A kid-like poem about the sky and I:

I used to try and corral the moon and stars as a kid (on my red
wooden rocking horse, i did). On our stone patio, I’d rock, back and forth,
staring, almost glaring, at the sky, as if it were a challenge or a dare.
Now,
i just enjoy letting them be-moon, stars and me. Gazing, finally, we see into
each other deeply, and that’s more
than enough to know and love
one another, forever. The sky and I, at least.

A writerly piece for you today, just for fun, about Jesus and a nostalgia for church steeples: “Sitting with Jesus in the church Steeple” (Hope you enjoy this little piece regardless of your background)

Spiders and webs in the steeples, we were sure about that as kids. I used to have the master key at my dad’s church, and would sneak up into the steeple. Baptist steeples are enclosed and the bells are recorded. That always slightly bothered me, but when you got inside, there was a sonic bathing warmth to it, that still seemed sacred to me.

I used to go up there alone and just sit above the sanctuary, and consider all the unseen spaces in the building, where few but deacons and janitor’s went. Those are still my favorite places in church buildings really. The unseen sacred, where all the silent prayers gather without our making of meals, ice cream socials and service after service. Spaces where the invisible church hides out, and knows itself.

When i lived in Europe, i would also try to find the little prayer chapels, saint rooms, and places of refuge where the older ladies would come in and say a silent prayer for someone lost. Something about those spots have an atmosphere of truth in them. You can almost smell it.

When we all switched to house churches, and bowling alley churches, and coffee house churches, i still missed the steeples and prayer chapels—the unseen crypts of the church. I got it, don’t get me wrong, the Kingdom is bigger than our buildings, so is the church. Yet, in a house, there is no where to sneak off to and just be. Someone lives in every room, and there is a present story in every nook and cranny. The unseen usually shifts to the rooftops, or some place no one thinks to go.

I still like church buildings, though I know they are not the actual eternal church. I like architecture that makes us look up and beyond. Architecture teaches us to see the unseen. Structures which cause and call forth pause, and even praise. Windows which look in and cause us to look out and up in another light.

Even the metaphors of the sacred were meant to be taught by the buildings. And all the religious wars were fought through architecture of the sacred.

I like the obvious cross shaped altars and sanctuaries, but I still get drawn into the backstage rooms, where monks pray and homeless get fed. That seems to me where the real church often happens, and I like to be exactly where Jesus actually is now in the building. I mainly wanted to be where Jesus was, still do. Sometimes in a cob webbed steeple, sometimes enjoying ice cream.

Is He hanging with the deacons in the alleyway behind the church. Is He with the youth sneaking a cigarette in the parking lot. Is He with the elderly woman who is just enjoying hearing the bible read. Or the old prayer ladies who pray for the preacher weekly while he is delivering His word.

As a kid, i always found Him hiding in the steeple, just listening to it all in love, and occasionally coming into the service, when people were really hungry for His presence. I liked being backstage with Jesus as a kid, and I still do, wherever He is even among the spiders and webs up in a baptist church steeple. Jesus is still ironic in that way.

I’m giving some talks on the imagination and spirituality next month, and have been doing a few video rehearsals for a talk I’m facilitating next month on the restoration of the imagination in people and cities. I’m going to put up a few here, just for fun, as I re-explore this life theme again! These little rehearsals are helping me hone the basics on the relationship between our imaginations and our spirituality. One of my favorite life topics.

Being the son of a minister and an artist, I’ve worked on allowing my spirituality and my art to come under the same roof. How our art and spirituality are meant to relate and integrate, has always captivated and contained me. To find an authentic context where the two can converse freely, has been one of my lifeworks.

Enjoy my serious side, it’s rare. Quite serious this fellow! And yet (as Basho, the japanese poet used to say, and yet…despite himself, he’s got something to say). Probably preaching to the Christian choir though on these. At least the in house artists.

For those outside of a christian frames, sorry if the language is an unnecessary stumbling block. It’s important to find the right Stone to stumble on in life! Hope the language is not to narrow or vapid, or insular, to hold the gold, as they say! I’m speaking to a group of artist who happen to be christian (or their spirituality is centered in Christ, i mean, not just the culture of christianity or the art world’s; Christ Himself, turns out to be a bit different and larger than christian and art cultures), so it’s framed accordingly. Rehearsal videos to follow!

