Animals don’t question themselves
as much as we do. Still, they look
to us for their real names, and somehow
in naming (encountering one another into sound) them in Love, we too
hear the cadences of our own names mentioned.

Perhaps, we are God’s birds also, which He is still coming to name;
Yet, we too like to name, which is impossible
without our listening. We help complete and repair
by our sheer sharing of being, in Love.

Jesus hid our names in Himself, His inner cloak. His endless inner cloak, where He cherishes and hides our true names, and gently, over time, whispers them to us, as we learn to love.

As we lean into Him, we start to hear
the whispers of our linings.

Life is a long line…
of discovering all our names
in the seams of His Silence.

Perhaps, our true names
only occur when wetted by Love.

For, we are Love’s perfume on earth.
The fragrance of Christ itself
contains our names
in the smell of Love!
At the exact moment,
we watch a bird in wonder-
that is, where the endless
whisper occurs!

Each of us are poetry of God! The bird eternally landing on today’s front porch! Even this single bird which landed today near me-blue flecked bird with yellow wren fest breast! So happy to see her!
God wanted to be friends with us forever, like this.
Let’s treat one another accordingly.
Each of us precious lines in a long endless, nuanced stanza of the Divine!
Let’s approach one another like this meek bird did today!
When I see you as an alighting angel of God, i will find myself treating you more wisely, more carefully.
When i see you well, i see God well! To the degree i see, i will be seen. We are meant to be friends forever-little creatures, us!
We, who highlight identity, must know by now, how each thing resonates in itself until we see it well enough to be known!
Love is the Tone between us, which allows us to become!
You are like a bird which i will care for forever, which has, by surprise, landed on my windowsill today! Thanks for coming friend! Let’s learn frienship forever! The bird which is eternally landing!

I tip my hat to the over 20 million displaced people this year, as we all are strangers and pilgrims in the end! May you find a new, if even temporary home on this long pilgrimage we are all in this together, despite the times.

How we welcome the stranger is still the litmus test of our hearts, on a personal and collective level. Who knows when we welcome angels! Can we haven the unknown “other” families and friends? Can we heart discern their way towards home?!

Or become friends even! Let’s!

Jesus was a refugee from the start, fleeing to Egypt and then returning under duress to His own country but never welcomed. He is deeply acquainted with that particular grief!

And yet our dignity is not how we are treated, but knowing who we truly are-cherished! Praying for my many displaced friends tonight! May you find a place to rest and be yourselves this evening friends! You are always welcomed! I’ll keep The Light on always!

Met a turkish family this week, who just fled to Berlin recently—artists and wanting to contribute to the long Song-felt berlin was the new new york or amsterdam or even Rome long ago, historical global haven cities—a place to start a new life. Willing to give their gifts and serve, but need a solid welcome. Let’s offer at least that friends!

Been thinking about this anniversary of the re-formation, or deeper formation which began from multiple sources back then, but didn’t seem to be finished. If we look at the reformation as a renovation of the heart, or offering to be formed more deeply spiritually, what did we miss from it?

I had a dream once, of what was happening to the actual Body during the reformation, and it kept going up through the revivals and waves of the Spirit up through the 20th C…any place The Spirit was allowed to enter into the hearts of His actual People. It came through music, poetry, art, and fresh revealed theology.

What started as dream and whisper amplified to a global change of sight. It was a stream with many tributaries, and all of culture and society were affected by it—both its lights and shadows. It appears we are in a new type of reformation spiritually now.

Fun thinking about historical hinges or axial moments, especially when they come from true religious reforms, in all their broken cadences. A tree is always known by its long term fruit.

When I went to Jan Hus’ chapel where he preached in Praha, i started to sense the spiritual vision which was trying to download and incarnate through those in that season on earth-that particular generation of His Purposes. It was actually radical in terms of personal transformation and society; yet, what started there, those revealed spiritual seeds, where just a start, one we have not fully incarnated yet!

Perhaps outside our human structures, He was offering a deeper formation of his Life in us. And this historical marker was just the first step towards us becoming more fully human in Him!

