A Manifesto for a Catalyst

A Dream, A Crazy Idea, An Insane Hypothesis...A Plan. 

Conceived of a dream, I have a "Crazy Idea." (If you know me, you know this.)

And borne of that conception: "An Insane Hypothesis."

My dream...that the world would change.

My crazy idea...that the world actually COULD change.

My "Insane Hypothesis"...(I've been out-on-a-limb before...but now I'm out there where the branches get really thin...and I'm okay with that!)...

Ready?

Okay.

I Believe We Can See Significant, Discernible World Change...Within Five Years!

That's right.

I said it...

Five Years.

Having the dream was great. 

Hope comes from dreams.

I've had hope.

That dream, that hope, lead me to my crazy idea...

This idea took my dream, and created this frustrating stirring.

The kind that keeps you up at night.

The kind that makes you write words, and poems, 

And say crazy things...

Crazy, crazy things.

And those crazy ideas lead to an insane hypothesis.

The kind that makes people question your lucidity.

But it can also lead to lots of ambiguity.

Dreams...

And ideas...

And even hypothesis...

But these, without some direction...

...just makes you feel as though you've crossed the rail and taken a flying leap into a sea of ambiguity.

And people don't deal well with ambiguity.

But, after a few years of soaking up all sorts of potentialities in that ambiguity...

I have emerged.

I have emerged...dangerous.

See, not only am I a dreamer.

I'm a dreamer...

With a plan.

So, let me give this hypothesis again...   

I BELIEVE WE CAN SEE SIGNIFICANT, DISCERNIBLE WORLD CHANGE...WITHIN FIVE YEARS!

(And my five year estimate...well that's a conservative estimate. Huh! Huh! The conservative estimate of a crazy dreamer! That made me laugh.)

And it goes something like this: if the Church would makes some deliberate changes...the sheer shock of those changes* would propel the world into obvious change.

      *Changes. If the world found us obviously and overwhelmingly fulfilled in life; and passionate, loving and non-judgmental.

For The World To Change The Church Has To Change.

Yep. 

The CHURCH has to change.  

To hear what we've said, for at least the past half millenium or so, we've been waiting for the world to change...

We've been laying this obligation at the world's feet.

But, since way back in the OT, it's been our responsibility. (Go read 2 Chronicles 7:14)

For the world to change, the church has to change...on purpose.  

We all want to see the world change. But it appears we hope this will happen by some kind of good-luck serendipity. 

Like world-change will happen accidentally...like getting T-boned by a Buick LeSabre.

(This made me laugh too. Like we're driving along...and BAM! "Dude! What just happened? Everyone alright? Wait...hey! The world just changed!!")

I'm a huge believer in prayer, and singing, and meeting, and talking...but at some point we've got to add to this, proactivity...

You know...if we want the world to change.

Yes, for the world to change...we've got to change. 

We've got to change.

We've got to change our approach to some things.  

Our approach to ourselves, and to the world, tends to be one of pandering to guilt and fear. 

But God's original plan for humanity wasn't fear...it wasn't guilt...it wasn't death...

It was life.

God's original plan for humanity was that we'd experience full life.

Adam and Eve Ruined the World's First Nudist Resort.

At the onset of creation...actually probably for eternity before this point in time...God wanted some simple things for humanity. 

He wanted unencumbered community. 

He wanted us to enjoy true community with each other. 

He wanted us to enjoy creation.

Well...he wanted us to enjoy, to realize, to live...full life. 

Full life. 

This is what Adam and Eve had...full life.

They were, both in reality and in metaphor, completely open and honest about who they were.

They hid nothing from themselves...

Nothing from each other...

Nothing from God.

They experienced no sense of shame or guilt or death.

They truly lived...

Feasting upon life itself... 

Their very sustenance being the tree of life.

Until one day, through fatal deception...turned their focus to a different kind of knowledge...

The knowledge of good and evil.

The knowledge of death.

(Have you ever thought about the fact that the only reason we understand comparing good and evil, is because we were lied to by Satan?!)

