Staying in Sabbath (internal rest and tangible Peace) is subversive medicine for our times now! And may be our greatest gift to others! To stay centered in tumult is a sign of hope.

Our desperate need for Sabbath now! Sabbath still matters! We have to find ways to stay in Peace at least internally, to usher peace to those around us now! Whatever practices keep us in that place of usefulness should be prioritized now in our daily spiritual practices!
Sabbath in our days, has become a necessity, and essential practical daily practice.

Let us enter that Rest, so we can be people living from That Peace in the midst of global traumas! Wisdom dwells in true internal rest.

Sabbath isn’t a luxury now, it’s a hourly prescribed medicine in our traumatic times. In times of intense shaking, knowing rest at the center is essential. I had a vision once, that many would be burnt quickly into place. Burning is refinement but also essentializing.
Peace is the practice which allows fires to be purifying rather than victimizing. Let’s pray these shaky fiery times, refine us into being, rather than destroy our faith.

Sabbath is the way to find wisdom in the midst of tumult. When we rest in “I-Am”, we can interpret and better bless those not in Peace.

Let’s do at least that in the task of loving our neighbors in their current state. Sabbath is an inner practice, bringing Peace is our outer one. Let’s help in tumultuous times by being people of steadfastness in Love. Love calms the storms.

In scriptures, all the miracles occur inside the atmosphere of Love; Jesus lived from Resting in His father! That sort of miracle has Peace on it’s wings. It acts from knowing.

Miracles wear Love. And, Love and Peace still go together. The way to stay in them is to practice Sabbath or resting internally in Him. Sabbath is the most essential practice of our times. Love guides us towards that Peace which last, and makes us people of Peace, which is the most needed medicine of our times.

I get dreams and visions often. Once I had this one….

Had a vision once in which i heard a Voice:

“A great shaking is coming. Everything not pure or real will become dross. People will be forced to cling or burnt quickly into place if they cling/lean and come into true friendship with Me!
If they were willing to enter My Rest, i will comfort and form them. The storm will become a crafter of righteousness within them. I will use high contrast and trauma to refine.

As in the days of Noah, a great shaking is coming. But if you cling and lean into Me like St John, it will be a time of rapid formation of My Spirit within humanity. A time of accelerated spiritual growth is the opportunity of tumult. High contrast times, reveal and form character. Fire can refine if you are in My Kiln. Black and white can become color, if we lean into the Source.”

Feels close to those times to lean into His resting in Himself–that is, into true Sabbath.

A fellow sky watcher last night:

I see the sky at night, and i just
want to be there. Especially these days.
The sky has peace with friction and useful uncontainable silence
and endless unseen transformations. The Sky is possibility to me.
i’m a sky watcher.
When you see the sky
you just want to be there.
the sky reminds me
i am still a kid
just gazing upwards.

Why I like art?

Well, because I like thinking in and through symbols. Symbolic communication carries more weight or density than straight talk. And symbols can carry many thoughts and associations simultaneously like a dream. I’ve always thought primarily in and through symbols. Dreaming and making art are two of my favorite places to be.

Good art is first of all good. What Francis Shaeffer used to call excellence. Unity of idea and materials, true to itself, valid etc….good art is good art, in short. Then we can talk about possible content ideology, worldview etc. First, is it good.

Bad art like bad preaching is propaganda rather than impartation and transformative participation. Art invites transformative encounter. To the level we engage our hearts, we will know a piece of art at it’s core.

Some one asked why i like art. I like art, because i like thinking in and through symbols. So there it is. Also, i meet God fastest in symbolic communication!

How I see marriage: raw notes thus far…

Marriage to me is one way to be thoroughly transformed. It is a high way, and one of the toughest metaphors to incarnate. It requires so much death to self. I think that is what attracted me to it at the start. That I could be hallowed by something which required higher sacrifice. Of course, one need not marry to die. But marriage is a good way to die!

My wife and I are not only very different we are very independent, but we always come home into that space Christ has made between us. It is His new poem He is forming between us.

He likes writing new poems. He told me so, when we got married. If that gives Him pleasure, it’s enough motivation for me to stick with marriage.

