the Anterior Cruciate .. Lament

(not quite ..)

---

For pleasure of mere movement in the wind,

the joy of moving fast and turning quick,

on top of that the game that won't recind,

sheer strategy, and courage to the brink,

creative - bringing options fresh released,

& skilful in dependability:

these gifts are exercised, thus not decreased

through  game’s with all their physicality.

Competitive sport covers all these well,

so I would like to thank YOU - for it’s real!

But now recall it sometimes brings on hell,

with injuries that can take months to heal,

or maybe leave with loss, or lack somehow,

and that is where a bloke could today be 

if in a game of soccer with some pow’r

he ruined all that’s helpful in his knee.

And he might hope for healing yet again,

and therefore his direct pain might decrease,

but still there might be other kinds of pain

and lacks that feel like there’ll be no release.

And that is where things are for my friend Sam.

He’s thought, and still no options come to view.

I feel for him, for YaHWeH (the I Am)

hears cries and comes up close, and pers’nal, too.

And so a groan comes out, turns into prayer,

as with that deaf/mute man* they brought to him

and looking up, we speak to his leg where

it bends (or doesn’t): “Open up - that limb!

---

Footnotes

n* - (Mark 7:31-37)

---

appendix -

-itus

---

God, pour your love on this one, (y)our daughter.

And thanks for each who helped, as supporter..

And all those who just had a chance as well

to join with “your will for your world” - ('gainst hell),

to make it heavenly by choices made

to represent your truth & love as bade

by you when you made humans in the shade

of your good mentoring (before way-laid -

by us who've looked to snake to learn/ to teach

us how to live with wisdom and to reach

out with two hands to partner with the love

that's given all good gifts come from above....)

Your healing comes to us from deep inside

each body you have given us to hide

creative love in action in this world;

and those folk joined with you, where they were hurled

by Providence who has provided well

a world for us to care for and to dwell

in, so to learn co-operation too

(with providence itself, &) me and you,

so parents, children, neighbours living near,

and others from afar who might come here..

Co-operating in a partnership

to learn to see another's win or slip

as way to join with them and multiply

the goodness in this world, so bye and bye...

(not "buy & buy", as money’s entity)

we'll even grieve with anger and pity*!

---

Footnote

y* - e.g. “Jesus was angry as he looked round at them, but at the same time he felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it became well again.” (Mark3:1-6)

---

Camera.. Action!

(Script)

---

Well things are happening around me now.

Before “words” come to me, I start to see*..

that I'm to learn to watch, to look, then bow

in recognition of the good ’round me.

To honor good in all the ways it should 

be honoured as appropriate in that..

..that time and place and instance where it could

be then expressed, embodied on this mat…

material and energetic place,

a concrete model of what’s come to mind

of YaHWeH GOD, who IS (existence Ace),

where we are meant to model, and to find

all goodness, since it’s woven secretly

into the fabric of the Universe,

then learning to extend it more, to be

co-opperators (not just some perverse

young operators of machinery, 

who play with the controls in ignorance)

apprenticed under one who made for me

& you, designed this whole she-bang (not chance) 

to now be finished - with his kids once grown

up, so to join in with the fam’ly trade

of building (& then helping with a groan

or two - as sign of processing what’s made, 

or being formed around us, in between

us, & within us, as we join with the

terrific purpose of our being seen

on this stage, till we have that final meet-

ing with Producer and Director who

will look at all our acting up till then.

Decisions will be made ’bout me and you:

Will we be picked for next production when…

the stakes get higher, viewers - many more.

So, starting now I am a viewer first,

but then I am an actor, singer for

this musical, with music fit to burst

this tiny little heart with joy & grief,

emotions must be just appropriate,

to plot-line where they frame, or bring relief…

We're in this First Production ’t any rate.

---

e* - copying YaHWeH GOD who “saw that it was good”, seven times in Genesis One.

---

But wait…

There’s more!

---

Background:

After a difficult Tuesday, I did what I needed to to process it (e.g. yesterday’s blog). Then set myself to live the next day (Wednesday) dependent on creative love, not my own independent resources. And shared my need with those who asked, and asked for prayer. At the end of the day I texted this to some mates: “Men, thanks for your prayers .. it was a beautiful day today... God stepped in and helped heaps. Thank you brothers for joining with me. Thank you God for your help in handling the difficulties and my forgetfulness etc... very “looked after” I was!!”. And this came out:

---

Oh God you helped, the atmosphere was great,

the setting - with two other adults there

with attitudes of helping, not of hate,

capacities honed sharp to show the care

that those kids really feel and understand,

& step up to, to do their very best,

along with do-able assessment planned.