This was not, eh-hem, God's plan for humanity.

Since this commission of "original sin," the focus of the church (and religion in general has predominately focused on "good and evil"...and death...ever since.

Our vantage point of the church and the world has been from the leafy foliage of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

But it doesn't have to be this way. 

It shouldn't be this way.

This...was NOT the plan.

And someone came along to redeem the plan.

Someone came along to free us from our focus on death...

And return our focus to life. 

Jesus' express purpose for coming to earth was that we "may have life and have it to the full."

Jesus came to redeem us to life.

To carry us from the branches of death...

Back to dining from the plentiful fruit of the tree of life.

We must turn our focus back to LIFE...and away from death.

The Latin Phrase Application 

A huge part of this whole world-change thing, is, of course, reaching out.

But something has to happen first.

Before we can reach out...we must reach in.

We need to know what we really have...so we can really know what we have to give.

We must find our dream, our passion, our goal, our gifts and abilities.

You would think this would be amazingly simple.

I don't think so. 

I think, quite often, the person we know the least...is ourself.

Our hearts and brains are barraged with advice, compliments and complaints.

We're told what we should be, what we should do, what we should feel and how we should act...by everyone from birth to death.

We face such a wide variety of

emotions, whims and wild fantasies...that our true dream, goal and passion become smothered and unrecognizable.

We're told, that when we are pliable to God, our heart's desire will be granted.

But how do we even know what our heart truly wants? 

To start, we need to apply to ourselves, the account by Caesar, of an ancient battle in central Turkey:

"Veni. Vidi. Vici." 

I used to get so frustrated with the "OBVIOUS contradiction" (sarcasm inferred) of Jeremiah 17:9...

I used to read this verse...

Or have this verse quoted to me (EVERYTIME I mentioned my dream)...

And experience such overwhelming confusion...

 "Why would the Bible contain so many reference to 'heart's desire,' 'believing with our heart,' 'trusting with all our heart,' etc...when our heart was so deceptive?"

Until...I read the rest of the chapter. 

Then, I realized, finding the truth of who we are...

And what we're supposed to be doing...

And the direction we're supposed to be heading...

Takes some for real discipline...some real digging. 

I Came. I Saw. I Conquered.

I Came.

We must "come to ourselves." 

We have to place our trust in God and take some time to have our hearts examined. 

While it's great to take under advisement the compliments and critiques of others, we have to take time to come to ourselves find lies beneath the fancies and notions...to see the truth that exists.

To find our true passion.

We need to come to ourselves. 

I Saw. 

We must "see our giants."

We have to identify our habits and hinderances... The barriers that stand between where we are and where we need to be...

So often, we are our own Goliath (there should be a link here to a blog I once wrote) and the "giant" we must defeat...is us.

We need to see.

I Conquered.

We must "conquer ourselves."

We have to conquer those things we've seen. 

I have to conquer the things about me, that keep me, from being the me...I was created to be.

We need to conquer.

It takes discipline to find who we are...

And BE who we are.

But when we do...we find what provides us with a full life.

And when we find that passion, that goal, that dream, that thing that provides us with a fulfilled life...

We can then offer full life to others.

Yes...then.

Humans are plagued with this subconscious thinking: "If my life stinks, why shouldn't everyone's life stink?"

But if we enjoy life and are fulfilled...

We can offer joy and a full life to others.

And, you know what?

We have to avoid the lie of false-humility...

As it turns out...

You actually ARE WORTHY of living a fulfilled life.

In our attempt at humility, we often say we're not worthy...

That we don't deserve this full life we've been offered.

But we are worthy.

Why? Because Jesus died and rose again to make us worthy.

You want to be humble? Humble in honesty?

Honest humility is found in our realization that we've been made worthy, because Jesus made us worthy.

He made me worthy.

He paid for that with his life...with his death.

And this...makes me cry. 

(I had to stop and breathe here for a couple minutes.)

