Can you hear me now?

Does God talk to you?

A predominant pattern in these Bible accounts so far reveals a very conversational God. He speaks directly to these many figures in the document. His words are specific and contextual in his commands, yet completely cryptic and incomplete in areas of reasoning and motivation. But it is clear from these scriptures that the message is that the Lord literally, (and I mean that word literally) in His given voice, addresses Man.

Does God talk to you?

How many times, in our most silent hours of need, have we had a thought and wondered if it was God speaking? Or are God’s “words” simply in our exterior world? Please God, let me get an A on this test. No, God said, as the student got back his grade. God, should or shouldn’t I take this new job?  Yes?  No?  Please God, let the Dodgers win the pennant.  Does God simply respond with results or does he speak in his own voice?

Did Hitler pray? Did he think he truly heard God telling him to do what he did?

Can you imagine the torment of schizophrenics who hear voices directing them to do evil things?

When I am in my innermost realm of deep prayer, I try to listen hard to hear if an answer comes to me. When it does, is that me or God? I do not know. But I do know I should listen to that so-called voice.

I have had about a handful of moments in my life when I “heard” what seemed to be from outside myself (but not physically) saying some very specific phrase or message. It has even come, at least once, with a mental visual. When they happened to be messages of something that would come to pass, it always did, regardless of my control over the situation. I just KNEW, as they say.

But, did a Biblical deity truly verbally speak to these figures in the Bible? If so, I envy them. Why was it limited to that time period? Why don’t we audibly hear God today? How easier things would be if He would just speak to us directly and tell us the hell what to do? Wall Street bail-out or no Wall Street bail-out? Marry this guy or not? Risk that surgery or not? Invade Iraq or not? What do you want me to do, God? Just tell me.

So, did Moses have a true on-going dialogue with God? Or does God actually speak to us in more subtle ways, leaving us dangerously vulnerable to mis-interpretation? If Moses really heard God Himself, then I think he had it easy. The real challenge for us mortals is to try to discern, which is coming from God, which from me, which from – gulp – the Devil? Or the hallucinogen in my system! Or the tapes from my childhood?

Confession #17: I listen most of all to my inner soul-voice because it is coming from my internal universe, which is a creation of God. It is, in the final scene, all I have. Therefore, I cannot put an undo amount of influence on what God said to someone else. What does He say to ME? I hope I get it right!

Frogs and Gnats and Locusts, oh my!

Today’s newspaper reports that singer-turned-preacher Tony Alamo (I’m old enough to remember him), now 74, was arrested for arranging marriages for 12 and 14-year-olds. His reasoning? "It’s in the Bible, so I don’t think it’s wrong.” There we go again.

On to Exodus… (by the way, a great movie by Otto Preminger)

Confession #15: I never knew what “land o’Goshen” meant. I figured it was another way for grandmas to substitute for the blaspheming exclamations they wanted to say, much like, “gosh!” “golly!” or “jeeze!” or “gol darn!” But it’s an actual place in the bible (you probably knew that, but remember, I’m a virgin.) Turns out, it is where the Israelites dwelled in Moses’s day.

I expect that one of the most beneficial results of my reading this document will be in it greatly adding to my cultural literacy. To finally “get” the expressions, allusions, even punch-lines that permeate our current vernacular. To read well-known sayings in their context will lead me to many “Ah-ha” moments, I am sure.

So… the king of Egypt fears the ever-increasing population of Israelites (“The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread.” There’s a sociological dissertation in there somewhere.). So he orders infant boys to be killed. This leads to the dramatic and miraculous save by Moses, who, as we know, is destined to lead his people to safety. In the process, the Lord sends plague after plague to the Pharaoh’s people after every time the Pharaoh goes against his word, and imbues Moses with some neat tricks of magic to wield his influence.

This gets confusing because this very interactive God will say to Moses, o.k. now do this to change the Pharaoh’s mind, he does, then the Lord “hardens the Pharaoh’s heart” so that another plague comes. This cycle repeats ad nauseum. What is God’s purpose in being so manipulative in defeating what is supposed to be His own purpose? Doesn’t Man feel like chess pieces by now?

