a Devourer and twice the resources will only go half the distance if we let Envy rule our terrain.
Next post will be on the Deadly Sin: Gluttony and its contrast to Internal Satisfaction.
Envy is closely associated with coveting. It is seeing something that someone else has and desiring that something as though it is your right to have it. The common cliche that is well associated to this behavior is "the grass is always greener on the other side". Envy is not being satisfied with what God has provided you and it is effectively saying "You aren't giving me enough." What this attitude actually says is "God, you aren't giving me what I want." There is a big difference between our wants and our needs. God promises to provide what we need, and that often is less than what we want. What we need goes beyond just food, clothing, and shelter. It includes everything we need to do the job God wants us to do. For some that includes some wealth and means of transportation. For others it may mean getting by on what we have. Now before I go further, I want to clarify that the poorest of the poor, the homeless, etc, are not necessarily that was because God wants them that way. God providing and our means of using what he provides are not always the same thing too. If God gives us a job, it is our responsibility to work that job. And if we don't have a job, it is our responsibility to go do something to be productive with our time. So there is one issue of God's provision and our responsibility to manage them. But there is the other issue of seeing God provide for someone else or seeing someone else manage their resources for pleasure rather than God's intention that will get us into trouble. Envy is not being satisfied with what God has provided for us externally and wanted something more. Envy does not deal with internal issues. That is reserved for Gluttony.
So what type of terrain would display this scenario where we must be content with what we have or be envious of what others have, or envious of what we don't have? The issues brought up here are well illustrated in the Parable of the Talents where one servant was given five talents, another two, and another one, each in accordance to their ability. That is an important phrase that is often forgotten: "in accordance to their ability". Someone who is given five talents is expected to be able to manage and use five talents. Someone who only has one talent, is only responsible for that one talent. But we often think "if only we had more talents, we could do more with it", failing to understand that if we had more talents we would be responsible for those extra talents. We are not called to get extra talents just to use one. The servant who had five talents would be questioned differently if he only used four of those five talents. He is expected to use all five, not just two, three, or four of them. And likewise, the servant who only has one was only expected to use that one. And all in accordance to their abilities. God gave us each skills and abilities for a particular set of tasks and some tasks requires only a certain set of talents. And too often, instead of trying to use the talents we have, we look at other's talents and we become envious of them.
The terrain that best describes this type of setting is a arid farmland. It is not a lush, overabundant farmland where hardly any work needs to be done for it to produce. It produces precisely what you need. The land is rich enough to provide sod to build a sod house, it is watered enough to grow the crops, but not in overabundance where you can go several seasons without planting. It is just enough to get you by day to day so you can plant and harvest in the next season. You have sufficient cattle and herds to provide you with clothes, meat, milk, etc. This terrain teaches you to depend on the provision God has for you. It is a lesson I have learned growing up. I recall a six-month period when I was between 12-15 (ish) when all my family had to eat was day-old bagels, yogurt, and eggs. It wasn't much. But it got us by. We had bagels served in more way that we would like to imagine and it was still 'better' than what the Israelites had with Manna. The difference? We had different flavors. It was enough, but God provided. And though we had the opportunity, we did not envy those who had full fridges and pantries next door to us. We could have, but we didn't, because we chose to rely on the Lord providing for us.
Envy rears its ugly head with neighbors who produce more lush fields. The problem is that we want that excess for ourselves and don't understand that God intended that excess to be given away. Any excess we get is not meant to be spent on ourselves, but to provide for those who do not have means of getting their needs met. But envy does not come just in the form of a better crop or more cattle and stock. It can come in the form of a better house. If you are living in a sod house, and you see someone in a mansion, it may be hard to avoid being envious. But what if that person also had a sod house, just in a different size or shape, or layout? I have heard stories of people being envious of a simple think like a porch roof over their front door. The grass is always greener on the other side.
But Envy has a reverse effect as well. I was describing the not-so-wealthy being envious of the wealthy. But the reverse also has the same effect. What if the wealthy person did not like having the over abundant provision to aid the poor and would rather bury his talents instead of using them? Is it not possible for the rich to be envious of the poor because they would prefer a simpler lifestyle? One could answer, "Yes, but they could simply downsize and give away their resources." If one has a mind-set of God's provision and being generous, yes. But envy is self-focused. Envy won't release the resources it has because it is thinking of that rainy day occasion. Envy may want to live simpler but can't. This can quickly overlap with Pride/Shame.
