The Waiting is Over

As the glacier makes its way down to sea level, so too do I embrace this new project...assignment...chore. Trouble is I am a perfectionist glacier. Unwilling to do anything unless I do it to the best of my capabilities...if I don’t think I can do it well...

it sits..

and waits...

and festers...

until it is too late to do anything of quality.

But what could I do, I only had 17 hours to post 51 blogs!?!?!? That’s like a blog every 20 minutes...

what an unfair assignment!

it’s not my best work, but it was the best I could do given the circumstances.

Hmmm, is it too late to drop this class?



Wanna know what they are saying? Follow this link:
LYRICS

I have to stop thinking and do something. It is like Gutiérrez and his call to praxis. Actions over intentions.

So I am doing something I have never done before. Allowing my rough draft to be my final draft. You are reading this as I write it. No one else has proof-read it. It is unedited. This may mean nothing to you. It is a huge step for me. You are getting this typos and all. Well, I did spell check it, but can you blame me???

Okay. I am done with self-confession.

Oh, sorry, one more confession: Starting this blog is a class assignment for me. I am building on a previous education class at Luther Seminary.

Now the confessions are done.

Why did I tell you all of this? I think it is important to know these little things to understand my learning model. If you look at the diagram below, you will see ovals. This was supposed to be an exercise in most important stuff inside and things of lesser import but still worth teaching in the outer rings. But I did the exercise wrong.

Again back to Gutiérrez, there is action and there is planning action. He wanted action. For me there has to be reflection. Action without reflection creates anarchy...sort of.




I’ll explain this drawing briefly:
At the center is a Well-informed; Meaningful and Active Faith-life. NOTE: This doesn’t mean “go to church” but it does mean being engaged in the world as a child of God; and expressing love while being a good steward of the creation. No point are lost for going to church however! In fact it can be a great place, sometimes you can even run into other Christians there, which does help in your faith formation. I highly recommend it. It isn't a requirement, it's an opportunity!

In the next ring out there are elements that I find particularly (but not exclusively) meaningful for me. They feed one another; a personal theology leads to faith traditions which leads to praxis (action in the world), reading scripture (our own and other faith traditions) leads to personal theology...this circular motion is not unidirectional but works both ways and across the ring as well. Faith leads across the ring to reading scripture. And so on.

Within the third ring are examples or subsets of the middle ring. Activity moves me from the inner circle to the outer and outer to inner.

For the center of my life, learning is the key. Being well-informed from first hand sources means that you read your Bible and make your OWN assessments—do not allow others to take that away from you and make those assessments for you. Then take your insights into the world. Reflect alone first and with others and then see what resonates with you. As Socrates said, “an unexamined life is not worth living.” I say “an un-reflected faith life is NOT YOUR OWN, it is SOMEONE ELSE’S.” You shouldn’t let someone else control your relationship with God and the creation.

As you read my blogs, if you do. My main emphasis will almost always be trying to break what I consider stereotypes of Christianity. I tend to be cynical of anyone or anything that claims to have “all the answers”; or who knows how to have a “truthful" or "genuine relationship with God” or says “the Bible clearly says...”. Personally I don’t think the Bible is terrible “clear” on very many things. The things it is very clear on 1) Love God with your whole self and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself; both tend to become marginalized.