I’d Rather be a Fool ~ Closing – The Fool on the Hill

Greetings Dear Reader,

As I turn my attention fully to Holy Week I do so having gained greatly from this series of thoughts.  In a world where my faith is being thought less relevant and more obsolete I will be thought foolish for it. 

I am OK with that.  I think that over the centuries the failure of the church to truly consistently live the Gospel has contributed to this.  I think that the Gospel appears foolish from the outside.  It is one of those situations where believing is seeing.  I realize that even that sounds foolish. 

I choose to follow the Fool on the Hill.  He went there for me so that I could follow him.  One of his followers, Peter said that we become fools for his sake.  Jesus holds out a cross and a crown but we have to take them in that order.  It is in Christ that we find that foolishness is wise.  It is in him that we see that being a fool for the sake of love is a price worth paying.  I invite you Dear Reader to come be a fool as well.

God’s Own Fool – Michael Card

Seems I've imagined Him all of my life

As the wisest of all of mankind

But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to men

He must have seemed out of His mind

For even His family said He was mad

And the priests said a demon's to blame

But God in the form of this angry young man

Could not have seemed perfectly sane

When we in our foolishness thought we were wise

He played the fool and He opened our eyes

When we in our weakness believed we were strong

He became helpless to show we were wrong

And so we follow God's own fool

For only the foolish can tell-

Believe the unbelievable

And come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son

For a madman who died for a dream

And you'll have the faith His first followers had

And you'll feel the weight of the beam

So surrender the hunger to say you must know

Have the courage to say I believe

For the power of paradox opens your eyes

And blinds those who say they can see

When we in our foolishness thought we were wise

He played the fool and He opened our eyes

When we in our weakness believed we were strong

He became helpless to show we were wrong

And so we follow God's own fool

For only the foolish can tell-

Believe the unbelievable

And come be a fool as well

So we follow God's own Fool

For only the foolish can tell

Believe the unbelievable,

And come be a fool as well

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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I’d Rather be a Fool ~ The No Win Scenario

Greetings Dear Reader,

“I don’t believe in the no win scenario.”   This line, uttered by Captain Kirk in Star Trek II is one that I echo almost daily.  In fact, most of my efforts have traversed from wanting to win, always, to wanting to create win-win whenever possible.

We too often think of the Father and a jealous judge.  We forget that the greatest commandment is love.  We forget that the Lord is unwilling for anyone to perish.  We forget that Jesus promised to draw all men unto himself.  We do not put this into the equation.

When Jesus said that he would “draw all” to himself he literally was saying that he would “invite, pull, and draw everyone individually and collectively to his side”.   The Lord is unwilling that any should perish.  Should the God of the Universe not get his will? 

I realize that to some of you I am sounding a bit heretical.  I am actually just looking for the win-win.  We take so many things that Jesus said literally but not the ones that we use to condemn and control.  Why is this statement not the answer?  I do not believe in the no win scenario when it comes to God. 

It is in this that I may be the most foolish.  Instead of judging the Father as unjust or cruel I see him as the ultimate finder of ways.  He found a way to redeem us.  He found a way to love us even when we hate him.  The entire process has been to make things good again.  I would rather be a fool than think he cannot eventually find a way for everyone. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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I’d Rather be a Fool ~ That Which Endures

Greetings Dear Reader,

Faith and hope are required for the journey.  They are the fuel that allows us to love. It is love that is required of us.  It is love that we are to give and accept.  It is love that moves all that is good.

It may be that we have become so jaded that we do not allow ourselves to be loved.  We put on a hardened shell.  We arm and armor ourselves against the pain of love lost and betrayed.  We carry the scars from trying to love and being hurt by it.  We put so much at risk when we try to love others.

It is also true that loving is the only way to survive.  It may sound oxymoronic but it is true.  We need to love even those who hate us.  We need to love everyone.  We cannot do this though unless we first secure our love in the Father.  This is why it is the first commandment.  Our love for others must be fueled by our love for the Father.

