A Year Of Kindness: Kindness Begets Expansive Vision

 One of the things that kindness will do for you, if you practice it enough, is expand your view of the world and God's creation.

The place I have found this to be most true for myself is in my relation to Nature.

I have also had a general respect for Nature. I tried not to burn things down growing up (let us be honest, young boys love fire).  I did not litter.  The fish that I caught with my maternal grandfather were always for eating.  

But I had my own not great side as well.  Stepping on snails and slugs.  Randomly ripping off leaves of plants  (mostly wildflowers) for no other reason than a nervous habit.

Being older and trying to be more consciously kind over the years has helped with that.

My fidgeting I have mostly learned to keep to myself now instead the need to strip something of leaves.  I will walk around the snails and slugs, perhaps picking up the snails and helping them across (not the slugs, of course; I merely wish them well).  I have now been known to rescue earthworms in our parking lot after the rain (maybe to a bird's maw of course, but at least that seems better than getting run over or drowned).

I have always had a respect for animals - we always had cats growing up and through my life, we have had dogs, hamsters, chickens, quail, a pony, guinea pigs and of course rabbits - but I find my relationship with them in general has become much deeper than before.  When The Ravishing Mrs. TB travels, I am far more likely to let A The Cat sleep with me, knowing that he is home alone during the day (although I will not sleep as well).  I am learning to read J The Rabbit's moods better as well.

I cannot point to one event in any of this and say "This has made me more kind".  But I can say that through learning to be kind, it has made me much more aware, which in itself enables kindness.

It seems that the kinder one is, the more one finds to be kind to.

Another In The Fire

"Another In The Fire" has been performed from time to time at our current church.  It is upbeat enough, and I do like the lyrics.  But sometimes I am really struck by something that has always been there but I seem to have never heard before.

In the midst of this song comes the bridge:

"And I can see the light in the darkness

As the darkness bows to Him

I can hear the roar in the heavens

As the space between wears thin

I can feel the ground shake beneath us

As the prison walls cave in

Nothing stands between us

Nothing stands between us"

I do not know what struck me about it the words.  Maybe it was the image - Darkness bowing to Jesus, space wearing thin between the heavens, the ground shaking as the prison walls cave in.  I cannot tell you what appealed to me, but it touched me deeply.

Run time:  8:27.

Lyrics (Note:  These may slightly differ from the lyrics in the video; I cannot find a lyric set for this live version):

VERSE 1:
There’s a grace when the heart is under fire
Another way when the walls are closing in
And when I look at the space between
Where I used to be and this reckoning
I know I will never be alone

CHORUS 1:
There was another in the fire
Standing next to me
There was another in the waters
Holding back the seas
And should I ever need reminding
Of how I’ve been set free
There is a cross that bears the burden
Where another died for me

TAG:
There is another in the fire

VERSE 2:
All my debt left for dead beneath the waters
I’m no longer a slave to my sin anymore
And should I fall in the space between
What remains of me and this reckoning
Either way I won’t bow
To the things of this world
And I know I will never be alone

CHORUS 2:
There is another in the fire
Standing next to me
There is another in the waters
Holding back the seas
And should I ever need reminding
What power set me free
There is a grave that holds no body
And now that power lives in me

BRIDGE:
And I can see the light in the darkness
As the darkness bows to Him
I can hear the roar in the heavens
As the space between wears thin
I can feel the ground shake beneath us
As the prison walls cave in
Nothing stands between us
Nothing stands between us

VERSE 3:
There is no other name
But the Name that is Jesus
He who was and still is
And will be through it all
So come what may in the space between
All the things unseen and this reckoning
I know I will never be alone

CHORUS 3:
There’ll be another in the fire
Standing next to me
There’ll be another in the waters
Holding back the seas
And should I ever need reminding
How good You’ve been to me
I’ll count the joy come every battle
‘Cause I know that’s where You’ll be  

Two Years Of New Home 2.0

Almost by stealth this week, the two year anniversary of my official "being" in New Home 2.0 came and went.

It slipped by without fanfare or notice; the only specific reminder I had was a "memory" post in a social media platform that reminded me that we had gone to the coast the day before.

In one way it is very hard to believe that it has been two years since my relocation.  For example, it feels like I have been at my job for years, not just the two years that it has actually been.  The seasons are starting to have a feel to them that is not "Good Lord, what is the weather?", followed by scurrying around to prepare.    And the apartment feels as much as home as the house in New Home was, probably helped by the fact that A The Cat and J The Rabbit are here too.

