Chasing Andromeda
I was tracking the numbers on my very first blog. My friend Google does that for me. There were 47 views, 43 in the United States, 2 in Serbia, 1 in Russia and 1 in Germany. Go blog! Of course I figure that I have a big 6 or 7 regular followers. I guess you can’t have regular followers for a blog that you have only written one entry for. Maybe I should say I probably have 6 or 7 people willing to come back and read another. Consider the fact, though, that I have a mom, a sister, 2 brothers, 6 children, 4 son/daughter-in-laws, 3 brother/sister-in-laws, a soon to be sister-in-law, and 12 nieces/nephews some with spouses/significant others. I won’t even enumerate cousins, parents of in-laws, siblings of in-laws and their children but you get the idea. I’m not counting my 23 grandchildren and 11 grandnieces/nephews with one on the way since some of them can’t read anyway. If the ones who can read were on the computer reading my blog I would probably tell them to go out and play. Those are just the family ties. Then, of course, there are all of my friends and acquaintances. Considering only the people I am in a relationship with to one degree or another, my numbers are a little low. I will excuse my son and daughter-in-law as they were a little busy bringing baby Jonah into the world. It’s ok, though, it keeps me humble. If my blog had taken off like a rocket, gone viral, been the blog heard round the world, (lets not forget that Serbia is my second highest market) I would have just gotten all full of myself anyway. Does she have a tendency to be prideful? Why yes…yes, she does.
If you are one of my faithful followers you will remember the connection with Andromeda. If you are just now tuning in, you could read my first blog but as I am just using Andromeda as the jumping off point for the next thing I will just quote myself:
The Andromeda galaxy is the furthest thing in our universe that we can see with our naked eye. It is about 2.5 million light years away according to NASA. The articles I read spoke of Andromeda in an absolute way. Andromeda IS this, Andromeda IS that. Then it hit me. There is no IS concerning Andromeda. Andromeda WAS. What we see of Andromeda are images that are 2.5 million years old. We don’t know that in the span of 2.5 million years Andromeda did not experience a catastrophic event. That it didn’t explode, implode or was swallowed up by another galaxy. I cannot prove the existence of Andromeda with certainty and won’t be able to for 2.5 million years. If I live that long. I doubt that I will live that long. I am going to have to accept Andromeda on faith.
As I thought about Andromeda some more I bumped into my next problem. When I get 2.5 million years from now to see the Andromeda of now, I am still only seeing the Andromeda of 2013 and not the Andromeda that is at my arrival point in time. I am still seeing the Andromeda that WAS, rather than the Andromeda that IS. No matter how hard I chase Andromeda I will always find myself arriving at what was and not at what is. Paradox. Catch-22. Cool. When I try to chase the absolute evidence of the existence of Andromeda I am spinning my wheels. I have set before myself a futile and fruitless endeavor. Again, I am just going to need some faith. It may be a possibility that no evidence is acceptable without an element of faith and trust. The next step is to realize that the Andromeda that I see is only an illusion of traveling light. To chase Andromeda is to chase an illusion. But wait a minute. In your first blog didn’t you say that if you can have faith in Andromeda then why not faith in God? Isn’t that an inconsistency in your line of logic? Why yes it is. Good Catch. Before we jump on that like a monkey on a cupcake let’s just wait and see. Besides…my blog, my world, not keeping score and all that. Remember?(First blog). I will merely posit that trying to prove the existence of God through empirical evidence and logical argument without the element of faith is like chasing Andromeda. It is in itself illusionary. That leaves us with the question or dilemma of how do we know if putting our faith in God is not an illusion as well?
