The God less travelled

I would love to believe in the God that other people believe in. As Tom Jones sings in his song to his child ‘Counting on You’ saying, “So may there be millions who feel like you do, oh my love.” It would just be easier to have a big group of people around you who continuously affirm and confirm your views. I think that it is harder to constantly have people challenge your view, but perhaps by the end of it all your own faith is stronger. I am not sure. What I am sure about is that I have most often, by fate or by choice ‘taken the road less travelled.’ As to whether it has ‘made all the difference’, I think the jury is still out. Still there are times I look at that other road, the one that everyone takes and wish that I was walking with everyone else. So this is my God less travelled.

I struggle with people feeling they have the right to tell others how to live their lives. No one knows the background of the other. What right have I got to tell someone else how they should live their lives. Now I am happy with laws and athough I break than my fair share of speeding laws, I think that laws as a whole help society work more seamlessly. But if someone chooses to break the law, then they suffer society’s consequences. But I can still understand why that law and any law really was broken and I can feel compassion for both the victim and the criminal.

There are a few things that I refuse to believe. I refuse to believe that God loves some people more than others (which I will address in another ranting post) and I also refuse to believe that God is cruel. If I have a God, it is a loving forgiving one. I mean that truly. I don’t think that you can apply the reasoning of free will and the reasoning that ‘God knows what you are going to do before you do it’. How is that free will? If God knew that I was going to choose and fail or choose incorrectly, then it is just cruel to continue the scenario. A loving God could not be so cruel. Seriously, if you knew that your child was going to choose the wrong path, would you close your eyes and let them take the path that will ruin them?

I feel that I don’t know enough to judge, well, ever. Do I know what is in that person’s past? Do I know what tools they bought with them to the table? Just because they look like they are coping, are they? I can only believe that if there is a God then that God does in fact know, not just what they bring to the table but also Why they have chosen such a path. I think that Thomas Mores’ Utopia should be required reading along with bible studies. Thomas More, or more correctly Saint Thomas More was a man who wrote controversially in Henry VIII’s time. Now that takes a brave man, sainted for taking the Catholic Church’s side against the formation of the Church of England, an act for which he also (fairly typically for HenryVIII), lost his head. But if you read into it, it wasn’t the Church of England he had a problem with; it was the acceptance of the king as Supreme Head of the Church of England.

In Utopia, Thomas More says:

“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.”

Is that not what we are saying God does? That he makes sinners and then punishes us for that. I refuse to believe that God would be so cruel. That he creates someone homosexual, but then punishes them for that. Can you really believe that God would hate his creations as much as you fear them? That he has someone born in the Ghettos and then punishes them for swearing. Can you really believe that God would punish his creations when, by virtue of their birthplace alone, they have not learned any other language? That he has someone born beautiful, but disrespected, so that she chooses to use sex as a way out. Would he really punish her for that, even when she has never been taught self respect and knows no other option? That he would have a child born in a place where life is worth nothing and then punish him for taking a life, that to him was worthless?

When did we get given the right to say that this person deserves compassion but not that one? I think the beginning of grace is the ability to forgive people their choices. The beginning is being able to see that there may be another side to the story, a belief that just because your life is completely blessed, that perhaps there are others out there who were not blessed enough to want to or be able to ‘walk the one more travelled”. Compassion is about knowing that though the path may be clear for you, that for another through no fault of their own the path may be hidden in vines and quicksand. God could not be cruel enough to hide the path, booby trap it and then punish them for not finding the path. I can only hope that your God is not as cruel and judgmental as his representatives on earth are.

Sunday

Today was a better day.  Levi is better and has been active .  we had Ty over for most of the day and they played complex Deltora Quest games.  Levi and I have read the first series at night.  I have been reading two chapters at a time and we got through the eight books fairly quickly.  They have captured his imagination and we have now started the Shadowlands books.  Shadowlands are the three books which together form the sequel.  I am getting Levi the DVD for Christmas but it will be a Santa present and so he won't know about it until then. 

They also rode their bikes round and round the house stopping only for lunch.  I took a photo of them eating outside with the carpet of Jacaranda flowers and then I realized that happily joining them was one of the bantams.  The nice one, the darker brown, is the one that comes up and wants to be petted and keeps you company when hanging out the laundry.  She wasn't scratching in there, she was just being with and she is the sweetest little thing!

After lunch Levi and Ty played poison ball on the trampoline.  It is a complex changed game that they play but fair and fun.  They put two soccer balls on the trampoline and then they start bouncing.  If you get hit by a ball on it's random bounce, you are out.  Then there is a level two and three, but I am afraid the rules at that level are so complex and so rapidly changing, that I am unable to understand them, let alone convey them!  I love watching them play and more than that I love watching them happily make up or change the rules of every game they play!

OK Maybe I Was wrong, Again

Today was a really quiet day and we did, well, nothing!  We rested and we watched TV and chatted on the computer.  Levi went back and forward to the bathroom several times in the day and I am forced to believe that perhaps he did in fact have a tummy ache the other day.  Oh well you live and learn!  I did a bit of yard work in the morning but really not a lot!  Here are some photos of the sweetest boy sleeping.  He still has 'Icy' his dog that has to go to bed with him.  This is close to 12 months now that he has had Icy. 

Where's My Tithe?

This post is alternately titled "Why doesn't your Church tithe to my Charity?"

I am just making a suggestion to the churches out there.  I find the number of million dollar churches out there kind of annoying.  I am not someone who needs a church.  I don't really understand the necessity to dress up in expensive clothes and go indoors on a Sunday morning.  I don't understand how you can stand inside a multi million dollar building and seriously study Matthew (esp 19:23-24).  I have looked up history of tithing and still don't really get the whole thing.

