Reflections of a Freaking Genius

Thanksgiving Day in the Dougherty house has been interesting to say the least. Definitely not what I had planned...or at least the way I planned it. A friend of mine and I were just talking yesterday about flexibility and making plans.  You never know what's going to happen.   My wife has a friend who fell on some hard times and she's been doing all she can to help her get back on her feet by getting her hair styling equipment and cosmetics, clothes, and other essentials, and has been inviting her over to the house to show her love and hospitality.  I'm so proud of my wife taking seriously the things Jesus values most in the Kingdom, and that is showing love to those who have been thrust to the margins, even if it is of their own making (which is where most of our problems originate if we're honest).  That is truly taking seriously the mandate to create spaces where humans can flourish, and helping remove the barriers. My wife invited that friend over to watch mushy ...

  It isn't a huge revelation to say that our country, and our world seems more divided than ever.   It's only my opinion, but it seems as if a large part of it is goaded, prodded, and pushed through social media and what used to be called 'news'.  The last post spoke of the task of Jesus followers to create environments for human flourishing and removing hindrances to human flourishing.  I'm thinking that social media, and perhaps media in general have tipped more toward a hindrance to flourishing than a beneficial factor toward it.  The behind the screen written sniper shots aren't coming only from those who don't follow Jesus, sadly. If the differing ideologies have enough emotional steam it results in anger, frustration, conflict, disorder, chaos, violence and eventually war.  For those of us who are Jesus followers, we know from scripture that the enemy is constantly trying to drag God's good creation back to it's state of being "tohu va boh...

I'm sure I'm not alone in this but it seems as if there are times I'm put into the classroom in learning mode, perhaps even training mode, while not being granted permission to speak. This seems to be one of those times. I definitely have not hated it. There is an almost insatiable drive to read and listen, while sitting back at times to let the ideas roll around in my head in order to seek a greater understanding of the things I'm being taught. While I enjoy writing, I'm learning to respect the time in His classroom. I'm starting to appreciate sitting quietly as a student and receiving. I'm also finding out it's easier to choose education than feeling there is no choice at all.   A part of my education has been looking again (and afresh) at the beginning of history as recorded in the Hebrew bible; our role in the creation narrative in particular. When reviewing the sequence of events in the first page of the account, we see God separating and f...

  Refreshing Invigorating Clean Pure Purifying Life giving Nurturing abundance Like Him. Overtake the drought. Make Your rain fall upon us. Drench us. Do for us what rain does for the earth. Soak the land until there is no denying that You are. Lose the umbrellas then celebrate and dance in the Rain. FG

I don't read many novels because I prefer the sometimes raw reality of non-fiction.  Many people have explained that their love of works of fiction stems from a desire to escape.  I get it.  Being transported to another time, place, or circumstance can do for us what a vacation can do but it doesn't cost as much.  On one occasion I read a period novel.  I'm really not sure what came over me and moved me to the dark side of reading fiction but I did.  I don't recall the name of the book or most of the plot of this novel, but I vividly remember the opening scene of the book. The setting was in the 17or 1800's.  A young woman, perhaps in her 20's or early 30's was sitting alone in a dark sitting room of her home where she lived alone.  She sat in a rocking chair.  It was dark as the sun had long past set.  Electricity didn't service the home therefore, there were no lights.  Of couse she had lamps and candles but none were lit. Th...

 M. Scott Peck said in his book, "The Road Less Travelled" - I'll paraphrase from what I'm hoping is still a fairly sharp memory, "Life is difficult.  Until you come to the place where you understand and accept that life is difficult, life will be difficult."  Read it again.  Those are some very good words.  Life outside of Eden is tough.  God told us it would be after we (yes, we) thought we could make wiser decisions on our own without him.  Life on the other side of the flaming, swirling sword guarding the entrance to paradise is chaos, difficulty, de-creation, decay, and ultimately death.  (Spoiler alert: that isn't permanent due to God's love and grace).  No, it's not all bad, but we invited plenty of it into our reality. I've done enough circuits around the sun on this spinning mudball that I've experienced plenty of hard times.  I've lost a parent and a sibling as well as many friends to death, I've experienced lots of heal...

  Social media is replete with seemingly unending selfies of people holding up a drink on a white sand beach loaded with statuesque palm trees with the backdrop of a brilliant blue ocean with foamy waves breaking at the edge, or friends in the foreground of a mountaintop vista view with crystal clear lakes surrounded by towering pines far below them, or a family enjoying incredible ancient architecture perfectly preserved in quaint European cities.  The comments section on those posts are full of positive thoughts as friends enjoy the captured moment vicariously, and it seems as if there is always one friend or family member who says, "You're living your best life!"   We'll read about or hear people sharing with us: “Just got a promotion at work! I’m definitely living my best life.” “Spent the day at the beach with friends. Living my best life!” “Finally booked that dream vacation. Can’t wait to start living my best life.” “Started a new hobby and it’s bringing me so...

   You've probably heard the expression "life imitates art" or "art imitates life".  The idea apparently originated with Aristotle  who said that art was a reflection, a mirroring, or a copying (mimesis in Greek) of what we see around us.  Picture the easel upon which rests a canvas slathered with different colors of oil from the brush of an artist who is recreating an image of the magnificently beautiful green meadow dotted with flowers which is now the backdrop. He looks at the scene, then carefully makes his brush strokes to recreate what he sees.  Oscar Wilde came along later and said, no, if fact, life imitates art.  And the debate has gone on ever since.  I'm going to steer clear of the debate since we have plenty of issues which seem to further polarize our country. What I want to talk to you about how sometimes, life imitates Oreos. Hang with me, I woke up the other night and the idea was in my head.  No, not the Oreo part, that image...