daily life as life goes on . . .

The Party Line is not dead.

Not the political party line – which many be finding itself on hard times.  What with extremist leaders and moderate followers.

No, the party line I’m talking about is the old fashioned phone line, where conversation could be had with a multitude of people at one time.  Before three way calling or teleconferencing. 

Yesterday I sat at a party.  We had a circle of around 10 people, with four leading the way in conversation.  They were all within about 5 years of each other, had been school, church and family chums.  Their stories were hilarious, scattered with inside jokes.

They were fun, without cell phones to interrupt.  Us on the periphery found out lots about those on the inner circle.  Things that helped us see what companionship and community is all about.  Institutions do well to heed the micro functioning of those who guard our heritage. 

Enjoy those times where you are not the center of conversation, nor are you attempting to propel the conversation.  You will find a global wealth of life that so easily escapes us.

I’m a baby boomer.  We were the generation who were going to be free from all the constraints of life.  We would have free sex, free love, free from authority.  Life was to be a party!  Woodstock be praised.

We are now into our retirement years, or coming close. 

I’m not so excited about where we ended up.  Our culture has a desirous supreme leader who understands entertainment only too well.  And the church???

Our worship services are about entertainment – and too often about ourselves.  Our children are non-attenders of spiritual gatherings. 

The idea was to entertain to attract.  The idea was excellence in the entertainment to rival the culture’s best.  The idea was that felt needs would attract people. 

And I feel like we won a community and lost a vision.  Perhaps we are perishing – from entertainment, felt needs, and selfishness.

Where is God? 

I recently took one of those internet tests to determine my OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) quotient.  The test determined ability to see perspective, color saturation and general misalignment in three “equal” images.  I scored 100%.

I then went on to another test which determined my ability to see a letter hidden behind various strings of colour.  This one was much easier.  I again scored !00%.   I was told I had a 167 IQ – in the top 1% of the world.

So I’m brilliantly obsessive?  Or should that be compulsively intelligent?

And my OCD immediately kicked into gear!

I began to question whether the originators of these test had researched with due diligence (ie. – were obsessive compulsive) and were broad ranging in their research (ie. – were smart enough) to have truly provided an unbiased test.

Ah, such is the true burden of an OCD person!!

Our church has a fairly free form type of service order.  The general idea is laid out, the songs listed and perhaps a few special events.  We seldom have phrases or prayers recited weekly.

Perhaps we are the worst for this omission?

I have attended a church lately where they have a Christ candle.  This reminds us that God is with us during the service.  And the church attenders can say this phrase off by heart. 

Another phrase is “Lord, have mercy.”

At first I thought this was blasphemous.  My own background teaches that God has brought us mercy in Jesus.  As one phrase states, “Mercy kissed justice.”  And love was fulfilled – God has forgiven us and we are his children.

Until I realized that day-by-day the unfolding of life requires “existential” mercy.  We pray, not perfunctorily or out of only duty.  We pray because God hears and answers.  We pray because we recognize that, given our current circumstances, our stupidity would merit the consequence of punishment. 

And we want mercy.  So we pray for mercy.

A phrase to remember – “Love, have mercy.”