Belief
Believe
- John Mayer
Is there anyone who
Ever remembers changing their mind from
The paint on a sign?
Is there anyone who really recalls
Ever breaking rank at all
For something someone yelled real loud one time
Everyone believes
In how they think it ought to be
Everyone believes
And they’re not going easily
Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword
Like punching under water
You never can hit who you’re trying for
Some need the exhibition
And some have to know they tried
It’s the chemical weapon
For the war that’s raging on inside
Everyone believes
From emptiness to everything
Everyone believes
And no one’s going quietly
We’re never gonna win the world
We’re never gonna stop the war
We’re never gonna beat this
If belief is what we’re fighting for
What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand
Belief can
Belief can
What puts the folded flag inside his mother’s hand
Belief can
Belief can
Questions for introspection…
What do think about this song? Is it true? Why?
Do you ever remember changing your stand on some issue because someone yelled real loud in a street rally? What was the issue about? And what made you change your mind?
Is it alright for everyone to believe in what they want to believe? What if that belief tells them to bomb Bangalore and Ahmadabad? What if belief puts a hundred thousand children in the sand?
Can belief be a beautiful mirror? If yes/no how?
What do you think about the line that belief ‘makes for the heaviest sword’? How has it been made into a heavy sword?
Can you imagine a world with no belief? What will that world look like? Will that ‘no belief’ in something or nothing be another belief?
What do you believe in (something or nothing) and why do you believe it?
I walk beside you
We live in a world in which all goodness and its aberrations thrive. We all have stories – our stories – My Story! Our eyes tell our stories – some are happy, while some mask intense hurt behind the smile they wear. One story comes to my mind that most of us are probably familiar with: a jealous boyfriend kills a man whom his girlfriend is having an affair with. The boyfriend suspects his girlfriend’s unfaithfulness and travels quite a distance to find, like he had imagined, the man in his girlfriend’s bed – naked! A fight breaks out – the boyfriend using his superior skills in combat kills the man. The two then hack the man’s body into pieces, dispose it off in a forest, come back home and have sex – how vile!
Maybe our stories are not as bad or as crude as this one, but we all have our stories. We all have, at some point, felt lonely and bored. In search of the ultimate relationship, we have tried relationship after relationship, giving ourselves away completely to each other – even before we are married. Some of us have tried many relationships and have come out sore like Marissa in The OC; she seemed to have tried everything and yet she was dejected and gloomy. I’ve come across people who have sworn never to get into another relationship and as quickly as they have said it, they have gone back on their word, only to make the same mistakes again and again and again! In search of the ultimate kick, some of us have tried drugs. I came across a girl who said she had come to a point where she hated it but she could not live without it. She said she lived in perpetual fear and would go into filthy toilets, strewn with human waste that had not been cleaned for weeks and there inject her veins and lie in that sty for hours – all along feeling disgusted!
Some of us come up with excuses: “there is so much misery in the world – injustice, poverty, hatred – people do not seem to get what they deserve!” For certain futility abounds and things don’t seem to make sense! But according to Chesterton: “meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain but from being weary of pleasure”. I guess it’s the same feeling with any addiction: pornography, success or relationships. We come out of these feeling disgusted about ourselves. Can we relate with this? Pleasure after pleasure after pleasure – without satisfaction! There is a sense of angst in us which we long to shake off, but we struggle and wallow in it. Our hearts are tired of this miserable trash. But all along this drama – Our drama – “My Story” – there has been one person constantly walking with us – beside us. At every dead end of our ‘life events’ we have bumped into Him – but we have probably chosen to ignore him and look the other way, or have stared right through Him, or have failed to see Him there at all! Yet he continues to choose to walk beside us.
I Walk Beside You
I don’t know who Dream Theatre is referring to when they sing ‘I walk beside you’ – I could not help but think that the only person capable and worthy of fitting the bill was Jesus. There is a similar struggle described in the Psalms where the writer seems dissatisfied for reasons other than those we have mentioned. Nonetheless, the solution is the same. In Ps. 73:17 he says: “and then I went into the sanctuary of God.” – and then everything made sense. Where have you been going to find answers; maybe to a relationship or to drugs or to sex or to our virtual communities – chatting (hidden behind a happy virtual identity)? Some of us have probably lost our way – born and brought up in Christian homes, we rebel and swim against the tide – the very tide that will now take us back home. We have all been created for relationship with God. Like Adam rebelled, we too rebel and try to replace this God centered relationship with everything we think might make us happy.
