Tim Knipp, 1/26/14 Based on Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero Ch. 4

Who are you?

Tim Knipp, 1/26/14 Based on Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero Ch. 4

"Grant Lord, that I may know myself in order that I may know thee." Augustine

Purpose:
     what is the shape
of the empty space
I am 
    made
         to fill?

Socrates decreed: "Know thyself"
and 
         Shakespeare's Polonious
(flawed as he is)
     admonishes his son:
"to thine own self be true..."

Turn the spotlight inward.

(Genesis 3:7 - turn left)

Eyes opened, 
Adam and Eve's 
first response
was
     shame and fear.
Fig leaves sprouted
       to shadow themselves
from
    themselves.
Eyes averted, 
         they chose to hide
from their Creator.
 And I am
 their descendant.

God seeks.
We hide.
A never-ending
         children's game
with eternal
consequences.

Gen. 27
Deception twines itself
    around the truth
in Jacob's life.
The forced blessing -
"what is your name?"
Truth wrestled from the dawn
begins
   a new story.
      A new identity.

Roles
    are by nature
artificial.
Actors slide into another skin
that rubs against 
     their own with each line
and gesture.
         Masters of duality
but
it is a fiction.

(Right turn to John 6:14)

Miracles
seem proof
      of earthly kingship -
the pressure cooker builds
but Jesus sidesteps
       man's agendas,
knowing who He is
and
   why He came.

Love first.
The motivation matters -
eccentricity
is not the goal.
"Be angry and sin not."
Serve love,
not self -
           a balancing act
that takes practice

and risk. 

Tim Knipp 1/19/14

Tim Knipp, Jan. 19, 2014

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
---
Circles

• orbs
• laps
• orbits
• cycles
• well, worn paths

How many circles
intersect and
exist
in swirls
and vortexes?
Motion moves
in tumbles
and
curves.
Or is it just me?
---
Like a gerbil
running
in an exercise wheel
we
exert energy
in furious spurts
or hours long
determination
and
get
no where.
---
John 1:1
His rescue is
layered across time,
not simply
tossing out
the life-saving ring,
towing us to shore
and
leaving
at the end of his shift.
---
Fleshed out God
moved in
two houses down.
Real and riddled
with human
flaws,
he shared our form:
a nervous system,
digestive tract,
and, yes,
alimentary functions.
God in flesh
cried
and wondered
and grew angry;
was troubled
and moved to pity.
In despair he cried,
"My God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?"

"That which he has not assumed, he has not healed." Gregory Nazianzus

Carlo Furlan 1/12/2014

For years I took laborious notes while listening to teachers and preacherss. These notes, however, rarely facillitated lasting response or recall, regardless of the richness of the teaching or the power of the preaching. 

Three years ago I began a new habit while listening and have found it to make these truths both more accessible and memorable. This process involves a sketchbook, something with which to make marks and my response to the teaching in primarily image form. I sit listening until an image comes to mind. Then I quickly get that image down onto the page  while the teaching continue. I close my sketchbook when the teaching ends. 

The following image is a response to a teaching on Prayer given January 13, 2014 by Carlo Furlan.

His texts were I Kings 8:29, Is. 56:7, Mark 11:17 and I Cor. 6...

FROM CAROL

Watching Jenny create art as a response to Sunday messages, I wondered how I could engage my right brain to stay focused on the spirit of what was being said as well as the letter. Could I do the same thing with words? Six months ago, I began jotting down fragments of imagery and trickles of poetry that allow me to access a different part of my brain and engage my heart. These lines are unpolished and rudimentary, but I share them with you humbly, as a child who pats together a mud pie and offers it up with a smile. 

Here are my words based on Carlo Fulan's sermon January 13, 2014:

Prayer

Like breathing -

essential and elemental,

yet elusive,

ethereal...

Knocking on the bricks

of segregation

between

the tangible

and the intangible.

Or

answering the knock,

or 

more likely

straining to hear

the still, small voice.

---

I Kings 8:29

Facing Jerusalem,

full frontal position,

but prostrate.

Isa. 56:7

"My house" is for prayer

where I will meet you,

cross the threshold in anticipation...

Transformation,

re-forming,

molding a new thing out of 

a blob of unclean clay.

Lay down the reins,

pull over,

turn off your wireless connections

and 

mute the voices of

• worry
• doubt
• cynicism

and condemnation.
Sink into His presence
and be
trans - formed.
---
The miry, murky dungeon of despair
pulls at my feet -
these feet of clay -
but I want to look up,
want to dance
so there must be missteps
and clumsy
flub ups
and bruised toes.
Offer me your hand, Lord,
and ask me to
be your partner.
Malformed as I am,
I will
take your hand in mine
and
let you lead.