We may live in a not so comfortable region with the not so best co-workers or neighbors, and we may not have all the resources or toys we would like to have. If we trust in God's provision, he will give us all we need and as along as we align our desires to his desires, he will give us the desires of our heart. But Envy will always seek what we think is the better situation instead of taking advantage of the resources we already have. Envy focuses on the resources we don't have and as a result, we will miss what we do have. Envy has a partner in crime as well: the Devourer. If we serve money (for example) far greater riches will only go half the distance they should than smaller riches. And I can attest to this myself. In my family, I know we have way more money going out on expenditures, bills, and giving, than we have coming in. It's a significant more going out than coming in. Yet the bills are always paid for on time. I'm a math person and I know this is numerically impossible. So we call it God math because he is providing for us where in the natural we would not have it. But Envy's partner is a Devourer and twice the resources will only go half the distance if we let Envy rule our terrain.
Next post will be on the Deadly Sin: Gluttony and its contrast to Internal Satisfaction.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
The Terrain of Wrath vs Severe Mercy
This is Part 4 of the "Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins", continuing the theme of describing the terrain that will be used for Catharsis Hall, an interactive Bible-study/game that helps us to address our problems before our problems deal with us. Everything in Catharsis Hall is a metaphor for what we deal with in our lives. And depending on the player, different things may reveal themselves. But I am helping lay out the foundation of what kind of terrain we may face depending on whether God is ruler of our lives or if sin is ruling our lives. Part 1 of this series dealt with Pride vs Humility. Part 2 dealt with Lust vs Intimacy. Part 3 dealt with Slothfulness vs Rest. And here in Part 4, I will deal with Wrath vs Severe Mercy.
My friend who is the one doing the primary development of Catharsis Hall asked me a very interesting question last week when I was visiting with him. "What drives God's mercy? His love or his wrath?" We too often think about God's mercy and God's love being part of the same coin. But this question got me thinking and I could not find a reason against it. We have all heard the phrase "all bark, and no bite". But another quote my friend gave me that is truly appropriate here. He could see God saying "I bark because I fear my bite. And you should too." As much as we fear and dread hell, we don't nearly as much as God dreads us having to endure it. He knows what separation from him is going to entail and he knows his purity, his character, and his justice MUST punish the sin. He knows he has to throw the switch and I see now that God's mercy is not just driven by his love for us, but by his knowledge of what his wrath would do to us without it.
Now Wrath is a tricky topic because it is the only one of the Seven Deadly Sins that actually has a Godly form. Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, Envy, Gluttony, and Greed don't have a Godly form. They have a Godly opposite, but not a Godly form. Godly wrath is directed at sin and that which is associated with it. But because of our sin, our wrath is often misdirected. When I was thinking about what kind of terrain we would see wrath in, the first picture that came to mind is a volcano. My friend had a picture of steam which is also appropriate. Steam is a powerful metaphor. Water is a very powerful force. Fire is also a very powerful force. But when combined, you get steam. Steam is more powerful than the two forces of water and fire combined. Water is love. Fire is hate, preferably geared in the right direction. Steam is passion. And when someone messes with something we love, that passion can turn up the heat VERY quickly. But an interesting observation of steam is that with all steam based technology, when ever there is a disaster or a malfunction, it is always due to mishandling the machinery, as opposed to the steam itself that will cause it. Wrath has the same function.
So keeping with the metaphor that the land is a metaphor of our body, our mind, our emotions, etc, when we deal with Wrath, we are dealing with a volcanic terrain. Mountainous but like any volcano, it could explode. Volcanoes remain dormant or have mild eruptions when they have appropriate vents for the heat and pressure. When we see or experience and injustice, wrath builds up like the pressure of a volcano. And if the vents are not open as they should be, it can turn a volcano from a life-bringing mountain to a terrifying bomb. Lava has a very interesting property in that when it covers land, it destroys the old stuff with fire. But the plants and forests that are burned down from a lava flow tend to grow back VERY quickly and will be much healthier than it was beforehand. There is a secret to Resurrection that many of us forget and don't want to face. There is nothing that if it is not dead, it cannot be brought back to life.However, if the appropriate vents are plugged up, the volcano cannot release its pressure and heat for a good, healthy eruption that will grow new life. There is no Resurrection if it first does not die. But if those vents and releasing of pressure are not set and open, our volcano becomes another Mt. St. Helens.
When Mt. St. Helens erupted, it destroyed the landscape. The mountain itself dropped in height by about 1300 feet. The whole top of the mountain totally blew off and it will never return to what it was beforehand. There is more to the eruption than just the top blowing off. Two major things followed. A pyroclastic flow, which is the cloud of super-hot ash that incinerates everything upon contact. And a la-hare. A la-hare is the deadliest form of mudflow. Mt. St. Helens had a glacier on top of the mountain and when it erupted, all that ice and water melted quickly and flowed downhill. This water mixed with the dirt, rocks, mud, trees, and any other form of debris it picked up to form what was like fast moving concrete, carving a new canyon on a 1/20th scale of the Grand Canyon literally overnight. It was permanent damage, despite the fact that the forests have regrown since.