The famed mathematician Pascal said, “We all have a God shaped vacuum” – and it will never be filled with any relationship, sex, drugs or alcohol. What does he mean when he says this? I am sure we all have, at some point, attempted to put a jigsaw puzzle together. Now if a missing piece was in the shape of a dove, no matter how hard you try to force it, the shape of a monkey or a donkey will not fill this gap – the picture will not be complete and beautiful. The puzzle may be partially done but will never be wholly complete. Similarly, this God shaped vacuum cannot be filled with an alternative – God and Only God is big enough to fill it! Then our lives are complete and beautiful.
When we come into the sanctuary of God – the church – our hearts will rest. If we take this one step further, as much as we long to find rest in queer places – in the fleeting pleasures of this world, God longs to ‘pitch his tent’ in us – to make his home in us – to bring heaven into our hearts! At that moment we all become little sanctuaries, meeting and making friends with other little sanctuaries – thus becoming a real community – The Church/The Sanctuary. Step into the sanctuary and He will put all your broken dreams back together as you learn to put your dreams in the right place. As Saint Augustine says, ‘our hearts will never rest until they rest in God’ and in His Christ.
Bobby Thejus
Living on a prayer
Lyrics by Bon Jovi Played by Sungha Jung
Once upon a time
Not so long ago
Tommy used to work on the docks
Unions been on strike
Hes down on his luck…its tough, so tough
Gina works the diner all day
Working for her man, she brings home her pay
For love – for love
She says weve got to hold on to what weve got
cause it doesnt make a difference
If we make it or not
Weve got each other and thats a lot
For love – well give it a shot
Chorus:
Whooah, were half way there
Livin on a prayer
Take my hand and well make it – I swear
Livin on a prayer
Tommys got his six string in hock
Now hes holding in what he used
To make it talk – so tough, its tough
Gina dreams of running away
When she cries in the night
Tommy whispers baby its okay, someday
Weve got to hold on to what weve got
cause it doesnt make a difference
If we make it or not
Weve got each other and thats a lot
For love – well give it a shot
Chorus
Weve got to hold on ready or not
You live for the fight when its all that youve got
Words
There is a struggle to speak words truthfully. When we speak we reveal ourselves to another. We open an area of ourselves to another – we allow them to come in. We give away something of ourselves to them. In other words we make ourselves vulnerable. And now they have something of ours with them. Something very dear and personal is precariously in hands of another person. Jesus is one example of the word becoming life and making himself vulnerable; that vulnerability was indeed exploited (Luke 20:20-26 & 23:2-5). I wonder if pilot and Herod ever realized who their victim was. It was the classic case, C.S. Lewis wrote about, of the ant wondering what it was to make of the elephant, standing in front of it, not realizing that its very existence is in jeopardy. Sometimes, not very uncommonly, we end up getting exploited.
While at the same time there are moments when we ought to have spoken up and we chose not to. We become something other than what we are because we don’t speak when we ought to have (or we didn’t verbalise our thoughts at the right moment). We choose to live in denial. We are living in times when the difference between compromise and sacrifice / submissiveness has been blurred. To sacrifice and to be submissive is a virtue but to compromise is a value. A value can exist without a centre so its possibilities are limited: very individualistic and selfish. But virtue, stems from a centre (God) and the possibilities are many – other centered and selfless. In compromise there is no point of reference – compromise serves well for convenience – it is not a lasting principle. We can compromise on things that are of great importance when it appears to be convenient. For instance some lover can compromise on his/her Christian beliefs and principles for the sake of the relationship. But the virtue of sacrifice will not permit that. S/he will not (cannot) sacrifice his/her principle for the sake of the relationship. Someone can misguidedly compromise on the Truth and hold onto goodness and beauty. But you cannot sacrifice Truth for the sake of goodness and beauty. You can wrongly compromise on justice and hold onto equality and liberty. But you cannot sacrifice justice for the sake of equality and liberty. All for one, one for all!
The psalmist in Psalm 32:1-5 was in a very vulnerable situation. David had done something and he realized that it was eating him up from the inside. He realized that his God desired truth in his innermost beings (Psalm 51:6). So he decided to make himself vulnerable to God. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said “You can have power over people as long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power.” I guess that’s why they call God powerful. He has the power to exploit our vulnerability yet through Him it becomes our strength (2 Corinthians 12:9). When we make ourselves vulnerable to Christ the result is very productive. Peter made himself vulnerable ( John 13: 36-38 ) and yet he was not forgotten (Mark 16: 7; Mat 16:16-19; John 21:15-19).
