Archive for the ‘Awareness’ Category

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Pride and Humility

January 23, 2026

Like I’ve said before, James does not soft-pedal his message.

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

John Climacus, one of the more influential Desert Fathers, also spoke boldly.

Pride is the denial of God, an invention of the devil, contempt for men. It is the mother of condemnation, the offspring of praise, a sign of barrenness. It is a flight from God’s help, the harbinger of madness, the author of downfall. It is the cause of diabolical possession, the source of anger, the gateway of hypocrisy. It is the fortress of demons, the custodian of sins, the source of hardheartedness. It is the denial of compassion, a bitter pharisee, a cruel judge. It is the foe of God. It is the root of blasphemy.

Whew!

Stories in our news feeds would shrivel like a dried worm on the street on a sunny day following a rainstorm without prideful people to describe.

More important than observing others, let us turn the microscope on ourselves. Where does pride sneak past our defenses showing up in most unfortunate ways? Avoiding pride requires ever present vigilance. We let our guard down for even a moment, and pride can slither into our being.

Where should we focus to avoid the power of pride? James says:

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

I hope he doesn’t mean to constantly walk around in gloom. But when we recognize pride growing in ourselves, time for optimism and laughter is over. In its place enters a dose of humility and turning to God’s grace to restore our souls.

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Posted in Attitude, Awareness, Humility, pride, Wisdom | 3 Comments »

Temptation

January 8, 2026

Put a bag of potato chips near me, and I am tempted. I know they will show up as added white adipose tissue (fat) on my abdomen the next day. Knowledge does not negate temptation.

Put a woman in close proximity to some men, and they are tempted to reach out and touch.

Put a sweet treat near some women, and temptation insidiously injects into psyche.

We have small temptations. We have temptations that can lead to life-changing folly.

You can refer to Freud, Jung, Adler, James, or other psychologists. Or, better, check out early Christian writers. For example, our current guide—James.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Temptation is a fact of life. Quick check—are you breathing? Then temptation lies just around the corner. Even worse today are companies that hire scientists and engineers to develop products (from chips to social media) specifically designed to subtly tempt you into excess.

Self awareness of the desires that pop into consciousness plus a developed routine to avoid such nonsense protect us from yielding. Build a solid foundation that thwarts the invasion of tempters.

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Fear Not!

December 29, 2025

That is the most common “command” in the Bible.

Every time a person in the Bible has a spiritual encounter with a messenger of God, the first words from the messenger are, “Fear not!”

I have had “nudges” from God and have had some spiritual experience within meditation. But I imagine if I had a full on vision, I would need those first words of calming.

I talked a bit yesterday about Jesus’s invitation. It’s simple, yet life changing. He needed a bit of that Fear Not discussion with his closest followers more than once. I imagine that many of his followers during the ensuing 20 centuries have needed that bit of reassurance.

Maybe that is why today we can find many who say they believe in Jesus. How many are actually followers? Obeying his commands about loving one another.

Many, it seems, put their own pride and prejudices ahead of these simple instructions from the Master. When we finally come into awareness of our wrong path, it’s time to stop and take stock.

Perhaps at that point we need to consider honest answers to these questions. What if you were not afraid? What path are you on? Who are you following? Yourself? Has someone led you astray?

You don’t need to be a theologian. It’s simple. Get up and move—“Follow me.”

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Advent—Preparing Our Hearts For Jesus

December 9, 2025

I’m still thinking about the inward journey of Advent. That part of the path where we check in with ourselves to uncover the status of our heart at this time of year.

I experienced a series of “visions” many years ago during a month of meditation sessions. At first, I was walking along a residential street pausing to notice an old house. The yard was overgrown with weeds, the walkway cracked, the fence in disrepair. But I was fascinated. A few days later, I decided to enter (thinking either Jung or Scooby Doo?). A door drew my attention. Eventually, I opened the door. It was, of course, to the cellar. A guide appeared, and we descended the stairs.

I was introduced to visualizations of every kind of sin. The experience told me that within myself, I was capable of all sin. And, that is true. I may not perform every sin, but I realize that I am capable if I slide that direction. 

[The series of meditations continued to where the cellar experience changed from revealing my weaknesses to celebrating acceptance into a huge party of every type and kind of God’s children. We are all people to be loved and served.]

The desert fathers of the early church studied the evil passions. They have taught me about self-awareness of the presence of the passions (emotions or destructive thoughts) and ways of mitigating them.

We cannot stop thoughts from entering our minds and guts. It’s whether we let them fester and grow or deal with them that determines our life stance.

Evagrius Ponticus, one of these early desert fathers, compiled a list of these passions—eight in number. A later Pope called Gregory the Great reformulated them as the Seven Deadly Sins.

These eight, you ask?

  • Gluttony
  • Lust
  • Avarice
  • Sadness
  • Anger
  • Acedia/Sloth
  • Vainglory
  • Pride

Evagrius emphasized achieving apatheia—freedom from destructive passions—as a goal of the spiritual life. Not emotional numbness, but freedom from being controlled by passions

Check out the list. Which are we prone to sit in? How can becoming aware of these propel you to seek the words of Jesus that will free us from wallowing in these destructive passions?

Advent—a time to prepare our hearts for the coming (or re-entry?) of Jesus.

