PE1: What is the Revel Life?
Welcome, friends...
On today's inaugural episode of The Revellious Podcast, we're going to look a little at the philosophies that underlie My Revel Life and this podcast.
As succinctly as I can, I'd like to ask and answer at least two questions:
What does it mean to live the Revel Life?
And...
What does it mean to be revellious?
In these discussions, I'd like to touch briefly on things like declaring war on the status quo in your life, being and becoming not just a Jesus-followers but a Jesus-lover and a life-explorer. I'd even like to talk for a moment about being and becoming lovingkindess itself... just like LOVINGKINDNESS Himself.
Again, welcome! I'm so glad your here!
By way of introduction... My name is Dave Brown, and I'm the founder and curator of MyRevelLife.com. I'm also, of course, the host of The Revellious Podcast.
With that out of the way, let's go ahead and jump into today's show...
--
The Revel Life, a definition…
The Revel Life is a way of life devoted to pursuing--presently, whole-heartedly, joyfully, and polymathically--a deep, abiding, and generative intimacy with God (that is, the Trinity), ourselves, the people around us (meaning, primarily, our family members and friends), and even the whole of creation. The Revel Life is 100% relational. It's a life devoted to partnering with God to restore and bolster in our lives, and the lives of others, the four principal and foundational relationships of God's Kingdom: Our integrated and synergistic relationships with…
The Revel Life is a way of life devoted to pursuing--presently, whole-heartedly, joyfully, and polymathically--a deep, abiding, and generative intimacy with God (that is, the Trinity), ourselves, the people around us (meaning, primarily, our family members and friends), and even the whole of creation. The Revel Life is 100% relational. It's a life devoted to partnering with God to restore and bolster in our lives, and the lives of others, the four principal and foundational relationships of God's Kingdom: Our integrated and synergistic relationships with…
The Trinity--of course, that's relational arena 1.
Ourselves--that's arena 2.
The people around us--arena 3.
And...
The whole of creation--arena 4.
Yeah, I know... that's quite the mouthful. Polymathically, Dave? Generative, synergistic? Dave, I don't even know what those words mean. Do you think you could help me out here?
Of course. It's not that I'm trying to sound smart--Heaven forbid! It's just that these words carry significant weight in my life, and have for a very long time.
So... to help you out with all this, here's a short vocabulary lesson...
When I use words like POLYMATHIC or POLYMATHICALLY, I'm referring to "intelligent generalism as well as renaissance-like curiosity, exploration, learning, artistry, and life-mastery."
When I use the word ABIDING, I'm referring to "an eternal grounding in something or Someone."
When I use the word GENERATIVE, I'm referring to "something that's life-giving."
When I use the word TRINITY, I'm referring to "the Triune God of the Holy Bible (that is, to God the Father [Papa], God the Son [the Lord Jesus Christ], and God the Holy Spirit [the Invigorating and Ventilating Breathe of I AM; the Drenching, Ubiquitous Presence of Yahweh--the Eternal Name of Existence])."
When I use the phrase WHOLE OF CREATION, I'm referring to "nature and our many ecological, social, and societal environments, both in part and as a whole." Included in this arena are things like your work and living arrangements, the economy, online culture, the watershed you live in, and your relationship to the garbage you generate, collect, and dispose of.When I use the word KINGDOM, I'm referring to "the ever-expanding, ever-advancing rule and reign of Jesus Christ--our Lord, Savior, Master, King, and Sovereign."When I use the word INTEGRATED, I'm referring to "that which has been formed and united into one organic whole.”
And...
When I use the word SYNERGISTIC, I'm referring to "the combination of two or more agents or forces such that their combined, interacting effect is far greater than the sum of their individual effects.”
Okay... keeping all that in mind, I'd like to repeat my earlier definition of the Revel Life. Here we go...
The Revel Life is a way of life devoted to pursuing--presently, whole-heartedly, joyfully, and polymathically--a deep, abiding, and generative intimacy with God (that is, the Trinity), ourselves, the people around around us (meaning, primarily, our family members and friends), and even the whole of creation. The Revel Life is 100% relational. It's a life devoted to partnering with God to restore and bolster in our lives, and the lives of others, the four principal and foundational relationships of God's Kingdom: Our integrated and synergistic relationships with…
The Trinity.
Ourselves.
The people around us.
And...
The whole of creation.
--
Revellious/Revelliousness, another definition...
The word revellious is, quite simply, a word I made up. For those of you who know me well, that's a pretty common theme in my life. Revellious is an etymological mash-up of three words--revel, rebellious, and marvelous.
--
The Revellious (aka Revelers, Revellious Ones, and Enlightened Rebels), again, a definition…
The Revellious are those inflamed by and with a deep revelliousness of soul. To be a Revellious One is to be one who breaks with the heard--continually and continuously, without end--in his (or her) joyful celebrations of life shared with God.
