Gary Mintchell

Author Archive

Be That Student

September 1, 2023

Amazing that 2,600-year-old teaching remains as relevant today as when originally uttered.

The teacher gave the same instruction to all of us, and it was up to each student to absorb, digest, and develop the teaching within themselves.

A small group of would-be engineers in the lecture hall of our college chemistry class sat there during lecture making up some sort of obscene religion. I have no idea how well they did. The curve in the 700-person class was brutal. I remember an A on the mid-term and C as final grade. They didn’t pick up anything, I’m sure.

The word is responsibility. Many people want to be able to say whatever spouts out of their mind without assuming responsibility for repercussions. Many (or many parents) seem to think there is either osmosis or privilege that should get a student through. Who is responsible? The student! (That’s us.)

If a disciple is excessively emotional or if their mind is very rigid, good teachings will be distorted and the teacher’s wisdom will not be assimilated.

If we approach learning, or any conversation, with a mind cluttered with either chaos of emotions or rigidity of belief, we will fail to absorb the message and waste an opportunity to learn and grow.

Posted in Learning, responsibility | Leave a Comment »

Connected to the Root

August 31, 2023

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

I love this metaphor that Jesus laid on us. I think of it often. Nutrients from the soil and water representing spiritual energy, tended by God, flowing through Jesus (the vine) into the branches (us) producing fruit (new disciples).

This flow of energy fascinates me. I feel it in meditation. I also feel it while doing some act of service. Especially with others.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

What more needs said?

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. “

What are we supposed to do in order to bear fruit? Love one another as Jesus loved.

What a way to live.

Posted in spirit | Leave a Comment »

Two Kinds of Disciples

August 30, 2023

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus’s last instructions to his disciples. They can believe what he told them. They need to go and do. And they can rest assured in his continual presence.

I am a contemplative. I have found sitting in meditation life changing. Did Jesus tell me (through them) to sit in meditation? No.

I love to study. Learning has been a lifelong joy. Did Jesus tell me to learn more? No. Well, not exactly. There is the teaching part. That is the last part of the instructions.

There are two kinds of disciples. One knows and can explain. One lives out the instructions in everyday life.

Meditating may center me. Learning may enrich me. But, Jesus requires more out of me (and you).

The first instruction is Go—into all nations.

Next is Make—disciples. (Not people who agree with my particular theology, but disciples, followers, learners.)

Next is Baptizing.

Next is Teaching—everything he has commanded.

There are two kinds of disciples—those who think and those who do. Jesus preferred the doers.

Posted in Disciplines, Doing, Evangelism, Learning, Meditation | Leave a Comment »

Go Take a Hike

August 29, 2023

I don’t know if that phrase continues to be used in the sense of “I don’t want to hear any more stuff from you.”

That is actually great advice.

Yesterday I wrote about how sleep and fitness allow us to maintain mental focus while we are getting tired. The tradition in Yoga maintains it was developed to give spiritual seekers the strength and stamina to sit in meditation for longer periods of time.

One easy way for most of us is to get out of the chair and walk. (I realize that some people cannot walk. I have no advice in that case.) The 10,000 step “rule” was a made-up number. 5,000 works. 7,000 is good. Benefits seem to peak about 8,000 steps. I throw all those numbers out to perhaps get you over obsessing about a number.

Get some steps.

Take a break a few times a day getting out of the chair to walk around. Even if it’s just around the house or the office building. 500 steps here and another 500 there begin to add up.

Add a backpack with some weight. It’s called rucking. Maybe not going as far as fast, this added resistance adds strengthening to the walk.

My daughter and her husband have a discipline of going to a forest preserve or natural park to hike for a couple of hours every Saturday. Something a little more strenuous than a walk around the block.

Being out in nature is an added benefit with walking. I take in the sunrises and birds, the occasional otter or muskrat. Sometimes a coyote returning after a night’s foraging. Exercise for body, mind, soul.

Oh, go take a hike!

Posted in Disciplines, Physical | Leave a Comment »

When You Are Tired

August 28, 2023

Soccer referee training can be intense. The intensity increases with the level of games one expects to work. The reason goes beyond looking good on TV or video. Most of the really intense action and most goals are scored at the end of the half and the end of the game. That is also when one is most likely to be physically tired. Physical tiredness leads to mental mistakes. Bad decisions.

The same is true for all of us, everywhere.

I have an app associated with my bed that tells me how well I slept (or not). I thought I had a good restful sleep last night. My app this morning said I had a 12 our to 100. I got out of bed at 12:22 am. The bed thought I never returned.

Sometimes apps are wrong. However, the point stands. Physical fitness and alertness begins with a good night’s sleep. 7-8 hours a night for most people. Thinking you are a stud and can subsist on 4 hours or less is a fool’s bargain.

Physical training follows in importance. Whether you get up a bit earlier and do a few pushups and crunches or head to the trails for aerobic exercise followed by something like Yoga or Pilates or with weight training, hit the entire body several times a week.

Nutrition. Most of us in America eat too much. And those habits are spreading worldwide. Chew more and swallow less is great advice. Another great piece of advice from Michael Pollan

Eat food
Not too much
Mostly plants

(Note: by food he meant real food, things you can identify, not heavily processed stuff.)

Set yourself up for success. The Apostle Paul used many athletic metaphors and talked of the body as a temple of the spirit. Take care of it the best you can.

Posted in Habits, Physical | Leave a Comment »

Gentle on my Mind

August 25, 2023

Glen Campbell was a popular singer/songwriter in the 1960s and 1970s. He recorded a John Hartford song in the 60s about memories of a former love who was “gentle on my mind.”

