Writing and reading as therapy

I wonder why I have such a desire to write and reflect in so many posts in such a few days. Two nights ago I was asked an English question, What is the difference between self-disclosure and assertiveness. I think this blog has become for me a vehicle of self-disclosure and pray it serves as encourage and not as assertiveness. Last April, I read Henri Nouwen's comments:-

• Writing can be a true spiritual discipline. Writing can help us to concentrate, to get in touch with the deeper stirrings of our hearts, to clarify our minds, to process confusing emotions, to reflect on our experiences, to give artistic expression to what we are living, and to store significant events in our memories. Writing can also be good for others who might read what we write. Quite often a difficult painful, or frustrating day can be "redeemed" by writing about it. By writing we can claim what we have lived and thus integrate it more fully into our journeys. Then writing can become life saving for us and sometimes for others too.
  

Strangely this image of the boy playing cello from 1900 is very significant. His name is Otto Frank and just happens to be the father of Anne Frank, the famous young Jewish girl diarist. Otto the only survivor from the family was given his daughter's diary on his return to Amsterdam. Otto read it and many years later recalled his first reaction "I never knew my little Anne was so deep".

I don't know about depth, but all this stuff comes from the last five years of journalling. This reviewing and reading of my old journals and writing is therapeutic for me.

Dreams, cyberspace and reality

Paprika (パプリカ, Papurika) is a Japanese full length anime based on Yasutaka Tsutsui's novel, about a research psychologist involved in developing a device that will permit therapists to help patients by entering their dreams. However somehow the world of dreams and physical reality becomes blurred and a bizarre parade of symbols, which we might attribute to the Japanese collective unconsciousness, takes over. What happens is that people are drawn into and immersed in this parade. The device was created for good ends, in fact healing, but the human condition creates problems. This anime is not for the faint hearted the imagery is strong and effective, and it exposes fundamental human urges.

Joseph and Daniel were important ancient figures who took note of dreams, and Peter and Paul were early church figures who found importance in recognizing the divine presence in them. They are important but care is needed in their interpretation and discernment in the origin or source of the dream. Over the years, I have had very few dreams that I could remember on waking up. But since starting journaling the number has increased and I have kept a record of the dreams, and sought to understand them and their purpose and perhaps message. I believe dreaming is a sort of visual journalling and can contribute to the knowledge of self and therefore knowledge of God.

Recent scientific work has studied the ability of humans to project themselves into cyber identities whether in games or facebook, chat rooms or forums or even blogs. My fragments are consolidated here in this blog but I am not here. It is important to not live in our dreams, nor cyberspace. I would like to think that reality is where God is with us. An old confession was that God is the creator and sustainer of all things. It has been years since I heard the second spoken or discussed yet if God as sustainer defines what is real then all of life is lived in the presence of God. If we define what is real then perhaps Paprika's nightmare is closer than we imagine.

Correcting corrupted images

A key moment in my formation was the realisation that an understanding of God as father is frequently shaped by childhood. My divine image was marred by earthly experience. Henri Nouwen's book The Return of the Prodigal brought my own personal exploration and study of Rembrant's painting. The father has one hand of strength and power strongly holding and other of gentleness almost consoling.

Furthermore one of my personal struggles is that sincerity is not enough, and proficiency is required. Recently Nodame Cantibile which exists as a Japanese manga, anime, and live drama has opened me to myself, bringing old experiences of making music and loving music for music's sake. I find myself in so much of it. Set in a music college it says much not just about music but it begins with music and moves off into life. Music is a metaphor for life and living. It raises old questions about conflicting loves and what is a deeper love, it asks questions such as what is important whether to play music as I like it rather than first taking music seriously for music's sake in order to bring pleasure and joy. It brings to the front the links between technique and inspiration. The Nodame story is more than a romantic love story but also one where the love of music is a key and this is paralleled in a love of life and love in life. Even then the childhood experiences hamper and limit development and opportunity until dealt with. In my experience of parents it was a father who pushed and demanded and a mother who persuaded and consoled. Yet God as divine parent is both. Nodame Cantabile reminded me of the importance of striving for technique is as important as the ability to sing i.e. the expression of the soul of music. All art has its techne and psyche sides. (technical and soul) The spiritual disciplines present one side and movements of the spirit the other.