These plagues included: Blood, Frogs, Gnats, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, Firstborn. Mercy! (Ya really gotta read it for yourself, since this blog lies mostly in reaction.) But I got thinking about our “plagues” today. Terrorism, AIDS, global warming, hurricanes and tsunamis, water depletions, a 700 billion dollar instant debt. And these are all simultaneous. Does man simply suffer the consequences of his collective actions? Should we distinguish between man-made versus the natural swings of Nature? Which ones can and must we learn from? Are these all overt tactics of God, or the inherent law of cause and effect?

Side note: I think this latest financial debacle in the U.S. will be one of the greatest and most long-term “plagues” to confront us in several lifetimes. Confession #16: I am furious and I am worried. You?

In the beginning...In the end...

As I leave Genesis, a few thoughts…

Genesis: the time, place, and events of origination; the beginning. It seems like such a crucial piece of information for one’s development, even six-year-old boys like Greg seek to know. Kids love to hear the stories of how Mommy and Daddy met. Adopted children go in search of birth parents. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It suggests one’s purpose in existing. “If I know how I came to be, hopefully I will know why I came to be, and live to fulfill that purpose.”

William Wordsworth, British Romantic poet of the early 1800s, said, “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting.” His paradoxical view of Life was that it was the before and after when we are most “awake,” enlightened. Birth is a journey to the metaphorical shore, and once we hit land, we move further and further from our true nature’s inherent wisdom. “The Child of Father of the Man.” But because we have come from Heaven, we must be veiled from its realization, or what would that make Earth? Hell, by comparison. As we live, age, and die, we return to that shore and make the return journey from whence we came.

Perhaps during our time on earth we are not to have our profound questions on our beginnings answered.

Was there really an Adam and an Eve who ate of a forbidden tree? I don't know.  Sixty-one percent of Americans believe there really was an ark. Maybe so.  So? And what if not? Am I really a descendant of those precisely recorded people?

Every now and then new controversies arise in the literary arena over whether or not William Shakespeare really wrote all those plays. I’ve always told my students I really don’t care (unless I was a descendant and wanted to lay claim to royalties). “The play’s the thing,” as Hamlet said.

So, maybe truly knowing how we came to be, either as individuals or collectively, is not the important focus.

Confession #14: I am left with the only resolution I can find with unanswerable questions…Perhaps those aren’t the questions that matter most.

Go with the flow, baby.

Hundreds upon hundreds of my readers (see 3 from "What dreams..." entry) have left comments begging me to reveal my two most memorable dreams. So here we go.

Dream #1 came during a time in my life when my proverbial plate overflowed with responsibilities. I was a single mom of three, teaching full-time, pursuing my master’s degree, and trying to maintain a semblance of a social life to save my sanity. You name the cliché: couldn’t keep my head above water, burning the candle at both ends, pulled tight as a drum… I felt overwhelmed with the stresses.

In my dream, I am sitting in my car at night in the parking lot of my high school. People everywhere, like right after a football game has ended. Suddenly, an old, mangy, scraggly man, in ragged clothes, clearly homeless and in desperate need of a shave, approaches my car. The window is down and I am startled and uneasy. He gets close up in my face and all he says is, “How lucky you are to have such a busy life.” Then he walks away.

I woke with a start and in a bolt of enlightenment I got it. I got the big picture of my life. It changed my entire perspective. The stresses were still there. But I realized how damn full my life was, and what a blessing that was. Look at all I had going that that man didn’t.

Dream #2 was around the same time period. I somehow found myself in a long, wide river carrying people floating, mostly dressed in vintage 1800s garb. I am trying to stay afloat by dog paddling as fast as I can to keep up, not drown, just survive. Again, people everywhere. A woman floats past me and sort of grabs me and points out, “Look, see how we are all floating? You must do the same. Just lie back and float! Relax, give in to the flow of the water. The river will take you where it will, regardless of how hard you struggle. Let go. The journey will be much easier that way.”

