I am already declaring the following song to be the song of the year. The first 60 seconds can be heard below, but follow the link for some goodness and hope!
SONG
YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE THIS VIDEO. CLICK BELOW.
Jess Ray “City of My Peace”
I lost myself some time ago. If you see me would you let me know. It’s no good for man to be alone. What could be more true?
Like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan, hold my face between your hands ‘til you can see who I am. I’ll do the same for you.
I’m suffering from some memory loss. I got confused and wandered off. Signals scrambled, lines are crossed. All I hear is noise
But light and truth have been dispatched to come and find me where I’m at. To take my hand and lead me back to the mountain of my joy.
At times I can’t discern between me and what I am underneath. You might have to dig for me. I might not want you to.
Lately, I’ve been learning how quickly I turn upside down, how easy I turn inside out. Remind me what is true.
‘cause I’m living an un-human life, inches deep and a mile wide, day by day losing my mind to the electronic glow
Take me back there, would you please, to working on my hands and knees, picking fruit and pulling weeds in the garden that I love.
Oh, anchor me to something sure, fix my compass, point it north, set on what I’m looking for, the Everlasting Tree,
I will search until I find the city of divine design where God Himself will be the light in the City of My Peace.
God Himself will be the light in the city of my peace.
Do yourself a big favor and watch the video by clicking here.
What stood out in Scripture
MARK 1:9-15
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him. Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel."
This passage is one where we are taught that GOD exists in three persons - the voice from heaven being the Father, the dove being the Holy Spirit, and Jesus being the Son.
Trinity.
I cannot fathom it. It is hard enough to see Jesus as who he is, let alone the Holy Spirit who, to me, is like a mysterious force, except that he is a person like Jesus - not a force. And who can perceive the Father? I cannot. Some Christians try to communicate knowledge of God in three Persons by admitting not what He IS, but instead focusing on what He IS NOT. This idea keeps us humble.
Apophatic Theology
- apophatic, from the Greek, meaning “unspeakable.”
The following is from Stephen Freeman’s blog “Glory to God for All Things”
“…we may come to know God best in a manner that is beyond speech. I have always liked Fr. Thomas Hopko’s aphorism: “It is impossible to know God – but you have to know Him to know that.” It states the mystery succinctly.
I would add another aphorism:
It is hard to be deluded when you don’t claim to know anything.
That’s not Hopko – it’s me. What many do not understand is that apophaticism is not an intellectual position, but is itself a way of life – the very heart of Orthodoxy. What seems difficult to most is the idea that declaring that we do not know is a way of knowing. Apophaticism is not agnosticism.
We behold God in a mystery and the mystery we behold is inherently unspeakable (if we truly behold Him).
None of this is to say that we do not preach the Gospel, nor share the good news of God in Christ. But it is a recognition that in our own lives we pursue God not through greater depths of rationality but in a manner that is itself “unspeakable.” Such an approach is begotten of humility and the recognition of both the truth of God and the truth of ourselves.
I have written most recently of the “soul as mystery.” This is not to deny that we may know other people but that to know them properly we must do so in “fear and wonder.” This is the language of love. We do not rightly seek to define the object of our love, but to be in communion. We love and with it language fails. Language fails not because of the lack of knowledge, but because the character of the knowledge we have through love is larger than words. Words may serve as icons – as windows towards the reality they seek to express – but they cannot contain nor fully comprehend that to which they point.”
It is interesting to me that this approach does not conflict with the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the perfect image of God.
The more I allow for humility, the more I see how little I grasp, yet I can learn much about Jesus (and therefore Trinity) through reading and praying.
Somehow, this seems balanced. Or perhaps I’m just comfortable with it. Not sure.
One thing I know: I do not trust my knowledge or feelings. The more I know, the shallower things seem. Trusting my feelings is just so untrustworthy.
