But Steve Hayes, part of the erstwhile synchroblog that I’ve been a part of for a couple of years, just posted his response to the “10 Questions” that Brian McClaren raises in A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith. I thought I’d give them a shot, both as an exercise in perhaps discerning where I am at with this whole emergent thing, as well as an excuse for posting to this blog again.

More later.

10 Questions

1. What is the overarching story line of the Bible?

There isn’t one.

2. How should the Bible be understood?

“How” should it be understood? Perhaps we need to be asking “whether” it should be understood.  Or even better, whether it “can” be understood.

3. Is God violent?

Yes.

4. Who is Jesus and why is he important?

Jesus is God thumbing his nose at The Way people think things ought to be.

5. What is the Gospel?

The good news that things don’t have to be This Way.

6. What do we do about the Church?

Nothing. We will probably get more done that way.

7. Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it?

Unlikely. Before we can address human sexuality (and I suspect this question is a euphemism for “Can we discuss whether it is ok to be gay and a christian at the same time?”) everyone needs to calm down. We aren’t there yet.

8. Can we find a better way of viewing the future?

Possibly, but it will mean losing a lot of programming.

9. How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other religions?

As human beings? Sheesh.

10. How can we translate our quest into action?

We don’t even know what our quest is. Let’s try figuring it out first. Or not.

Here are the other bloggers who have participated in this discussion:

• The Evening of Kent: Ten questions that might transform something.
• The AnteChurch: Synchroblog: A new kind of Christian?
• Beth Patterson : Lenten reflection 5: I’m probably way off base
• A New Kind of Christianity: My Answers to Ten Questions: Ryan Peter Blogs and stuff

The ladies room at work is evil.

Truly.

(So evil, I call it “The Ego Deflator”.)

You see, no matter how cute I am feeling, one look in the ladies room mirror will strip me of any such delusions.  Every line, every shadow, every broken capillary, every imperfection in my face screams from the mirror, assuring me of my soon-to-be-celebrated 40th birthday. When I look in that mirror, I look pale, sallow, washed out, tired, and old.

To be fair, I am not the mirror’s only target. All the other women at work have the same complaint: We just end up looking SO bad in that mirror.

Now some might say that our irritation is just vanity: We don’t want to accept our imperfections or the fact that we are aging.

(This is probably true.)

Yet this mirror doesn’t tell us the truth about how we look. It can’t, because the lighting in the ladies room is horrid. The bulbs are of the ultraviolet variety, and not only do  they give off a rather unflattering glow, there aren’t enough of them, and the walls of the washroom are a nasty, dingy grey which reflects badly in the light.

So while we ladies do see some very real flaws when we peer into that ladies room mirror, we are also seeing ourselves, not as we really are, but how we look in contaminated light. We see our true flaws, to be sure, but we also see “flaws” that aren’t really there.

(The light can be corrupted. The light can be distorted.)

(And because I am human, I am quick to believe in the distortion.)

The mirror doesn’t tell me how I really look, because all it can do is reflect the light available to it.  It took me awhile to realize this, though. I assumed that light was light. Eventually I paid more attention to my environment, and talked to others that shared it, to realize that the light was contaminated.

(I need to know the light better. When I truly know the light, I can know when it has been corrupted. Then I might be able to only see what is truly there.)

This blog post is part of this month’s Synchroblog on Light and Darkness as Motifs of Spirituality. Check out the other posts below:

Phil Wyman finds Darkness: a Thin Place for the Soul
Adam Gonnerman on being “In Darkness”
Jeff Goins is “Walking in the Light with Jesus”
Ellen Haroutunian finds Holy Darkness
Bethany Stedman thinks Light is Coming
Julie Clawson walks through Darkness and Light
Kathy Escobar will Take a Sliver Anyday
Susan Barnes at …and here’s a photo of one I made earlier
Joe Miller thinks you can Discover Light in Darkness
Beth Patterson talks about Advent: Awaiting the Ancient and the Ever New
Liz Dyer says What the Heck
Sally Coleman muses about Light into Darkness
Steve Hayes with the Lord of the Dark
Josh Jinno with Spiritual Motifs of Darkness and Light
KW Leslie contrasts Darkness versus blackness
Erin Word writes Fire and Sacrifice