the meaning of being human

For the next 2 days I am spending time with a friend from my doctoral program in St. Peter, Minnesota at the Nobel Conference 47 (named after Alfred Nobel). The topic of presentation and conversation is The Brain and Being Human.

It is a cross-cultural experience for me as this is the first purely academic conference I have ever attended. For my own interests, I am looking at the communal nature of humanity and what this means for our formation as followers of Jesus. This morning my friend asked, what does it mean to be human?

So I ask you, what does it mean to be human? (Hopefully, I will discover how the brain adds a new dimension to the answer to this question.)

fruit with a bite out of it

A few weeks ago, I was communicating about the significance of images and used the logo of Apple, among others, to highlight the power of image and specifically the meaning of this image found in story of the forbidden fruit in the story of Genesis 3. Whether we recognize it or not there is meaning and thus power embedded in the images that we encounter in our lives.

This morning, a friend (thank you Brandon Rhodes) posted an article regarding the historian Henry Adams and his take on our life in the information and technology age.

While I disagree with the two options at the conclusion of the article, I wonder too how our human ingenuity and technology gets in the way of our connection and engagement with God and with one another. Take a moment and read the article; it is worth your time. What’s your take?

impact our engagement with God and relationship with others?

A friend posted this link today: A Day Made of Glass

This is one interesting video that points to the future of technology. How might this impact our engagement with God and relationship with others?

changing paradigms by Ken Robinson

Another talk about Ken Robinson pn Changing Paradigms. This time with a creative way to visualize it.

What implications might this have for Sunday school and spiritual formation?

creativity…rethinking intelligence

A friend sent me this TED talk by Dr. Ken Robinson today and it has me thinking about how we experience the world and the God who created the world.

If you want a more in depth perspective, take a look at The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchrist. Thick book but solid perspective of the brain in the Western world.

How do you understand intelligence and how do you cultivate creativity?

imaging God

Life has suddenly turned busy over the last few weeks as I continue to work, now have 2 kids in school and have started back to school myself in a doctoral program focused on discernment of images and activity in a shifting culture (depending on what you call it).

In one chat session with our cohort last week, we discussed the picture to the left that is Michaelangelo’s painting of God’s Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In September 2004, I saw this painting from the floor of the Sistine Chapel but I had never considered the significance of the painting.

As you look at the painting some questions to consider: What is the focus of the painting? How is Adam portrayed in the painting? What is God doing? How are they interacting? What does the space between signify?

See what you come up with as you think through this painting. The image is powerful and certainly communicates more than a 1000 words.

how do you know?

“You keep telling yourself what you know. But what do you believe? What do you feel?” said Mal to her husband Cobb.

There are many layers to the movie Inception and on my second viewing with new friends from my new doctoral cohort, I was captivated by the questions surrounding how we know, believe, feel and experience reality.

As a part of an earlier conversation in the day, Len Sweet shared that we can recognize reality by it pushing back. This is the future story we will live with holograms and avatars. Inception poses the solution of knowing reality by the physical marker of a totem–a physical item with specific characteristics and weight unique to every person. This makes a great deal of sense to me when I think about the Reality of God.

What are your totems that bring you back to the Reality of God?

emerging adulthood?

A friend passed this link onto me earlier today and it’s an interesting read on a societal trend.

What do you think is happening in our culture? Is there a new “emerging adulthood”?

the curiosity of a “man of the cloth”

I’ve had some experiences lately where I’ve been addressed or introduced as a “man of the cloth.” Up until this morning, I had no idea what this phrase meant but through the wisdom of the internet, I was brought up to speed.

Here is the article that set me straight.

How about you, are there odd ways that you are addressed or introduced?

living on mission

Over the past few years, I’ve been thinking about how I live on mission in North County San Diego. I like how this idea sounds and how it plays out in my life as I engage people in the real world.

A funny author that I’ve referenced before is Jonathan Acuff who writes the blog Stuff Christians Like. He has this one post from a few years ago about the fear that God will send him to Guam.

What do you think? When you hear the word “mission,” do you think God will send you to Guam or Africa or the jungle?