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Advent—Looking Inward

December 8, 2025

I have called myself a follower of Jesus for decades. Preparing myself for Christmas and the idea of entering anew into a relationship with him, I’ve been researching and reflecting on obstacles. After today’s thoughts, I’ll take a look at Evagrius’s list of eight “evil passions” reflecting on how they impact me (and probably you).

I am reflecting today on an ancient poem that I first saw perhaps some 62 years ago. I am still reflecting on the meaning of this for me. Which of these am I? I hope for four. Maybe realistically one? I know that it took years to wake up in the following sense.

He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool…shun him.

He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a student…teach him.

He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep…wake him.

He who knows and knows that he knows is wise…follow him.

Life seems to give us many in category one who think they are in category four. Learn discernment. I hope that we (you and I) are not a fool. I consider myself a continuing student.  Who among my readers need to awaken? There is surely one who is wise.

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When a Small Group Seeks Power

November 20, 2025

Often throughout human history a small group (usually men) gather and think that they are somehow endowed with the wisdom to tell everyone else how to live.

Jesus opposed the Jewish religious establishment of his time.

Plato wrote an essay called The Republic wherein he argues that government should be run by a small group of philosophers—because philosophers of his time pursued the “truth” and were therefore wise. Unfortunately, not all people who think they know the truth are also wise.

Throughout a large chunk of the history of Europe, the small group was composed by clerics.

Sometimes it is a group of the very wealthy.

Jesus looked at everyone who through some situation became wealthy or politically powerful or held religious power and asked a simple question—what is the status of your heart? 

I have others to expand on that. Where is your focus? Do you have the humility to lead well? Can you handle your wealth for the benefit of the community?

Do not listen to mere words. Evaluate their actions. Seek the status of their heart.

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Anger

November 19, 2025

Why do smart people do stupid things? Ryan Holliday asks this in his Daily Stoic newsletter. It’s a question that jarred me. As an introvert, I feel as if I recall every stupid thing I’ve ever done. (Not saying I’m smart, but I do stupid things.)

Holliday cites the Roman philosopher Seneca, who says that anger makes us stupid.

I cite my favorite, John Climacus, aka St. John of the Ladder. In our metaphorical climb up the ladder to spiritual wholeness, anger is viewed as one of the passions that needed to be overcome.

  • Anger disturbs inner peace and impedes prayer
  • It’s one of the obstacles to achieving apatheia (freedom from destructive passions)
  • Even “righteous anger” needed to be carefully guarded against

It’s not that we’ll never experience anger. It’s an emotion that will flare like a bonfire within us. We must not lose our self-awareness. When we see these flaring up within, we need the habit of the deep breath and pause. Righteous anger can move us to make necessary change. But even it can consume us and destroy our relationships—with God, as well as with other people.

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Makes Me Dream

November 17, 2025

Vincent Van Gogh on inspiration: “I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

I have devoted a substantial chunk of my time and energy to studying and teaching the Bible. Many have taken that journey before me.

We must pause that journey and ask an important question.

Does the more we read correlate to a growing level of certainty? 

Joking with a friend recently, I pointed out the scholarship journey—I know more and more about less and less until I know everything about nothing.

Perhaps the best study follows Van Gogh’s insight—when did we last read something that caused us to lay aside the book and dream?

Van Gogh’s dreams led to paintings that move us.

To what actions and creativity do our dreams lead? 

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Stuck in the Middle

November 14, 2025

“Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”—Stealers Wheel

That lyric speaks to me on so many levels.

For today, I’m thinking of the middle. Our middle. The place where the heart and lungs reside. Our core (not in the Pilates sense).

My meditation teacher has us exploring the middle. 

We had been exploring breath by focusing on the sensation at the upper lip. The rhythmic cooling caused by the breath.

Now it is the lungs with the rhythmic rise and fall, and the rhythm of the heart.

My exploration of the core led to realization of Jesus’s concern for the status of the heart. Not at an intellectual level, which tends to divide mind and body, but at the core of our being. It is from that core that our following lives. And from that following come the action verbs we learned from Isaiah yesterday:

  • Cease to do evil,
  • Learn to do good,
  • Seek justice,
  • Correct oppression,
  • Bring justice to the fatherless,
  • Plead the widow’s cause.

These are things pleasing to his sight. Just as Paul wrote in the concluding chapters of the Letter to the Romans. Life doesn’t stop with realization of grace—it begins. That is new life. And then we live according to the new heart.

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Prophetic Action Plan

November 13, 2025

“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”

Thus opens the document we call the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah proceeds to speak to the kings (and the people) words that God gave him. He takes the next several paragraphs detailing the evil ways of the people of Judah (which had split with Israel thanks to the stupidity of Solomon’s son).

I’ll not document all that right now. We can translate to today the idea of what and how do we worship and acknowledge God. Is our worship of prayers and offerings consistent with the intent of God or is it not performed with the right orientation of the heart?

Let us look at the prescription that God offers followers spoken through Isaiah. Pay attention. Look at the verbs.

  • Cease to do evil,
  • Learn to do good,
  • Seek justice,
  • Correct oppression,
  • Bring justice to the fatherless,
  • Plead the widow’s cause.

I am convicted—where have I learned to do good? Do I seek justice for everyone? How am I working to correct oppression? Where can I bring justice and peace to the oppressed of society?

Think on your own situation. You and I, we cannot do it all. But we can do something. What is it we can do today?

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Posted in Awareness, Disciplines, Doing, Intention, Justice | Leave a Comment »

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