In terms of me....there would probably be some value in reviewing my journals over the last two years.  There are changes afoot, some changes that I can definitely see and some that buried that do not reveal themselves to me on first glance.  And some, I suspect, that are still working themselves out.

Moments like these make me reflect on the impermanence of life.  Certainly if you had asked me four years ago if I thought this would be where I was, I would have laughed at you.  Sure, moving back in the direction of The Ranch and closer to my parents would have been ideal, but there was no way in my then-current circumstances that this was going to happen.  There was no job and I was far too entrenched in my life there to think that I could move anywhere.

Then, of course, life happened because God happens.

It has been a good two years overall. I have found friends.  I have continued to train.  I continue to slowly find my place and my people here. 

And to top that all off, we are at the beginning of Spring.  The trees are blooming.

Life is indeed good.

A Year Of Haiku (X): Jonquils Of Dawn

 

Garish Fluorescence

lights the jonquils before dawn:

Winter's grip melting.

2026 Japan: Kobudo Kyokai Taikai (V)

The modern European matchlock, or teppo, arrived in Japan in 1543, when a Portuguese ship was blown off course and landed at the island of Tanegashima (the firearm was also known as Tanegashima, named after the island).  The local daimyo, Tanegashima Tokitaka, bought two and put a swordmaker to work.  From these humble beginnings, the teppo became one of the dominant features of Japanese battlefields:  by 1575 at the Battle of Nagashino, 3,000 gunners firing volleys of 1000 shots at a time destroyed the cavalary of the heretofore very successful Takeda clan.  By the time of the Japanese invasion of Korea in the Imjin War (1592-1596), a quarter of the 160,000 troops were gunners.

The last event at every Kobudo Kyokai Taikai is an example of the art of Hōjutsu, or gunnery.  This year's demonstrating art was Morishige-Ryu.

Getting the floor protected:

Entrance:

Preparing:

Fire!

Volley:

2026 Japan: Kobudo Kyokai Taikai (IV)

 Hoki-Ryu Iaido.  This falls within the larger family of Iaijutsu, of which I am a practitioner:

Tamiya-ryu Iaido.  Also within the larger family of Iaijutsu:

Yagyu Shingen Ryu, another armored style.  I do not believe I have seen any armored styles in person prior to this year, and now I have seen two:

Yaguy Shinkage Ryu?  Next year, I will remember to take a picture of the display:

Negshi-Ryu Shuriken Jutsu.  Contrary to popular belief, throwing spikes/darts like these were just as a common as the "Ninja stars" of modern martial arts movies.

Jonah And The Age Of Rage

 Yesterday my pastor preached a banger of a sermon that left me thinking long after the sermon ended.

The sermon - one part of two or possibly three - dealt with the book of Jonah. It is a short book in the Old Testament and is likely one of Biblical stories that almost everyone has heard of, even if not a believer:  A guy getting swallowed by a large sea animal (whale or fish, your mileage may vary) will stick in anyone's mind.

The first chapter of Jonah appears at first glance to be pretty clear cut:  Jonah, a prophet of God in the Northern kingdom of Samaria in the mid-8th Century B.C., is commanded by God to go preach a message of judgement and repentance to the kingdom of Assyria.  Jonah has no desire to do so (we will get to that in a minute) and so flees West in precisely the opposite direction.  A storm comes up and, through a drawing of lots, the crew discovers that Jonah is the reason for the storm.  He is thrown overboard and swallowed by aforementioned fish/whale, where is composes a song to God (more on that later too).  At the end of Chapter 2, he is spit back up on land after three days to get back on track.

---

My pastor, at the opening of his sermon, proposed two questions and asked "Which one bothers your more?: 

1) Why do bad things happen to good people?

2)  Why do good things happen to bad people?"

For him, he suggested - and for many - the second question is harder one.  We as Christians can walk through the fact of God's sovereignty at difficult times of our lives ("All things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" - Romans 8:28).  What is far more difficult is when good things happen to bad people, to vile people, to the worst of sinners.  "God makes the sun to shine the rain to fall on the just and the unjust" said Christ in Matthew 5 - but I wonder if I believe too often that God does so grudgingly.

Jonah's sin, my pastor suggested, was that he was so frightened of God's compassion that he fled God's mission.  He disliked - indeed hated, as we find out later - the Assyrians, and would rather not preach to them lest they receive God's mercy.

