A couple thoughts from the slowing that takes place while camping and walking aimlessly in the desert:
1. Reverent sensuality is better than propositional orthodoxy
2. Religious rituals and practices are often mistakenly perceived as a means of becoming worthy, or in some way meeting a divine requirement that might increase the chance of divine favor (sometimes even hoping for a miraculous intervention that wouldn't have happened if the right hoops hadn't been jumped through in the proper order).
But ritual and practice are not about worthiness or a quid pro quo transaction, they are entirely about becoming capable. Capable of hearing the ever-speaking "still small voice." Capable of feeling the kind of compassion that leads to hospitality and generosity. Capable of awe and wonder which creates humility and gratitude and delight. Each of these results are good in their own right. They change God not at all, except if in some way God's joy can increase.
Even the practice of charity is about much more than helping. It is a practice meant to increase ones capacity to be free. Free to see the other as just as real as yourself. Free of the insidious attachment to money as a means of safety, security, and joy.
Knowing that hoarding money only makes one more isolated, suspicious, and fearful does nothing to liberate one from the attachment to money. Only in the practice of intentional, sacrificial generosity does one experience freedom from the snare of money. The practice of generosity makes one capable of generosity, but of a more joyous and true variety. Religion isn't about knowledge, not even the knowledge of good and evil. Nor is it about security and certainty. It's about practice.
At its best religion is (re-ligamenting), putting things together so that they work better. If it's true that God says "do this and don't do that," it's not a prerequisite of love. God can't not love; God IS love. Do this so that your joy may be full. Don't do that so that your freedom might be complete. Practice the good so that you become good at it, capable of love, empathy, delight, joy, generosity.
A Tribute to Night
Bright moon casts
Sharp shadows
Senses awaken
Down from the hills
The dampening air
Thick with the fragrance of
High School camp loneliness
Coyote choir cacophony
Call and response
More than howling at
The moon
Or their brothers and sisters
Across the valley
The show includes yips and yelps
Cries and fierce growls
Shows every other hour
All through the night
1. Reverent sensuality is better than propositional orthodoxy
2. Religious rituals and practices are often mistakenly perceived as a means of becoming worthy, or in some way meeting a divine requirement that might increase the chance of divine favor (sometimes even hoping for a miraculous intervention that wouldn't have happened if the right hoops hadn't been jumped through in the proper order).
But ritual and practice are not about worthiness or a quid pro quo transaction, they are entirely about becoming capable. Capable of hearing the ever-speaking "still small voice." Capable of feeling the kind of compassion that leads to hospitality and generosity. Capable of awe and wonder which creates humility and gratitude and delight. Each of these results are good in their own right. They change God not at all, except if in some way God's joy can increase.
Even the practice of charity is about much more than helping. It is a practice meant to increase ones capacity to be free. Free to see the other as just as real as yourself. Free of the insidious attachment to money as a means of safety, security, and joy.
Knowing that hoarding money only makes one more isolated, suspicious, and fearful does nothing to liberate one from the attachment to money. Only in the practice of intentional, sacrificial generosity does one experience freedom from the snare of money. The practice of generosity makes one capable of generosity, but of a more joyous and true variety. Religion isn't about knowledge, not even the knowledge of good and evil. Nor is it about security and certainty. It's about practice.
At its best religion is (re-ligamenting), putting things together so that they work better. If it's true that God says "do this and don't do that," it's not a prerequisite of love. God can't not love; God IS love. Do this so that your joy may be full. Don't do that so that your freedom might be complete. Practice the good so that you become good at it, capable of love, empathy, delight, joy, generosity.
A Tribute to Night
Bright moon casts
Sharp shadows
Senses awaken
Down from the hills
The dampening air
Thick with the fragrance of
High School camp loneliness
Coyote choir cacophony
Call and response
More than howling at
The moon
Or their brothers and sisters
Across the valley
The show includes yips and yelps
Cries and fierce growls
Shows every other hour
All through the night