Bobby Thejus
Right to be Wrong
“Right To Be Wrong” – Joss Stone
I’ve got a right to be wrong
My mistakes will make me strong
I’m stepping out into the great unknown
I’m feeling wings though I’ve never flown
I’ve got a mind of my own
I’m flesh and blood to the bone
I’m not made of stone
Got a right to be wrong
So just leave me alone
I’ve got a right to be wrong
I’ve been held down too long
I’ve got to break free
So I can finally breathe
I’ve got a right to be wrong
Got to sing my own song
I might be singing out of key
But it sure feels good to me
Got a right to be wrong
So just leave me alone
You’re entitled to your opinion
But it’s really my decision
I can’t turn back I’m on a mission
If you care don’t you dare blur my vision
Let me be all that I can be
Don’t smother me with negativity
Whatever’s out there waiting for me
I’m going to face it willingly
I’ve got a right to be wrong
My mistakes will make me strong
I’m stepping out into the great unknown
I’m feeling wings though I’ve never flown
I’ve got a mind of my own
Flesh and blood to the bone
See, I’m not made of stone
I’ve got a right to be wrong
So just leave me alone
I’ve got a right to be wrong
I’ve been held down to long
I’ve got to break free
So I can finally breathe
I’ve got a right to be wrong
Got to sing my own song
I might be singing out of key
But it sure feels good to me
I’ve got a right to be wrong
So just leave me alone
- What do you think about this song?
- How does it feel to be free? What is freedom?
- In which areas of your life will you like to have the right to be wrong?
- What are some of the situations and circumstances we feel ’held down’?
- If everyone is entitled to his/her opinion what are we to make of a rapists’ opinon of a little girl?
- Can we imagine a world where people live only for themselves? What will that world look like?
- In that world if everyone had the right to be wrong, what would that world look like?
- To what extent can we learn from our mistakes? What if it is too late to learn from our mistakes? Is it easier to breathe when we are ‘free’ from our mistakes or when we are facing the consequences of our mistakes?
- Wounds from a friend may be accepted as well meant, but the greetings of an enemy one prays against.’ What do you think about this proverb?
- How open are you to a friends loving correction? Are you ‘friend enough’ not to leave somebody alone?
- Do right and wrong mean the same? Can a wrong action actually be the right thing to do?
Who Am I?
Who am I?
Who are we? Here today gone tomorrow! Frail! Fragile! Insignificant in the cosmic scale of things!
The roles today have shifted. We question God with questions He ought to have asked us. C.S. Lewis wrote about an ant wondering what it was to make of the elephant, standing in front of it, not realizing that its very existence is in jeopardy.
The Israelites were one people who had seen so much of God’s power manifested on a daily basis for forty years and yet on many occasions they chose to do as they pleased. And every time they would face the consequences of their sin they would call on God and he would graciously bail them out. We are no better today. who are we that we can call on this God who flung the universe into space and created us from the dust? Who are we that he yet chooses to call us his friends & his family?
The cross is a symbol that shows us who we are and what God did for us. In this great act of kindness I have come to believe how significant we are. And this should determine how I treat others. For what is dignity when we look at the cross? What is arrogance? What is success? What is position? What is pride? What is self? What is image? Of what use is all of this when compared to the cross? And yet we run after and crave for these!
So who are we that he would recognize our names? Who are we that he would choose to have conversations with us; speaking to us in our devotions and encouraging us gently ? Who are we that he is willing to share his plans with us? Who are we that he would love us in spite of our arrogant faults? Who are we?
Who am I?
POW – Prisoner of Words
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Alicia Keys- POW I’m a prisoner I am a P.O.W. It’d be easier if you put me in jail A prisoner of age dying to be young I’m a prisoner |
Discussion Question
- In what circumstance or situations have you regretted or have been proud that you have expressed yourself? How did you feel? How did others react?
- Do you feel like a puppet when you speak what others want or expect you to say?
- For what reasons have you stayed silent or spoken up? Or were you MIA (Missing in Action) – reticent?
- Is there a difference in being a prisoner of compassion and a prisoner of compromise? If yes what is the difference? If no, why is there no difference?
- Have you been in a situation in which you were so lonely that you couldn’t speak to anyone? Has that resulted in feeling frustrated and caged?
- What are the arenas in which you can be open about your thoughts? Are you willing to make yourself vulnerable? How has it helped?
