But curiosity can be your closest friend for a good life.
Schools may test what you already know (or remember),
But the extent to which you want to know determines everything.
Don’t sit back and think you know it all. You don’t.
Author Archive
Curiosity May Have Killed the Cat
July 11, 2024Irony of Teaching
July 10, 2024Those who most need teaching or coaching are those least likely to sign up for it.
Church leaders and members can slip too easily into simply reinforcing a closed set of precepts forgetting the charter to teach new people about Jesus.
Learning requires energy, curiosity, openness to ideas.
Teaching requires the ability to inspire, ignite curiosity, encourage thinking.
Paradox of Spirit
July 9, 2024Jesus had a mission to fulfill the Law—not enforce it.
He showed the way of the Spirit.
The paradox—living in the Spirit leads to a life living within the Law without consciously trying.
Some try to beat up themselves and others into following the letter of the law.
Those in the spirit succeed by not trying.
Bible Based
July 8, 2024Our church is Bible-based.
No, not yours, our church is Bible-based.
I wonder what the code is built into those statements.
All “Christian” theologies are based on the Bible in one way or another—even the wacky ones.
Maybe it all fulfills a human need—much like heavy metal rock. Us versus Them.
But where is “seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you”?
Pure Reason?
July 5, 2024As humans, we like to believe that we are ruled by reason, but the truth is that our imagination and senses affect us much more than we realize.
Descartes corrupted Western thought with his maxim, “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore, I am). His thinking removed the spirit from Western thought. People became captivated that we are all rational beings.
Wrong.
Neurologist and neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, wrote about his research in Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.
Emotions play a crucial role in our outlook, decisions, relationships. How often have you made a major purchase impulsively only later justifying it with reason? Let me guess—too often.
We first recognize and deal with our emotions and then think. Do not fool yourself.
Independence Day
July 4, 2024Every year I suggest that all Americans take some time to read a few things to refresh our memories about the founding of our country. It’s probably not a bad practice for all of you who do not live here just for the ideals.
Read
- The Declaration of Independence
- The Preamble to the Constitution
- Actually the entire Constitution
- If not all, at least the first 10 amendments—the Bill of Rights
- Bonus points—read The Federalist Papers
These documents are full of compromises—something that has made it last so long. And something we seem unwilling to do this past decade or so.
Debate to Win?
July 3, 2024Have you ever gotten involved in an argument? Did it go anywhere? Have you ever argued with someone who believed something different from you? Did you convince them that they were wrong?
I saw this thought on Rich Dixon’s Rich’s Ride blog, “Nobody’s ever been debated into an intimate relationship with Jesus.”
Want to know what works better?
Listening. Empathy. Curiosity about the other.
Preparing: All Fueled Up and Nowhere to Go
July 2, 2024I am still thinking about being prepared.
Mise en Place—a concept or practice from cooking. You gather all the ingredients for a dish you are preparing assembled in order and even measured in small bowls or dishes. Now you are ready to begin the work of preparing the dish.
Rituals—Rex Stout in Nero Wolfe novels, Archie Goodwin dusts, gets out Wolfe’s fountain pen, fills it, makes sure it works, places the day’s mail on the desk, has the office ready when Wolfe comes to the office at 11. Wolfe places his freshly cut orchid in the vase, adjusts himself in his custom chair, checks his pen, flips through the mail. They are now ready to start work.
The question:
What good is all that preparation if one never starts cooking or writing or thinking?
Practicing Correct Preparation
July 1, 2024Bear with me. I have some examples of insufficient preparation and some thoughts for you.
Management of the manufacturing company moved me from a role in manufacturing to one in product development. They thought (wrongly probably) that I was smart but that I required some growing. They threw me into growth positions where it was sort of “sink-or-swim.”
We were a division of a Fortune 50 company. I was assigned first to research capital equipment that we could use to reduce scrap in the manufacturing process. That I did. They they told me that a few senior executives from the Chicago HQ were coming in, and I had to present the request for capital investment. That I did.
But I was totally unprepared for all the questions that were fired at me. I sort of panicked and mumbled what I could.
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I thought about preparation as I watched the debacle of the US Men’s National Soccer Team v Panama 6/27/24. Panama is a long-time competitor of the US. Their tactics should be well known. They commit nasty fouls, kicks on the ankles, stepping on feet, and other tactics designed to provoke their opponents.
The US team members should have known that. The coaching staff should have prepared them. Unfortunately, a key player lost his cool, took a swing, and was ejected very early in the game. Now the team had to play an important contest 10 v 11 for 75 minutes.
==
I have not watched anything pertaining to a US President on TV since probably 1967 and Lyndon Johnson appearing on TV telling us more “stuff” about the war in VietNam.
So I missed the Biden v Trump “debate” on purpose. It sounds like a gross example of incorrect preparation. I studied the Nixon/Kennedy debate in graduate school many years ago. Surely every political advisor should have studied it. Nixon was a champion debater. He was prepared with debate points. (Unfamiliar with TV, he also famously refused makeup. Turns out when you’re a performer on stage makeup is not feminine, it’s a necessity.) Kennedy never directly answered a question. He riffed off the question to give his message. But he did it so well that he swayed the audience. Reagan was great for finding a pointed follow up observation.
Try this intellectual experiment.
If I’m preparing Biden, I’d have brought in some psychologists to role play how to provoke someone with narcissistic tendencies into a temper tantrum. Facts and figures? No one tunes into TV for those. People want a fight. Journalists want a fight. And journalists also want someone to go down so they can kick them. (OK, maybe I do have an opinion about political journalists.)
(I’m not advising Trump, because I think he cannot be advised. He is who he is. It sounds like he just gave his stump speech. Probably something Biden should have done.)
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I don’t do politics. I like to analyze. Can’t help myself.
My point is for you—those who read my thoughts.
How are you preparing? For your next executive presentation. For your proposal to the non-profit organization board for a new initiative. For a talk with your teenagers.
Are you preparing for the last war, or the next one? Instead of looking internally, have you considered the point of view of the opposition? What will they attack? How can that attack be met or diverted? What questions could come up that I’ll need to answer with a good story?
(Note: I don’t debate politics. That is a rabbit hole leading to nowhere. If you want to discuss practices that enhance our life, that’s where I live these days.)
Teach Your Mouth
June 28, 2024Wisdom from the Desert Fathers:
Abba Poemen said, ‘Teach your mouth to say what is in your heart.’
This is difficult for some of us. Maybe we have no awareness of what is in our heart.
Maybe we go with impulsive feelings rather than what is deep within us. (Especially when we have fingers to keyboard and social media applications open.)
This reminds me of the wisdom found in the Letter of James. And, remember, Jesus is always concerned with the state of our hearts. Let us get it right.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 