Faith Venture

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.

There was an advertisement on TV and in popular magazines in the late 60s showing an independent, fashionably dressed, slender woman smoking a distinctive brand of cigarettes with the tag line, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” (Even writing that makes me cringe…)

I grew up in a traditional family in a traditional Midwest America village. Mom thought the way things are are the way they should be—mostly. How I became to be not a traditional Midwesterner, I have no idea. Must be travel and education and my reading of the Gospels.

I was introduced to “women’s liberation” by my second year at university. I met a young woman in one of my classes who proudly told me she was going to become a lawyer. Noticing the look on my face, she challenged, “Don’t you think women should be lawyers?” I replied, “I don’t think anyone should become a lawyer.” But I was not shocked by the idea that a woman could be anything she wanted.

That was 1967. Yesterday, I listened to a panel of women at a technology conference talking about their success and overcoming male reluctance toward giving them a chance. There was the head of the National Basketball Players Association, a Formula 1 racing driver and team leader, and an official in the National Football League. Later, a woman spoke who is now on the Board of Directors of a tech company as a result of completing a program at Hewlett Packard Enterprise that mentor women executives on how to be a board member.

My first thought was, wow, these are some intelligent, hard-working, educated people. Then my heart broke with the thought that in 54 years (actually far more) these people were celebrated as a rarity.

54 years ago I’d have thought that by 2021 people would be judged only by their character, not by gender, race, religion, skin color. Further, that the Christian church has more often been an obstacle rather than an expressway.

I am thankful for companies, churches, and people I meet who are doing the right thing—helping all people learn how to excel and giving them opportunities to prove their worth. And even the small bits I’ve played over the years. Obviously, it’s not enough.

I am still thinking about becoming a disciple. If you are on that path, consider these thoughts.

• Hear and forget.
• See and remember.
• Do and understand.

This morning while I was out for my brisk walk around the ponds I listened to the story of Dr. Gary Parker, chief medical officer and oral & maxilofacial surgeon aboard the hospital ship Africa Mercy. He, and hundreds others, live out discipleship bringing hope and grace to thousands of people in west Africa.

Makes me wonder what I’m doing. How about you?

There are two people. One is a disciple who is following a master. The other a student in a school learning stuff.

The disciple and the student do the same things; the disciple does things differently.

Which are you?