Mt. St. Helens gives a perfect picture of what wrath can do to us. If we harbor it, it will erupt violently when we least expect it. And though we may calm down and not explode for a long time, when we erupt, it will permanently scar us AND those around us. We may heal from that, but those scars will remain. But if God rules our land, he will use the same volcano to burn away what should not be there to plant new growth and new life.
Two other things I've mentioned that goes with volcanic terrain: glaciers and geysers. Glaciers have a two-way effect. They are cold as ice (pun intended) and our anger, our wrath, and our bitterness can easily be just as cold. It cuts off life, it ever changes, and it is easy to get lost in. A glacier often has numerous brutal crevasses, some that we see, and some that we don't. And those crevasses may not be possible to get out. You do not want to enter tunnels in a glacier unless you have no other choice. The reason why is because of the ever changing nature of the glacier. You may enter a tunnel even if you have a line all the way back, you may not be able to get out because it could change on you. Anger is like this. It is easy to get lost in it and to get trapped in it. And wrath entangles us so well and it is very difficult to see how to escape from it. And Wrath is called one of the Seven Deadly Sins for a reason: because it is often deadly. And this terrain describes how deadly it can be. But a glacier does more than kill. It is a provider of fresh water. Glacier water is some of the purest water we can find on the planet. It is cold, but it is pure. This is an example of Wrath leading to Severe Mercy. It is using a very dangerous thing that can only be used rightly when God is in control of it to provide life.
The other thing is a geyser. Hot water, or a hot springs. Water naturally heated by geothermal activity underneath. Steam power transformed the US in the 1800's, launching us into the Industrial Revolution. The Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs, Colorado were often a place to go for healing. The hot waters would sooth the body and help to fight illnesses we could not fight otherwise. In this terrain, there would be hot springs that we could turn to for healing. That is God's severe mercy which is fed by his wrath.
There is more to all this, but that is all I can wrap my head around right now, even with the notes I have. Wrath is destructive, but Severe Mercy can use destruction to wipe out that which is destructive and create new life. It is the same material. The same terrain. But the results depend on who rules it. Is our passion going to be a life-giving action that will destroy the sin that eats at us and gives new life, or will it turn us into a Mt. St. Helens that is ready to explode when the right triggers shows up? That is Wrath vs Severe Mercy. Next is Part 5: Envy vs External Provision. That one is going to hit a few people rather hard once we realize what we do with it.
My friend who is the one doing the primary development of Catharsis Hall asked me a very interesting question last week when I was visiting with him. "What drives God's mercy? His love or his wrath?" We too often think about God's mercy and God's love being part of the same coin. But this question got me thinking and I could not find a reason against it. We have all heard the phrase "all bark, and no bite". But another quote my friend gave me that is truly appropriate here. He could see God saying "I bark because I fear my bite. And you should too." As much as we fear and dread hell, we don't nearly as much as God dreads us having to endure it. He knows what separation from him is going to entail and he knows his purity, his character, and his justice MUST punish the sin. He knows he has to throw the switch and I see now that God's mercy is not just driven by his love for us, but by his knowledge of what his wrath would do to us without it.
Now Wrath is a tricky topic because it is the only one of the Seven Deadly Sins that actually has a Godly form. Pride, Lust, Slothfulness, Envy, Gluttony, and Greed don't have a Godly form. They have a Godly opposite, but not a Godly form. Godly wrath is directed at sin and that which is associated with it. But because of our sin, our wrath is often misdirected. When I was thinking about what kind of terrain we would see wrath in, the first picture that came to mind is a volcano. My friend had a picture of steam which is also appropriate. Steam is a powerful metaphor. Water is a very powerful force. Fire is also a very powerful force. But when combined, you get steam. Steam is more powerful than the two forces of water and fire combined. Water is love. Fire is hate, preferably geared in the right direction. Steam is passion. And when someone messes with something we love, that passion can turn up the heat VERY quickly. But an interesting observation of steam is that with all steam based technology, when ever there is a disaster or a malfunction, it is always due to mishandling the machinery, as opposed to the steam itself that will cause it. Wrath has the same function.