Tithing seems to be from many of the big religions.  I am sure it makes sense, someone has to pay for the church to look after spiritual well being, while you are dealing with the mundane existence implied by physical well being.  The Church in it's turn, built churches to glorify God, fed and looked after multitudes of homophobic priests and looked after the poor and the 'unfit'.  Now much of that has changed.  OK unfortunately not the middle thing.  I think that churches seem less tolerant of homosexuality these days than ever before and I have no idea what they are all so afraid of.  But that is fodder for another rambling post.

Churches still are built.  They still cost a fortune.  Unfortunately, instead of the beautiful, soaring architecture of the past, these buildings seem to just be designed to be one thing, huge.  Instead of a building that can create awe in an atheist and last for centuries, there are now square ugly buildings with expensive sound systems.  So how am I supposed to find God in there?  How is anyone? 

The churches no longer on any really useful scale, look after the poor and the unfit.  These days we have Centrelink to do that.  We have charities that look after disabled people from all walks of like.  We have Lifeline and Goodwill to help look after the poor.  Some of these originated in churches but none of them now are truly supported by a church. 

So all that money that is being given to the churches, where is that going?  It isn't being used for the reasons that it was needed in ancient and medieval times.  Most of the money is about supporting the church itself to become bigger.  I think that it isn't the churches that need to be bigger but the faith of the people inside the churches, but that is my (not very humble) opinion.  I think that the church needs to start reverting to what it used to do.  I think that it needs to start supporting the charities that post Global Financial Crisis are universally struggling.  These charities are picking up your slack! 

So I have a solution.  The churches start tithing to the charities.  You are more likely to make it to your heaven.  The charities are more likely to survive and to continue their good works.  Everybody wins! 

Home Sick Again

Today was a fairly normal day for a while.  It is turning into summer here and the days just get progressively hotter.  The paths are carpeted with Jacaranda flowers and I am only just managing to keep up with cleaning the paths, with the new blower.  I am waging war against cane toads at the moment as well.  They are gross and I am hoping that in my small way I can protect the native Australian fauna.  That and they are gross.  Have I said that before?  All my friends in USA are afraid of the spiders and snakes here but what they don't realise is that it is the cane toad that does my head in.

Today was a normal day until about 1pm.  Then the school rang.  Levi had been complaining about stomach pains all morning and had been in the sick room for the last hour.  Could I please come and pick him up?  So I went to get him.  When I got there he was in the sick room with a sick bag but he was happy to see me and we went and got his stuff from the classroom.  By the time we got to the car he was all perky and happy.  He skipped to the car.  Now I am starting to get cranky.  I assume the he is just mucking not just with my head but also with the school.  In his defense, when we got home, he spent a significant time in the bathroom.  But then he was bouncy and happy all afternoon.  I got crankier.  In his defense, he did say he had a headache and I gave him Motrin.  But he was wanting to play all afternoon.  I made him lie down and be 'sick'.  He wanted to bounce around and interact.  I made him lie down and be 'sick'.

I have no idea if he is sick.  I have no idea what to do now.  Maybe there is something happening at school that I am missing.  I think I need to talk to his teacher.

And now he is wheezing steadily in bed.  Maybe I am just a really bad mother after all.  Oh I wish parenting was more cut and dried sometimes!

Lunch on Wheels

 Levi has started to get a bit more independent with his morning routine.  I have to make his lunch every morning and I have to remember to 'not get too experimental' and stick with vegemite sandwiches.  That said in the last few days, Levi has taken an active interest in this routine.  I took a picture of his helping to make his lunch, not because I thought it was fabulous that he was helping (although I did think that).  I didn't take the photo because I thought that he was cute (although I did).  I took the photo because of what he was wearing on his feet!  Yes he was wearing roller blades as a fashion accessory!

 

The roller blades have become more of a regular choice for footwear in this house than a surprise.  Levi has become more of a wheels boy in the last few weeks.  I actually think it may be a direct result of the 'Term of Rest' that we are having.  with his (and my) life less scheduled it is giving him a chance to try out some new things.  I am so happy watching him.  Levi is now counting the months until we go back and see our friends in USA.  I am not counting the months.  I am counting the weeks!  Next year will be a less stressful one for me.  I have a chunk of time off December this year at the close of school.  I have five weeks off in June and July next year and am hoping to have another couple of weeks off in there as well.  I will have all that holiday.  I think that it may drive my holiday weeks to zero but that is fine by me!  It will be worth it for the time to relax and hang with friends during the year. 

Levi's hair is growing out but it is still quite spiky, which I love.  He is looking less like he has been on chemo and more like this hairstyle was a deliberate choice!  Here he is playing with Play Dough that we made on the weekend.  I had to make some for school, so Levi and I just chunked some off and coloured it purple and he played happily with it for half the day.

I am finding that he is getting more fragile if things don't go exactly his way, but I suspect that it is just that it is the end of the school year and midway through that term.  He is tired. 

Best Kid in the Universe

Last night in the take home pack from school was a letter from Levi's teacher saying that Levi was getting an award at assembly and that I could come if I wanted.  It is actually a good day for this.  As the Melbourne cup was being run today and our office was having a luncheon and then would watch the race, it meant that there was a few minutes in there that I could go and watch.  I met up with his class on the way over and Levi was excited to see me but had no idea at the time why I was there.  These photos are an epic fail but they are the best that an iphone can do over the distance that I was from him and the Principal.  

Levi's award was for 'ignoring distractions and getting his work done' and he was soooo excited. Then just to top off his day, I took him with me afterward, meaning that he didn't have to go to After School Care.  I took him back to work with me and he was wonderful.  He patiently played in the other room as we completed our work.  Of course, after having a whole office of child oriented people all laud his achievement, he was pretty chuffed about the whole event.  I am very proud of him. More importantly, he was proud of himself and I love to see that!