Faith Venture

Yesterday’s post considered inconsistencies in what some of us call ourselves and what we believe.

Sometimes we need to open our eyes to see past marketing and labels media pastes on things.

Consider:

• Social media is actually anti-social
• Health foods are mostly unhealthy
• Knowledge workers are often ignorant of what’s around them
• Social sciences are not scientific
• Christians sometimes do not look like someone following Jesus (predicted by Jesus himself)
• Listeners often are not listening
• Observers often fail to see
• Protein bars are often really candy bars

When I was young, people used a phrase about some other people, “They talk big.”

Translation—these people talked about what they would do, but they actually never got around to doing anything.

Certain professions lend themselves to this behavior. Certainly politicians. Sometimes preachers. Sometimes executives. Sometimes the neighbor down the street.

When I taught kids to play defense in soccer (I think it’s about the same in basketball), I told them to watch the hips. They weren’t going anywhere without them. They may do fancy footwork. Don’t get sucked in by excess motion.

Similarly, don’t get sucked in by lots of hot air escaping from people’s lips.

Watch what people do.

Happy are those whose words and actions align—especially if they are right and moral and helpful and kind.

Just as eating cow meat doesn’t turn you into a cow, studying philosophy doesn’t make you wiser.—Nassim Nicholas Taleb

We could say the same about those people who call themselves Christian, yet for all the Scripture they can quote they could not be identified by an outsider as a follower of Jesus.

Notice those who exhibit that delicate balance of knowing and doing. And others see them and think, “I’d like some of that.”

Poet and novelist Hermann Hesse on what we all can do: “To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.”

Hermann Hesse’s writings have influenced some of my thinking. The early 20^th Century German writer published several important books including Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game.

Here he summarizes several things we can all do:

• To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping,
• To smile without hostility at people and institutions,
• To compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters,
• To be more faithful in our work,
• To show greater patience,
• To forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism.