A little reminder....

Below is the Henri Nouwen email I received this morning and it reminded me of an exercise we did this past year. Breathing in and out "Yahweh"....never in my life had I felt a calm like I did in those moments and I have since mediated on this word and I am blessed by the peace that it brings.

Focussing Our Minds and Hearts

How can we stay in solitude when we feel that deep urge to be distracted by people and events? The most simple way is to focus our minds and hearts on a word or picture that reminds us of God. By repeating quietly: "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want," or by gazing lovingly at an icon of Jesus, we can bring our restless minds to some rest and experience a gentle divine presence.

This doesn't happen overnight. It asks a faithful practice. But when we spend a few moments every day just being with God, our endless distractions will gradually disappear.

I agree with Julie -- this discussion is SO good! My questions are always to get us to think more about whatever we post -- and that includes myself! So it's great to see the depth we arrive at. I agree with Melissa and Jennifer-- to be "anti" anything goes against the first and greatest commandment. The only thing Jesus was "anti" was evil -- in any form. One of the things we must be aware of, then, is the varied forms evil takes -- and ostracism, oppression, exclusion, etc., are all very real forms of evil, in the true sense of the word, because it sets up one against the other -- and that is precisely what Christ came to heal. But taking a stand FOR "the other" often places us in the precarious position of being judged and attacked by someone who chooses to set himself or herself against inclusion, love, healing, etc.

Today I learned that one of the 10 people who were killed by the Taliban over the week-end was a Methodist missionary / missionary kid -- his parents used to visit us when I was little. He was only slightly older than me, and went to school with friends of mine in northern India. Where and how does this Gospel of peace and love fit with Muslims, extremist or not? What would Christ have said or done? After all, it wasn't the enemy that killed him -- it was his own people.

I'm just throwing out thoughts, because we have to see the global picture as well as the local one.

How do we love these "others"? Where do we draw the line?

Back to Anne Rice -- I do think we must remember that she is making a statement, and a good one, and that we should think about it -- but also remember that only God knows who we are, where we are, and what we need, need to do, etc.

Peace. . .

Left To Tell

I am behind everyone in finishing this book. . . it took me like a week to process and I just couldn't even talk about it. So wonderful reading about the healing and forgiveness part and the depth of her realationship with God, I'm still in the pain though. . . what a powerful story.

Whenever I am upset about something - a person place or thing - there is something going on with ME not whomever I am pointing my finger at ( remember when I point at anything 3 fingers point back at me)If she remains a follower of 'Christ' she is still a Christian, she sound to me like she is suffering a bit of terminal" uniqueness" that is always a symptom of separateness itself . . . . .the very thing she is trying to get herself away from. (Heavy sigh) and so we are all still in the world.. . . struggling to love others.

Boldness...Left To Tell

I've had so much fun reading all the discussion. I'm devoted to you all tonight! I love it, too!

I don't really have any questions this time around, mostly something to share. Today my pastor at church said something that struck me. I immediately thought of Immaculee. Here is what he said...

"True relationship (with God) builds faith and boldness that we might stand strong in the face of opposition."

Opposition doesn't even begin to describe the immense struggles Immaculee faced. I have always appreciated the amazing boldness and the deep faith she writes about during her long suffering. And, of course I have also questioned whether I could actually have that. She even wrote about how there were times after her rescue in which she yearned to be back in that small bathroom so that she could be in deep communion with God again. I often wonder if, during that time in the bathroom, she felt God presence in the form of contemplative prayer??

Either way, his statement helps me see how one can have peace/joy/love and suffering at the same time. Of course, I'm not suggesting Immaculee experienced joy during that time but, I do believe she was in God's presence and experienced peace.

Wow! I was delighted to see your post, Melissa -- and yours too, Jennifer, about Anne Rice! The Casa Grande Dispatch printed an article about Rice, with her comments. I too was intrigued. Have been reading articles about "churchless Christianity" especially in non-Western countries -- that is, those who come to believe on / in Christ, but do not leave their cultural religion, be it Hinduism, Islam, etc. It's high time for this kind of dialogue, and Rice's declaration is also timely. But the discussion revolves around the question of whether one can remain a follower of Christ and separate oneself from a community of believers -- i.e., the church. But if you depart from Christianity, though not Christ, with whom do you worship, how do you maintain community, and how do you serve the Christ you follow?

However, I love the way it can open discussion about the church, and her failings, downfalls, weaknesses, etc. We do well to not take for granted what "church" is -- for after all, it is not a building, or an organization, or a corporation, or even a specific meeting place -- the church is, quite simply and profoundly, the body of Christ -- surely that is what Christ meant when he said that he would "build His church" on Peter, the rock -- that his followers would go into the world to call men to Him, and live in community.

Thanks for sharing this, Melissa -- this is exactly the kind of thing our blog does well to address, to get us out of our boxes, as Jennifer said -- and it's what we began when we studied our first book about taking GOD out of our box!! Yea!! Amen and amen!!!!

Other thoughts?

Anne Rice leaves Christianity

Hello from far away!

For those of you who don't know, Anne Rice, author of "Interview with a Vampire" and many other books, announced on her Facebook page last week that she is "leaving Christianity". Here are her words:

For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.

And here is a link to an interview she did with the LA Times after she posted her announcement. Please note that she said she is leaving "Christianity"... not Christ.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beliefs-anne-rice-20100807,0,5152082.story

I'm curious as to how you all feel about this. I have been intrigued by this ever since I heard about it and would like to start some discussion about it. Ready, set, go....

Back to Julie's post about forgiveness, and the amazing fact of Immaculee's forgiveness of her family's killers -- and I would ask -- is that possibel without faith -- the kind of faith that is wrestled with in the pit of despair and blackness?

Well, I tried to post a comment, but it wouldn't let me -- again!!

So I'll try this . . .

I say "Amen!" to the posts and comments here. We are so accustomed, in the wester world, to define faith by what we can see and measure and understand, that we forget sometimes that it is faith by very definition of the fact that it cannot be seen or defined adequately with words. The writer of (thebook of) Hebrews says that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" -- a little paradoxical, right? Or, The Message says "it's our handle on what we can't see." I like that. But the things is, we almost never grasp what our faith is -- let alone WHO it is in -- until we come the end of our rope, end of our self-sufficiency, or end up in a pit of some sort -- like Susie described in her post so succinctly. Until then, we can't truly grasp what faith is, can we? We can talk about it, use "Christianspeak" as well as the next person, but with little depth.

So Immaculee's story speaks to the very real pit of fear and terror she was in, in the midst of an unspeakable situation, but in the midst of which God met her, RIGHT THERE AND THEN. Prior to this she was certainly a "Christian" in the sense of believing in God, worshiping, etc. So we may also ask if there is any way to truly prepare for this kind of situation -- or if the situation (i.e., whatever pit we find ourselves in) -- is used by God to bring us to Him. I think this is one part of what she meant by saying there is a grave difference between "being spared" (as in her life was spared) and in being saved -- by God, to God.

Thoughts?