Now that we've started to find this full life...let's move.

Let's move out.

I've Got A Problem With The "Occupy" Movement...Prove Love.

The first part of this subset is laced with ignorance.

 Honestly. 

And this is nothing to do with the politics, demands, concerns of the Occupy movement. 

I've heard little bits and pieces of a couple of varied percentage points...

But I don't know much about them other than the fact that their obvious means to their end...

Is to, as their name suggests, occupy.

They apparently have some kind of loose organization...

They have some sort of hierarchy...

They assemble.

They sing.

They shout.

They spread ideals.

But...basically...they occupy.

They fill space.

And this really doesn't make a difference.

This doesn't really change.

How do I know?

Well, we've got several hundreds years of proof...

Occupying our pews...

Occupying our buildings...

Occupying our campuses...

It doesn't matter how righteous your cause...

If it's mostly conversation...

If it's mostly occupation...

It's mostly not going to change.

We need proactivity.

We need to Prove Love.

A few salient comments about love...from the Book.

The command of Christ, is to love. (John 13:34)

True theology, is to love. (1 John 4:7)

The proper response to sin, is to love. (1 Peter 4:8)

We've been called here to prove love...to provide life.

And love is actually pretty simple.

It's really, simply about treating people the way we want to be treated.

Have you ever been to a wedding, officiated by some sort of minister of the Christian faith?

Then you've probably heard Paul's famous discourse on love.

Everything in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 deals with how "love" actively treats others.

And, if you think about it...it's how we, ourselves, want to be treated.

And that's what Jesus said sums up "the law and the prophets."

Love's a simple thing...really. 

And...love takes discipline (that's why Jesus said love is the proof of discipleship).

And...love takes dedication. 

When we have a full-life, we want to share full-life.

When we realize the joy of living a full-life...

When we find our true passion and calling...

And we live that...

We want to share that with others.

When we want to share that with others, we want to prove love to others.

When the world sees this change...

This change in our actions, our attitudes, our life...

When the world sees this change...

This change to proving love, as opposed to pointing out sin and providing  judgement...

My contention is...

When the world sees this change...

That change will be a catalyst...

Which will propel the world...

To Change.

Sign On The Dotted Line

I know I'm crazy.

I know this is a silly dream...

A crazy idea...

An insane hypothesis...

I know I'm crazy enough to believe this can happen.

I'm crazy enough to dream this...

I'm crazy enough to have this vision... 

And if I'm this crazy...

I'm going to ask you to be crazy too.

I'm going to ask you to be crazy enough...

To buy-in to this vision.

This dream.

This crazy idea.

This insane hypothesis.

I'm asking you to join me.

And, really...

What's the worst that could happen?

Really?

If we make these deliberate changes...

If we find and live a full life...

If we prove love, and offer full life to the world...

And the world ACTUALLY changes...

If, within five years, we ACTUALLY see significant, discernible world-change... 

AWESOME! 

Yay! (You know?)

But even if it doesn't...

Even if, within five years, we don't actually see significant, discerirnible world-change...

Guess what?

We've still learned who we are and the passion of our life.

We've still realized a "life to the full." 

We've still proven love to the world.

We've still shared this "life to the full" with the world.

And if we do that...

AWESOME!

Yay! (You know...)

In a little over a month, we find ourselves back in a very special time in the church calendar...

The season of Lent. 

Last year I had the idea of a "Lent Dent"...

I had the idea that, what if, in preparation for Resurrection...

Instead of a fast that focuses on us...

And what we're giving up...

What if we focused on others...

And what we can give to them.

I'm asking you to take the next month or so,

And begin this process of applying "Veni. Vidi. Vici." to yourself.

To begin the process of finding...

Your passion...

Your gift...

Your call...

Your purpose...

Your full life.

And starting (not ending, but starting) this Lent Season...

Prove Love.

Show Full Life.

Be a catalyst.

To change the world. 

If you know me, you know this...
I Love You!
Ollie Horne,
A Dreamer...with a plan.