So keeping with the metaphor that the land is a metaphor of our body, our mind, our emotions, etc, when we deal with Wrath, we are dealing with a volcanic terrain. Mountainous but like any volcano, it could explode. Volcanoes remain dormant or have mild eruptions when they have appropriate vents for the heat and pressure. When we see or experience and injustice, wrath builds up like the pressure of a volcano. And if the vents are not open as they should be, it can turn a volcano from a life-bringing mountain to a terrifying bomb. Lava has a very interesting property in that when it covers land, it destroys the old stuff with fire. But the plants and forests that are burned down from a lava flow tend to grow back VERY quickly and will be much healthier than it was beforehand. There is a secret to Resurrection that many of us forget and don't want to face. There is nothing that if it is not dead, it cannot be brought back to life.However, if the appropriate vents are plugged up, the volcano cannot release its pressure and heat for a good, healthy eruption that will grow new life. There is no Resurrection if it first does not die. But if those vents and releasing of pressure are not set and open, our volcano becomes another Mt. St. Helens.
When Mt. St. Helens erupted, it destroyed the landscape. The mountain itself dropped in height by about 1300 feet. The whole top of the mountain totally blew off and it will never return to what it was beforehand. There is more to the eruption than just the top blowing off. Two major things followed. A pyroclastic flow, which is the cloud of super-hot ash that incinerates everything upon contact. And a la-hare. A la-hare is the deadliest form of mudflow. Mt. St. Helens had a glacier on top of the mountain and when it erupted, all that ice and water melted quickly and flowed downhill. This water mixed with the dirt, rocks, mud, trees, and any other form of debris it picked up to form what was like fast moving concrete, carving a new canyon on a 1/20th scale of the Grand Canyon literally overnight. It was permanent damage, despite the fact that the forests have regrown since.
Mt. St. Helens gives a perfect picture of what wrath can do to us. If we harbor it, it will erupt violently when we least expect it. And though we may calm down and not explode for a long time, when we erupt, it will permanently scar us AND those around us. We may heal from that, but those scars will remain. But if God rules our land, he will use the same volcano to burn away what should not be there to plant new growth and new life.
Two other things I've mentioned that goes with volcanic terrain: glaciers and geysers. Glaciers have a two-way effect. They are cold as ice (pun intended) and our anger, our wrath, and our bitterness can easily be just as cold. It cuts off life, it ever changes, and it is easy to get lost in. A glacier often has numerous brutal crevasses, some that we see, and some that we don't. And those crevasses may not be possible to get out. You do not want to enter tunnels in a glacier unless you have no other choice. The reason why is because of the ever changing nature of the glacier. You may enter a tunnel even if you have a line all the way back, you may not be able to get out because it could change on you. Anger is like this. It is easy to get lost in it and to get trapped in it. And wrath entangles us so well and it is very difficult to see how to escape from it. And Wrath is called one of the Seven Deadly Sins for a reason: because it is often deadly. And this terrain describes how deadly it can be. But a glacier does more than kill. It is a provider of fresh water. Glacier water is some of the purest water we can find on the planet. It is cold, but it is pure. This is an example of Wrath leading to Severe Mercy. It is using a very dangerous thing that can only be used rightly when God is in control of it to provide life.
The other thing is a geyser. Hot water, or a hot springs. Water naturally heated by geothermal activity underneath. Steam power transformed the US in the 1800's, launching us into the Industrial Revolution. The Hot Springs in Glenwood Springs, Colorado were often a place to go for healing. The hot waters would sooth the body and help to fight illnesses we could not fight otherwise. In this terrain, there would be hot springs that we could turn to for healing. That is God's severe mercy which is fed by his wrath.
There is more to all this, but that is all I can wrap my head around right now, even with the notes I have. Wrath is destructive, but Severe Mercy can use destruction to wipe out that which is destructive and create new life. It is the same material. The same terrain. But the results depend on who rules it. Is our passion going to be a life-giving action that will destroy the sin that eats at us and gives new life, or will it turn us into a Mt. St. Helens that is ready to explode when the right triggers shows up? That is Wrath vs Severe Mercy. Next is Part 5: Envy vs External Provision. That one is going to hit a few people rather hard once we realize what we do with it.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
The Terrain of Slothfulness vs Rest
This is Part 3 of the series of the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. To reiterate for those who missed the earlier posts (do read), this series is developing the land of a metaphorical "game" known as "Catharsis Hall". Catharsis Hall is an interactive study that helps us deal with the problems gripping us before those problems wreck havoc on us. The key concept is to take the abstract concept and provide a metaphor for it. And by addressing the issues in the metaphor, we are actually dealing with the real problem at the same time. Catharsis Hall is just a skeleton right now and as you engage the setting of the terrain, you learn more about yourself and what you are dealing with. And the way this interactive study works is simple. Plant yourself in the setting. It could be with a "role-playing" character that describes you. Take a look around you. What is there? Why is it there? Every object is a metaphor. And if a villain is there (which there are) how will you deal with it? In this series, I describe a setting and what happens to that setting when one of the Deadly Sins rules it, or what happens when God is the ruler over it. In Part 1, I addressed Pride vs Humility. In Part 2, I addressed Lust vs Intimacy. And here I will address Slothfulness vs Rest. First, I must address where this takes place. Because you can have two fight against each other without a battlefield for them to fight on.
