Dream to go 6 - you're getting on my nerves

You interrupted me while I was busy.

You irritating me when I was tired.

You took a different view when I was clearly right.

You’re different to me, and while at times that’s intriguing, it’s also inconvenient and makes my life less efficient.

You clearly don’t understand me and make all kinds of wrong assumptions about me.

You insist on having your own agendas and ambitions.

You’re slow to stroke my ego and rarely give me the sympathy I deserve.

My feelings of spiritual maturity would be a whole lot easier if it wasn’t for you lot. In fact, I reckon I could do this “holy man” thing pretty well on my own - but you keep on spoiling it.

I would go off and become a hermit, but I happen to know that in monastic communities, the ones who get to ‘withdraw’ and ‘retreat’ on their own are the ones who have shown themselves to be able to live and love deeply in community.

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:35-40)

by richard w

Dream to go 5 - Jesus isn't perfect

After he rose from the dead, Jesus showed the wounds in his hands and his side to his disciples.

Amazing! The resurrection overcame death, but didn’t do a complete ‘system restore’ on Jesus’ body. He still had wounds. And so, in a way, he’s imperfect, and I guess “heaven” as a result is to.

The Jesus we seek to follow has a body that is broken. Broken forever. Never going to fully recover from its brokenness.

I’m so grateful for that, when I have to look at my own brokenness - the ugly wounds in me. Like I’ve had to at times this week... actually most weeks. It means that when I get to take a piece of broken bread and hear someone say “the body of Christ, broken for you” I’m reminded of the promise of wholeness.

A wholeness that at times will mean healing – ‘system restore’ – a trade off where Jesus gets broken so I get fixed.

But also a wholeness where at times the wounds themselves become part of the process. Where I, along with others following Jesus (a.k.a. “the body of Christ”) qualify to take wholeness into our worlds even though (or maybe because) we’re still broken.

by richard w

Cecilia's exhibition

For the next two weeks Cecilia, of day-dream (we meet in her studio), has an exhibition at the Editions gallery on Cook St, Liverpool.

It's part of the Independents Liverpool Bienniel. If you can get along to see her work, it's stunning! Details here.

Dream to go 4 – size matters

by richard w

I’m trying not to take it too personally that I’ve ended up in several conversations recently about how ‘size matters’!

Just think how much we all believe that deep down. The size of my job. The size of my education. The size of my bank balance. The size of my position. The size of my list of friends. The size of my wardrobe. And yes, the size of any number of parts of my body that surgeons will now happily shrink, stretch, lengthen or slim for me… at a price.

I spend far more time, energy and stress worrying about “size” than I want to admit to you, or even to myself.

But you know what… size really does matter.

The size of my dad.

For the ancients, identity was all about your family line. Basically, it was about “How big is your dad?”

Maybe that’s why the New Testament has what seems to be such a boring first few paragraphs!

Who you were, wasn’t about job, education, income or looks. It was about who you were the son or daughter of. And so in those first paragraphs, we’re introduced to Jesus, adopted by an earthly father, so that we get adopted by a heavenly one.

My fundamental identity is about who I belong to. Who my Father is.

How freeing... I can’t say to you that “my dad’s bigger than your dad”, and neither can you.

(photo of the new shoe shop on Bold St)

Digital Art & Spirituality

I have a dream. This dream came back to me strongly on the recent purchase of some new 3D art software. An idea that won't go away.

Here's the idea. Get people together who have a creative streak or who enjoy being around creative stuff (for me at the moment that's 3D art, animation, musical improvisation) and who are also exploring their spirituality and asking deep questions. The idea is to create some kind of forum to explore the link between the two i.e. how creativity and spiritual journey express and feed each other and interact.

Practically, it might have something to do with local colleges in a way that's not clear to me yet. It might involve having "open screen time" (instead of "open mic")- you get the laptop and projector for 10 minutes to show your stuff and talk about what it means to you.

A lot of my own creative stuff comes out of the deep questions I'm asking (or, more usually, wrestling with!), and of all the things I come up with, the stuff that is born of that deep searching seems to communicate the best with other people.

I like Richard White's "Dream to Go" posts ... as much for the honesty as anything else ... in that vein the image below came out of my own desire to have certain "blockages" removed in my own journey to live a deeper fuller life that Jesus offered, and learn to relate to other people better. On my own blog this image attracted comments from people who seemed to have seen something of their own situation in the image. So this idea is growing out of something that's begun to happen naturally for me.

And so, my question - does this idea spark off anything in you? Is this kind of thing already happening? I'd love to know what you think.

Richard L

coke & mentos station?

by richard w

Ok the Coke and Mentos thing is pretty old now. But this takes it into new realms.
Now how can we do this at a Dream service?

dream to go 3 - looking at you

What do you think the expression is on God’s face as he looks at you?

o Smile
o Blank
o Frustrated
o Sad
o Disappointed
o Angry

Try this… please…

1. Wait for a crisp sunny day (this in itself is a spiritual discipline designed to produce patience in the British!).

2. Find a garden or park that has a bench in the sun.

3. Lie down and close your eyes, with the sun on your face.

4. Ask God to show you how he feels as he looks at you

5. Wait for a while. (You are allowed to doze off)

You could get together with someone else to chat through the experience afterwards. Or be brave and report back here.

The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace (Number 6:24-26)