Distraction v Daydreaming

February 9, 2026

Yesterday I wrote about distraction arguing for the need to focus on what’s important. Mary, for example, was focused on Jesus’s teaching. Martha was distracted by many things to do. Perhaps Martha would have felt more at ease in serving or whatever through focus. I don’t want to carry that metaphor too far.

When we are learning or teaching or driving, we need focus. Distraction is our enemy.

However, there are times when the opposite is true.

Sometimes we may be working out a problem or working out a theme for something we are writing. 

At these times, a walk in nature with no music or podcasts or audiobooks contains the medicine. We sit on a bench by the pond or walk through the woods. We allow our minds to drift. Daydreaming, it’s called. 

Ideas come. Unforced. Seemingly from nowhere. Maybe the spirit is talking to us. Maybe a jumble of ideas and thoughts coalesce into something firm.

Yesterday found me in such a state. Out of nowhere the lyrics to a song perhaps called The Ballad of Minneapolis formed clearly.

Unfortunately, that is only the beginning. The hard work of writing the thoughts making sense of the thoughts now begins. I’ll let you know if I finish and post to YouTube.

I’ve worked out many problems over the past 45 years that way.

Go take a walk. Not in the dismissive way of someone telling you to get lost. Really, go take a walk.

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Distraction

February 6, 2026

Jesus once observed that Martha was distracted by many things. 

He contrasted her sister, Mary, who was focused on the teaching.

Sermons have gone many directions on that story. I’d like to emphasize the simple lesson. One that we all experience. Almost every time I sit to write if I’ve not prepared for focus, distraction surrounds me.

Be like Jesus. Remove distractions when it’s time to focus. Know what’s important at the time.

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Posted in Attention, focus | 1 Comment »

Negative News and Anxiety

February 5, 2026

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?—Jesus

Researchers continue to observe effects on people from certain smart phone behaviors. The studies expanded following publication of Jonathon Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. 

Higher levels of doomscrolling were associated with significantly higher existential anxiety. In other words, the more you consume negative news, the more likely you are to feel uncertain about life’s meaning and your place in the world. We can’t say doomscrolling causes anxiety. It may be that anxious individuals are drawn to negative content. Either way, the relationship is strong enough to warrant attention.

There is a guy I talk with regularly at the fitness center. He’s Bob. He knows everyone. He’s Baptist, so most likely evangelical. I’m Methodist, so definitely Wesleyan. Similar, but different. Every fitness center I’ve used has TVs. They ask us not to turn it off. I mute it when I’m there. I was benchpressing dumbbells. He was on a machine. He looks up at the TV. “I hate those things. The news only serves to raise your negative emotions to make you feel bad.” I agreed. I have not watched TV news for 30 years with only a few exceptions (when visiting a friend).

We know what’s going on in the world. We don’t dwell on it. We follow Jesus’s teaching about worry and anxiety. They get us nowhere. They interfere with our life as Jesus-followers where we should be helping others.

Jesus didn’t say Follow me—to the sofa to watch TV news or doom scroll your smartphone. It was more like Follow me—and do as I have taught.

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Are You Well Read, Or Do You Read Well?

February 4, 2026

A TV advertisement ran when I was an adolescent. It featured a tuna called Charlie who pursued all manner of high-brow taste. The punch line was, “Starkist doesn’t want tuna with good taste; it wants tuna that taste good.”

I’d like to take that turn of phrase to something else—reading.

Dad wanted me to attend the University of Dayton. The school had three books required to be read by incoming freshmen. I still have one on my bookshelf—How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler (who, ironically, is the bad guy of the philosophy department in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance).

I recommend reading that book. Then reading again after figuring out how to read it. (Looks like it’s only available at Amazon, and I don’t link to Amazon.)

Ryan Holliday, writing in his Daily Stoic newsletter, talks about whether we are well read or whether we read well.

Discussing how Marcus Aurelius could quote so freely from a few Stoic philosophers, he notes, “This capacity for recall is indicative of the ancient’s approach to reading.”

I encourage you to also consider Jesus. Check out not only how he could quote the texts important to the culture of his time but also how he had thought them through.

Back to Holliday, “The philosopher Mortimer Adler talked about how the phrase “well-read” has lost its original meaning. We hear someone referred to as “well-read” today and we think someone who has read lots of books. But the ancients would have thought someone who really knows their stuff, who has dived deep in a few classic texts to the point that they truly understand them. ‘A person who has read widely but not well,’ Mortimer says of the modern reader, ‘deserves to be pitied rather than praised.’ The early 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes joked similarly, ‘If I read as many books as most men do, I would be as dull-witted as they are.’ “

I am guilty of reading many books and other information sources. But I also like to continually delve again into spiritual classics and the New Testament just to stay grounded.

