For Real

"Nothing, there is nothing yet in truest form

We walk like ghosts upon the earth

The ground it groans"

"The Fall," by Gungor from Ghosts Upon the Earth

"I believe you're more real, than what my eyes can see, 

I believe the hills are full of a mighty angel army"

"God of the Angel Armies," Jonathan David Helser

"Cobb: She had locked something away, something deep inside her. The truth that she had once known, but... she chose to forget. Limbo became her reality. 
Ariadne: What happened when you woke up? 
Cobb: To wake up from that after, after years, after decades... after we'd become old souls thrown back into youth like that... I knew something was wrong with her. She just wouldn't admit it. Eventually, she told me the truth. She was possessed by an idea, this one, very simple idea, that changed everything. That our world wasn't real. That she needed to wake up to come back to reality, that, in order to get back home, we had to kill ourselves."

Inception (the film, 2010)

"For now we see obscurely in a mirror, but then it will be face to face. Now I know partly; then I will know fully, just as God has fully known me. 

I Corinthians 13:12

"For we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm."

Ephesians 6:12

It's not a mistake that this generation is becoming more and more aware of the spirit realm, the reality of what is (most times) invisible. If I were to take a little more time, I could find more examples of songs, movie quotes and pop culture references within and without Judeo-Christian expression that nod to the realm that is "other than" what we see and touch. 


Just the other day a blonde athletic-looking man in an oversized business suit in his later 30's approached me at the coffee shop I work. Wondering why he was lingering by the counter, I asked if I could do anything for him. "I took some halucinogens the other night and I think they messed with my brain chemistry..." (didn't see that one coming). I continued to ask and probe and he continued to talk to me about he believes in the "physical and spiritual plane" and that they are connected, he believes in God, heaven and hell, even Yeshua. How does this all connect? He believes these things and yet is looking for a higher experience; clearly he wasn't satisfied with just a stockpile of knowledge. 


Another person at the mall, when asked about his religious background, said he believes in God, yet he had traveled the world and studied under some of the most renown Buddhist and Hindu thinkers and sages. He seemed to not have found "it" yet, but questioned the sincerity and motives of the Christian offer of the experience of God. 


We all are yearning for transcendent experience. Yet the source of that experience matters more than anything. We all know there is a reality of worlds and being that are other than the kingdom-phylum-class-order-family-genus species we experience each day with our five senses. God, reveal yourself to us, to me, to my people. Open up our senses beyond the five sight-smell-hearing-touch-taste, that we could sense You, know the truth, and the spiritual realities of good and evil that affect everything we do. Satisfy our hungry hearts by showing Yourself as the One who is more real than the ground I'm standing on, more real than the breath in my lungs.

"You're more real than the wind in my lungs

You're more real than the ground I'm standing on

You're thoughts define me, you're inside me

You're my reality

Abba,I belong to you"

"Abba," Jonathan David Helser

I love your house; it's so architectural.

Sometimes someone goes and writes something that I've been wanting to write, but way better than I ever could have. This is the case with this blog post by Michael Gungor. 

He writes a very accessible and well-constructed evaluation of the Christian music industry. In light of the Burst Into Song You Mtns. project (That will happen. One day. When we get to it, eventually.), some of his points were really well-spoken and a synthesis of a lot of what we've all observed.

For those of you without the time or energy to read the whole thing, here are notable quotes, in my opinion:

"I had a conversation with John Mark McMillan last night about something that I think is very interesting. By the way, I consider John Mark to be one of the ones I consider to be making a valiant effort in transcending some of these imposed limitations in this industry. But he mentioned to me how strange it is that people keep calling his new album “creative.” That word is actually one of the most used words when people describe our music as well. In fact, I bet some of you reading this have described as such. Here’s the weird thing about this…
Why do you find it necessary to say that?

Do you notice that nobody really uses that word about other types of music? I just was perusing some Itunes user reviews to see if this holds up. I checked John Mark and mine, and “creativity” is very often found. But it’s not often found in reviews of bands like Sigur Ros, Bon Iver, Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens or other artists who are certainly very “creative.”

