Faith Venture

I’m sure we can find solace somewhere in the Psalms about my security is in the Lord. However, I think the Lord expects us to also not be a fool or asleep (as in the Proverbs) when it comes to our security.

Cybersecurity has made headlines in major media during the past couple of months. Some companies have paid many millions of dollars for the return of their data. A water treatment plant was hacked which could be a foreshadowing of malicious attacks to come.

I thought I would do a public service announcement this morning. For my other blog, I interview some of the leading cybersecurity experts in the US and Canada for my other blog. Yesterday, I had three posts on the subject.

We have all received emails from Nigerian princes and princesses with money to share. I hope we have all learned to not click on any of those links. It is very easy to copy a logo, make up a plausible email address, and construct a newsletter that looks like it was from your bank or the government or your utility. Click on the link and give them some information, and you just lost some money.

I know people who work in the cybersecurity field who, in the rush of business or upcoming holidays, have clicked a link and infected an entire company.

I don’t say yes over the phone. I don’t click links unless I have verified them by other means (you can hover over a link and see the real URL you are going to). The link I inserted above goes to The Manufacturing Connection dot com. You can check that. If there were a ton of seeming nonsense letters and numbers and a dot ru somewhere, don’t click.

Use the same principle as replying to someone, pause. Think. We get rushed, but we must learn to pause.

It was a Christmas morning several years ago. We were driving from Ohio to Florida for Christmas and made it as far as southern Georgia. So, we spent Christmas Eve in a Courtyard by Marriott. The room came with breakfast.

We show up in the dining area in the morning and things are in a somewhat chaotic state. It seems there was a death in the family of the person running the kitchen, so she (of course) was not there and it was not running as normal. They didn’t tell us that when we approached the counter to order.

The young women working the desk and the dining area were so apologetic and helpful. One says she can fry an egg, would we like that? They went out of their way to provide service. And we would have understood the unusual circumstances.

I subscribed to the blog of Bill Marriott, chairman at the time. So, I felt like we were friends, well sort of. So I wrote to him through the blog and told him of the extraordinary lengths they went through to serve a customer.

He sent them a note and also the general manager, who sent me a nice note, also.

I just finished listening to this month’s episode of the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast. He was interviewing former Southwest Airlines VP of Human Resources Ginger Hardage about corporate culture. Reinforce a positive corporate culture by “catching” someone doing good, thanking them, and publicizing it to the company (or organization).

Being critical comes so easily to most of us. Watching for good things and then complimenting changes your outlook on life—and that of the other person.

Make that today’s discipline—look for someone doing good.

Words shape us. They shape how we feel about ourselves. They lift us to emotional highs. They destroy our confidence and self-image. The Hebrew Bible says that God spoke words and the universe was created from chaos.

Is there any society on Earth that does not have a minority population where words of the majority describe all their negative traits? Words designed to keep that minority subservient to the majority?

Do we choose the words we speak or post on social media? Or, do we repeat emotionally laden words that stirred our inner fears and prejudices without thinking?

We can choose words that lift people. Bolster faltering confidence. Encourage the young to excel at a profession or skill. Guide someone to the right path of life.

You can choose right now to filter words coming into your consciousness. You can choose to speak only encouraging words.

A classic statement in process control holds that if you can’t measure it, you can’t control it. If you are mixing a big batch of product, say liquid laundry detergent, perhaps you need to hold the mixture to certain temperature and pressure. So you add instruments to the process to measure temperature and pressure.

We moved last year during the pandemic. I had two things hitting me simultaneously. The trauma of moving to a new city and state, and a total disruption to my fitness routine. I tried to maintain a routine. I did not gain the “Covid 27” added pounds. But I did add about 7. My measuring instrument is the bathroom scale.

In January, I dropped those 7 pounds. But, my weight has been stable for five months. Even though I increased my workout and we eat a healthy diet.

Actually, I need another measure. Introducing a new variable, dumbbells and regular Yoga, I’ve added muscle and lost fat thereby maintaining a constant weight, but my body has somewhat been reshaped.

You’re asking, is there a spiritual application? Of course. What are you measuring?

You could be measuring how many laws you’ve followed versus how many broken. There are all the Hebrew Bible laws (614 or so). Then there are “laws” that generations of a type of Christian have compiled from random verses mostly pulled from Paul, but also other writers.

Or…

Maybe we measure ourselves against this list of the marks of a Jesus follower found in Romans:

• Genuine love
• Hate evil
• Hold fast to good
• Love for one another
• Outdo one another in showing honor
• Rejoice in hope
• Be ardent in the spirit
• Serve the Lord
• Be patient in suffering
• Persevere in prayer
• Contribute to needs
• Extend hospitality to strangers

These aren’t laws. They are a way of life. But we can step back and look at how we live measured by these “instruments” and determine if we are mixing a good batch or a ruined batch that must be tossed.