While reading Psalm 23 in multiple translations today had a revelation about the nature of art. It carries you to the part of the spiritual realm it was written from! The symbol participates and opens us to the Reality to which is points!

Try to catch the repeated metaphors in each writer or artist: David, shepherding, battle, kingship, priestly—especially since He is the portent of Messiah, look at his metaphors. Psalm 23 is his shepherd one. You can sense, because David was so close to God, there is a transparency into the Kingdom realm in his writing! When someone has united with God deeply, like Merton, Rich Mullins and all the NT writers, you sense Christ through their voice. They are porous, like a filter through which to encounter Him. Even though they still have their own voices and concerns, what you sense is His Presence. It’s like the writings leave traces of their doorways.

When we write from our relationship with God, we create ladders for other’s into His Presence! People don’t have to agree with the words, but they can sense His Presence through them. That is the wonder of spiritual writings.

Art itself leaves us doors into spiritual rooms. It matters which room the artist is in, because that is the room you’ll be lead into. If they are in a room of intellectual curiosity, of healing, of worship, of teaching, of reflecting on their own wounds etc; be assured, if you are reading to encounter, you will encounter wherever their heart actually is or was on their journey.

This is essential especially when reading overtly spiritual writers like Kempis or Merton. Merton was frank about how odd it is to write about spiritual things. He chose to have his spirituality overheard. That is not everyone calling, but it was his. He let us into his personal intimacy and explorations with God. In his youth (Seven Storey Mountain) we overhear him exploring his way towards—early stages of spirituality. Later we overhear him learning to rest or abide in God; then still later to explore how God meets other in different cultures. But throughout we are overhearing and entering the spiritual Reality he was encountering then.

This is good to remember for many reasons! For certain seasons, we need certain seeds. Where a writer guides us, may may not be what we need that particular season. It’s good to know what type of food our spirit needs each season.

But regardless, a true spiritual writer will guide us into the part of God they are exploring at their stage of development. This is the wonder—how words become ladders directly into what they are symbolizing! As Paul Tillich taught, “symbols participate in the Reality to which they are pointing!” That hasn’t changed.

Thomas Merton, the articulate 20th C monk, compared writing “about” spirituality, to an artist writing “about” art. Sort of redundant, and yet, some have that teacherly calling to do so.

Some like making their spiritual growth, overheard, for the benefit of others! It’s like swimming, and at the same time writing about water! That’s a unique calling. But some did it well.

Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, CS Lewis, and others take us into the part of God they are writing about or rather from! Their symbols participate in the Reality to which they point, as Paul Tillich put it! Their words participate in and invite us into, that to which they point us, and we find ourselves bathing in the waters which they found! This is where art and spirituality replicate one another, and become useful for all of us!

Art itself portals us into what the artist is exploring, whether just ideas, or essences, or the nature of Nature as some of Van Gogh’s did. We are thrust or invited to enter that area of Reality through the art. The vehicle matters, but it is not the “thing itself”. It is a means to encounter what it is touching! That’s what words or any symbolic form of communication is! This is very practical actually, as once we see and know the nature of language or symbolic communication, we know we are being guided or led somewhere, and we can choose if that is where The Spirit is leading us now in our current season.

Merton tells us, his is a spiritual memoir taken actively from an ongoing journey deeper into God. So we know, and can chose to join him or not. That type of overt honest is rarer than you would think. Some writers sort of trick us into following them. And you aren’t really sure where you are going until you find yourself in the wrong place! Henri Miller and Bukowski come to mind. Both great writers, but where they take us is dark, and mostly about their own wounds projected out onto Reality. Broken lenses, and broken guides I’d say. And where do they lead us, into a pornographic version and view of life. Bad fruit. So be careful which guides you pick, they may have great talent, but are not home yet, to themselves or God.

Be wise which guides you follow, for you will end up in the room they are writing from.

