QUOTE: Oswald Chambers on knowing God

Ann posted this on Facebook:

My vision of God is dependent upon the condition of my character. My character determines whether or not truth can even be revealed to me." (ouch!) - O. Chambers

Sogn wrote:
Is one's decision to believe in Christ dependent upon the condition of one's character? I guess that's Arminianism, but some would say it at least borders on Pelagianism.

I wrote:

Isn't this the case for all knowing, and not just religious truth? Ask any counselor!

If I have a character that is obstinate and self-centered, I may not be able to receive some truths about my relationship with my spouse. If I am a notorious gossiper, or prone to be jealous, I may not be entrusted with some information that I otherwise might be given.

Similarly, if I have a character which is humble, trustworthy, generous and forgiving,, others may tend to reveal all manner of things to me, knowing that I will not betray them, or use their words against them.

Why, then, shouldn't it be the same regarding truth about God, who as Trinity is super- personal?

Mulling on this further, perhaps that is also part of what Jesus meant in Luke 18:15-17

People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."

We consider infants to be innocent, because they have no developed intellectual and moral virtues and vices. They certainly have personalities, but their character is yet to be formed. Babies are not so much blank slates as empty cups. Perhaps that is what makes them better able to receive the Lord and perhaps that is also what it means for us to be "born again:" to have a new start, a new foundation, a new openness to receive the Truth, Who is Good and Beautiful, the One who IS, and to grow in Him.

To have and to hold

I am a pastor's wife.

(I love how the Chinese have a special title for us, shi mu).

Today I keep thinking of several people who are having relationship troubles. Some are simply seeking to have better relationships with others around them. Others are in more desperate situations.
I am also reflecting on the gift I have been given in my husband.

There are some relationships where to hold is to crush

Sometimes we smother others.
Sometimes others are so free spirited, or so skittish or distracted that even to provide a safe resting place feels confining to them.

Then there are some relationships where to hold is to disintegrate .

Sometimes we are so passionate that it causes others to melt, and lose themselves.
Sometimes others are so fragile that they shatter to the touch.

But then there are some relationships where to have is to hold, and to hold is to have

Lord,

I am yours.

Hold me in your hands, that I might not be afraid to be held.
Hold me in your hands, that I might understand how you want me to hold others.

Thank you for my husband, who holds me in you.

Formation in an Electronic Age

In thinking about acedia I stumbled over a convicting article: "Formation in an Electronic Age," by Sister Prudence Allen, R.S.M. Though it is written for a Catholic audience, its wisdom is for us all. Personally, I found myself frequently convicted, especially regarding gluttony. Passive lifestyle, inordinate amounts of food and drink...ouch! Corporately, I wonder if we shouldn't pause to consider this observation:

"Another side-effect of gluttony for electronic media is that persons who are consistently used to high levels of sensory stimulation during times of relaxation and recreation, seek for the same kind of experience in spiritual contexts."


Some highlights:

"Since the electronic age is introducing new components that provide unprecedented challenges to human integration, it is essential for formators of seminarians, religious and Catholic laity to develop new strategies to help persons achieve personal integration so crucial to living their vocation well."

"...How can formators make the virtuous life attractive when electronic media are frequently used for relaxation or recreation? To begin, persons need to rediscover the dynamic gift of conscience through which the practical intellect evaluates responses to the moral quality of the sensate expressions generated by media.The Catechism teaches that "moral virtues grow through education, deliberate acts, and perseverance in struggle. Divine grace purifies and elevates them."

The virtue of justice renders to God what is due to him. Through the virtue of temperance, a person can moderate both how much electronic media is used and how he or she engages with it when it is used. The struggle to live the virtuous life is difficult. The virtue of fortitude helps when suffering or difficulty is experienced in exercising responsibility by purifying the senses.

Practical wisdom, or the virtue of prudence, is the "perfected ability to make right decisions." Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, in The Spiritual Combat, suggests a way to develop practical wisdom: "When an agreeable object is presented to the senses, do not become absorbed in its material elements, but let the understanding judge it."

The virtue of charity can be developed by offering difficult acts of electronic fasting for the good of others. Formators cannot anticipate all the future situations that will face a person being formed, but they can help the person to a true integration of the principles taught and encourage practice of virtues so that he or she will make good decisions as situations arise.

