Gary Mintchell

Author Archive

Savor the Flavor

March 10, 2021

I really enjoy the flavor of coffee. Some coffee, that is. There is a whole value chain from growing kindly and organically to picking at optimum times to proper roasting. Taking care along the way.

I enjoy the early morning, quiet, alone, reading and meditating with a freshly brewed dark roast direct trade coffee.

Some people say they cannot get up and start moving until they have a coffee. It’s like an addiction. I wonder if it is all in attitude, since I have never experienced that. I can get up and get moving just fine without coffee. But I won’t be as happy.

Spiritual development can be related that way.

I think of how McDonalds has changed its coffee roast. Once McDonalds coffee was a fine as any coffee shop. Then they changed beans and roast and the flavor was reduced. A few months ago I stopped at a McDonalds in the morning for a coffee to sit in the parking lot, get out the laptop or journal and pen, and write for a while. They changed again. And the flavor was reduced yet again.

Was your prayer and meditation and study once robust and full of flavor? And perhaps you’ve noticed that over time the intensity, the flavor, has reduced?

Or taking care with attitude and preparation at every step of the way, you find enjoyment from the subtle flavors of your meditation, study, and prayer? It takes cultivation and care and persistence and habit.

The best part of waking up may not be “Folgers in your cup”, but it might be the practice of savoring the flavor.

Posted in Attitude, Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Hearing Others, Not Fixing Them

March 9, 2021

I once worked with a guy for about six years. He was always in trouble with his wife. She would talk to him about a problem at work. He’d offer suggestions about how to fix the situation. She ignored the advice and would be not happy with him. “Brian,” I’d say, “she doesn’t want a solution. She’s smart. She’ll figure it out. She just wants you to listen.” He was an engineer. I don’t know if it was an engineer thing, or a man thing, or just a thing thing.

If we want to support each other’s inner lives, we must remember a simple truth: the human soul does not want to be fixed, it wants simply to be seen and heard. If we want to see and hear a person’s soul, there is another truth we must remember: the soul is like a wild animal – tough, resilient, and yet shy. When we go crashing through the woods shouting for it to come out so we can help it, the soul will stay in hiding. But if we are willing to sit quietly and wait for a while, the soul may show itself.
Parker J. Palmer

I think this sit quietly and wait and listen that Parker Palmer talks about is the real key. Some try to order others around. They’ll fix you if you just do as they order. Perhaps more like a dog or cat is “fixed”, than finding a solution. Or helping some soul in need.

Some competent engineers in Texas could fix the power grid problem, if empowered.

Competent engineering, the trained problem-solvers among us, fail to help the human soul. Somewhat perversely, that takes more inaction than action. Sitting quietly and waiting on God is perhaps the hardest spiritual formation task of all.

Posted in Disciplines, healing, Listening | Leave a Comment »

Jesus Turned Power On Its Head

March 8, 2021

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Mark 10:42-45

The Roman-ruled world where Jesus and his followers lived was structured on power. At every level of society, someone had power over some others. And they were expected to exercise that power, brutally if necessary.

We often overlook the Roman context of the 1st Century and its influence on the writings. It is likely, for example, that Paul never saw the end of Roman power until the end of the age. John’s vision with which the Christian Bible is ended places that vision in metaphorical language.

Jesus turned that all upside down. Leaders were not to exert power over followers. Leaders who followed him were to lead with the attitude of serving. This is a teaching that leaders who call themselves Christian often seem to forget judging by their words and actions.

Jordan Peterson has published a new book, Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life. He discusses this power relationship.

Those who are power hungry–tyrannical and cruel, even psychopathic–desire control over others, so that every selfish whim of hedonism can be immediately gratified; so that envy can destroy its target; so that resentment can find its expression. But good people are ambitious (and diligent, honest, and focused along with it) instead because they are possessed by the desire to solve genuine serious problems.
Peterson, Beyond Order

These describe a human condition. Political leaders, bosses, CEOs, parents, pastors… If you thought of someone immediately when reading this, that may be true. The most important person to consider from this point of view is the one in the mirror. How do each of us, you and me, handle ourselves when we have authority at any level? Are we following Jesus’ teaching?

