Faith Venture

Paul writing early in his letter to the Roman churches boldly tells them “it’s not what we do, but what God does.” Then he repeats it just a bit later. When a writer repeats a thought, it must be important.

Let us put this in a context. Discussing spiritual formation, Paul began with a litany of the ways we humans (read I) fall short of living the kind of life God wants. This way of life (remember, lust, grasping, groping, evil thoughts…) separates us from God. We call that sin.

The Jewish people following from Moses, developed rules, or laws, that if we follow them to the letter, we will re-establish that close relationship with God.

It didn’t work.

Paul was brought up in that tradition. He devoted his life to studying it and trying to follow it.

Then came Jesus. He talked with Paul. Told him there was a different way.

It’s not what we do. It’s what God does. We call that grace. I think Jesus called it love.

How many of us say that we are under grace yet try to live as if under law? We set up lists of rules. If someone doesn’t follow them, then they cannot be part of our organization.

Paul, after his conversion from Phaiseeism, devoted his life to explaining what Jesus meant by “love one another as I have loved you.” And also the two commands Jesus left his followers, love God and love your neighbor.

After Paul repeats “it’s not what we do, but what God does”, then he tries to show us that we will naturally do those things that put us right with God. Not because we are trying to follow laws. No, it is because we understand that God made us right with him also making us free to live a good life.

Later, Paul will give us a glimpse of what it means with examples.

It’s a matter of attitude.

When we read spiritual writing or scriptures or even health books, whom do we picture in our minds as the audience?

I’m reading Pauls’s letter to the Romans in the Message translation to get a new perspective. It shakes up your thinking when you read in a different translation that changes words around a bit.

Paul said early in the letter after he listed all the bad things humans are capable of doing, “whatever is written in these scriptures is not what God says about others but what he says to us.”

That really hit.

Now go back and read those paragraphs about lust and rampant evil, grasping, groping, backstabbing…

That is not other people. As the lead character in the old comic strip, Pogo, said, “We have met the enemy, and it is us.”

During some of my meditations, God has shown me quite graphically how I am capable of all manner of evil and sinful acts and thoughts.

When I read those lists of sin and evil, it is I who is described. Pull out John Climacus’ Ladder of Divine Ascent, reading through his lists of emotions and realize that I am described. The point is not that others share those faults. The point is to take it personally.

That is where Paul begins his discussion of the growth of spiritual formation. Until I realize that in me, I’ll never progress.

[Spoiler alert: Paul (and God) shows us the way out.]

Paul opens his Letter to Christ-Followers in Rome with greetings (like any thoughtful letter writer) and then jumps into his spiritual formation teaching.

First, he hits lust. Following what in English is rendered as an entire paragraph on that topic (it must really twang his chord), he proceeds to list a number of bad ways people behave and bad emotions people allow to control them.

I thought, “Hasn’t Paul pulled out this list of bad things in other letters? Does he dwell on these thoughts?”

But, wait a minute. He also writes many lists of good things. Lists of how a mature follower of Jesus, someone living with God in the Spirit, lives.

Paul likes lists.

We can remember lists. They make for a simple outline for teaching or presenting. I do that when I’m preparing a speech.

Beginning each day with a list of things I need to do today helps focus the day. I can tick off each item accomplished. That’s a good feeling.

A little list of the characteristics of the life we want to lead reviewed early every day also helps point to the better path for focusing today. Maybe instead of giving vent to some frustration at someone or something, there is a reminder of the type of person someone living with God will act.

While reading the New Testament, pay attention to lists. Writers don’t compose them accidentally. They have put thought into them. We should repay their work by also putting some thought into them.

Seth Godin mentioned on his podcast recently that he has a favorite coffee mug that tells him, “I choose to give a damn.”

There are two verbs in that sentence that are important.

One is choose.

I choose—how I respond to daily stresses, what I feed my mind, what I feed my body. I can make the choice, or I can defer. I can defer the decision to others. Or to inertia.

The other is to give.

Giving not only helps others, it helps us as we give. And he tells us what to give. A damn. Meaning, I choose to care. I care about healing myself. I care about righting an injustice. I care about others (one at a time).