Forms of electronic media and the senses

Marshall McLuhan, a convert to Catholicism, is credited with first bringing to the world's attention the effects of electronic technology on the unsuspecting viewer. He was inspired in 1950 by Pope Pius XII, who encouraged a serious study of media, including "techniques of communication and the capacity of the individual's own reaction." While communications media such as the printed book, cable, or telephone extended outwards the powers of sight, hearing, or touch, electronic media implode (explode inwards) on the same senses. As McLuhan summarizes it: "After three thousand years of explosion, by means of fragmentary and mechanical technologies, the Western world is imploding." McLuhan observes: "In television, images are projected at you. You are the screen. The images wrap around you. You are the vanishing point." Mary Timothy Prokes, FSE, describes immersion virtual reality head-mounted displays, which increase self-centered experience and "cut off visual and audio sensations from the real world outside in order to replace them with computer-generated sensations."

Excessive use of media for individual relaxation or communal recreation can foster fatigue and dullness in the life of the person. A study in Scientific American reported that "the sense of relaxation ends when the set is turned off, but the feelings of passivity and lowered alertness continue. Survey participants commonly reflect that television has somehow absorbed or sucked out their energy, leaving them depleted." Marshall McLuhan noted that the tendency toward excessive use of electronic media appeared to follow from the forms of electronic media themselves: "The urge to continuous use is quite independent of the "content" of public programs or of the private sense life."

In addition to the constant demand for more time for relaxation, fatigue and dullness may follow a law identified by McLuhan: "because there is equilibrium in sensibility, when one area of experience is heightened or intensified, another is diminished or numbed." McLuhan's law explains reduced capacities in other powers of the soul as well: "Present communication technologies supplant man's external senses, and more recently, the internal senses of imagination and the most important, the central or common sense, which brings the various data of the external senses together into a cohesive unity . . . This involves a process . . . called auto-amputation."

High-tech television screens and powerful amplification systems now produce such vivid colors and loud sounds that all attention is drawn to a medium by the effect of its over-powering impact on sight, hearing or touch. McLuhan describes how this anesthetizes other internal powers: "If a technology . . . gives new stress or ascendancy to one or another of our senses, the ratio among all of our senses is altered . . . But any sense when stepped up to high intensity can act as an anesthetic for the other senses."

A viewer's effort to provide continuity to what is discontinuous contributes to fatigue. McLuhan observes that: "when things change at very high speeds, a need for continuity develops. You see, you're in such a complete discontinuity at high speed. Everything you're looking at now is gone in a second . . . " Consider contemporary news programs with its screen divided into segments which themselves are in constant contrary motions. When both the form of the television or computer screen and its content are in constant motion, the need to establish spatial continuity becomes ever more pronounced, unless the viewer simply gives up and leaves the discontinuities in place.

Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J. in "Catholics and the World of Mass Media," observes: "Accustomed to surfing, we lose our ability to focus on anything in particular. We switch from one perspective to another rather than consistently following up any one point of view. Having more choices at our finger tips that we can seriously appraise, we lose our capacity for profound and permanent commitments and our taste for sustained analysis." In addition, a place in which the television is permanently left on as background noise has an impact on concentration and reflection, and thus interferes with prayer.

Distinguishing sense stimuli from spiritual realities

Formators can teach how to distinguish between sense and spiritual realities. Several classical sources come to mind. St. Ignatius of Loyola developed criteria for discerning the difference between sense experiences, which gave immediate pleasure, but left him feeling empty afterwards, and spiritual experiences, which also gave him initial pleasure, but remained filling him with joy.

Karol Wojtyla similarly distinguishes between "excitement [which] as such remains indicative of the sphere of sensuous stimuli or stimulations . . . [and] elation . . . [which is] spiritual in nature." Excitement occurs when vivid images happen in the person. Elation occurs when the person acts in discovering truth with the intellect, encountering the spirit in prayer, or performing an act of charity.

In Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities, St. Edith Stein also distinguishes two states of consciousness. The first, or feverishness "comes on perhaps with high stimulation . . . and is like a restless geyser that drives the current of experiencing onward"; it "is followed by exhaustion, [and] . . . isn't any beneficial relaxation — something of the restlessness . . . that cannot come to repose." The second, or vigor "is like a steadily flowing fountain from which strong, serene waves of experience are billowing"; and "when it has played for awhile in the flow of experience, goes over into a wholesome tiredness that allows the current to slacken and shut itself off against external influences."