Lots of christians don’t think of the imagination as central in their spirituality, but i do, because that’s where i first met God. Since, then, i’ve tried to figure out why that part of being human matters, and can be a place of meeting and transformation. I studied arts and healing partly to figure out how art can be a place of healing ourselves and one another. Still circling around that theme years later! I’m still trying to bring art and the church under the same metaphysical and mystical roof, so to speak-the House of God not made with hands!

The basics of my talk is about the imagination being larger than art and the church: that it’s a part of being human, part of how we know, a part of Reality itself, and part of what is meant to be engaged in a loving transformative relationship with God who is One, and is making us one or integrated, including our spiritual perceptions. That, as CS Lewis said, our imaginations are meant to be baptized and engaged in the sanctification process, or process of being made whole. The imagination is a meeting place, not a factory for Jesus propaganda, but a tabernacle of meeting and being transformed in the chapel of intimacy with our creativity!

Looking at the human need to integrate our imaginations into our spiritualities, especially for christians who often struggle with a poverty of imagination. Or un-engaged creativity. The theme of bringing the whole self into relationship with God.

Our imaginations are also part of how we know and interpret things. So we need a baptized imagination even to interpret today’s news well. And to overcome a pornographic or narcissistic view of the world around us. It’s part of how we know, part of being human, and part of what we bring into the banquet of a friendship type intimacy with God, who created it all, as a sort of autobiography!

Anyways enjoy my rehearsals, as I try to get to some of my passion topics in life! I think I’ll probably just facilitate a conversation on the topic rather than tell people what I think, as invitations, are often better than lectures, but these little videos contain a bit of what I’m thinking as basic or essential, towards a theology of the imagination from a christian framework.

Thanks for your patience, as I practice! Videos to follow as i get them up and down loaded! Forgive the long intro, just trying to frame some goodness this season! Hope it blesses you wherever you’re at on the long journey home.

From an article I’m working on towards a theology of the imagination, for a Christian journal. Fun trying to frame the essentialness of engaging our imaginations in our spiritualities or intimacy with God within that frame!

Been circling around this topic for some time, seeing the imagination as part of being human, rather than some special artistic aspect, and part of what we all engage with in our spirituality. Part of what is to be in the sanctification process. That our imaginations are also being baptized and sanctified, like the rest of us! That the transformation of the imagination is part of renewing our minds daily, and putting on the full mind of Christ! That, as Paul put it, it is part of not just seeing, but also perceiving the inner meaning of people, places and things, including ourselves! That the imagination is part of discernment, interpretation and understanding, as well as expression. It’s a way of knowing. So, it’s not just about making art, but much more, about being fully human!

Our becoming one integrated sanctified person includes our imaginations! But also even being able to interpret the morning news has to include our imaginations!

This might be boring for some, and is mostly preached towards the creative christian choir I’m sure, but I’ve been thinking lots about how to engage the creative dimensions of being human more practically in our daily relationship with God and others. In short, on the sanctification and theology of the imagination! One of my pet topics over the years! The imagination is part of being human, so still seems really important to me in our spiritualities.

The imagination is part of how we know things; part of being fully human, and part of what is loved and capable of loving others. It’s not just about art, but part of being fully human. Part of what we bring to the banquet of our intimacy with God.

We are meant to be seeing and perceiving! And bringing our whole selves into intimacy with God, including our creativity and imaginations. The poverty of imagination which we often see in the church, has many causes, but those “in Christ” are really without excuse in the area of creativity, as we claim to be intimate with the one who created the universe, and made us as His symbols or in His Image. We are poems (Ephesians 2:10) and we are poetry makers! Collaborators with Christ in creative communion. Even our stewardship of the earth is a creative collaboration, which requires an engaged imagination!

The imagination has to do with: how we know and interpret things; being fully human; and about integrating our whole selves in our active living relationship with God. We can’t throw out our imaginations in our relationship with Christ. Our spiritual perception is essential, even to knowing Him. Like Peter, if we cannot see Him well, we cannot even see, or hear whispered, our own names!