I’m most motivated by spiritual growth. So when He told me that marriage would cause the most growth, i selfishly just said yes. I want to mature. So if marriage is the highest method, I’m in, i told Him.
Some people don’t like the idea of what they see as the limitation of marriage. I think God grows things best within limits. Like a canvas helps you frame your art, so marriage provides a frame within which to transform. Everything grows within containers. Even plants. Some containers are bigger than others. My marriage, for instance is a huge. It has room for almost infinite growth as we yield to Him and then one another.

The Third is always where we both lean. In that space, we become more ourselves. Marriage implies that Third space. The new creation space which we are together. And that space is unique to each couple.
When you make a contract with someone, you begin to grow within it’s boundaries. Boundaries are good. This is not that—the land is unique from the sea. God created like that at the beginning, and it still holds. One thing is not another. She is not me. And what we are is unique together.

Just as our physical body contains our soul and spirit, so marriage is a mystery novel that provides a contour for growth.
In some ways it’s less about who you marry, than how deeply you enter the union bond of transformation available within marriage. God offers options, we choose to enter and He meets us. That’s the patterns i’ve seen anyway.

When i first met my wife, i had a dream. In the dream a purple veil was drawn back between us, and I was offered a gift. The gift was a person who had been on a journey before me, and would continue on one after me. I heard a question, do you want to walk a while with my daughter—she is a poem and gem. It’s up to you, but she is worthy.
It was as if i was approached by a girl’s father who was asking me if i would like to take care of His daughter.

If so, you will grow spiritually immensely. She is loyal and true to me, though she is bruised and hurt also. You will have a long journey together and your marriage will be a sign to others of hope and transformation and creativity. Your marriage is a sign. And will be authentic, unusual, unique as you both are. So I will make unique art through your lives together. A sign and wonder. A slanted odd poem of Mine you will be!

So, I said yes, to this voice, and we went on a journey we are still on. A journey of spiritual formation, which to me, is what marriage is.
Unity in uniqueness, both people being formed through the relationship. This one was His idea, so i trust that and return to it’s particular labor. We were not young when married. We knew what we were getting into. My dad’s a marriage counselor, so i avoided marriage as long as a could! (a joke, but sort of true)
She is father’s. I am just taking care of something which is His. Helping her be more whole, as she helps me do the same—that’s how i see marriage. Her poem, the one she is, is God’s poem. I am just tending the lines for Him for a while. Marriage. My marriage is an art collage we are both still collaborating with Christ on. I think it’s already beautiful, but should continue to get even more so!!
Thankful for the new poem we are becoming together today!

My dad has spent 50 years trying to help people have better marriages. That says a lot about him, but also about how important and difficult marriage is. He likes helping people get along, but also saw that marriage was one of the toughest places to yield fruit. But also had the potential to yield the most. All of us are here because two people married-at least physically.

Marriage has the potential to be intensely transformational. If we keep deepening leaning into and becoming in and through it. God seems to like marriage. I do too.

Marriage symbolizes the Trinity of course, but it is also one of the most difficult metaphors to incarnate. That’s one of the things which attracts me to it!

Christ is obviously still working on His with His Church. It’s been a long marital journey for Him. That should tell us something. Marriage is like death and re-birth over and over. Most people don’t want to die to self. We avoid it. But marriage offers the quickest and most thorough method of death to self. Union with otherness. Unity with uniqueness. Marriage is a high metaphor. It has the potential to truly be fine art.

I hate to say it, but I’m more interested in the upper narrative than anything else-the big story our stories occur within. How we contextualize, and so tell and interpret our stories fascinates me most. To tell our stories we need a grand Story to interpret our’s through.
If your grand story is economic good luck. If artistic, be careful. If ministry, be wise. If it’s the actual story of creation, we may get somewhere. We need an interpretive lens these days.

So cool to be with dad for this ritual ribbon cutting on the new Chapman media center up in Chicago this weekend. Plus, to get to see all the old radio and publishing equipment dating back to 1863. Some of the those mics have heard a lot!

So much broadcasting and publishing history at this place. I love books and radio, so it was cool watching the generations of broadcasting and publishing history, which they tell the story of on the walls of the new media center!

Chicago really does have that old publishing broadcasting gift. Great event and exciting thinking about film and new media moving forward through this cool building. Got to tour it and the older publishing houses, and meet lots of writers and new friends. Great weekend of family, history, art and life!