Anyone who has observed the self or others while playing a computer game, watching a dramatic video or breaking news, or surfing the internet, can relate to this description of feverishness that pushes one to play "just one more game," to make "just one more search," to watch "just one more program" before turning back to school work or taking well-needed sleep. Subtly, many software programs encourage the participant to continue.

High sense-stimulation has another dangerous effect according to Stein: "Impressions do not simply glide off; they don't remain flat as they do with tiredness, nor are they picked up effortlessly and joyfully. Rather, they barge into the defenseless consciousness and hurt it." Scientists studying television addiction confirm Stein's observations in recognizing "how easily organisms can be harmed by that which they desire."

...A further danger is habituation to television, internet, headline news, or video games. While not a bio-chemical dependency, habituation to electronic media does share other characteristics of addictive behavior. David Stolinsky describes two: "withdrawal symptoms and tolerance." Robert Kubey describes four noticeable features: "spending a great deal of time using the substance [or media]; using it more often than one intends; thinking about reducing use or making repeated unsuccessful efforts to reduce use; [and] giving up important social, family or occupational activities to use it."

Men or women who are caught in compulsions and/or self-delusions usually believe that they are not harming anyone. Edith Stein agrees: "This enhancement of experiencing can appear to us straight away as a heightening of life, and can delude us about the 'true' condition in which we find ourselves." If persons share with others their compulsion toward electronic media, they may think that they are building relationships. However, they may be simply isolated egos, watching television sitting next to each other, yet actually alienated from their neighbor, alienated from the work of their study and prayer, alienated from the mission of their vocation, alienated from the self, and alienated from God.

Many seminarians, religious, and laypersons today are intrigued by secular entertainment. Communal forms of recreation could be encouraged as an antidote through which several persons work and play together in building up the common good. The key is active participation by persons so that multiple experiences differ from the passive experience of electronic media. Constructing a living area, preparing and sharing meals, singing together or playing musical instruments, making recordings with hi-tech mixing boards, walking, hiking, or producing dramas with technological effects can be excellent forms of common recreation for those who have talents to share. Over time, the skill of good judgment will improve about practical means to achieve a good end for an individual person or community. ..."

...In "Asceticism and the Electronic Media" Hugh McDonald observes: "The most dangerous attitude is that of one who sits in front of a television set or computer terminal without a critical attitude. Since the machine is on, he takes up a passive and receptive stance. The Christian practices of fasting and abstinence are perhaps easy compared with consciously limiting our use of the media, yet that is required for mental and moral health." What strategies could a formator use to encourage someone to take up a critical attitude in relation to his or her own relation to electronic media?

Examination of Conscience: One possible strategy might be to create a new form of examination of consciousness with the following questions about the content of the experience.

1. Am I an electronic "Peeping Tom?" Even though I do not lurk in the shadows looking into the windows in private homes, do I get pleasure by watching scenes that are erotic and by their intimate nature should be private?

2. Am I an electronic "Voyeur?" Do I live through other people's experiences on reality shows as a substitute for the life I should be leading myself?

3. Am I a "Curious Addict?" Do I have to follow every step of a televised trial or media event employing my intellect towards sensible matters that are not useful for my vocation?

4. Am I a "Busy-body?" Do I eagerly listen to gossip on talk shows or in newscasts so that I can pass it onto others?

5. Am I an electronic "Safe-house?" Do I fill my needs for love and friendship by the safety of stimulation detached from relationship?

6. Am I an electronic "Stalker?" Do I have to see every appearance of particular actor or hear every recording of a particular person or group as a way to possess another's identity for myself?

Catechesis: Another practical strategy might be to use the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a basis for examining how the content of a particular experience of electronic media contravenes one of the Ten Commandments with respect to taking the name of God in vain, killing, adultery, lying, detraction, calumny, and so on. The person could also consider how his or her self-possession is affected by graphic depiction of sexual relations or repeated tactile and visual experiences of violence.

