Skip to main content

Causes, Values & Evangelism

Last week I walked past Occupy Toronto for maybe the fifteenth time. I have had a lot of thoughts about about the whole thing, and my friend and I got to chatting... One take-away was that methodology really matters to me. I am a big believer in free speech and open dialogue, but I'm also fairly easily put-off peoples' causes or perspectives by how they communicate.
As I've grown more certain of and passionate about the things that I value, I often find myself unsure of how to communicate it all... I want it to be in keeping with my personality, I want it to be authentic, and I want it to be winsome. I do not want to be apathetic, falsely exuberant or in-your-face.

It seems to me that we each have our own style of "evangelizing" the causes we love and beliefs we hold. I used to think my reservedness was due to insecurity, and I often tried to compensate for that. But now I'm at rest and usually don't feel the need to put-on the excitement and boldness I once thought I should show if I truly loved something.

Not that I never get excited.* There are some subjects that I can get quite animated about, given the right circumstances. They include:
1. Art.
Beautiful things make me incredibly happy.
2. Solitude.
Quiet is such an important part of life, but we so often neglect it.
3. Nature.
We need it. I want to value it.
4. Global Perspectives.
The world does not revolve around me.

5. Loyal Friendships.
Life is not meant to be done alone.
6. Purposeful Travel.
Oh, the things I can learn!

7. Jesus.
I keep coming back to him.



*Even though I get excited about these things, I can't see that excitement ever spilling over into domineering or non-listening rants. If it does and I just don't notice, please tell me off. Gently.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Simone Weil: On "Forms of the Implicit Love of God"

Simone Weil time again! One of the essays in Waiting for God  is entitled "Forms of the Implicit Love of God." Her main argument is that before a soul has "direct contact" with God, there are three types of love that are implicitly  the love of God, though they seem to have a different explicit  object. That is, in loving X, you are really loving Y. (in this case, Y = God). As for the X of the equation, she lists: Love of neighbor  Love of the beauty of the world  Love of religious practices  and a special sidebar to Friendship “Each has the virtue of a sacrament,” she writes. Each of these loves is something to be respected, honoured, and understood both symbolically and concretely. On each page of this essay, I found myself underlining profound, challenging, and thought-provoking words. There's so much to consider that I've gone back several times, mulling it over and wondering how my life would look if I truly believed even half of these thin

I Like to Keep My Issues Drawn

It's Sunday night and I am multi-tasking. Paid some bills, catching up on free musical downloads from the past month, thinking about the mix-tape I need to make and planning my last assignment for writing class. Shortly, I will abandon the laptop to write my first draft by hand. But until then, I am thinking about music. This song played for me earlier this afternoon, as I attempted to nap. I woke up somewhere between 5 and 5:30 this morning, then lay in bed until 8 o'clock flipping sides and thinking about every part of my life that exists. It wasn't stressful, but it wasn't quite restful either...This past month, I have spent a lot of time rebuffing lies and refusing to believe that the inside of my heart and mind can never change. I feel like Florence + The Machine 's song "Shake it Out" captures many of these feelings & thoughts. (addendum: is the line "I like to keep my issues strong or drawn ?" Lyrics sites have it as "stro

Esse - Czeslaw Milosz

I'm on a bit of a poetry binge this week, and Monday afternoon found me lying on the luxurious shag rug of a friend's tiny apartment, re-reading some of my favourite poets (ee cummings, William Carlos Williams, Czeslaw Milosz). It is an adventure to re-open a collection and wonder what will pop out, knowing something you've read before will strike you afresh, or you will be reminded of a particularly moving line that you had somehow forgotten. Like this piece from Milosz, which floors me. Every. damn.* time. The first time I read it, I lay in a park with a friend (this same friend who offered me her rug as my reading burrow) and demanded that I share it with her. I spoke it carefully, and then, into the post-reading silence, I slammed the book shut, and dropped it as loudly as I could onto the grass. "I'm never reading anything again," I declared, "What else is there to say?" Esse I looked at that face, dumbfounded. The lights of métro st