-image-Season of Stress

November 30, 2006 | A Kick in the Butt, Do Something, Already

Here comes December.  I suspect that means here comes Stress for most of us.  Why is it that the season that’s supposed to be all about Peace ends up being a time of frantic list checking and rude shoppers?

I’m not really big on Christmas myself; I know, that sounds terrible; my husband teases me that I’m a humbug.  It’s not actually true, it’s not the holiday itself, or what it really represents, that I dislike, it’s all the things we’ve built up around it.  Busy-ness, social gatherings, shopping in crazy packed stores with crazy people who seem to have lost all their manners, trying to find the “perfect” gift.  There actually are many things I like about the holiday.  I love giving gifts, seeing the look on their face when they open my carefully picked present, having my husband and sister aroud.  I like to spend my Christmas quietly at home with my family - all I need is a fireplace and life is good.

So I suppose it’s dishonest to say I dislike Christmas; it would be more accurate to say that I dislike the season, or rather the hype that surrounds the season.

I was thinking this week about my schedule and how I was feeling a little worn out and over-stretched (is that a word?) lately.  I already know I’m to blame for my current drain; what with all the hype to get this blog up and running I hadn’t exactly been getting enough sleep lately, or keeping to my essential routines.  Which made me think, if such a little thing like Wakizashi being home on holiday and this blog can throw me off so much, what happens when the season of stress comes around?

Which of course made me think of all of you.  It’s just so easy to let the urgent take over from the important (as Stephen Covey would say).  On top of that, holidays tend to invade our self-care rituals.  It’s like having all the time in the world encourages us to use that time even less wisely.  We have nowhere to be, nothing to do, so we watch just one more TV show, stay out one hour longer.  Suddenly our holiday is over and we haven’t painted a single painting, gone on a single walk, or finished reading the books we’d been saving up.  Even worse, we’re tired, worn out, drained - and now it’s time to get back to life.  Isn’t that where the expression that you need a vacation after your vacation came from?

I’ve decided that the key is those essential routines (that I’ve been letting slack), and learning to gaurd our time, even when we are on vacation.  Or, maybe, even more when we are on vacation.  If you would have gotten up at 8 and gone for a walk, or had quiet time to read or meditate after lunch, these are the essential things that keep us balanced - fill us up - and so they are the things we need to make sure we keep doing.

I admit, there are urgent things that will come up.  And sure, life changes in the month of December.  I can even concede that you may actually want to sleep in.  We can’t force the days to go our way, that would just take us back to square one: stress.  So we need to strike a better balance between urgent and important; make a reasonable plan that is practical and takes your actual holiday plans into account.

Hey, let’s declare a revolution - when this holiday ends we will actually feel well rested, peaceful, full, and happy to get back to life.

-image-The Incompatibility of IE 6 (try IE 7)

E.R. News & Such

If you are using Internet Explorer 6 you are probably having problems reading this blog due to a layout issue.  My designer is currently working on the problem and we hope to have it fixed in the next few days.  If you want to be able to read the blog now though, the easiest thing to do is update to Internet Explorer 7.

For those of you not using IE, my sincerest apologies.  Most of the widgets, graphics, and sidebar links have been removed from the blog in a effort to get to the root of the problem.  As I mentioned above, we hope to have it restored in the next few days.  Until then here’s a few essential links for you:

Everyday Renaissance

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Contact

Friday Felicitations

-image-An Uncharacteristic Grumpy Lecture

November 27, 2006 | Just Me, Spirituality

Last week I was blog hopping and came across an entry that was talking about some “special report” that had been sent out to Christian bookstores claiming that they were carrying “Non-Christian” books that are subverting the church.  I’ve gone back and forth about linking you to the report; on one side you deserve to be informed, on the other, I hate to support them by giving them any more traffic than they deserve (my compromise, do a search for “christian research service bookstore report” if you absolutely must read it yourself).

Let me just say, I’m livid.  Livid might not be the right word.  Incredulous?  Something between livid and incredulous?  It’s no wonder the world at large isn’t in any hurry to jump into the church, what with the way we behave towards each other.  Want to know why I’m so upset about this?

Eventually, a small list of authors developed into a Master List of authors and books, with categories on Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, Emerging Church, Church Growth/Purpose Driven, Cultic, Heretical, New Age Movement, Homosexual/Pro-Gay, and the Word-faith Movement.

– Bud Press, CRS

another article in a blog discussing this report included this list:

Lifeway also carries a large number of other titles by New Age sympathizers and emerging church leaders including books by Leonard Sweet, Laurie Beth Jones, Rob Bell, and Brian McLaren. And they carry many books by universalists and contemplatives such as Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington, and Henri Nouwen, while also handling books by people like Alan Jones who belittles the doctrine of the Cross and Atonement through Jesus Christ and Buddhist sympathizer Peter Senge.

