Introduction:
The three crosses on my forehead were going to say, stop thinking, stop talking, start loving. And then the plan changed. Maybe the plan should not have changed.
30 years of adulthood had taught me that in high-stake situations the vast majority of people will sit and talk, sit and think, sit and talk, sit and think till the opportunity has died Stone cold.
Probably this is not true in all cultures but in the United States that I've lived in during my decades, it is very much what the culture fosters.
It is culture of empire, and in empire, the head and the flesh are empowered, and humanity, our capacity for humanity, the capacity of our limbic system, our soul, can't sit and think, can't sit and talk, except as necessary to empower committed courageous action.
And committed courageous action is intolerable to Empire except in very tightly controlled small doses. You may have noticed, they crucified Jesus for his courageous committed action.
Christianity, Constantine's replacement for Jesus way, is entirely about endless talking, they call it worship and prayer, endless thinking, they call it prayer, displacing all courageous committed action. It's very addictive. It's very gratifying, and it is endless death to the humanity, the soul, the limbic system.
Periodically James realizes that he is a pusher of this thinking and talking snake oil. The times that he indulges others in their snake oil addiction, are tremendous growth opportunities for James. But james, you grow at the expense of abusing others? You can't do that man. You can't continue to do that man.
Jesus is a self-development coach and inspiration. By his deeds, and by his words. But he has been repackaged into talk therapy, and discussion groups, so called Bible study. Maybe even comparative religion. That is a complete desecration of what he gave his life for.
James, you have to stop.
My dad was an educator, of music, piano. Mostly rich people, but he would teach anyone if they wanted to learn. And no one, if they didn't. And if they like taking lessons, but they didn't want to learn, they didn't practice many hours in between for every half hour or 1 hour in lesson. And they wouldn't receive the time of my father anymore.
James, what part of that don't you understand?
If you talk to someone, and it does not result in many hours of study of Jesus thousand and 10 teachings, and or many many hours of studying your logs on this site, they don't want to learn james. Not what you suggest is valuable for them anyway. Accept that. Stop abusing them by feeding their Illusions, their snake oil addiction, okay? No, really james. Starting now.
3 related logs:
Log A.
A fellow that approached yesterday, late in the evening, a young man that had a walker. He asked about the vehicle, and then he was interested in understanding why the mission, what it was. And he said in a way that seemed genuine and true, he finds what he understands to be his relationship to Jesus, to be Salvation for him.
He was pinned against a wall with a forklift truck. . . . . And it crushed his spine.
I did not ask him what the prognosis was, whether rehab was even possible. He did not suggest so.
But sometimes in situations like that, rehab is possible. Sometimes the doctors will say, no, you'll never walk again. But the determination of the individual to change themselves, to rehabilitate themselves, creates what seems like miracles.
Jesus by his example and by his words invited us into rehab, to change ourselves. To rehabilitate ourselves from the... crushing of our humanity, done by our cultures, religious and secular.
Who wants to do rehab? I mean, who enjoys the pain, the endless hours, the thousands of hours? The self-discipline, the sweat, the discomfort, the isolation, the loneliness. Almost no one. But some are blessed with a conviction that on the other side of rehab lies a life that is... more than worth the pain and the discomfort and the hours. The hours not doing what they want to do.
Now instead, there are people that self-administer snake oil. Or pursue, or are pursued by snake oil salesmen. Oh, there's an easy way out of this! Here, just take these pills or... Let's talk about it. Let's talk for a while. Talk is fun. Talk is enjoyable. Talk is addictive, gratifying. Let's talk about it. Let's talk every week about it. Come into church and let's talk every week about it. No sweat and toil involved here. You're a mere mortal, by the way. You're not God. You're not Jesus. You can't be held accountable for... ...the painfulvrehab. Exocising Your evil spirits. There's really nothing you can do about them. But if you come and spend an hour here every week, hopefully put something in the collection plate, you'll feel better. And in the next life, you'll be a child of God.
Well, that's not Jesus. And I can't find the place where he said, bolt on the Old Testament like Paul tells you to do. Bolt it back on to my teachings and thereby crucify them. And I can't find where he says... wait for Paul. Sorry, I can't save you. I'm only giving you a little piece. Paul. Paul can save you. The... the apostles can save you. Revelations can save you. The Baptists can save you. The Catholics can save you. Christianity can save you. I can't find that.
What I find is, time and time and time again, Jesus... Rehabbing himself. What else was he doing when he was praying, when he went into the desert? And showing us, leading us, inspiring us, a few of us, to follow his example and rehab ourselves.
Well, James here continues to fall into the trap. He enjoys talking. He has much to share. But excepting the smallest doses to inspire someone into rehab, the gold standard being Jesus' 1010 instructions and example, with maybe a little bit of help from the trials and errors and learnings and understandings of those thousand and ten by Disciple James and maybe some others, anything besides small doses to lead and Inspire is providing snake oil.
In his two, three, four, five times a day encounters with folks when they approach the vehicle, there's very little risk of snake oil pushing. They are 10, 15 minutes, and that's the last time we'll interchange.
But with some correspondents, perhaps, correspondence, particularly online, wow, it goes into hours and then hours and then hours and then hours and then hours.
And what's James doing? Oh, he's enjoying himself. He's growing. He's changing, but he's depriving the correspondent of the growth.
And, damnit, James, this has got to stop. You have got to stop. Enabling this fantasy. You just can't do it anymore, man. You can't do it anymore. You've got to stop.
Enabling people into thinking that it's not a rehab project. Oh, if I just get the right idea, if I just, if we just talk this long enough. No. No kind of rehab like that was going to rehabilitate this young man and his crushed spine.
And no amount of talking is going to rehabilitate our crushed humanity.
Log B processing. Check back later today.
James, I don't have time to read your website. What you say there isn't anything new anyway. So please find the time to explain your thoughts to me which aren't new, that already been said by others but please take your time to talk me through it.
My few correspondence on the subject that obsesses me, humanity, as lived and exemplified and instructed by the man Jesus in the gospels, my few correspondents have helped me grow immeasurably.
Including just now in the realization I just had. What you've said isn't new James, it's already been said elsewhere. I don't have time to read your website, to study it, to try to understand it, but I want you to spend a lot of time and energy talking to me about it.
So, I have nothing new to say. It isn't worth the time of the correspondent to study the website. But it is their interest to have us in hours and hours of dialogue. Someone needs to help me connect these dots because I can't. Rather, I can't connect them to any important objective other than talking because talking is stimulating.
Log C: Stop using and abusing Jesus.
For 2,000 years, we've wanted to talk about Jesus in our own terms, rather than doing what he said and showed, which was taking ourselves into an arduous, lifelong, intensive, strenuous, exhausting, wonderful, joyful rehab process for our Holy Spirit, our humanity, our limbic system.
Talking is ever so much easier. It's such a cheap substitute, and we talk ourselves to death.
And James has continued to enable that too often, too easily, maybe most of the time, with promising correspondents.
Feeding an addiction rather than helping, to break an addiction and form a new attachment to the joy of exercising and growing humanity, starting with oneself.
And note to James here, man, this has got to stop.
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