And mainly just an honor watching how my dad is walking out his seasons of life. A steadfast man is hard to find! He’s helped so many learn to live well! Nice to see him honored in a place he first went at 17 years old.

Giving back to places which gave to you makes common decent sense.

Of course, at the actual ribbon cutting my mom was downloading the joy and hope for future generations! My folks rock! So thankful for both of their examples of how to live well!

Also, lots of fun celebrating generations of the long story with my parents this weekend, and getting to meet so many great writers and humans. More photos to follow, i’m sure. What a great celebration of the “more to come” we all can give to one another!

I’ll stop babbling about how cool my parents are, and generational exchange, but it was a great weekend honoring my dad and mom, and new generations of possibilities when one generation is generous with their gifts towards the next!

One of my greatest joys is watching the generations be secure enough to give their best gifts to one another in trust! Fun thinking about that this weekend.

How to give backwards and forwards in Love and humility! To be thankful for what you’ve been given and give back in humility. Dad’s certainly done that with his life! Promise a shorter entry next time, but density of meaning is hard not to want to express fully!

Plus, got to meet lots of special people: the police chief, the mayor of Chicago, the new president and wife of Moody (very cool called and authentic couple from Spain originally), great folks from Wheaton, several great counselors, who have written books which have blessed me over the years—so ethnically and culturally diverse, good talking and learning from leaders and dreamers in Chicago this weekend. And my contact person was a younger fellow from Budapest, who has been in films, and makes them, and we had many mutual friends in europe. We had met many of the same stars in film as well.

Overall, rich weekend, thanks for letting me process it a bit here in this odd format. More concise versions to come. Mainly, cool to honor my dad. Humility and service over time yields fruit, evidently! A life of service with our gifts, is a life well spent.

There is unexplainable joy in my life, especially when it should be the least joyful. That’s something i can’t explain, but am thankful for.

Talking Cambridge and cities and life tonight with a local friend who also lived in Cambridge!

Nice to run into an old friend tonight in the cold, which reminded us both of our years in Cambridge, Massachusetts!

When I lived there, I was studying art therapy, and making art with homeless folks; he engineering and comedy—a winning combination! We spoke of the similarities between irish and jewish humor and life lament. That, I get! Great conversation! Made me feel at home, and more myself, as all true conversation does or should do.

The multi-ethnic funky irish jewish italian comedy song writing scene, and just being human there, was enough to talk about all night. How to be human together, i suppose was what i also learned in that place. Good to consider from time to time.

Harvard Square has changed (“the tasty” (hamburger joint, and haven for the homeless and artists, which often hang together), and many other great authentic haven spots are gone), but i spent many years working with the homeless there, and still have a heart for that area—so many street performers and comedians, and people just being people! Plus, the homeless have at least three newspapers! Always a good sign. I’ve lived in many cities globally but still miss that one. Let you be yourself, as long as you were willing to show up daily.

Cambridge in general was a funky fun place to live and grow in. My artist friends lived mainly above diners, dives and clubs; my homeless friends right on the metro gutters which blew pastoral warm air upwards at night, at least enough to sleep on and by.

Later, i lived with some dear jewish friends in Brookline, but i still miss Cambridge’s way. Always activist, always multi-ethnic, always pushing for the next level of how to live together well. And even the bus drivers had read Tolstoy and Maimonodes! Shakespeare was a given at any level of education. You never had to have had lots of school to be well read.

I met lots of poets in Harvard Square—Robert Bly, who I talked about death and Jesus with; Galway Kinnel, who i spoke about nature and cities with, Allen Ginsberg, who I asked about how to sing your poems in an impartational way (which he did well, i always thought!); and several others i still ingest and consider, as momentary teachers of life. “Kingdom can come through many sources, and be filtered!”

Can’t beat that combination of liberated, literate, educated and down to earth which occurs there! I still think Cambridge, shines a bit brighter in terms of truth than Boston proper. Though I like both.

I went to Lesley college for expressive arts, we were able to sneak into Harvard’s library, but we always felt a bit second class, like artists sneaking into a scholar’s lare or lab. Still, it kept us honest, as arts should stay, and as is in Cambridge, still.

I return often, and miss my many carney performance friends (some of which went to NYC to perform on SNL etc) there who are still working the streets! So many great street performers still!