Disruptions were disrupted - and the rest 

was “his-tor-y” (this morning), as they say. 

It felt like bits of heaven opened up.

Creative love itself involved today

itself in the classroom of this “young pup”.

And I am linking help effective from

yourself in ways as obvious as this,

to my inviting you in prayer (and song!),

‘n’the “body” joining with, not taking piss..

And for the chance to work like this in part-

-ner-ship along with you, I’m very glad!

But something makes me long for more, the art

of conversation as I walk, and gad

about the place, responding to their needs,

& opportunities (& threats) as well,

not just on outside, growing plants from seeds,

but inside, with my own “electron shells”.

My own subjective sharing of this life,

my feelings world, and motives, images.

I think I see how ev’ry bit of  strife

was tuned to, like your son in scrimmages.

It took my all, and knowing too, the game.

Expecting help along the way, and fun

that will involve my going past what sane

& “normal” life calls for. I had to run!

Not thoughtlessly, as frantic person might,

but joining in with much more than the norm.

And thus I would live all my life - in sight

of you, my God, my Father, through each storm.

Filled with the spirit of creative love, 

to try to make it manifest down here

that Earth reflect the heavens up above.

The very sea turns blue*, it would appear!

---

Footnote

e*  - not the “blue” of depression, but the regal blue of ancient cultures, also appreciated by flower lovers and bower birds.

---

Invite to come!

---

God give us wisdom from yourself to share

in ways that are appropriate and true,

that mirror you "the God who is still there”,

though these days yet we find we don't see you.

---

feelings before facings

(pre-face*)

---

Conceptions which are underlying for

our further understanding here; as such

Ontologies are central if we’d more

relate in ways that grasp, but do not clutch.

The purpose of our grasping-well affects

the way we use, and interact, and know.

The ways we interface and share reflect

the kinds of stuff appropriate to show

and tell within these times we learn & teach

and form each other, maybe deform too.

Re-forming right-relating here with each -

as much as it depends on me (& you).

Affecting our Epistemologies, 

our Pedagogy, Ethics will flow on..

Communities that practice truth will please

not power-mongers, but folk  who belong

to such communities that listen well, 

yet do not lose their voice by doing so;

in fact their service - fighting all the hell

that thoughtlessness does spawn, will go to show

and tell those stories, of the others here,

because we’re tuning in to their own speech

or lack of it. Acts make options appear,

creative, they make space for all & each.

And tuning in ourselves to deeper things

that colour all our acting, speech, and thought:

the hidden wholeness & 

imaginings

we wake up to bring more than what we brought.

---

Footnote

e* - Reflecting on the Preface (entitled “Recovery of Community in Education”) to the Paperback Edition of Parker Palmer’s book “To know as we are known - Education as a spiritual journey”, which was first published in 1993.

---

In this world …

... you will have trouble

---

God, please give wisdom to your young child Ian.

And help him in his weakness to look up

to you his father who knows how he's been

and still may ask him to drain down that cup.

And help me not to battle flesh and blood,

but spirits that rule by default for they

affect the options we see: sky, or mud! -

curtailing contexts, even what we’d pray.

So help me please to see the way you do,

to understand priorities as you

do, with the kind of options that you view,

because your focus is much broader too… 

For those two students I taught this past week,

who didn't show respect, or quickly lost

the bit they had; please help their lives so bleak

to come in touch with power of Pentecost..

And I as carrier of that strong wind,

those tongues of fire that speak of your good works

do set myself to not flail or recind

the unction you set on me; he who lurks(!)

And even if I fall, and body dies,

I set myself to trust you in my grave,

and crucify that part of me that tries

to justify myself, or else to rave

about my rights, or else capacities,

as though I were a God by my own right.

A joke, to think that ev’ryone should please

me. I would please the one who’s “outa sight”!

---

Practice

 being Godly

---

It's not the thinking of good thoughts* alone 

that makes me good (as even man may be*). 

Just speaking of good words don’t flesh the bones

of glory, honour, immortality.

There must be actions in this world, but not

just once or twice*, the flukes of happenstance.

And there must be intent to get to what

has baited humans through the years: The chance

of seeking honour, glory immortal-

ity by doing good repeatedly,

till it’s our character, habit settled,

and by this, programmed into us steadily.

This is the way YaHWeH has chosen to

now partner with us in creating more

reflections of him-self in me & you:

his love’s creative discipline gets poured

around the place by creatures on themselves.

Authority of him, is shared with us

to make a creature who can work for health

somehow by ways that act more than they fuss.