We don’t often hear about being gentle. Maybe in our macho cultures we worry about being gentle as a form of weakness. Just as it takes inner strength to be humble, gentle is also a sign of strength.

We are strong enough to lift an infant or small child. Yet, we are gentle with them. Even when they frustrate us to no end. That is strength.

We are strong enough to dig in the soil to make a flower bed, yet we are gentle in picking a flower to present to a friend or lover.

We can be gentle when dealing with others, yet we have the strength to be helpful.

Today would be a great time to practice being gentle. Toward the things around you. Toward the people you meet. Toward even to yourself.

Posted in Attitude | Leave a Comment »

Childlike or Childish?

August 24, 2023

I may have written before about how I loved to take woks with my grandson when he was a toddler. We weren’t trying for distance. He would stop and explore leaves and bugs and worms and little lizards. Everything was fresh and new. He was filled with child-like wonder of things.

Perhaps that was the picture Jesus had in mind when he suggested that we should become like little children. Take in new experiences with eyes open with wonder. Accept whatever people came our way with the same anticipation and joy.

The rare times I turn on TV news or scan news on the internet, I’m shocked by the realization of how adolescent and childish so many of these people are.

We need to look at ourselves. The daily Examen. Morning and evening reflect on the day. Where did we delight in someone or something with childlike wonder? Where and when were we acting childish like a 2-year-old?

Posted in Attitude, Awareness | Leave a Comment »

Practice or Discipline?

August 23, 2023

Some teachers, not wanting to scare people with the word “discipline”, chose to water the term to spiritual practices. I saw the pool guy yesterday afternoon. We usually meet 2-3 days a week when I’m in the hot tub following my workout, and he’s doing whatever the pool guy does with chemicals and equipment. He asked how I was doing and then said, “You’re quite disciplined.”

When I get the Yoga mat out I am practicing Yoga. When I do it three days a week most weeks, then I have a discipline. Discipline is not a “four-letter-word.” It’s simply a part of my life.

People get on diets to lose weight. Pretty much all diets will cause you to lose weight. That’s not the point. The writers in one of my nutrition and fitness newsletters recently wrote, “The common denominator of all successful diets is how long you can stick to the plan. And that means following a plan that gives you the best chance to stay consistent for many months, and, ideally, years.”

He wrote about some research, “In the study, diet breaks were not associated with faster or more significant fat loss. But that’s only half the story. Even though one group took a one-week break every 2 weeks, they still lost the same amount of fat as those people who dieted without any time off.”

Our nutrition discipline, our physical training discipline, and yes our spiritual disciplines all benefit from a few simple things:

Do something that you can stick to for the long term
Don’t be afraid to modify along the way to keep it interesting
If you need to take a break for travel or life, don’t sweat it
When the break is over, have that discipline ingrained such that you fall right back into it

People try to meditate like the pictures of the beautiful model sitting in lotus with fingers touching looking over the waves of an ocean. Maybe somebody told them 20 minutes twice a day. Some say you need to light candles and burn incense.

Nonsense. Don’t make it so hard. Find a solid chair. Sit upright with good, but not tense, posture. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly and relax. Focus on your breath. Inhale. Exhale. If thoughts come, heck when thoughts come, don’t worry or force them out. Just let them come and go. You have 2 minutes. That’s a great start. Maybe next week 5 minutes is easy. Most of us just can’t sit still. That takes practice. After a couple of weeks, the practice becomes a discipline. Ha! You have sneaked up on a spiritual discipline. Hopefully one that continues for the long haul.

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

What If We Had Time To Think?

August 22, 2023

What if…

These two words along with “why” lead to many thoughts.

Looking at the situation of many people in the world, I thought “what if we had not constructed a society and an economy that depends upon all of us buying more stuff?”

Read the economics news from almost any country in the world today. What do you see? Consumer spending is up or down and therefore the economy is up or down. And employment is up or down.

Media (except this blog which generates no income) depends upon advertising—advertising convincing us by any of the latest psychology findings about motivation—where companies tell us to buy more stuff.

What if we didn’t get caught up in that gerbil cage wheel of consumption? What if we had time, like ancient peoples did, to sit and think? To meditate on God? To engage in conversations? To play?

Maybe today you and I can get off the consumption merry-go-round which drives people to 60-hour work weeks and pause, breathe, become aware of people and places around us?

Posted in simplicity | Leave a Comment »

In The Spirit and Doing Good

August 21, 2023

An ancient observation, about 4,600 years old:

One of complete virtue is not conscious of being virtuous.

One of whole virtue does not need to do anything in order to be virtuous.

This is similar to what the Apostle Paul tried to explain many times as he taught about those living in the spirit of God as followers of Jesus and those who tried to avoid God’s anger by obeying each and every one of the 600+ laws of the Hebrew tradition.

If we are truly living in the spirit, living a life with-God, we just naturally live good (maybe not exactly perfect but good) lives. We are kind, empathetic, helpful, virtuous. We have peace and joy and hope. We don’t even realize it. We just are.

Yet, so many read Paul in order to find more rules (laws) to add to the 600+ Jewish laws. They unfortunately miss the point.

So many of us miss the point. Missing out on the sort of life that God wishes for us.

Self-awareness begins the journey. Focus and attention—not on ourselves but first on God then on others. Or, maybe first on others then we realize the God part comes along. We can change, otherwise Paul wouldn’t have written all those letters to guide us.

Posted in Awareness, Disciplines, Spirituality | Leave a Comment »

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