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The Heartbeat of the Miracle (The Book of Mysteries – Day 21)

Life is a Miracle

Each heartbeat that we have is a miracle.  The fact that we are alive is a miracle.  No matter what we are doing, our heart beats on and supports us.  Whether we are doing good or evil, our heart beats on.

This heartbeat is the spirit of God’s gift to us…Life.  So, what are we to do with all these daily gifts?

First, we need to recognize that our life is fleeting and a gift.  It is amazing that we exist and that we can think about the fact that we exist.  At this point in time I am reading a book on Evolution.  While the premise of the book is to support the evolution of species, it does not shy from the sheer magnitude of the “miracle” that life happened.  So, even if you suppose that we came from micro-organisms in the primordial sludge, the miracle is still there.  The CHANCE of this happening is as near to nothing as it can get!

Second, we need to be thankful for the day we have been given in the day itself.  Every day I thank God for another day to breath, enjoy the Earth, and go out and (hopefully) fulfill God’s will for me (and fail), yet he still gives me another day!

The Force

Star Wars is just a movie (not really, at least not for me!)  But this Force thing is something to consider.  Obi Wan said the Force is an “energy field created by all living things.  It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the universe together.”

There is a “Force” in our heartbeat.  We not only exist, we WORK to exist.  Our heart and other aspects of our autonomous systems work continually to keep us going.  Unlike other “machines” in the natural world, there is a striving that is in life.

When we read about the search for extraterrestrial life, we are made aware of scientists searching for minute traces of life (or that life existed) on other worlds (such as Mars…and certainly beyond.)  We consider life as it may exist on other planets in small pockets of that world where the conditions for life may be present enough for it to arise.

Wow, compare this to Earth!  No matter where we go, life is in our face!  Our planet does not only HAVE life on it, it has it abundantly!  We find life in the hottest geysers and within frozen ice.   Life is literally everywhere!  If intelligent beings were looking for life in our neck of the woods, it would be easy to find, we are sending out sirens and blue and red lights saying “LIFE IS HERE!”

This is what may make our Earth so unique in the universe.  While Carl Sagan may have proposed that there should be millions of habitable planets…we seem to be the only one so far.  So, for the time being, we are quite a miracle, and what a miracle all this is.

Don’t waste it

If our every day is such a miracle, how can we possibly waste it so much.  I feel this sometimes…a lot of wasted days.  I have less days in front of me than behind me (probably), so each day is that much more important.  What will I do today to make it worthy of the miracle that it exists at all?  What will I do with this absolutely amazing gift of another day?  Isn’t this the purpose of our existence?

The Mission: Live this day in the miracle of your existence. Take account of every heartbeat and make your moments worth of each one.

Mark K.

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Productive

Book Chapter

So, today I finally got around to finishing the book chapter I have been working on for the Society for the Teaching of Psychology book on how technology has impacted teaching and learning.

To tell the truth, I’m pretty disappointed in myself.  I put this off for too long and the writing is weak.  Not fun.  I seemed to be running into dead ends.  It ended up being a submission to potentially be the prelude or introduction to the book…we’ll see.

If I’m real ambitious tomorrow I think I will make an attempt to complete another chapter and submit that.  This one would be on the other idea that I submitted to these folks; the social nature of online learning.  Essentially a review, and update, of my dissertation topic.

Church

Church was good today…good music from the youth group musicians.  The service got out early and the men stayed behind.  The discussion focused on two areas…there is a service group of men that is available to do odd jobs and help out people in the church and in the community.  This is very similar to the ideas that I had about Christworx years ago.

As soon as I get over my need to take charge of this thing, I’ll likely join it!  🙂

The other area of focus was the initiative to have us men review Proverbs with our kids (and spouse).  One Proverb per week.  Select a line in it and reflect on it with each other.  I want to do this but it will need to be digital in some way so I can rope in both Hannah and Mara (possibly Joey and Kurt, but I’m not sure.)

Grading

Had a very good grading day today!  Made a list and I’m checking them off.  That feels good and I am getting re-energized.

Mara’s Van

Mara and Adam have been here for several days and it is so cool to see the transformation of her van into her “camper”.  They make a good team.  It has also been nice to be a little part of the idea generation/problem solving team…and to do a bit of work on it!

Just doing the little bit of work on the van makes me think, with patience, I could probably do the work to fix up my Man Room.  Considering the cost, it is probably going to be the only way.

We’ll see.

All in all a very good day.

Mark K.

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A “strong day…

A STONG DAY AND A SOLAR ECLISPE

NOTE: This was an old post that I had not updated on the day of the Solar Eclipse.  The date of this note is actually August 21, 2017

———-

Today I had what I would call a “strong” day.

It started out with my participation in a meeting with a student who was in a touch situation.  Details are withheld from this document!  I was a good emotional support and helped in bringing about a good solution.

I then met with Kevin Casey and we reviewed my method for managing course content through www.kvccdocs.com

That was a cool experience.

I got to go through the role of advocate representing a Faculty in a negotiation of an accommodation…that was cool.

And TODAY, America experienced a full solar eclipse…I got to borrow some glasses and was able to see it!  Very cool.

Here is the route that the eclipse took across the US.

