Dream On.
On Tuesday a friend, Karen McCrill Howard, shared a dream with me. That dream meant more to me than I am sure Karen would realise. I found such encouragement in it that I wanted to share it and a few thoughts surrounding it here. Before I go any further here is the dream as Karen shared it with me;
Usually when I fly in a dream, I am doing the flying. This is different.
I was watching from miles high in the air…the clouds were barely visible below & I watched as a group of regular folks (believers!) were each flying on the backs of huge, wider than horse’s backs, Canada Geese. The group was the last, the 4th group, & that was the most difficult flight. Previous goose flyers simply had to fly, this group must bring it in!! All they had to hold on to were the reins ,which they wouldn’t have even considered using to control the goose. This flock had to make a steep bank to the left, and all the while maintain their position on the Goose’s back, or maybe the goose balancing their person on their backs, which they could all do!… it was like a sudden re-entry.
All this seemed very frightening because I was going to be doing it too.(—the dream goes on about my fear of wild goose flying, which I’m sure doesn’t pertain to you flyers—)
end dream
while awakening, & thinking about this dream I both heard & saw 2 big block letters with the words “H G knows everything” wondered what that meant & right away, Holy Ghost. Not a term I use.
Listened to Frankie Lanes Wild Goose
My heart knows what the Wild Goose knows
I must go where the Wild goose goes
Wild Goose, brother goose which is best
A wanderin’ fool, or a heart at rest?
An Geadh-Glas
It is believed that the Celtic Christians preferred to refer to the Holy Spirit using the metaphor ‘The Wild Goose.’ For them the Holy Spirit was not a quiet, demure bird but a loud and uncontrollable one, which always seems to arrive unexpectedly and does not submit to human authority. Someone once called it the untamable wildness of hope. The word goose comes from the European word ghans, which is said to refer to the sound of honking that the geese make. The word wild is also of European origin, ghwelt, which means untamed or natural. The goose then is a bird of hidden treasure- of spirit in unseen motion, like water flowing underground, until it bursts forth in a spring. Wild is not a word of chaos but one of following it’s own will, making it’s own meaning, sailing on it’s own winds. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. It is time for the Wild Goose Chase. We can feel as if we are going around in circles going nowhere, but really we are circling around the elusive and mysterious. Being caught up in the uncatchable, untamable One. This in turn makes us uncatchable and untamable. Join the flight of the wild goose.
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Memories of Earlier Days
The dream is also very poignant on a personal level because one of the first messages I heard that made a lasting impact upon me was from my very early days as a Christian when I was in Bible College, when I attended the Assemblies of God Annual Conference (The term Holy Ghost was used here often). It was here I heard a man called Warwick Shenton, a man very ahead of his time. He spoke about the wild geese and how we needed to learn so much from them. He shared about the way they fly in the V formation, that there was never a dominant leader but a sharing together in each team. The one at the front paving the way through the wind currents while the others behind would honk in encouragement. After a time the one at the front would drop back while someone else took the lead. Everyone would have their turn at the front and everyone would then take their turn to follow and support. True sharing of the load, responsibility, care. Then if any goose was over tired or injured and it had to drop to the ground another would fly down to support it and keep it company until it was ready to fly again. Then they would just join in with another group and be welcomed and carry on the same roles until they reached their destination. To think someone was sharing this about 25 years ago is amazing. To be reminded of it now through this dream is a honk of encouragement in itself. A bit more honking we could do with in this wild flight. Our honking brings a connectivity in the wildness and unpredictability. No one dominant leader but a sharing of journey together. Sharing and caring and encouraging and free. Not tied together but joined in journey. There is a sense in my spirit that we so called disconnected one’s, the outsiders, the untamed, we are the one’s nurturing a new connectedness. Not through a meeting place, although that may happen, but through mutual encouragement and journey. There is a deeper connection happening than I have experienced before. A connection through the Wild Goose. Outsiders and in the margins, but right inside where we need to be right now, central. There is so much encouragement to be gained. It really is time to honk if you love the Lord.
I am the main contributor to this site, though there are guest writers from time to time. Hopefully, what is presented are perspectives not the final word!
I believe in sin
Been a long time since I have put up a post with the ‘I believe…’ title, so here goes – not a complete statement, nor covering every angle. What is meant by ‘sin’, what do we understand as ‘original sin’, solidarity with Adam and the like?
There are ‘laws of life’ that we are to live by, but the problem with simply quoting Scripture, such as ‘all your righteousness is as filthy rags’ to indicate that no matter how well we do we fall short is to take Scripture that applies to Israel with their righteous (law-keeping) behaviour not proving to be enough. We cannot take that and simply apply it universally. Even a lot of Pauline texts are dealing with the Jew/Gentile issue. We cannot make specific Scriptures and simply apply them universally. He does of course say ‘all have sinned…’ regardless of being Jewish or Gentile.
So: the idea that whatever good is done is despised by God is not something I can see as substantiated by Scripture. We can value what is done that has genuine good in it. ‘Good’ is not something that is acceptable when done by Christians and not when done by someone else; neither does good guarantee someone salvation – that is a different aspect.So ‘born in sin’? That’s a tough one to answer. If by totally depraved (the ‘T’ of tulip) is meant there is no good in someone, I reject that; if it is softened to indicate that humanity is tarnished in every aspect I can almost go there. In some way all of humanity is in Adam, and in need of a Saviour.
So sin is falling short, not making the grade, but borrowing from Walter Wink here is the core way I look at it. Working with the archery term (sin: missing the mark) let me suggest that sin can well be understood as never discovering the reason for which one was born. To miss the mark in that sense. To do so means we fall short of the glory of God. To discover why we are born, and to live it out is to bring true glory to God.
We need Jesus. He was fully human – we are not. He lived in relation to the Father – only what I see / hear him do… To be captivated by his love, to be incorporated into him, to receive the same Spirit, as the Spirit of adoption, then we can begin to falteringly walk in the same direction.
The real tragedy of sin is not that of wrong-doing, it is that of people living and dying never discovering who they were, why they were here… that can only be discovered, not by an inward search, but by a heavenly encounter.
Whatever we believe about sin, the effects are everywhere with personal and collateral damage. However where sin abounds, grace more abounds.