This part talks about energy. How do you use it? Where is it directed to? What is using it? Newton's First Law comes into play here. An object in motion will tend to keep in motion, and an object at rest will tend to keep at rest until an outside force acts upon it. And when you look at it, we are like this as well. If we have an active lifestyle (I am not merely referencing physically. I am referencing simply being out there and doing something.), we prefer to stay in action. But if we get lazy and don't want to do anything, it takes a lot of effort to get going. But the comparison here is not just being lazy vs working, it is being lazy verses getting proper rest. When we live an active lifestyle, we make an active choice to go to bed so that we can restore our batteries to be active again tomorrow. When we take our Sabbath Day off work, we make an active choice to take a break so we can charge up for the next activity. But laziness is not "getting rest". Being a sloth, being lazy, is being unwilling to get up to get something done. Rest is intentional to be able to work later. Laziness has no intention to work anyway, or do the absolute minimal job possible.
So how would these two square off? Energy is well described with the water of a river. Water is the source of life of the land and moving water acts as a purifier. But stagnant water gets nasty very quickly. Water can be still in a lake but it will need to have some form of circulation underneath to stay fresh. So in this terrain, we have a river splitting up into a delta to feed a lush wetland. But in this delta are a series of sluice gates that store up water resources and can turn a small creek upriver into a mighty river downstream. And downstream, the delta joins back together to form a river that feeds many others. Before this happens, the water is diverted to small channels that will slow it down, turn water wheels, but keep the river refreshed. These channels will help purify the water and sift out the hard minerals or other things that have been thrown into the river so when it goes down stream, it is fresh and more pure. The sluice gates also play a role in this process.
However, all this would be if God is the ruler of the land (which a metaphor for your body). What happens to this land if slothfulness takes over? If our enemy takes over our land, the enemy will take control of the channels and sluice gates. They will break and smash some of the gates, and plants boulders or dams to block up the river's flow. If the flow of the river is impeded, it will cease flowing and become stagnant. And that will turn the lush wetland into a nasty, stinky, dead, bog. The water in a bog easily carries parasites, algae, and the dreaded mosquito. It rots the plant life and animals caught in the muck will die. But it gets worse. When the enemy takes over, and slothfulness rules, what little energies are left will be diverted to feed any other area controlled by said enemy. Slothfulness will easily feed gluttony, envy, wrath, and others. And with our river diverted to feed those dark tendencies, any water that makes it to the river's original course is little more than a trickle.
So how do we deal with this? First, it will take time and energy, something that slothfulness will seek to retain control over. We must first drive out the inhabitants of slothfulness, but driving out the mindset of slothfulness only does part of the job. If we don't transform the land back into a wet-land, we won't get out the bog. Remember what turned the wetland into a bog? Dams and broken down/abused sluice gates. To get energy flowing again, we may need to break some dams in our life. What is impeding our energy flows? What keeps us on the couch? Paint that idea, that concept, that mindset, as a metaphor in the shape of a dam or a boulder blocking the river's flow. Then blow it up. The only way to remove stagnant water from this bog is to replace it with fresh water and keep the river flowing. Fix the sluice gates. Remove any objects from impeding water flow.
This picture is not complete yet. I have ideas on what these sluice gates actually are supposed to represent but I'm not settled on them yet. And there may be many other things this wetland or bog may carry that are related to the issue of whether we are being rules by Slothfulness or by Godly Work and Rest. I expect to do Part 4 in the next few days. Part 4 will cover the issues of Wrath vs Severe Mercy. I will be addressing revenge, bitterness, and ungodly anger, vs doing something harsh knowing that the action will save the person in the end. It's going to be a good one.