How do we move our faith in God from illusion to reality? First of all we need to say good-bye to Andromeda. It has fulfilled it’s purpose, thank you Andromeda. It is time to move on, to ride the tide and go with the flow. After a blog and a half we come to something new. That for Christians, the existence of God is not even the relevant point anyway. You heard me right. Proving the existence of God is not even the relevant point. Shut the front door…for reals? For reals. We do not merely co-exist with God. We believe him and we believe in him. We are in relationship with him. We do not prove God so much as we share him. We do not give evidence of God so much as we introduce him. Which is why, although reason, critical thinking, and logical argument are certainly tools we have been given to use, they are not the all sufficient system we believe them to be for our purposes. It is also why, when in discussions with those who rely on, put their faith in and keep the discussion to that arena, we are often talking apples and oranges. Our home court advantage in bringing others to Jesus and through him to the realities of God is more sufficiently expressed through relationship. If we lead someone to a relationship with Jesus the existence of God becomes evident.
Jesus came to be in relationship with us. To share in humanity with us. Sharing himself, as well as his birth, life, death and resurrection for our redemption and salvation. At the same time he came to share his relationship with the Father. To introduce us to a the reality of a personal and loving God. This was the Good News that he shared with the Apostles, his Church. Then his Church, as the physical representative of him, shared him with and introduced him to their world. Through this sharing of relationship it has come through 2000 years to us.
I bet if you are a Christian someone introduced you to Jesus and shared that relationship with you. For me, it was my parents, who introduced me through their own relationship to Jesus and to the Church. Maybe, for you, it was someone else. Some way, some how through the love or word or example of the Church and the Body of Christ he was shared with you.
The thing about relationships is that after the introduction is made you have to choose to enter into a relationship of your own. When entering into my own relationship with God, however, I realized that I had to seek to know him. For myself, I had to work toward knowing a God that I could trust and have faith in rather than trying to trust and have faith in a God that I did not know. Once I got to know him I could see how dependable he was and how much he loved me. I became willing to trust him more and more, to have faith in him more and more. Not everyone I have shared and introduced Jesus to has made the choice to have a relationship with him, so I will continue to share and re-introduce him. Through my love or my words or my example I will continue to speak it to them.
Hey, have you met Jesus? Have you meet God the Father? Have you meet the Holy Spirit?
I didn’t think they even existed
Well, come and meet them and see for yourself. Not only do I know OF them, I‘ve met them.
It’s a tried and true time honored system. The big word for it is Evangelization.
This is where your numbers come in. I bet you’re thinking that if the Good News is really that good you better pull in some pretty big numbers. Maybe. Maybe that will open up for you. But until then you can keep it humble and share with the people in your world, who will then share with others who will share with others. That‘s how the viral thing works. That’s also how the Apostles and the fledgling Church did it and they really did write the blog heard round the world…it’s called the Gospel. (Dang if she didn’t find a way to tie in all that stuff about her numbers and her family. Here we thought it was all the random ramblings of her insanely quirky mind. Oh, that’s just good. And the crowd roars) Welcome to My Catholic Life.
If you are one of my faithful followers you will remember the connection with Andromeda. If you are just now tuning in, you could read my first blog but as I am just using Andromeda as the jumping off point for the next thing I will just quote myself:
The Andromeda galaxy is the furthest thing in our universe that we can see with our naked eye. It is about 2.5 million light years away according to NASA. The articles I read spoke of Andromeda in an absolute way. Andromeda IS this, Andromeda IS that. Then it hit me. There is no IS concerning Andromeda. Andromeda WAS. What we see of Andromeda are images that are 2.5 million years old. We don’t know that in the span of 2.5 million years Andromeda did not experience a catastrophic event. That it didn’t explode, implode or was swallowed up by another galaxy. I cannot prove the existence of Andromeda with certainty and won’t be able to for 2.5 million years. If I live that long. I doubt that I will live that long. I am going to have to accept Andromeda on faith.
