solipsistic hell

(from wikipedia) In Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger," the character Satan makes the following statement of solipsism at the end of the novella, "In a little while you will be alone in shoreless space, to wander its limitless solitudes without friend or comrade forever—for you will remain a thought, the only existent thought, and by your nature inextinguishable, indestructible. But I, your poor servant, have revealed you to yourself and set you free. Dream other dreams, and better!...You perceive, now, that these things are all impossible except in a dream. You perceive that they are pure and puerile insanities, the silly creations of an imagination that is not conscious of its freaks - in a word, that they are a dream, and you the maker of it. The dream-marks are all present; you should have recognized them earlier. It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream - a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought - a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!"

This gets me to wonder if Twain, an atheist, may actually be quite close to the mark, so to speak. At times, it seems the road to hell is paved with solipsistics, but perhaps the lost human soul in eternity comes to a situation thinking much like what Twain describes. Alone, homeless, wandering, never to have reconciliation, or communion again.

Bird Calls Getting me Out of Bed

A strange and beautiful thing has been happening to me, a consummate night owl. Birds are singing me awake in the a.m.. One day it was a turtle dove saying what sounded like, "Come one, Come one!" and I was beckoned to get up for my morning walk. This walk is wonderful. I examine my dreams, I pray (thanking God, praise him for his world, and lifting up others on my mind). I really have never been a morning person, and I still don't think I am, but this new habit is very refreshing. 

I'm starting to really be captivated by the calls of the birds I hear as I walk. They are so busy in the morning. I heard a woodpecker this week as he was getting breakfast out of a tree. I may have to start studying the bird calls of local birds. I think they might be talking about me, or maybe they have important things to say that I should know. : )

Orientation to the Divine

"Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by his holiness; the nourishment of mind with his truth; the purifying of the imagination by his beauty; the opening of the heart to his love; the surrender of will to his purpose--and of this gathered up in adoration most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy of that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin." -William Temple

Answering a question --

A question from Cole -

Cole asks: "Lisa, I go to college with friends and classmates that think Christianity is arrogant because it makes an exclusive claim on truth. Any ideas how I share Jesus with them when they are sure reject me for this reason?"

Hi Cole! Thanks for writing. First it's important to realize that the idea of neutral ground is a myth. Everyone believes their ideas about reality, or truth, are not false ideas, or they wouldn't believe them. If they are willing to say someone else's ideas are arrogant, that means they are claiming a superior way themselves. They believe in a preferable path, and this is arrogant too. Everyone does the same sort of thing. Kindly pointing out that we all have a belief preference may help to level out the playing field a little when you are trying to state what your position is. It's okay to have an opinion. They will (probably) realize this.

What sharing your faith (Christian apologetics) boils down to is something more than just preaching and defending the Good News. Humans are in rebellion against God in their hearts. The bible points this out in the narrative story of God's interaction with people. Many thirst for something missing --which is the missing reconciliation with God. They long for peace, but also many are in opposition to God. And some (basically) hate him. We have to know this when we talk to people who don't believe. Spiritually it boils down to submission, doing things God's way....for you and for those opposed to God. Submission is never easy-- and not very cool in a society that prizes freedom, independence, and choice. Paradoxically, it is God's authority that brings comfort, clarity, and relief.

I want to encourage you to really love your friends who believe and those who don't. Bit by bit, you can introduce a worldview to them that includes God as the centerpiece. Some may reject you, (they killed Jesus after all) but others may see that your centered life and reality makes sense and is real, and not just for you. It's a blessing to see your love for Jesus, Cole.

God, Authority, the Bible--all the big stuff

For Christianity, The Bible makes claims about God. The Bible is both human written and just as much, a book made by God. It is not that the claims are true just because the Bible says so, I think, but because they are true the Bible says them. The Bible is so powerful because it says so much about God, but it does so in a very objective way. Yes, we may see it through our experiences, and people may misinterpret it, but it has authority, not for what it is, but for who is in it and behind it. Without it and therefore God, as a backbone of our reality as we submit to a Creator God, Christianity is mainly reduced to something sort of trite. Maybe it is then more or less about culture, or being good, or experience, or tradition. These aren't very compelling forces for coming under Lordship, and they have little to do with what changed the world in the first century A.D. For believers in Jesus of the Bible, the message of Jesus, is a message of belief and reconciliation with God. It is a message of love, and devotion to God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we concede on these points, then the fuel is spent. We have something rather empty.

Sometimes we like to have our reference point be ourselves, like our choices, and authority begin through perspective, which is really an impossible starting point. The lure and promise of modernity (we are still living in the gasps of it after all) was really the autonomous human--apart from God--saved by reason. Life then is choices, human directed, not God directed. In large part, modernity won the day. Christianity tried to meet it on its terms, and forgot about starting with God as authority.

The beauty of Theology sometimes missed by point-by-point systematics (Christianity's attempt at heading off modernity) is the narrative type which the CREATION-FALL-REDEMPTION-CONSUMMATION story that runs through the scriptures, like a stream.

This is another glorious thing about the Bible--Theology... and YES--experience, as we take in God through the story he tells us through it.

On becoming a Hero or a Villain

It's coming to me that if we attempt to meet our own ends or be self-satisfied those ends find us to eventually be the villain of our own story, and far worse--the greater story. But on the other hand when we make our lives about what is outside our selves, about others, about the greater good, or greatest good, God, and so on, we become the hero of both stories.

So many times we look at the means rather than the end. We think of happiness as the end, for instance. Some of us do. I have. Various means are sought to find that end. Isn't it odd that it is the pursuit of happiness, the journey, which brings the reward? But it is. We may think that is a gyp, but life is about growing wise, not about constant amusement, no matter what TV tells us.

It is the virtue, the noble things, the selfless things that when pursued bring a lasting contentment no quantity of money could ever buy this, and no other thing can bring it to us. (Seldom are the rich content by just richness alone. Momentarily are they happy. The poorest countries have the lowest suicide rates and the richest have the highest says the research.) The good traits aren't pursued as much as grown into along the way and fulfilled when our minds have been righted by goodness and we get better at goodness toward others. The pursuit can right us or make us all wrong. From the inside out. Indeed, I think our hearts--our true hearts are revealed from the journey, by what we turn into and what contents us or turns us one day malcontent. By a sort of path we become Frodo or Gollum.

Where do we look for our satisfaction? Do we look toward the material? Money, houses, clothes, cars, thrilling vacations, fine food, wine, women, song. Do we look in status or prestige of some kind? Climbing corporate rungs, education degrees, political advancements, accolades. These falter and crumble.

It is in spite of these and beyond them where we may become the heroes of the greater story, which will in turn grant that our story come out best in the end. It doesn't work the other way around. Trying so hard to get our story right while neglecting the greater story of greater good, the story God is writing, clouds our destiny, and may make an antagonist of each one of us. Slowly, before we are wiser. God wants the players, if you don't mind, to love his children--the other players. In every story there are villains, but take care that you aren't one of them.