Faith Venture

To self-identify as a Christian, there is essentially only one foundational requirement. Jesus lived as a human being, was killed by the political/religious forces of his day, and then he returned to earth alive where he taught and talked with his disciples (tradition says for 40 days).

The resurrection is the foundation of the church. We call that day Easter.

Different traditions have different ways to celebrate this week and the day. No problem. That adds spice and variety to life.

But no matter what tradition you find yourself in—Catholic, Orthodox, one of the hundreds of varieties of protestantism—you will be celebrating Easter and the resurrection.

Wright and Bird in their immense New Testament survey, The New Testament in its World (yes, I’m still studying it, up to page 670 with another 200 pages to go), talked often of the plea of the early church leaders for unity of the church.

Those early followers had to puzzle out a lot of ideas as they strove to understand what happened. The authors while describing this struggle also talk about how disapproving those early leaders would be of the trends we have where a pastor or church leader wants to break away and start their own thing.

Especially at this time with Easter week so strange as we are all (pretty much globally) isolated to prevent the spread of disease, Christians could be celebrating two things.

The unity of belief in the resurrection. (Does anything else really matter?)

The cultural variety in the ways we celebrate—accepting the various strands of traditions rather than arguing over who is right and who is not.

“Don’t pray for patience,” advised an elderly friend, “God will keep putting you in experiences where you need to be patient.”

One of those 1980s self-help gurus taught that life keeps throwing a lesson at you until you master it. Then it sends another challenge your way.

Patience is hard. People say it’s because of the (formerly) fast-paced lives we lead. But I think ancient people felt the same thing. It’s not a problem of the times; it’s a people problem.

People get an infection and are prescribed an antibiotic. They take two and feel great. They stop taking the medicine with five days to go. The infection symptoms return even worse. They lost patience and thought wrongly that they were cured.

Patience requires a day at a time, an hour at a time, even a minute at a time of just plodding along. Not pushing. Not picturing the end and developing a longing to get there. Just live in this minute.

Sometimes (all the time?) patience is frustrating. While we’re outwardly patient, inside we can allow frustrations to break out in physical symptoms of inflammation or even bursts of anger.

Perhaps the problem is we’re not getting our way. We’re not in control. But we are taught that we must be in control. The tension can become overwhelming.

The miracle of breathing comes to the rescue. The deep inhalation. The pause. Always the pause. So much of life comes to light in the pause. And then the long slow exhalation. It is in the exhale that we feel the peace, the calm, perhaps even the presence of God.

Charles Dickens wrote perhaps the most memorable opening words to a story ever.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…

Even the title of the book, A Tale of Two Cities.

Like all great writers, Dickens captured eternal thoughts. Don’t these couple of months seem we’ve experienced both wisdom and foolishness? Both hope and despair?

Several people I have had great respect for through listening to their podcasts and reading their blogs and books have written about the despair they have these past few weeks.

On the other hand, I read Peter Diamandis who recently talked about all the reasons for optimism. People around the entire globe are facing the same crisis. Despite political posturing, even Presidents Xi and Trump are overseeing administrations helping each other. The global scientific community is sharing data and ideas like never before. There is a season of hope amongst the season of despair.

Even as the global Christian community is gathering virtually to celebrate the high point of the Holy Calendar, there is hope in the midst of worry and cynicism. (The cynics would say that the reason fundamentalist pastors are posturing to rebel against social distancing has more to do with the large Easter offering anticipated—but I digress.)

As our emotions swing between the poles described by Dickens, we need more than ever to turn to our spiritual practices:

• Seek quiet time
• Use the time for reflection to become aware of our emotions and temper them with reality
• Seek infusion of the spirit of God to make us strong
• Focus on some aspect of serving others

We can choose our responses. As the Last Crusader told Indiana Jones as he was selecting the Chalice, “Choose wisely.”

View challenges as an opportunity. Said just about every famous leader.

We can view this as just another trite phrase we pair up with a photo and hang on the wall.

Or—we could choose to actually practice virtue by making the best use or the problem before us.

It is our choice as we face a challenge, a problem, an obstacle. We choose how to act.

We could choose a time of semi-forced isolation to learn stillness. Learn to play a musical instrument. Finally read those books that we say we’ve read. Learn another language.

We can choose to search for ways to help someone else.

You have probably heard the Latin advice carpe diem—seize the day. Or perhaps carpe vino—(even better) seize the wine. But we can practice carpe potestatem—seize the opportunity.

My wife and I are sitting at dinner the other evening when she suddenly blurts, “I wonder if there will be a spike in babies born in nine months. Or divorces.”

Since I can list several reasons why there won’t be a new baby in the household in December, was this a hint about my behavior getting on her nerves?

With no Internet (promised for today) and cable TV, we are getting desperate. Last night we watched an episode (one of many) of I Love Lucy from 1952. Long-time best friends, the Ricardos and the Mertzes wind up suing each other and appearing in court over an incident fired by stress and misunderstanding.

I’m positive that stress and misunderstanding are approaching the high-level alarm status in many, if not most, households. Not only babies created from proximity and boredom and divorces from stress, but also domestic violence.

I saw news from China about a spike in divorces. There was more news from America about a spike in calls to domestic violence hotlines.

Now is not a time to let friends, relatives, and acquaintances isolate themselves. Reaching out to communicate just to chat is a good thing. Little acts of kindness and service are greatly appreciated. They could make a difference.

People began noticing a growing number of deaths in the population from an unknown source. The upper class men of the society fled the city because they were important to the continuation of the government and culture. Or else because they were afraid.

They left women and children and the poor behind to suffer and die.

Groups of people came out of hiding, for they were despised by the ambient culture, and they began to care for those who were ill at great risk to their own health.