Yea, I know, the obvious nod to the “go with the flow” adage.  But it suddenly made sense.

How vivid those dreams remain today. I return to their messages when I need to.  

If you are able to remember your dreams, (this often takes practice), listen to them.  Think about them.  Talk them out to decipher your own metaphors.  What is trying to get through to you? 

Care to share one of yours, especially prophetic?

Confession #12: O.K., it wasn’t “hundreds upon hundreds.”

Confession 13: Now, wasn’t that a nice break from the Bible?

The Ultimate Intelligent Design

As I leave Genesis, I return to the creation itself. One must conclude that matters concerning time must be subjective, since “days” as we measure them were not constructed until the fourth “day.” Wait. That, in itself, is paradoxical. So, couldn’t a so-called day actually have been millions of years? Our country’s unending debate over creationism and evolution continues to baffle me. Today’s vernacular use of “intelligent design” can, I think, resolve the conflict.

When I was a freshman in college, taking Biology 101, I had a professor who addressed this topic head on. He revealed how within his own devout Catholicism he had found harmony in his scientific and religious beliefs. As he explained, one need not have to choose between God or evolution. He believed evolution IS God’s most intelligent design. Science is that plan, that set of laws upon which the world is constructed. What happy co-existence that should lead to. However, creationists seem more content with stoking fires of divisiveness between teachings. Why? Why are they so afraid of the notion of evolution? If one examines the brilliance of its patterns, shouldn’t this only lead to the astounding intellect behind it? I am more in awe of the concept of God, particularly as it suggests a divine plan to this crazy world.

Oh, but wait. To some, that would mean that Man was not created instantaneously, placed in a garden and told not to eat from a certain tree. Then that might threaten belief in every other aspect of this document, known as the Bible. Biblists say one mustn’t pick and choose what they believe in the Bible, yet that is what they suggest regarding science. And yet, I can hear the comparative flaw in my own logic, since science continues to contradict itself as it …evolves! Hmm, my brain hurts.

Unless, and here it comes…we embrace this document for its metaphorical wisdom. That word “metaphor” again. Being created in “God’s image” can mean, for example, his intellectual image, emotional image, spiritual image.

Well, I will always remember that biology professor. He opened my mind to possibilities, inspired me to not stagnate in pointless polarizing debate, but rather find common ground in matters of the mind.

Confession # 11

As a member of the human species, I am not insulted by the notion of my kind having evolved from “lower” forms of life, nor offended by those images of early homo-sapien.

It’s more a potential de-volution I worry about!

More Genesis wrap-up next…

What dreams may come

A brief update. I see Hurricane Ike (I keep waiting for my rightful Hurricane Valerie and have yet to be so immortalized) is about to slam into Galveston, Texas, as of this writing. Ah, yes, I always suspected Galveston of harboring sinners and infidels…

Anyway, several chapters in Genesis (yes, I am STILL in Genesis!) follow Jacob’s exploits which include two wives who were sisters (a vote for polygamy?), concubines, and slaves, even Rebekah’s nose ring. Ah, the good ol’ days. It’s actually a good read, lots of plot twists. Misogynistic hypocrisy remains alive and well when Judah lies with whom he thinks is a prostitute, then tries to have her hanged for being a prostitute. What?

One interesting excerpt: Jacob wrestles with a man who touches the socket of his hip. Jacob’s life is spared as he proclaims having seen the face of God in his altercation. “…to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip.” I did not know that.

The idea of tithing is mentioned, as Jacob vows to give one tenth of all he has to God, not saying how exactly. But I like this idea, even though I have rarely followed it to the mathematical letter (is there such a thing?).  A certain regular amount given over to altruistic, charitable, or humanitarian needs keeps us involved in a higher calling. [Check out the World Vision Gift Catalog www.worldvisiongifts.org  ]  More fiscal wisdom emerges when Joseph stockpiles grain during years of feast, knowing years of famine are to follow. Smart businessman.  Responsible adulthood requires that we not earn $10 and spend $10, or charge $15! Let’s hear it for Joseph, savings accounts and IRAs!