This part talks about energy. How do you use it? Where is it directed to? What is using it? Newton's First Law comes into play here. An object in motion will tend to keep in motion, and an object at rest will tend to keep at rest until an outside force acts upon it. And when you look at it, we are like this as well. If we have an active lifestyle (I am not merely referencing physically. I am referencing simply being out there and doing something.), we prefer to stay in action. But if we get lazy and don't want to do anything, it takes a lot of effort to get going. But the comparison here is not just being lazy vs working, it is being lazy verses getting proper rest. When we live an active lifestyle, we make an active choice to go to bed so that we can restore our batteries to be active again tomorrow. When we take our Sabbath Day off work, we make an active choice to take a break so we can charge up for the next activity. But laziness is not "getting rest". Being a sloth, being lazy, is being unwilling to get up to get something done. Rest is intentional to be able to work later. Laziness has no intention to work anyway, or do the absolute minimal job possible.
So how would these two square off? Energy is well described with the water of a river. Water is the source of life of the land and moving water acts as a purifier. But stagnant water gets nasty very quickly. Water can be still in a lake but it will need to have some form of circulation underneath to stay fresh. So in this terrain, we have a river splitting up into a delta to feed a lush wetland. But in this delta are a series of sluice gates that store up water resources and can turn a small creek upriver into a mighty river downstream. And downstream, the delta joins back together to form a river that feeds many others. Before this happens, the water is diverted to small channels that will slow it down, turn water wheels, but keep the river refreshed. These channels will help purify the water and sift out the hard minerals or other things that have been thrown into the river so when it goes down stream, it is fresh and more pure. The sluice gates also play a role in this process.
However, all this would be if God is the ruler of the land (which a metaphor for your body). What happens to this land if slothfulness takes over? If our enemy takes over our land, the enemy will take control of the channels and sluice gates. They will break and smash some of the gates, and plants boulders or dams to block up the river's flow. If the flow of the river is impeded, it will cease flowing and become stagnant. And that will turn the lush wetland into a nasty, stinky, dead, bog. The water in a bog easily carries parasites, algae, and the dreaded mosquito. It rots the plant life and animals caught in the muck will die. But it gets worse. When the enemy takes over, and slothfulness rules, what little energies are left will be diverted to feed any other area controlled by said enemy. Slothfulness will easily feed gluttony, envy, wrath, and others. And with our river diverted to feed those dark tendencies, any water that makes it to the river's original course is little more than a trickle.
So how do we deal with this? First, it will take time and energy, something that slothfulness will seek to retain control over. We must first drive out the inhabitants of slothfulness, but driving out the mindset of slothfulness only does part of the job. If we don't transform the land back into a wet-land, we won't get out the bog. Remember what turned the wetland into a bog? Dams and broken down/abused sluice gates. To get energy flowing again, we may need to break some dams in our life. What is impeding our energy flows? What keeps us on the couch? Paint that idea, that concept, that mindset, as a metaphor in the shape of a dam or a boulder blocking the river's flow. Then blow it up. The only way to remove stagnant water from this bog is to replace it with fresh water and keep the river flowing. Fix the sluice gates. Remove any objects from impeding water flow.
This picture is not complete yet. I have ideas on what these sluice gates actually are supposed to represent but I'm not settled on them yet. And there may be many other things this wetland or bog may carry that are related to the issue of whether we are being rules by Slothfulness or by Godly Work and Rest. I expect to do Part 4 in the next few days. Part 4 will cover the issues of Wrath vs Severe Mercy. I will be addressing revenge, bitterness, and ungodly anger, vs doing something harsh knowing that the action will save the person in the end. It's going to be a good one.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
The Terrain of Lust vs Intimacy
This is Part 2 of my series on the Terrain of the Seven Deadly Sins. My last post covered the terrain on which the battle between Pride and Humility take place. This post will cover the terrain on which the battle between Lust and Intimacy will take place. To remind you, everything I describe is meant to be a metaphor of how it actually takes place and what I describe in this post is far from being complete. This is just to get some creative juices flowing so either someone could run with it or I could return later and run with it.
The first thing to remember is that the land is a metaphor of the body. The land is us and how we act, how we live our lives, is determined by who rules it. So like the region where Pride or Humility would fight, so it is with Lust vs Intimacy and who rules it will determine how the land appears. Lust and Intimacy is a very unique situation because of the nature of the two. It is well known that when we sin, we sin against God, but when we sin sexually, we sin against ourselves. And nothing illustrates this better than a cave-like system. If you have a forest and it burns down, it will regrow. However, if you mine into the earth, it leaves a permanent scar. Even if you fill it back in, it will not be the same again, ever. So this gives us the best metaphorical picture of how Lust and Intimacy fight in our lives.