Posted in Attitude, Leadership, Service | Leave a Comment »

When The Pieces Come Together and the Image Pops

March 5, 2021

My wife likes to work jigsaw puzzles. I view them as a waste of time–until I get obsessed with the problem-solving aspect. The photo is the last one we completed. 1,000 pieces. We have one laid out on the kitchen counter now. When I close my eyes, I see puzzle pieces. When I woke up this morning to lie in Yoga corpse pose and meditate, I saw puzzle pieces fitting together.

Have you ever worked these?

Isn’t it fascinating when you have concentrated on finding the right piece with the exact fit one at a time and then suddenly the picture just pops out at you?

It happened to me last evening as I put the last piece in a building and suddenly it was almost as if the building came to life.

It’s the same with spiritual formation.

You may study, read, pray, meditate, think.

Then maybe you sing a song and–pop!–there it is. A piece of understanding. Part of the spiritual life just seems to come together. You thank God for the vision and understanding.

You bring that piece of growth into your life.

And then go on to the next section. There are stories about people who put it all together while still living. I’ve not met one. Not even when I look in the mirror. Especially when I look in the mirror. I see a picture partially complete but with more to go to finish the puzzle.

Posted in Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Speaking Your Mind

March 4, 2021

Saying whatever comes to mind without an interposing filter–describes every two-year-old everywhere.

Also most sixteen-year-olds who have learned much, but whose brains are not yet fully developed.

I knew a person who would often find trouble with the bosses by always “speaking the truth.” Unfortunately, that version of the truth was always negative, tearing down the reputation of companies and people.

Many people today wan to say whatever they want (true or not) whenever they wish without regard for consequences. If perpetuating lies forwards my perceived best interests, then fine.

These feelings are not modern.

The Apostle James wrote in the first Century about the dangers of speaking without thinking. The tongue, he said, is a tiny organ that can cause great trouble.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa said, “Divinity is purity, it is liberation from the passions and the removal of every evil: if all these things are in you, God is truly in you.”

He also said [pronouns changed to include us all], “You must always examine your own thoughts, your own words, and your own actions in the innermost depths to see whether they are oriented to Christ or are drifting away from him.”

I like those words “oriented” and “drifting away.” I could probably write an entire book just on the meaning of those.

Posted in emotions, focus | Leave a Comment »

Living In Encounter With God

March 3, 2021

Tevye is one of my favorite characters from the musical theater. He is the lead in Fiddler on the Roof. He is an impoverished dairy man blessed with several daughters. (Once I played Fyedka, the Russian who marries Chava, Tevye’s daughter, in a community theater production.) What impressed me about Tevye was his unpretentious continual conversation with God. He met God just as he was, with all his hopes and fears and wishes and concerns. He was never anyone beside himself.

I thought about Tevye while reading about the church father St. Gregory of Nyssa (brother to St. Basil). Gregory seemed to be a sort of Christian Tevye. He was meditative. He lived his life in daily encounter with God. Pope Benedict XVI in his teaching on the Fathers says of Gregory, “…this is the most important lesson that Saint Gregory of Nyssa has bequeathed to us–total human fulfillment consists in holiness, in a life lived in the encounter with God, which thus becomes luminous also to others and to the world.”

Richard J. Foster, who wrote the book on Spiritual Disciplines that I follow (Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth), called it the “with-God life.”

We can begin the day with meditation and reading that will focus us on God. Then pause during the day often to reconnect. Do that, and your personality and life will change for the better.

Posted in Disciplines, Living | Leave a Comment »

I Want What They’ve Got

March 2, 2021

I tend to be an inductive thinker. Especially when reading a book of substance. I dive in to gain insight or learn from the specific examples. Gradually I begin to see the patterns and can begin to draw a bigger picture and meaning.

I’m reading (again) on the Church Fathers. These were remarkable men. That’s why they remain subjects of books and discussion.

The pattern just came to mind while I was thinking of the one I’m currently reading. These guys were all great leaders. At a time when a new church was forming while it was being actively persecuted by the government and on through when it had become an “official” religion of the Roman Empire, they kept churches motivated, solved internal political crises, eventually worked with government leaders, and assured that the original theology was maintained. They were thinkers and doers.

Then it dawned upon me. None of these were what we’d call evangelists. There were no John Wesleys out in the coal fields preaching to the poor.

How did the church grow in numbers?

This is relevant today, right?

