The Odds

The Circle Around the Zero

A lover doesn't figure the odds.

He figures he came clean from God as a gift without a reason, so he gives without cause or calculation or limit.

A conventionally religious person behaves a certain way to achieve salvation.

A lover gambles everything, the self, the circle around the zero!

He or she cuts and throws it all away.

This is beyond any religion.

Lovers do not require from God any proof, or any text, nor do they knock on a door to make sure this is the right street.

They run, and they run.

~ Rumi ~

(Version by Coleman Barks, Feeling the Shoulder of the Lion)

Self-argument

Reversal

I think that one person's complexity tends to dazzle, while another's simplicity can offer a kind of rest.

With God, however, I think it may be the other way around. It's God's simplicity that is dazzling, and God's complexity that is our rest.

"Blessing Said When Encountering a Large Crowd of People"

"Blessed are You Who knows all of the secrets. Praised are You Who created all of this strangeness and distinctiveness. Praised are You for never putting it all back together again."

Irwin Kula, Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life

More Simple Ways to Quench the Spirit and Protect Your Heart from Experiencing Intimacy with God

7.) Perpetually second-guess any moments or instances of peace or hope that you are tempted to enjoy.

("Despise not the day of small things..." Zech. 4:10)

8.) Overdefine what it means to experience God's presence, so that your definition rules out the following:

a.) everything that is not explicitly "religious" in content/tone

b.) everything associated with the imperfect, the incomplete; the stunted and the stunned; the distracted, the dislocated; the torn, the tossed, and the turning; the ragged, rotting, and raw; the botched and the bleeding; the broken, the unspoken; the tentative and the trembling--everything that struggles and staggers, all that is perplexing, under-the-radar, out-of-your-control.

c.) anything that doesn't "feel" like "something"

d.) anything you haven't "earned" in some way

e.) anything that is familiar to you

("Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, 'Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.'
But Naaman became angry and went away, saying, 'I thought that for me he would surely come out, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and would wave his hand over the spot, and cure the leprosy! Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" He turned and went away in a rage.
But his servants approached and said to him, 'Father, if the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, "Wash, and be clean"?' So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; his flesh was restored like the flesh of a young boy, and he was clean." 2 Kings 5)

9.) Take personally each of your thoughts, emotions, and transitory physical states--they are all your fault, and every one of them of them accurately and completely represents your spiritual condition. You are not inadvertently absorbing any of them from situations and people in your vicinity or in your world, and none of them is coming as a stealth attack or even a bombardment from the enemy of your soul, whose strategy is to first torment you and then blame you for the torment.

( "Put on the whole armor of God,so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood & flesh,but against the rulers, against the authorities,against the cosmic powers of this present darkness,against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God,so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day,and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of trutharound your waist,and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whateverwill make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith,with which you will be able to quenchall the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation,and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. Ephesian 6:11)


10.) Remember that monitoring and immediately confessing to God every single imperfect thought, feeling, impulse, or mental image is much more important than delighting, however brokenly, in God and in the people around you.

(Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders which You have done, And Your thoughts toward us; There is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count. Ps. 40:5)

11.) Keep in mind that the holiness of God is pretty much the bane of your life.

("Sing to the LORD, O you saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness." Ps. 40:5)

12.) And most importantly, live, pray, and believe in the context of a transactional relationship with God, in which you are the initiator of every interaction.

(http://www.internetmonk.com/articles/T/trans.html)

Six Simple Ways to Quench the Spirit and Protect Your Heart from Experiencing Intimacy with God

1. Complicate, idealize, mystify, and obfuscate the concept of friendship with God, making it so abstract and placing it so far out of reach that it is completely unattainable, or attainable only by some imaginary, unreal, perfected projection of yourself that has nothing to do with your actual flesh-and-blood existence.

( "For indeed, it is not to angels that He gives His help, but to to people like us..." Hebrews 2:18)

2. Assume that knowing God is for every other person but you, and every other time but now--it's for later, after you've solved X or taken care of Y.

( "Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." Hebrews 4:7)

3. Avoid all risk and all adventure in your choices, your thinking and feeling, and your prayers--what if you get something wrong? Don't budge even an inch until you have absolute certainty, which includes knowing ahead of time all the potential implications and ramifications of every move, both inner and outer.

( "But My righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, My soul will have no pleasure in him." Hebrews 10:38)

4. When God comes to your remembrance at any given moment between or in the midst of tasks, rather than simply giving thanks for God's presence, or allowing yourself to feel whatever you are feeling in God's presence, use up that little gap of time by attempting to evaluate things between you, to repent of not thinking of God sooner and more frequently, and to assess and repair what may or may not be broken in your connection with God. Then become involved in the tasks at hand until you remember God again. Repeat process, ad infinitum.

("Better is one day in Your house than thousands elsewhere." Psalm 84:10)

5. When you are uneasy or unsettled for any reason, find some way to distract yourself, such as snacking, purchasing something, checking your email, etc., rather than experiencing the unsettledness in the context of companionship with God.

( See line from Psalm above.)

6. At all costs, avoid silence and solitude, since you must somehow address and deal with every thought or emotion that pops up when you are by yourself, rather than simply letting some of them go.

("Deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me." Psalm 42:7

"My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him." Psalm 62:5

Excerpt

The first two sections of Troy Jollimore's poem "Light"

Light

1.

When the gates were finally thrown open and the world
was filled with light,
no one, at first, could see a thing--it was overwhelming:
from utter, infinite darkness into blazing, limitless
light--
but then they began to adjust, and to look on things
for the first time.
And they were amazed to discover that some things--
ice, to take an example--
looked the way they felt; and that some--like rain,
for instance--
looked the way they sounded; and that the wind, which could
feel like rushing water
and sound like a wounded animal, did not, at least for the most part,
look like anything at all. It was all so new to them
that they declared a public holiday and closed down all the shops,
the banks, the government offices, the libraries, the schools,
and they just walked around and looked at things, then gathered to compare notes,
and each person wondered whether or not he ought to admit to the others
that he wasn't sure that he liked it, that he felt just a bit afraid.

2.

All that time they'd been carrying eyes around, not knowing
what they were for.
It was good to know. It was good, they all agreed, to have that
settled.