The conversation during university with a classmate about a professor. I expressed a concern. He said, “I don’t care.” I have been deeply affected by that flippant remark. Is that the Baby Boomers’ dilemma? Not caring about anyone outside ourselves? I don’t know. But I care.

She’s at it again. My wife, that is. Another jigsaw puzzle laid out on the kitchen counter.

I awakened this morning to visions of cat faces floating across my mind.

Yes, this puzzle has eight equal windows with a different cat face (with costume, sick, I know) in each window. Sort of like the windows in the Amsterdam red light district, you shouldn’t stare. But when you’re assembling the puzzle, stare you must.

Another reminder that the brain is impressionable. It absorbs and remembers what you impress upon it.

We must be intentional about what we allow our brain to see, hear, experience. As the brain goes, so we become. Feed it good things.

Many people seem to get confused over what freedom means. Some may think that freedom means that I can say whatever I want with impunity. This holds for talking to friends at a bar or posting on social media.

Those who have studied how to live the good and moral life as well as promoting a just society know that with the ability to speak comes the responsibility of using that speech wisely. The Apostle James provides the clearest argument from ancient sources.

If I were 18 again, I’d think that that paragraph is the result of old-people’s thinking. And younger people must rebel against it. That would be adolescent thinking of those whose prefrontal cortex has not fully developed. (I, unfortunately, remember being that age with much chagrin.)

Jesus taught us to love on another. James taught us to tame what we say. Paul taught us to be good citizens in both public life and organizational life. The Stoics taught much the same things. And the founders of our Republic learned from all of them.

Occasionally when I backslide into reading too much news, I need to remind myself of how responsible behavior is a requirement for a just society and a life well lived.

Sometimes this blog reflects what I’m telling myself to do and how to be. I felt I needed the reminder.

Do we become hard-hearted, selfish, colder as we age? Is it inevitable that we lose our idealism along with our hair? I have witnessed many contemporaries and those a little older become increasingly conservative and cynical.

On the other hand, perhaps we can grow in flavor and robustness like a fine wine as it ages. We can grow in wisdom, understanding, kindness, perspective. That was my vision for myself when I was young. The meditative guru.

I remember a vision given to me many years ago. I had opened a door with some trepidation about what was behind it. There were stairs. I went down the steps into a cellar. Suddenly with me were people of every race, creed, probably sexuality. A mass of humanity partying with dancing, music, dare I say, fellowship. I was invited in. I realized that we are all connected as children of God.

The headline of this post comes from philosopher/emperor Marcus Aurelius. “What injures the hive, injures the bee.” He understood. We are all connected. If we are not working together, then the people we injure just may be ourselves.

Be kind. To yourself and to others. Gain perspective. Don’t withdraw into a selfish shell. Grow in wisdom. Help build the hive.

Sometimes things don’t go the way I’d have preferred. Sometimes people will apologize for a mistake or not getting things right which may cause a change in my plan.

I’ll usually say, “I teach Yoga. I’ve learned to go with the flow. It’ll be OK.”

James Clear (known for the book Atomic Habits) wrote recently in his newsletter:

When rain falls, it flows downhill. If desired, you can collect the rain in a bucket and carry it uphill, but the natural tendency of water is to flow toward the lowest point. Most situations in life have a tendency—a direction in which things want to flow. You can choose to go against the flow (just as you can choose to carry water uphill), but your results tend to be better when you find a way to work with the gradient of the situation.

That is a good metaphor. Sometimes working against the flow is an exercise in futility.

I’m watching it snow as I write this. We are north of the big snow. We may not get even 2 inches. That is key. At two inches, the services plows our driveways. At less than two inches, we shovel. I don’t care. I am so happy that I could sell the snowblower. At the house we left, we lived on a corner. Even with the mechanical help, doing the drive and sidewalks even after only six inches or so would take some time. Scraping off an inch is just gentle exercise.

Of course, I’m fortunate to be healthy. Some people are not. That is what neighbors are for. My wife was talking with a neighbor who had a sore back from shoveling off her drive. She told her that her husband would be happy to go over and do her drive, too. (That’s what husbands are for?)

But as for me, I’ll go with the flow. Shovel or not. Serve if the need is there. Flow over or past life’s little obstacles. If we are living in the Spirit, we just flow.