Daniel Dessinger

Month: June 2016

  • What Is Our Purpose As People?

    While I’ve spent considerable time on the question of my individual purpose, I can’t say I ever loitered very long on the issue of humanity’s purpose in general. Perhaps it’s because the question seems unanswerable.

    Growing up in the charismatic church, I heard plenty about our purpose being to know God and make Him known. And I don’t disagree, really. But what about life in the physical world? We were created physical beings on a physical planet for a physical purpose. But why?

    The first account of Creation tells us more about God’s heart on the matter. What He was thinking when He fashioned us. Let’s take a look:

    Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth (all the wild animals), and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them. 

    Let them rule. That was the first stated purpose.

    God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

    In that passage, the mandate evolves into more detail:

    • Be fruitful
    • Increase in number
    • Fill the earth
    • Subdue the earth
    • Rule over fish, birds, and every living ground creature

    So for all the creatures that live and breathe on the earth, humans were given the mandate to rule.

    Side note: I was taught the phrase “Be fruitful and multiply” was a single phrase encapsulating a command to reproduce more humans. But with some distance from that mindset, I see now that being “fruitful” and “multiplying” are, or at least can be, two entirely separate and different mandates. To be fruitful is to do work that bears much fruit. To multiply is to reproduce. Those are not the same thing. Very different, actually. And it’s important to recognize that there’s a mandate to be fruitful in our efforts.

    What about tending to the garden? Weren’t they given a mandate to steward the land as well?

    I believe we were, but the mandate looks different because the mindset of Mosaic Israel (the time when this book was most likely written) would have seen ruling to be an act one does over living creatures, not plants and soil.

    But the issue of plants didn’t go unaddressed. Here’s what He said on the matter:

    Then God said: “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground – everything that has the breath of life in it – I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

    So we see the language is different. Humans aren’t commanded to rule the plants. But every seed bearing plant and tree with seeded fruit belongs to us for food.

    So we have ruling over the creatures and eating the plants. We have labor that bears much fruit. And we have making tiny humans. And this odd notion of subduing the earth.

    In English, “subdue” means to overcome, quieten, or bring under control. We’ll discuss this more further, because I think this is where the stewardship mandate comes into play. Take a moment to think about the earliest description of Creation. We know that people were created in God’s image. Perhaps in the story of Creation before mankind arrived we will see some sort of pattern which we are to follow. After all, if we are made in God’s image, we ought to be living and doing things that also follow His nature and pattern.

    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good…

    This is our starting point. Being made in God’s image, perhaps God saw fit to give man and woman an Earth that was somewhat formless and void, and empowered them to “subdue” it. What if subdue is our call to be like God and take something that has greater potential than it has fulfilled and to form something functionally beautiful and coherent?

    To be continued…

  • What Does Permaculture Have To Do With The Rapture?

    If you visited Culture Feast since the relaunch, you’ve likely skimmed through the post on how Jacques Ellul challenges my eschatology (i.e. my understanding of how the End Times will unfold). I wouldn’t fault you if you stopped dead in your tracks and bailed after the first paragraph or two. After all, we all know at least one or two people who have used the Book of Revelation at the end of the Bible as a tool to teach people all kinds of weird and completely unprovable ideas.

    I get it. Most of us would rather just avoid John’s book of Revelation entirely. I held that view for about 15 years. My reasoning was that if we can’t actually know which interpretation is accurate, we’re wasting our time. And that’s not entirely untrue. We live our lives based on what we believe, and most of the faith is much more solid than the part about the future.

    Stay with me for just a little longer.

    While we CAN ignore the predictions of Revelation and still follow Jesus like his friends and followers did for decades before Revelation was written, we’ve lost an important part of our identity. Whether you realize it or not, Rapture theology has shaped your great grandparents, your grandparents, your parents, and you. Just as many families carry on traditions after forgetting how they started, seeing the world as irreversibly going to hell in a hand basket has now shaped society for generations. Our historical interpretation of the Rapture and the total destruction of this earth has led to a cataclysmic irresponsibility.

    Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. – Revelation 21: 1

    This one statement has led tens of millions of people to live as though nothing they do TO this earth matters. It’s a disposable planet. They’ll just get to reboot and live in a paradise someday, so while they follow an interpretation of Hebrews 11 that says they’re aliens/foreigners on this earth and should therefore only focus on the age to come.

    All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them. – Hebrews 11: 13-16

    I’m not surprised that writings like these could convince people that they are indeed foreigners on this earth. With the sense of separation and not belonging that comes from holding completely different values and convictions, the cultural rift is immense. In a very real sense, a person who has been given abundant life IS like an alien on a foreign world.

    I get it. I went through that.

    But I see that Christendom has failed the individual in connecting the dots between Genesis, the Gospels, and Revelation. God had/has a purpose in mind when He created man and woman. And while there is sin and depravity and suffering now in the picture, do we REALLY believe that His plans and purposes for humanity have completely changed?

    God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” – Genesis 1:28

    Three ways to look at this original creative mandate for humanity.

    1. The original mandate stands and is irreversible as it is a decree from God
    2. The original mandate has been completely replaced by a new mandate because there is now a theme of Fall and Redemption in the Earth
    3. The original mandate has displaced as the most important mandate, is secondary or tertiary to the Great Commission, but it’s still there in some form

    It’s easy to adopt #2 because it’s the mindset you likely absorbed from parents and influential adults when you were a child.

    After 20 years of church elders, pastors and teachers talking about evangelism and worship as the only things that really matter, it’s hard not to devalue other vital dimensions of life.

    Maybe you’re an evangelist at heart. Or a worship leader. I get it. Our worldviews reflect our talents and place heavy priority on areas that we feel most fulfilled engaged with.

    It’s not my intention to replace worship or evangelism with ecological stewardship. But stewardship was the original mandate before worship or evangelism. It’s part of the DNA of human beings to have this awesome and creative responsibility.

    So what DOES the rapture have to do with permaculture?

    Stay tuned. We’re going to get there.

  • Mastering Pop Culture Might Not Make You As Amazing A Person As You Once Thought

    A lot of you grew up, like me, burdened with the uber rules of a religious household. It was oppressive because parents were afraid of everything, from Dungeons and Dragons to Garbage Pail Kids to the Smurfs, a lot of churchy parents feared the influence of popular culture on their kids.

    The simplest answer was to remove pop culture from the home. Whether that meant removing the tv entirely or only allowing kids to listen to “Christian” music, moms and dads tried a lot of different things to keep the influence of the world away from their kids.

    There was a massive backlash eventually. After enduring the ever popular condemn-everyone-for-what-they-do-wrong stage, most kids went through a “I’m so authentic in my faith that I don’t shame others or myself into avoiding secular music and television. In fact, I’m going to always be in the know so I can be relevant in my faith for this day and age.”

    And it sounds nice, the thought that we could take the judgmentalism out of the child and leave the devotion and faith to simmer in the midst of alternative grunge rock and Ethan Hawk movies.

    The problem came with the never ending degrees of compromise. There was never really a safe place to stop experiencing pop culture. So we ended up being identical to pop culture. We dress the same, talk the same, watch the same movies, and talk about the same celebrities on Twitter.

    And while it might seem like a virtue that we no longer make everyone feel like they’re going to burn in eternal hellfire for each bad decision they’ve made, our lives are so identical to the rest of the world that whatever ideas or beliefs we might have to share wouldnt’ matter in the slightest to them. After all, why take on the burden of new beliefs and ideas that really don’t change your life AT ALL?

    Change that only takes place on the inside is theoretical change. Not REAL change. And change that only takes place in your “beliefs” or your “heart” aren’t worth adopting anyway. You can be just like you are right now, or you can believe what I believe because I say so and STILL live just like you are right now. It’s a decision that offers no point in making it.

    There MUST Be A Point To Faith

    Faith has to mean something. I know it’a cool and super accepting of you as a person to say that faith is a private personal matter like politics but it’s simply not. Sure, anyone can hold whatever beliefs they choose. That is a freedom and a right. But if they remain the same as everyone else in their behavior and lifestyle, their differences in “faith” are really not very important.

