A CONVERSATION WITH SILENCE
Guilt.Shame.Ought.Should.Law
My given name is guilt, shame, ought, should, law. And I learned well to live my name. My up-bringing by my blessedly religious family prepared me to continue the guilt and shame, ought’s and should’s well into my adult life—to keep me on the straight and narrow path. I can use each of my names to measure myself and others…to see if we’re up to the demands of law by which I define myself (and you). It’s really been work to continue to live in constant guilt, shame, ought’s, should’s and by the letter of the law. But by God, I do it, because isn’t that what He teaches?
I had a neighbor once whose given name was freedom. peace,.spaciousness.grace and permission. She lived very differently than we did at my house. But to tell you the truth, I’m a little suspicious of her and her kind. All that ‘love as God loves’ stuff. ‘Being rather than doing’. ‘Living in the present moment.’ ‘Trusting the invisible Spirit.’ What need do I have for an invisible Spirit? I have this great big book of rules and laws. They have been carved into my heart, incised deeply. It was painful but necessary because now I can tell you what to believe and how to believe it. And if you won’t do it willingly, I have all I need to shame you into doing it my way, the right way.
I can’t imagine living in freedom and spaciousness. Who needs to make all those decisions constantly when I can simply turn a page and tell you how to live? Seeking God for His leading all the time will only get you into trouble. How can you know, really know what God wants? Here, there’s one right way…no need to try others. And there’s no need to trust anything or anyone invisible… it’s all right here in black and white.
Silence in the Spirit
What’s that? What about peace? No, I don’t think too much about peace. I have so many things to remember to do and I must remember exactly how to do them. I don’t have any time to wonder about peace – whether I have it or not. Peace isn’t all that important anyway. Obedience I tell you. Obeying. There’s the victory. It’s how we win the war.
Silence in the Spirit
Yes, I know… even the word victory leads to thinking that God created winners and losers… those who are in and those who are out. And war indicates a vicious battle. But isn’t that what Jesus taught? There’s a victory to be had – a war to be won.
Silence in the Spirit
He didn’t?
Silence in the Spirit
Well, I don’t remember Jesus saying one word about everyone being included, everyone allowed entry, everyone loved. There are rules you know. There are only a few of us doing it really right.
From the Silence of the Spirit in a whisper:
For God so loved the world…
That everyone who believes…
To the Jew first, but also to the Greek…
When I am raised up I shall call all people to myself…
Spirit Silence growing, while still a whisper in the soul, now sounding like a symphony, a beautiful piece of music:
What if we all began believing that still today God intends to show His love to all people? That God loves us all so very much, that He’s just waiting for us to pause, to look up, so that He can begin to shower us with goodness and blessing... That God is waiting to open the gates to heaven to us so that we might live in the freedom of who we are, in the uniqueness of who we were created to be; so that every nuance of our particular creation is revealed in us, as God intended , so that we experience God and live for Him like no one else…but in such spaciousness of being and Spirit…that we can invite others into our experience of God were they’d be welcomed into the place in us where we’ve received God’s love and find there who they uniquely are in God’s love as well. And there, there would be such peace as together we stood gazing at God whose shimmering presence would so overwhelm us both…that we’d weep for sheer joy.
Silence of Spirit returns. Now addressing Guilt.Shame.Ought.Should.Law gently but directly: "Why are you crying?"
To which Guilt.Shame.Ought.Should.Law replies: For joy, I think. For sheer joy.
And Silence wept with her.
My given name is guilt, shame, ought, should, law. And I learned well to live my name. My up-bringing by my blessedly religious family prepared me to continue the guilt and shame, ought’s and should’s well into my adult life—to keep me on the straight and narrow path. I can use each of my names to measure myself and others…to see if we’re up to the demands of law by which I define myself (and you). It’s really been work to continue to live in constant guilt, shame, ought’s, should’s and by the letter of the law. But by God, I do it, because isn’t that what He teaches?
I had a neighbor once whose given name was freedom. peace,.spaciousness.grace and permission. She lived very differently than we did at my house. But to tell you the truth, I’m a little suspicious of her and her kind. All that ‘love as God loves’ stuff. ‘Being rather than doing’. ‘Living in the present moment.’ ‘Trusting the invisible Spirit.’ What need do I have for an invisible Spirit? I have this great big book of rules and laws. They have been carved into my heart, incised deeply. It was painful but necessary because now I can tell you what to believe and how to believe it. And if you won’t do it willingly, I have all I need to shame you into doing it my way, the right way.
I can’t imagine living in freedom and spaciousness. Who needs to make all those decisions constantly when I can simply turn a page and tell you how to live? Seeking God for His leading all the time will only get you into trouble. How can you know, really know what God wants? Here, there’s one right way…no need to try others. And there’s no need to trust anything or anyone invisible… it’s all right here in black and white.
Silence in the Spirit
What’s that? What about peace? No, I don’t think too much about peace. I have so many things to remember to do and I must remember exactly how to do them. I don’t have any time to wonder about peace – whether I have it or not. Peace isn’t all that important anyway. Obedience I tell you. Obeying. There’s the victory. It’s how we win the war.
Silence in the Spirit
Yes, I know… even the word victory leads to thinking that God created winners and losers… those who are in and those who are out. And war indicates a vicious battle. But isn’t that what Jesus taught? There’s a victory to be had – a war to be won.
Silence in the Spirit
He didn’t?
Silence in the Spirit
Well, I don’t remember Jesus saying one word about everyone being included, everyone allowed entry, everyone loved. There are rules you know. There are only a few of us doing it really right.
From the Silence of the Spirit in a whisper:
For God so loved the world…
That everyone who believes…
To the Jew first, but also to the Greek…
When I am raised up I shall call all people to myself…
Spirit Silence growing, while still a whisper in the soul, now sounding like a symphony, a beautiful piece of music:
What if we all began believing that still today God intends to show His love to all people? That God loves us all so very much, that He’s just waiting for us to pause, to look up, so that He can begin to shower us with goodness and blessing... That God is waiting to open the gates to heaven to us so that we might live in the freedom of who we are, in the uniqueness of who we were created to be; so that every nuance of our particular creation is revealed in us, as God intended , so that we experience God and live for Him like no one else…but in such spaciousness of being and Spirit…that we can invite others into our experience of God were they’d be welcomed into the place in us where we’ve received God’s love and find there who they uniquely are in God’s love as well. And there, there would be such peace as together we stood gazing at God whose shimmering presence would so overwhelm us both…that we’d weep for sheer joy.
Silence of Spirit returns. Now addressing Guilt.Shame.Ought.Should.Law gently but directly: "Why are you crying?"
To which Guilt.Shame.Ought.Should.Law replies: For joy, I think. For sheer joy.
And Silence wept with her.
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