old cartoon revisited: burn it!

By nakedpastor on spiritual

This is this week’s submission to Illustration Friday’s theme today, “memories”. I drew this cartoon to express the determination and decision it takes to renew the mind… because it means letting the old mind die, or actually putting it to death. Like Paul asserted… all his intellectual and theological accomplishments were dead to him, as worthless as dung. Is it possible that memory may be the root and stronghold of suffering?

unchanged minds

By nakedpastor on transformation

One of the things I most struggle with as a pastor is the fact that the human mind is not only reluctant to be renewed but resistant. I not only deal with this in the lives of the people I pastor, but with my own mind too. The mind does not want to change. It wants to remain comfortable, secure and immune. I believe this is the natural bedrock of the human being. Psychologically, spiritually, religiously, even organically, the mind refuses to change. Its primary function is to protect the organism. So for the mind to end, to die, is the last thing the mind is willing to do. It will not!

We are naturally and organically escapist, unrealistic and religious. We seek for confirmation of what we already believe. We create proofs for ideas we already have. Even the most radical of our thoughts are justifications, excuses and vindications for the way we already think. I don’t know why I keep getting surprised by how religious we are with our trite and clichéd platitudes. We have such a strong urge to be affirmed, comforted and secure that renewal is simply out of the question. It is our most basic refusal to not die, to not suffer, to not end and be crucified.

Is it possible to enter death, to take up the cross, and to die today? Is it possible for my mind to end as it is now in order that it might be raised to new life? I believe it is possible. But right now it seems like the impossible possibility.

a few confessions of a pastor

By nakedpastor on spiritual

I’m sorry that I expect people to think the same way I do and agree with everything I say.
I’m sorry that I want everybody to be the kind of people I like and would enjoy hanging out with.
I’m sorry that I desire others to keep the same principles that I do.
I’m sorry that I want everyone to like what I like and hate what I hate.
I’m sorry that I think I am wiser than your people.
I’m sorry that I think you’re closer to me than to others.
I’m sorry that I assume I’m really serving you while others are really not.
I’m sorry that I see your people as a resource to serve me rather than seeing myself as a resource to serve them.
I’m sorry that I sometimes act like a hireling, ready to run when things get tough, and not a true shepherd.
I’m sorry that I think about money too much and how your people can get more of it for me.
I’m sorry that I use the scriptures as a way to get what I want rather than what you are passionate about.
I’m sorry that I talk about your people like they’re trash.
I’m sorry that, because of my own ugliness, I’m blind to the beauty you see in others.
I’m sorry that my love is wrapped in a multitude of conditions.
I’m sorry that I think that you will hear these confessions above every other prayer that is being uttered right now.
I’m sorry that I’m stopping now, when I could go on forever.

Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.

- Corrie ten Boom

Christianity ... is always in need of re-simplifying, going back to its origins, ridding itself of the excessive superstructure it has acquired through history.

- José Comblin, Catholic theologian in Brazil

Jesus sowed his seed in our hearts, then off he went.... He knew things would not be ideal. There were the birds and the droughts, the weeds and the insects, the parasites and the blights. But there was also the power of the seed itself.

- Joseph G. Donders
Teacher and chaplain at the University of Nairobi, Kenya

Don't quit

Don't quit when the tide is lowest,

For it's just about to turn;

Don't quit over doubts and questions,

For there's something you may learn.

Don't quit when the night is darkest,

For it's just a while 'til the dawn;

Don't quit when you've run the farthest,

For the race is almost won.

Don't quit when the hill is steepest,

For your goal is almost nigh;

Don't quit, for you're not a failure

Until you fail to try.

-Jill Wolf

How long is a chain of events?

Psalm 13 part 1
“How long is a chain of events?”

Have you ever found yourself wondering about the timescale of a particular difficult phase of your working life? You have trouble remembering when you couldn’t remember trouble. It seems an age ago when all was well and there appears to be no end in sight.

A budget squeeze has strangled all the joy and freedom out of your work or poor team relationships wear you down. Going to work has lost its attraction and there seems to be little compensation for your hardship. You can stand this for a week or two, or even a month or two, but this is now no fun at all. If such a phase at work coincides with some home or personal struggles you are in the middle of a depressing cocktail.

It is not really de rigueur or fashionable to have a Christian faith and be depressed. Have you noticed that in your church or small group positive thinking is supposed to be the norm? But everybody knows and, to be fair, churches are now recognizing that faith and a sense of well-being are not automatic companions even though they are best configured hand in hand.

When your work life is depressing, your home life is tricky, and your church life is not incredibly helpful, your risk factors go up and your biggest risk is to lash out at God Himself. In your heart you may know the lack of logic of this response but the heart is also guided by feelings. And you feel forgotten and ignored by your own God.

So the question which you share with the poet, come shepherd, come soldier, come king who wrote Psalm 13 is “how long?”

It is this sense of having been forgotten which can be so debilitating. Everyone else seems to be moving on or receiving reward, getting the breaks and in some cases having a ball – but God seems to have forgotten you.

This can spill over into your personal life. A close relationship goes sour or you consider yourself to have been single for far too long or your character and style just seem to be undervalued amongst your friends.

And church seems a bore or irrelevant or just targeted at someone else.

Then the circle closes and you feel forgotten by God. David even attempts an answer on the timescale thing by suggesting ‘forever’ as an option. Of course when you’re having a hard time it does seem to drag. Anyone who doubts this should compare twenty minutes on an exercise machine with twenty minutes watching TV and see which feels the longest. Pain has a habit of elongating its own duration.

But there is a second aspect of this gripe against God. It is more frustrating. It is one thing to feel forgotten or accidentally overlooked, but when you try to remind God of your predicament it is another thing to feel that He is deliberately turning away or hiding. So you pray to the walls or worship the ceiling. You dialogue with thin air and you beat your hands on a closed door. For pity’s sake how long is this going to last?

When you find yourself in one of these moments or phases it is hard to feel hope or expectation. This piece is not the place for shallow, quick fixes. Indeed this verse of the psalm offers no solutions at all – it merely poses a question. And therein lies its power. This opening salvo of Psalm 13 gives you clear and present permission to pose the question.

Posing the question is the beginning of things. Living with a question is not a hopeless state. The dialogue between the question and the questioner’s mind is vital. Don’t throw these times away. Such questions give you permission to despair and recognize your wounds. Genius is released from your wounds and wisdom is hard earned through questions. Have you noticed that?

Work well, Geoff Shattock
Worknet

“We can do no great thing, just small things with great love.”
Saint Teresa of Avila

"If we give the impression that the main effect of Christianity is to make us miserable, then it is not surprising that ninety per cent of the people are outside the Christian church.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Can we announce the gospel in the same way to the oppressor and to the oppressed, to the torturer and the tortured?

- Mortimer Arias
protestant church worker in Bolivia

The good news is that God loves me long before I could have done anything to deserve it.

- Desmond Tutu

There is no valid leadership acknowledged in the Bible, whether it be of people or of institutions, that does not fulfill itself in servanthood

- E.V. Mathew
lawyer and YMCA leader in Bangalore, India