I am trapped... all around me.

Symbols strewn together in intentional order to create meaning and significance... this is all so magical and lovely... yet so very dangerous. These symbols, that you're deciphering, lead us on a road.. linear lines to linear reason.. creating individualistic thought, and individualistic self. This is the result of hundreds of years of a media rut.
The printing press really has done a number (or letter) on us. I crave true community, but I, but we, have been pressed into an anti-community being by the very way we communicate. We've gone away from a tribal and community based mentality, mostly the result of our own perceived intellect. What is the mother of all learning... text book or experience?... solitude or conversation? Where has 20th century media brought us; further away from each other... more alone.
"You are more connected than ever!" cry the online social network and cell phone. And they may be right... but what sort of connection does the soul cry for? The arms-length shallow connection given from symbols strewn together on a screen, or the intimacy of personal conversation... when I can see the way your nose wiggles between thoughts and your eyes sharpen as I confess my past. We are begging to feel connection... to God, to the Earth, to each other. This isn't a cry to leave technology and modern media behind, but more of a "wake up!" Lets not be so ignorant and examine the mediums by which we connect... "The message is in the medium" - Marshall McLuhan.

Clearly you may think myself a hypocrite writing these words on the pages of a screen, and certainly I feel like one. I am a prisoner to what's around me. Because I can write things down and place thoughts outside of myself, I think I can be objective and free...
I am Not objective
I can not be
Experience has it's finger prints all over me.

I can not simply jump from where I am to the finish line. This is simply the start... to the finish of something that is surely beautiful.

e m d o e f r s i i n h c r s t i l n a o e

I am poured out... I am tired... and I'm sick.
I am sustained... I am hopeful... I am rich.
I am broken... I am spilled... I am growing.
I am rooted... I am fruitful... I am open.
I am allegory... I am rhythm... I am played.
I am flesh... I am heart... I am bone.
I am spirit... I am soul... I am not my own.
...Jesus...

Depth Perception

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For some odd reason depth-perception has been on my mind. So I'm about to ramble on for quite some time trying to process what I've been thinking, which could certainly amount to nothing... so if you'd rather not deal with the ramblings, feel free to be on your way... if you're even slightly intrigued, lets continue. Depth is something that makes the dimensions of our world… without depth the dimensions of our world would certainly be boring… and our world would certainly be something else. Perception is the human goggle… it is how we understand our current state-of-being through our senses, mind, and soul.

Normally when depth-perception enters my mind I immediately think of distances between objects that are away from myself. As in when, imagine now, looking out the window you can see that the clouds in the sky are farther away than the tree in your yard, and even so that the tree is farther from you than the children playing in the yard.

Now what is it that makes depth-perception possible? The first two things that enter my mind: movement and light. Movement because as I look at the sky and the tree I can see the clouds moving behind the tree, and just the same with the children playing in front of the tree. Even the movement caused by the blowing wind within the tree allows me to see the depth within the tree itself… those branches and leaves which are further and those which are closer. And light because the shades and shadows brought out by light allow me to recognize depth all the more. The shades of green throughout the tree and the shadows that are cast by the leaves, branches, and trunk allow me to see exactly what position the tree is in.

What would our world be like without depth… and more so… movement and light? Maybe that’s not quite conceivable… how about a world with less depth, less movement, and less light? When I first think of a world without movement I think of a picture… a still-world. But even within that image I can see some depth. Now I can picture the light slowly dimming out of the still-world and noticing the depth also fading away. And now I think I picture something a lot like Hell. Is it possible that Hell is the complete lack and disappearance of depth?

I guess all this has me realizing that God is the God of Infinite Depth… and that our perceiving the smallest bit of that depth is one of the many graces we all receive while in this life. The human goggle, the senses, the mind, the depth… such blessing we receive… such glory to His Name be. Makes me think of the Biblical story and its depth… the creation, the man, the woman, the temptation, the fall, the chosen people, the slavery, the exodus, the deliverance, the desert, the testing, the promise land, the stiff-necked, the prophetic Word, the Savior, the healing, the ever-so-full-of-depth parables, the miracles, the bread, the wine, the cross, the broken-body, the blood, the redemption, the resurrection, the commission, the Spirit, the Church, the mistakes, the never-ending grace, the you, the me, the never-ending story. It is amazing to think of the interconnection and depth of the whole Story… and to think that this is only how it begins.

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