Faith Venture

Driving home from the airport about midnight last night, an 80s pop song came on. I don’t know the group or the song, but the title struck me.

“When the Heart Rules the Mind”

We’ve probably all been there.

When we’re adolescent and the hormones are coursing through our systems.

When we’re middle aged and thinking we’ve missed out on life.

When we let politics and news capture our hearts (emotions).

We get caught in a spiral. It starts innocently. Then goes deeper. 

We lose those fruit of the spirit—love, joy, peace. We’re never contented. We are a pain to live with.

That is why so much was written by early Christ followers about the psychology of the spirit. How to overcome the chain of emotions and move ourselves into a spiritual life with God.

Life is so much better there.

Didn’t get to my hotel room until 1 am last night. My meetings begin at 8. But yes, I still enjoy what I do. I’m going to meet some really smart people today, ask some questions, make sense of what I hear, and write about it.

The past weekend, I refereed three soccer games among 9 and 10 year old players.

They played with such unbounded joy. Chasing the ball, kicking it to teammates or into the goal. But I noticed the joy of the play.

For some reason I thought of the churches described in Acts 2.

When is the last time you worshipped and gathered in such joy about Jesus?

It’s in the Gospel of John. Jesus had brought Lazarus back to life after he had been dead for four days. No chance it had been of of those fluke “not dead, but appeared dead” phenomena.

This act had caught the attention of “the people.”

It also caught the attention of the leaders of the Jewish religion. The priests and the Pharisees.

John must have been tapped in with that group. Maybe relatives? He quotes them often. In this case, he gets the scoop on another of their committee meetings.

“What are we going to do with this guy?” they ask among themselves. “The people are starting to turn toward him. He could become their leader.”

The spoken fear—that Jesus will start an armed insurrection and draw the anger of the Romans. These trained, professional, and vicious fighters would march in, destroy the Temple, kill them all, and disperse the nation.

The unspoken fear—that Jesus will replace them as leaders and then how would they live with no power, no income, no prestige.

Wait a minute? The Pharisees as leaders????

I have always imagined them as a group of sour-faced, unpleasant, party killers. The roam the land in packs looking for people having fun and telling them how bad they are. “If only you were like us,” they would say, “then everything would be right in the world.”

But I thought some more. They probably were leaders. 

And we have them still today!

How many of our churches are overrun with Pharisees? They make up rules. Often, but not always, with some sort of Biblical base. These are rules they can follow (mostly). Then they can compare others to themselves and declare themselves righteous. And they attract followers in their own mold. 

And the rules go marching on.

And Jesus—after they figured out the only solution was to kill him, he went and surprised them by returning to life and leading the insurrection anyways. And the Romans came in, not because of Jesus, and leveled the Temple and destroyed the Jewish Temple cult scattering the people. 

“It is better that one man should die rather than the whole people,” said the high priest. Irony. And more ironies.

Have you found that freedom from the Pharisees with Jesus? It’s there for the taking.

Today is National Manufacturing Day. It is a day set aside to recognize and celebrate those who make “things” for us.

Jobs in manufacturing have change dramatically over the past 20 years. They are no longer dirty, smelly, dangerous, physically debilitating torture chambers. Environments for the most part are clean and safe. People must be willing to be trained for technical aspects of the job or in Lean principles.

In like manner, jobs in churches (primarily in America and Europe and maybe Latin America) have changed dramatically over the past 20 years. Only we recognize it in manufacturing. I’m not so sure that church leaders recognize that.

When everyone in your town or city neighborhood went to (the same) church, the role of the priest/pastor was shepherding the flock. Pastors. They organized services, officiated at weddings and funerals, visited the ill.

Today our small towns and city neighborhoods are most likely not so homogeneous. Pastors must become leaders. Motivators. Organizers. They need to set people (metaphorically) on fire to work according to their spiritual gifts. They must teach a new generation of seekers. Maybe more like those Wesleyan evangelists who went out to the people who were in need.

What about us? The “members” or “attenders”? 

We need to be more than people who just show up. Just like they described the early church in Acts 2, we need to so live our lives filled with the Spirit and developing our spiritual gifts that other people say, “Wow, I want some of that.”

