Star Wars Strikes....Again

I recently cancelled my Blockbuster online membership, so I have been low on movies to watch. I decided a few nights ago to watch the original Star Wars trilogy. I made it through the final episode this morning and in that episode was a great nugget of spiritual truth. You know, it seems to me that no matter how many times I watch certain shows, I find useful information along the way. Well...out with it!
Yoda has gone on to "join the force"(at least that is what I interpret he does when he vanishes before Luke) and Luke is struggling with going on to meet his destiny, which is to confront Lord Vader. Obi-Wan appears to Luke and they begin a conversation about Luke's recent discovery that Darth Vader is his father. Obi-Wan had told Luke that Vader betrayed and killed his father, and Luke is questioning this statement.
Obi-Wan:"...So what I told you was true, from a certain point of view."
Luke:"A certain point of view?"
Obi-Wan:"Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."

I have been down this road before, but somehow it seems more poignant this go 'round. Now I have literally watched Star Wars, both completely and in pieces, a hundred times, why didn't I see this truth...years ago? Why did it take so long to begin to understand the journey I was "destined" for? Who knows?
I guess the important thing is that I have now discovered a great truth. Next...use it.
The truths that I have clung to most of my life, adolescence to adulthood, have been from a "certain point of view". I have believed things, spiritually speaking, without question due to my rearing. I suppose that this is a good thing, no, scratch that, it is a good thing. My parents passed on to me what they believed to be the truth and for that I am grateful. Now, however, I am beginning a journey in a new direction and my point of view is...different. Knowing that my point of view is different doesn't take away the pain of uncertainty as new ideas and ideals are being "tried on". The struggle is there. The questions remain and even the point of view moves about. One day, one thing. Next day, different thing. Its really hard to find what it is that is unchanging. It has been suggested that which is unchanging is inside all of us. This may be true, but what does that mean?
Ahhh, the wonderful world of "Certain Point of View"! Is it something that can be shared with others? I guess so or else there wouldn't be a single congregation of folks anywhere. But do they really share a certain point of view? Or is it simply a lack of the majority to search out there own point of view? One certain point of view is offered by a few dominant people and others join in. Does this make it a true group of congregates? I don't know.
Well, here's to Lucas' legendary Star Wars dialogue, who would have known it to stir up so many questions?

The Curious Blank

A quote from Spiral Staircase,
"I knew that a good nun must be ready to give up everything and count the world well lost for God. But what had happened to God? My life had been turned upside down, but God should still be the same...My heart and mind both seemed numb..., but God seemed to gone too. In the place that he had occupied in my mind there was now a curious blank.
"Or perhaps it was only now that I could admit to this God-shaped gap in my consciousness. One of the most painful failures of my convent life had been my inability to pray. Our whole existence had had God as its pivotal point. The silence of our days had been designed to enable us to listen to him. But he had never spoken to me."

A few short years ago, I would have thought this statement of the "curious blank" a sure sign of being "lost" (church code for someone who has not prayed a prayer and walked an aisle). It would have seemed to me that this person was merely confused and, according to the advice of a pastor to me during my early days of the Great Awakening,using the epistle of I John, simply did not know for certain of their salvation and therefore lost. I was told that if there was any doubts of my salvation, that it must be the Holy Spirit because the devil could not conjure up assurances of salvation.
Fast forward a few years. I now completely understand and have in fact experienced and am experiencing the "curious blank". I now see this more as a positive than a negative. I will admit, it is very difficult to resign to the fact that I may not have been right about a great many things, but one thing is for certain, it is a very humbling experience.
Honesty is good for the soul, so here goes, I can't recall a single time when God said anything to me....that felt good to say out loud (so to speak). I am not advocating the non-existence of God, in fact, I still believe in God. I am simply stating that he/she has not spoken to me. Sure its easy to use the words, "God said for me to do such and such" or something similar, when you are surrounded by a group of people who use these phrases constantly. Why? Because if you don't, and are the spiritual advisor to others, where are you getting your direction from? Yourself? Are you mad? Certainly you are pious enough to sit in constant vigil eagerly awaiting your next command. Is God really that interested in the color of carpet? If you should or should not pave the parking lot? When to have VBS?
To be truthful, I really do not believe that God is that interested in such trivial things. I do believe that God is interested in such things as love, honesty, and truthfulness. I believe that God cares a great deal about how I treat every person that I come into contact with. These things have, in my humble opinion, lasting effects. But who really knows for certain. Can anyone honestly say that they have been to the great beyond, chronicled their journey in both print and video, returned, and under heavy scrutiny, been proven that this experience has in fact taken place? Honestly, if someone would make the claim, I would think they were a few cards short of a deck.
Well, to each is own I guess. In the mean time, anyone up for a game of Mad Libs?

Remember Jack Handey from SNL?

Read this quote just now and laughed about the pertness of it.


Sometimes I think you have to march right in and demand your rights, even if you don't know what your rights are, or who the person is you're talking to. Then, on the way out, slam the door.
by Jack Handey

More on Spiral Staircase

I was very brief with my last post on Spiral Staircase, but now I would like to spend a couple of posts on some things that stood out for me.

This is a quote, "When I thought about the issue (leaving the convent), I found only a question mark where the old conviction should have been. I had experienced this time and again recently; it seemed as though I had discarded a good deal of my old religious self when I had taken off my habit. Beliefs and principles that I had taken so completely for granted that they seemed part of my very being now appeared strangely abstract and remote. In fact, I did not seem to think or feel anything very strongly anymore."

See what I mean? I could have written that very statement (minus the habit part) two years ago.
It seems to me that once you fight for a cause for a period of time and then don't, that something in your mind takes place. You really feel like a rug has been pulled out from under your feet, but unlike in the literal sense, there is no floor to land on. Where is the "common ground" of shared views? So far, I really don't think it exists. Can there be a place in time where we truly can all agree to disagree and get on with life? Why do we feel that when we close our eyes at night that we have to sleep in the sweet peace of...I'M RIGHT DAMMIT! I have come to the conclusion that I am mostly wrong. I guess there is peace in that also.
I really understand that last sentence of the quote. There is a "comfortable numbness" that takes place. Its like nothing replaces the old way of thinking and acting. It is a void of sorts but not a scary void, more like a quiet room in your mind were ideas are not coming and going. I guess if you don't do well in silence, this could be scary. I am growing very accustom to it.
Well, until next time...Where's the damn floor in this place?