The Chains We Revere
The men of Judah had already made peace with their chains, and they had no real interest in the freedom of God’s redemption that Samson represented.
The men of Judah had already made peace with their chains, and they had no real interest in the freedom of God’s redemption that Samson represented.
Jesus appears, entering a world of established cultural norms and religious conformity, where he begins to disassemble the conventional paradigm of his day.
What if there were a more primal longing within us, capable of reconciling what is with what ought to be – something that wasn’t merely real . . . but was actually more real?
Each belief system relies on its own religious methodology in making its claim on what is true . . . even when feigning to be non-religious.
The most common false assumption about rationality is that it’s somehow self-evident – as if we all share the same cognitive reference point, in regards to how life makes sense.
It’s important that we recognize that equality isn’t really about having everyone declared the same . . . but rather, whether or not we recognize everyone as having an immutable baseline of dignity and worth.
The word tolerance is best understood as a threshold, a breaking point – like a weight limit on an elevator defines the point of safe occupancy.
We want to believe that things are somehow progressing towards something better, something good.
This is clearly a political apocalypse, as we watch the mask of pretense fall, revealing the sinister intent of those seeking to control our cultural narrative.
God has a unique purpose for each and every one of us. The need to step into or to continue to tenaciously and faithfully pursue this calling has never been more important than right now!
In the end, it is the relentless love of the Kingdom of God that wins our hearts.
The irony is, even though we identify with the powerless long-shot underdog – what we really want to be is the powerful one.
We choose to rely on the shallow sentimentality of sound bites and memes to speak our truth.
In a similar way, the concept of absolute nothing can only be imagined theoretically.
The wise are always capable of distinguishing between what can be changed and what cannot . . . and never confuses the two.
Wisdom is able to foster discernment and insight – providing the context for our perception to take shape.
This, on many levels, is how we usually experience life – hoping to fend off the relentlessness of the bad with the impermanence of the good.
The idea that we can simply invent our own meaning and purpose out of thin air is the very lie Adam and Eve fell for in the garden.
I love my indwelling God who draws me toward thoughts of Him alone!
Disagreement doesn’t need a decisive victory, it needs a sympathetic ear.
So this is where we find ourselves, having crossed the post-Christian cultural tipping point, where our transcendent appreciation of morality is being dragged off to the edge of town, to be thrown on the trash heap.
What thread could I pull through all the disparate parts of me that always seem to get lost in the cognitive white noise of my own self-serving explanation of who I am?
Because we were made in his image, by design our existence can only find its true orientation when we are in harmony with him.
Music is able to circumvent our usual cognitive filters so that we might know things in ways our intellect is incapable of explaining.