Creative engagement is essential to knowing even our own identities, much less others! If I cannot see you more as God does, I will not love you well. When we engage our imaginations in our relationship with God, we start to see one another, more through His Perception. This is one of the main reasons we want our imaginations engaged in the process of sanctification. It is part of renewing our minds daily. Our minds include our imaginations! To put on the full mind of Christ, includes our imagination!

“You will be ever seeing, but never perceiving,” Isaiah, quoted by St. Paul in talking to and warning his audience. To see without perceiving, is still a huge problem, especially in His Church. You see the events of the day, but cannot perceive and interpret them spiritually. Their inner meaning eludes us. Why? Our spiritual perceptions are dull. A sanctified imagination can interpret the heart of the matter, as Jesus could with people. He looked into their hearts and knew! So our creativity has to do with how we know things.

Jesus opened many blind eyes literally, and many eyes of the heart! St Paul was made blind physically in order to see spiritually! We lose our sight to find it!

It’s still the same lack of spiritual vision, or poverty of imagination which keeps us from perceiving and interpreting the real meaning of things. Paul taught us to abound in Love and be ever increasing our knowledge and the proper discernment of things. To have an ever awakening spiritual imagination!

You don’t know how to interpret this event spiritually, Jesus kept telling His own disciples or students. See differently, interpret from another, higher perspective friends. Fish are more than fish. Bread is more than bread. It’s a warning directed towards our perception of things. It’s a call to wake up our imaginations in Christ! I’m not talking about worship of the imagination like the Romantics did, this is just as bad as worshiping reason; I’m talking about yielding and engaging the imagination in our relationships with Christ!

Then, we will be seeing and perceiving the inner meaning of things, events and people, cities and nations! Then we will begin to be seeing more as we truly are seen. More face to Face. That’s the healing trajectory of our imaginations. And that’s the process of the sanctification of thole whole person, including their imaginations. That’s the journey we are meant to be on!

A baptized imagination, as CS Lewis called it, is part of how we know things as they really are! Our spiritual perception is crucial to being able to interpret! We are meant to be ones who see and perceive the inner meaning of things and events. Let’s engage our imaginations in our spiritualities! CS Lewis spoke of having his imagination baptized as he was reading George Macdonald’s works. To have our imagination and creativity engaged in our relationship with God should be the norm, especially for Christians!

The imagination has three purposes: it helps us interpret things, it is part of being fully human, and is a place of communion with Christ’s actual Life! His inventiveness and vision. We need more of all three. As we bring our imaginations into His Light, we are putting on the full Mind of Christ. The mind of Christ, was never meant to mean only our reason. We engage with Him in the healing of the imagination, and are able to express more from that intimacy. It includes our imagination and spiritual perception. Our creative center is meant to be part of our relationship with God.

Bringing our creativity home, or into The Life of Christ, is about bringing more of the whole person into relationship with our God. For, Jesus is Lord over the whole Person, the Father Loves the whole person, and God is One. These are the three foundations of a theology of the imagination.

Spiritual sight, helps us know what is true and Real. It is part of being fully human, and is part of what Christ died to know and be in relationship with! Let’s include our imaginations in our relationship with Him, for His Name’s or Identity’s sake!

If a theology of the arts rest on: Jesus Lordship over the whole of Reality; God’s Love for the whole person; and God’s Oneness; then, to know all three we must engage our imaginations in our active living daily relationship with God.

Watched a great documentary on this poet, who i got to meet on one of my birthdays. Interesting thinker and teacher. We talked Jesus and death, on the day i met him, and he dedicated a poem to me. I really liked how he incarnated his poems, and that he had lived them before he wrote them. Incarnation before expression! I can only teach what I already have embodied.

A mixed bag, as we all are, but he kept seeking an “upper story”, as Francis Shaeffer would call it, in life. And like Allen Ginsberg really helped heal language itself, from what Heschel called the deterioration of language. Special man. Nice to see they finally made a decent documentary on his life. I liked his distinction between our true inner life and the personas we wear to interface with others. And his “Morning Poems” is still just great poetry of being.
And I loved his contagious love of language itself. As Abraham Heschel taught, language is deteriorating, and we need to be part of healing and entering into words themselves, and finding God through them again. This guy was at least concerned with the inner life of language. And was a great performer of poetry, made it relevant again, as it doesn’t seem to have been since.

