CREATING COMMUNITY

 

IMMANUEL

CHRISTMAS 2022

Christmas is a celebration of the arrival of one of the three triune beings, the Son of God, and hence the prophet Isaiah (7:14) foretells this child will be called Immanuel, God with us.  

 

Whenever I have a concern with scripture, I seek out what Immanuel told us during the three years he walked among mankind while wrapped in human flesh.  When challenged by the religious leaders about the greatest commandments, he simply replied that if we love God and our neighbors as ourselves, we will be just fine.

“The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.”

 "The church is not a religious community of worshippers of Christ but is Christ himself who has taken form among people."

--- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

“It is said that before entering the sea

a river trembles with fear.

The river needs to take the risk

of entering the ocean

because only then will fear disappear,

because that’s where the river will know

it’s not about disappearing into the ocean,

but of becoming the ocean.”

---Khalil Gibran

MINDFULNESS HAIKU

First Light, Jamestown, NC

 MINDFULNESS HAIKU

Awake at first light.

Can I keep this calm moment?

That will be my choice.

BODY AND SOUL

We are not a body that has a soul.  

Rather, we are a soul with a body—

a mortal body that carries us through life 

to enable the development of our character 

which shapes the timeless soul.  

CHRISTMAS HAIKU

Moonlight over Jamestown. NC

CHRISTMAS HAIKU 🌟

When will love arrive?

The Bethlehem Inn is full.

But love enters in.

IN THE RED ZONE

Red Sky in the Morning, Jamestown, NC

Red Zone

The red zone in American football fields is considered to be 20 yards before the opponent’s end zone and the goal of a winning drive.  As a lifelong football fan with the KC Chiefs, an easy analogy for me is to see life as a 100-yard field and the red zone as the culmination of life’s long journey before entering the promised end zone.  

I was introduced to the author Jack London many years ago via his novel, The Call of the Wild.  I’ve aways spent a lot of time out in the wild areas of nature hunting, fishing and hiking.  I even wander there searching for errant golf balls.  That book was his all-time best seller, but one of his more famous quotes comes from a lesser-known book, Burning Daylight.  And London’s literary executor, Irving Shepherd, quoted a Jack London Credo in an introduction to a 1956 collection of London stories:

“I would rather be ashes than dust!

I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry rot.

I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

The function of man is to live, not to exist.

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

I shall use my time.”

Joseph Campbell in his seminal book The Hero with a Thousand Faces encourages us to follow our bliss in a “call to adventure”.  London also instructs us to follow the call of the wild and writes “Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire and the beaten earth around it, and to plunge into the forest.”

I’ve traversed over those 80 yards pursuing the adventurous call to experience mortal life to the fullest on this planet.  And now I’m living in the red zone, having achieved the goal of transitioning from success to significance.  I’ve exchanged untold life hours for the monies needed to survive and grow in both mind and spirit.  Now I shall expend my life hours in pursuit of positive outcomes and the reasoned avoidance of those experiences now known to be unproductive and distasteful.  

I will no longer be governed by human created constraints such as routines, time and clocks whenever possible.  My days no longer have a price.  I shall use my time.