Confession #10: While I do give to charitable causes, I confess not enough. I shall try to get closer to the literal meaning of tithing, as in the number 10, as in 10% of one’s good fortune. Hmmm, and this is confession #10.

Lastly, there is a bit in here about the power and meaning of dreams. Joseph is imprisoned with two others who each have startling dreams that they ask him to interpret. “Do not interpretations belong to God?” he asks. Then, next line out of his mouth, “Tell me your dreams.” Then, “This is what it means.” Oh, now, Joseph…tsk, tsk. His accurate interpretations end up being quite foretelling and indeed lead to saving him.

Confession #11: I believe in the power of dreams. I believe they are either from ourselves or some other entity telling us what we need to be aware of. I have found that when I apply Carl Jungian principles to dream therapy through personal metaphors, it is amazingly revelatory and constructive. I have had two dreams in my life that were so particularly gripping in their obvious messages that they changed my life and I still reflect upon them today.

*If you want to know what they were, leave a comment; I’ll respond here.

Acts of God

The Bible’s attention to the relationship between man and woman, especially in matters of sex and power, did not end with Adam and Eve, to be sure. And it gets pretty interesting. Sarai (later, Sara), Abram’s (later Abraham) wife, was barren, so naturally she offered her maidservant, Hagar, to lie with her husband to produce an heir. Wow. Once Hagar becomes pregnant, she has a tough time with the whole dynamic. But the Lord sends an angel to reassure her it’s all right.

One of my issues with the many who base all their actions, policy-making, and lifestyle decisions on the word of the Bible, is that they clearly pick and choose those passages that suit them. (More examples as I come to them.) And yet, if they truly believe in this document as rules to live by, then what does this passage say to us? Should we follow the models of the Old Testament, or shouldn’t we? Should we endorse a behavior simply because “it’s in the Bible?” Is it appropriate for a husband to bed down with his housekeeper in order to start a family with his wife? Of course our current mores would say, “no.” And so it would seem that we should temper every one of these stories with our God-given common sense and inherent codes.

Just a few lines later, in the nasty den of sin known as Sodom, poor Lot tries to protect two visiting angels from all the men of Sodom who demand, “that we can have sex with them.” Lot instead offers, “Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them.” Oh, hold on! Again, the misogyny.

Lot and his family are spared the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; however, his wife disregards the direction to “not look back” upon it and is turned into a pillar of salt. Woman’s curiosity spells disaster again.

A note here about Sodom and Gomorrah: Many have looked to this as a model for what happens when a community becomes too sinful. God will rain down His wrath in annihilation. We’ve even seen some Biblists use this rationale for events like 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina. After all, everyone knows what a pit of sin and debauchery New Orleans has always been; finally, God had had enough and sent modern floodwaters to make a point. Right Jerry Falwell? Give me a break.

“Jerry Falwell took to the airwaves to proclaim that God had allowed the United States to be attacked because… ‘I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen.’ [Pat] Robertson said, "I totally concur,”        (truthorfiction.com)

Columbia Christians for Life asserts that a satellite image of Hurricane Katrina looks like a fetus (dailykos.com) and points out the number of abortion clinics in New Orleans.

Confession #8: I do think sin has its own consequence. All of life is cause and effect. However, I am far from convinced that those effects come as the catastrophic events most known as “Acts of God” (according to our insurance companies). Not addressing the “sins” Falwell outlines above (save that for later), I believe in more of a Karmic system. Individuals sin. Individuals pay the price in sometimes small and invisible and long-term ways. Sweeping, over-generalized condemnation of an entire people is a dangerous hook to hang your policy-making hat on.

Confession #9: I am beginning to see why we needed a New Testament to follow the Old.

Good vs. Evil

Dear God,

How did you begin? How old are you? What is your real name? How did you make dinosaurs? Love, Greg

So wrote my youngest son when only six years old. This speaks to every human’s search, regardless of the answers he/she reaches. Human seeks to know God. Scripture reveals that God is also discovering Human.

