Quotes Archive, 2023
"A theory of everything, in the scientific sense, refers to a singular, ultimate, all-encompassing equation or formula that explains the universe and all its disparate parts. Such a formula has not been found yet and possibly never will, at least in the foreseeable future.
In a similar way, many people, in their anxious desperation to label and categorize what they do not understand, create "theories of everything" about the individuals around them. These interpersonal blanket statements and oversimplified formulas ignore the complexity and nuance of most individuals and most social situations. Rather than embracing the intricate process of patiently learning the labyrinth that is a person (or a social situation), the intellectual and moral neanderthal kneejerks to a theory of everything.
A person who often uses interpersonal theories of everything does so for distinct reasons; their heat signature is consistent and predictable. They are trying to create a personal world where their excuses and unhealed inner pain can live. This means creating a splitscreen of life that is aggressively all-or-nothing, us-versus-them, angel or villain, useful or disposable. This means creating an information ecosystem around themselves (and those in relationship with them) that contains its own logic and intrasubjectivity, even if that logic is not logical at all by even the most basic requirements of common sense.
The providential irony of the reductionist is that a bigger, badder reductionist will always come along and reduce them in ways they have always feared. Jesus said, with the measure you use it will be measured to you, and even more so." (12/19)
"Living happily and freely in the present, first of all, requires that we stop romanticizing the past and romanticizing the future. Two robbers were crucified with Jesus, one on His right and one on His left (Mt 27:38). And yet Jesus, in the middle, said to the repentant thief, "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Lk 23:43). Today.
The past and the future can be robbers, stealing today's paradise from us if we are infatuated with either of them. Our past must be thoroughly understood, processed, healed, and learned from, but not pedestaled through selective memory. Our future must be inspired, visionary, and diligently worked towards, but not pedestaled through selective daydreaming. In Jesus there is always some form of Paradise Now, but to experience it, we must be firmly nailed to a present-tense cross between two robbers, one who wants to nail you to the past and one who wants to nail you to the future.
Yahweh said His name throughout all generations is "I AM" (Ex 3:14,15). Not I WAS, not I WILL BE, but I AM--a present tense honorific conveying His constant immediacy, an ever-present Help, One who exists in the eternal present tense and longs to share some of that higher present tense substance with our chronological existence. And our part? Hebrews 4:7 answers (NIV): God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.”...he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 2Corinthians 6:1,2 also answers (NIV): ...we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain...I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
If we are nailed to the past, romanticizing it, or nailed to the future, romanticizing it, we are robbed of recognizing God's voice today. In fact, our hearts will be hardened against whatever He is saying. And yet, it is those very right-now revelations that bring with them the higher present tense substance of the I AM. Now, today, between past and future, the present tense, is the time of I AM's favor." (9/28)
"What do snowflakes, broccoli, and trees have in common with our life? They are fractal; they have identical repeating patterns at every level. In our life, the large-scale patterns we enjoy or mourn are the eventualities of identical antecedent patterns at lesser levels. To say it another way, what you are doing or not doing at daily-level smaller scales is creating a butterfly effect at bigger scales--even if you do not perceive it. To say it another way, your life is made up of several smaller lives. Address and change the smaller lives and you change the larger life. The entire fractal mechanism must be reengineered from the bottom up. A minor nip-tuck here and there will not change a vast desert into a lush promise land. They are built on entirely different patterns.
Many, maybe most, people do not get this. Varying degrees of ignorance, darkness, or insanity make people want to change large-scale patterns, while barricading themselves in diseased or mediocre or outdated small-scale patterns. Know and accept the fractal nature of all reality. Think you're that adorable, unique wittle snowflake? Well, you are, but not the way you think. You are fractal, and that fractal nature is the God-given key to your existence." (8/14)
"If your life does not have a wildlife corridor, you will become a caged animal in someone else's zoo." (7/30)
"Bible-believing American Christians: the end of human civilization as we know it is the book of Revelation, not a conservative American utopia. Beware of political idolatry disguised and perfumed as patriotism. Repent for political idolatry. Pry your eyes away from political saviors. Cry out to, and fix your eyes on, the King who is coming and the kingdom He is bringing." (2/9)
"Don't throw up in your mouth, then swallow. Say what you need to say to precisely who you need to say it to." (1/12)
"In general, we do not attract to our life what we desire or need, we attract what we expect and we expect what we imagine and we imagine what our emotional history makes us imagine. This is why many people find themselves in the same situations over and over and over, though they recognize and abhor it, though they try to do differently. Up high in their mind they imagine it, deep down in their gut they feel it and expect it. The world within creates the world without.
You can interrupt the inner cycle at either end: up high in the mind or deep down in the heart or both simultaneously for a faster transformation. Daydream-pray about God's values, mechanisms, and commensurate outcomes, as Philippians 4:8 says, and your heart's gut-level expectations will progressively reconfigure Godward. The imagination must be given a new channel to watch for the heart to presuppose new outcomes. Address and dig out and heal the diseased deeper issues fueling your heart's troubled expectations; that deep inner plowing will illuminate your mind with new visions and mental TV channels." (11/19/22)