Faith Venture

A panda walks into a bar. He orders a sandwich. After eating the sandwich, he pulls out a gun and shoots the bartender. Then he gets off the bar stool and walks out. Puzzled, the other people notice the panda left behind a Field Guide To Pandas. It said clearly, “a panda eats, shoots and leaves.”

I listened to a man giving a meditation. He was quoting from the Bible (not exactly the same one that most Christians use). He read a passage. Puzzled, I pulled out my iPhone and looked up the passage. He had moved a comma. It was just one word over. But he moved it.

That one little comma completely changed the meaning of the sentence. Which changed the meaning of the interpretation of other books of the Bible. Which leads to an entirely different theology from every Christian interpretation I’ve ever studied.

When your kids complain about learning grammar. Or those “modern” English teachers of some years ago who said, “just let the kids write anything and don’t worry about spelling or grammar.” Or anyone who abhors the work of thinking.

Consider this.

Even a lowly comma has the greatest importance for conveying the correct information.

Or, maybe you will meet that panda.

Thinking and communicating are key foundation disciplines without which the spiritual discipline of study goes for naught.

[If you didn’t get it–without the comma the sentence tells us what the panda eats. With the comma (and devotees of the Oxford comma forgive me), the sentence gives us a series of actions the panda does.]

Pneuma–a Classical Greek word meaning breath. We still use it in words such as pneumatics–using air as a force to control an actuator in a machine, for example. Ancient people used the same word in a different context to mean spirit or soul.

Breath links physical being with spiritual being. Especially so when breathing with intention.

There is a type of breath that assists physical exertion.

There are several types of breathing that slow our body and mind bringing relaxation. Finding moments of pause and relaxation in this season of Christmas gift buying, parties, gatherings, stresses.

Try this Relaxing Breath exercise.

Almost any posture works. Best is sitting not slouched. Upright but not stiff.

• Inhale through the nose and count silently to 4.
• Hold your breath for a count of 7.
• Exhale through your mouth for a count of 8.
• Repeat for 4 cycles.
• Try to intentionally stop and do this twice a day.

It does not matter how fast you count. Slower is better, but don’t stress over it (after all, we are trying to relax, right).

Some say practicing the spiritual disciplines becomes an end in itself. You read, pray, meditate, go to church, and the like simply by rote repetition.

Simply reading spiritual writings will be beneficial even if it is just something you do for 15-30 minutes every morning.

Simply pausing to reflect in quiet is beneficial even if on some days or seasons “you’ve lost that lovin’ feeling.”

Joining with others is helpful even if it is just a weekly routine.

We know that feelings follow action. We can act our way out of bad moods and habits.

Worse is the person who follows a practice and then becomes increasingly prideful about it.

Like Jesus’ story about people who pray where they can be readily seen or fasting and doing it so everyone notices–pride is an insidious enemy. It sneaks in among the good works and destroys what it touches.

Pride is like the weeds in the parable of the sower where good seed falls among them and get choked to death as they grow.

Don’t be that person.

Practice simply and in solitude. Keep in the routine. Some days will be dry. Some days will overflow in spiritual blessing.

The Apostle Paul talked about the importance of training often. His analogy was to athletic training, which he applied to training in spiritual disciplines or practices.

You wonder sometimes if he were an athlete in his youth. He had physical stamina throughout his life in addition to his frequent sports analogies.

He told his protege Timothy one time “more important than physical training is training in godliness [Eusebia].”

Some people look for shortcuts to training. Isn’t there a magic pill I can take that will get me to physically and spiritually fit?

No. Such an elixir does not exist.

Some think they can rush through the training. What takes others 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert they will do in a week.

But results do not follow. It’s too easy to quit.

Life is a paradox. One paradox applies here.

Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.

Slow down. Smooth out the practices. One day you step back and evaluate discovering far more progress than you might have anticipated.

Samuel Beckett wrote a play wherein two men engage in seemingly random conversations while Waiting for Godot–who never arrives. When one starts to leave, the other reminds him, “Remember, we are waiting for Godot.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer advised us, “Learning about advent means learning about waiting.”

Is waiting something we need to learn?

I remember being about 9 and waiting outside a house after a drum lesson for dad to arrive to take me home. I thought he’d never make it. Sometimes waiting is forced upon us. Is that how we learn?

You cannot learn waiting by reading about its meaning. You can learn the etymology of the word. You may learn some contexts for the word.

Like Vladimir and Estragon waiting for Godot, you learn waiting by intentionally pausing your day anticipating the arrival of someone or something.

Maybe it is waiting in expectation like Mary waiting out the nine months for the birth of a miracle child. What does it mean? What will he be like? How will I raise him?

Waiting.

Rather than waiting with excitement for December 25 in order to inspect the stuff left behind by St. Nicholas or Santa Claus, advent requires a different sort of waiting.

We talk about things while we wait. But in this play Godot actually comes. In the form of Jesus, of course.

Read Luke and Matthew. Read about all the people they describe who had waited throughout a long life for this birth. For the advent of this spiritual renewal.

Wait.

Man walks into a bar. Sees a woman he’d like to know better. Goes to her, “What’s your sign?”

In the “old” days, everyone knew their sun sign. “I’m a Virgo.” “I’m a Capricorn.” And so on. It was supposed to tell you something about your personality based on when you were born.

I’m a Scorpio. My wife is Aquarius. It is the worst possible match in the Zodiac, so I read once. We’ve been married 48 years. Hard to tell how good it would have been if we had compatible signs.

I’ve been part of two teams where we were studied on our interactions based on the Myers-Briggs Types Indicator. You know, the one with four letters. I’m ENTP. But I really like being alone (I, not E). But I can get energy from being with people (E, not I). <sigh>

Oh, I never found out if the researchers came to a conclusion. A dysfunctional team is a dysfunctional team.

Now all the cool kids (and I always wanted to be one of the cool kids but never made it) ask, “What’s your number?” It’s the Enneagram. I’ve taken the tests. I’m a 9; except I’m a 5; but wait, I’m really a 4.

What good is it to know a description of your personality?

None.

As Robert Pirsig noted introducing Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “the real motorcycle you’re working on is yourself.”

Many people stop at knowing a little bit. The point is really to use that information to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Then you can go to work to shore up your weaknesses and assure that your strengths don’t go too far.

Ancient wisdom up to the present is about knowing yourself so that you can improve yourself.

And God knows, we all could use some improvement.

We look at the kids today and wonder what the world will come to.

People said that about my generation, the one before, the ones after.

I read ancient documents. The young people 4,000 years ago? The same.

The same hopes, fears, adolescent stupidity.

I saw this cartoon the other day:

xkdc

Still, things are much better today than 100 years ago. Or farther back. We live more comfortably throughout most of the world. We have better health. Less violence (despite headlines meant to stir up emotions and readership). Peace and justice keep winning a little at a time.

It’s Advent time for Christians. A season of anticipation of the coming of the Prince of Peace. We’re the same, yet better.

The ancient Stoics taught memento mori or remembering our mortality.

Young people often have no thought of their mortality and place themselves in reckless situations. But those who are wise know that any day can be the last for us or those close to us.

In the last two weeks, three people ranging from family to acquaintance to community member died suddenly and young.

These events should awaken us to the fact that all of us are mortal and we could die any day.

That just means that we should be living a day at a time. Don’t let this day go by thoughtlessly.

Christians are now in the season of Advent. A time of waiting with anticipation and expectation. We live each day with hope and yet at the same time remember our mortality. It is in this dynamic tension that we forge our way forward.

I guess we could use the Latin to say we live in the tension of memento mori and carpe diem.