The chicken or the egg:

After so many years of debating this contentions topic, have we come any closer to discovering the answer to this question? I am probably as far from the answer to this question as I am to the question that was posed to me today: do you have a specific set of moral and ethical standards due to your religion or would you have had this guide in your life without religion?? Per implication my guest was asking me if I thought that he was an immoral person because he was a-religious.

We had an interesting morning, and I am not quite sure how religion became part of the conversation, no infact, we were driving up, across form Houtbay to Llandudno, after a splendid lunch, he’s Jewish, so I asked if he kept Kosher, in order for me to arrnage for appropreate food at all our function venues, and he said – don’t worry I do not see myself as Jewish, and I love all pork products.

My knee jerk answer to his question was YES, YES and YES. Its what I believe that makes me who I am. Its Gods love, His Spirit, and His grace that makes my attempts at LIFE the way it is, that gives me the foundation, the moral and ethical platform for the way I live, that makes me reach out to people the way I do. But the next question, do I then belief that people like himself who lives without religion have less of a change to have this moral and ethical foundation, as although they live as humanitarians their motivation is not necessarily humanity, but simply because it’s the right way to live, to do good, to influence your environment, and to do good to all people, that stumped me. How did Nelson Mandela (and at the moment my guest is visiting Robbin Island, so this question was quite relevant) who comes across, and have never in public refer to believing in God(at least I have not heard it), did what he did. How did his moral and ethical foundation develop, if religion played no role. Or should we discredit what he has done due to his non-religious believes? I think if he had chosen any other example I would have been quick to give him the “religious-correct” answer. But using Madiba as the comparator, stumped me a bit.

I want to belief that this graceful man, is surely knowing or unknowing, God inspired. That he just like Beyers Naude were raised up, from our nation, to be His voice, in directing His people into a different direction. Like when He told Moses to part the Red Sea so that the Israelites can escape death on the banks of the Sea, so He re-directed us out of the way of death on the banks of Apartheid, to the promised land, using these 2 incredible people.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, said that God must have a good sense of humour, to choose somebody like Beyers Naude, a clergy in the NGK, an Afrikaner, the son of the founder of the Broederbond, to speak out against Apartheid, the most unlikely candidate, almost like Saul. So that takes care of Oom Bey. He knew God therefore, we can assume that his foundations dictated or predicted his believes and thus his actions.

But what about Madiba??? And others like him, who changes the directions of peoples lives dramatically, who influence, at the very core of peoples lives, by sitting with children, by crying with grown men, by reaching out to their oppressors, by laughing at themselves through telling Old South Africa jokes, so that people from both sides can laugh together, but who have been so disappointed in the way that Christians think and live, so disappointed by the verdicts of the past (I heard a recording of Dr Verwoerd, saying that Apartheid was a gift of God to the Church) of people who claims to be following GOD.
…….and this makes me pull back my knee, makes me think a bit longer before giving the religiously correct answer, makes me filled with emotion, knowing that what I need to do, is build this relation, with this international customer of my organisation, with whom I have the privilege to travel for a week, so that I can learn form this wise man, and so that I can serve him, maybe he grows fond of me, and see in me the reason why I am who I am, maybe just maybe he sees a slither of my motivation, maybe I can talk to him without using my voice, by living what I believe, maybe just maybe he can make up his own mind about my chicken and egg predicament.

Energy Savings

During our recent winter, a few close friends of mine, where left very frustrated due to continuous – and life disrupting- power failures. Most often on the very cold nights, they had to eat cold food (as even the take away restaurants in their area were effected. The reason being that we are living in a culture where we have not learned the value of saving this very scarce natural commodity – ENERGY.

Often in my life I do exactly the same. I use my physical and emotional energy at times that I can least afford it. I waste my most precious resource. I spend my time and energy fighting and debating issues that at that moment seems life-important to me, yet often, and in hindsight are insignificant issues.

So how do I flip the energy saving switch? How do I replace the 60watt light bulb with a energy-saving devise? How do I get into the habit of rather snuggling into a blanket vs. pulling the heater closer?

This is by no means a solution, but somewhere in my design I found a pause button, to create a stop-and-think moment. A moment to consult, to analyse to strategically plan, and then only to decide on an action. Yip I heard you, the fixer, taking time before jumping in, the boots and all, fools rush in where angels fear to tread, - person??? A couple of emotional-energy overload evenings, leaving me with cold food in front of a dead TV in a dark room, forced me to re-evaluate my own self-righteous wisdom, and do what I am taught every year in our long term planning at work. REDIRECT, DO IT DIFFERENTLY, CHALLENGE YOURSELF, TAKE THE RISK.

And then I thought – if I don’t do it differently, I might just end up with the same results as before, with cold food, in front of a dead TV, in a cold room, without any energy to spare for the really important stuff – like living life.

Stories

When someone tells you their story you always have the choice to start thinking about your own story, or you can submerge yourself and just drown in the details of their story.

Very often (actually most of the time) I’m so busy figuring out my own story that I am clueless about the Story of God. In the last week I have been taking a journey with 4 people, and a TV character who, by living their lives, become part of the Story of God.

Hannah, this gracious lady, overcome with the desire to have a child, pleaded with God, and when He answered her prayers, she gave Samuel back to God, “sacrificed” her dream. And God blessed her with more children, and created a voice to His people through Samuel.

Samuel, sold out, committed and submerged in God, follows God script for His story to the letter, influences not only Israel, but the lineage that leads us to the stable in Bethlehem.

Saul, nation-demanded and God appointed King over Israel, who throughout his career finds it very hard to consistently, hear God’s voice. Who destroys himself by NOT listening to God, but following his own heart. He however plays a major role in developing David, who for most of his young life is seen by Saul as his direct opponent and enemy. His pursuit of David makes him a skilled worrier who seeks the face of God, who in his adversity seldom moves without being VERY sure that God is leading him. Saul, as egocentric King, plays his role in God’s story to be His instrument in developing the character of David.

