Reflections on Rumi

Listening to the Speaking of Faith Podcast entitled "The Ecstatic Faith of Rumi" today and ran across a few lines which I wanted to lock away for the future.

If you don’t plow the earth, it’s going to get so hard nothing grows in it. You just plow the earth of yourself. You just get moving. And even don’t ask exactly what’s going to happen. You allow yourself to move around, and then you will see the benefit.

Something you (Fatemeh Keshavarz) wrote about whirling that was so gripping to me said, for Rumi, the whirling is one way to stay centered while moving.

Ms. Keshavarz: (translating) If anyone asks you about the houris, show your face, say: like this. If anyone asks you about the moon, climb up on the roof, say: "Like this." If anyone seeks a fairy, let them see your countenance. If anyone talks about the aroma of musk, untie your hair and say: "Like this." If anyone asks: "How do the clouds uncover the moon?" untie the front of your robe, knot by knot, say: "Like this." If anyone asks: "How did Jesus raise the dead?' kiss me on the lips, say: "Like this." If anyone asks: "What are those killed by love like?" direct him to me, say: "Like this." If anyone kindly asks you how tall I am, show him your arched eyebrows, say: "Like this."

So the whole ghazal (above) is a description of the physical beauty of the lover, but at the same time, it's a fairly long poem. At the end, it leads us to blind with envy the one who says, "How can a human being reach God?" Give each of us a candle of purity, say: "Like this." In the end, human beings can get to that candle of purity and reach God, and all human beings can do that.

Quote

Christians are supposed not merely to endure change, nor even to profit by it, but to cause it. Harry Emerson Fosdick

What struck me about this quote is that I deeply resonate with the "Be the change you wish to see in the world" quote. Fosdick adds a layer onto this idea and reminds Christians are to actually cause change.

And as I look at my life I really wonder, each and every day, what change have I caused? Sure I might be able to say I have helped people to see alternate ways of being or thinking about Christianity, Jesus or God. But that is about the extent of what I feel I have caused.

There are several things I wish to cause to change in my immediate setting: shifting youth ministry from a single personality driven ministry to a contemplative ministry and developing a collation for young adult clergy to give not only suggestions on ways out of some of the problems we face but also committing us to doing something about them.

Both of these are big things for me. There are tons of administrative and background work. It will take a long time and will be a lot of work for me in the beginning. But in the end each of these will yield a greater good.

My problem with causing change is the change that I dream about is too big for me to dent. If only I was motivated to change the wall color in my house, I might be able to actually cause that change. These other dreams, I need help.

How do you get help for a dream?

Desiderius Erasmus was a Christian teacher who lived between the times of the Middle Ages and the birth of the Renaissance. These words are attributed to him. I share these words as they were shared with me upon my graduation from High school

’Tis a brave world, my young doctor!
Do not be afraid of it; do not calculate your chances so closely
That you miss your chance;
Do not pretend to know what you do not know.
Work and laugh and give thanks for these three are one.
You did not make the world. You cannot remake it.
You cannot even spoil it.
You may, however, know the wonder of improving some small corner of it,
But (do not forget that) before you arrived
The world was pronounced “very good.”
Go now and enter into its joy.

MLK quotes to store in my mind...

In light of MLK day, I would like to submit some of the great lines from some of MLK's works which have made an impression on me:

The American Dream June 6, 1961
"America has been something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against herself. On the one head we have proudly professed the principles of democracy, and on the other hand we have sadly practiced the very antithesis of those principles."

"Civilization refers to what we use; culture refers to what we are... The great problem confronting us today is we have allowed our civilization to outrun our culture."

"The practical aspect of nonviolent resistance is that it exposes the moral defenses of the opponent. Not only that, it somehow arouses his conscience at the same time, and it breaks down his morale."

"The choice is no longer between violence and nonviolence; it is either nonviolence or nonexistence."

Letter from Birmingham City Jail April 16th, 1963

"I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, but there is a type of constructive nonviolent tension that is necessary for growth."

"Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering that outright rejection."

"Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love?"

"...after all, the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."

"If the church today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century."