The ladder is not the Reality, but words provide a stairwell in the dark towards something. God Presence incarnates in their words if they are in Him! Then there are part of God which are opened into through a particular writer’s words, depending on where they are in their own journey. Nouwen for instance, “Clowning around in Rome” is exploring freedom from religion and creativity; so you will be led into that part of the Mystery. In other books, he is exploring belonging (Voice of Love etc), so you feel that pastoral care aspect of God. Particular seeds come in particular packages. Notice which seeds you need when, and take those! God does not leave us without shepherd, but good shepherd always lead us into the Great Shepherd!

Put simple, art is symbolic communication which works by the laws of symbols. Symbols participate in the reality which they are talking “about”. That’s why symbols are a higher part of communication. So watch where the symbol guides you. In Dekooning paintings for instance, the symbol leads you into an abused version of womanhood, as many artist did. Gaugiun also takes you into a sort of hedonistic view of females, you feel his own lust more than the woman he is painting. Understanding the nature of symbols is essential for interpretation. Symbols are a strata of how God made things, and how He expresses Himself. God is symbolic. He symbolizes Himself in Nature, in the Bible and in and through people. We also symbolize. It’s part of our humanness.

The nature of art language is unique, it takes us into direct contact with what the art is participating in. Art participates in that to which it points, for this reason, it’s important to know which direction it’s pointing! You will find yourself swimming in that particular water, if the art is real.

This is mystical, but you know how words are windows. So when I am reading MacDonald, or Nouwen, or Merton, i feel God’s Presence, and I feel them. When reading Nouwen for instance, i feel his joyful personality, his humour, his depth insight into the heart, his vulnerability, but what I really feel is God’s Presence, filtering through His words. I don’t always agree with the words themselves, but I feel God in them. Or through them! That’s the true magic of writing. We set up little portals which remain after we are gone, little ladders made of words, which those living can climb and meet God, or at least the part of God we met. Isn’t that what spiritual writing is? Making ladders from our words and lives, so others can climb more easily into His Presence.

Finding other’s ladders helps us, as we grow in union ourselves, we start making ladders with our words or lives for others! We become co-heirs, or more living words.

I still love encountering Merton through reading his words. It’s because they are in God some how, and God I know, so I recoginize those in Him, and if their words are also in Him, then that is a doorway for me. And they served us by leaving their spiritual words with us! By now, they have written more books and moved on to other topics, but even these they left on earth, are still seeds, or doors, or portals into God’s Presence. That is powerful.

Thomas Merton, the articulate 20th C monk, compared writing “about” spirituality, to an artist writing “about” art. Sort of redundant, and yet, some have that teacherly calling to do so.
Some like making their spiritual growth, overheard, for the benefit of others! It’s like swimming, and at the same time writing about water! That’s a unique calling. But some did it well.
Henri Nouwen, Thomas Merton, CS Lewis, and others take us into the part of God they are writing about or rather from! Their symbols participate in the Reality to which they point, as Paul Tillich put it! Their words participate in and invite us into, that to which they point us, and we find ourselves bathing in the waters which they found! This is where art and spirituality replicate one another, and become useful for all of us!

Studying King David’s poetry and spirituality this month!
David’s spirituality was intense!

In one passage, he is channeling back to the first human speaking from the pre-formed dust ( Psalm 139:15; already, there was relationship between Divine and humans even as the first person is formed from earth! Already from the first formed human there is closeness, breath to breath intimacy! And David taps that moment!), then, in other passages, he channels forward from the Cross and suffering of Christ.

This guy could fly through time in prayer poems! You get to see how open prayer dialogue can take you across time, by reading his poetry!

Plus, not a bad poet and king. Digging David’s way today. This guy prayed out loud to live! David’s spirituality was not boring to be sure!

As honest as a blues song as well! But at times as operatic and grand as the best of Bach. Fun overhearing his spirituality by studying his poetry this month!!! If you think the spiritualities of the writers of scripture are boring or prosaic, read David!

There’s some serious fire between the lines! His passions often sizzle in his songs! Always risking his heart towards trust in the Great Other! And in a very authentic way! Like this guy! Good poetic model of a transparent “leaned” constant communion type of spirituality. What it takes to be King, a constantly confessional spirituality as well! Confession into thanks into wild praise worship!

