Fun Theory

I came across this at Steve Roesler's site.

Which got me thinking - if we look at things from a different perspective, how can we apply this sort of approach in work, in church - without trivialising core activities?

The answer, I think, lies in two key elements.

Firstly, ensuring that we don't lose sight of our objective (in this case encouraging people to use the stairs).

Secondly, and probably most importantly, to look at the required activity from the viewpoint of the participants. Lecturing people about the value of using the stairs would have had some impact, engaging them and allowing them to express themselves is clearly much more successful.

The greatest show on Earth?

I wasn’t going to watch it… and I didn’t want to enjoy it.

But I did… and I did.

The opening ceremony from the Beijing Olympics was truly amazing. Against the background of human rights abuse, with the inevitable excessive cost and consumption, and the element of hypocrisy in talking about these as the ‘green’ Olympics, how could I bring myself to watch it?

Well, I’m weak.

I know that I’ll get hooked on the sports action – I always do. So I was determined to resist the opening ceremony. But I was ironing and the cricket had reached the lunch break, so I just switched channels briefly.

I hoped I would hate it – that it would be jingoistic and militaristic in its approach. But it wasn’t.

Credit where credit’s due. The ceremony (before the boring parade of athletes) was a celebration of all that is best in Chinese culture. The achievements of learning and wisdom were highlighted. The scale of the production was awesome. The technical perfection was breath-taking. It was epic. And the Chinese know how to do a fine firework display (or five!). There were too many highlights to list here. If you haven’t seen it, try to find full coverage and sit back and enjoy! (BBC iPlayer is a good option, if you can access it).

Inspired - first tentative steps

I started to write an entry last week and interrupted myself... several days later I've remembered what I was going to write about.

A friend lent me a book a while back (which I will return soon), which really inspired me. It was called Doorposts by Timothy Botts. The basic idea is that he has taken passages of scripture and presented them as calligraphy. Now my talents are significantly less impressive, but it inspired me and I've made some tentative steps of my own (see below). It kind of links to my thoughts on Praying in Color and also Richard Rohr's idea of having a current mantra. Anyway I'm finding it quite useful and therapeutic and challenging and inspiring. I may show some of my further attempts in due course.

It's also prompted some thoughts about motivation, which I'll come back to later.

Resurrection

Christian spirituality isn't a matter of life and death. It's a matter of death and life.

Pathways of prayer: The charismatic path

This week Pathways of Prayer moves on to the charismatic path.

Actually, that's not quite true. I seem to have got out of sync with the course. But that's OK, as I'm planning to keep going with the cycle of pathways beyond Lent.

So this week, I'm moving on to the charismatic path. But the word 'charismatic' seems to carry so many connotations/values, that I'm calling it the pathway of worship. (I've never been too great at following all of the rules all of the time!).

This pathway is summarised by St Augustine's prayer:

Lord you are great and greatly to be praised!

awaken us to delight in your praises,

for you made us for yourself,

and our hearts are restless

'till they find their rest in you.

The doodle had now reached its final state.

The challenge of maintaining momentum

In many ways this epitomised my week... then I came across this -

"I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it."

Pablo Picasso

So I will start the new week with renewed hope and an image to cling on to.

The contemplative path

This week Pathways of Prayer moves on to the contemplative path.

"The contemplative tradition in Christian spirituality describes the steady gaze of the soul upon God."

So that's the objective for this week. It'll be intriguing to see how this develops during what passes for 'normal life'. Will I be able to focus sufficiently during the working week?

I'm comforted (again) by the bit of Heschel that I was reading today:

"God is not hiding in a temple."

So maybe I will be able to contemplate while at work.

Doodle's moved on a bit more.

It’s an ill wind...

It’s been a bit windy here today – severe gales actually!

Our weekly management team meeting over-ran today – making me late leaving for home, and therefore missing tonight’s quarterly church members meeting. (To be honest, I haven’t shed many tears over this.)

The drive home was tricky in places, as cars and lorries were battered by broadsides from the wind.

But the sky was fantastic. I guess that all of the high clouds had been blown away, and the sky was a wonderfully clear blue, melting into a yellow-grey sunset at the horizon. The only blemishes were a few scruffy, grey clouds being chased across the scene by the wild winds. Then I spotted a flash of pink in the sky, and I realised that it was the vapour trail from a jet. It was catching the colour of the sunset – beautiful!!

The image doesn’t do it justice, but it helped me unwind at the end of a long day.