Spiritual Authors: Still another strategy could provide new applications of classical approaches to capital sins. Garrigou-Lagrange states that: "Spiritual sloth, disgust for the spiritual things and for the work of sanctification, because of the effort it demands, is a vice directly opposed to the love of God and to the holy joy that results from it." He continues: "Sloth engenders . . . pusillanimity in the face of duty to be accomplished, discouragement, . . . [and] seeking after forbidden things."37

According to Josef Pieper, sloth or "acedia means that a man renounces the claim implicit in his human dignity. In a word, he does not want to be as God wants him to be, and that ultimately means that he does not wish to be what he really, fundamentally, is." While laziness may be described as doing nothing, Pieper characterizes sloth as "the sense of restlessness," hyperactivity, and frenetic work — often leading to despair. Jean-Charles Nault describes acedia as "aversion to action," and "paralyzing the dynamism of action, [it] impedes communion with the other and the gift of self that enables it."The remedy for this "refusal of one's own greatness," is a renewed opening of the heart to the divine friendship of Jesus Christ, and a recovery of true spiritual joy.

Alternatively, gluttony may be associated with excessive use of electronic media for relaxation or recreation. Garrigou-Lagrange identifies various consequences of leaving this disorder in the soul: "gluttony . . . engenders: improper jokes, buffoonery, impurity, foolish conversation, stupidity."According to Thomas Aquinas, gluttony is an inordinate desire of eating and drinking, this desire for food not being regulated by reason.There are many in formation who have an inordinate desire to use the electronic media for relaxation and recreation. They feed themselves with electronic data while they cannot be satiated. This may be adjoined to a passive lifestyle, lacking moderation in food or drink. This is indeed a new portrait of gluttony.

Christian life has always been a struggle to overcome the tendency towards sin. Classical spiritual writers provide deep principles for this struggle. St. John of the Cross, in Dark Night of the Soul observed how gluttony interferes with the relation between a person and his or her spiritual director, formator, or religious superior: "The fragmented self rises up in many beginners, rebelling against wholeness, heightening sensual cravings, stirring gluttony so that they cannot help but try to escape obedience. Submission becomes so distasteful to them they are compelled to modify or rearrange or add to whatever is required of them."

Another side-effect of gluttony for electronic media is that persons who are consistently used to high levels of sensory stimulation during times of relaxation and recreation, seek for the same kind of experience in spiritual contexts. Analogically, St. John of the Cross observes: "they [gluttonous persons] are so attached to reaping a sensual harvest that when no such feelings come they think they have failed. This is a negative judgment against God. Don't they realize that the sensory benefits are the least of the gifts offered by the divine?" A person in formation can be invited to prayerfully study these classical resources while the formator offers opportunities for more authentic spiritual experiences and provides alternate kinds of recreation and relaxation.

Value of relaxation and recreation

In the Summa Theologica Thomas Aquinas recognizes the value of relaxation: "Now this relaxation of the mind from work consists in playful words or deeds. Therefore, it becomes a wise and virtuous man to have recourse to playful things at times. Moreover, the Philosopher [Aristotle] assigns to games, the virtue of . . . pleasantness." In The Intellectual Life, A. G. Sertillanges supports recreational breaks from intense life of study and prayer: "Relaxation is a duty, like hygiene in which it is included, like the conservation of energy . . . The effort cannot be continuous. We must come back to nature and plunge into it in order to recover our energy."

Electronic media can help relaxation and recreation when what is communicated has a meaning that attracts our higher personal faculties of intellect and will. Then media evoke a release of the natural passions through what Aristotle called "its catharsis of such emotions." Then they draw forth laughter by good humor, inspire acts of virtue to build the common good, and increase love for our vocation.

Technology has positive uses in formation. A good video can be a true source of individual relaxation and of communal recreation. A television news program can open the mind and heart to pray for situations in the world, and certain video games may genuinely relax a tired mind. Internet access opens many avenues for research and for continuity of good friendships.

Sertillanges encourages us: "St. Thomas explains that the true rest of the soul is joy, some activity in which we delight." Varieties of activities provide frameworks for much needed relaxation and recreation for seminarians, priests, religious, and lay Catholics: "Games, familiar conversation, friendship, family life, pleasant reading . . . , communion with nature, some art accessible to us, some not tiring manual work, an intelligent stroll . . . , theatrical performances . . . , sport in moderation: these are our means of relaxation."