I realize that some of you only tolerate this from me.  I realize Dear Reader that some of you think my faith is foolish.  I am not offended by that.  I would challenge you to ignore theology and the practices of most Christian sects.  Instead I would ask that you really investigate the message of the Gospel.   It is love that fuels the story.  It is love that is the quest. 

The Farther loves us and wants to woo us back to himself.  He wants to be chosen.  Do not think for a moment that there is any other motive in all that is built upon the command to love.  It is foolish to think there is anything more vital to the Father.

As for me, I renew each day my commitment to love others.  I have to do it daily. Sometimes I have to do it every moment.  I draw from the depth of God’s love for me to love others.  If that is foolish then I would rather be a fool.

Could it Be – Michael Card

In the ebb and flow of living

As we wander through the years

We're told to listen to a voice

We can't here with our ears

They say to live by something

That you can't see with your eyes

Is there really any purpose

To this foolish exercise?

Could it be, You make Your presence known So often by Your absence?

Could it be that questions tell us more Than answers ever do?

Could it be that You would really rather die Than live without us?

Could it be the only answer that means anything Is You?

In our words and in our silence

In our pride and in our shame

To the genius and the scholar

To the foolish and insane

To the ones who care to seek You

To the ones who never will

You are the only answer even still

Could it be, You make Your presence known so often by Your absence?

Could it be that questions tell us more than answers ever do?

Could it be that You would really rather die than live without us?

Could it be the only answer that means anything is You?

It's a question you can't answer

An answer you cannot express

That the gentle Man of Sorrows

Is the source of happiness

You'll never solve the mystery of this magnetic man

For you must believe to understand

Could it be, You make Your presence known so often by Your absence?

Could it be that questions tell us more than answers ever do?

Could it be that You would really rather die than live without us?

Could it be the only answer that means anything is You?

Could it be the only answer that means anything is You?

  

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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I’d Rather be a Fool ~ Faith and Hope

Greetings Dear Reader,

I have often walked through my reasoning for having faith and hope.  I will not review that here.  The reasons for the faith and hope in me are reasons that I hold fast.  It is true, however, that others see my faith and hope as foolish. 

The beginning of this part of the journey centers on someone telling me the following Christ is an obsolete way to live.  The person actually laughed at me and communicated that he was surprised that I still believed.  He cited my intelligence as the reason that I should not hold such a foolish position.

I felt no anger at this person.  I felt great sadness.  This person used to have faith.  They used to have hope.  The hardness of life gave him cause to walk away from the very thing that sustains us through the hardness of life.  It is my faith and hope that sustains me through loss, loneliness, and longing. 

It in following Christ that I find the hard ground on which to stand.  I will not always need these things.  I will not always have to believe.  I will not always have to hope.  These are substance for the journey not the substance of the destination.  These are what uphold us when life is hard, harsh, and horrible.  It is in faith that I find the will to keep moving.  It is in hope that I find the will to see the horizon and move toward it.

I would rather have hope and faith and be thought a fool than live a life without it.  The darkness was so much darker before I had faith.  It is in faith and hope that I find life.  If that is foolish then let it be so. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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I’d Rather be a Fool ~ Than Hate Anyone

Greetings Dear Reader,

Sometimes the weight of all the hatred in the world seems to land right on top of me.  It is not that I feel hated but rather that it is that there is so much hatred where there could be love and kindness.

I know someone who claims to follow Christ but is constantly spewing venom about others.  There is rarely a positive comment to be made concerning anything.   I often wonder what pain the hatred hides.  Perhaps that is the key.

I would rather foolishly look for what can heal anger and hatred than hate in return.  It is not my place to point fingers and put hatred into the world.  It is my obligation to love at any cost.  This does not mean that I have to allow abuse or hatred.  It is that I cannot hate in return.  It is that I must love beyond the hatred.

One can learn to see past the hatred to the person beyond.  One can choose to love that person no matter how he or she behaves.  This does not mean that you can be friends with the person.  It does not mean that you put yourself in danger with that person.  It means that you love that person.