We in Maine did not get a full eclipse but it was cool none-the-less.  And I got to see it though a set of special glasses, so I could look right up at the sun.

Nice.

Mark K.

 

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The Footstool World (The Book of Mysteries – Day 20)

LIVING ON A FOOTSTOOL

Bible readers are likely to have heard the phrase (from God) that “Heaven is my throne, and the Earth is my footstool.”

The Hebrew word Kavode denotes both “weight” and “glory”…so Heaven is where the weight and glory of God is (hence the throne)…so what is the footstool?

When we put up our feet to relax, we use a footstool.  Our weight still rests on the chair we are sitting on but our feet are up.  The footstool does not hold our weight (and glory) up at all…it simply holds our feet up.  So, we need to approach the Earth in this way.  Despite it’s beauty, the Earth is merely a footstool.  The problem are footstool problems, the joys are footstool joys, the issues are footstool issues.

By understanding that the Earth, and by this, all our experiences within it, are at the level of a footstool, we understand their place in our lives.

It is not that we are to be trivial about the experiences in our world.  Indeed, we are called upon to act in this world, even though we are not OF this world.  We need to respond to others, be involved in solving the issues and problems around us, etc.  But, our rest (just as we see God resting his feet on the footstool) comes from our knowledge that the Earth is merely a footstool.  It pales to the glory that is heaven, which supports the weight and glory of God.

So, when we are down and pressed by the miseries of the world, we need to keep this in perspective.   There is a larger and much more important reality than the one we experience here on Earth.

For me, this highlights the need I have to keep perspective when it comes to the challenges I face…personally and professionally.  I have a tendency to get caught up on the conflicts and frustrations.  As a child of God, I can avail myself to this perception that “all this shall pass”.  As I said, it does not cause me to disengage, but to do so with a different attitude, with a different need for outcomes (potentially for very little need for outcomes, or at least outcomes of my own choosing.)

PRACTICE

The Mission outlined today speaks to PRACTICE.  A means to “act accordingly”.  In my original perspective on this within the PRACTICE acronym, this was supposed to denote that we should act in a way that identifies as Christians and Children of God.  From the “footstool perspective” we should also (not instead of) act according to our knowledge that the Glory of God does not rest on this Earth, we are the footstool  The issues and challenges are not the focus and purpose of our being, but to glorify God, even though our efforts are manifest on a footstool.

WALKING ON THE EARTH

Another way of interpreting the footstool Earth is to think of the Earth as the place where God has placed his feet.  Essentially, he has walked the Earth, in the form of Jesus.  His feet have been on the Earth.  So, the scripture that pictures God in Heaven with his feet on his footstool, Earth, supports the notion that God STILL walks the Earth, his feet are still on the Earth.

So, God could still be among us, taking on flesh and existing in the World.

Years ago I considered the notion of Jesus coming to Earth in this way.  The people of the world cried out to God and complained.  “How can we live by these laws, be good, among all the temptations of the world and the ever presence of evil?”  Some may even have said that God may be omnipotent, but he does not know what it is like to live as a human being.

We may see this sort of statement coming from many people we encounter.  We don’t understand them because we have not “walked in their shoes.”  This has some basis in reality.  Even for God!  As the omnipotent God he DID understand the lived human experience, but this was not enough for the people to believe that he understood our perspective.

To appease this demand, and to accomplish his greatest gift to us (salvation), he made himself human and experienced a life as being a human.  While on Earth he truly experienced the “good, bad, and ugly” of human life.  While being fully God and fully human on Earth, God did forgo much of his divine powers.

In Philippians 2:5-8 we learn that Jesus “emptied himself” and made himself into the likeness of man.  While there is ample debate about how God would “set aside” his divine powers or even if Jesus was aware that he was God (I think he was, at one point in his life), it is clear that he did not act or fully express his powers of being God while he was also Man.  He fully lived the life of a sinless human, both as an example to our own lives, and to prepare himself to be the ultimate, unblemished sacrifice for us.

So…God exists today, and as a continual reminder to US (not to Him), he keeps his feet on the footstool of Earth!  He knows what it is like, and he reminds us in the passage of where is glory (and his feet) rest.

The Mission: Today, see the world and everything in it in a new way, as the footstool world, with only footstool issues, and live accordingly

Mark K.

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Aliyah (The Book of Mysteries – Day 19)

In Hebrew this s word means “upward journey”. Jews returning to the promised land would be said to be making their Aliyah.

As with any upward journey, the choice at every step is to go higher, remain where you are, or to go lower. The text describes the journey back to Israel of the Jews as a physical journey; one bound in the law and the people of God. 

As followers of Christ we are brought bro communion n with God’s people in a spiritual way rather than a physical one.  So our Aliyah is a spiritual journey, with spiritual decisions to go up, stay the same, or go down. 

From a spiritual reference, our Aliyah is our entire lives. If we are to join with God in the New Jerusalem, the City set on a Mountain, we are to day-to-day make the decision to go higher. 

We know how to act and live a good life. The law is written into our being as the tell tale brush technique of a great artist is easily seen. Every movement we are to submit to the law. To our inner compas. Careful that we continually compare our ways to the ways of Jesus and the Santa from the Bible. 

The struggles of our life Eva represent each step toward our meeting with God in his holy mountain. 

———-

Mark K