paravanes:meditations

No, I'm not watching the Tyre Nichols video. For those not living in the States: Tyre Nichols was a young African American man who died from injuries he suffered after being beaten, pepper sprayed, and tazed by five police officers in Memphis, Tennessee. His encounter with the officers began during a traffic stop. The five officers who assaulted him now face murder and other charges. News reports stated the video of this attack was so deeply and violently brutal that children and other vulnerable person's should not watch it. My initial reaction to that report was to acknowledge I am not a child and also to acknowledge I am a vulnerable person. We are all vulnerable persons. I accepted I am vulnerable to experiencing the trauma on display in the video. I accepted Tricia Hersey's (the Nap Bishop on Instagram) definition of the video as "trauma porn": a second hand experience making us think we can experience something we can't personally know, but s...

Habits determine character, and character determines destiny. This truth applies to our time here and in the life that follows and continues forever. If you are struggling with any  habit you no longer want (substances, a short temper, procrastination, sloppiness, lying, the failure to keep your promises, etc.), the five minute prayer for habits and discipline will help you move forward. Practicing the five minute prayer: 1. Set a timer for five minutes. 2. Sit in a place that's quiet where you won't be disturbed. 3. Choose words representing your desire for change. Put these words into one sentence. 4. Repeat this sentence prayer until the timer signals. Resist the temptation to check the timer. Breathe deeply as you pray. As an example, here is the sentence I used: "Lord Jesus, be the ruler of my habits and enforce your discipline."  Choose words that come from your heart. Reduce your words to a single sentence. Repeat your sentence slowly for five minut...

Who would you be and how could you live if you were free from the desire for revenge? What would happen if you decided not to hold the energy of hatred and focus that energy on another person? Yes, you might have to permanently disconnect certain connections.  Yes, you would actually have to become another person. I think you would like this new person. This new person would focus on healing and re-creation. This new person wouldn't be alone. This new person would experience real and true freedom. Is this the day you begin?  Release. Recover. Re-create.

Photo:  (©️ 2022) Deborah Evans In the last post, I described how Jesus inhabits and transforms our lives as we practice obedience. I ended the post with the question of why  this work of God isn't more widely known or more clearly observed. The question could be expanded to examine why Christianity has been politicized to the point of many in the general public associating Christians with political labels and not with accounts of personal transformation, loving service, prayer and obedience, commitment to justice, or holiness and gentleness. Christ followers are called to be authentic witnesses. This calling is both simple and complex. It's simple enough for everyone to understand. It's too complex to accomplish apart from God. In scripture, we are called to be "in the world, but not of it." There's a tension between being "called out" of the general culture and being commanded to demonstrate a unique and godly life to that culture. We...

Last time, I wrote about how Jesus reaches out to and changes individuals. He makes these changes in us because he wants to correct us and complete us. He wants us to be completely capable of listening to him, learning from him,  loving him, and staying close to him in this life and in the life to come. At the end of the last post, I raised these questions: does Jesus change communities and cultures? Why isn't this work of Jesus more obvious in the world? Jesus changes individuals by invitation only. But everyone's invited. There's no expiration date for the invitation. Cultures and communities change because the individuals in those groups change. Jesus invites us to him, even if we are surrounded by others who have no interest in him. Jesus never leaves us as captives to our surroundings and our starting points. He never leaves us captive to where we happen to be at any point in time or space. The invitation is an call to change and be changed.  It's not a...