To be fair, from a human standpoint the Assyrian Empire was cruel and treated all of its enemies cruelly (and would, in fact, eventually conquer the Kingdom of Samaria).  So - humanly speaking - his reaction was understandable.  Why risk offering such terrible people the mercy of God?

Because there was a risk they might get His mercy.

We are no different that Jonah, was the analysis.  In Matthew 5:44 Christ commands His followers "Love your enemies and prayer for those who persecute you".  Christ, he suggested, does not call us to hate or even to indifference towards them.  He calls us to pray for them, to shape our hearts in mercy towards everyone.

Jonah, as the story goes, turns out to be a narcissist:

-  He will not carry out God's commands to the Assyrians because he does not like them (in fact, hates them). 

- He does not concern himself with the crew during the storm, in which they are working hard to keep the ship afloat and praying to their own gods while he is taking a nap and not praying at all.  

- The crew, during the course of the story, come to realize that Yahweh, the covenantal name used by the Israelites, is the one true God (they offer a sacrifice to Him at the end of Chapter 1); Jonah haphazardly mentions he serves that God during his trip but that is about it.  

- Even at the end of Chapter 1 when the casting of lots reveals Jonah is the cause of the storm, Jonah does not suggest returning to Joppa so he can continue his mission (it is interesting to theorize what would have happened if he did:  would the storm also have ended immediately?), but would rather be thrown into the ocean and, for all he knew, die rather than run the risk of good things happening to his enemies.

Once he is swallowed, he composes a song to God (Chapter 2).  In it, depending on your translation, Jonah uses the words "I, me, my" 16 times in 9 verses:

-  He cries out to God because of affliction - which would not have occurred if Jonah had followed God's command.  

- He says that God cast him into the deep - God did not; he got there in an interest to be sacrificed rather than follow God's command.  

- In verses 8-9 he notes "Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice to You" - but in point of fact, the pagan sailors found God and sacrificed to Him.  

- Jonah could not even be bothered to pray.  "I will pay what I have vowed", says Jonah in the latter half of verse 9 - but he had vowed, if anything, to refuse the command of God to go to Nineveh.

Jonah ends up being spit out to start over again, but nowhere in his prayer to God does he talk about actually doing what God commanded.

---

I have often lamented here what I have termed "The Age Of Rage", a sense that I have almost everyone is angry at everyone and everything all the time.  It seems to me that too often, people assume the worst of others.  It is not even that things can be discussed in reason; things cannot be discussed at all.  Nothing can simply exist anymore:  everything has to serve a cause, and woe be to those on the wrong side.

Understandable from a human perspective.  As Christ says in Matthew 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."  For many people - for me, too often - they would stop reading right there - after all, it makes complete sense.  Like those who like you, hate those who hate you.

Understandable from a human perspective.  But we miss that second part too often in verse 44: "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

If all we ever do is live in hatred of others, it cannot but impact our own hearts.

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As always, I write this to convict myself.

One of the best (although accidental) decisions I made during the last election cycle was to set the rule that if anyone posted anything political in nature, I would simply hide them from my feed.  That extended to "both sides" as it were.  Over time, my feed has become mostly politically and "modern issues" free, for which I am grateful.

But I am still in this climate.  I still hear the words that people launch at one another, the emotion that comes to dominate every aspect of their lives until everything is a life or death moment.  We are all involved in a great war - not the Spiritual War the Bible speaks of so often (yes, I know, we are involved in that of course), but a great social and political war which is always on and in which we must always choose a side.

I look at that.  I am tempted to love some and hate others.  And then I look at the commands of Christ.

Does Paul command the Thessalonians to avoid even the appearance of evil?  Yes.  Does Christ command his followers to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves?  Also yes.  But I struggle to find the command that I must think poorly of, let alone be at war, with everyone with whom I may disagree about anything.  

Marinate a piece of meat in a marinade long enough and it will come to take on the flavour of the marinade.  Marinate your heart in anger and hate long enough and no matter how often or much you proclaim your Christian beliefs, the anger and hate will come through.

Forgive them, said Jesus as they nailed Him to the Cross, for they know not what they do.  Earlier he had told his disciples that the servant was not above the master, that if they hated Him they would hate His followers.

In an Age Of Rage, I as a Christian should - indeed, must - be different.  As my Master was.