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Superpowers

February 3, 2026

I picked this up from Shane Parrish (FS) in Brain Food. I have probably hit each of these individually at some time. It’s interesting to see the list. Don’t scan it. It’s not a checklist. 

Dwell on each item. Think. Where am I on these things? Where do I need to grow?

Superpowers you can choose: 

  • Ability to change yourself & your mind 
  • Not taking things personally 
  • Not needing to prove you’re right 
  • Careful selection of all relationships 
  • Staying calm 
  • Being alone without being lonely 
  • Being ok with being uncomfortable 
  • Thinking for oneself

Reviewing these once again before posting, I cringe at memories unearthed by a few. Those of you who know me know what I mean.

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Pray For Others

February 2, 2026

I listened to an Episcopalian priest tell his story. He was (is) an alcoholic. He tried to keep it hidden. That didn’t work. The results became obvious. His congregation rebelled against him and drove him out.

He started attended AA meetings—in the basement of that same church. He gradually got better. “I found more love and support in that group meeting in the basement of the church than I found upstairs among the Christians.”

James talks to us about community and prayer.

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

That part about confess your sins to each other has been abused countless times over the centuries. From what I can tell about James’s attitude toward community life, I think his vision was more like the AA meeting than a vindictive “drive out the devil” sort of gathering.

Let us learn to pray. For ourselves. For others. Sincerely. Without vindictiveness. Honestly and truly trying to help others to heal. God’s Spirit surrounds us. The prayer connects. The help may not be what we anticipated, but help will be there for sure. I have seen it in action. It’s real.

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Stand By Your Word

January 30, 2026

Trust.

Do we say what we mean and mean what we say?

When we say we’ll do something, can people depend on us to do it?

Do we have the courage to say no when we should?

James gives us this advice on your word. By the way, when he says “swear,” he does not mean what common American language means. It means invoking someone or something to back up our “yes.” As in, “I swear on my mother’s grave that I’ll do that.” In past cultures, we may have said, “I swear as God is my witness that I’ll don that.”

Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. All you need to say is a simple “Yes” or “No.” Otherwise you will be condemned.

What are we if our word cannot be trusted?

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Loving Kindness Meditation

January 29, 2026

[Interrupting my series on the wisdom of James for a public service announcement.]

I may have mentioned that I signed on with a meditation teacher to assure my practice remains on track. We all need a teacher at times to make sure we’re not drifting off into some rabbit warren of screwiness.

This further reflects two of my core values held for my entire life—peace and justice.

This week’s trail focuses on loving kindness. We first focused on our own heart. We need to be kind to ourselves. Then we focused on one person whom we know to be suffering. We meditated focusing our heart’s kindness on the other person.

Yesterday, the teacher asked us to focus on a group of people whom we do not know but that we do know are suffering.

My heart immediately went to all the people in Minneapolis right now. I’ve avoided writing about the mess up there, because I have no first hand observation or experience also I have little to contribute.

You can label the practice meditation, contemplation, or prayer. We sit quietly. We focus on our heart region. We bring the group of people to mind. I focus loving kindness on the families and others directly affected by the loss of life of loved ones. And on the the groups of people standing in protest. And the further groups of people providing support to those who have been targeted. 

And also (surprising to some of you) to the federal agents who constitute a form of military organization. I know them not. Some may be thugs. Some may be adventurers looking for excitement. Some may think they are tough enough and need a job. I don’t know. But I doubt they’ve been well trained for the situation, a circumstance that leads to over-reaction. Over-reaction when bearing arms never leads to a good end.

They all in all their different circumstances need to be surrounded in the spirit of loving kindness.

That is something I can do from a remote location. And  something I will. Then waiting for the spirit to lead me to whatever step is next.

In the meantime, we could all engage in the practice through meditation or prayer or whatever you cane to call it to focus loving kindness into the midst of strife and chaos.

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Patience

January 28, 2026

Advice and encouragement for those facing suffering forms a consistent theme from first century Christian writers. James offers a practice and a warning.

The practice is patience. Like a farmer, practice patience and stand firm.

The warning—when things get tough, don’t grumble against one another.

Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 

Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

A takeaway—just as the Lord is full of compassion and mercy, so also should we be.

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Warning to Oppressors

January 27, 2026

James’s characteristic blunt language echoing teachings of Jesus explores our heart in relation to wealth. Those of us blessed with some measure of wealth need to be especially aware of the status of our hearts.

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

The question we must resolve within ourselves—how do we use our wealth?

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