8. Passion!

Catherine Booth poses contemplatively in this photo. Can you feel the passion in her gaze? I can!

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

The Salvation Army
...in its epochal Genesis years, dared courageously and with great conviction to sing and dance in the chaos beyond the culture that spawned its early pioneers.

In those years Great Britain was undergoing profound industrial change, chaotic in every respect. Mark Twain, while visiting London in 1897 for an event honoring the Queen, observed: "British history is two thousand years old and yet in a good many ways the world has moved farther ahead since the Queen was born than it moved in all the rest of the two thousand put together."

The Industrial Revolution
Twain’s observation captures the sense of dizzying change characterizing this Victorian period, including a mass migration of workers to industrial towns, where ever-growing urban slums awaited them. Someone wrote, “The rhythm of the seasons was replaced by the rhythm of the water wheel and the steam engine.” Women, youths and children comprised almost two-thirds of the manufacturing workforce.

Traditional ideas were being challenged, including the role of women in that society. Advances in the printing press during this period made information and knowledge more accessible to the masses, resulting in a more informed reading public, leading to controversy and debate on political and social issues.

And what about organized religion during this time? Findley Dunachie notes in his historical writings, “The church quiescent supports the status quo. In neither country was the established Church a force for change…”

Quiescent: Inactive or at rest. Dormant. Inert. (Encarta) Devoid of passion (Noland)

Passion: Fervor. Zeal. Enthusiasm. Commitment.

William Booth’s passion for these displaced souls disturbed the quiescence of New Connexion Methodism greatly, so much so, that at their 1861 annual conference in Liverpool a decision was made to minimize the magnitude of Booth’s ministry. This action disquieted the soul of his wife, Catherine, so much so, that from the gallery she spontaneously stood forth and cried out...

Never!
When Catherine said, “Never!” she was saying “Yes!” to Genesis and “No!” to status quno. This is one of those rare instances where the word, “No!” is appropriate because, in this case, a “yes” would have been a “no” to Genesis. In the same breath she said “No!” to culture and “Yes!” to need.

Souls crying out in dizzying confusion
  Two of them spiritually aware
 
Products of unwieldy, chaotic diffusion
  Yielded together in prayer
 
Desperately seeking a healing infusion
  Asking, “Who’s out there to care?”
 
Viewed by some an unwanted intrusion.
   Thus igniting her passion with flare!
 
NEVER!

This one word, felt passionately and delivered spontaneously ignited a Genesis movement, unstoppable. Chaos is the incubator for creativity and inyesvation; Passion is its fuel and energy (The singing and dancing part, so much so that...).

Passion: Spontaneous spiritual combustion (Noland).

Cyberspace Link: In this video clip listen to William Booth say in his own words, “No! Ten thousand times no!” Listen closely and you will hear in that no, a resounding yes: “No!” to status quno and “Yes!” to need. As you listen begin to feel the passion. Soak it in! Let it percolate. Start tasting it. This passion soaking process is critical and foundational to the makings of a Genesis person.

Ready? Get set. Ignite!

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.


6. Free!

Illumination! Freedom! Salvation!

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

Jesus
In his introduction to the Gospel of John (The Message), Eugene Peterson writes, “For somewhere along the line things went wrong (Genesis tells that story too) and in desperate need of fixing.” God’s fix: “In deliberate parallel to the opening words of Genesis, John presents God as speaking salvation into existence. This time God’s word takes on human form and enters history in the person of Jesus. Jesus speaks the word and it happens: forgiveness and judgment, healing and illumination, mercy and grace, joy and love, freedom and resurrection. Everything broken and fallen, sinful and diseased, called into salvation by God’s spoken word.”

Chaos: Everything broken and fallen, sinful and diseased.

Salvation: Forgiveness and judgment, healing and illumination, mercy and grace, joy and love, freedom and resurrection.