Plus, the psalms themselves are like a public pool for everyone to swim! Why not jump in! It’s right in the middle of the book!

Art fights racism: what true art can really do!

Racism and it’s ways of seeing and interpreting things, is one of our largest global problems now. It’s not new, but is acute in our day. Racism is a a false view of others; it’s a faulty interpretation of things. So we need a clearer view in order to see others well. The roots of racism are fear and judging others from our own wounds, rather than for who they actually are in God’s View. Art can help us get more of God’s view on things.

One reason art matters so much now is that it informs how we see others and “other” itself. Starting with our image of who God is, and then our image of who other people are. It matters how we see one another. You see that racism sees others incorrectly. True art, a spiritual art would help correct racisms view of others. By healing the imagination, we start to see others as poems and as having innate dignity. This is why art and real symbol making is part of toppling racism. And racism is one of the worse “ways” on the earth. And contains a lie about how things really are. It’s a false vision or interpretation of things. Art combats that faulty vision!

True art helps reconcile things to what they really are. It is part of restoring dignity to self and others, seeing them more as they truly are, valuable, infinitely worth something.

When I see you as a piece of art made by God, i cannot hate and fear and murder you. So it matters how we see one another. Art then is not just decoration or escape, it is vital to how we interpret other people and nations, and is essential in overcoming the racist spirit which is running rampant again in our times.

True art, even if its subject is about the artist’s own healing journey points towards and redemptive, nuanced view of being human. It points, in short, away from the view of racism, which want to destroy self and other as worthless. If things and people, conversely, have intrinsic worth and dignity, as God says, then true art illustrates that healing reconciliation, making things more themselves, process.

If we can truly see others as thou’s (Buber) invested by God with dignity and unique beauty, we cannot live in constant fear of others as it they were “its” or objects of my fear’s projections. Art is medicine against a racist view of Reality. A dualistic I-it way of seeing. If I truly encounter another through art, i will see more of them than my worst fears. I will see the complex and redeemable poetry each of us is slowly becoming. Art helps us fight racism!

True art is trying to give us a clearer and more nuanced image of how things really are. When we see the truth of how things are, we can’t hate or kill others. When we see them through love’s lens, we will instead want to serve and honor them. We will see ourselves and others as having equal dignity, worth and a poetry of being, worth loving and beholding forever! Art is part of seeing things more as they actually are, and that truth will set you free from the hatred of racism. When I see you well, i will not hate you, i will find myself, instead, in love!

After the two world wars, many artists had no upper story of hope, and either got hedonistic or egotistic, or nostalgic, or protectionist of their own reputations. Why would that be? And how similar to art’s, and at times, the church’s response now!

The biggest global need now is for people to have the courage to continue living joyously authentically as themselves, not in denial of the millions of displaced, but willing to dignify them, and dignifying the unique lives and cultures of those around them. Joy and hope is radical not escapist in times like ours, for it contains the courage to be.

A radical art of authentic Joy is needed now! Not an innocent but an experienced Joy. A Joy actually grounded in vision. This type of vision was missing after the wars, and much art defended into hedonism, nostalgia or celebrity. A radical art now would contain reconciliation joy, a radical sharing of oneself and gifts, a path towards healing, a true gospel of suffering and hope sitting at the same cafe; we need to become the poppies which popped back up in Belgium after the war—red signs of Hope growing from bloodied fields!

So take away from this weeks art history study after the two great wars: few really modeled the right response to that much suffering. Those who did claim the courage to be, to dignify others, to radically share with one another-rather than becoming hedonistic or protectionist (which you can see is happening now also), to make an art and live a life which also dignifies in view of suffering, to sing that gospel song in clear view; to plant an art which gave informed hope those who did made great art and a lasting contribution to the drama, were unfortunately and perhaps, unnecessarily, rare.