Considering the radical changes that electronic media have brought into the world in recent years, it is reasonable to expect that equally radical changes will confront persons in times ahead. As Cardinal Newman asks: "Many things are against us, it is plain. Yet is not our future prize worth a struggle?"

Those who live by the sword...

from Monday, Oct. 29, 2007
Marketplace:

Neal may be out on subprime results

Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal reportedly will be leaving the investment house following its announcement last week of $8 billion in subprime write-downs. Steve Henn reports O'Neal would be the highest profile casualty of the subprime mortgage debacle.

KAI RYSSDAL: Rumors that Stan O'Neal wasn't long for Merrill Lynch started bubbling to the surface on Friday. We told you last week after that $8 billion in subprime writedowns was announced that O'Neal said he's responsible for the performance of the firm -- and the board has apparently decided to hold him to that.

Marketplace's Steve Henn reports O'Neal would be the highest-profile casualty of the subprime mortgage debacle.

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Steve Henn: Last week, Merrill Lynch announced a $2.3 billion loss, one of the worst in its history. The bloodbath stemmed from investments in bundled subprime mortgages securities. Other big banks hedged their bets in subprime and did a lot better.

David Abella: Merrill Lynch is supposed to be a very cutting edge prestigious investment bank and it looks like they were totally caught sleeping at the wheel.

David Abella is a portfolio manager at Rochdale Investment Management.

Abella: Merrill's loss... the magnitude is just so much greater than the other institutions.

Abella says it's not surprising that the blame for the debacle has reached all the way to Merrill's CEO, Stanley O'Neal. Last week, after wiping out billions of dollars in shareholder equity, O'Neal began unauthorized negotiations for a merger with a rival bank. That deal could have netted O'Neal personally around a quarter of a billion dollars.

When O'Neal took the reins at Merrill Lynch five years ago, he set out to change the firm's corporate culture, making it more aggressive. He laid off almost 15,000 employees, and dozens of senior executives left.

Winthrop Smith: As a result, I think he has lost the loyalty of both former and current employees.

Winthrop Smith headed Merrill's international brokerage until 2002. He says O'Neal pushed out many top managers who had weathered similar credit crises in the past.

Smith: That loss of experience and loss of memory certainly has had an impact.

And Smith says today, it looks a lot like O'Neal is falling victim to the more cutthroat, unforgiving corporate culture that he helped create.
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Does this have anything to teach us, as the Church?

Stories of Unconditional Love: "This American Life," August 8, 2007

A while ago (08.31.2007,) Chicago Public Radio's This American Life with Ira Glass had an exceptional episode presenting two stories of unconditional love. I was especially moved by Heidi Solomon's story. She and her husband adopted a child who was neglected for seven years in a Romanian orphanage. As a result of this deprivation, they had to deal with his severe attachment disorder.

Listening, I remembered 1 John 4, and realized that in relation to God, we all suffer from severe attachment disroder.

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another....19 We love because he first loved us."

"If you're the kind of person who actually needs love--really needs love--chances are you're not the kind of person who's going to have the wherewithal to create it. Creating love is not for the soft and sentimental among us. Love is a tough business."--Alix Spiegel (minutes 33:35-36:00 into program)


Listen to the program here

317: Unconditional Love

Stories of unconditional love between parents and children, and how hard love can be sometimes in daily practice.

Prologue.
Hard as it is to believe, during the early Twentieth Century, a whole school of mental health professionals decided that unconditional love was a terrible thing to give a child. The government printed pamphlets warning mothers against the dangers of holding their kids. The head of the American Psychological Association and even a mothers' organization endorsed the position that mothers were dangerous—until psychologist Harry Harlow set out to prove them wrong, through a series of experiments with monkeys. Host Ira Glass talks with Deborah Blum, author of Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection. (10 minutes)

Act One. "Love Is a Battlefield."
Alix Spiegel tells the story of Heidi and Rick Solomon, who adopt a son raised under terrible circumstances in a Romanian orphanage—so terrible that he's unable to feel attachments to anyone. (27 minutes)
Song: "Loveless Town," Sarah Blust

Act Two. "Hit Me with Your Best Shot."
Dave Royko talks about the decision he and his wife faced about their autustic son's future, including whether their son should continue living with their family. (19 minutes)
Song: "I Wanna Be Loved," Buju Banton

A Love Story

Today A.'s husband H. had surgery on his neck. After two years of carrying A. up and down the stairs it seems a crack has developed in one of the bones of his vertebrae, causing him pain in his shoulder, numbness and tingling in his left arm and hand. So the plan was to graft donor bone onto one of his cervical vertebrae.