Sometimes we need the power of God and other times we need the shelter of the wings of God. We need a transcendent relationship if we are to live in this world, but we also need to love the experiences or at least find the experiences of the love of God here in the world. We need to take life seriously (the father's left hand) to enjoy life (the father's right hand) , otherwise we're stuck in hedonism or stoicism.

Drawing and spirtuality

A study from The Incredulity of Thomas by Peter Paul Rubens. In my journalling I became fascinated by hands and their ability to express feelings, emotions and sentiments. The earliest influence was Henri Nouwen's With Open Hands, but later the works of Van Gogh from his Brabant period. This was a time in the Borinage where he found himself with the poor.

Van Gogh wrote "And in my picture I want to say something consoling, as music does. I want to paint men and women with a touch of the eternal, whose symbol was once the halo, which we try to convey by the very radiance and vibrancy of our coloring . . . . Ah, portraiture, portraiture, with the mind, the soul of the model --that is what really come, it seems to me. (September 3, 1888)

As I draw hands and contemplate the original or the drawn that I find within myself echoes and resonances, the possibilities of the creator.

Being countercultural

I struggle with how so many are conformed to the world and not transformed by the renewal of their minds and spirit. Perhaps I might have become a monk or a hippie in the past but perhaps I am?

So often I meet leaders seeking methods as solutions who fail to hear the call to faithfulness and fidelity against cultural values and attitudes. When it comes to sabbath (read my earlier posts), workaholism and fear of loss of recognition seem to take over. Bonnie Thurston asserts "with regard to time... we Christians must become distinctly countercultural; we must shift from being future-oriented people to being present-oriented people. I am not arguing that we set aside Christian hope of heaven, nor that we set aside our responsibilities or our work. I am asking that we become present to them, to find joy in them rather than seeing them primarily as a means to an end."

What does this mean? I think it means we need a new point of view or worldview: Taking sabbath as rest with enjoyment and celebration, taking sabbath as a discipline and witness to the world of something different, and sabbath as a mode of being in the world, relishing each precious moment like it might be our last. It is to lose the busyness of life for the business of raising cognitive dissonance in those around us, to raise the fundamental questions of what is life about?

Serving or loving, our purpose?

Were we made to serve God or to fall in love with God? So often we run with the first and not the second, if not you then I definitely have!

When we can see that "conversion is a process of self-transcendence... having sought what was merely self-satisfying and comforting, we now seek what is true and good" then I think Paul Oakley's lyrics "It's all about you, Jesus" begin to ring true. As Dean Brackley goes on further "... the first impulse comes from beyond us, and what happens is disproportionate to our efforts ... conversion as falling in love. A powerful new love ignites and works its way through the whole person. It pulls lesser loves into love. ... Being in love gives life a deep sense of purpose."

One of my deepest lessons, of this summer, was a student deciding to stop understanding what faith and spirituality and belief were all about. He instead decided that the love of God was sufficient to give purpose in life. John Piper's assertion that the mission of the church flows from the worship of the people takes on a new light with this understanding. If only we could get the falling in love with God bit right. Sadly I come across so many involved in worship and leadership who have not moved beyond what was "merely self satisfying and comforting" to truly falling in love with God.

Is the talking head the only way?

Why do sermons or homilies have to be preached, or spoken? After all the spoken word is not necessarily as key as it once was. We became written cultures after aural cultures and since then we have moved on again to become visual cultures. Our worlds are massively full of conscious and unconscious symbols. The symbol that this video was shot, without conscious thought, riding the King streetcar down and onto King Street is not lost on me. I made it over 4 years ago and the soundtrack calls to mind the chorus of the people crying out "his love endures for ever". The phone tones are yhwh - the dialing code for God. This seeks to have the same intents that a conventional (whatever that means) sermon, i.e. to move people to seek change.

Good and bad discernment

Discernment is a term much abused. It has a spiritualized usage and I notice how much it is abused when someone uses a lot of energy to justify a course of action or a decision in their life. For example, a young woman returned to Canada and during her absence her family moved from Montreal to Toronto. After a month she announced God wants me to be in Montreal. However listening carefully all I could hear was I want to go back to Montreal. Too often discernment is thinly disguised language for my decisions. I think we ought to be more honest about what we are doing or desiring. God-wants-me-to-be-happy-and-therefore-I-should thinking is unfair and dishonest. Another young woman shared she had three job offers and a desire for a working holiday in Australia, I advised which would take you closer to God and then which felt like the greatest gift from God.

