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The wonderful thing about the internet is access to information.  Good information.  Factual information.  Information that is not of opinion but “information”.  Like being able to access the MOT history – the annual “road-worthiness-obligatory-testing” –  going back several years of our new-to-us car.  And finding that our new-to-us car has a recent history of rust.  That it failed it’s last two annual-tests because of rust.

Because what I know about cars is that once rust sets in, then the writing’s on the wall.  Especially with a new-to-us car that is already seventeen years old.

So off to a bodyshop.  And the verdict?

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We could go over the top and have every last bit of the (minimal) rust cut out and repaired.  We could then have the whole underneath sealed.  We could do all of that if we really wanted.  But …

Rust on vehicles rarely begins on the outside – it begins on the inside.  In those places car-manufacturers design-in internal channels.  Channels that allow water to escape (just not all of it all the time).  So to a bodyshop – different models come with different rust-making-places.  And if we did have our car made wonderful and then undersealed … we would be hiding any future rust and making it harder to fix.  Because for the age of our vehicle – rust IS now a reactive problem – IS better to pick-off the spots each year – so we SHOULDN’T make rust a hidden problem – because the writing IS then on the wall.

It’s just no one can see it anymore!

I never knew all that. I always thought rust was an outside issue  – even with all this information so readily available I never knew that.

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The Sunday bible bit …

The bible is all we need.  The bible is God.  The bible will support anything we want it to support.  The bible is a lot of words written at a time when the internet (and cars that rusted) were not a reality.  The bible is timeless – is the Living Word of God – if not “inerrant and infallible” (open to debate) – deffo God-Breathed (not open to debate).  So don’t fuck with God or bible.

We are taught.

Along with dressing-up to go to church … preparing for worship … studying the bible …asking for forgiveness … being good … keeping the commandments … living a good life … walking with God … representing God to others … becoming God …

Like that will ever happen … not!

And my progress in this endeavour is judged by my “outside”.  I am taught “outside rules” – even though I am taught it’s the inside that is of God.  I am also taught that we are all poor sinners saved (which “forgives” all my preferred crap on the inside).  We are taught like his …

When were you last at confession?  When were you last at church?  When did you last read the bible?  When did you last pray to God the Father?  When did you last give?  When did you last … do something on the outside with which we judge your inside … judge whether you are one of us … ?

It sprays “underseal” everywhere and hides what is really going on.  It makes “church scandals” any “power abuse scandal”.  It embeds “never get caught – but if you do – never ever embarrass us”.  Nurtures our (preferred) detached reality that we must keep hidden inside.  The thin-end-of-the-wedge reality allowing scandal and abuse and power politics.  Allows a wedge between Love and our hidden detached reality – the looking-good-on-the-outside-whilst-staying-riddled-on-the-inside “reality”.

That’s why I read the bible less and less nowadays.

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The “greatest of these” … the “you have seen it written but I say” … isn’t a hard (or complicated) teaching … Nor does it require academic qualification or teach about looking good on the outside …

Nor is it of our preferred “detached reality”.  It is simply Love.

The one thing we all have in common  … whatever we call “it” … wherever we think “it” originates … whatever we put “it” down to.

Love conquers death.  Love conquers a hard-heart.  Love’s the first and last thing we each know – whether by love’s presence OR by love’s absence.

Which is fucking amazing when you consider THAT!

Love is I Am.

Dearly beloved gathered here today … how many qualifications … how much teaching … do we really need?

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