mE this week
Is unity desirable? Does progress demand conflict? What’s the
use of heaven?
Heavens
There’s a tavern across the road, where the old soldiers go
now that the war is over, now that life is slow
upstairs from a funeral parlour,
and they call it ‘Heaven’s Above’.
- Kyp
Harness, “You Should Know Better Now”
Last week I attended a packed meeting of The Q Commons, an
organization created to “educate and stimulate your thinking on how we as
Christ followers can participate in helping our city flourish.” Attendees were
given the current issue of inContext, The
Canadian Apologetics Magazine (Vol. 4), published by Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries (RZIM.ca). The meeting—and the excellent magazine—was
certainly stimulating for me: the parallels with NHC are striking and there’s
much to learn from RZIM’s approach to putting the world back on track.
Christ followers, of course, believe in heaven. It’s likely that
many in Toronto’s conscious community do, too, but it’s also likely that many
of us don’t. We’re unlikely to share any belief short of a vague, if firm,
conviction that human awareness is incomplete and that if we’re very nice to
each other our species is capable of learning a lot of skills that will
gradually make our planet return to the heavenly state it may once have been
in. Or something like that.[1]
Fuss n fight
It’s fun to poke fun at friends but very distressing to be
misunderstood and put on the defensive. People who demonstrate sensitivity to
the ways of the conscious community impress me, not the least because you never
hear them griping about being misunderstood. Sure, there’s darkness in everyone
and the ability to put up with crap apparently knows no bounds, but there’s a
charming positivity about people who identify with conscious communities and accept
that we don’t know how far our explorations may bring us.
Whatever our relationship to the creative force of existence, we
do not feel the need to hone our skills as apologists, to defend our beliefs. We
find virtue in multiplicity of paths and recognize that paying attention to how
others find their way—exhibit their unique human abilities—helps us glimpse
more of life’s mysteries.
When your mindset is, “What’s behind that curtain?”, you’re not
going to get your knickers in a twist about answers that don’t satisfy
you—unless they’re obviously antisocial ones.
Destination unknown
This work in progress is not about unifying against the
perceived wrongs of our oppressors or people who seem to be sleepwalking through
life, it’s about living fully in community. Consciousness is a beautiful
mystery, a gazillion impulses dancing to the music of eternity. It’s how we
find heaven in this lifetime, whatever our later destination.
“Eenie weenie, chilly beanie, the spirits are about to speak!”
“Are they friendly spirits?”[2]
First published on October 17, 2018 by newhumancity
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