A.is now on uber-chemo, the last big gun they have. After this, there are no more bullets. She had a chemo two days ago but insisted on coming with H. this morning at 8 am, so weak she had to be in a wheel chair. She hasn't been able to eat or drink hardly anything for the last three weeks, and is constantly chilled. Huddled in the wheel chair, dressed in winter coat and cap, and bundled with warm blankets, she clutched her chemo drip bag and tried to keep its line to the port in her shoulder from getting tangled in the wheel.

H's operation was scheduled for 10 am; but 10 became 11 and 11 became 12. A. was scheduled for immunotherapy treatment at 1, so much to her disappointment and worry, I wheeled her over to the North building. They agreed to wheel her back to H. after the four hour therapy was complete, and I promised to pick her up this evening and bring her home.

Steve stopped by after confirmation expecting to visit H. after recovery but he STILL hadn't been operated on. Finally, they took him at 6:30. A. insisted she wanted to spend the night and refused our pleas to go home and rest.

If ever I were to paint a picture of the woman who annointed Jesus in Luke 7:36-50, I would use A. as my model. Before she left for her immunotherapy, she rose to embrace H., pouring what strength she had into rising and hugging her husband. But then she moved down the bed and kissed his feet, silently weeping. "She did what she could," as Mark observed, in his gospel. (14:8).

A. does not have an alabaster jar to break, only her heart. And H. doesn't have a jar to break, either; only his vertebra.

Boundaries: Blockades, Hurdles, Stockades or Frames?

"Good Fences make good neighbors" --Robert Frost

Psalm 16:5-7

5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

Boundaries are a necessary part of being a creature, and living in a created world. Without them there would be metaphysical chaos...or metaphysical monotony!

Boundaries and Balance

If the goal of modernism was to impose boundaries (most perfectly realized by Kant), then one of the thrusts of postmodernism is to abolish all boundaries. (Witness the latest step in this direction: the Wikiklesia Project ). But all that is a matter for another post. Here I wish to focus on boundaries as gifts, as a necessary feature of beings whose existence is totally dependent upon their Creator.

Christians--like all humans-- have a difficult time with boundaries, and our Enemy is delighted to have a chance to get us off the mark. Sometimes we err on the side of excess, and turn boundaries into blockades. Sometimes we err on the side of deficiency, and try to circumvent or eliminate them. Then boundaries turn into hurdles or blockades. But Jesus' life shows us how boundaries are to be necessary without being sufficient. He periodically removes himself from people and work to retreat for prayer and communion with His Father. In a pressing crowd, He asks, "who touched Me?" He honors the Sabbath without legalism.

Indeed, the very nature of the Trinity gives us a model of how to begin to understand boundaries. In substance there is unity: the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God. But in persons, there is difference: The Father is not the Son or the Spirit; the Son is not the Father or the Spirit; the Spirit is not the Son or the Father.



Various heresies about the nature of God have been the result of ignoring the distinctions or magnifing them, while Orthodox Christianity maintains them without exaggerating them. If we are made in God's image, we should, too. The tragedy of sin is that we don't.

Boundaries as Blockades:

Those of us who are blockade-builders have a keen sense of difference, and need to emphasize distinctions. This is fine until those distinctions are idolized, and instead of functioning as fences, they become blockades.

We do this for various reasons. Some of us have an extreme need for order or control. Others fear the unfamiliar and new. We may also have been victims of behaviors or lifestyles that were undisciplined and/or unfair to us, or which threatened our natural sense of justice and self . In response, we swing too far the other direction, and use boundaries in a negative way, to identify what belongs to us or what is due to us, so that others might not interfere and take it away.

An ideal blockade is completely impermeable. Like the Great Wall of China, it is built for defense, to keep out invaders and protect those within from attack. But if we follow this model, relationships become impossible, as we stiffen into solipsistic monads.