Lust is rather easy to picture. It is often a strong desire for sexual pleasure and rarely is it in an appropriate manner. Intimacy is a little harder to picture. So let me describe it this way. You have a natural cave in the land, and the further you go into the cave, the safer you feel. Think of being in a public place, verses being in your home, verses being in your bedroom. In public, you tend to have a higher guard and you are watchful of people that you do not know or trust. In your home, you don't bring people in that you do not already trust. But the deepest place of that intimacy is the bedroom. You could be stark naked in your bedroom and you won't care. And the only ones you would allow to see you in that position are the ones you share the deepest intimacy with. There should only be two people who hold this position: God himself and your married spouse (emphasis on waiting until the marriage is consummated rather than before the alter). Intimacy is being in a safe place where you can share your deepest secrets, your deepest desires. It is where you can vent and you don't have to fear about it being made public. Everyone has a place of intimacy, the deepest part of your cave where you feel the most secure.
As you go further into your cave, you have a security system that sets off bells and whistles if someone goes too far in with you. A wise person will have such a system set up and will know when someone is treading on ground without permission. But a foolish person will either ignore this system or disable it. Some friends can only go part way into the cave. The closer friends can get deeper into the cave but not into the inner most chambers. Your family can get to certain layers depending on the relationship. But your spouse should be the only one into the deepest part of the cave where you are able to experience the deepest level of intimacy. Here, is where your deepest part of the cave joins with your spouse's deepest part of the cave. And this is the metaphor of "two becoming one flesh".
However, that is Intimacy. Lust is a corruption of this. It is easily confused with love. Lust has two ways in. One is by forcing or seeking to obtain the deepest part of the cave of another. It also allows others into that deepest part of the cave when said person(s) should not be there. Men tend to do the former and women tend to do the latter, but it is not uncommon to see it reversed today. Typically, what happens is when we seek the intimacy of those we should not be intimate with, we will dig ourselves a new part of the cave to make space for that person.
And here is the killer. Proverbs warns of the prostitute who lures in the young man to rob him of his innocence. This is the Lust that seeks to rule over us. Lust will use another person's innermost cave to join with yours. However, the King designed your caves to be only joined by the spouse he had in mind for you. Lust cannot have access to that part of the cave. So what Lust will do is dig a new tunnel to connect to you. But you have the choice of whether to allow such tunneling to take place in your cave. When such digging takes place, you get warnings and you have the ability to stop it right then and there. But if you allow the digging to continue, your cave will be joined with another's cave that should not be joined. And this will leave a permanent scar in your land. But it gets worse, Lust doesn't stop there. Lust seeks to pull you into it's inner most cave and chain you to it. It will give you a leash and it will allow you to return to your inner most chambers with your spouse (if you are married) but it will pull at that chain at will and drag you back. And while you are chained to Lust's chambers, Lust will go into your cave and make its home there. It will strive to violate your inner most chamber so that your spouse will one day never return. It will invite its buddies of Pride, Envy, Gluttony, and Wrath to also rule over you. Lust will dig deeper and deeper, never being satisfied like Gluttony and it will hit the fires of Wrath until your intimate cave is demolished. Those terrains will be described in more detail later. And while your cave is being destroyed, you remain bound to Lust's control as it seeks to dig deeper and deeper until the weight of the earth above can no longer support itself and sends it crashing down.
But when Intimacy rules your caves, you can force Lust out. However, even if Lust did rule your life and now Intimacy does now, the damage that Lust did will not revert back to its original state. It will always be scared. Even if you drive Lust back into its own cave and fill the tunnel Lust carved in with dirt, it will not be as solid as it was before Lust started digging. And once Lust gets in the first time, it will strive to keep coming back. But our King is ever grateful and he can restore what Lust has stolen from us. The metaphor to describe Lust is actually describing another metaphor of a bigger picture. This cave describes how Lust or Intimacy will rule our lives. But Lust/Intimacy with others/our spouse, is itself another picture or a metaphor of the relationship we have with Jesus Christ. Sin is the Lust that imprisons us and seek to destroy our cave that was meant to only be occupied by ourselves and Christ. But Christ came to restore us. And we will carry the scars that Lust delivers to us until the day we die and Christ resurrects us anew. But his patches that will carry us through until that time will suffice and as long as we rely on his security system and only open ourselves to HIM and his desires, we will never answer the door when Lust comes knocking.
Next post, I will cover the Terrain on which Slothfulness vs Rest will take place.
The first thing to remember is that the land is a metaphor of the body. The land is us and how we act, how we live our lives, is determined by who rules it. So like the region where Pride or Humility would fight, so it is with Lust vs Intimacy and who rules it will determine how the land appears. Lust and Intimacy is a very unique situation because of the nature of the two. It is well known that when we sin, we sin against God, but when we sin sexually, we sin against ourselves. And nothing illustrates this better than a cave-like system. If you have a forest and it burns down, it will regrow. However, if you mine into the earth, it leaves a permanent scar. Even if you fill it back in, it will not be the same again, ever. So this gives us the best metaphorical picture of how Lust and Intimacy fight in our lives.
