"Somewhere Between Raisin' Hell and Amazin' Grace"
I ran up to the corner market to get a quart of milk this morning and for some reason my radio was tuned to a country station. I don't usually listen to country, but I have a bit of admiration for it because the music can be rich in visceral expression. I also worked as a remote engineer at KSON in San Diego when going to school.
Of course I'd never heard this song before, this one something about being somewhere between raisin' hell and amazin' grace, it may be wildly popular-- I just don't know.
But it did make me think of the Catholicist Nation and the way people behave in it. This is it, that's for sure. Go off and "raise hell" then come back and get some grace.
Over and over and over and over and over and over again.
This is just not the way it was from the beginning, to loosely quote Jesus when asked about divorce. Sure people want to "raise hell" in whatever self-or-other-destructive way that is because of the abject emotional pain of not being understood by another. Sure there is the law to frequently whack you upside the head, but there is an issue with that.
It hurts, and it will never give us what we really want.
I wrote all about this in my latest webzine home page piece, here if you want to read more about it.
To be a bit transparent here, sometimes I look at my work and think, "Hmm, this is just too obvious. I'm not really saying anything new here. Am I really adding anything?"
But as I go over what I've shared, one of the key things people just don't see is that this law everyone rails against-- "Ouch that HURTS!" -- is something they themselves ask to be enforced against them. I'd bet most think "Oh, the law and its assembling and enforcement and adjudication that is all just there." No, no, it wouldn't be there at all if people didn't sin. But because they sin, it's there to do its magic in all its excruciating glory.
At their request.
Look at all those people shouting and screaming and seething about George Bush or whichever despised law enforcer. They are no different from Josephine Spoinkers who hangs around whenever Ed Spoinkers returns from yet another all-nighter.
"Ed Spoinkers you listen up Ed Spoinkers are you listening this is the LAST time I'm going to put up with this are you listening Edward J. Spoinkers this time I mean it!..." She sure waves a mean rolling pin.
There is another thing that's for sure.
They all still hang around under the law.
A recent real life example of this codependent interaction was when George Bush and Ben Bernanke made news by joining up to do their respective enabling thing to keep the economy afloat amid signs people were sinnin-- er, yeah, that term is a bit too politically incorrect-- rather people were defaulting on mortgages, there: that sounds so much nicer, and so much like it is the fault of something like the nefarious banking cartel. And since "nefarious banking cartel" is also quite nebulous, no one really is at fault.
There're just good kind George and Ben to rescue us poor dumb saps.
There is another option, but only unblind people who can see beyond the law can know about it. I'll tell you what it is right here if you think you can squint through the glaucomic haze.
The thing way way way better than the law is
Grace and Truth.
Having this would involve one simple thing.
Asking the God of the Universe, Jesus Christ, to be the single one you would follow. Indeed to be the single one your family would follow, and your community.
When you've trusted the God of the Universe enough (and as God of the Universe He can kind of handle it), you'll run to get rid of the useless World contracts you have that betray your request, all of them law processors, every one of them: W-4's and Social Security identifications and 501c3 incorporations and a dozen other oaths made by something other than the simple trust in a God who actually gives bread when you ask for bread. (That stone you got pummeled with the other day? That was from a World Jesus by the way.)
To know what that community would look like, check this out. It was my devotional reading this morning. Needless to say it made me weep. Jesus Christ, right there with them, the God of the Universe doing what He enjoys doing most.
Giving people true joy.
Of course I'd never heard this song before, this one something about being somewhere between raisin' hell and amazin' grace, it may be wildly popular-- I just don't know.
But it did make me think of the Catholicist Nation and the way people behave in it. This is it, that's for sure. Go off and "raise hell" then come back and get some grace.
Over and over and over and over and over and over again.
This is just not the way it was from the beginning, to loosely quote Jesus when asked about divorce. Sure people want to "raise hell" in whatever self-or-other-destructive way that is because of the abject emotional pain of not being understood by another. Sure there is the law to frequently whack you upside the head, but there is an issue with that.
It hurts, and it will never give us what we really want.
I wrote all about this in my latest webzine home page piece, here if you want to read more about it.
To be a bit transparent here, sometimes I look at my work and think, "Hmm, this is just too obvious. I'm not really saying anything new here. Am I really adding anything?"
But as I go over what I've shared, one of the key things people just don't see is that this law everyone rails against-- "Ouch that HURTS!" -- is something they themselves ask to be enforced against them. I'd bet most think "Oh, the law and its assembling and enforcement and adjudication that is all just there." No, no, it wouldn't be there at all if people didn't sin. But because they sin, it's there to do its magic in all its excruciating glory.
At their request.
Look at all those people shouting and screaming and seething about George Bush or whichever despised law enforcer. They are no different from Josephine Spoinkers who hangs around whenever Ed Spoinkers returns from yet another all-nighter.
"Ed Spoinkers you listen up Ed Spoinkers are you listening this is the LAST time I'm going to put up with this are you listening Edward J. Spoinkers this time I mean it!..." She sure waves a mean rolling pin.
There is another thing that's for sure.
They all still hang around under the law.
A recent real life example of this codependent interaction was when George Bush and Ben Bernanke made news by joining up to do their respective enabling thing to keep the economy afloat amid signs people were sinnin-- er, yeah, that term is a bit too politically incorrect-- rather people were defaulting on mortgages, there: that sounds so much nicer, and so much like it is the fault of something like the nefarious banking cartel. And since "nefarious banking cartel" is also quite nebulous, no one really is at fault.
There're just good kind George and Ben to rescue us poor dumb saps.
There is another option, but only unblind people who can see beyond the law can know about it. I'll tell you what it is right here if you think you can squint through the glaucomic haze.
The thing way way way better than the law is
Grace and Truth.
Having this would involve one simple thing.
Asking the God of the Universe, Jesus Christ, to be the single one you would follow. Indeed to be the single one your family would follow, and your community.
When you've trusted the God of the Universe enough (and as God of the Universe He can kind of handle it), you'll run to get rid of the useless World contracts you have that betray your request, all of them law processors, every one of them: W-4's and Social Security identifications and 501c3 incorporations and a dozen other oaths made by something other than the simple trust in a God who actually gives bread when you ask for bread. (That stone you got pummeled with the other day? That was from a World Jesus by the way.)
To know what that community would look like, check this out. It was my devotional reading this morning. Needless to say it made me weep. Jesus Christ, right there with them, the God of the Universe doing what He enjoys doing most.
Giving people true joy.
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