This is a hard thing to research, evidently. We have Acts 2. We have a few sources. What I’ve been able to uncover with some research follows this scenario–people lived crowded lives in cities; everyone knew everybody’s business, some people joined the new faith, they began to live in a completely different manner exhibiting joy and peace and optimism; when crises like pandemics occurred, these people pitched in and helped even at great personal risk. And their neighbors said, “I want what they’ve got.”

And that is how the church grows today in Asia and Africa and other places.

Two questions:

Has your spiritual formation reached the point where people notice without your continually telling them?

Does your group/church/denomination exhibit people with this peace and joy and service and unity and optimism that attracts people like iron filings to a magnet?

Maybe a third question–why not?

Posted in Living | Leave a Comment »

Choosing To Look Forward

March 1, 2021

The calendar app icon on my phone showed “1”. I can’t believe February is gone. It’s March.

A year ago I had completed all the financial transactions for selling and buying a house. I was feverishly making trips to Lowe’s and Mennard’s buying boxes, and more boxes, and packing tape, and packing material. You get so busy at life change moments that you don’t have time to reflect.

A year ago also the beginnings of the pandemic were rising to our consciousness. Little did we foresee the way we’d live this past year. I imagine many of us felt a little like MacBeth this year:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. — MacBeth, William Shakespeare

That is the first thought that came to me as I settled into my chair to contemplate these thoughts. March 1. Another month. What did I do with February? What will I do with March?

The thing is, I get to choose. Whatever happens, I can choose my response. I can choose how I view the new month. Like a tabula rasa, a blank slate, to write the next month of my spiritual formation, with what I do, think, write.

Perhaps we can see an end of the worst of the pandemic dawning and a new day appearing. It’s all in our attitude. We can choose that, too. We can sing with Annie (from the musical):

The sun will come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There’ll be sun!
Annie

Posted in Attitude | Leave a Comment »

The Discipline of Solitude

February 26, 2021

“Solitude well practiced will break the power of busyness, haste, isolation, and loneliness. You will see that the world is not on your shoulders after all. Your will find yourself, and God will find you in new ways.”
Dallas Willard

Solitude will break isolation and loneliness? Is one of my favorite philosophers off his rocker?

Note the “well practiced” part.

Isolation and loneliness are a state of mind. I have been lonely in the midst of many people. There is a special feeling when you travel alone and go to a restaurant to eat. You see couples and parties, yet you are alone–or if, like me, you bring a book along for companionship.

Solitude is intentional. I decide to take a break and spend half-a-day or a full day somewhere alone. Perhaps on a bench in the woods. Or along a stream or at a pond. I’ve known people who rent a hotel room for a day–no, not for that–just to be able to be intentionally alone with themselves.

In the solitude, we can leave all distractions and call on God to visit. Kind of like Mork calling Orson, making contact with something distant, and yet close.

We’re closing out a year of Covid. Most likely we all have had feelings of isolation and loneliness. Others still are busy with work, writing, zoom conferences, whatever. It is a crazy, juxtaposed time.

Perhaps a weekly dose of solitude is just what we need to reconnect with God–and then with each other.

Posted in Disciplines, Silence | Leave a Comment »

Love Is the Foundation

February 25, 2021

When I read the early Apostles and Church Fathers, I often think of the joy balanced by responsibility of these people trying to find the proper way to organize a church that Jesus started but left almost no instructions or rules for.

Reading Origen of Alexandria on Bible study, he emphasized reading within love for God.

I realized that Jesus instituted only two rules for us–love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. Then later he added a mission statement (for you management consultant geeks out there)–Go into all the world teaching what I have told you and baptizing.

First, we must bring our awareness to ourselves and come to love ourselves. Perhaps this is the most important–and most missed–step. We must deal with our passions, fears, anxieties, prejudices, recognizing the evil within us just waiting to erupt. Sometimes we can heal over time with prayer and study. Sometimes we need help–a mentor, friend, professional, whatever it takes.

Then we can truly love others and love God with purity and a whole heart.

Then we can go and help others, continuing in our own spiritual formation as we love more deeply setting aside ambition. We can truly live that attitude of loving others–surely the most difficult command in the entire Bible. Sometimes we have to love even though we have the feeling expressed by a business acquaintance at dinner in his one and only tweet on Twitter including me in his bunch, “I’m having dinner with a bunch of idiots.”

Still, we must love. Only then can we truly begin our Bible study.

Posted in Attitude, Disciplines, Study | Leave a Comment »

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