And the numbers of those belonging to the groups grew greatly because of their service and faith.

The city was Rome. The time was 249-252. The hidden group were Jesus-followers.

Centuries pass. The heirs to those Jesus-followers established hospitals and schools and greatly enhance the health and well being of the societies they inhabited.

Today, those heirs are highly trained medical professionals who every day expose themselves to illnesses in order to heal and care for those who are ill. Today, many are exposed to a virus that has no known cure and can lead to a terrible death (although we really don’t know if it is one percent of those who contract the disease or a tenth of a percent).

And, where are the Jesus-followers and Christians today, I wondered. I am in a new community with few ties, but I do know of a church that is dispensing bags of groceries to those in need. I know of a faith-based community center dispensing lunches to homeless and those in need.

So I searched the Internet. Here’s what I found:

• We should have faith over fear
• “Bear witness to the peace of God”
• “Bear witness to the coming judgement of God”
• “Be ready to meet Jesus”
• “Stay home”

One leader denied the seriousness of the virus and kept his university open exposing many to its spread.

Another leader defied shelter-in-place orders designed to stop the spread of the disease and opened his church thereby exposing many to the virus.

What responses do you see? What response can you make in your own community? What should Christian churches be doing in light of their heritage and the commands of the founder? Where do I fall short?

The best way to deal with events beyond our control is to control what is within our grasp. And to reach out to others. Let us be open to the prompting of God who will present us opportunities to serve.

Most of the world is involved with some amount of “lock down” or “stay at home” orders. Many people are still working, since they are essential to particular services—perhaps water/wastewater treatment facilities or hazardous operations engineering in process plants. Or getting a newspaper or magazine published.

The common thread to many of my incoming emails concerns how to work from home when you’re not used to it. How do you maintain focus? How do you remain productive? How do you stay sane?

I have worked from a home office for more than 20 years. But I have had a routine for going out. Get up, brew coffee, read and write, go to park to run / go to gym to finish workout, go to coffee house for (of course) more coffee and WiFi, go home for lunch, work from home office.

I cannot go to the gym or the coffee house. Although something (my son thinks lightning) knocked out my Internet connection with Comcast saying it won’t fix it until April 18. So, I went to the national coffee house chain, bought a large coffee, and sat in the parking lot in my car to take the load from my mobile phone hotspot I’m using.

In any extraordinary time, whether traveling or death in the family or vacation, I construct a routine to keep me on pace. It may not always involve awakening at 5:30 am, but I will structure my days so that I get in the essentials of reading/writing, coffee, and exercise.

That is how I cope.

Jesus told a story of 10 young women invited to a wedding who were to watch for the groom to arrive. They were to welcome him with a lighted procession. Five were prepared with extra oil for their lamps just in case something happened. Five brought enough only for the normal waiting period.

Jesus described the first five as wise and the other five as foolish (lifting words and concepts directly from Proverbs).

We cannot know everything that will happen today while we are sitting in our meditation/reading chair in the morning. Let alone tomorrow or next week. But we can have a foundation of relationship with God and a supply of personal and family necessities just in case they may be needed.

Tech people talk about having a “grab bag” of chargers, batteries, cables, backup disk drives, and so forth just in case of fire or earthquake or something else unexpected where you have to run. This is another example of prepared.

When you have prepared yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually, you have laid a foundation for surviving whatever happens with as much peace as is possible.

When you are prepared and able to act with flexibility, then you don’t have to resort to justifying your actions later or constructing an alternate universe of “facts” to explain away your lack of preparation.

I was in Germany at the very outbreak (publicly) in China. I had a feeling that this could be very much like the stories my grandfather told of the Spanish flu (which had nothing to do with Spain) in 1918. Some of our leaders read the book describing public health reactions to that pandemic. They were prepared to act when Corona hit here.

It’s worse than I feared. But keeping in touch with God helps maintain equanimity. I strive to keep what routines that I can given a new house in a new community in a new state and a new way of interacting (or not) socially.

Now, if only I had thought to have some free weights around the house to complete the workout… then I would have been like the wise young women. Stay safe and healthy.

I began the week surrounded by the chaos of packing in preparation for a move. Today, I am in my new house 300 miles (480 kilometers) away once again surrounded by chaos—the chaos of boxes waiting to be unpacked, trying to find a cup for the morning coffee, finding the normalcy of my old routines in new surroundings.

In the midst of chaos is serenity. This morning I devoted about an hour to meditation (what today they like to call mindfulness). In the quiet at the beginning of a day I find order. And ideas—how to fix something a repairman didn’t finish, how to organize a new office. The ideas don’t swarm like hornets, rather they quietly appear fully ready.

The outer world is almost the opposite of chaos with people withdrawn into their houses. Outside for walks for physical and mental health. Far less than the usual traffic. Beneath the quiet lies the chaos of uncertainty. How long will it take for the virus to run its course? How long for the news media to hype numbers? When will life be “normal”?

Just as God brought order from chaos by speaking a primordial word, we can taste that order by bringing stillness and listening for that same primordial word.

Times of crisis and uncertainty bring out the true colors of leaders. Not only national political leaders, but leaders at every level of every type of organization.

Thomas à Kempis said, A person who cares nothing for praise or blame knows great inward peace….Praise does not make you holier than you are, nor blame more wicked. You are exactly what you are, and cannot ever be any better or worse than that, in the eyes of God. Attend to what is really within you, then, and you will not care what others say of you.

We will discover which leaders are looking for praise and which are the humble servants who do the job well.

Looking inside ourselves, we also discover what are our motivations.

Can we live with the person in the mirror? Do we fall short? If so, there is time to step up and do what is good and not just what looks good. Self awareness is the first step to growth and maturity.