I had a great chat with Alise Wright and we talked about her upcoming book project Not Afraid. Plus, we talk a bit about a few other things like marriage equality and Mark Driscoll’s new polemic book “Real Marriage” (and I may need to offer some bonus video material on that insightful stuff); can men and women be friends (best of friends, even when they are married to other people); and Alise’s upcoming personal work in keeping with her calling.
Here’s Janet chatting with me about courage and hope. Find out at her website how you can get her book FREE.
click for photo source
In the latest issue of Harper’s Bazaar, actress Demi Moore replies to the question, “What scares you?” by saying,
“If I were to answer it just kind of bold-faced, I would say what scares me is that I’m going to ultimately find out at the end of my life that I’m really not lovable, that I’m not worthy of being loved. That there’s something fundamentally wrong with me … What scares me the most is not knowing and accepting that just about everything is not in my control. That makes me feel unsafe.”
Some people may claim the Hollywood starlet is speaking of a “God-shaped void” as Blaise Pascal once referred to it. But wait just a minute…
Not everybody will admit to this sort of thing. Some never gaze inward long enough to see it. But there it is. While many won’t realize what what the jilted Moore is talking about for themselves, I think this women has hit on a fundamentally human frailty fraught with universal relevancy. (And it has virtually nothing to do, in fact, with a certain shaggy-headed addition to the Two And A Half Man sitcom.) This frailty, I might add, is not actually negative, as we might first imagine, but rather part of the vulnerability that is the stuff of being human.
It’s these same underlying and exquisitely human fears that we mask, medicate, bury, avoid, deflect, or anesthetize, that cause all manner of destructive behaviors and coping mechanisms. For Demi, who was just hospitalized for stress-related health issues (namely exhaustion…and likely malnutrition), it can create potent consequences. It’s something wealth, influence, fame, accolades, and beauty doesn’t seem to ameliorate. Curious, no?
For many religion or spiritual practice helps to blunt the reality of our human predicament, but clearly that alone doesn’t seem to actually mend the situation. I refer not to just the situation of being mortal, but of being fundamentally impotent. Rarely is this gnawing sense placated for long. Demi, for one, is connected to the practice of Kabblah, but it hasn’t helped this core need.
Though her vulnerability and frailties are up for public scrutiny, many possess the same sorts of fears and maladies, and even despair, but go unnoticed.
To me, our condition seems unmendable…purposefully, that is.
Christians may argue they are the exception; they feel a great sense of hope because of belief in Jesus Christ, arriving to our world as the incarnation of God to make a pathway back to God. Alas, Redemption! Closure, right? Yet a cursory survey of believers (even 3 minutes scanning twitter feeds) show they too are rife with the same sorts of problems as Moore, and Jesus hasn’t seemed to fix that for them.
(The particulars of why are widely speculated and even hotly contested. Some call for more faith and prayer, while others osmotically move into greater embracing of “the mysteries”.)
The funny things is, I get Demi. I feel those things too. I wrestle with them, and I’ve taken up the journey to walk through all the rough patches, which are aplenty.
I think it’s high time to bring what it means to be human out it the open.
A kind of unlearning happens as we grow wiser, and the sort of acceptance of our weaknesses may take hold as we become more acquainted with our human condition. Maturity I think it’s called. The “Will we ever get there?” question lingers.
What do you think about Demi’s quote?
Do you relate to her, or do you see things differently?
Thank you so much for stopping by today.
It’s a really big day for me, for at least 3 reasons…hold up! 5 Reasons. (I just found out it’s The Year of the Dragon starting today AND National Pie day. Eating pie like a dragon seems like the proper thing to do and Very exciting!)
Here’s 3 more reasons.
1. Author Shawn Smucker’s interview is now live, it’s awesome, and it’s the first of two parts (see the previous post).
2. Doomsday debunker and writer of a bunch of books, Jason Boyett, posted the pre-lease of his interview with me about his fun (yes I said fun) Doomsday book. For now, it’s only available at his site, here, (and it’s unlisted on youtube until that goes live, on January 30th to the general public).