I have no problem with vertical thinkers, as long as they are open to what they meet there! We all run into Love eventually, if our hearts are truly open. I liked this guys thoughts for other writers also about finding their true voices and not resting on persona, or masks. Our first persona is what we differentiate to be. Then we wear one from our parents as well. Poetry is proof of the inner life.

Dream: I’m going to Korea with han su and teresa. i immediately like it; the buildings look like ones i grew up with. the soil is green and there are birch trees; han su knows the whole island

It takes a day to lift a burden.

Love is an entryway to everything which matters.

I like being the oil on the joints, so to speak, to be at the hinges or watershed spaces; i get pleasure in the in between places even of the generations (it’s my generation’s role-to interpret from the seams, so to speak, we’re a watershed people, and rejoice in the parts already starting to, and about to, touch! To muster us on, towards unity! To shout the praises of the in-between, the already not yet, but almost yet….poetic faith glue, us!). Synovial fluid i think they call in the human body, keeps the joints lubricated! Regardless, i love that space where different parts of the body come together in new collaborations, new types of connections! So when friends come together, it gets me excited! And when i get excited I express a lot.

I’m really liking this years theme of my global friends getting to hang out with my parents! Makes me happy. I’m blessed in that my parents are also actual spiritual parents (seems rare these days, when your actual family is also spiritual family; thankful for that in life!), and it means the world to me when friends get to meet them.
Thanks guys for thinking to shout out to me yesterday! It’s was a sudden bouquet in my heart to see you all together across generations of His Purposes each engaged in your own chapters of the endless story! I love that you got to tap into our local Moravian heritage as well Pete Greig! Grew up two blocks from there-rich history which keeps giving as you know through the global prayer movements!
I love global family! What a sudden bouquet of friendship and family grew in my heart overnight. Woke up happy. Thanks guys! I love it when special ones connect and converse-especially across generations!
I like being the oil on the joints, so to speak, to be at the hinges or watershed spaces; i get pleasure in the in between places even of the generations (it’s my generation’s role-to interpret from the seams, so to speak, we’re a watershed people, and rejoice in the parts already starting to, and about to, touch! To muster us on, towards unity! To shout the praises of the in-between, the already not yet, but almost yet….poetic faith glue, us!). Synovial fluid i think they call in the human body, keeps the joints lubricated! Regardless, i love that space where different parts of the body come together in new collaborations, new types of connections! So when friends come together, it gets me excited!
So good seeing yawl together. Plus, it made my mom happy, and i love my mom! When my mom’s happy, the angels sing!
If you all don’t know Pete Greig and his life’s work with the global multi-denominational and ecumenical body-wide prayer movements (24/7 etc) going on over the past many years, starting in Europe but rippling out everywhere, you should, it’s inspiring what’s up, taps us into current spiritual history, and has broken down many types of walls (as prayer tends to!), in a time where that’s most needed!
He’s also a great story teller and man of faith. This movement’s made safe spiritual harbors for formation and incubators for social justice, not walls, which is my current bumper sticker for our times! “Clean your harbors, tear down your walls!”. And my mom likes him, which is a good sign.
Plus, i love promoting my friends without branding them! Look him up, he’s much more famous and functional than me (he’s British!)–easier to find also! His first book “Red Moon Rising” rocked and was true; this new one, which i haven’t read yet, because i can’t find a copy, I’m sure it’s also got some holy heat on it! Look forward to sitting with it.
Had a dream once, that i would get to bless or see all the generations on earth at once, or at least see and love three like Joshua did! And get to see how they fit together (that’s the fun part!)! Great dream.
When global friends and family come together, which keeps happening this year, across generations and cross body, makes me think that dream may come true! Thanks guys, nice to see you all together-blessed my soul! Let’s keep being in and telling the endless Story, each pronouncing our lines in Love! Together we make and become a sign.

From all my studies so far in life, Love appears to be the key to every door.