I would rather be thought a fool for finding a way to love someone than join the crowd calling for hatred and rejection.  I would rather be called a fool for loving others than being the one who gains ground through hatred.  I would rather be a fool than in the crowd calling for blood.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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I’d Rather be a Fool ~ A Single Path

Greetings Dear Reader,

This is one of those things about my faith that sounds foolish and is hard to accept.  I must accept it even if I do not understand how things will be worked out in the end.  Then again there are many things I do not understand that I have to accept.  I do not understand gravity but am well aware of the consequences of ignoring it. 

Jesus clearly declares that no one gets to the Father except through following him.  No one who rejects Jesus can get to the Father.  I realize how narrow this is.  The fist command is in step with this.  We are to love the Lord God with all our heart, minds, soul, and strength.  The part that makes it hard is the way followers have and do treat this.

We are to use this narrow way to combat evil.  The problem is that we forget to adopt the way in humility.  Instead we follow form a position of pride and superiority.  In fighting evil we become evil in our methods.  In following the way we use the way to limit our love and care of others.

We demand that others accept this truth without living out the completion of our obligation to that truth.  I am to love my neighbor no matter who that neighbor may be or what he may believe.  The arrogance of the one way stance is only mitigated by love and compassion for all of those outside of that way.

I am not sure how the Father has things worked out.  I am sure that he does.  I am positive that following Christ is where we will find the truth.  We do, however, have to live all of that truth.  We must embrace the parts that seem “unfair” or limiting.  I would rather be a fool that ignore the words of Christ out of convivence. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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I’d Rather be a Fool ~ Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

I was destroyed a little today.  I went to see the live actor version of the movie Beauty and the Beast.  It was marvelous.  It was beautiful and beastly all at once.  They added a couple of amazing songs.  One of them ravaged my heart.

You see if you have not figured it out I am a romantic.  I have always loved this redemption story; even the original one that is quite different from the Disney version.  I know that I am a beast.  I know that I am hard to love.  I tried when I was very young to shut my heart off from love but failed.

Then I learned how to love.  It has been a beautiful curse every day since.  I love others deeply.  I am also flawed in many ways and apparently not worth the cost of reaming with when it is hard.  This is not self-pity or self-deprecation.  It is an open repetition of what those who love me have told me.

Still when I love I never stop loving.  I deal in hope and grace as often as possible.  Those that I have loved the most have judged me the most harshly.  I have healed from much of it.  I was even thinking I could “move on” from some of it.  Then this song ravaged me in a filled theatre. 

As I work through what a fool I am and the fool I am to be as a Christ follower I wonder how my tattered heart fits into it.  I am preparing for Holy Week.  Part of that is seeing that I am a fool to carry unrequited love but that foolishness is never wasted.  It is a glimmer of what Christ does for us. 

As I consider the foolishness of loving others please walk with me Dear Reader.  I need to lean on you a bit at moments and I need you to see that I love you even when you find me unworthy.  It is a tale as old as time.  It is all true.  Loving is such a very dangerous thing and the folly of fools.  I would, however, rather be a fool.

Evermore – Beauty and The Beast 2017

I was the one who had it all

I was the master of my fate

I never needed anybody in my life

I learned the truth too late

I'll never shake away the pain

I close my eyes but she's still there

I let her steal into my melancholy heart

It's more than I can bear

Now I know she'll never leave me

Even as she runs away

She will still torment me, calm me, hurt me

Move me, come what may

Wasting in my lonely tower

Waiting by an open door

I'll fool myself she'll walk right in

And be with me for evermore

I rage against the trials of love

I curse the fading of the light

Though she's already flown so far beyond my reach

She's never out of sight

Now I know she'll never leave me

Even as she fades from view

She will still inpire me, be a part of

Everything I do

Wasting in my lonely tower

Waiting by an open door

I'll fool myself she'll walk right in

And as the long, long nights begin

I'll think of all that might have been

Waiting here for evermore!

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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