One day when he was feeling his own faults very strongly, Murshid [Sam Lewis] went into meditation and asked God what to do. He received the answer:
"Your faults are My Perfections."
In the Garden [writings from & about Murshid Sam Lewis]

It isn't easy being a critical person. "The Accuser," after all, is the true meaning of the name "Satan". But somebody's got to do it (I think.)

"Judge not, lest ye be judged." Truly, the more I judge other people, the more I see myself as blameworthy: contentious, demanding, interfering with people who just want to go on being peaceful and good.

The more I judge Friends' customs and ways of worship, the more I see how much I fall short of practicing them rightly myself.

I hate humility! Alas, sometimes it just happens.

Anyway, there's this calling, from our earliest traditions:

"But with and by this divine power and spirit of God, and the light of Jesus, I was to bring people off from all their own ways, to Christ, the new and living way; and from their churches, which men
had made and gathered, to the Church in God, the general assembly written in heaven which Christ is the head of: and off from the world's teachers, made by men, to learn of Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, of whom the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him"; and off from all the world's worships, to know the Spirit of truth in the inward parts, and to be led thereby; that in it they might worship the Father of spirits, who seeks such to worship Him; which Spirit they that worshipped not in, knew not what they worshipped. And I was to bring people off from all the world's religions, which are vain; that they might know the pure religion, might visit the fatherless, the widows, and the strangers, and keep themselves from the spots of the world; then there would not be so many beggars, the sight of whom often grieved my heart, to see so much hard-heartedness amongst them that professed the name of Christ. And I was to bring them off from all the world's fellowships, and prayings, and singings, which stood in forms without power, that their fellowship might be in the Holy Ghost, and in the Eternal Spirit of God; that they might pray in the Holy Ghost, and sing in the Spirit, and with the grace that comes by Jesus; making melody in their hearts to the Lord, who hath sent His beloved Son to be their Saviour, and caused His heavenly sun to shine upon all the world, and through them all, and His heavenly rain to fall upon the just and the unjust as His outward rain doth fall, and His outward sun doth shine on all, which is God's unspeakable love to the world."

That was George Fox, whom a truly good contemporary Friend has described as "bonkers"-- who if he came to any Meeting in these times, might well be a problematic attender, an obstacle to comfortable Friends' worship.

I'm not him. I see sacramental power at work in a great many religious practices, our 60 minute period of silence included.

But any religious practice can become institutionalized-- which constrains its power almost as much as institutionalizing a person. When I consider our practice by its fruits... I see that it attracts good people, and gives them an hour of peace from their weekly good works. I seldom see it serving to "minister to the Spirit that is in prison, which hath been in captivity in every one, that with the Spirit of Christ people may be led out of captivity up to God, the Father of spirits, [to] do service to Him, and have unity with Him, with the Scriptures, and with one another."

Friends may try for that hour to "be still awhile from [our] own thoughts, searching, seeking, desires, and imaginations," but when the hour is up, these return unchanged. Why is that? Is it that we don't sufficiently examine those thoughts in those other 167 hours?

One major problem with being a critic is-- that it makes people uneasy. I should know; it took a long painful time for me to learn to learn from being criticized, instead of just shutting down.

Fear, even the threat of fear-- typically causes the mind to slam shut. One can't free the captives if one scares them back into their cells!

What gives me certain hope in all this... is that it isn't about me trying to save the Society of Friends. Other people share the unease, and see the opportunities-- And it's that "Spirit that is in prison, which hath been in captivity in every one," that is engineering our jail break. In the end of this disquiet, I believe, we will all rejoice together!