Here is something C.S. Lewis said in the Screwtape letters:
“…unless you teach your moods “where they get off”, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and from, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.1
Back to the Bible verse above. Baptism is linked with humility and repentance. It is the giving away of one’s will and the adopting of another’s. It is setting off your self and putting on another self - another very different, basically unknown Self. It may just be the beginning of your disassembly. It is properly understood to be a death.
Philippians 2
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
NEWS
Meanwhile, in Africa…
An attack on Christians in Nigeria over Christmas has left nearly 200 people dead. While Muslim herders are thought to be behind the violence, some major media outlets have blamed climate change for the killings, appearing to downplay existing religious conflicts.
The massacre took place on Christmas Eve in 26 different villages across the central Plateau state in the country’s interior. Locals said that bands of men armed with guns and machetes attacked villagers, killing 198 and wounding a further 300 in some of the worst anti-Christian violence seen in Nigeria in years, according to the Catholic News Agency.
It is estimated that in the last 14 years, more than 52,000 Christians have been murdered in Nigeria because of their faith. In 2021, Fr. Joseph Fidelis from the diocese of Maiduguri expressed frustration over the description of the situation as “clashes” or “conflicts” between opposing groups. “It is not a clash, it is a slow genocide.”2
Thank the God Who Sees for your safety, comfort, and health - whatever the degree that you possess. Pray to the Trinity for your family and also for people in places that you’ve never heard of or will ever know. Christians are there. They suffer unbelievably.
WHAT AMERICA IS LOVING AT THE MOMENT
Here are some screenshots from the music video “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat. No commentary is necessary. Just know that this song is one of the most popular in the nation.
FINALLY
Swinging back to apophatic thinking….
It is difficult to see imagery like what is shown above, it is difficult to read the lyrics to the associated songs (“read” them because they are unintelligible) without passing judgment on the individuals performing them.
I am reminded of the publican and the pharisee.
The pharisee presumed knowledge of someone else’s life (the publican’s life). He generalized. He exulted himself over others. Meanwhile and regardless of what his job was, the publican (a Jew in contract with Roman authorities to collect certain taxes from other Jews for profit) had great conflict within himself. The publican did not presume knowledge of the pharisee’s life or anyone else’s life.
He only spoke about what he was sure of: his own sin.
The publican stood back from the religious crowd and “would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying,
God be merciful to me a sinner.”
This was his prayer - the prayer of a hated man.
"Pride is the annihilation of virtue"
John Climacus
If what I have presented to you today causes self-righteousness to bloom anywhere within you or causes you to think me presumptuous, forgive me, and only remember the publican’s prayer.
PATRISTICS
More from John Climacus
“God belongs to all free beings. He is the life of all, the salvation of all—faithful and unfaithful, just and unjust, pious and impious, passionate and dispassionate, monks and seculars, wise and simple, healthy and sick, young and old—just as the diffusion of light, the sight of the sun, and the changes of the weather are for all alike; ‘for there is no respect of persons with God’.”
“Repentance is the renewal of baptism. Repentance is a contract with God for a second life. A penitent is a buyer of humility. Repentance is constant distrust of bodily comfort. Repentance is self-condemning reflection and carefree self-care. Repentance is the daughter of hope and the renunciation of despair. A penitent is an undisgraced convict. Repentance is reconciliation with the Lord by the practice of good deeds contrary to the sins. Repentance is purification of conscience. Repentance is the voluntary endurance of all afflictions. A penitent is the inflicter of his own punishments. Repentance is a mighty persecution of the stomach, and a striking of the soul into vigorous awareness.”
“Be concentrated without self-display, withdrawn into your heart. For the demons fear concentration as thieves fear dogs.”
What I pray most -
“How I need You.”
A COUPLE OF PAST WRITINGS
My other cultural inputs:
https://www.instagram.com/sethtummins/
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2001), pp. 141-142. I found this at https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/reflections-july-2015/
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/media-blames-christmas-massacre-of-160-nigerian-christians-on-climate-crisis/