Following Noah’s rescue of every animal species and his own family with three sons from God's purging of the earth with a forty-day flood, God pronounces, “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood…” What?! Seriously? This creation of God’s is inherently evil? I do not understand such a statement. Isn’t this what led to Puritan thought, assuming that every basic human “inclination” is evil, sinful, and must be suppressed or purged?  

And in God finding Noah, this righteous man who deserved rescue from the earth's "cleansing," I wonder if Noah was one of God's atypical good creatures, or if Noah was simply more successful in fighting the temptations of evil.

Which came first?  Are we born basically bad and life is a process of  learning to suppress our tendencies?  Or are we born basically good, and the world around us corrupts us, as Romantic thinkers of the 19th century believed?

Have you watched children closely?  They can be selfish and impatient, even cruel.  But oh, there are so many many moments when they reveal the deepest compassion for others, unselfish sacrifice, and the ability to instantaneously "forgive and forget," elevating themselves from those adults around them.  Are these that "image of God" emerging, or are they flukes of behavior?  In this passage, God merely sounds like we parents when we have just HAD IT with our offspring and make sweeping charges of condemnation.  Who can blame Him?

Did God Himself say those words? Or, when God “speaks” is it really our own inner voice? If so, then this could be that mental and emotional place we all visit from time to time telling us we are no good. Otherwise, how could God possibly believe this inherent evil from His own hands?

Confession #7: I am a child of God. I am flawed, but inherently good. I sometimes lose my way, and find it again. I seek to be better.

A "flood" of thoughts

It seems I am more struck, not by what the Bible tells me, but what it doesn’t. Cain killed Abel. Why? Cain and his wife had a son, Enoch. Huh? Where did Cain’s wife come from? We are told from the land of Nod, east of Eden. How was this community populated? I know I am not the first to ask this, but really, how do people account for these things? Anyone?

While we are exploring leaps of logic, Adam’s lineage is outlined for us, and man, I want what they were taking, if it means I live for 500-900 years! On second thought, maybe not. Perhaps at this point in our discussion, we may introduce the word “METAPHOR!” Maybe all these “years” aren’t actually years by our standards, OR, these figures named represent periods of time. For example, an early descendent of Cain’s is noted to have forged tools from bronze and iron. Perhaps these are Bronze and Iron Ages of 3300-1300 B. C.

Each reader of the Bible must make her own decision regarding its literality. But I do believe that when one refers to it as the Word of God, that might not mean the “words of God.” The “word” is the message, the point, the meaning, the intent. Too many of us get our thinking garbled up in the very flawed presentation of this document. And I offer no better example than that of Noah and Lenore. Noah, as in the Ark, and Lenore, as in my neighbor, who belongs to a very fundamental sect which adheres to a strict interpretation of each word of the Bible. Remember her name; I’m sure I’ll come back to her throughout this study.

At a recent get-together in my neighborhood, the ladies stood in the kitchen brewing the usual fluff girl-talk of cooking, fashion, and religion, when Lenore pronounced that anyone who didn’t believe in the letter of the Bible was doomed to damnation.

“You mean,” I politely tried to translate, “that a little baby who dies in infancy, or a native of a remote jungle in Bogota, never exposed to the Bible, will suffer the torments of Hell for all eternity?”

“Well, yes,” she said with all the calm of one saying, “two sugars, please.”

“What about Limbo?” I asked, drawing back on my teaching of Dante’s Inferno.

“Where is THAT in the Bible?”

“Well, I don’t know. I am not a Bible expert.”

“It’s NOT,” she barked with such an air of superiority. Ouch. I’m damned.

“So,” I ventured further, “you believe there really was a snake and an ark and a flood…”

“Yes, because that’s what the Bible tells us.” End of subject.

How, oh how, can our evolved brains cling to notions that a man lived for 900 years, that there was a talking serpent, and one ark held every species of animal?

Confession #6   I wish to be prepared when matters of the Bible arise in conversation. I never again want to stand looking ignorant as someone of her bent says in an accusing tone, “Well, have you read it?”