Appearances are NOT what “floats his boat”! -

unless we think “appearing on the stage”,

but there's a set of “skills” to learn (by rote),

till our whole selves are able to engage

in acting out the part he’s picked for us - 

to re-present creative love itself

in all the settings of a life that does;

to show an instance of a life with health!

---

Footnotes

ts* - though the process clearly does involve choosing to “think about what is good” (Philippians 4:8)

be* - “a good man, full of the holy spirit and faith” (see Micah 6:8; Acts 11:24; I Tim 3:8, 2 Cor 1:12; Gal6:7-10; )

ce* - (see above footnote, with emphasis on “all of life” or “in every way”) & this sort of passage: “To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he (God) will give eternal life.”(NIVUK, with italic font (& bracketed but) added by me for emphasis (& clarity); Rom 2:7)

---

(T)hankering

This hankering for recognition which

I find is deep within myself, inside; 

I’ll recognise, and name. It’s like a twitch,

or ‘tick’, or stutter. Not to be denied, 

but not to be the focus of my life.

My life is like a lens to focus on…

not me, but “good-ness”, in “good” times & “strife”:

good things to recognise, to think upon,

to give thanks for, & then good works to do,

because they’d help not me, but this cosmos,

where God has put me, at this time - where you

& I affect folk here for good, or loss.

I now recall what Pete*, or was it Paul*

said in the scriptures that we read today,

“God is my witness*” and too these words fall

quite nat-ur-al-ly, as a way to say

that this is really true, not “for affect” -

to garner praise or well-wishing from folk. 

He lived his life before the one who checked

him out and judges ev’ry Sheila/ Bloke.

And so I think I'll take a leaf from them,

or learn a lesson from the way they spelled

things out, God sees, & knows what I do, when,

and where, with who, & how & why, as well.

Don't think that recognition’s not that good!

That cannot be, unless God’s not around.

But as, in Jesus’s words, God is, and should

be trusted. I’ll walk gladly on (t)his ground!

---

Footnotes

e* - 2 Peter 1:3-11 and the rest of the chapter…

l* - Ephesians 2:10; Titus 3:8

s* - e.g. Galatians 1:20; 2 Corinthians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:5; Romans 1:9

---

Growing

Responsiveness to God

---

Dad, after our brief talk on the phone Sunday Arvo, 

---

this morning I read through one of the 20 (?) different things that have helped me get or nurture the right attitude, or mindfulness to tune in to God through a day. This (The Examen) is one, maybe Laurie passed on to us:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/0B-x3YoQ3OQpLM2xMbjBUbHRZTDA/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=100279994004385559468&resourcekey=0-movByCwoDYI-SMYvPRWWpQ&rtpof=true&sd=true

.

Another thing is to kind of be a midwife for them as they look over their interactions with God, to start to develop a personalised discipline or "Way" that is helpful for them at this stage of their journey.. ie. To make or develop good "habits of responsiveness" ( based on the critter they are at the moment, and the critter they sense God wants them to become more of - to spread the life of Jesus more into the world.

Another example for me has been that little summative (& formative) passage of general advice the Apostle Paul says to the Thessalonian Jesus Followers: "Be JOYFUL always,  PRAY at all times, be THANKFUL in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; https://bible.com/bible/296/1th.5.16-18.GNBUK, plus then, the rest of the chapter)...

 I found it worked backwards for me... i.e. when I PRAYED in all circumstances, then I found I was THANKFUL to God for his help and gifts through every circumstance, and then I found I was JOYFUL (about something, even if it wasn't some change of circumstances, but simply the chance to share that part of life with God himself)...

---

Lamb & Lager ..

..& the Larger One..

---

Prologue:

Text2me: “…Not sure if this might interest you but we're having a men’s Lamb and Lager dinner on the 23 May. 6:30 at Holy trinity. $20. We'll hear from a local shepherd..”..

Text from me: Thanks brother, I like both lamb, lager, & the larger One. I may have a VIP visitor then, & if so, it probably won’t work. But if not, and if God brings me in touch with someone else who would appreciate company at such an event, I'd love to come.

 

---

GOD, may your people who bear your good name

and image in this town be yours, and its -

as Jesus wept for those towns* and inflamed

their leadership against him bit by bit

so in the end they killed him dead before 

the blocks of their great building were knocked down.

Oh may the people you love love you more

than all the stuff we gain from those around.

Oh grow, please God, some hearts of "flesh" that beat

as your heart does, to beat of diff'rent drum

that helped Him hear your voice out in the street

and at the table where who loved would come.

