A psychic, convict, billionaire fisherman that does not exist

Take three minutes to watch this commercial made by Canon.

“He stood on his soapbox and told us a parable
of a man with eye-glasses so small they’re unwearable.
And the moral of the story is that it all looks terrible,
depending on what you look through, what you look through.”

— The Grandson of Jesus - by Cloud Cult

Within this video you saw one man walk into the studio six different times to meet a different photographer each time. Each photographer was given a backstory of the man. One photographer was told the man was a former convict another was told he was a billionaire and another told he was a psychic. After each photographer heard a backstory of the man, they then took their photos. After developing the film each of the six pictures were hung on a string side by side. The photographers all came into the room and examined the different photographs. It was at this time that the photographers were told that the man was not any of the things they each heard in the backstory. 

That is when the video comes to it's point: a photograph is shaped more by the person behind the camera than what is in front of it. 

So taking this metaphor out a bit, it is important to be mindful that how you see is influenced by what you think. The world is broken in areas, however this does not mean the world is going to hell in a hand basket. We are more inclined to see what we want to see and we are more blind that we want to believe we are. 

What story are you telling about yourself? What stories are you telling about those you work with? Live with? Dislike? Admire? God?

Prayer, why we may fear it

Tefilah is the Hebrew word English translates as "prayer". Recently it has been revealed to me by Rabbi Chava Bahle that this is a poor translation. In English, the word "to pray" means to beg or beseech. The problem is that tefilah does not mean that. Rather it means to 1) self-reflect and 2) taking a wide range of things and unifying them. 

The point being that prayer is a tool God uses to change us rather than a tool we use to change God.

Prayer is also the practice of being able to step back and reflect on how it is that contradictory things are actually unified in some way. Being able to "see" the unity in the midst of a broken world is very important. The genius and beauty of the Lord's Prayer is Jesus' ability to take a wide range of things (thankfulness, the greatest commandment, hope, dream, praise, etc.) and put them all together. Additionally the prayer takes things that seem contradictory and unites them, such as praying that heaven will come on earth. 

Prayer changes our hearts and helps us see. This is why those who pray know the power it has to change us. Perhaps that is why many of us do not pray - at some level we know it will change us and we fear that change. 

English as an impediment to spiritual formation?

One of the great things about the English language is that it is precise. Perhaps no great example is needed than in 2014 the Global Language Monitor estimated there are 1,025,109.8 words in the English language. The number of words are so very helpful when you want to be precise and specific in life. Are you feeling mad or are you agitated, distraught, exasperated, excited, frantic, furious, livid or perhaps resentful? Whatever you are feeling, chances are English has tried to put a specific word to that emotion. 

Conversely, the Academy of the Hebrew Language estimates there are 75,000-80,000 words in the Hebrew language. If these estimates are close to true, then that means the Hebrew language has less than 8% of the amount of words in the English language. Can you imagine having to limit your language to just 8% of the words you use? 

The limited number of Hebrew words are task with carrying the unlimited ways humans experience the world. The math on this problem requires that Hebrew words are less precise and more open to interpretation than English counterparts. I would say that English words are "light" in that they do not have to carry multiple meanings since there are other words to help. Conversely, Hebrew words are "heavier" since each word carries many more meanings.

All of this setup to ask the question, does the English language with all of her specificity and preciseness actually serve as an impediment when it comes to going "deep" into our spirituality? For instance, in English, how do you know you are in fact "deep". English requires specificity and preciseness in order to know if you are deep. Is deep 2 feet or is deep 100 feet or are you not deep until you are 20,000 leagues under the sea? "Going deep" spiritually is difficult in English because you don't quite know when you are "deep". 

Going deep in Hebrew on the other hand is much more vague. The Hebrew language is more experiential and by feel. So you are know you are deep less by how many specific feet you are into the water as you trust a feeling or intuition.

There are a number of examples I can point to but when God has an opportunity to share a specific name to be called, God gives the vague name of "I am" or "I will be what I will be". Perhaps God understands that specific language is helpful in some ways, but it is a bit of an impediment to spiritual formation.