The spiritual gift of discernment is of good and bad spirits, which was clearly absent in the first case and sought in the second. Discernment involves firstly attitudinal stance: Are you or the person wanting to go the God direction or is there a clash of wills? This already acknowledges that there are moral norms to be acknowledged such as loving and respecting God and others, but the energy used to justify a decision betrays a pre-decision already made, which is denying openness.

Discernment is an issue of freedom. Dean Brackley writes "Authentic freedom is about responding to reality under the guidance of the Spirit." It is clearly not a case whether we should feed the hungry, clothe the naked, or visit the sick or those in prison but rather who? If we lay aside our desires we can either make a practical decision or follow the Spirit.

Openness and the will to change

I have some music at tapegerm.com and sound loops at freesound which I recorded off the subway and made available.Now I discovered that the samples have been inserted in a game! The game is Tremulous and my sample loops are part of the Paris Metro and an underground world. You never know where and what will happen.

A call from a student earlier tonight reminded me I can never predict what will happen for me or someone else. Life is unpredictable. There are no guarantees, no sure fire solutions. I can never solve others' problems let alone my own. But there is more to life than solving problems, there is the companionship of others and the experiences that can challenge and grow us.

Gorsch the cellist (or gauche or goshu) is a great little story by Kenji Miyazaki made into an Japanese anime by Isao Takahata who later founded Studio Ghibli. The story tells of a young cellist who while diligent is limited. The conductor and the rest of the orchestra are frustrated by his seeming lack of ability to play well. Over the course of 4 nights, local animals come to visit Gorsch in his little shack and their visits change change him, bringing out musicianship from deep inside of Gorsch.

Being open is essential to being transformed or being made new. In the Christian tradition there are two different understandings of what grace does. Grace can be imputed bringing about something transformative and alternatively grace can bring about something new. Both can be helpful when facing the uncertainties of life, that God might bring about something new or simply transform something already there.

Three ways of sabbath-ing

I think that sabbath is best thought of in three ways. As I reflect in preparation for a workshop the following three aspects provide shape and understanding.

1. The keeping of sabbath as a day of rest. Bonnie Thurston asserts "One of the marks of divinity is that God knows when to stop working, when to rest, when to enjoy what has been created by work..."
2. The doing of sabbath as a practice, is as Norman Wirzba suggests "the focus and culmination of a life that is daily and practically devoted to honoring God, the source of all our delight..."
3. The being of sabbath is even more core. Marva Dawn suggest Sabbath is a corrective. "The only way to stop our chronic need to work in our own way and with our sense of hurry is to stop, to cease, to spend time immersed in God's enfolding devotion to us and in the triune provision of whatever we need in order to do the work God really wants us to do in God's manner and cadence."

I think the being of sabbath is the key or cure to a very human condition. What Marva Dawn points to is a fundamental shift from self-sufficiency and "I" centreness to a focusing on God. Bonnie Thurston is beautifully blunt ... "beneath the complaint that we are too busy, that we don't have enough time, is the pride of attainment. I'm so busy may well be a way of saying see how needed I am, see how important I am".

Bernard of Clairvaux, a signficant medieval writer on the spiritual life, basically was frustrated with conduit thinking. He saw people loving and serving God and others as channels, which is living life in a narrow way, where love pours out as fast as it rushes in. This is not life in all its fullness or abundant life. He suggested that love and service needs a reservoir and outpouring is out of fullness and surplus. "We have all too few such reservoirs in the church at present, than we have canals in plenty." Notice that a reservoir life is more focused on primarily receiving from God in order to overflow over others, but people frequently merely have a survival giving from the limited resources of a stand pipe or conduit.

It's still a challenge as I face down these conclusions! (see Kino's Journey episode 10 notes for issues of identity in what you do and others needs - the picture is Haji from Blood+ , a vampire anime, which is particularly appropriate for lives lived in the absence of sabbath )

drawing number 6

The text "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives so also through Christ our comfort overflows". 2 Cor 15

This picture contains the clock tower of my church at the bottom of my garden as I grew up. There is a bowl of food sitting in the back of the picture (actually rice and 2 fish) and the heart is in the shade for the tree sheltering. The shadow on the ground seems to be 1 2 4, the values doubling.

drawing number 5

As I gave thanks for my time of rest I felt that God had written me to this point in my life. This was drawing number five.