Boundaries as Hurdles


Others of us hate to be limited in any way, and so find boundaries confining. They restrict us, and so treat them as obstacles to be overcome or hurdles to be jumped over. We do this for a variety of reasons. We may believe that absolute freedom is the ultimate value, and that anything that inhibits it is to be rejected. We may have been victims of behaviors or lifestyles that made unreasonable demands upon us, and narrowed us spiritually or physically, so that whenever possible, we rebel against them, until rebellion becomes the only way we can function. We are perpetual adolescents. Whatever the reason, if we only understand boundaries as hurdles, relationships will become chaotic as we rush to pursue our own wills, and fail to respect the wills of others, until finally we will agree with Sartre: "Hell is other people."

Boundaries as Stockades

On the other hand, we may have been raised so that boundaries were scant or missing completely. We may have been so ignored or indulged that we have never developed any self-discipline or respect for other people. Then when we are expected to live according to certain boundaries, we resist them, and feel that those who are expecting them of us are scolding us or persecuting us. Again, if this is our situation, mature relationships become impossible, because we will never have progressed beyond the state of a child, and others will be forced to treat us as children.

Boundaries as Frames

Typically, a painting is incomplete without a frame or a mat. My friend Jan is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. She tells stories about how she would get her husband, Jay, to cut mats for her work. Her instructors expected this, and not without reason. A good mat or frame doesn't draw attention to itself, but helps focus our attention on the artwork, asking us to appreciate it for itself, in its integrity and uniqueness.

But a good frame also functions to unite the artwork with its environment. A frame which is dissonant with its surroundings prevents us from seeing the artwork it contains. Finally, though several interior decorators have thought it clever, a frame without artwork is a sad thing, calling for completion. A frame without its artwork ifails to fulfill its potential.

I wonder if the idea of boundaries as frames might help us out. Frames are boundaries which preserve the balance between artwork and environment. They promote, rather than frustrate, relationship. Personhood "frames" the Trinity. It is how God is able to be all Who He is. Personhood also allows us to relate fully to all Who God is, without falsely relating to Him as three separate beings. The persons of the Trinity do not relate to one another as blockades, hurdles or stockades; so neither should we. Frames are boundaries. God has them. We do too. Let us not be afraid of them. Let us not dismiss them. Let us not idolize them. Let us, like the Psalmist, rejoice in them.

Lord, thank you for the gift of boundaries. May the boundaries we live by be Yours. Forgive us when we misunderstand or misuse them, and enable us to flourish in the pleasant places you have given us.

Intellectual and Relational Plate Tectonics

I live in geologically active country. The Pacific Northwest is renowned for volcanoes like Mt. St. Helens, and the Cascadia Subduction Zone, where the North American and Juan de Fuca plates create a major fault. All this has me wondering: are there any analogies between human relationships/ideas and the created world?

Romans 8

19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.
20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

The Present Situation:

In fallen nature, both the the earth and human relationships have faults.People (and ideas) can move three ways relative to each other:

1) Extensional: they can be driven apart by some third person or idea

2) "Transform:" (an unfortunate term, from a Christian perspective) they can be individually drawn to two divergent ends; and so either slowly "slide" or "grind" past one another; until the tension builds to a point where there is a sudden jerk/divergence/falling out/agreement to go two separate ways

3) Compressional: they can collide. Upon collision, one of two possibilities occurs:

a) subduction: one person or idea is "submerged" by the other; so that whoever is the strongest survives.
b) mountains: both persons(or ideas) are equally strong and so continue to build up against each other in an incommensurable way, so that onlookers must choose which side of the mountain they will inhabit.

"Thy Kingdom Come"

In redeemed nature, both people and ideas are restored, so that the image is no longer one of stress and strain but of God's original intention: a kingdom of perfect order and flourishing. It would seem, then, that relationships will no longer be characterized in terms of extension, compression or "transform," but something much more intimate, "face to face." To know will be to love, and to love will be to know. There will be no other desire but the Triune God, and therre will be nothing to tempt, frustrate or impede that desire. Perhaps this is what transfiguration, the Beatific vision and perichoresis are all about.
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This site gives more fodder for thought: http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/plate-tectonics.html