    Faith causes us to BE more. And faith causes us to DO more. Not because we’re bad if we don’t. Not because we don’t want to be shameful citizens. But because faith transforms lives. It breathes new life into old weary bones. It opens eyes to new innocence and puts to death old ways of thinking, expecting, and believing.

    What we do is the obvious, natural outgrowth of what we believe. So if we behave like everyone else, do we REALLY believe so much different than they do? Or do we just hold onto some different ideas in our minds?

    Ideas can be examined objectively. Faith comes from hearing unwavering truth and being convinced on the inside of its veracity. It causes change because Truth means the rules are way different than we used to think they were. And the difference between these rules and those old rules is life changing.

    Ideas are interesting. Faith is transformative. Let’s make sure we’re using the right words for what we have.

  • Radically Transform Your Life By Making One Tiny Change

    I get easily distracted. Shiny objects, pretty blog themes, and social notifications are my kryptonite. So when I tell you that you can radically transform your culture one decision at a time, know that this is the voice of painful, failure-ridden experience talking.

    Save Your Starts For Mondays

    It takes A LOT for me to get moving, so I time my new ventures to coincide with events that will help me see it through. For example, I don’t try to start ANY new habits Tuesday – Sunday. It’s Monday or bust. First Monday of the month? Even better. First Monday of the new year? The absolute best.

    Change feels more official when it begins on a first. Without this help, I find it much easier to feel lazy and chalk the idea of doing something new as a “fad” or “just another hair-brained idea”. Without that added bonus of beginning on a Monday, it’s more of a casual everyday decision. I don’t know about you, but I don’t get ANYTHING done when I handle life casually. So Mondays it is.

    Start Small. No REALLY Small.

    Big changes come from doing small things over and over and developing new habits. Imagine how different you will be when at the end of the first year you’ve implemented 12 changes to your lifestyle and habits! This is radical life-changing stuff we’re talking about.

    But most people who don’t see it through bail because they aim too high. Yes, this is the point when I tell you to get your head out of the clouds and focus on much smaller routine shifts.

    What qualifies as a small shift?

    Any number of things qualify. Here’s a few ideas to get you started…

    • Wake up 15 minutes earlier, make a cup of coffee, and meditate.
    • Take 5 minutes to thank God for your spouse, children, friends, job, latest victory, current provision
    • Add a leafy green vegetable to lunch every single day
    • Wear blue blocker glasses after 7PM every evening
    • Turn off wifi on phone and router before bed each night
    • Call your mom/dad every Sunday and ask about their week
    • Read 10 pages per day in a book you’ve been meaning to read
    • Stretch for 10 minutes before you get dressed in the morning
    • Spend your lunch breaks in the sun whenever weather permits

    If this list doesn’t appeal to you, that’s okay. It’s not your job to do what I would do. It’s up to you to listen to your gut, your intuition, your conscience, and do the 1st thing that comes to you. Small shifts change lives. 

    Just to give you an idea of how small the shift can be, I’ll tell you my latest small shift.

    FLOWER ESSENCES. Yes, that’s how manly I am. I have determined within myself to put 4-6 drops of flower essences in every glass of water I drink all day long. If you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about, I’ll tell you in an upcoming post. But the point for today is that my change is using a liquid dropper and putting four tiny drops of liquid into my glass of water.

    Will it transform my life? Maybe. But I’m not counting on one new shift changing my life all by itself. It’s about building momentum. My shift for this month starts a snowball of change. When next month rolls around, I’ll be in the habit of using flower essences all the time, and I won’t have to think about it anymore. Then I’ll add something else to my life in addition. One change will improve my mood and my positive attitude. That slight shift enables me to speak with thankfulness. That shift enables me to see people differently and choose to listen more. That shift opens up my channel of empathy. And before you know it, the snowball has grown so large that I’m rolling on a whole new level.

    Week upon week, month upon month, year upon year. It’s radical cultural change one tiny choice at a time.

    What will YOU choose?