The sacramental path

The Pathways of prayer course has moved on to the sacramental path this week - the idea being that we should consciously meet with God, but also recognise his presence all around us.

Coincidentally, I was reading 1 Cornithians 13 today and it struck me that through regular, instinctive, habitual meeting with God we should be slowly transformed. This will involve growing, learning and un-learning, because as we get to know God better, we will (in a limited way) begin to see ourselves from his perspective. Of course we need to be willing to change, to bend and to be re-shaped.

Heschel puts it better than me:

"Stirred by a yearning after the unattainable, a pious man is not content with being confined to what he is."

And my pathways of prayer doodle has moved on a bit!

pathways of prayer

We had a brilliant church service this morning. After my recent gripes about songs - there were only 3, and about 10 prayers. It really was amazing. The speaker was taking us through something called "pathways of prayer" - which is a study course created by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. It's intended to be for Lent - we're just a bit late catching up with it.

The guy who was taking our service today has created a calendar for use through Lent, which should be useful. I know that prayer is a major deficit in our church an dhopefully this will help us to focus on it and develop some good, lasting habits in the coming weeks.

Inspired by the concept and the uplifting service, I came home and created this:

A new dawning

I thank God for the sky yesterday morning. It wasn't the most spectacular sunrise, in many ways it was barely noteworthy. But I was attracted to it - and as the day progressed I became more and more grateful! As I reflected on it, I regained a sense of equilibrium and came back from a pretty dark place in my mind.


A new dawning
with a glimmer of hope,
a chink of light,
through a blanket of darkness

When I lift my eyes
what do I see?
Bright hope for the day
or the overcast blackness
that meets my eye?
Do I see the day’s problems
lying in wait,
or the opportunities before me?

Can my hope outweigh my disillusion?

And even if the dark clouds
fill the day,
I will cling on to that promise of light
and think what tomorrow might bring,
with a new dawning.

Praying in color

I stumbled across a review for a book the other day, which seemed to be a fantastic concept - Praying in Color. I can't talk about the book (yet), but I found the website to be inspirational, and have been dabbling in the idea in recent days (see doodles below).

So far, I have found that the process of doodling had reinforced the prayer topic. Also, the image has tended to stick with me through the day - thereby increasing my prayer activity. It's also an approach to prayer that isn't focussed too much on the words (which can often be feeble), but more on thinking through a few words. It's early days, but it seems to be working for me!

It's also brought my journal to life with colour - which I like!

Create as though no-one's watching

Monifieth sunrise #2

Thanks to Lucy for the inspiration, the title and the courage.

I asked for wonder

“I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder. And You gave it to me.”

These are the words of Abraham Joshua Heschel. I’ve been coming across his stuff quite a bit recently – in a book I’ve been reading about the Sabbath (more of that later), and also over at Living Wittily.

Today his words seem to be particularly appropriate – I’ve been considering and reflecting about the way that I observe and respond to the world around me. In recent weeks, I’ve been noticing things more keenly, and responding to them in different ways – photos, daft drawings, bits of poetry, and even some painting!

I’ve commented on aspects of this in some of my recent blogs – it’s like a kind of re-awakening of things that have lain dormant for a long time. Fish Wife was commenting on it the other day, with reference to some of my activities when I was at university – over twenty years ago.

Tonight, I started to read an anthology of Heschel’s material and I came across the quotation below, and it seemed to fit with what I was thinking and feeling. I am aware that much of this is of no interest to anyone except me – so call me self-indulgent – but it helps to write it down!

“We can never sneer at the stars, mock the dawn or scoff at the totality of being. Supreme grandeur evokes unhesitating, unflinching awe. Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight.”

Church will eat itself… I hope!

Last week I caught the end of “Pop Britannia – Two Tribes” on BBC Four. It was a documentary looking at the “struggle between the forces of art and commerce” in British pop music over the last 30 years. You know the kind of thing –

Stock, Aitken, Waterman versus Blur
X-Factor or Arctic Monkeys

It was well presented and quite uplifting to recall how the radical edge has always re-surfaced to challenge the production line approach. Towards the end the presenter comments:

“British pop always eats itself and creates something totally new.”

Hence the title for this entry.

For a long time now, I’ve been frustrated by the ‘production line’ approach to church services. The same basic formula week in, week out. Where is the innovation? The pulsating, creative response to our Creator God? John Drane wrote a book called ‘The McDonaldization of the Church’ and I fear that’s exactly where we’ve reached.

Time to take a fresh look, try some new approaches, different emphases.

Why do we limit our worship for a limitless God?