Nobody goes to an art gallery and says, “boy, that painting is so creative.” Why? Because it’s art! Of course it’s creative! Why else would it be there? It’s very nature is creativity. Or like Lisa pointed out to me today, “that would be like saying, I love your house, it’s so architectural.”

But when someone in the Christian industry actually takes their art seriously, everybody is like “holy crap, listen to how creative it is!”

"Yes money matters. But so does beauty. Art actually makes a difference in the world. Have the courage to actually make decisions on values and not simply on past numbers and trends. And for crying out loud, if it really is good, the numbers will follow eventually anyway."

Can I get an amen?

The Lonely Life of an Apostle

Donald Miller is the only current pop Christian writer who I still like and would recommend. This excerpt from his book, Searching for God Knows What provides insight into the humanness of apostle Paul that I never would have seen (but man, I wish I did. Then I would be rich and famous and popular among the trendy Christian community. One day...).

If you don't have the time or energy to read the whole thing, read these:
"For the first couple of days in a new town, Paul probably felt completely alone. I see him like this when he talks about how he wants to go home and be in heaven but stays on earth so he can write letters and preach. I see him writing by candlelight at a stranger’s table when he talks about how he has this thorn in his flesh and can’t get over it and prayed about it three times, but God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you.”
 ... the guy was passionate, like he actually believed this stuff was true, always going off about heaven and hell because he knew life has extremes. One minute he talked about how disgusting sin is and how it hurts God in His heart, and the next minute he said he would go to hell for people if he could, how he would die for them and go to hell if they would just trust Christ. It’s really hard to read that stuff because it gets you feeling guilty about not loving people very much, and then you feel very thankful for people like Paul because it means that if a person knows Christ, they become the sort of man who says difficult truths with his mouth and yet feels things with his heart that make him want to go around and die for people. It’s quite beautiful, really."

yet untitled

A little girl darkened the door of the old cathedral at dawn. That is to say, her shadow was cast across its towering doors as the morning beams of orange and warmed pink creeped up over the horizon and onto the stone sidewalk behind her.

Ding-dong

The resonant sound of the bells inside the echoing walls of the God-aimed monstrosity made her jump slightly as she pulled the ringer rope.

 A man in a grey robe opened the the door with an overdrawn creak.

"Welcome, little one; we've been expecting you."

She gazed up at him, eyes widely soaking in his wrinkled, over-sized countenance.

"Expecting me?" she inquired as she cocked her head at a jaunty, inquisitive angle, "I just came here to wonder if anyone would like to buy a flower." She gestured with her bent arm upon which dangled a wicker basket filled with cut chrysanthemums.

The clergyman chuckled to himself. "Yes! If flowers were prayers then you could call this place an arboretum! Then again, perhaps flowers are prayers..." his thoughts seemed to trail off as he squinted at the morning light that now bathed him. Seemingly regaining his state of mind he motioned her in with a wave. "Anyhow, come on inside, young one. "

The girl gave a tug to the bottom of her tightly buttoned yellow cardigan (quite matter-of-factly) and trotted lightly yet intentionally inside.

"If prayers were flowers," she began, dinner plate eyes scanning the cavernous enclosure, moving up one wall, across the domed ceiling and down the stained glass on the other side, "then I would make a much more notable profit with my business."

"Oh, yes?" he inquired.

"You see, my expenses to produce would be nothing, and I would never run out-- in and out of season!"

Again, he laughed to himself, though this time more loudly and lively. "I am happy to have found that sprouted youth who kneel before the Holy One are still being cultivated in this day and age."

"You should be," she stated emphatically. "My mother says that our people are going to hell in a hand basket. That's why I've decided to carry flowers in mine."

With a grin the man of the church plucked a dark red mum from said basket and brought it to his nose. "With some baskets of flowers and prayers, perhaps there is hope after all," he spoke dreamily, as he exhaled the fragrance of the mum with enjoyment.

...

 

Sweet!

Scientist Mohamed Babu from Mysore, India captured beautiful photos of these translucent ants eating a specially colored liquid sugar. Some of the ants would even move between the food resulting in new color combinations in their stomachs.


from visualamor


p.s. this is the sort of thing that makes me think i might switch from blogger to tumblr. it's a much more convenient sharing machine.