UMM Reflection

UMM Reflections 2011 Apr 17

Two universal and prime paths of transformation have always been available to every human being God has created: great love and great suffering. Only love and suffering are strong enough to break down our usual ego defenses, crush our dual thinking, and open us up to Mystery. In my experience they, like nothing else, exude the mysterious chemistry that can transmute us from a fear-based life into a love-based life.

No surprise that the Christian icon of redemption is a man offering love from a crucified position.

(Richard Rohr, 2009)

– What life experiences have really changed you? Your essence? Your path?

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UMM Reflections 2011 Apr 10

Young men need to know that it’s inevitable they will fail, and it’s all right that they fail. We need to provide a net so that they can enter defeat with understanding, courage, and wisdom.

Generally, twelve-step groups are doing a better job than religious groups at helping people in this regard. They provide members with a net that allows them to fall into the necessary pit of failure. For addicts, it is often abject failure—hitting bottom, losing everything meaningful—that becomes a person’s entrance to real and deeper life. I would hope that everyone does not have to become an addict to face their shadow self, to learn humility, and to discover their Higher Power in an active and trustful way.

But there needs to be something to gain our attention, to humiliate our false self, and to focus our deepest desire. Without it, much religion is mere fire insurance. This saying is worth repeating: Religion is populated by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality begins when we have been through hell.

– When have I failed, and what did I gain from the failure?

(from On the Threshold of Transformation by Richard Rohr)

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UMM Reflections 2011 Apr 01

A few years ago there was a nature special on television about elephants in a certain part of Africa. For some reason, these young bull elephants were acting strangely out of character – antisocial and aimlessly violent; they were stomping on VWs, pushing over trees for no reason, and even killing other small animals and baby elephants. Park rangers came in to study the problem and, in the course of their investigation, they discovered that there were no older bull elephants in that area. By some accident, all the older bulls had either died or been poached for their ivory, which left the teenage males to roam and forage out of control. Their solution?

They brought in some older bulls from other areas by helicopter, lowered them onto the scene, and in a matter of weeks, amazingly, the whole situation had changed. Apparently, all the old bulls did was wave their ears and make various sounds or small charges, and somehow the younger male elephants understood through these communications that their behavior was not the way good elephant boys should act. It seemed to be just that simple. Things soon returned to normal once the elders operated as elders. In the human realm, when there are no “kings,” young warriors become brutal, magicians behave as charlatans, and lovers are soon addicts. Someone has to give the young male boundaries and identity. He does not get them by himself or without guidance.

We are not a healthy culture for boys or men. Not the only reason, but surely one reason is that we are no longer a culture of elders who know how to pass on wisdom, identity, and boundaries to the next generation.

(from Adam’s Return by Richard Rohr)

– How can we possibly pass on elder wisdom to our sons and to boys in the community, when that function in our own culture has been largely subverted?

– Who in your own life has, even for a moment, imparted mentoring wisdom? Why did it work?

– King, Lover, Magician, Warrior are the four classic male archetypes, Christ embodied all four in balance. Do you identity with any of these archetypes?

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Did you receive this by email? If not, email Clifford Knoll (cliff.knoll@gmail.com) with subject “subscribe”, with your name in the body of the email. Encourage others to do the same.
Consider coming to a United Methodist Men call to formation meeting, scheduled for April 9, 9a.m., Rm. 222

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