Not a Number

"Reality consists of a multiplicity of things. But one is not a number; the first number is two, and with it multiplicity and reality begin."

--Jung

What God Promised

What God promised is that everything that can be shaken will be shaken.

Very likely not this time or the next time, or even the time after that, but then, you never know--why not this time or the next time, or the time after that?

I think that this can be taken on both the macro and on the micro levels--the macro level of economic and political systems, and the micro level of our own individual well-being (which, after all, is macro to each of us!). Maybe the economy will right itself, but each of us will still, after all, eventually die.

How strange that this promise of shaking is actually a good thing--but, apparently, it is:
"But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

"Lift up your heads, O gates, And be lifted up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in!"

Instrumental vs. Expressive Actions

from Parker Palmer's The Active Life:

"The instrumental image, which dominates Western culture, portrays
action as a means to predetermined ends, as an instrument or tool of our
intentions. The only possible measure of such action is whether it achieves
the ends at which it is aimed. Instrumental action is governed by the logic
of success and failure; it discourages us from risk-taking because it values
success over learning, and it abhors failure whether we learn from it or
not... Only when we act expressively do we move toward full aliveness
and authentic power. An expressive act is one that I take not to achieve a
goal outside myself but to express a conviction, a leading, a truth that is
within me. An expressive act is often taken because if I did not take it I
would be denying my own insight, gift, nature. By taking an expressive
act, an act not obsessed with outcomes, I come closer to making the
contribution that is mine to make in the scheme of things."

Novelty Vs. Birth of the New

Novelty is easy, even facile compared to the birth of the new, which seems to arrive in this world accompanied by significant resistance on every level, including spiritual warfare. The Incarnation of the Son of God was not exempt from this--quite the opposite--consider the anguish in the slaughter of the Innocents, and the stress of the flight into Egypt.

If something genuinely new is coming to birth in your life without such suffering on your part, maybe someone else--someone you don't even know--is undergoing the struggle for your sake. And maybe some of your life struggle is for the sake of someone you have never met. As Charles Williams wrote, "The altar must often be built in one place so that the fire may come down in another place."

Map: Interactive

What the viewer longs for, or imagines he/she longs for, is the only unmoving spot, represented by "DESIRE X" in the center, around which we see the islands of desire (of which only a few are represented here), not fixed, but migratory, ever restless, ever rearranging themselves.

I am sure that readers could identify other islands that belong on the map!

Hopko quote from LIFE magazine's "The Meaning of Life"

"We are here for communion with God who is Love, the One in whose image and likeness each one of us is made. We find this communion by loving as God loves us.

...Each person accepts or rejects communion with God in his or her own unique manner. For some the way includes an encounter with Christ. For all it includes the encounter with God's Word and Spirit dwelling within us. There are, in any case, no techniques for its accomplishment. The act of communion comes always as grace. For those who know it, it is not life's meaning, purpose, or goal. It is life itself: God with us making us what God is."

Fr. Thomas Hopko

"Entering the Presence"

"How often we struggle to understand God without entering His presence! This never works with God, and it never works with people.

What happens when we enter the Lord's presence? Ps. 73:16-17 puts it this way:

When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood.

When bringing some problem or question to the Lord, I find He seldom answers me directly. Instead He just wants to be with me, to enjoy my company, and He hopes I too will enjoy Him. In this mutual enjoyment, my problems and questions begin to dissolve. They do not disappear, exactly, but their hold on my mind loosens. Problems change shape, and questions turn into mysteries."

from Practicing the Presence of People by Mike Mason