The Symposium

“According to Greek mythology,
humans were originally created with four arms,
four legs
and a head with two faces.
Fearing their power,
Zeus split them into two separate parts,
condemning them to spend their lives
in search of their other halves.”

Plato

An Open Letter to Brother Doug

“That Woman, Doug, she is gone. She left today. Off to presque isle, far, far (thank God,) away!”

You know, Doug,

     I feel alone in the following light: 

I view the world to be in an utter and urgent need for spiritual revitalization, regrowth and an acutely vast, maelstromistic change in people’s thought patterns, (firstly,) the way people revere each other. That would institute an abrupt change which only fosters deliberate change in the attitudes and expectations which people approach each other with. 

     I feel alone in this, because I sense the need for an urgent adoption of the  above stated notion; but my experience dictates that few people feel this urgency as tremendously as I do.

I feel it and am compelled by it in this exact moment; also, every breathing moment of my hours and days and weeks and months and years; now, decades.

I know you, Doug, share the same wisdom, frustration, hope, fear and humility as I do in the above stated matter; because your heart speaks it to me as your heart speaks it to every person you cross paths with.   

     I am constantly, brutally abused and taunted by the angst which compels this urgent need for physical and spiritual change in the men around me! I feel like a high school student, stuck in kindergarten, and that is the highest degree I will ever be able to associate with!

I know there are others, like you and me, out there.

All Along, I am put to the test; still, MATTHEW 18:20 ensures me.

My wherewithal remains very still, maybe latent, for I feel so, so alone in life, as the girl whom the Light Bearer hath sent to thwart God’s plan (for me)- a thorn seed, tossed amongst the soil of the path He machete-ied-out for me, as to overgrow my path to hide it from sight, so my spirit might lose It’s way, …That Girl whom I splayed-out my heart for, of which she stole a little piece of, as she was a thief in the night, a thief, stealing from a Knight!  … What brazen balls hath her prowess possess and allow to glimmer and shine free for all the townspeople to see!  

Oh, Doug, it was a sight, a glorious, glorious Dark Light which the Light Bearer had sent to me to lead me to stand at the top of that mountain, taunting me to jump off, offering me all of the world into my own, one hand!  The Light Bearer did tempt and lead me, indeed, to the precipice of that cliff, but I scoffed him off humbly, quietly, authentically, still in debt to desire and still so enthralled by the idea of all of it!  

But, no, stones cannot be turned into bread; and the Light Bearer was only able to inhabit but a tiny speck inside my head; for hard-fought strength, humbling wisdom and gleaming beauty- (the pillars of my dream)- those three, (but not alone), hath erected The Temple, sheltering and protecting me!

That Woman, Doug, she is gone. She left today. Off to Presque Isle, far, (thank God,), Far,… away!

    Her leaving is not so much a gift from God, but the spoils of the war which He fought for me (up there) and won (on my behalf, bringing physical reality to his glory!)

Still, MATTHEW 18:20 inspires hope in me that, as a fisher of men, my cast-out line shall find that third sea-faring man who’s will is like yours and mine- whose urgency is equally sincere and full of fervor!  As the world is so compartmentalized and spread-out, as the tribes of Judah have been, whilst the Tribulation is continually afoot, at-hand, on the rise and commencing, there are soldiers (in Christ,) who are dubbed as Knights- only by our actions, volition and by the record which only God (alone, Himself,) scribes of us. They are not dubbed by the King or the Queen, by the townspeople or in some grotesquely pompous, public ceremony. We, fellow soldiers in Christ, are dubbed by our own hearts, by our own souls; and the hand which dons the dubbing sword is attached to the heart of Jesus, the son of the Great Architect!  Therefore, tradition remains fiercely pertinent and much needed! History must be studied whilst it self-knowingly repeats itself!

I feel all alone in the above communicated, for I am like Diogenes, walking through the marketplace, carrying a lit lamp during the daytime, because that is the only way I might find an honest man!  (It takes the whole town to call the wise man crazy before they may completely persist in their folly to eventually become wise.  …. Only after we are humbled by our own reckoning of our own absurdity can we truly see the catalysts of our own follies!)  

Where is this group of men whom I seek?

Where is the gardener, the blacksmith, the butcher, the stone cutter, the mason, the carpenter, the silversmith, the goldsmith and the craftsmen skilled in iron and in bronze?  Where is this tribe, this village, this community? Where are these men, Doug?  How can we begin with MATTHEW 18:20 and build it up to thirteen (or more) like-minded, like-spirited witnesses of the light if I can only connect with two along my traversing journey?  (I am one of those people, so you, really, are the only other man whose faith I can attest for; therefore, there is only one:

You are it, Doug. 

I am it, Doug. 

(Like the game of Tag, everybody becomes, “it,” if they want to play the game!)

The reason you and I are different, Doug, is because we are always, “it,”!  We like being, “it,” because we get to touch other people so that they may feel the same love which you and I feel,…- that power of being, “it,”…. (being Recognized and Loved by Jesus)

Doug, when you feel a warm, growing feeling in your heart, that’s Jesus, tagging you, grinning, “Your It!  … I Love You!”  

Then, Jesus runs away, knowing that you’ll chase him and try to match His game!

Why am I so lost and stressed-out in this world, Doug? The above is the only thing that ever goes on in my head every moment of my daze… That is the stress which I live under constantly.  ECCLESIASTES 1:18

Keep matching His game, Doug!  Keep chasing Jesus!  He may seem like he keeps running away from you, but that is just his playtime- designed to make you stronger!

-Ride Tight, Doug. 

Chip

Operation Loin Cloth Ministry

Cooking In the Rain

I held back the tears,
washing that dish,
Knowing that those eyes would soon
shimmer no more upon me;
Glimmer no more in my sight;
Blink neither a tear of sorrow with me,
Nor open in excitement at me!

Leah’s eyes –
They shine and glimmer
as if two stars 
from Orion’s Belt
have escaped their constellation
to take throne 
upon the most 
beautiful place 
known to the universe!

Chip

Read the whole poem.

Bread and Love

Manna

“Man shall not live on bread alone, but by every word that prodeedeth out of the mouth of God;”

MATTHEW 4:4

The Church is our Christian Family; however, The Temple– the structure of worship- is your body!

The Temple is not a stone building, but worship- True Worship,

True Love emits from the center of the Temple’s heart.

Two pillars of the church are Strength and Beauty. A third pillar of the church is Wisdom.

A strong Christian sees God’s beauty in all things and practices mercy even with those who do wrong. After all, it is God’s duty to punish; and we are forbidden from punishing others.

What is Love?

Defining Love

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 

It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies,they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”

1 CORINTHIANS 13:4-8