7. Courage!

Genesis “Stuff!": Love (Conviction) and Courage

Evil, chaos, Genesis…
Evil, chaos, Jesus…
Evil, chaos…

Martin Luther…
With whom the great eternal romance continues. Another of those culture and creation collision Genesis moments came when Luther acted on the courage of his convictions, thereby ushering in the Protestant Reformation. “Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!” It takes conviction to say, “No!” and courage to say, “Yes!” He was later to write, “Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see” – or see things as they will be.

Courage: mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty (Merriam-Webster).

Conviction: strong persuasion or belief (Merriam-Webster).

Reformation
Interestingly enough, Matthew Henry refers to Jesus’ purging of the temple as the “time of reformation.” Centuries later, Luther issues in the “second great reformation” with his The 95 Thesis, in part protesting against the sale of indulgences by the church—a 16th Century “purging”—resulting in the emergence of Protestantism.

Thesis 86 asks: “Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassius, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?” Attributed to Johann Tetzel is this saying: “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.”

Matthew Henry continues: “Great corruptions in the church owe their rise to the love of money” (1 Tim 6:5,10).

The Once-ler: 
FROM THE LORAX, BY DR. SEUSS

I meant no harm. I most truly did not.
But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.

I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads.

I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads
of the Thneeds I shipped out.
I was shipping them forth
to the South! To the East! To the West!
To the North!
I went right on biggering ... selling more Thneeds.

And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.



The Right Stuff
There is a thin line between “need” and “greed.” Driven by the courage of their convictions, Genesis thinkers can decipher between the two. A Genesis person is made of the “right stuff.”

From Happy Musings:

When needs are great,
Creativity soars.
Look out!

Or conversely, when greed is great, Creativity is devoured. Look out!

At this critical prologue juncture, the question begs itself: “What “stuff” was this Genesis person, Martin Luther, made of and how can we appropriate some of that same “stuff” for ourselves?” This Genesis stuff will continue to reveal itself as these pages unfold, with courage and conviction right at the top of the list.

“HATE IS EASY; LOVE TAKES COURAGE.”

As Maya Angelo so eloquently put it, “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”

Cyberspace Link: Maya captures this truth in a recitation of her inspirational poem: Still I Rise.


3. Need!

This image was created by Lindsay Cox, a Salvationist cartoonist and Territorial archivist for the Australian Southern Territory. Those stand-up collars, bonnets and even that tambourine nestled between the two horrified lady salvos engender a culturally-felt nostalgia don’t they? – Especially for Salvationists. Paradoxically, wasn’t it, “need,” that originally provoked this inyesvative expression of evangelical militancy?

Question: Genesis occurs:

A. When we say “no” to need and “yes” to status quo.
-or-
B. When we say “yes” to need and “no” to status quo.

Those Were the Days
Nostalgia’s warm embrace grips me every time I hear this 1969 hit, sung by Mary Hopkins, written by Gene Raskin, putting English lyrics to a Russian song:

Those were the days my friend,
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way
La la la la…

I remember it well, 1969: Beatles, Bell Bottom Jeans, tie-die shirts, electric typewriters, pay phones, 35 cent gas, average salary - $4723, counter-culture, LSD, flower power, Haight Ashbury, free love, Woodstock, Easy Rider, Iron Curtain, communism, Coretta Scott King speaking from the pulpit of St. Paul's Cathedral in London (the first woman to do so), Nixon, Viet Nam, chemical warfare, race riots, student antiwar movement, Weather Underground, Operation Chaos. Ah yes, “Those were the days my friend…”

Chaos: “A state of utter confusion (Merriam-Webster).

Chaos is the incubator for creativity and innovation. Genesis occurs when we say “No!” to status quo (things as they were/are) and “Yes!” to need (things as they will be). Another word for status quo is, “culture.”

Cultures collide.
Chaos ensues.
Cravings arise.

Crave: “to have a strong desire for something” (Encarta).

Need-Based Response
Genesis is the creative response to our need-based cravings. John Stott said, “Vision begins with a holy discontent with the way things are.” Allow me to substitute the word, “vision,” with the word, Genesis, in this context.

Need: “Necessary, Essential.

Necessity: “The mother of invention” (Plato).

This idea is best illustrated in one of Aesop’s Fables, “The Crow and the Pitcher.”

A crow perishing with thirst saw a pitcher, and hoping to find water, flew to it with delight. When he reached it, he discovered to his grief that it contained so little water that he could not possibly get at it. He tried everything he could think of to reach the water, but all his efforts were in vain. At last he collected as many stones as he could carry and dropped them one by one with his beak into the pitcher, until he brought the water within his reach and thus saved his life.

This truth of this fable is illustrated historically and visually at the following website:

Schoolhouse Rock – Mother Necessity

“They need me, they need you, they need…” Genesis people creatively respond to a need and fill it!