Monthly Archives: December 2017

Here is my Christmas message – found in our local social media (Kinderlsey Social.ca).

50 years hence

I’m working with a group of young adults. We’re preparing a paper for a research conference at Ambrose University. The theme is “The World After Tomorrow”, a perfect opportunity to look ahead fifty years. I may not be on this planet, but these young adults will be. They’ll be into retirement, if there is such a thing in 50 years, and looking back on past happenings.

For now? We live in “carpe diem” (seize the day). We fight for food, and pleasure, and good working conditions. We abhor sexual slavery and harassment, conflict of interests and unfair advantages.

50 years from now? On the optimistic side, our region could become the paradise of the future. Warming trends in climate could create an ideal atmosphere for the comfortable. We could become hospitality-central, friendly and sociable, open to others and safe for habitation.

But then, there are predictions of cynicism. Oil prices change, housing prices fluctuate, the economy perches on a precarious precipice. The farm of today may be replaced by a corporation of slice and dice efficiency, with little of the look of today’s farm. Government may be ruled by algorithms – the highest good for the greatest number.

How do we break from a senseless trap of helplessness and hopelessness?

We break away! From those whose destructive condition of life seeps into ours. We break away! From a political stance that is more pandering to others than for the good of the people. We break away! From our own self-sufficiency, and turn to others and to God for support.

God didn’t just happen to slip into this equation on a whim. There is wisdom in remembering with appreciation your creator. There is wisdom in listening attentively to your maker. There is wisdom in obeying your creator’s scheme for this life.

Which is why Christmas reverses our onward plunge to despair. In the story of Christmas there is a creator, a counselor, a governor, a person who erases the bad and restores the good.

Maybe that’s a good enough reason to keep Christmas recycling each year. The echoes continue to reverberate when you hear that Jesus is vitally concerned with you – your current condition, and with your condition fifty years from now!

Jesus’ story begins as a baby and ends with . . . well the story doesn’t really end. In the story of Christmas, Jesus is still watching, protecting, inviting, initiating, creating, comforting, rejuvenating, laughing, strengthening, surprising, upsetting the bad and restoring the good, bringing peace and joy.

I was reading about the industrial revolution.  In the same time period there was the commercial revolution.  And the French revolution was moving into full swing.

In the 1960’s there were songs about revolutions.  Sexual revolution, then the digital revolution, the communist revolution reversed.

In all, we just love revolutions.

We tend to characterize revolutions as pendulum swings.  In order to move on to the next second of time in history, the pendulum swings to the opposite side.

Art has often proclaimed the next revolution.  Art tends to be a precursor.  Art can also be a reflection of society.  The romantic period portrayed individualism, the heroic and the idealized – emotion ruled!  The period of realism in art, falling hard upon the romantic period, looked and proclaimed – we are people of the ordinary life, with ordinary tastes and realistic social expectations.

We are in that transition period.  A Trump presidency, while giving a billionaire the right to rule for the ordinary people, does carry the sense of encouraging tax breaks, seeking conservative morals and listening to the ordinary people.

How is the art world doing?  Are you seeing a change in art that is being produced?  Or will art follow society’s current revolution this time around?

As I was waking – or perhaps as I was sleeping . . . a phrase kept ringing in my head.  . . “Oh, words with heavenly comfort fraught” – a phrase from the song, He Leadeth Me.

Now, I’m not aware that we use the word fraught much – in conversation or in literature.  I have always had this scary sense about the word.  Something is fraught with danger – a heightened sense of danger.

So why are the words – “He leadeth me” – so exceptionally dangerous?  Especially since these words are said to be a blessed thought.

Maybe this is a recognition that roses have thorns or wood has slivers.  Both of these carry beauty that attracts the eye.  Both can adorn a portrait of life that is winsome.  And both can sting!

If we use heaven to attract others, we had better include suffering and shame and discomfort and gloom and trouble.   All can be found in our approach landing to the bliss we call heaven!!

I’ve been listening a bit to Kevin Kelly, a founder of Wired Magazine.  In 1979 he a conversion experience to Christianity.  Most of us who claim to be Christian would find him always on the edge of boundaries we have set.

So, here is a thought that relates to technology.  Many think that technology has benefitted our lives while providing a dark side. 

Kelly thinks that the giftedness of Christians (their talents) are left wanting.  The greater gift of new technology can create a way in which they can more fully express themselves as Christians.

Here is a quote taken from an interview with Christianity Today-  web only version in 2002:

There are people born today that will never really be able to develop their full set of talents God has given them because technology does not exist yet. We have a moral obligation to increase the amount of technology in the world.