The text was "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so thta you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit". ( Rm 15:13)

The lower section represents fossil beds near where I was staying and the causeway alludes to another set of images I drew pointing towards my spiritual journey.

drawing number 4

The fourth in the series I had been reading Isaiah 41:9-10 and 49:9a-12b.

The texts are "I will uphold you" and "I will turn my mountains into roads". This was drawn as I rested away for the city during the first days of September 2004.

drawing number 3

This was the third image from August 2004. The texts are "he held out to her the gold sceptre that was in his hand" and "when he cries out to me. I will hear for I am compassionate".

Drawn from the story of Esther 5:2 and Ex 22:27 ... I believe the dark cloud of unknowing fills the top of the picture and the hands of blessing come from ancient near Eastern images from Egypt. The boat setting off is a symbol of new beginnings for me.

drawing number 1

This image comes from August 2004 the texts are clockwise, "see I have engraved you on the palms of my hands", "I am the vine, you are the branches", and "leaves for the healing of the nations."

This was an intense time for me and in the space of 3 weeks I drew 6 of these of which this is the first.

Living in the presence

Discernment is a matter of following the Spirit and it involved the feminine side initially. Somehow the role of the Holy Spirit becomes more and more important. Henry Blackaby basically tells us if we want to know what to do, then we should go and find where God is at work. Somehow I find the importance of tears is greater than the importance of feeling good. In spirituality we make a significant difference between emotion's highs and lows and spiritual highs and lows. The dark night is not a spiritual low but it is found within an emotionally charged emotional low. The vice versa applies the emotional high may be in fact be a spiritual low . The danger is we live in our emotions rather than the presence of God.

The Dark Night of the Senses/Soul

In May 2003, I had an experience that I can only name as a period of the Dark Night of the Senses in the language of John of the Cross. I would not like to claim I am anywhere near the Dark Night of the Soul which is the last transition in spiritual maturity rather an earlier step. Unfortunately much is written that confuses depression and dark night - one is normatively emotional/psychological and pathological. The other is spiritual/faith and a given IF the faith journey is pursued. I claim no great things rather - the wretchedness of all stripped away and only God is left.

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Dark Night - adllto

'When the music fades, all is stripped away' Matt Redman

I have been to the edge of the precipice
And gazed in the abyss of darkness
I have staggered, lurched, and lingered there
Peering ready to fling myself into
The embrace of nothingness
To escape the tangible grasp of no-where, no-thing, no-one
Which is loneliness.

I say 'Yay' to solitude - But this clinging no-ness!
Temptation summons a madness -
tainting sorrow: The Cloud of Unknowing's blindness

Yet freedom and escape would be too easy,
And grotes-que.
Cheap abandon: the devil's own madness.

After forsakeness -

'Not my will but Thine'

A vision, a story, a lightness

Israel, the god-wrestler, limping home
In the brightness of the new dawn
Not by wrestling but by hanging on, is bless.

Paradise or just hope?

I have been journaling intensely as for over 5 years and have so far filled 10 journals with prayers , reflections, and drawings. much of the stuff in this blog comes from my journals. What are the drawings you'll find? What do they mean? Sometimes a prayer that cannot be expressed initially with words. Sometimes a drawing expressing the inexpressible. Sometimes a drawing as response to life or something read....

I'm going to post some of the images of the last five years.

my reworking of psalm 111

"Getting in real close with a psalm"

Psalm 111

Hallelujah

A heart, my heart in all its entirety gives thanks,
Both with the close company and far reaching family of the righteous.

Cosmic are the handiworks of the Lord,
Delighting those who would know them,
Even his magnanimous acts reveal his splendour and glory,
For his righteousness endures forever.

Graphically given for us to recall are his acts,
He, our Lord is full of grace and favour,
In the journey he provisions those who fear him.

Judicial thoughts constantly bring his covenant to mind,
Knowledge of his powerful works come from him,
Lands of promise, taken and given.

Making by hand true faithfulness and justice,
Nurturing, all his precepts are trustworthy,
On sure ground for all eternity.

Placed in the soil of true fidelity and uprightness,
Quintessential, he provided redemption for his own,
Released and raising his covenant for ever,
Showing how awesome and holy is his name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Understanding comes to those who keep this.
Very praise of him is forever

reworker adllto

sabbath as attitude

As I prepare for a workshop on sabbath I have been reading and reading and realize that calling or vocation are intrinsic to understanding work and rest.

