Chris Herrington decided years ago that his reality was much more fun…
and he’s ready to tell you why.
Sit back and relax.
It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
IMHO: Why would God make this entire system of existence? Here we are with our faults and insecurities, and we know what we should do to be good all the time in our minds, but in our hearts we often if not constantly undermine our own best interests by doing our worst! Why would God make a system that allows us to feel so bad about such a good thing as life?
o
What if, in our being made in God’s image, we are made, if he were a Janus, with his own potential for doing evil? He could do it, if he turned his back on his own being. He could be horrible if he were mean and cruel. What if the answer to our being free of our own unintegrated understanding is to integrate it? To become conscious of our own faults and insecurities? How simple is that, and yet how hard is it to do in reality?
o
If we fight it, we end up only thinking of it, and yet if we honor the contradiction that we are weak and ill-fit to do the work, we will know that we must, it seems, really consciously work to love ourselves in spite of who we are. We see ourselves as needing to control, but we control nothing, someone has to control but it is not us. If there is no control, then life happens stressfully moment by moment but without any reason whatsoever. In order to create meaning, we must have a system by which we can see how things could be under someone’s control but that we are not hopeless to understand it or operate within it. There must be a way that we can see through this fog. If we try to do it ourselves, we will fail. If we do not become aware of it or if we avoid it, we will fail for sure. “What is it that we will fail at though?” That is the real question.
o
We will fail to understand the pathway to meaningfulness. We will fail to gain real meaning. Things will not have meaning to us. In order to see how the world is connected together in such a way that it all makes sense, we must have a unified theory of understanding. Every individual sees this pathway in his own way, under his own terms, and he is completely alone in the final analysis in the specific way in which he communicates with the universe, and so he has his own mythology. We can adopt the ideologies of others, the iconographies, the signs, the signals, the rituals, the ceremonies, but, under even the best of circumstances, the highest probability is that we will simply adopt the rules as dogmatic narratives that outline the intellectualization of the pathway, and so we will end up ritualizing and objectifying reality instead of actually experiencing it. If we live by the rules, for fear of death or hell, we will have missed the entire point of being alive, and so we will not have been saved from self-righteousness.
o
We must be completely free to do as we wish, and it if only then that we can choose to be fair, loving, moral, sane, egalitarian, sensitive, open, or free. Those who operate from the stand point of fearing jail, being socially acceptable, doing what’s right, or having pride in not doing what is wrong, are lost already. We eat, drink, sleep, go, do, have, love, or forgive only because we want to, and any other reason is not a statement of being but rather an avoidance of being real. What can we say then of those who prey on the weak, take advantage, squander our resources, or act thoughtlessly or with malice? We must have cultural rules, yes, but those who do these things are showing us the fruit of their labor; in the wake of their choices is laid to bare the wreck of their recklessness. We know that they will attempt to hide their self-aggrandizing deeds in pointing fingers, rhetorical devices, denial, and shame shifting avoidances.
o
Let’s cut to the cosmic chase then. No one is good. No one is bad. People are simply doing what they do under the present circumstances of the understanding they have of how to be free. God, IMHO, is complete freedom. There is no non-God. There is only freedom. All else is false and phony and non-existent. Our idea of God is not God. Our idea of freedom is not completely free. Doing cruel things, odd things, selfish things, self-centered things is not freedom but rather entanglement in our own shadow. Ritual is not for God; it is to remind us of who we are. The laws of the Bible are not rituals to keep us in our place but rather a code to let us know where our egos and shadows meet. To be absolute is to be all ego or all shadow. To be real, is to honor the parts of us that need to be let loose, to be unleashed, to be reckoned with, and to be dealt with. We are the shadow of God. This all is the shadow of Kingdom Come. Those who are so entangled with their own shadow that they do not take responsibility for the harm they cause are not later to be punished by God, but rather they have their reward now: They are liars to themselves: fakes, phonies, and charlatans.
o
Narrow is the gate; we cannot take all of our rules and regulations with us. We must go nakedly along the path without the riches of our intellect, the largess of our benevolence, or the voluntary humility of our insightfulness into the faults of others. Our humbleness is a quaint bowl of small events which have turned our hours into an infinity of joy at the accomplishment of Christ in his love for us, if this is a cultural metaphor we are comfortable with. (Each of us has his or her own way of expressing these things.) I am the shadow of his love, the rude flower of his quest to be with the one that he loves, and all others are my fellow flowers in the field of his pasture. We are loved unconditionally; it is Christ alone who treats us as we would like to be treated.
o
I like to look at things in context; it amuses me.
o
Matthew 7
1Judge not,
………….that ye be not judged.
_________________________________________________________________________
2For
………….with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged:
and
………….with what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured
………….to you
again.
_________________________________________________________________________
3And why beholdest thou the mote
…………..that is
………………….in thy brother’s eye,
but considerest not the beam
…………..that is
………………….in thine own eye?
_________________________________________________________________________
4Or how wilt thou say
……………to thy brother,
Let me pull out the mote out
……………of thine eye;
and, behold, a beam is
……………in thine own eye?