As I thought about Andromeda some more I bumped into my next problem. When I get 2.5 million years from now to see the Andromeda of now, I am still only seeing the Andromeda of 2013 and not the Andromeda that is at my arrival point in time. I am still seeing the Andromeda that WAS, rather than the Andromeda that IS. No matter how hard I chase Andromeda I will always find myself arriving at what was and not at what is. Paradox. Catch-22. Cool. When I try to chase the absolute evidence of the existence of Andromeda I am spinning my wheels. I have set before myself a futile and fruitless endeavor. Again, I am just going to need some faith. It may be a possibility that no evidence is acceptable without an element of faith and trust. The next step is to realize that the Andromeda that I see is only an illusion of traveling light. To chase Andromeda is to chase an illusion. But wait a minute. In your first blog didn’t you say that if you can have faith in Andromeda then why not faith in God? Isn’t that an inconsistency in your line of logic? Why yes it is. Good Catch. Before we jump on that like a monkey on a cupcake let’s just wait and see. Besides…my blog, my world, not keeping score and all that. Remember?(First blog). I will merely posit that trying to prove the existence of God through empirical evidence and logical argument without the element of faith is like chasing Andromeda. It is in itself illusionary. That leaves us with the question or dilemma of how do we know if putting our faith in God is not an illusion as well?
How do we move our faith in God from illusion to reality? First of all we need to say good-bye to Andromeda. It has fulfilled it’s purpose, thank you Andromeda. It is time to move on, to ride the tide and go with the flow. After a blog and a half we come to something new. That for Christians, the existence of God is not even the relevant point anyway. You heard me right. Proving the existence of God is not even the relevant point. Shut the front door…for reals? For reals. We do not merely co-exist with God. We believe him and we believe in him. We are in relationship with him. We do not prove God so much as we share him. We do not give evidence of God so much as we introduce him. Which is why, although reason, critical thinking, and logical argument are certainly tools we have been given to use, they are not the all sufficient system we believe them to be for our purposes. It is also why, when in discussions with those who rely on, put their faith in and keep the discussion to that arena, we are often talking apples and oranges. Our home court advantage in bringing others to Jesus and through him to the realities of God is more sufficiently expressed through relationship. If we lead someone to a relationship with Jesus the existence of God becomes evident.
Jesus came to be in relationship with us. To share in humanity with us. Sharing himself, as well as his birth, life, death and resurrection for our redemption and salvation. At the same time he came to share his relationship with the Father. To introduce us to a the reality of a personal and loving God. This was the Good News that he shared with the Apostles, his Church. Then his Church, as the physical representative of him, shared him with and introduced him to their world. Through this sharing of relationship it has come through 2000 years to us.
I bet if you are a Christian someone introduced you to Jesus and shared that relationship with you. For me, it was my parents, who introduced me through their own relationship to Jesus and to the Church. Maybe, for you, it was someone else. Some way, some how through the love or word or example of the Church and the Body of Christ he was shared with you.
The thing about relationships is that after the introduction is made you have to choose to enter into a relationship of your own. When entering into my own relationship with God, however, I realized that I had to seek to know him. For myself, I had to work toward knowing a God that I could trust and have faith in rather than trying to trust and have faith in a God that I did not know. Once I got to know him I could see how dependable he was and how much he loved me. I became willing to trust him more and more, to have faith in him more and more. Not everyone I have shared and introduced Jesus to has made the choice to have a relationship with him, so I will continue to share and re-introduce him. Through my love or my words or my example I will continue to speak it to them.
Hey, have you met Jesus? Have you meet God the Father? Have you meet the Holy Spirit?
I didn’t think they even existed
Well, come and meet them and see for yourself. Not only do I know OF them, I‘ve met them.
It’s a tried and true time honored system. The big word for it is Evangelization.
This is where your numbers come in. I bet you’re thinking that if the Good News is really that good you better pull in some pretty big numbers. Maybe. Maybe that will open up for you. But until then you can keep it humble and share with the people in your world, who will then share with others who will share with others. That‘s how the viral thing works. That’s also how the Apostles and the fledgling Church did it and they really did write the blog heard round the world…it’s called the Gospel. (Dang if she didn’t find a way to tie in all that stuff about her numbers and her family. Here we thought it was all the random ramblings of her insanely quirky mind. Oh, that’s just good. And the crowd roars) Welcome to My Catholic Life.
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