John Ortberg in If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat writes

• Fear is not an adequate excuse of the tragedy of an unopened gift ... water walking requires not only the courage to take a risk, but also the wisdom to discern a call ... The line between "Thou shalt not be afraid" and 'Thou shalt not be ridiculous" is often a fine one and not easily located.
• Knowing when to get out of the boat and take a risk does not only demand courage, it also demands the wisdom to ask the right questions, the discernment to recognize the voice of the Master and the patience to wait for his command ...
• Callings are usually not easy to discover. You will have to be ruthlessly honest about your gifts and your limitations. You will have to be willing to ask hard questions and live with the answers... You will have to be willing to let some dreams die a painful death.

There is nothing logical rationally sound about my chosen path, other than it is path that I am drawn to because I hear the Master's voice.

Dean Brackley writes in The Call to discernment in Troubled Times

• Inner Freedom [as call] is not the total absence of disordered desire. Otherwise, no-one would qualify. rather, it means being able to overcome contrary desire, especially disordered desire, when we have to. That requires ordering our desires, or rather allowing God to order them, like a magnet pulling iron fillings into line, and enlist them in single-minded service.

• The call is something people experience in real life. It comes in the form of consolation, drawing them to a freer, more generous way of life ... A vocation to service is a lifelong commitment that is fleshed out in concrete commitments that project into the future.

Knowledge of self and knowledge of God are commensurate with life direction. They are also intrinsic to understanding why some people do nothing and others everything and also understanding why the former have no peace and somehow the latter neither. When you understand your call and work within that call, and within human limitations and correct understanding of role, then workaholism or acedia (spiritual laziness or sloth) become conscious actions. Remember falling out with God is both action or inaction, i.e. failure to act. Peace comes working within a complete understanding of work and rest, I think.

adllto

Kino's Journey - closing thoughts and questions

Released in April 2003, this haunting animated series is based on a light novel by Keiichi Shigusawa. (It is rated PG because of some of its challenging content and some of the violence though not gratuitous. None of those scenes will be shown this weekend!)

At the conference we are using the dubbed English soundtrack however I feel the Japanese voice track with it’s own English translation in the subtitles is much stronger and sets a better tone, especially the voices chosen seem to fit better.

Kino’s Journey’s strength is its ability to present multiple points of view (POV). One of the psychological measures of spiritual growth is being able to see from alternative perspectives. Kino’s Journey offers good training.

• The person who has lived / is living the situation (alternatively, it may provide more than one person's take on the situation). This POV presents an insider's view to the story. It usually illustrates the thoughts and emotions that the person experiences and what leads to a certain decision / final understanding.
• Kino's POV presents the outsider's POV. Kino's views are those without attachment (a traveler just passing through). Kino usually provides a POV that’s different if not contrary to the person who has lived through / experienced the situation.
• Hermes POV usually represents the questions or doubts that come to the mind of the viewer during a discussion / debate between Kino and the "natives of the land". Hermes presents a pessimistic if not fatalistic POV, usually jumping directly to the worst case scenario.( here credit for this observation goes to http://eltonpinto.blogspot.com/search/label/Anime)

A few questions arising specifically for a congregation or church

Episode 1 The Land of Visible Pain
What does koinonia/fellowship or Christian community look like? Is it possible to bear one another’s burdens and share each other’s pains?

Episode 10 A Tale of Mechanical Dolls
How do the roles and ministries in a church fit with calling for members in the communal life and ministry of a church? Does a need or a perceived lack constitute a calling to ministry? What are the differences between spiritual and natural talents?
How do we know if we should be doing this?

Episode 13 A Kind Land
In the context of 3 John, Demetrius and Diotrephes present contrasts almost as stark as Sakura who stays and Kino who leaves. What are the strengths and weaknesses to have a corporate traveler mentality for a congregation?
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Kino's Journey episode 13

Some more reflection questions, now episode 13 –

What is reputation all about? How different is it to gossip?
Time and history are important factors in this land. Why?

Endurance and perseverance and hope belong together, because they are all about time and being in time. But what are the really important things in life for you?

Destination is a state of mind.