The Revellious are those characterized unfeigningly by…
The Revellious are those inflamed by and with a deep revelliousness of soul. To be a Revellious One is to be one who breaks with the heard--continually and continuously, without end--in his (or her) joyful celebrations of life shared with God.
The Revellious are those characterized unfeigningly by…
BRAZEN (that is, "unrestrained") GLADNESS.
INSURRECTING (that is, "uprisingly rebellious") SELFLESSNESS.
DISRUPTIVE (that is, "shattering and radically reconfiguring") LOVINGKINDNESS.
PARADIGM-SHIFTING (that is, "revolutionary and insurgent") WHOLE-HEARTEDNESS.
DISARMING (that is, "hostility-allaying and calming") VULNERABILITY, GENUINENESS, and GRACIOUSNESS.
ICONOCLASTIC (that is, "false-image destructing") HAPPINESS.
And...
NOVEL (that is, "unusual, insolent, even customary-shattering") INVENTIVENESS and LIFE-ARTISTRY.
--
In all the podcast episodes that follow, we'll look at different aspects of the Revel Life and with what it means to be a Revellious One... to be among those who comprise The Revellious. Each episode will last about fifteen minutes--if that! In time and over time, I may occasionally insert an interview or two--or more--into the line up. Whenever I do that, those episodes will, of course, last a little longer.
To get the most out of this show, I recommend that you listen to each episode at least twice (if not more). While I'm not nearly as interested in "quantity" as I am in "quality," I've discovered that quality most often arises when we focus intently and often on those things we believe are the most important--even critical--to our lives. As I tell my students in the martial arts world, I'd rather you know five things incredibly well than 500 things only reasonably well.
My aim, with all this, is to invite you to partake of and live out a different kind of life--one that's been intentionally designed and forged and tempered in the fire by you and God in loving partnership with each other. It's the kind of life I've shared with God for a very long time. As your friend, and as the host of this show, I just want you to begin to experience some of things I've been experiencing in my life with God. While I may not yet be a master artisan of life like Jesus, I do know this: A second grader can help his first grader friends with their math homework. And, quite honestly, that's how I see myself: I'm really just a second grader, who's doing his best to help his first grader friends with their math homework.
Along with each episode, I will, on The Revellious Podcast page of the MyRevelLife website, provide show notes, which, except in the instance of an interview, will be an exact transcript of the episode. If you're so inclined, please feel free to read along during the show.
At the conclusion of each episode, I'll leave you with a Maxim and a Call-to-action. I want you walk away with something... something solid you can think about... and something generative you can create and pursue.
--
In that vein, here's today's MRL (My Revel Life) Maxim: Every day, I pursue revelliously the evolution of my being. I do this by training at my limits--not just physically but also emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. To get what I want, I pay the price in every moment of every day. The key, first and foremost, is knowing very clearly what I want.
--
Today's MRL Call-to-action: Begin, today, to ask yourself the following question: What do I really want in my life? In your answers, be as specific as you can in the different arenas of your life--and make sure to write down anything that comes to you. As I've heard myself say to my own self on many occasions, "Dave... If you don't write it down, it never happened." In this case, that saying might sound a lot more like this, "If you don't write it down, it might never happen." In your pursuits of what you want, give yourself the best chance possible of getting what you want by writing it all down. Again, the key to all this is identifying and internalizing very clearly what you want. Take the time to mine your heart for such clarity. Do this; you'll thank me later.
--
Today's MRL Call-to-action: Begin, today, to ask yourself the following question: What do I really want in my life? In your answers, be as specific as you can in the different arenas of your life--and make sure to write down anything that comes to you. As I've heard myself say to my own self on many occasions, "Dave... If you don't write it down, it never happened." In this case, that saying might sound a lot more like this, "If you don't write it down, it might never happen." In your pursuits of what you want, give yourself the best chance possible of getting what you want by writing it all down. Again, the key to all this is identifying and internalizing very clearly what you want. Take the time to mine your heart for such clarity. Do this; you'll thank me later.
--
So... there you go, friends. Go, and think upon these things. Do the work, and BE revellious.
Until next time…
We (and that includes you and me!!)...
Are the few... the proud... THE REVELLIOUS.
Dave out…
ABOUT DAVE
Beyond being an imager, lover, imitator, and follower of Jesus Christ, Dave Brown is nothing more than a contingent imager of God, active-contemplative, and artist of life in desperate need of His Master: The Triune God. His greatest desire is to experience loving and Divine intimacy with God Almighty (the Trinity). After that, it’s to walk with and before Them--in and with great holiness, humility, and purity-, wholeness-, fullness-, and revelliousness-of-heart--all the days of his existence. To meet his needs, Dave works as an ecological engineer, inventor, writer, life- and business-coach, and personal trainer (in mixed martial arts, holistic life-discipline, and meditative prayer). If you’re interested in engaging with Dave in conversation or through personal one-on-one training in living revelliously, you can connect with him through MyRevelLife.com and The Revellious Podcast. If you’re interested in his engineering and inventiveness sides, please visit his other website here.
Comments
Post a Comment