Finding Gravity

I traveled to North Carolina this past weekend to join in on the celebratory birthday bash for my now 80-year-old grandfather. There are many details of the trip that could be shared here, such as the history of rock and roll marathon, the late night world’s biggest mysteries, the 100 year old lady, the realization of how selfless my grandmother is, the laughs, the flawless execution of a surprise party, the aunt Jane tour of the town, etc.; however, I will share one. At the end of the surprise party for my grandfather, a lady made this comment to me “This family sure knows how to love.” This lady who I had never met was my great aunt. I suppose that her comment describes the trip.

In my last post I mentioned Foster, here are some quotes from his book The Celebration of Discipline.

“Superficiality is the curse of our day.”

“The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”

“We simply do not know how to go about exploring the inward life.”

“Joy is the keynote of all the Disciplines.”

After Reading some of Margrave’s posts, I came across the one titled Freedom/Structure/Vocation. Listen with me:

Speaking for adult commitment rather than a childish “freedom,” Williams writes

It is like Wordsworth’s sonnet on writing sonnets: once you have the shape, you have a real freedom from distraction and wooliness and wondering what to do next. You concentrate, yet not in a strained and effortful fashion. You have a “home” to work from. To refuse commitment or discipline or structure because you want to safeguard freedom and keep your options open is rather a misunderstanding of freedom. If you never learn a language well, you will be able to say nothing… (156)

Williams then says that when a person explores their identity in God, discovering their own language and structure, they find perfect freedom:

…what does it mean to talk about the service of God being perfect freedom? It means that living with or in or from God provides the structure and shape that most frees us from distractedness and fragmentation of life and thought. (156)

Concluding his thoughts on vocation, Williams writes

Vocation may be to be what we are, but that doesn’t leave us where we are. We shall need to work to find the structure and form of life that is most our own because it leaves us most alert, most responsive, most open to the never-failing grace of God. We have to find the meter for our poem, the key in which to sing our song to God, the cell where we can pray to him, the person in whom we can love him, so as to give “a local habitation and a name,” face and flesh, to our own particular following of Christ. (159)

I think that these ideas, like those of Richard Foster, promote the the need for an absloute(s) in which we can find our freedom. I suppose that in “balancing” one would always be dealing with “distractedness and fragmentation of life and thought.” I think i also see a connection between between faith and freedom. Any ideas?

Last Sunday at church the teacher made this statement, ?The secret of life is?balance.? After making a claim with the all the hype of the mystery of life I was eagerly anticipating a biblical defense, because in my mind the statement carried much weight. The notion of the statement being a hyperbole can be dismissed immediately due to the context of the lesson. From my perspective the lesson carried too many presuppositions that should have been included, along with solid definitions, in the framework. It is hard for me to state the presuppositions and the definitions because of the rapid movement between differing ideas. This was much of the problem. Without clear meanings of words and ideas everyone was left to their own personal presuppositions and definitions. In addition, the lesson moved into broader generalizations (cooperate verses individual) that led to confusion among the group of listeners. There was no biblical support of the statement in my opinion. There is another problem here, but I will leave it alone for now. However, I was struck by a comment made from one of the students. Her comment was that in the Christian life there are absolutes and within these absolutes there is freedom. I guess one could liken this idea to a race. The track is the absolute, however, not every person takes the same line. The driver has the freedom to take whichever line he or she chooses. Am I to seek balance or to enjoy freedom? Do they fit together? Is balance the secret of life?

Last night I caught the Foo Fighters (I guess someone has to do it) performing the song “best of you” on the MTV Movie Awards. The song asks the question “are they getting the best of you?” I am not sure of the question’s meaning. I suppose it means one of two things: (1) Is someone getting the best of you by taking advantage of you, or (2) Is someone getting the best of you. I began to think about the latter. Are the people I know (co-workers, family, friends, etc) getting the best of me? Does the best mean “all” of me? Does the best mean 100% effort? Does best mean honesty? Does best mean full attention? The truth is, I don’t really know what it means for me to give someone my best. Maybe if I asked the Father how, He would tell me to simply love them. The avenue is always lengthening and I am still learning how to walk.

Is anyone else excited about the Tour de France? I am.

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