_________________________________________________________________________
5Thou hypocrite,
first cast out the beam out
…………..of thine own eye;
and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out
…………..of thy brother’s eye.
_________________________________________________________________________
6Give not
………..that which is holy
…………unto the dogs,
neither cast ye your pearls
…………before swine,
lest they trample them
…………under their feet,
and turn again
and rend you.
_________________________________________________________________________
7Ask,
and it shall be given
………….you;
seek,
and ye shall find;
knock,
and it shall be opened
………….unto you:
8For
every one
………….that asketh
receiveth;
and he
………….that seeketh
findeth;
and
………….to him
………….that knocketh
it shall be opened.
_________________________________________________________________________
9Or
what man is there
………….of you,
………….whom
…………………..if his son ask bread,
will he give him a stone?
_________________________________________________________________________
10Or
……………if he ask a fish,
will he give him a serpent?
_________________________________________________________________________
……….. 11If ye then,
…………………….being evil,
……………know how to give good gifts
…………………….unto your children,
how much more shall your Father
…………….which is
…………………….in heaven
give good things
…………….to them
…………………….that ask him?
_________________________________________________________________________
………….. 12Therefore
all things
……………..whatsoever ye would
…………………….that men should do
………………………………..to you,
do ye even so
……………..to them:
………………for
this is the law and the prophets. (This is the context for the following verse.)
_________________________________________________________________________
13Enter ye in
……………..at the strait gate:
……………..for
wide is the gate,
and broad is the way,
……………..that leadeth
………………………..to destruction,
and many there be
………………which go in thereat:
14Because strait is the gate,
and narrow is the way,
……………..which leadeth
………………………..unto life,
and few there be
………………that find it. (This is not easy to do, doing unto others as you would have done.)
_________________________________________________________________________
15Beware
of false prophets,
which come
to you
in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
_________________________________________________________________________
16Ye shall know them
by their fruits.
_________________________________________________________________________
Do men gather grapes
of thorns,
or figs
of thistles?
_________________________________________________________________________
17Even so
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit;
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
_________________________________________________________________________
18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit,
neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
_________________________________________________________________________
19Every tree
that bringeth not forth good fruit
is hewn down,
and cast
into the fire.
_________________________________________________________________________
20Wherefore
by their fruits
ye shall know them.
_________________________________________________________________________
21Not every one
that saith
unto me,
Lord, Lord,
shall enter
into the kingdom
of heaven;
but he
that doeth the will
of my Father
which is
in heaven.
_________________________________________________________________________
22Many will say
to me
in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name?
_________________________________________________________________________
And
in thy name
have cast out devils?
_________________________________________________________________________
and
in thy name
done many wonderful works?
_________________________________________________________________________
23And then will I profess
unto them,
I never knew you:
depart
from me,
ye
that work iniquity.
_________________________________________________________________________
24Therefore
whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine,
and doeth them,
I will liken him
unto a wise man,
which built his house
upon a rock:
25And the rain descended,
and the floods came,
and the winds blew,
and beat
upon that house;
and it fell not:
for
it was founded
upon a rock.
_________________________________________________________________________
26And every one
that heareth these sayings
of mine,
and doeth them not,
shall be likened
unto a foolish man,
which built his house
upon the sand:
27And the rain descended,
and the floods came,
and the winds blew,
and beat
upon
that house;
and it fell:
and great was the fall
of it.
_________________________________________________________________________
28And it came to pass,
when Jesus had ended these sayings,
the people were astonished
at his doctrine:
29For he taught them
as one having authority,
and not
as the scribes.
_________________________________________________________________________
o
Being a good neighbor to good neighbors is easy; it’s called a block party! Being a good neighbor to bad neighbors is really difficult, and only a few people can go that far. We are all about making sure that we uphold the right to do harm if we are harmed. Maybe that is what we would really want. If we harm you, then we want you to make sure that you do us dirty, really?
o
I seem to see a lot of people doing what they believe to be God’s work publically, politically, and in business. That’s a tall order and a tough claim. By their fruits we are to know them. If we are not doing any harm, asking for destruction, promoting devastation, creating any poison, upturning any lives, manipulating any people, tearing up any families, denying any rights, taking too much for ourselves, or putting our desires above our sense and values, we will have done better than most countries. But if we put blinders on, go for the gusto, promote ignorance, knowingly objectify others, take advantage of the dark spots, and apply our will to the cosmic wheel of rotten fruit, what can we then expect?
o
Jesus had an accountant, but he did not lean on his lawyer and accountant to set his agenda.
o
For those who have followed my Christmas writings this year, I thank you. For those who feel I may have indulged myself a little too much, I apologize. For all others, this was just one day in the life, and tomorrow I’ll be on to something completely different.
o
runningturtle87
Having completed 32 years of public school service, Chris Herrington lives, with his wife, in Appleby, Texas, and his writing consists of blogging and essay writing concerning an array of topics including education, mediation, self-development, and human interests. He teaches at the Martin School of Choice, plays racquetball, and enjoys his job.
Chris Herrington can be reached at herrington@everythingnac.com