It’s amazing. Sometimes we change by returning to the source and modeling those who came before us.

“That’s in the Laws of the Game???”

I’ve taught the FIFA Laws of the Game (football or soccer) for probably 25 years. Inevitably there is a dad in the class. He’s spent a few years in a chair along the touchline (side line to you aficionados of the foot ball that is not played with the foot) shouting at the referee. “I can do better than that,” he thinks.

First off, what he thought were the rules—aren’t. Second, he is taught the spirit of the game and how the game is actually played.

Everything he believed about the game is turned upside down.

Many Americans—especially from the Midwest and South—grew up in homogeneous towns. Everyone was a Christian (or at least pretended to be one). Everyone is the same ethnic group. Maybe in some larger communities there were two ethnic groups that lived together separately.

You assume everyone is the same.

But we’re not.

A recent survey uncovered a fact that should be disconcerting to evangelicals—those who say they go out and try to “win the lost for Jesus.” Well, they haven’t been very successful. The number of Christians defined by those who attend a service at least twice per month is a minority in America.

It’s best not to assume that everyone you meet is Christian. Even if they look like you.

Just like this—how many times have you picked up the Bible, opened it, read a passage, and declared, “I had no idea that this was in there.”

Maybe we should challenge our assumptions about what the Bible says by actually, gasp!, reading it. Reading it with an open heart to see what God is really telling you.

Maybe we should challenge our assumptions about people. Maybe treat every person we meet as a child of God whom he loves and desires a close relationship. That would be every person we meet.

If we all re-wired out assumptions, how would that impact the world?

“We’ll give you answers to questions you’ve never asked.”

Do you know how many sensors are in your smart phone? They can track where you are; whether you’re sitting, walking, or running; what you ask for. Much of that data goes into a depository of information linked to you by various applications (think about how much Google and Facebook know about you—supposedly with only the intent to show you advertising that you’d likely be interested in.

I’m at a technology conference this week in Minneapolis. By the way, this is a nice city to take a vacation to for a few days. Not that I’m even close to vacationing.

The Chief Technology Officer of the company whose user conference I’m attending commented about other companies who tell potential customers that they can suck in all the data from the sensors (thousands) in an industrial plant and “give you answers to questions you’ve never asked”.

He had the same take on the question that I have. 

Who cares about answers to questions that I haven’t asked?

As a spiritual seeker, how many times have preachers, teachers, acquaintances, others given you answers that are pretty much irrelevant to your life?

I’d guess way too many.

I knew a really good technology sales person who would have a meeting with a new prospect and begin the meeting by asking a series of questions in a completely friendly and non-threatening way. The first thing that was amazing about this is that he was an engineer. Engineers are taught to have answers. But he wanted to know that he was going to provide the right answer for the questions that the prospect had.

When is the last time a well-meaning but persistent Christian asked you questions before responding with a spiritual discipline or practice or answer that would help you?

Maybe our spiritual practice to develop is getting to know something about the hopes and dreams and difficulties of another person before telling them the answer. Just knowing that “Jesus is the answer” (as the bumper sticker says) isn’t helpful. How Jesus is the answer to a person’s particular question is helpful. And knowing that answer can lead to a spiritually healthier life where we ask more questions and discover more ways “Jesus is the answer”.

Go forth and discover other people’s questions.

1God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.2Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. —Psalm 46

We get news from everywhere on the globe thanks to our modern technologies.

Sometimes that is very good; sometimes it can be overwhelming.

Sometimes it is good to return to ancient teaching.

We remember our instructions about helping others.

Sometimes we can reach out and help—we can send aid to areas stricken by hurricane, for example.

Sometimes we can only feel helpless. Physical items cannot help in some tragedies.

Before we lose our own mooring in the midst of all this information about tragedies, we return to the source of our being.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

It’s one of those things you may not notice until someone points it out to you. Maybe sort of like in the classic road runner cartoons the coyote never falls after running off the top of a cliff until he notices that the ground under his feet is 100 feet down.

Did you ever notice that when Jesus healed someone he almost always gave them a responsibility? Go to the priest. Get up. Or else the person took responsibility for their faith. Like the woman who secretly (she thought) touched Jesus garment (prayer shawl?) to obtain healing.

