Don’t let the seeds stop you from enjoying the watermelon.
We can focus on what others do that annoys us preventing us from enjoying the kindness and helpfulness of others.
We can lose ourselves thinking on our problems, or we can pause and enjoy the beauty of the day.
Don’t practice negative thoughts preventing you from resting in gratefulness for that which you have.
Thanks to Seth Godin for the thought.
At a recent software conference, the Chief Technology Officer developed a theme of what if we could solve some problem and iterated with their solutions.
I thought, what if we took the Apostle Paul at his word when he wrote to the Jesus followers in Galatia, There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
What if we ended the game of dividing people into groups deciding which we liked and which we didn’t?
What if we accepted each person for what they are perhaps also seeing what they could be?
What if we ended all this nonsense of gender politics, racial politics, culture politics?
Well, the political part can’t happen—that’s how politicians build enough of a coalition to get elected only to reward some of their followers.
But, for followers of Jesus, for those who proudly proclaim themselves to be Christian, what if we put aside those divisions in favor of treating each person as the child of God that they are?
What a wonderful world it would be.
For three hundred years, the movement that Jesus started spread throughout the Mediterranean world mostly because of the way his followers lived. People noticed the joy that imbued their lives and their gatherings. They simply lived differently from others around them.
I picked up these observations on living with joy from one of my favorite news sources—Axios Finish Line. You don’t have to follow NBA basketball to understand this.
Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors is this year’s NBA Teammate of the Year.
The money quote: “At the heart of Curry’s leadership style is one word, repeated again and again by teammates, coaches and staffers,” The Athletic reports. “Joy.”
Three lessons for all of us to emulate:
The bottom line: When asked by reporters for his reaction to winning Teammate of the Year, Curry said, “It’s a reflection of how much fun I’ve had being a part of this organization for so long.”
Maybe we could use the incentive to find a little joy in what we do—work, church, home, volunteering.
Even as a youth, I had two differing interests. One was science/technology and the other philosophy/spirituality. I typically confine my science/tech thoughts to my other blog—The Manufacturing Connection. Faith Venture explores thoughts on spiritual development (occasionally pointing to foibles of modern living).
Sometimes the two streams come into a confluence.
Like worries about AI and creativity and spirituality.
The current month’s theme of MIT Technology Review proclaims “Muse or Machine: Defining Creativity in the Age of AI.” The lead article—Is “creativity” meaningless?
Have you read so much idle speculation about AI that you are worried? Feel the anxiety that the writers wish to provoke?
I cannot do that level of linear algebra nor program in Python. But I’ve read several academic works sent to me. I have at least a moderate level of intelligence (not artificial).
Think on this thought from Seth Godin then consider your own experience: Art is what happens when a human does something original and generous that might not work. It has little to do with paint.
I make some use of AI in my research. I’ve read many (most?) of the sermons of John Wesley. When I was trying to write a concise list of his thoughts on practices, I asked Claude.ai. Or trying to remember some thoughts from Augustine of Hippo. Claude quickly returned a nicely written summary. It then asked if I wished to explore one of the topics more deeply.
I could have abdicated to Claude publishing its response unedited.
Better was to consider the research returned, think on it all, then write an essay of my take on the subject I was pondering—spiritual disciplines.
AI, my creativity, deepening my knowledge of the life in the Spirit all at one time.
Lifting the thought from one of my boyhood heroes, Alfred E. Newman of Mad Magazine, “What, me worry?”
French intellectuals after World War II became enraptured by the idealistic vision of communism.
Albert Camus pointed to Stalin writing about how the oppressed became the oppressor.
Once the Christian Church was oppressed by Rome.
Then it became at various times of European history the oppressor.
Even in today’s America people who feel oppressed wish to become the oppressor.
How many people try to live out Jesus’s teachings about dealing with each person with kindness and understanding only judging each by the strength of their character?
