Faith Venture

Vacation is one of my ideal times for reading. I do have to fit it in amongst the sightseeing that my wife prefers. Although we walked almost 6 miles yesterday, the temperature was in the low 20s F and with wind chill felt like 6 F. But we also toured Anne Frank’s house and the Van Gogh museum, had Dutch pancakes, and I was hit by a car backing up (not a problem other than momentary flash of “what the heck are you doing”).

The book I finished was Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos. The book is filled with wisdom from a practicing clinical psychologist and top rated university lecturer. He does delve deeply into mythology, brings in the New Testament, and explains much from Dostoyevsky, Nietzsche, and others. It is also humorous at times, deeply personal, and wise.

He concludes with these questions he asked of himself and a final plea:

What shall I do to strengthen my spirit? Do not tell lies, or do what you despise. What shall I do to ennoble my body? Use it only in the service of my soul. What shall I do with the most difficult of questions? Consider them the gateway to the path of life. What shall I do with the poor man’s plight? Strive through right example to lift his broken heart. What shall I do when the great crowd beckons? Stand tall and utter my broken truths.

I hope that my writing has proved useful to you. I hope it revealed things you knew that you did not know you knew. I hope the ancient wisdom I discussed provides you with strength. I hope it brightened the spark within you. I hope you can straighten up, sort out your family, and bring peace and prosperity to your community. I hope, in accordance with Rule 11 (Do not bother children when they are skateboarding), that you strengthen and encourage those who are committed to your care instead of protecting them to the point of weakness.

The skateboarding rule regards the problems generated by overprotective mothers (and sometimes fathers) who refuse to let their children grow up, develop strength, and leave the nest. This is definitely a boomer parent problem that I have dealt with on the soccer pitch and my wife in the classroom.

I have no idea where I developed the idea at a young age that the duty of a parent is to develop strong adults out of the children entrusted to us who become contributing members of society. Since they both (unfortunately 😉 ) read these thoughts, they can comment a rebuttal. The bad part is they are no longer dependent. The good part is they are no longer dependent–probably since their mid-late teens, just when developmental psychologists say they should. If you are raising kids, there are several of the rules that you should definitely read. If you are developing yourself, the entire book is for you.

We are vacationing in Amsterdam this week. Yesterday following a brief “power nap” we headed out to explore. The main stop was the Amsterdam Museum. Here was represented the history of Amsterdam.

This brought memories of the first half of the 20th Century. Today is a visit to Anne Frank’s house.

We in America have experienced yet another rage of angry young men (boys) with arsenals. Very quietly in the late 1800s and first half of 1900s witnessed a more widespread, but hidden, rage against people of African and Jewish heritage. Think Ku Klux Klan hangings and shootings out in the “piney woods.”

Then you come to Europe and are reminded of the very public, and thorough, rage against Jewish people. The idea once again grows that the whole thing was just fiction–like the moon landing was a fiction–perpetrated by those who would like once again to vent rage against those who are different from them.

Those of us who meditate to experience God’s presence often also experience knowledge of the depths of sin, depravity, and violence that lies within us, ready to capture our consciousness. It seems you have to understand just how much capability lies within you before you can experience truly God’s grace and enlightenment.

In the midst of finger-pointing and denial, it is instructive to us all to ponder whether we could participate in a society’s rage against others.

Perhaps to paraphrase Willy Nelson “I’m Looking for Ideas In All the Wrong Places”. However, I read somewhat widely. I’m also fascinated by philosophers and psychologists whose ideas passed on to those who would misuse them and thus earn them a bad reputation among proper Westerners.

I was captured by a thought and a line of argument from Karl Marx, for example, that I would have done well to explore to the completion of my masters (even though the university closed the graduate department while I was there). He explored how humans had become alienated from their labor due to industrialization–the demise of craftsman and the rise of workers. As fate would have it, I’m a writer and analyst specifically on industrialization. But Marx was driven by his passions–how else to explain ignoring his wife and many children while burying himself in the London library researching how businessmen and capitalist economics (then somewhat new) oppressed workers. His followers–even more passion.

But I came today to talk about Nietzsche. Talk about your screwed up guy–he was a preacher’s kid raised by his mother and her two sisters. Need I say more?