Culture and Creation Collide
When Jesus came, culture and Creation collided. This was another of those quintessential Genesis moments. Jesus invaded “the chaos beyond culture” with “antidotes for the stagnation of status quo.” Read the Gospels and you will find that He penetrated the chaos with an exclamatory “No!” to status quno, and a resounding “Yes!” to need:

You don’t have to read far before His clash with the religious culture of the day becomes proactively evident. John gets right to the heart of it quickly: “Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” – Chief Priests profiting by “filthy lucre,” broken and fallen, sinful and diseased (John 2:12-22). Jesus is challenging the status quo almost immediately

Salvation is Free
In this temple purging, Genesis moment He affirms, “Salvation is free!”

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”
(John 8:36)

Creation on a collision course,
Religious leaders decrying its source

Chaos, money changers coming hither,
Selling God to the highest bidder.

Midst this infamous, historical heist,
Introducing Jesus Christ! - Genesis.

Cyberspace Link: Stand-up comedian and host of The Steve Harvey Morning Show…

Steve Harvey Introduces Jesus Christ

Healing on the Sabbath, touching a leper, speaking to a Samaritan woman, feeding five thousand with minimal resources, uttering a new “love” commandment (John 13:34) – all need-based. It doesn’t get more inyesvative than that.

Status quo, designed to impede,
Genesis thinkers, “FREE INDEED!”

5. Chaos!

Each of the multicolored dots in this photograph is a black hole. The panorama was created using images taken by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and several ground-based telescopes. The scale image of the moon should give you an idea of how large a portion of the sky was imaged.

Each one of black holes (1000 in total) in the picture is really the super massive black hole that lies at the creative heart of another galaxy.

Prologue
In the beginning God stands on an empty stage (“shapeless chaotic mass”) and delivers the Genesis prologue, commencing with an exclamatory YES! to creation. And the great eternal romance begins.

Since Time Began
Creation is always born out of chaos. Evil enters into the equation relapsing into chaos followed by a yearning for re-creation…

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

And thus it has been since time began: Serpent ~ Adam; Babel ~ Noah; Sodom ~ Abraham and 42 generations on (Matt. 1:17), God is looking at an empty stage again (shapeless, chaotic mass), totally devoid of a Creative presence (Black hole).

“He was in the world, the world was there through him, and yet the world didn’t even notice” (John 1:9-10).

Devoid of its Soul!
A baby grand piano has always been on my wife’s “wish” list. Early on in our ministry, that “wish” was mysteriously granted in the form of a gift to her. She was deliriously ecstatic, rearranging the furniture in preparation for its delivery.

On that eventful day, the movers gingerly placed it in the space arranged as we all gathered around feasting our eyes upon this regal, sparkling white musical instrument. We stood transfixed as she sat down on the bench, lifted the keyboard cover and began to play. Shockingly, as she pressed down on the keys there was no sound. Her fingers danced across the black and white ivories, not one of them so much as emitting a note. We stared at each other dumbfounded.

Upon lifting the lid and peaking inside, NOTHING! Void, shapeless, chaotic! After some further investigative work we found that the piano had been made for a movie prop, an illusion, a husk, devoid of its soul, the very thing that gives it life. And all of this unbeknown to the donor, who upon receiving it, passed it on to us with nary a testing tap on the keys.

YES!
Alas, chaos (a state of utter confusion) ensued, crying out for one of those “Something New” Genesis moments. In the garage, we frantically searched for and found our dust-laden portable CD player, popped in a “The Best of Liberace” CD, and then strategically placed it deep within the piano cavity.

Doris sat down at the keyboard. LET THERE BE! I touched the “on” button as she simultaneously touched the ivories and, miracle of miracles, her playing equaled the sound and touch of the master, Liberace. YES!

The Genesis Thinker understands that chaos equals opportunity, and then moves instinctively to creatively fill the void (black hole).

Cyberspace Link
For me and many others whether they will admit it or not, Beethoven’s compositions are old, outdated and boring, similar to church organs, pews and other ancient black holes. Victor Borge, grasping this reality, finds opportunity in Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (things as they were) by creatively transforming the old masterpiece into “something new” and original (things as they will be): Victor Borge Link

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!