Lots of interesting listening from the past few days:
Weekend Podcast Wrap Up
So…
My son played a gig in a New Jersey bar this weekend and a girl came to watch him.
I feel like everything has changed, again.
Date Day
Kristen and I try hard to have regular dates. With a small business and three active teens in our care, it ain’t always easy.
Our favorite dates are in the woods, stopping frequently to bathe in the smells, sights, and sounds around us.
Yoga is Scary and Bad
Romans 8:31-32 KJV — What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
I just saw a video claiming that yoga violates the Bible’s prohibition on “necromancy.” The same video warns against listening to “false words.”
I’ve done a quick search and can’t find “necromancy” or “necro” in the most common translations.
Yoga can be a distraction from God, but it need not be. Anything can be a distraction from God. Anything can offer false worship. It is our attention and the orientation of our heart that determines what we worship. You cannot be deceived if your eyes are on God.
The yoga panic is a distraction. Professional sports, celebrity worship, substance abuse, etc., etc…these are the false idols plaguing our society.
Yoga is amazingly beneficial in physical terms. I wouldn’t waste my time with it if it didn’t increase me ability to train jiu-jitsu and play soccer.
Judaism and Christianity could not have integrated pagans without also integrating their traditions. This is the way blood sacrifices came into Old Testament rituals and allowed Jesus to come and relieve the need for them. Recognize sin, forgive it, integrate it. Do it all in love.
American culture has thoroughly watered down yoga. There are more “natural product” demons in studios than Hindu ones.
I have had too many spiritual moments with God during yoga practice. These criticisms are fear based and lack a loving connection to God.
Isaiah 36-39: Hezekiah
Isaiah 39:8 KJV — Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.
These chapters cover the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah, as the Assyrian army lays siege to Jerusalem. God kills 185,000 Assyrian troops, ending the siege.
Hunter, the Laptop, and Burisma
The Hunter laptop and Burisma stories were buried under pressure from the federal government. The motivation was to damage a sitting president, their chief executive, their boss.
They lied to sway an election. We are not living in a democracy. You can’t vote your way out of this.
Of the 50+ intelligence officials who made false statements about Russian disinformation, how many have seen consequences? Who in the Biden administration was fired for spreading propaganda?
Does any journalist care enough about freedom of the press to ask Harris about her level of knowledge and involvement?
Are you so afraid of Trump that you will back a regime that actively influences the press?
Taxpayer dollars are killing Ukrainians and Russians. Taxpayer dollars are flirting with nuclear war. What connection does the president’s family have to the Ukranian government? How do these relationships compromise American security?
What the Bible Taught me About Parenting
As the Father, God created humans and, because He loved them, He gave them free will.
We’ve made a mess of things with that free will, but we’ve also created beautiful representations of the original Creation.
He continues to love us. I try to love my children like God loves us. I try to find the bravery that God had when He gave us free will.
My boys make a mess of things, but they also do amazing things and love deeply.
Accessing Presence
I’m seeing a new therapist and I think I’ve found the right professional for my particular breed of crazy. Her eyes don’t glaze over when I talk about Carl Jung or Joseph Campbell or Jesus. She’s there for all my wild digressions and exhibits a compassionate curiosity for the unusual way I approach the healing journey.
At the end of our second meeting I got a bit of homework.
I described the feeling I get when I experience God’s presence in nature and she challenged me to recount that description when I’m distracted from the present moment.
I got goosebumps in her cozy, somewhat retro, office. I realized that I can access presence with God through memory. I haven’t felt the need to reset since our meeting earlier today, but I feel confident that this will be helpful the next time I feel pulled in multiple directions
What’s Next?
These are two of my most recent builds.
I enjoy the entire process of building with Lego: sorting, planning, building, rebuilding, breaking down, and sorting again.
I’d like to give myself a new project, but not I don’t know what to attempt next.
Isaiah 35: Beautiful Restoration
Isaiah 35:5 KJV — Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Isaiah 35:7 DBY — And the mirage shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of wild dogs, where they lay down, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
Translations vary, but it seems reasonable to use the word “mirage” here to describe the world before it is restored to the Eden state.
It is a fitting description of the fallen world. It winks at secular pop culture allusions to The Matrix and simulation theory. This existence seems artificial because it is. It is a fever dream. It is not reality.
In the end, our blind eyes will see and we will inhabit a healed Earth.
