Pentecostal Thoughts

--I'm not a Pentecostal by affiliation, although I can certainly understand why someone would gladly welcome such affiliation. Personal experiences of Spirit, in its many manifestations, can really rock your world. After all, according to Scripture, you're dealing with fire and wind!

--A simple puff of air can extinguish a match; wind can quickly spread a forest fire. God's Spirit is not a gentle breeze, but a mighty wind that fills arid valleys and animates piles of lifeless, dry bones (Ezekiel 37).

--This is no tame Jesus, whose Spirit calls the dead to life (take that anyway you want), gives courage to the fearful, and elicits wild from the domesticated. According to Acts 2, The Holy Spirit lifted a group of people to their feet and scattered them to the winds, as it were, to gather a harvest of which they were the firstfruits, children of God's breath.

--Why are we Lutherans so afraid of the Holy Spirit that we only give Him focus once a year? Would a greater emphasis place us in the charismatic camps? Maybe I just answered my first question. Heaven forbid that we be like...them. I understand that personal experiences of the Spirit can lead to spiritual snobbery and aires of superiority, lording it over those who have no such experiences (like me). But would it be necessarily so?

--Things that remind me of the functions of the Holy Spirit: the wind blowing through the trees, a frightened heart made courageous, a group of people feeding the homeless, an elderly couple dancing to music that only they can hear, a mourner being given solace and comfort, a baby taking his/her first steps, someone listening to music that brings tears to his/her eyes, the fleeting moments of the heart that whisper "all is well", people planting flowers at a gravesite, aha! moments, a person enchanted for whatever reason, reminiscing on past memories... the discovery that life is a river that flows and seeks to be forgotten in the ocean of God's love.

--The Spirit is not a liquid that is infused like a vaccination. The Spirit is more like an artesian well that springs forth from the very depths of our being in Christ and yells, "Surprise!" I think Jesus said as much in John 4:13,14.

--How come we don't dance down the aisle after receiving the Eucharist? The Holy Spirit never made anyone in Scripture staid and stiff, like they were coming out of a boring movie. The Spirit made people alive and vibrant, like they just had a stiff drink! Think about that last sentence for a second.

Waterboarding IS Torture (Keep repeating that until you get it!)

Mancow Muller being waterboarded. He could only stand it for 6 seconds. He now knows that it IS torture.



It doesn't matter if you believe terror suspects should have been waterboarded or not. It must be admitted that waterboarding is, in fact, torture. Mr. Mancow used to think it wasn't, along with the likes of Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt, the latter I myself have heard say explicitly on his radio show that waterboarding is not torture. Mr. Hewitt should watch this video and think again.

Reality Blows (I mean...Shows)

If I have to watch the daily lives of other people on my TV screen, then I know that my life is over. You might not feel that way, and that's fine. I just have trouble figuring out why people are so fascinated with the lives of other people. I wonder if these viewers are missing something in their own lives that they have to watch someone else live life in front of a camera.

Take, for instance, Jon and Kate Plus Eight. I'm well aware that I might ruffle some feathers here, but it seems that everyone I talk to loves, and I mean, LOVES this show. And I don't get it. I can't see what the appeal is. I'm sure the Gosselins are nice people and are subject to the everyday stress and strains of raising a family (along with the added load of celebrity status, which, it appears, has put a strain on their marriage). But I don't understand why this is a "can't miss" show for so many. Maybe it's just me. I don't know. When I watch any of these reality shows I feel like I'm watching something I don't have to see, or perhaps shouldn't see. The term we have for this is voyeurism. We've become a nation of Peeping Toms, aided by fatcat TV producers, and we're shocked when it happens for real.

So, help me out here. If you are a big fan of any reality TV show, why? What is so appealing that you have to tune in religiously (now there's an interesting term)? And if you say it's because (in the case of Jon and Kate Plus Eight) the kids are so cute, I would advise you to look at your own kids, or kids you see everyday, and see the cuteness in them instead of having to see it piped into your television.

As a Little Child

"We have little or no trust that a child's knowledge is real knowledge, that their play is important work, or that the animated world they inhabit is as true as the Newtonian world we prefer. We believe firmly that we have to teach them and that we have nothing to learn from them. In an enchanted world, it would make sense to let children do some of the teaching and to give lessons in what they know best-- play, animism, and charm, the very things our culture lacks.

-- Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life

Man, Myth, and Magic

Are we not men? We are Devo!

Well, actually we are men (and women). How silly of me to think otherwise!!

It has been said that oftentimes myth is truer than truth. This has resonance for me because I have obtained truth primarily through logic and linear thinking; lists and bullet points. That is the bane and blessing of my western heritage.

There really isn't anything logical about myth. It's full of surprises-- a turn here and a twist there. But it expresses underlying "truth" about the human condition and ways to live more humanly (and humanely).

Perhaps what is needed today is for us to mythologize our lives. This takes an informed imagination, of which I have very little. But the case can be made that this is one of the best ways to care for our souls. Life today lacks magic. Existence is so humdrum and boring for so many. With a little bit of imagination and insight, we can reframe our lives so that our life experiences won't seem so drab or horrendous. Even the most horrific events of our lives can be assimilated into our being creatively, lifting us toward wholeness.

So, this is my new project-- mythologizing my life. Face it-- all of us have had experiences in the past that were unpleasant or truly scandalous. Perhaps these events can be baptized and transformed into a journey of sorts. I have no idea what this will look like, but I hope to share insights with you as I gain them.

We might discover that we are Devo after all!!

P.S.-- I believe this can be done Biblically, lest you think I'm turning into a New Age whack-job.