And may the King of Love who shepherds still

his sheep, and knows each lamb to care for it,

send out more shepherds to this town who will

find needy folk who feel they hardly fit

in set-ups under those who found "their niche",

(by which they don't mean ways to suffer well).

This Christ you sent to us, and too to each,

that we might learn to live "absorbing hell".

Or in the words of those who came around

to follow Him whom you said we should 'hear',

"love covers over piles of sin". They found

forgiveness is for giving out. He's near!

That’s He whose goodness never fails or falls

off just because he doesn’t find his match.

He’s faithful, so he builds; and he will call

and then equip, and also bind and patch.

---

Footnote

s* - e.g. Luke 10:13-15; 13:34-35; Matt 11: 20-30; 23:37-39 …

---

What's the RSVP date?

---

Inconvenience..

..or Adventure

---

Today the weather’s somewhat colder and

it might just snow sometime the bureau says.

The wind is chilly, and so I have planned

to wear a cap on head, for I can guess

my lunch-time duty will require I stand

out in the weather at the “lower front”.

So here I am in company so grand

as those around about me in this hunt.

This hunt I say, for “Truth (through Knowledge)” here

is hunted down, as gold is sought from ore.

For motivation’s key, it would appear,

and more is found the more it is looked for.

And things are truly looked for in this world

when they are really prized, or treasured in

themselves, or some good function they hold furled

within their nature, or where they have been,

or else because of their relationships 

to other things or people round about. 

So attitudes of honour, care, friendships,

or mis-trust can affect what is found out.

And many things will not be even sought

for, just because our models don’t yet let

those inputs in, so outputs can’t be brought

to match experience we can’t forget.

So sometimes fresh friendship, or love, or hate,

or even pain, discomfort brings me back

to live out in this real world, of late.

instead of just my model that’s off track!

---

Performing chants/ chance

to make a brand new world!

---

Well KHESED-love performs such deeds and words;

such words, and deeds then come to pass as well

the essence of intent before they’re heard

when mouth that formed the word was soon to tell

it out into the world, as spark of fire, 

(or seed of living animal or plant).

Its word speaks of intent and shares its ire,

or joy, or grief, and mind [not emptied out,

but teeming with what might be called desire,

if that means understandings, will, and plans 

to bless all others - creatures lower, higher.]

It starts with keeping its own word. It stands

to reason, and to creativity, to power to create (not just to change),

and understanding as with my kids, me.

It doesn’t help them if I am deranged.

And what en-love-en-ed father, though he be

as evil and mistaken as we are,

would try to “raise” his kids to hinder he

who gave them life? ..He hopes they shine as stars!

And I feel quite unlike that shining self; 

reactive and defensive when pain’s near.

My hopes and spirit, like a willing elf;

my “flesh” is weak to motivate and cheer.

But KHESED-love if you will enter me

and be my breath to take life further in,

and higher up, then I am glad to be

receptacle for your life. May it win!

---

EMOTIONS (as a result of our knowledge)...

..can smudge*, or bear witness to* KHESED-love’s actional communications.

---

To bear witness is not just to speak words

of language made by Hemisphere of brain 

that’s left (when pointing forward) - even birds

and reptiles, mammals might have to refrain

from learning just from sound-wave symbols when

they’re round about, and learn from acts, in fact

some things are best passed down the line again

by dramatised responses. For a pact

can be made that is binding, without words, 

though understanding’s necessary still.

And honour, glory can be seen, or heard

somehow by oft repeated acts that will

display the choices of a life well lived*.

It might be just the lack of fear, or else

the overbearing way the facts are sieved,

and seen in light of threats perceived from hell’s

capacity to taint the whole of life,

and lead to accusations and the like,

instead of questions, which can, like a knife,

cut out our immaturity and hike

on further than the accusations could

go, yet don’t need accuse at all, they leave

that for the ones who answering claim good-

ness at their beck and call. And on their sleeve

they wear emotions, and as humans would

be, they are vuln’rable to claiming judge-

-ment as their right, which may be well ‘n’ good,

when under-teamed with side that doesn’t fudge.

---

Footnotes

e* -  interesting little phrase (“εἰς μαρτύριον αὐτοῖς”=“to bear witness to them”) seen in two scenes showing Jesus’ intentions - at least one (the first citation) where his hopes were un-realised (or at least smudged), the second referred to some time in the future (where Jesus’ hopes would be either fulfilled or not fulfilled): Mark 1:42-45 esp v.44; Mark 13:9-11,esp v.9.

o* - see footnote above - second citation)

d* - Rom 2:7

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