.... and of the art of persuasion

What would be the motive for persuasion? Can one really change the minds of others? If I look at myself I must admit that it is extremely difficult for me to change my mind. Even if I do acknowledge that someone has a good point I still approach it with great caution and even defensiveness (and I am one who loves new ideas and fresh perspectives). Even so, I wholeheartedly align to new ideas and the challenge towards growth that these new ideas offer yet my inner core values seem to be often at war with my cognitive choices. This is not entirely a bad thing as we do need to be discerning and not simply accept everything that comes our way. However, what does this say about our ability to be persuaded? What does it say about our ability to persuade others and induce them to make a change or shift in their own lives? Can we do this? Do we have the right to do this?

Some very fascinating angles from biblical texts add more of a twist to all of this. A psalm written in the turbulence of inner suffering and need, even despair and depression says, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls.” Water often speaks of teaching in biblical symbolism. This suggests that even in the roar of much cascading teaching and persuasion it is the depth in and of the turbulence at the bottom of the waterfall wherein the call is found and settled, not in the rush of many droplets, but in the core body at the base of the waterfall. The issues of life seem to be deep and not cerebrally superficial. They seem to be core values that are deeply inlaid inside of us. Ancient paths laid long ago. Head knowledge is of great value, but core knowledge still seems to hold all the aces.

Another vexing passage speaks out that no one can come to Christ unless the father who sent him draws him. A quote from the prophets adds to this by saying, “They will all be taught by God.” Jesus continues to say that only those who hear from God the father can or will come to him (Christ). To my mind this injects a challenge to the persuasiveness of man that we so passionately engage in. Surely being taught by God is a very different thing to being taught by man?

Even if we could persuade another does this mean that they are able to change and be accepted by God? According to the texts above we have to ask if persuasion is synonymous with deep calling to deep. What if the person we persuade is not called of God? How will we or they know? What if they or we believe that they are called, does this make them called? Is it not God alone who decides this?

In all our efforts to persuade others by proclamation are we not possibly treading on the path of ground we know not of? Are we not trespassing on land that might not at all be ours to walk on?

the stench just got worse for me, how’s it smell to you?

I heard the other day that if we could put every person alive on planet earth together in one physical place, allocating a square meter to each individual we would all be able to fit into the state of Texas, USA. Now that might not be 100% accurate and confirmed as yet but it sure birthed a shocking realisation in my mind almost immediately. I suddenly thought of how much space was left over in the world. I then started thinking about how we are told that we are running out of natural resources – plants, food, water, fertile land, oxygen minerals, etc. etc. I also heard that if we pooled all the money and divided it all up equally amongst every living person on earth each would be a multi-millionaire in US dollars. …. Maybe I’m not all that smart, but this all seems a little crazy to me. It smells funny doesn’t it?

Alongside all of this there is mounting pressure on us to be eco-friendly and to conserve and spare our resources like water and also to not waste stuff like food and mineral resources etc. Now this sounds good, reasonable and wise even, responsible.

However, a very few individuals have got a monopoly on water and food and the control of resources and production. Alongside this our governments tax everything…. we even pay them to breathe the air which they never owned and to live on the land that they never created. At the same time industry consumes vast quantities of natural resources to make a lot of mostly unnecessary things to sell to us at mostly exorbitant profit yet we (labeled “consumers”) are under ever increasing pressure to cut back on excesses seemingly so that they can continue to make more stuff to sell back to us. ? ….  the stench just got worse for me, how’s it smell to you?

social appropriateness

what is social appropriateness? i am reminded fairly often that i'm not really all that socially appropriate, but who decides this? i even remind myself. now where does that come from? i've heard that some things are best not said. in fact i don't even need to hear it, rolling eyes, glares from across the room, rejection, distance, all these speak faster than the words of this social value. there is a saying that goes, "don't cast your pearl before swine" which is wise i think. but has honesty become one of these pearls we cannot cast? it's not safe to be honest anymore. i think we are far too socially appropriate for our own health. the ground swell of socially appropriate pop culture doesn't really show an interest in honesty. we'd rather keep it superficial. "too much information" is even too much information so it's become tmi. i wonder how strong our release valves really are? it makes me think of tectonic plates. it seems socially appropriate to live in hip places like california, maybe we all live in california in our minds? to live on a fault line and pretend that it’s not dangerous is what I would call socially inappropriate