[Note: A study was recently published that reported for those people who gained weight during the pandemic, the average was 27 lbs.]

The calendar app icons on my Apple iOS devices says “1”. We have flipped to a new month. Half a year is now past. I dig out a new pair of contact lenses for the month. Change the filters on the HVAC system. Pay bills. Monthly rituals.

We are also maybe 18 months through the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Covid has become a familiar word in almost every language. But like all such events in history, it seems to be about at the end of its race. It feels strange to be gathering without masks or looking at others with suspicion—are they spreaders?

Many people still think that the whole pandemic thing was just a media ploy to spread fear from a political agenda. I learned a long time ago not to even try to change people’s minds when they are firmly made up.

I wrote some thoughts yesterday reflecting on seeing is believing. Today, I approach from a different angle. I wonder, do people not believe the pandemic is real simply through lack of experience? If they never got sick, and if no one close to them got sick, then maybe it is not real?

I wonder if Christianity in many places might suffer from the same syndrome. People want to believe. Many fervently wish to believe. But maybe there is no experience of God reaching directly into their lives. They have never experienced those fruit of the spirit—love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

That is the real tragedy. To be so close, and yet so far.

I have these memory flashbacks. They are as clear as if I were still there. A small group of 7th graders in a church study class. Maybe 5–6 of us. I remember the teacher. He was maybe high school or just out of high school. His mother was the teacher, and he was subbing.

He explained the lesson of the day. Seeing is believing. I am 12 years old. I still remember my first thought. “We’re talking about God. You can’t see God. This is a crazy lesson. It doesn’t make sense.”

Maybe I was already on the contemplative path. I don’t know. But I still think of that at times.

I quoted Augustine of Hippo earlier this month. He talked of not needing to read to learn about God, but only needing to go outside and witness the majesty of nature. I know that experience works for many people.

The words of the Apostle John have always resonated with me. God is spirit, worship him in spirit and truth. I do not have God in my head. I have experienced. And maybe this morning when I paused to watch the five Great Egrets and a Great Blue Heron on one of the ponds I pass while exercising, maybe there was a tiny experience of God.

I don’t know. Was believing in the seeing? Or, was it my experience of God what led me to see and appreciate the beauty of a moment in nature?

I’m listening to a man on a podcast who has written several important books on science, scientists, and research. He tries to report on verifiable scientific research. He has made a couple (maybe not many) wrong hypotheses in his career. That happens, as long as you go with the research and change your hypothesis.

I’ll never become a scholar of Greek. I don’t have enough time or energy left. But, I did get a couple of books because I curious about New Testament Greek grammar.

Grammar is how we think. I’m reading a book right now on the way of the Samurai warriors in Japan. It explains a bit about Japanese grammar. Fascinating how the grammar explains my experience working with Japanese companies and people over the past 40 years.

Back to Greek. I’ve read enough scholarship debating phrases and words in the Greek New Testament that I wondered about the grammar. Greek grammar is different from English and translating from Greek to English presents many challenges. Enough so that when we begin drawing lines in the sand over the interpretation of a word or phrase or line of reasoning, we should pause.

We should look at those interpretations as hypotheses, as in science. And then when evidence comes forth, we must consider that perhaps we held a wrong interpretation.

I’m not saying that we can’t know about God and the story of Jesus and the early movement of Jesus-followers. But I think that sometimes we argue over things that lead us astray. And maybe we’re both wrong.

And God is saying, “Children, children, stop with the bickering. What did my son teach you? Love one another as I have loved you.”

I was a quiet kid. Even up through high school and university. People thought I was intelligent. Then I grew up and became verbal. I proved them wrong!

Ignatius of Loyola said, “It is better to be silent and be, than to talk and not be.… Those who possess the word of Jesus are truly able to hear even his very silence, that they may be perfect and may both act as they speak, and be recognized by their silence. There is nothing which is hid from God, but our very secrets are near to him. Let us therefore do all things as those who have him dwelling in us, that we may be his temples, and he may be in us as our God.”

Jesus told us that it is pagans who try to impress their gods with many words. He told us that doesn’t work with the One God.

It doesn’t work with people, either.

I’m with Ignatius on this one.

“You don’t need a better computer to become a writer. You don’t need a better guitar to become a musician. You don’t need a better camera to become a photographer. What you need is to get to work,” says James Clear in his 3-2-1 newsletter.

Remember the guy who was talking with Jesus and told him he would follow Jesus after he had buried his father? He didn’t mean that afternoon. He meant that someday his father would die and he would inherit and then he could follow Jesus.

And Jesus did not give a kind reply. Basically it was, make your decision and go.

And there were others who had some lame excuse. And Jesus had no sympathy.

Similarly for us. We don’t need to wait for something new, something different, some equipment.

Being a disciple means starting now to model yourself after your master. From where you are. With what you have.