David, from a young, very young age, seeks the face of God. He listens to Gods voice through Samuel, but seeks an audience with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Overcome by his own desires, he steps out of Gods guidance, sins, repents, God - in His grace, uses David as one of the main characters in the lineage of Jesus, He blesses David and Bathsheba with Solomon.

Joan of Arcadia is currently on our local TV network. This program is about a teenaged girl(Joan)who finds her role in Gods story. To make it easier for us desensitized-to- Gods- voice people, God communicates with Joan, clearly through various, and sometimes insignificant people. He teaches her, and tells her, about the interconnectedness of peoples lives. He shows her, her role, always giving her the choice to choose her own script. On Sunday nights, I’m glued to the TV, I relive my teenage years, and am amazed at how clearly God’s story lies in front of us/me, providing that I am aware of God, the Director of life, aware of how I can live myself into the Story of God.

Bubbles in a bottle

Sparkling water can get you into a lot of trouble, like when you try and open the bottle just as a quiet moment settles on a group of people, before the sermon starts. Laughter erupted, and the holy moment probably broken.
Sometimes I feel just like the bubble trapped in a bottle, and just the slightest indication of opening the bottle, the bubbles just leap out of their confinement, and splashes all over anybody close enough. Irrespective of the moment. Sometimes its a burst of energy, that energies everybody around me, and sometimes - yes you guessed it - its like blazing flames, scorching the poor souls around ME.
So the next time I tried to have a sip of the water, I made very sure that the bottle stood still for a while, tapped it a bit to make sure that their would be not unexpected eruptions, and this is probably excatly what I should do when its building up, when I can see that this bursts will not be filled with laughter and energy but with hard words, unneeded advise and facial expressions that just tell you - get out of my way.

Such good intentions of which the road to heaven is paved.

On which on side of being lies doing

So on the one side Darren, we do to much, we hurry along, we don't stop and have not idea on the where there the roses are growing - let alone smelling it. We tend to keep ourselves to busy, with the "right" things, and like Martha we prepare, "we - cook" and for relaxation "we cook some more", and like Martha we live on the edge of missing out on the the good stuff.
Maybe we get lucky - God intervenes, we get shocked into stillness, and realise that we have been hurrying along so fast that we missed out on LIFE, and then we hopefully start BEING.
We breath, we sit at His feet, we listen, we learn, we understand something about hte quiteness inside.
I realised that this quiteness is the place where I meet God, where he finds me, where I can hear His quiet voice.
And then I sat. With no need to control, no need to arrange, to "cook' to impress, I just revelled in being - quiet ( OK knowing me you realised at this point that I still had a lot to say, but for me not to do, was huge)
So here is the question I'm pondering, when and how does the doing borned from being begin, when is the doing free of pretence, and truly grew from the knowledge that quietness is the birthplace of doing - where do you cross over to the other side??

For this I know for sure.

I don’t understand how aeroplanes stays in the air. How tons of metal can climb to 38 000 feet, and stay there for hours. Despite being expained to that is all about the pressure of the wings on air, I simply do not understand it, I just don’t get it.
I do understand that God loves us so much that He inspired the Wright Brothers to invent this wonderful machine that can fly, a machine that compacts the 15 hr drive form Johannesburg to Cape Town to only 2 hours.
Looking down from up here I do know that His love enfolds us – all of us, like the sky wraps around the earth.

I don’t understand how its possible to isolate us form the –50◦ C outside, I do know He cares enough to shield me, often from myself, by always giving me alternative choices.

We’ve been in the air for 45min, I’m so comfortable in this Lear-Jet, leather seats, view over the Free State, seeing all the dams and the reflection of the sun on the farm fences, and I am still baffled – even after flying for so many times. And I experience God right here, probably because I cannot figure this out, but feel quite comfortable knowing that He can.
However can I make the shift to experience Him in the everyday things that I can figure out – like traffic and making breakfast or doing 5 year planning, or crying because I am hurt, or joy when the sun warms me on a cold winters day, or the sight of sunset over Table-bay. Can I detect His Divinity in the mundane of everyday living.

As this I know for sure, for as long as God is just part of the religious silo of our lives, we miss the joy and freedom of living, of transporting the cognitive knowledge we have of God into experiencing Him, here and now.

I think its time to call it a day.

Centring Clay

A few wonderful friends, realising that I am procrastinator at heart, deceided to spoil me for my 40 birthday, and enrolled me for pottery classes, in the very same building as where Claypot, meets on Sundays. After just 2 classes I realised that working with clay is excatly how God works with me, mouling me into His shape.

Its really cold when sitting, in winter, at a potterswheel. Arms dripping with clay-ish water, to make sure the clay is moist enought to work with. Before you start to create a pot, its fital to centre the clay on the wheel, to make sure that the ball of clay lies exactly in the middle. This is done while the wheel is turning. The potter places both hands (wet with water) on the clay, left palm on the side of the clay, right hand vertical ontop of the clay. Now pressure is applied to the clay pushing forward and downward until you can feel that they clay moves smoothly under your hands. Any deviation, any slight off centre movement will distort the pot.
Whilst sitting wiht my weary arms applying pressure until sweat kept the clay moist, I realised that this is exactly what God does to me. He applies pressure from all sides, from above to ENSURE that He is the centre of my life, and any deviation destorts my life. Even when sculpting everyday, He persists with this process, persists with the pressure to assist me in choosing to make HIM the centre of everything I do, to make every rhithm entrenched with Him , until I am moist enought so that He can sculpt my character into His.