This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 8.11.23 

1. “Western Christians tend to think of going to heaven or  going to hell as the framework for the gospel but the Bible story is not about us going somewhere but the Creator God coming to live with us.”

 “If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus. If you want to know what it means to be human, look at Jesus. If you want to know what love is, look at Jesus. If you want to know what grief is, look at Jesus. And go on looking until you’re not just a spectator, but you’re actually part of the drama which has him as the central character.” N.T. Wright, a heck of a good theologian and scholar.

2. “Dorothy Day, I think, came upon a quite simple, paradoxical insight, something like this: In the gospel, peace is a verb.  You make the peace. You do not inherit it or hoard it, or borrow it or sit on it. You make it.” ~ Daniel Berrigan, SJ

We are a world at war, often over inconsequential matters. What would happen if we committed ourselves to making peace and then helping to sustain it?

3. Anita and I went to see “Barbie”. I even wore my pink rimmed ‘readers’.  😀 I chuckled many times and loved the satire. It was a thought provoking and clever film. I think it has something to say to our culture and we should pay attention. It won’t make my all time best movie list but I’m glad we saw it. 

4. James Baldwin said: “I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

I insist on that right too. So should we all. It’s part of a healthy checks and balance system. There’s lots to critique, even more to celebrate.

5. When I embrace diversity, I recognize 

that the Creator of that diversity is pleased. Embracing diversity starts by seeing, not necessarily agreeing; respecting, not minimizing; engaging, not dismissing; being ‘curious’, not walled in. Embracing diversity is about moving beyond my insane commitment to myself and my tribe in an attempt to find common ground.

6. This week the former president built upon his already tarnished reputation when he sent a ‘truth’ to his base, excoriating the USA Women’s Soccer Team, Joe Biden and Wokeness. In just 64 words he managed once again to undercut truth, elevate rudeness and show his utter disregard for grace and dignity. I’m sure it was met with much enthusiasm by his base who seemingly delight when their guy comes out swinging.

He’s scared. He keeps saying he’s being persecuted but in reality he’s just getting a taste of accountability and he doesn’t like it one bit. That’s why he’s coming out swinging. Expect more of the same. When he asserts he’s being “indicted for you,” he’s lying. He wants no part of martyrdom. He’s just trying to recruit an army ‘just in case’. 

The real reason he’s facing legal jeopardy is because there is significant evidence that he knowingly and wantonly broke the law. 

7. I’m reminded of the words of Sun Tsu, the author of The Art of War: “An evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes.” 

8.  In the book “The Hermits of Big Sur” the author describes a monk who died as “a man who had lived several different lives, each of them dogged by conflict and grief but also filled with adventure and accomplishment.”

What an honest, beautiful assessment of a life well lived. I smiled when I read it and thought “Yah, I know a lot of people who fit that description, including the person I see in the mirror every day. 😀”

9. “We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to.” ~ Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood 

I resonate with this. There are times I should have … and I didn’t. What bothers me the most is that those just might have been the times when my voice was needed the most. I can’t do anything about it now but it reminds me that I don’t have to be that way again.

10. Richard Rohr is fond of saying that the universal patterns of change and transformation look like this:

Order

Disorder

Reorder 

Think of it as your life getting a periodic system upgrade. 

When we have a sense of ‘order’ in our life, prayers of thanksgiving are meaningful. When disorder hits, prayers for help, peace, and discernment are necessary.  When the reordering sets in, the spiritual discipline of  Examen helps us make sense of what’s  happening, and how we deal with what has just become our new normal.