Nuna and I had a Bible meeting today (YoungEun was sick with cramps). I had read a bit of Luke right before, looking for humorous parts, or parts that could be seen as humorous, because during our last Bible class, a member said that there was no humor in the Bible. Of course there’s no sentence announcing that Jesus will tell a joke, and maybe there are hardly any references to laughter either, but I had a hard time believing that Christianity was the only religion who’s God didn’t have a sense of humor. Divine laughter at the follies of men is a common thing in almost any religion; surely it’s present in Christianity too.
As soon as I started looking at the Bible in a humorous light, things just popped out at me (seek and you shall find): Luke 12:6 – “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
That last part, if seen anywhere else other than in the Bible, would be seen as a joke. And just because it’s in the Bible doesn’t mean it has to be taken so seriously. Of course there are many serious things in the Bible, but if God is really everything, and the Bible really touches on everything in life, then of course there has to be some humor too.
We talked about this for a bit. Then we talked about some women in a church group she went to who were talking about women’s role as defined by Genesis: how women have great pain at childbirth and how they are to look towards their husbands as their masters. I gave her a different interpretation: that it says that childbirth “increases” after Eve ate the fruit, not that it began; this means that the pain was always there, but now that Eve has the knowledge of good and evil from the fruit, she can feel the pain even more strongly. And I looked at other parts of the passage to show that the focus of the passage is on Adam and Eve changing their focus from God to the earth, the focus of the passage is on the relationship between man and woman and God, not between man and woman alone. She liked this interpretation and was also amazed at it. She said that I can get the main point of things very well.
We then talked about the hypocrisy of most people who go to church, and read the Bible without thinking. So many people invest so much time and money into the church, but how much do they even get out of it? They think that they have to do x, y, and z like it’s a grocery list, but really the truth lies in asking questions, not taking prescriptions from another person. Nuna told me about how so many people just told her to believe and not question, and I told her to never believe anyone but yourself; only when you ask enough questions to get enough evidence to prove something can you believe it. The church is ruined by people telling other people what they should do instead of people asking questions to each other and opening up each other’s minds.
My transformation continues to go well. I’m trying to keep myself slowed down, relaxed, and observant of what’s around me. It’s amazing how many things I didn’t notice before. It’s unbelievable how tense I was before, and how I couldn’t even slow down enough to listen to my body and mind. There are so many things to blame: Seoul, my job, my loneliness. But blaming is not the important part; what’s important is that I’ve found some things that will always work and help me to feel more focused and centered. A list, of concrete things, in no specific order:
-Stretching a bit each day
-Not masturbating or looking at porn
-having a cold shower at the end of a regular hot one
-lying on my back without the covers, trying to relax and empty my mind before I go to bed
-not jumping out of bed and starting my day dazed, but rather waking up slowly and letting my mind wake up too
-not too much stimulation (I was doing computer, then mp3 to work, then book, then class, then book during break, etc.) taking breaks to simply think or be aware.
-exercise
I feel like I’m putting myself in a good position to enjoy and appreciate the things that are coming my way, and also to accomplish the things that I want to.
I still need to improve in some ways. I need to make more friends and have better relationships with more people (although I’m doing this more and more, just over the internet). I need to join some groups. I need a hobby. I need an exercise partner.
One last thing: today I ate berries and sesame leaves I picked from the garden in front of my apartment. I also read the part of Walden where he builds his own house. I would love to live in a house that I built myself and eat meals from food I grew myself.
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