a lament for the blade

how do we know when the edge goes? when does the cut become a bludgeon? the blood may flow, but only beneath the skin. a bruise, a dull bump, a crushing blow. a lament for the blade. how will the point remain? so far we’ve come, but is it? dragging right, a slip to the side as we drop on down, hoping for ascendancy. just hoping. all dressed up to go nowhere
shallow depths of hollowness fill the cluttered void as we reach out between the desire for rest and the scatterings from haunting past failures. failures that lure as the whore struts her stuff. whether repulsed or otherwise we look, we dwell, voyeurism the mall of the conscious numbed into unconscious. we struggle to break free. a gradual flow of shifting sand. a shudder, a jolt. the dirge begins, hackneyed rhetoric comforting only the grotesquely comforted while the front rank dies. innocence lost
what is the footprint of this generation? fully grown but immature. children of children. babes of the unborn sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to all, themselves, others. ‘we played the flute yet you did, you did not dance; we sang, sang the dirge of hope and you did, did not mourn.’ one comes in abstinence, but the verdict is diabolical. the seed of man comes in celebration, the words of the witnesses shout out, ‘unacceptable! … a glutton and a drunkard, a cadre and friend of the untouchables!’ … but wisdom is judged right by her fruits

decision making and the will of man

Of late I have been foraging for input around our freedom. I am still turning every stone I come across but up till now I seem to have only come up with some unexpectedly strange stuff lurking in the dark, shady cracks. Freedom of speech, freedom of choice and other related issues like self-determination, independence, autonomy and others are such key issues to many in these times we live. Wars have been fought over such and much blood has been spilled. Maybe I’m searching under the wrong rocks but I seem to be starting to think that perhaps we have not really been seeing the whole picture at all. It has surprised me as I have become aware of just how much emphasis I have placed on the ability, even the right and responsibility to make correct decisions. We live in a very cerebral age where control and accuracy is so important to us. Perhaps as a resistance to the impersonal, dehumanising age of the industrial revolution we have reacted and have somehow missed the plot? Do we really have the ability to think independently? Are we actually as autonomous as we would like to believe? Do we make our own decisions? Can we decide for ourselves? What do you think? or perhaps more to the point, what does your mother think? ·  ·  http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html

relating

It amazes me how we tend to allow our relationships to define our truth.
This should be a good thing, but tends to unleash lots of trouble. Perhaps the reason we allow our relationships to define our truth is because of an inherent insecurity that fuels a fire to belong and resonate with people who we believe "agree" with us (or so we hope?). This seems to be often at the expense of good reason and sound perspective. Once we experience what we believe to be a resonant relational orbit it seems to so enamour us that we quickly start redefining our values in order to sustain this alliance. This is very seldom a premeditated conscious action but nevertheless, a very real and present potential danger. Perhaps that it is mostly unconscious is what makes it so perilous. Much like the proverbial "moth circling the flame" metaphor.
The seeds of deception?
Is it because we so desire to belong, to resonate with significant others and have a mutual witness to our lives that we fall prey to this so easily? The harmony of another in resonant orbit with us is such a desirous thing.
Perhaps we so want to believe that we somehow close our eyes to what is in the shadow of our infatuation with what we hope could be. It is usually only when the relationship is really tested and found wanting that we are first able to painfully re-enter a (hopefully) more reasonable perspective on the truth as we see it.
Could this be why the feelings of perceived “betrayal” are so devastating when relationships hit the rocks in some way?
Relationship and truth - strange bedfellows indeed.
If we were more circumspect about our relational contexts might we avoid these pitfalls and forge better, longer lasting relationships?
Truth refines relationships but relationships cannot be allowed to exclusively define truth.

the end and the beginning

in the beginning it was you
you told it what to do
you started, you began
you made the first move

you spoke out into nothing
the nothing spoke back
you hovered, you divided
light divided the black

a being, a word, a god, a man
a breath, some dust, and life began
life in the middle, light on all sides
everything to show, nowhere to hide

you breathed, it obeyed
it shifted, it lifted
the deep kicked back
it shuddered, it moved

you are below and beyond
you’re beneath, you’re above
you are the one
enthroned in love