Dorothy L Sayers write “It is precisely because of the eternity outside time that everything in time becomes valuable and important and meaningful. Therefore, Christianity … makes it of urgent importance that everything we do here should be rightly related to what we eternally are. “Eternal life” is the sole sanction for the values of this life.”

When you read Matt 25:31-46, in the light of what Sayer’s says, what actually is the difference between the sheep and goats? Examine what they say? And compare how Jesus reacts.

What are the implications for how you live both personally, as a family , as a church?

adllto

Kino's Journey episode 10

Some more reflection questions -

How does the old lady/nanny fit in this country, what is her role?
What is her role in this world? How do we determine roles?

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel proposed two primeval self-consciousnesses the master and the slave, which in relationship initially demand recognition from the other, and later dependency on them, for their identity.

How do we determine who is master and who is slave/servant in this episode? How do we determine this in our world?

Being able to see the country at the bottom of lake requires a willingness to travel and to be shown and the requirement of the right light source.

Often our Bible translations translate doulos which means literally slave, with servant as if to cushion the blow about what it means to follow Christ. However you cannot do this in Mark 10: 35-45 where Jesus makes a radical statement about the difference. How comfortable are you with this.

Where is your meaning? In what you do or could do? Where is your identity founded? How do you describe yourself to others?

adllto

Kino's Journey episode 1

Some reflection questions after watching the episode-

In the desert, the temptation is to go back. Why?
What is the tension between decisiveness and what I shall call providence (though Kino calls it luck)? How do you live this out?

What is your purpose or calling in life? How would you go about finding this out?
Who determines it?

In the city and the outskirts

Where are we and what is the problem?
Why does the man want Kino to stay?

Jean Paul Sartre said “Hell is another person” Can other people really be hell?
Is this land hospitable, as Hermes and Kino wonder? Does hospitality require people?

Trust and Truth belong together. In contrast to the Land of Pain read Psalm 85 and examine what responses rise in you.

adllto

opening notes on Kino's Journey

These post follow from a recent summer conference where I taught 3 John and I wrote notes and study materials. We have to say thanks to ADV films who gave permission to show part of the anime series.

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Kino’s Journey キノの旅 – The Anime and the “Why”

Destination is a state of mind.

Travelers not only find themselves in a variety of countries and landscapes, but we can see both their own and the new country’s values and traditions. Kino is such a traveler. The world of Kino and Hermes, a talking motorrad or motorcycle, is full of strange locales, each with its own traditions, values and cultures.

Kino's particular rule is to never stay more than three days in a country before moving on. That amount of time is just enough to get a real feel for a country, plus if you stay longer that's time not spent in another place. Each country has its own set of rules and laws, but there are some basic ones that apply to Travelers.

Kino’s Journey is a thinking person’s anime, and follows in the great tradition of tackling worldly philosophies that many great thinkers have been trying to sort out. Similarities can be found with Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and, Che Guevara’s autobiography The Motorcycle Diaries is considered an influence.

The traveler is actually an old motif for the Christian life and a counter against the world in which we live. Our worlds are full of values and traditions, which distract and remove us from the reality of a God-given world and a life lived in partnership, in co-existence with God. The traveler motif is a pilgrim motif and was written into God’s warning to the Israelites and is embedded in Scripture. Deuteronomy is peppered with a call to remember Egypt and the desert time. Deut 8 “For the Lord is bringing you into a good land … when you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God … otherwise when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down … your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God.” Paul said “Since you have been raised with Christ set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col 3 1-2) Jesus instructed “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth … but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven … for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:19-21)

Where are your treasures? Where is your heart? How can you find out?

We are mired in our own worldview, literally stuck and it takes at minimum cross-cultural missions trips, getting out of our comfort zones, and an authentic desire to discover our blindness as God removes the scales from our eyes. Only in traveling either literally, metaphorically or simply with our minds, hearts, and souls can we discover whether we are worshiping the gods of the new land (see Deut 6:14) or God Almighty.

adllto

the arrival

Hi anyone reading this... I've had an internet presence for over 2 years now but am now joining the ranks of bloggers. Welcome to my blog ... I've been thinking for years and had no vehicle to post and share except by spamming my friends. So here it is ... Welcome to adllto world. If you don't know me and you've wandered here, you'll find bits of me across the internet. Just do a Google search on adllto. If you want to get in touch find me as artist at tapegerm.com. Please don't steal anything without acknowledging that you got it from me... just use adllto as the attribution.