Anyhow, nice to talk to this jewish friend from boston tonight!

Interesting, that we both liked the same Irish comedy pub clubs—what’s up with the Irish and Jews and Italians getting along through humor, at least in terms of comedy! Always fascinates me! What’s up with Jews and Irish, Celtics and Italian always digging the same spaces at the end of the day!

I was doing art therapy training up there, but hanging with and doing workshops with homeless; the homeless population is always the best way to get the honest pulse of a place. That place had a good pulse.

Anyways, I always liked Cambridge, Mass-still feels honest to itself. Nice talking to my friend tonight about it, reminded me of how each place is special, and has it’s unique nuances and gifts, and is part of the grander narrative. And so are we, when just being ourselves, and appreciating where we’ve been.

My friend was talking to me last night about the difference between the church and Christ. “I like Jesus, but yikes, His church is a mess!”

Love that, as a start to a meaningful conversation. Yes, let’s separate out Jesus, from the cultures formed in His Name. Let’s get the right stumbling block! Let’s trip on and over the right thing!

He grew up in a strict legalistic version of christianity. “We couldn’t even enjoy a milkshake properly! And my sister couldn’t wear cool designed clothes, and she’s a fashion designer!”

“Jesus couldn’t be like the church i grew up in! Jesus wouldn’t attend many of His churches,” was how he put it. “I always feel Him outside the church culture, waiting for the program to be over. I really like Him, but I can’t believe that He would like much of the christian culture.”

We spoke of how He liked Jesus but had a real problem with most of His followers. “Inconsistency of Love is my major problem, outside of the overt racism in Jesus Name historically.” Yet, separating Christ and Christianity isn’t easy, as I’ve learned.

I love Flannery O’Connors take on it where she has a preacher character preaching the church of God without Christ. She was really talking about the church of Jesus, versus christian culture.

Finding the right stumbling block still matters. Most people were hurt more by religious culture than Jesus, as I’ve experienced. I like to go with a person’s experience of Jesus versus christian culture. He tends to break in, past the culture which developed in His Name.

As Ghandi put it, I have no problems with Jesus, it’s His followers that keep me from becoming a Christian.

I’ve thought lots about how the symbol of Christ has been broken, and about how the culture of Christianity after Constantine, started “going south” so to speak. We are responsible to heal that image, and represent it well. Or maybe just to embody and have depth union with Christ if we follow and are named by His Name.

Yet, throughout the ages, there have been symbols of the true chapel in the church as they say. The true church where He is, versus the cultural church. If the church is His actual Body (Presence/tabernacle), you’ll need to find Him to discern where His real garment is, even within the building. I’ve certainly had to.

Anyways, great and now more common conversation i’ve been having with friends about not throwing out The Baby with the bath water! I love the topic myself, and will probably keep thinking about it forever. Unlike lots of folks these days, i like talking about the difference between religious culture and true spirituality. I still find it leads to fruitful conversations! As this one was!

Peeling off culture without harming the fruit isn’t easy, just as peeling an orange without damaging the fruit. And culture itself isn’t intrinsically bad to be sure. Christ redeems cultural expression to be sure! Assuming He Himself is actually at the Center! All fruits need peels to hold them together Yet, culture is the expression, the core identity is real matter.

Again, a great talk with a dear friend who cares enough to seek. I love talking spirituality these days, since the conversation is being forced to the surface anyways. Religion versus spirituality is one way in. But I liked my friend’s—Jesus versus the religion which formed around Him. In many ways He was talking about religious spirit itself versus transformational encounter with Christ. I love that conversation. I love helping people peel things off to get to the essence!

Having studied religions for many years, this is not a unique problem to christianity-where the followers do not always embody the Founder’s spirituality. “Religious spirit, or some form of legalism (which ironically is what Jesus was fighting!) is present in all religions, as is true seeking to live out the way of their founder.”

Yet, Jesus is unique. There is a call to union with His Very Life, and there are historically varying degrees of spiritual success in that. I love talking to people about Jesus versus the religion which was founded from Him. It’s always a risky and worthy conversation, which most often leads to good fruit.

St Paul does an interesting job of wrestling with religious spirit as well as racism. Both of which he was most probably killed by on all sides. But we will talk Paul in our next conversation I’m sure. He’s a wrestling match in all directions.