I’ve noticed for years the debate in America about rights. Well, not so much debate as an in-your-face “I’ve got rights” assertion. We have become what our founders feared—wanting rights without taking responsibility.

We have leaders who seem to excuse poor behavior with “it’s their right to speak” or it’s their right to…”

That is why it is so refreshing today to see a leader like the Commandant of the US Air Force Academy. Someone hung posters with racist epithets on the dorm doors of some black cadets. He didn’t hesitate. He called an assembly of everyone and “chewed butt”. We will respect all of our colleagues here. If you can’t hold them in respect, get out.

We don’t have to hit national news or have a viral YouTube clip. We can gently or not so gently remind people about such things as respecting others and taking responsibility for our actions. It’s called leadership. It’s a shame it is so rare that it makes news. 

But it does begin with each of us examining our own actions and words. When we take responsibility for our own actions, we don’t even need laws (see Paul’s advice in places such as Galatians or Romans). 

I’m always curious. How can I improve myself? What is healthy? What makes my brain grow? How can I help? How can I overcome my social awkwardness?

So, I come across lists all the time. I found a list that mostly is what I do, but there were some new ideas I need to try.

The guy who started this train of thought was James Altucher. He made millions. Lost it all. And his wife along with it. Then he made millions again. Lost it all, again. Now, he’s made it all again. He writes daily about his insecurities.

He wrote about what he’s done after the last time he lost everything. I’ve modified his list a little to suit my point of view (I’m not likely to make millions).

Altucher says, “Most important – I don’t think about past or future. I just think: did I do these habits today?” 

Excellent advice: I try to improve 1% each day on:

Physical Health 

Sleeping, eating well, exercise (which might just mean…enough movement per day. It doesn’t mean gym time).

Emotional Health 

Improve friendships 

Get rid of the people who put me down or make me feel bad about myself

Improve my own ability to hold onto my self-esteem rather than outsourcing it to others. It’s hard enough for other people to deal with their own self-esteem, let alone mine.

Love strangers

Love my family

Don’t judge myself too harshly

Prune my news sources, ignore people who only want to stoke my emotions so they can sell things

Mental Health 

Write down 10 ideas a day to exercise my idea muscle. The benefits of this are enormous. By the way, I use this technique when I’m helping people come up with strategic positioning for their companies or for a strategic marketing message. It’s also good for planning and for writing articles and books. 

Write, draw, create, in some way
.

Spiritual Health 

Simply be grateful every day. Find something difficult to be grateful for. 

Spend 15 minutes in the Bible every day.

Pray and meditate every day.

One Question a Day

At the end of every day ask, “Who did I help today?”

Books 

Read a mix of non-fiction and fiction each day. It doesn’t matter what you learn. Don’t stress it. You’ll absorb.

Books are the way to get a lifetime worth of experiences in just a few days.

Imagine that you live in a world where all relationships are governed by power—that is, who has power over whom. Most of us do not have to stretch our imaginations too far to bring this to mind.

Even family relationships were governed by who has the power (father) and who must obey (women and children).

The most God-fearing of the Jews were also power people. The power of the rule—and those who interpret the rules and those who follow the rules to the letter. These were the Pharisees. (Oh, yes, we have Pharisees among Christian circles even today.)

An ancient principle of writing and speaking holds that when your point is important you repeat it. So, let’s look at the Gospels.

What’s the greatest commandment? Love the Lord your God, oh yes, and a second one of equal importance, Love your neighbor.

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another (John repeats this within two chapters).

Check out how many times Jesus repeats this. Then check out Paul, and Peter, and James, and John’s other writings.

What does it mean to love my neighbor? Jesus tells us stories as examples.

There is how to treat the lost son (an example of treating all lost people).

How to treat someone who is injured (helped by a despised outcast, namely a Samaritan).

Read James for more examples of how to love people.

This love turned the Roman world upside down.

Two thousand years later, we still have societies governed by power relationships. 

We still need to practice this love to turn the world upside down.

We draw power from the spiritual disciplines—study, prayer, meditation, worship, simplicity—so that we can pass the love of Jesus on to others (metaphor of vine to branches to fruit).

Imagine, if you will, a world governed by the principle of love.