Rain warning for today.
Wondered why my computer was not working until I realized, that Sandra had been using it down stairs. and it wazohr s not plugged in. My brain has not woken up yet. It still is not, I cannot find the journal I was writing in just this morning,
I was very grateful that Sandra had arrived yesterday at noon to secure me with the CRA, She answered most of the questions for me. I still was left with a headache,
Reading about intelligence has not helped me.
IQ is the capacity to to process and apply knowledge in a rational matter.
Then it was discovered that there was emotional intelligence. It enables us to be compassionate and the ability to respond to the needs of others. This leads to a new level of self-awareness,
In 1997 Danah Zohar introduced the idea of Spiritual Intelligence. Why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Which path should I follow?
Stephen Convey believed that Spiritual Intelligence was essential because it guided deeper into an awareness of the wonder of life that has meaning. Everyone has the ability to grow into this,
I have found this in the words of Jesus. He takes the focus off of prosperity and success to reveal there are blessings to be found in poverty and sickness. Our lives are a gift that reveals the love of God in all situations,
I for one need to be plugged into his words. The sermon on the mount is a good place to start.
2 comments:
Yes, it is good idea to keep the computer plugged in.
I have come to believe (and I am not in anyway the first to come to this conclusion - because it is there in black and white in so many places in the Bible) that Jesus thought the reign of the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand (like John the Baptist). So he never paid the slightest attention to many of the doctrinal issues in Christianity, as it and its problems never existed while he was alive. He was about being truly alive, not all these funny questions about how his blood saved anyone, or whether the Pope is right, or whether you have to go to purgatory and on and on and on.
And, of course, much of the later gospels (that is, after Mark) were trying to make following Jesus more palatable to Jews, and so the creation of the whole nonsensical Bethlehem/Christmas story with Joseph being of the line of David and so on. Unfortunately, the disputes with the scribes and Pharisees which I always loved because it showed Jesus pointing out again and again the truth that following the dictates of ritual and intricate and bizarre religious law is not the way to connect with the divine -- those stories are also probably not true. That narrative was also very likely created to reflect the needs of the early Christians and probably had very little basis in the actual life of Jesus. Oh well. It is still true whether or not it played any big part in what Jesus did and said while he was alive.
For this reason, and a number of others, I consider myself a Christian. And Jesus was right, in a way, taken on his own terms. The exuberance of life - which he clearly had in great measure and that probably all we can say with great confidence about him - is always on the verge of bursting into the Kingdom of Heaven, whatever that might mean, exactly. But after his death, Christianity slowly formed and became a religion. All religions are 5% about the divine and 95% about the economic and social power and prominence of those people that run the structures of that religion, which comes out in the form of doctrine/hierarchy/ritual and all the stuff Jesus avoided. The Catholic church is the supreme example of that, but all religions have this same fundamental nature. And, yes, religion even on that basis is not all bad. Hospitals and universities and so on have all been supported by religion largely to the benefit of all. But, to me, that is evidence of religions success in secular terms, as an economic force, etc., not due to some insight into the nature of God, the eternal, heaven and earth and life and death and all of that.
Also, as a Christian in my own view, I can claim Paul's great insight, which was to recognize, for his own reasons, I suppose, that all are equal - slave and free, man and woman, Jew and gentile - in the sight of the divine. He wanted to use that principle to bring more people into his rapturous view of what all could gain by following Jesus into the Kingdom of Heaven. But that principle has taken on a life of it own. Still it remains a key aspect of the Christian legacy. And I am part of that legacy.
I more open to considering myself a Christian now than I probably was 20 or 30 years ago. I suppose in many ways I have always taken the actions of my parents as the one true guide to what it actually means to be Christian. In setting a good example in that aspect of things you and Dad must have succeeded, I guess, if I still think of myself as a Christian. Although you and Dad have been an unlikely tag team in that regard given all the lively disputes you have had over the years!
Anyway, my thoughts.
Love,
Rick
Great comments Rick,
I also believe Jesus show us how to be truly alive.
My faith in him has inspired me to be a follower,
one who has lots to learn,
Lovemom
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