Lust is rather easy to picture. It is often a strong desire for sexual pleasure and rarely is it in an appropriate manner. Intimacy is a little harder to picture. So let me describe it this way. You have a natural cave in the land, and the further you go into the cave, the safer you feel. Think of being in a public place, verses being in your home, verses being in your bedroom. In public, you tend to have a higher guard and you are watchful of people that you do not know or trust. In your home, you don't bring people in that you do not already trust. But the deepest place of that intimacy is the bedroom. You could be stark naked in your bedroom and you won't care. And the only ones you would allow to see you in that position are the ones you share the deepest intimacy with. There should only be two people who hold this position: God himself and your married spouse (emphasis on waiting until the marriage is consummated rather than before the alter). Intimacy is being in a safe place where you can share your deepest secrets, your deepest desires. It is where you can vent and you don't have to fear about it being made public. Everyone has a place of intimacy, the deepest part of your cave where you feel the most secure.
As you go further into your cave, you have a security system that sets off bells and whistles if someone goes too far in with you. A wise person will have such a system set up and will know when someone is treading on ground without permission. But a foolish person will either ignore this system or disable it. Some friends can only go part way into the cave. The closer friends can get deeper into the cave but not into the inner most chambers. Your family can get to certain layers depending on the relationship. But your spouse should be the only one into the deepest part of the cave where you are able to experience the deepest level of intimacy. Here, is where your deepest part of the cave joins with your spouse's deepest part of the cave. And this is the metaphor of "two becoming one flesh".
However, that is Intimacy. Lust is a corruption of this. It is easily confused with love. Lust has two ways in. One is by forcing or seeking to obtain the deepest part of the cave of another. It also allows others into that deepest part of the cave when said person(s) should not be there. Men tend to do the former and women tend to do the latter, but it is not uncommon to see it reversed today. Typically, what happens is when we seek the intimacy of those we should not be intimate with, we will dig ourselves a new part of the cave to make space for that person.
And here is the killer. Proverbs warns of the prostitute who lures in the young man to rob him of his innocence. This is the Lust that seeks to rule over us. Lust will use another person's innermost cave to join with yours. However, the King designed your caves to be only joined by the spouse he had in mind for you. Lust cannot have access to that part of the cave. So what Lust will do is dig a new tunnel to connect to you. But you have the choice of whether to allow such tunneling to take place in your cave. When such digging takes place, you get warnings and you have the ability to stop it right then and there. But if you allow the digging to continue, your cave will be joined with another's cave that should not be joined. And this will leave a permanent scar in your land. But it gets worse, Lust doesn't stop there. Lust seeks to pull you into it's inner most cave and chain you to it. It will give you a leash and it will allow you to return to your inner most chambers with your spouse (if you are married) but it will pull at that chain at will and drag you back. And while you are chained to Lust's chambers, Lust will go into your cave and make its home there. It will strive to violate your inner most chamber so that your spouse will one day never return. It will invite its buddies of Pride, Envy, Gluttony, and Wrath to also rule over you. Lust will dig deeper and deeper, never being satisfied like Gluttony and it will hit the fires of Wrath until your intimate cave is demolished. Those terrains will be described in more detail later. And while your cave is being destroyed, you remain bound to Lust's control as it seeks to dig deeper and deeper until the weight of the earth above can no longer support itself and sends it crashing down.
But when Intimacy rules your caves, you can force Lust out. However, even if Lust did rule your life and now Intimacy does now, the damage that Lust did will not revert back to its original state. It will always be scared. Even if you drive Lust back into its own cave and fill the tunnel Lust carved in with dirt, it will not be as solid as it was before Lust started digging. And once Lust gets in the first time, it will strive to keep coming back. But our King is ever grateful and he can restore what Lust has stolen from us. The metaphor to describe Lust is actually describing another metaphor of a bigger picture. This cave describes how Lust or Intimacy will rule our lives. But Lust/Intimacy with others/our spouse, is itself another picture or a metaphor of the relationship we have with Jesus Christ. Sin is the Lust that imprisons us and seek to destroy our cave that was meant to only be occupied by ourselves and Christ. But Christ came to restore us. And we will carry the scars that Lust delivers to us until the day we die and Christ resurrects us anew. But his patches that will carry us through until that time will suffice and as long as we rely on his security system and only open ourselves to HIM and his desires, we will never answer the door when Lust comes knocking.
Next post, I will cover the Terrain on which Slothfulness vs Rest will take place.
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