He touched people with skin disease. He forgave a criminal. He saved a woman from execution by stoning. He made her accusers go home and ponder their own sins. He made a culturally despised outcast the hero of a story. He healed people in the household of a hated Roman soldier. He taught that unlike the Romans we should be known by how much we can love other humans.
Think upon whom you might wish to be oppressed. Perhaps a little kindness and love will go far toward reconciliation.
35 mph gusts outside my window
The banks of evergreens shimmying like 60s go-go dancers
The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound
Said Jesus
But you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.
The Spirit blows. I know not from where it comes nor to where it goes.
But those who feel the Spirit blowing will see the kingdom of God.
Be still for a moment. Listen for the Spirit blowing towards you.
It’s there. Rather, it’s here.
When do you know that someone is not authentic? When they say they are being authentic.
When do you know someone is not being honest? When they tell you they are being honest.
When do you know someone is not a Christian? Well, let’s not go that far. But, to quote an old song, they will know we are Christians by our love.
We can listen to words, but we know by actions.
Two images burned into my consciousness.
A well dressed white man with a large cross made of gold dangling from a gold chain around his neck. His message promoted on social media spread hate toward people who did not look or speak like him.
A man dressed in the garments of a teacher of his first century time with no social media, or even just media, explaining that following God meant loving your neighbor. Asked who was a neighbor, he told a story where the person embodying the neighbor was a man from the most despised social group of the area.
Two images. I know not the name of the first. I know (and follow) the second. Choose which to emulate wisely.
Paul’s letter to the Jesus-followers in Rome (Romans) is often as feared for study as is John’s Revelation. Scholars have written volumes probing into Paul’s supposed deep theology presented in that brief document.
I thought, why not apply the practice of Beginner’s Mind to the study of that letter?
Beginner’s mind—just experience the sound, sight, thought as new. Without labeling. No knowing, explaining, judging. You are always new. Always beginners not knowing what will happen in the next moment.
First century practice of sending these letters reflected the lack of reading ability on the part of many recipients. A courier would bring a document to the little ekklesia (gathering). The appointed reader would read the document aloud to the gathering. The entire document. Not just clips.
I sat and read the letter straight through. No breaks. Just as if I had been sitting in that ekklesia. Beginner’s mind—no preconceived thoughts, no theology, no arguing.
Then I read a bit of background.
This totally changed my understanding—and how I teach it.
What came clearly to me was this was an essay on spiritual formation. Spiritual formation involves the journey of living with-God in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The meat of the letter begins with awareness of where we are—people not living a fruitful life in the spirit. Paul must address the differences of Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews). He does this through discussion of the law. Can we move to the next stage by following the law? Well, maybe, but it’s exceedingly difficult.
So he discusses faith. Abraham, the first Jew, was reckoned right with God through faith and not law (which hadn’t come, yet).
Paul leads us from faith to grace (you cannot have a letter about Jesus without discussing him).
Paul did not end the letter with the discussion of “being saved by grace through faith” as many do today. He answers the “then what” question. He adds chapters 11-15 which describe our lives as lived with grace.
I think that is the point. Faith is essential. Living life in the spirit is the necessary next step. After all, James, the brother of Jesus, told us that faith without doing something with it is dead.
Oh, and studying the final chapter is also instructive as he describes the ekklesia as a community of women (listed first), men, slaves, free people. Everyone welcome. How is your ekklesia (church) doing in that regard?
I caught myself about to use the explanation “of course, everybody knows.”
I don’t know what everybody knows.
Does everybody even know all the same things?
If I am looking for justification, does “everybody knows” justify anything?
I know what I know. (I’m content.)
Except for the times I know something and don’t know that I know. (I’m asleep. Wake me up.)
Then there are the times I know that I don’t know. (I need to learn. Develop curiosity.)
Sometimes I don’t know that I don’t know. (That is dangerous. I could be spreading false ideas.)
But I don’t know what you know—until you tell me and I listen.
Did I just trap myself in that endless loop that I know so much that I know nothing?
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 