It is not escapist to make even joyous art now. It is not escapist to be our real selves in the face of suffering. Not sentimental to hope we are still here, and other’s true names, still matter. To claim the creative courage to be! To be authentic, let’s the Author write and paint, or even graffiti our names awake again; Joy, recalls us to ourselves. It actually dignifies, gives room for others to be safe enough to be themselves again, and not live in fear! This needed art and living is not sentimental, but joy which knows suffering! An earned and informed type of Hope is transformational!

Joy which sees the millions of displaced people globally, joy which sees the generational hurts between races and ethnicities, a creative Joy which says yes to life because God says yes, and is reconciling all things. A joy which has moved from innocence into experience, and still says yes to the wonder of being here and becoming!

That’s the needed art response to now, just as it was after the wars. So few made that sort of hued by life;s Hope Beauty which offers a way forwards! Let’s! A joyous art which is neither sentimental or depressive, or narcissistic, but one which channels what St Peter called “living Hope”! (I Peter) It’s not flower power, it’s root and flower, and rain and storm, and the suffering sky’s power. It’s incarnate hope. Embodied beauty. It’s a redemptive redaction, in the energy of reconciliation of all things towards wholeness!

Since art incarnates where it is created from, we are drawn into the Reality of what is being symbolized. If we are creating from the space of Hope, we will channel that for others through our art, regardless of medium. Art is a ladder into…art can tell us there is a still a Home we are working our way into and towards. There is still tangible hope, which elicits true Joy!

And art of true joy is radical, as it contains the suffering and takes it forward towards wholeness! Joy which sees our silly walls, but sees through them to Peace. Joy which has that complexity of awareness, that innocence which has moved on to experience—that type of authentic Joy and freedom of being is what is needed in the world now. Let’s make that art friends! Once we have moved from innocence into experience, through suffering, we have a unique opportunity to offer incarnate hope to one another, and profound dignification of one another. Art is meant to do this in times like ours. Let’s make that art friends!

Why be joyous and authentic in times of suffering: came across these quotes today…(from a christian monk, but applicable to all, i think..)

“Just being in authentic joy, being truly ourselves, gives permission and dignity to those who are struggling in our times to feel safe enough to be themselves. Joy of being, and the courage to be, are contagious.” ( Jesuit Monk who lived through war, and still found kindness and courage to be in his heart!)

“Informed Joy is not escapist or denial of suffering, it is courage to be in clear view!”

Best deep quote from today, which felt relevant to now (from a modern christian monk, but applicable to anyone following that way, i think) I promise I’ll stop getting deep soon, something about being a monastic part of the world, stirs deeper heart parts in me. Sometimes it’s good to come to places who have already been through enough suffering to learn to know what how to integrate it into your spirituality! “Don’t waste your trials”!

“Some people think you are being selfish to enjoy life, to be yourself, when so many are suffering; i think to alleviate suffering we must continue to say yes to life in full view of its endless suffering; we must continue to radically be our true selves, so that others feel safe enough to show up and be their’s! That’s incarnate Hope. To refuse to be anything other than who God says I am, regardless of the amount of fear or terror around us.

That is what St Paul was trying to teach about spiritual contentment–whether in prison or palaces, whether I abound or am bound… And we are followers of an Incarnating Immanent God, who choses to suffer with us, and was as oppressed as any of us.

So, we don’t try to escape suffering, rather we meet God in and through it! We seek out the Cross in everything, which is why we have true Joy! As christians specifically, we are in Emanuel, God with us, the One intimately acquainted with all our griefs, who was born on the run, a refugee from the start, hunted before birth; so we have no excuse but to live authentic lives of hope, and sacrifice, even as we suffer. Joy is our calling!”

Enjoying researching those who learned to live during intense suffering all around them. Who said yes to joy and life, in full naked view of pain.

To true gospel is not escapist or in denial, but says yes, nonetheless—for the Joy set before Him He endured the cross.

Nice studying monks who went that route. Seems needed again nowadays!

Great art includes suffering, but has hope for redemption. That complexity gives it a weight of being, the weight of a true gospel song, which is true to how things actually are!

The poppies do return! Even with blood in the soil. As another chaplain put it after the wars!