Good stuff here; listen to the lectures from this past weekend.
http://www.paideiacentre.ca/paideia-gathers
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Love, The Cross, The Family
Let's bring the God of the gospel, the God of the story of Jesus, the God of selfless love home to where we live. Literally. Here's what I mean.
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then you are called to a life of love, but the life of love, by necessity, is the life of the cross. Jesus said, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. (Mark 8). The path of self is the broad path to hell; the path of the cross is the narrow way of life and love and heaven.
But why must you die? Because a selfish life is an unloving life. You must give that up so that you may live and to live is to love. The God who is eternal life is the God who is eternal love. But to have Him, you must let go living for yourself; you must do what Paul says to do: look not only on your self but on others and the first other you need to look to is the God in whose world you live, the God whose love you cannot know unless you look at him, unless you can forget about yourself, unless you can think about someone else beside yourself.
And you are to follow the path of this cross that frees you to love in your family. That's where you live. Instead of expecting everyone to please you, consider what may please them, and do it. Instead of indulging your time in self-pleasures, take time out for them. Sit down and talk to them, listen to them, show them that you love them. If there are walls between you and another, then break them down and be reconciled, regardless of how much they themselves may be at fault. Take care of your own part in the matter, as Jesus said, "go thy way, be reconciled with your neighbour and then offer your gift" (Matthew v.24). You can be the catalyst for healing and gospel-improvement in your family. It's the path of the disciple, the peacemaker. It's the path of love and of life. Lay down your life and save it, and the life of your family as well.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Two Paths of Life
Pres. John F. Kennedy once said something to our country that was one of the best things any president ever said to our country. He is famous for these words and I'm sure you all have heard them before: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." In that one sentence, Pres. Kennedy hit upon a hugely important principle of how to live well in this world. There are two ways to live: one is the selfish way, in which we only regard our own wishes in life. We look to others to do for us what we want them to do, and if they don't do it, then we become bitter and resentful. We become unhappy and even angry. Borrowing from modern political lingo, we can call this the entitlement mentality. I remember riding on a bus one day in SC and a young man said, with resentment in his expression, "What has this country ever done for me!" Ha! That's the entitlement mentality in all its self-centered misery.
The other way to live is the way of love. If you love people, you aren't thinking about whether or not they are doing the things for you that you want them to do; you seek to give them room in your regard; you want to know what they want and need, and then, instead of being all miserable because people aren't doing what you want, you can experience the happiness of generosity, giving to them what they need or want, and their happiness becomes your happiness. It's a cycle of happiness that starts with love, a self-less love, a love that wants to give instead of get.
The reason that the way of love brings more happiness and health into our lives than the entitlement mentality is because that is the way the God of this universe has made us to work. We are created in his image and he is a God of love. God is not sitting in heaven, bitter because you are not doing for him what he wants you to do for him. He's not thinking that way at all. He's thinking about what He can do for you; He loves you. He is the God that, instead of resenting us and thinking, "Well, if they are going to act that way and not notice me and not appreciate me, and not please me, then I'm just not going to have anything to do with them," and go run to his room in heaven and slam his door at us. No! When we did not love Him, He loved us anyway, and He loved us so much that He gave His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and rise from the dead that we might be rescued from the death of self-centeredness, of entitlement thinking, and have a new live of love and happiness with Him.
Do you see how important your thoughts about God are? If you don't think about God rightly, you cannot see life rightly. Sadly, we often think God is like us. He's just as disappointed in us as we are disappointed with everybody in our lives and he doesn't love us anymore than we love everybody else. It's no wonder we can be so miserable, if that's the kind of God we have.
(To be continued)
The other way to live is the way of love. If you love people, you aren't thinking about whether or not they are doing the things for you that you want them to do; you seek to give them room in your regard; you want to know what they want and need, and then, instead of being all miserable because people aren't doing what you want, you can experience the happiness of generosity, giving to them what they need or want, and their happiness becomes your happiness. It's a cycle of happiness that starts with love, a self-less love, a love that wants to give instead of get.
The reason that the way of love brings more happiness and health into our lives than the entitlement mentality is because that is the way the God of this universe has made us to work. We are created in his image and he is a God of love. God is not sitting in heaven, bitter because you are not doing for him what he wants you to do for him. He's not thinking that way at all. He's thinking about what He can do for you; He loves you. He is the God that, instead of resenting us and thinking, "Well, if they are going to act that way and not notice me and not appreciate me, and not please me, then I'm just not going to have anything to do with them," and go run to his room in heaven and slam his door at us. No! When we did not love Him, He loved us anyway, and He loved us so much that He gave His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross and rise from the dead that we might be rescued from the death of self-centeredness, of entitlement thinking, and have a new live of love and happiness with Him.
Do you see how important your thoughts about God are? If you don't think about God rightly, you cannot see life rightly. Sadly, we often think God is like us. He's just as disappointed in us as we are disappointed with everybody in our lives and he doesn't love us anymore than we love everybody else. It's no wonder we can be so miserable, if that's the kind of God we have.
(To be continued)
Friday, 27 January 2012
Sunrises and Sunsets
Sunrises and sunsets are there for a reason. The reason is to be beautiful. Their beauty - for those who are able to receive it - touches our souls in a way that leads to awe. They are each different, crafted by the hand of the Creator. If we recognize the source of their beauty, and thank Him for it, then the sunrise or sunset has fufilled its purpose: to lead us to thankfulness. Yes, they actually teach us about God; they have a didactic purpose, as does all true beauty. But it seems from what St. Paul says in Romans 1, that God does not say to us in the sunset, "Are you getting the information correctly?" He is waiting for us to simply thank Him; He is waiting for the upraised smile of His child who simply acknowledges Him. "I know you are there, I know you did this, and I thank you for it, because it is so beautiful." The "random" shining of the suns rays through our earth's atmosphere becomes a sacrament, a moment of an exchange of love between members of a family. It is, to borrow from Lewis, a sketch of what lies ahead, for those who long for it.
Gnats and Sons of God
In this time of political turmoil in our country, let us remember Lewis' words from the last paragraph of The Weight of Glory: "Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat." Let us get on with building the kingdom that will never be moved by doing simple, kind things to the immortal beings around us.
Follow up: Of course, it is possible for political involvement to be a means of loving one's neighbour; if you see an injustice and do nothing at all about it, that is not love. Yet such involvement is difficult for those walking the narrow way of grace and humility; for those who, like us, are to be "in the world but not of it." We should pray for all such who serve the Lord in this manner and we all should care as much for such things as far as our love will take us and our circumstances will allow.
Wednesday, 18 January 2012
Fixed times of prayer
Some of us may be concerned about the idea of set times of prayer being a form of legalism. There is no command in Scripture regarding any particular set time of the day to pray; one does not necessarily sin if he fails to pray at a fixed time in a day. This is something we commit to do freely. However, all of us who habitually neglect prayer in our lives, be it private or corporate, do disobey our Lord's teaching regarding such things. Being the creatures that we are, we need some kind of structure to discipline ourselves, or to obey the Church, in the things our love for the Lord would lead us to do. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 6:6; Mark 14:38; I Cor. 9:27).
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