"Turn The Other Cheek" Really?

  

Questions are still on my mind this morning.  I am  remembering a quote from Henri Nouwen’s writings: to “live the questions into answers.”  

Ted Loder put it this way: “…venture beyond the answers” (That fear, worries, others plant in our mind.)

The human mind has, from our earliest years, been trained to intellectualize, and  scrutinize, all that comes into our space.  We analyze, test, delve and  generally try to make sense of everything logically.

It is a logical and realistic culture have grown up in for sure.

Either the issues at hand is correct or not, good or bad.  Not a whole lot of wiggle room between fact and speculation.

And who is appointed to decides?

So when Jesus’ truth entered the human world; it threw a curve ball right smack into logical ways of looking at life.

                                                 

How Jesus came to be?

  What he did and taught

          How he modeled right thinking.

All of it smacks up against reason and logical thinking.

Think about the parables Jesus told. Parables are a two part stories that calls people to adjust their opinions, choices, actions and general worldview of what it means to be a successful here on earth.

God’s entire purpose for coming, in the skin of a baby boy, was to recreate his original plan.  The plan that all the world would love and care for all that he made  “Very Good.”

                  

To put others needs first

    To stop the fussing and fighting.

       To develop a loving and forgiving heart.

          To turn their swords into plowshares - war no more.

In other word, to “turn the other cheek” to fists, hate and the false myth of always needing to be correct -- perfect.

Lets face it, what Jesus asks is just too simple for the human ego to digest.

'Life Between The Questions"

 I want to share with you some quotes from a book that has captured my mind; my first year of ministry.  It is the one book that I would never lend to someone for fear I would never see it again.  

It is that precious.

Unfortunately this amazing book it no longer in print.

Please join me in ‘Life Between The Questions,’ by Carolyn Huffman.  Her book is completely written in hand written words and simple illustrations.

“Often I ponder, 

sometimes I pray,

Over making life choices

As I use up my day.”

“Will Big Brother computers

Control our lifestyles?

Will my days be increased

By jogging those miles?”

“Is the atmosphere changing?

Will sea levels hold?

Will science cure cancer

Or diseases of old?”

“How do bees make sweet honey

In an intricate comb?

How do birds navigate 

And find their way home?”

“And why do some children 

Grow gently with grace

while others bring chaos

To reign in a place?”

“Must all faces wrinkle

And all hair turn gray?

Must we always have winter?

Can’t springtime just stay?”

“Will life ever be fair?

Cries man to the sages.

“Unequivocally no,”

Resounds through the ages.”

“What about suffering

By the good and the bad?

Will I ever find answers

When I cry and am sad.”

“Or is that the right time 

Not to ponder, but pray,

And to ask for the courage

To live one more day?’

“For questions don’t matter,

and facts grow quite stale,

when life’s storms surround you

Or wind drops from your sail.”

“Who really does care if 

Brash science is right

When you’re lost in the tunnel

of darkness, no light?”

“Was mankind created

By an unchanging plan?

Or did chance forge the link

Between amoeba and man?”

“For prayer has the power

To erase question marks,

and to bring faith alive

In the spiritual darks.”

“Do miracles happen?

Did a babe become king?

In a Bethlehem stable?

Did angle hosts sing?”

“So ponder, you poets,

theologians, and all,

the mystery of seasons —

The spring and the fall.”

“Of stars in their heavens,

what lies under the sea?  

Of genetic and bloodstreams—

What makes you and me?”

“And test-tubing babies —

Is it ethically right?

Are there really ghost things

That go bump in the night?”

“Do demons and devils

abound in this place?

Do guardian angels

Enter our space?”

“How do frogs spring from tadpoles

And oysters make pearls?

How do boys become men,

while women were girls?”

You may question in daytime

and all through the night

How ears really hear

And eyes call forth sight;

How some worms can crawl,

then learn to wear wings;

How spiders can spin

such gossamer things;

How the brain is divided…

Into left and the right…

Of Einstein’s relativity,

and Ben Franklin’s kite.”

“How do bulbs bring forth tulips,

and acorns, oak trees?

How can man boost of wisdom,,

Yet read war’s disease?”

What think you of Easter?

Did they lie and deceive

when they said “Resurrection!”

To all who believe?”

“Oh, I pray for you, friend,

As you question life so,

That one day you’ll say —

“Hey, I really don’t know!”

“It’s your world, dear Lord,

In all of its glory!

I want to be yours;

Help me walk in your story.”

        Carolyn Huffman

Do Questions Have Answers?

Have you ever given any thought to how often the questions we ask; may never find an answer?

One question I have been faced with over and over is: “why?”  I have to believe it is the most common question out there — in ordinary everyday life.

Memory:

That particular question brings back a precious memory and smile to my face.

I was at my future sister-in-laws wedding shower.

I took my seat on a step that led into the living room.  A little three year old girl came and sat beside me and began asking me questions.

I can’t remember what she asked — that was fifty-five years ago — but with each answer I gave, she would ask “why?.”  This went on for multiple minutes.

Little children are just naturally curious and often don’t take our simple response as a pat answer.  More times, than not. they are looking past what we tell them to other possibilities.

Sadly, as they grow, their tendency to ask — their natural curiosity — gets squelched.  It gets sucked out of their free thinking little minds.

And they lose the freedom to ask.  Left to wonder in their private little minds.

I, myself, know of this conditioned private world of wondering alone.

Interesting!  

I had put this blog to the side for a bit; and was reading the news pop-up, for the day, on my I-pad.  This is what I read: “Ethiopian troops are blocking critical aid to their starving population.”

Immediately my mind asked:  “What is happening to our world?”

Care to venture and answer ?

Tomorrow I will share with you some of the questions in a book titled:  "Life Between the Questions by: Carolyn Huffman, published in 1985.