Today's Journal

PRETENDING

One of the easiest things to do is to pretend to meditate, pretend to pray, and pretend to hear. We can pretend to know God a certain way and have to pretend, to ourselves and others that we may believe what we say and do. When we pretend to believe, we believe nothing except the pretense. We can even learn to ‘make believe’ which is pretending to believe. When certain conditions exist, we can pretend to be sad, and sometimes pretend to be happy. We can pretend to pray and pretend to worship, and most of the time others know little of our pretending because it so commonly expected and accepted. If one does not know what is real then pretense is the only thing that is real; that is, make-believe.

There is an acceptance of things called ‘spiritual,’ that may be very artificial, plastic, mundane and boring, but if done with sentimentality, might also be affirmed. If the pastor speaks in a voice using hushed sounds and religious phrases, quoting scripture, gesturing with the hands in a certain way, it all seems to indicate we are ‘with God.’ If things are done in some liturgical order, by someone in a religious costume, and we say ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ and use some phrases and hymns from the Reformation, in low and boring tones, and we quote some cold and pre-written ‘responsive reading’ that isn’t very responsive, there is for some reason, the tendency to make-believe we have ‘been with God,’ or responded to God. What else could one do but make-believe? Unless… make-believe is what we believe.

When our spiritual life is pretended it needs upended.

I’m headed over to the other side of the Pond to have some Cuban Coffee and Ginger Snaps and pretend they are one of Roz’s Homemade Cinnamon Rolls. That is about as make-believe as it can get. 

“For you ignore God’s law and substitute your own tradition. You skillfully sidestep God’s law in order to hold on to your own tradition.” Jesus