Daily pages of reflection...for knowledge, understanding, to wisdom
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

Cause Of Discontent

January 10, 2018
Year 3, Day 10 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

A major factor in the cultivation of an effective and happy life is to have a firm understanding of the concept of elements and compounds, and the appropriateness of applying understandings of that concept in daily living.  The perception is clear in a marriage.  The element is the individual person: the compound is two or more persons in relationship.  This man and this woman marry.  What they had separately is not what they have now.  Oxygen has joined hydrogen and the result is water.  The context becomes even more complicated when separate compounds are brought together, so we are faced with a larger concern to know how to manage the differences.  The water compound (in this instance the family) meets… Read more

Complexity and Symbols

January 9, 2018
Year 3, Day 9 | No Comments
Section of Noli me Tangere by Hans Holbein the Younger

Scholars in the field of rhetoric deal with more than the mechanics of language.  The state university from which I earned a doctoral degree has placed the field of oral rhetoric into the Philosophy Department.  Once dominant as the context of education, even for the eminent Augustine in the late fourth century, it may now be virtually lost in the massive educational system and agendas.  The loss may be tragic for persons and society in understanding and balance for decision making, unless there is some adequate substitute found. The problem is current and illustrated in the impasses found in national and state legislatures where laws are supposed to be made on evidence and meaning for the good of society.  Stall… Read more

The Problem Of Opposites

January 8, 2018
Year 3, Day 8 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

There is little doubt that a basic problem for the church relates to the contradictions found in Christian doctrine, teachings, practices, persuasions, and virtually any other factor related to faith and practice in the culture of Christian faith context.  About the only factor that emerges with some repetition is the person of Christ, but even that is compounded with contradictions – such as he was a remarkable human being but not divine, to the affirmation of his Deity.  The most accepted is that he bore both his Deity and his humanity in one person.  He was unique in this sense, and the word unique is used by the French in translating the word the English translates only begotten in John… Read more

Competition

January 7, 2018
Year 3, Day 7 | No Comments
Section of The Descent from the Cross, Rogier van der Weyden, c. 1435

We return, on this date, to one of my favorite contextual analogies of spiritual life – the concept of a life race, followed entirely in self-competition – self-evaluation guided and coached by the life of Jesus Christ. He is the model of the life race, proven winner in his triumph of God and righteousness over death, as demonstrated in his resurrection and ascension.  For me the reality of the Pauline observation to the Corinthians became even more intensified in seeing Gil Dodds win the world indoor mile record in Chicago in the 1940s.  I knew Dodds, who many times used the concept of racing and self-motivation in Christ to teach the Christian concept of winning.  He coached us in college… Read more

Gospel In Jesus’ Name

January 6, 2018
Year 3, Day 6 | No Comments
Section of The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci

If Scripture is true in its story of the redemption of human beings in the provision of God through Jesus Christ, and its application to the human experience, it becomes a matter of primary importance that a person determine to follow that challenge for faith.  There is no middle ground in that there is offered no middle ground.  Christianity demands a verdict.  In this, God appears to make clear that his own freedom for decision and action is a part of the image of God given to us.  That freedom is illustrated in many ways in the context of mankind, but none as formidable and important as the decision to limit one’s self to the plan of God that changes… Read more

Work And Working

January 5, 2018
Year 3, Day 5 | No Comments
Section of Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michaelangelo, 1508-1512

Here we divide work from labor, even if the two are used as common synonyms for each other in the minds of most persons.  Work appears to have spiritual dignity in it that enhances human meaning.  Labor often implies pain as when a person becomes physically weary in labor – to the point of pain.  The mother labors to bring forth the child, so she is in pain.  Even God acknowledges her pain, hopefully forgotten when she sees what the labor has wrought in the birth of a child.  Labor invites conflict on occasion so is approached differently than work.  Labor is something that is bought by an employer, work is something that is given by the employee.  There is… Read more

Integration

January 4, 2018
Year 3, Day 4 | No Comments
Section of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, Benedetto Luti, 1715-20

The following is vital, or so it seems to me, relative to learning.  Through this perception I have arrived at an understanding of the paradoxes of learning, and the application of whatever becomes a part of the information that I gain.  A base for it all is to cultivate an integrated life in the context of natural and supernatural information.  I rest the natural in what I gain from nature, best communicated in a scientific procedure that seeks facts and makes conclusions based on sound information.  I rest the supernatural in what I gain from revelation which, in faith, is best found in Scripture.  Scripture includes information about the divine, which also includes society and resources far more extensive than… Read more

Ensue

January 3, 2018
Year 3, Day 3 | No Comments
Section of Adoration of the Magi, artist unknown

A part of personal and formal education should deal with words (concepts) that deal with students’ and societies’ contexts – past, present and future.  These have their subdivisions so to gain effective insights into how life should be lived, what expectations should be incorporated, and the course we ought to take in working through life to ending.  If the most treasured thoughts of dying persons in their final hours expressing lucid thoughts about life are applicable to meaning for others, we have reason to believe a great mass of the population is missing the better part, or possess it in greater dilution than it ought to be. As noted for this date a year ago, we should attend to: Viktor… Read more

Learning

January 2, 2018
Year 3, Day 2 | No Comments
Section of The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602

There are a number of concepts about God that are inconvenient for earth persons.  They are not insurmountable problems for human beings unless they are made so.  They are helpful in that, knowing them we can find adaptation and means for coping with any spiritual affiliation while we are also occupied in an earth environment with its conflicts related to the acts and perceptions of mankind and God.  Some of the characteristics of God that trouble general societies include: holiness (so to be at odds with some human beliefs and conducts); time periods (so to determine how to function within the creation of time as nature’s periods); and, change (so to balance inevitable concepts of change practiced by mankind; and,… Read more

Education And Training

January 1, 2018
Year 3, Day 1 | No Comments
Section of The Crucifixion, Pedro Orrente, ca. 1625–30

It was rather easy for me to decide what the theme for the first day of the year ought to be – the value of wisdom (natural/spiritual) as a primary objective of a person’s life to maturity.  The earlier it is included in the nurture of a life, the better it is for that person, and those with whom he/she has to do.  Newspapers, magazines, or other serious news outlets should have a department for the communication of news about wisdom.  The general approach ought to be a current daily story of the meaning and application of wisdom for the good and truth of a person, a family, a community, a nation – the world.  Instead the public is informed… Read more

← Newer posts
Older posts →