– Lighthouse Trails Research

When commenting on these books and authors they (CRS) quote scriptures such as 1 Timothy 4:1 (But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.)  - among others.

To me this report emphasises all the things wrong with the Western Church today (and all the reasons this church is dying a slow death from the inside out).  Who are they (or we for that matter) to judge who is or is not a Christian, to declare what authors should or should not be made available to the public and the church.  The Purpose Driven Life and Laurie Beth Jones’ work have introduced the Gospel and the grace of God to infinite numbers of secular readers - those who are seeking and those who would never consider entering a for-real-church.

I myself find fundamentalism hard to stomach and am often offended by their stand point, but I’m very careful not to rain judgement down on myself.  I know none of us is perfect, we all see through a “glass but darkly” and so I trust in the grace of God that they are just as saved as I am (no matter how dubious I sometimes feel).  And I do know some generous and passionate fundamentalists who constantly challange my biases.  I sometimes shake my head in wonder and amazement but I would never declare them to be non-Christians.  Who am I to say?

So what gives them the right to look at others and to make judgement calls about their souls?  To declare them as channelers (although they’d never use that word - how New Age of me) of deceitful spirits and demons?  It seems to me that the only people Jesus had no grace for was the Fundamentalists of his age who spent their time telling others all the reasons they didn’t truly know God and how they weren’t doing things right and simply weren’t good enough to be accepted. 

Gosh… it sounds awfully familiar.  A house divided against itself can not stand, and our house has been divided for a long time, and the longer it stands the bigger the cracks seem to get.  More than anger, frustration, and shock, what I really am is sad.  I’m sad that Christ’s call to reach out and heal the wounded, comfort the hurting, and free the captives is being ignored by so many while they nitpick and bicker about who is good enough to fulfill that call.  I’m saddend that they, and many through them, are missing the real Gospel.

This is truly an uncharacteristic post.  The few judements I make, I try to keep them to myself.  I know that I’m ripe to be judged and I don’t want to experience it.  Plus, I’m normally a positive person; I’d much prefer to push the drains out of sight and work towards adding something to this world.  But I just can’t get this out of my head.  I have to say something.

I will admit.  A part of this urge is selfishly motivated.  I agree with many of the authors that they’ve listed; they’ve been a blessing to me and been integral in helping me formulate what I truly believe about God and this world (not that I blindly accept them, but I’ve been challanged by them which helped me draw my own conclusions).  If fundamentalists shun and attack them - they will do the same to me.  And there’s always that little, nasty voice in the back of my head (you know, the one that reminds you of all the times you messed up and the fact that you truly are a looser after all) that keeps saying, “What if you are wrong and they are right after all.”

Of course, I imagine that it’s that identical voice in their heads that prompted this type of report.  What after all does one do when faced with a contrary and challanging point of view?  Well, discredit it of course (like any good bully knows, the lower they are the higher up you are).  Either way, this report is wrong.  I don’t mean it’s wrong in content - I  mean it’s very nature is wrong.  This is not what Jesus spent his life to build a church up for.  Whether I’m for the authors or against the authors this is just plain wrong.

The report left out the one verse that I feel is essential to dealing with the topic at hand:

I can only hope that what I have to say, and what I’ve learned (so far) in life, can be a hand up to you just like the works of many of these “subversive” and “decietful” authors have been hands up and shining lights in my life.  And my prayer is for the church, which belongs to God, that he can extend his grace where we certainly don’t deserve it because we we haven’t offered it to each other.

I’ll go pack my soap box away now.  IfI just leave it lying around someone’s bound to stub their toe or something.

-image-Blog @ Ya

November 26, 2006 | E.R. News & Such

Finally, the blog is up and running!

Of course, to you this seems like a blog with only one measly post - it might not even be enough of a post for you to decide if you want to visit our blog again.  But that just goes to show that all of life is a matter of perspective.  Because to me this isn’t even close to a beginning; it’s more a middle of the road - at the very least.  Either way, welcome to my blogging journey.

I’m Megan, and I’ll be your guide, coach, and muse here at Flaming Renaissance.  I run Everday Renaissance (or E.R. depending on how lazy my typing fingers are) where I teach women just like you how to live their lives abundantly (it is possible!).  I’m passionate about living life with purpose, authenticity, and creativity.

That’s what this blog will be about: My own personal renaissance - or rebirth as the word means in French - and hopefully your personal renaissance too.  (Thanks to Ellen Langer’s book On Becoming an Artist for the excellent term.)

As my friend Cynthia says, Free the Spirit.