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ron cole
Victoria, British Columbia
trying to live faithfully...search, revealing, and building the Kingdom
Interests: in, writing, poetry, painting and music. a thinker, stretching the limits of theology...to where i grasp, and try to reach for the radical scandalous divine redemptive imagination of jesus. trying to live out the missio dei, the reality that the mission of god is to live out the reality of the gospels in every moment, of everyday life. i'm content, that my truth has become more mystery than certitude. i can only conclude that life is found when i live in, in the midst that everything that that mystery is. that mystery is jesus, that is where life is found.
Recent Activity
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"Jesus died because we caught him red handed, we caught him proclaiming the Kingdom, a new world with these crazy wild scandalous parables that began re-capture the mind, heart and soul of all humanity. We saw and caught him in... Continue reading
Sunday we had a big blow over here in Powell River. Ferries cancelled, tired punk rock bands riding out the storm in the historic Rodmay Hotel in Town Site. Visitors get upset by this interruption caused by mother nature’s rudeness.... Continue reading
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"Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it." Niels Bohr, pioneer of quantum mechanics, died OTD 1962. Continue reading
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“May the wonders of the earth call you forth from all your small, secret prisons and set your feet free in the pastures of possibility.” ...excerpt from ‘A Blessing for Beauty’, by John O'Donohue ( photo by: Sergio Rymar, Yoho... Continue reading
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If we belong to the sun and its warmth, to the bud and the sprout, to the miraculous flower, we also belong to the wind, the naked branch, the cold.” Fabiana Fondevila Continue reading
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It is a beautiful thing when folks in poverty are no longer just a missions project but become genuine friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream, and struggle. One of the verses I have grown to love is... Continue reading
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I would like you to show me, if you can, where the line can be drawn between an organism and it’s environment. The environment is in you. It’s passing through you. You’re breathing it in and out. You and every... Continue reading
That is so beautiful Hope. It is kind of that full circle of life, that the age old wisdom really is becoming children again. To live fully in those wonderfilled moments, exposed out in the wide open spaces and speak simply from the heart. And we simply know because we are pulled along by heart strings.
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“The only way that we can live, is if we grow. The only way that we can grow is if we change. The only way that we can change is if we learn. The only way we can learn is... Continue reading
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Questions... All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that, and... Continue reading
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My House of Faith I build my house on Unknowingness The foundations do not stand up to scrutiny The walls fold on examination This carpet unravels with each footstep The icons dissolve if I stare These gods vanish when I... Continue reading
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According to anthropologists John Monaghan and Peter Just, "Many of the great world religions appear to have begun as revitalization movements of some sort, as the vision of a charismatic prophet fires the imaginations of people seeking a more comprehensive... Continue reading
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I can only really call myself a mystic. When I finally looked over my shoulder, and could no longer see any path at all...only my foot steps. I new I had arrived. I was consumed by everything; everything that was,... Continue reading
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Truth has to be lived, not known. Life has to be squeezed to the last drop to the last drop of juice. It is not something to be contemplated upon...drink it. The last words of Jesus, the God-man to his... Continue reading
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We can all agree that Jesus, the radical scandalous god-man was a resonator. He was profoundly tuned into the wavelengths of God and humanity, so much so, in him they seemed to be in unison. When we look at how... Continue reading
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"What If… What if our religion was each other? If our practice was our life? If prayer was our words? What if the Temple was the Earth? If forests were our church? If holy water—the rivers, lakes and oceans? What... Continue reading
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If the question has caught fire in you, or doubt has caused a crack in one of your walls, then maybe God's work is done. The rest belongs to the fire. Continue reading
Beautifully said, Erin. " When it's too late to love, or to love well." I think violence is a result of the lack of imagination, especially redemptive imagination. What happened in Ferguson was a complete breakdown in humanity. The violence, or death of a white person will not bring about any kind of justice for the black community. As much as we think the civil rights movement has changed the landscape of America, it hasn't. We are seeing a re-segregation in America, especially in communities like Ferguson. Marginalized, stereotyped, poverty and rampant unemployment, and a sense of powerlessness. Most white people have no connection or relationship with this reality. Justice, or a non-violent redemptive resolution can only come about in a middle ground of understanding. Yes, it will be extremely difficult...but, maybe that is the non-violent fight. Iraq/ Syria is something much more insidious. It is fundamentalism, and fanaticism. This is what bothers me so much about "religion ", and one of the biggest reasons I left the church. When the premise of your religion is soley based on belief, you have drawn a permanent line which can not be moved and must be defended. We are seeing some change by progressives, but just to a point. Usually there is still that fundamental mark that can't be touched. So leadership has do again pursue the depths of human imagination to find something truly redemptive...something that embraces something abundantly human, not religious. Sure it is a great risk to move beyond belief...to something profound life giving, and engaging. But if the majority pursued this path, I think there would be hope. ISIS is radical, fanatical extreme religious faction...using extreme violence to strike fear in the soul of a religion. Can love change them, likely not...as you say to late to love. But, I think the Muslim community everywhere needs to tell of a different islamic religion of compassion with the loudest voice possible...change the tide. We need to fight them also to stop them. But, maybe to there will be a time of somekind of reconciliation. If it can happen in Rwanda...it can happen anywhere. Anyways, Erin sorry for rambling on...but, your " when it's too late to love, or to love well ", kindled some great conversation. Peace.
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"For an earliest generation of Christians, Jesus was not the Savior but the Life-giver. In the original Aramaic of Jesus and his followers, there was no word for salvation. Salvation was understood as bestowal of life, and to be saved... Continue reading
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"The truth is always an abyss. One must — as in a swimming pool — dare to dive from the quivering springboard of trivial everyday experience and sink into the depths, in order to later rise again — laughing and... Continue reading
Oh, you are so right Erin. After early in my life of spending 10 years in the Army, almost going to Vietnam and witnessing the whole aftermath of a needless war...and the cost on generation of young men. And then what is going on in the world today...Iraq, Syria, Afganistan and eastern Ukarain. It's a mess of broken humanity. Do we just write of the seemingly impossible words of Jesus, this scandalous god-man. I think we know in our hearts, there is profound truth there. Maybe the wisdom, and the hard journey is moving as close as we can to that place. I think war, the I idea of just wars has become a default switch to affirm our theological thinking. Maybe if we really thought of more redemptive ways, stretching our human imagination to resolve our diffrences for the common unity of humanity would be a step in that direction. Our history definitely tells us war, and violence never end our human conflicts. Surely our existence, our future will depending on moving in the direction of non-violence. I think the hard words of Jesus...require a whole lot more imagination on our part.
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Let’s not forget the Christian demand of discipleship: “Love your enemies.” Central to the Gospel announcement of Jesus is the nonviolent love of those who would oppose us: sometimes physically and other times ideologically. At the center of discipleship is... Continue reading
This is one of my favorite stories is the gospels ( John 6:1-15 ), everytime I read it, it is like a sun rise that slowly and mysteriously illuminates the landscape of reality to endless possibilities. It continuosly breaks the... Continue reading
It neither kills outright nor inflicts apparent physical harm, yet the extent of its destructive toll is already greater than that of any war, plague, famine, or natural calamity on record - and its potential damage to the quality of... Continue reading
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The human dilemma is that we want to personalize what ever it is that ignited the fuse to initiate this infinite creative explosion. The idea, that if we find it, we might reason with it finding ultimate answers to life.... Continue reading