Since it’s time-sensitive info…go ahead and get the word out! (We might only have 11 more months before ultimate doom and annilation, so be a darling and help some people not freak out, k?)
3. I have a guest post at Confessions of a Funeral Director. No, I’m not a funeral director, but it is a kind of confession.
Please stop by and read my deathly guest post at Caleb’s poignant site. He’s, by far, my favorite undertaker. And I mean that!
And check back for a fascinating Ninja Interview with Caleb which will be up soon.
(by Chris O Brien click for CC source)
You can’t die of a broken heart. It’s despair that kills you.
Having a broken heart, means you are alive. It means that something matters, and you haven’t gone numb (which is what usually happens to people after a while…or escapism, which is sort of the same).
Having a broken heart means that risk was rewarded with pain. But not pain unto death. Pain that gives way to experience you can’t find another way.
I used to think God was trying to kill me of a broken heart. Dashing my hopes and dreams. Allowing my son, or my father, or me to suffer until I couldn’t take it anymore. It felt like the beatings wouldn’t end.
At the end of that bit of brutality (as I perceived it) I realized I could be borne out of it, like a phoenix. And that was the point. To come to a resurrection. On the other side was life, not death. All the scars would be a kind of beauty, not a pitiable shame.
Don’t worry about your broken heart. It has to break apart to get to the fleshy part. The part so tender that only God can hold it…and be the only one who can and will protect it in a way you never could understand before. In a way that you can never do alone. You are brave enough for that. You. are.
Do. not. despair.
…it’s so hot that…
I can’t think of a good joke for this right now. (Feel free to use your wit in the comments section, if you feel inclined.)
The reality of Heaven (that we’ve been discussing in recent posts) pulls into question the validity of the bible’s portrayal of Hell as well.
I think the scorching flames, pitchforks, and undying worms have actually undersold the idea of Hell.
Not that isolation and burning hot sulfur would be fun, but the reality of choosing death over life and the separation from God cannot be caught up in amputated descriptions we ordinarily have.
Who better to elucidate the topic than arguably the foremost New Testament scholar alive today.
Below is the statement not about real keys, or master locks. It’s about the victory of God, and about the hope we have that death is truly conquered.
New International Version (©1984)
I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Rev. 1:18
This was not a Christmasy post, was it?
Okay. Time to pull from the archives!
First, remember that Christmas is a time of giving. Here’s my project to give things away (public domain style). There are just a few days left to leave your mark on the world during Advent.
Second. Some needed Christmas humor…okay, it’s semi-dark humor.
Three selections:
1. Funny Santa photo
2. Funny Santa photo 2 (I did a whole week of this last year)
3. (suspicious holiday songs)
(This photo is hereby released into the public domain as part of the Artists Advent Project (click for more details). Use or distribute freely.)
Idioms are the stuff we trip over when we consider biblical language about heaven, or hell for that matter.
Pearly gates, streets of gold, city walls made of gems, and so on, in such a captivating portrayal may distract us from the greater truths the biblical writers were pointing to.
Having no vocabulary to render a fully redeemed new earth, the biblical writers described heaven in terms of peace (shalom) in mentioning that the city gates would never close. They spoke of righted relationships (i.e. golden neighborhood streets), lavish blessing, stability and security (beautiful pearly gates, no night) and no anguish in the form of tears, psychic pain, and death (a.k.a. no sea).
As I pondered some of the concepts in Tim Keller’s Gospel in Life video series in my sunday school class, I thought about the Tree of Life, revisited from the Eden story and given a call back in the story of our heavenly hope, the new earth.
This Tree of Life stuff reveals something far bigger than some sort of large plant with bark with life giving produce. Thinking of simply a literal tree planted in the new earth of heaven, and people lining up to get its life-giving fruit to live forever, sells short the magnitude of what God has done for us through his grace. This tree illustration sheds light on the bounty, abundance of God, and diet of his love that sustains us, world without end.
As you look at your Christmas tree in the next few days, let its presence reflect the hope we have in the reality of what God has done, and what he continues to do. Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection breathes life into our spirits, and sustains us now, and in the world to come.
Do you have any thoughts about hope to share today?
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