Hypothetical Emotions
When we watch fictional movies/TV shows, we feel different kinds of emotions compared to “everyday emotions”. The feelings between fictional characters are “neat hypothetical emotions” from a “hypothetical consciousness”. They are meant to point to new possibilities in our real lives though, not to replace them. At the end of the day, what is fulfilling are the “messy everyday emotions” that connect our humanness to the “messy everyday emotions” of others.
Chris, I stumbled on your blog when I was searching for contemporary(?) people who have practiced the game with minutes. I think I read it first two years ago and I regularly come back to it.
ReplyDeleteI see that at a certain point you have stopped writing in the game with minutes blog and started writing this one. This made me wonder how your journey has been with the game with minutes after your last blog post. As a reader I would love to see an update!
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping a line. It's cool to come across another person in our day who's into the game with minutes!
I'm curious to know what your experience with it has been.
Yes, I have stopped writing in the game with minutes blog. My journey has become more nuanced with the game with minutes. I initially fell in love with the concept (and reading about Laubach's experiences with it). However, I found myself getting legalistic about it. And being legalistic about it got in the way of me getting in touch with my humanness (which has been a huge theme for the past few years). So as a result, I try to keep the overall principles of practicing the presence of God in mind, but I'm a lot more loose on the mechanics of it now.
Let me know how it has been going with you!
Chris, thanks for the reply! I really appreciate it.
DeleteAs for me, I first got to know about Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach four years ago. Although my congregation is very much centered on relationship with Jesus through the mind and the heart, we approach it as a personal interaction rather than a practice or a discipline. So the disciplinary aspect of it was rather new to me and I wanted to try it.
But for many years, I have not been able to keep focused on it for a extended amount of time although I kept coming back to it. Looking back, I think one of the reasons was that I was more into the effects of this practice such as peace or God smoothing my path rather than a loving relationship with him. You know how Dallas Willard often talks about how when people first hear about the Kingdom of God they think all there problems are going to go away? I was like that but I did not realize this for a long time.
I think, by his grace, Jesus has taught me what is really in my heart and in the past few monthes I realized that I should devote my life to Jesus and experimentally learn to interact with him rather than skipping the devotion part and trying stick to a formula to secure myself in this world through the means of religion like the Pharisees.
So in nut shell, my experience is that I learned that where my heart is (whether I am doing this practice for the sake of love or for the sake of securing my life) deeply affects the process and outcome.
So recently with a new heart that desires to love Jesus I decided to restart fixing my mind on Christ until a new habit is formed. I do feel on the days I stick to the practice, my consciousness feels more cleaner(?), if that makes sense.
Anyhow, although my journey with this practice has not been that consistent, I got to say that the experiences you shared on the blogs, the struggles, up and downs and your interaction with Jesus motivated and consoled me. Thank you Chris for that.
Wow, thanks for sharing some of your journey with me. It sounds rich. Your congregation sounds like an awesome and deeply fulfilling one.
ReplyDeleteI can really relate to some of your journey (i.e. focusing on the "benefits" of PPoG like Brother Lawrence/Frank Laubach). That Dallas Willard quote is a really good one. I've never heard that one directly before, but God used you quoting it to speak to me now.
I definitely felt the Pharisee temptations when I decided to devote myself to this. It seems that we're constantly tempted one way or the other to throw us off.
I've discovered a distinction between our experience and our imagination of that experience. Subtle but important difference, at least for me. I can get enamoured by the "spiritual marketing" of PPoG but not really PPoG (with its more mundane moments).
Thanks for sharing your journey! I can definitely relate to quite a bit of that. It's been an encouragement to read!
Thank you Chris! I was happy to hear that some parts of my journey resonated with you.
ReplyDeleteThis whole conversation has been very encouraging for me. It allowed me to reflect on what I have been through.
I hope to hear more on journey and your ideas from God. God bless your blog and your days!