I spotted this essay by Scotty Hendricks in my daily dose of a site called Big Think about the psychology of Nietzsche. Many scholars believe that Freud and Jung both began their investigations because of him.

Hendricks says:

He also understood that outside influences could have major effects on the of psyches of individuals. He explains in Human All Too Human that “Direct self-observation is not nearly sufficient for us to know ourselves: we need history, for the past flows on within us in a hundred waves.” Hinting that he understands that our deeper selves are influenced by many more factors than meets the eye. He lists among those factors culture and history, alongside our upbringings and a multitude of drives.

That we still have animal drives is a fact we often try to suppress. But one that Nietzsche saw as a mere fact and one to be dealt with. Dubbed “The Beast Within” by Zarathustra, these drives towards sex and aggression were being suppressed by an archaic morality which saw them as wicked. Nietzsche saw this repression as causing potential energy to go to waste. He argued that it was much better to understand that we have these primal drives and that’s alright, so long as they can be subdued and harnessed.

I think we ignore these basic ideas at our peril. If you read ancient Christian writers, for example John Climacus one of my favorites, you pick up some similar basic ideas.

We have these drives and emotions. We are living in a time of wallowing in our emotions–just check out your social media stream if you dare. The shouting and division that occurs daily changes only due to the topic of the day.

We ignore at the peril of our spiritual health and development that little phrase, “so long as they can be subdued and harnessed.” Climacus wrote “The Ladder of Divine Ascent” analyzing each of the drives and emotions and how to overcome them with spiritual formation some 1,500 years before Nietzsche. Someone should do another one for modern people. Living in the spirit is not for the faint-hearted.

We are in another cycle of shouting–different topic, same emotion. We shout “hooray for our side” on our social media, watch our favorite mass media, get all worked up. It is a self-reinforcing cycle of hype and emotion. Media and social media companies study how to keep the cycle going so that they earn the all-important attention of users/viewers. It’s all about money.

We learn that snack companies have chemists working on non-nutritive enhancers that exist only to cause addiction–we won’t be able to “eat just one.” It’s all about money.

Humans have a region of taste that craves sweet. Food processors add sugar or sugar substitutes in order to make their product more appealing. We eat more, they add more. Next thing we know it’s a self-reinforcing cycle. We get fat. Food processing companies make a profit. It’s all about money.

Jesus advised us to beware of whom we serve.

He thought that serving God first was a better idea.

When we step back and take a breath, we can gain perspective. We can make better choices.

Maybe we can love and understand rather than shout.

Maybe we can choose how we use social media–and how much.

Maybe we can make better food choices and live healthier lives.

Maybe living with-God is a better idea. It leads to other attitudes like love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. A better way of life.

Contemplate the tea kettle.

Traditionally the place provided for your hand is directly center. When you tilt the kettle filled with boiling water thinking of the delicious coffee or tea you are about to brew, your hand goes directly over the spout. You experience anything from discomfort to mild burning pain from the steam directly below your hand.

Shift your hand to the back, and now it is out of harm’s way.A simple shift of geometry, solves a problem. Maybe a little weird looking–or maybe that’s modern?–but interesting function.

Sometimes life presents us with a challenge, or opportunity, or dilemma.

Sometimes a shift in attitude gives us a different perspective. We discover where to go for help. Or we see from another’s perspective. Maybe we see that what we thought was a challenge is really an opportunity just by a gentle shift in attitude. Maybe that person we scorn and say derisive things to or about we can see in a different way through a gentle shift in attitude.

Try it. Perhaps you’ll like it. Discernment, and then wisdom.

Do or do not. There is no try. –Yoda

It is an easy trap to fall into.

Talking, that is.

Back in the day when I often sang Christian folk songs, there was this one that went, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

That is a direct reference to the words of Jesus.

He didn’t say, you will know we are Christians by our political shouting. Or by our going around telling people how to behave like Christians (which then we don’t do). He didn’t say you’ll know my followers by the congregation they attend where everyone agrees on the same propositions.

It’s when you look at a person who has spent years doing small tasks to make other people’s lives better and think, “Wow, that person is really full of face.”

It’s the person who finds ways to search out and heal someone else.

It’s the person who slips a little extra money into an envelop to help an orphanage.

It is the guide or mentor.

A follower of Jesus looks like Jesus. That’s how you know. They choose to do.