Faith Venture

Some people present us with two propositions. Many times these people are called politicians. Other times preachers. Or just the guy down the street.

They tell us that it’s either this or that.

Then we all fall into that trap.

But sometimes or even often the answer is both this AND that.

We can do both. And it is good.

The earliest Christ-followers had faith. And they gathered together into their own group. And they sang worship songs. And they prayed for themselves.

Then James came along and said, wait a minute. We were not made to just sit around in our own little group singing our songs.

We also need to serve others. Physically. Get off our butts and help the widows and orphans and those in needs.

And to this day 2,000 years later, we still have people with too much time on their hands and too much caffeine in their brains who debate either faith or works.

But James didn’t say that.

He said that you start with a foundation of faith. Without that, you will find yourself drifting. But he said in addition to faith, or maybe because of your faith, you need to get out and serve others. Physically. Not just a throw-away comment, “I’ll pray for you.” No, it’s getting out and doing.

Both-and, not either-or. Yet, I read a book by some learned scholar recently still arguing the points. To which I say, get a life, get out of your study, go on a mission trip.

And if you really want to get creative, sometimes the answer is neither but a third way.

I would like that choice often in elections.

What if…

What if, we taught history and politics and other social “sciences” through reading stories of men and women and discussing their life and times?

We could, from a very young age teach reading, writing, thinking, oh, and history and politics and how people lived and organized their lives.

What if, we taught math and science not in some Aristotelian logical breakdown of facts but instead by following the trail of problems they were trying to solve and how they went about solving them.

And we learn numbers and measurements and functions. I learned more trigonometry through model rocketry than from the class in school.

What if, we taught spiritual development not through rote memorization of Scripture only, but through the joy of discovery of life in the spirit by people in scripture as well as people from the first century until now.

What if we inculcated the joy of discovery, of solving big problems, of thinking, of communicating, of curiosity into the very structure of education?

That word presented itself last evening without further explanation. Just the feeling I should meditate on what it means.

Maybe it’s that feeling that we need to tell other people what to do.

Sometimes that comes from a profession. Teachers, for example, have an entire professional life composed of organizing and leading students. The younger the student the more they need to be told what to do.

Managers often see it as their duty to tell people what to do. Maybe because they, in turn, have managers holding them responsible for everything their direct reports do. And so on up the chain of command.

My other “career” is soccer official. And counselor. I’ve had officials who approach a game as all about them. I have to bring them down to earth.

Humility is thinking of others first.

For many of us depending mostly on upbringing this is a difficult attitude to adopt. I am positive that many people never even realize how self-centered they are.

Except for the few who learned this as a child, the rest of us must first learn self-awareness. Aware that we have been focusing on the wrong person, us, we then learn to listen. This comes before humility.

The ability to see others as also children of God with their own set of needs and emotions leads to changing our own attitude away from basking in our own glory and focusing on the other.

It becomes a sort of mantra–It’s not all about me; others have needs, too.

It’s Monday morning.

Do you know what your most important tasks of the week / day are?

Are there leftover projects from the weekend that you never got around to it?

Do you have co-workers who owe you information or follow up and they just didn’t get around to it?

Here’s help. A gift for you. And you can forward to friends and co-workers who just can’t seem to get things done.

Voila–a Round Tuit.

You’re welcome.

Oh, the crunch enhancer? Yeah, it’s a non-nutritive cereal varnish. It’s semi-permeable. It’s non-osmotic. What it does is it coats and seals the flake, prevents the milk from penetrating it. Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Technology is for the benefit of humans. It has been ever since some human figured out a better way to trap a gazelle or plow a field.

Except for my wife, who hates soggy cereal, how much benefit is there in cereal varnish?

Or the product manager at Facebook working with engineers and psychologists figuring out ways to keep attention fixed on the app so that an additional few ads can be served up?

Or the engineers doing some fantastic work on digital voice recognition which could do great good for disabled people or help in dangerous situations instead figuring out how Alexa can spy on people 24 hours a day to accumulate data on when people are home to be sold to telemarketers or to governments to find terrorists or political opponents?

Ethics at work concerns developing things for the benefit of people and society. But weapons developed for defense could also be used offensively. Something good could be used to corrupt us. Or undermine us.

Ethics is both what we do and what we fail to do.

Mostly ethics should be in our awareness. At the end of the day one question we can ask ourselves, “What did I do for the good today? Where did I fail to act where I could have made a difference for the good?”

There are three types of worship as I see it.

There is formal worship conducted with a sense of awe, reverence, connection with the divine.

Protestant worship has evolved into what has been called a “rock concert with a TED Talk.” The music and prayer part is designed to create energy in the room. Depending upon the speaker, the talk is more or less “teaching” rather than “preaching”.

Then there is a “traditional” worship that my grandparents and great-grandparents would feel right at home with. 19th Century hymns, some liturgy, and before it starts a great social time like when the farmer families would gather for the one time a week when you’d see other people.

Then, there are two types of worship, or rather, worshippers.

Those who attend whether they need it or not.

Those who seek a regular connection with God.

These are all preferences of personality or upbringing. As we read in the Gospel, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Like prayer, like service, like study–it’s all about our attitude. This is what matters.

Tim Ferriss always asks guests on his popular podcast, “If you could put a message on a billboard seen by millions of people, what would it say?”

Catherina Fake, tech entrepreneur and investor, said on a recent show, “Be Kind.”

What a succinct statement of the need of our time.

All over the world there are people and leaders stirring up the most base emotions and instincts rather than leading us with the example of Jesus toward a society of grace and peace.

Humans exhibit some amazing traits. They can be kind to a neighbor who looks like themselves and simultaneously speak with such hate and disparagement toward others.

That Be Kind thing? Perhaps we need to learn to make it an intimate part of our own lives. Be Kind to ourselves. Then expand in ever widening circles until it encompasses the multitudes of the Earth.

Be Kind.

No matter the pace, running a 5K (for me) or a marathon requires putting one foot in front of the other for some period of time plays with my mind.

I prefer sprinting with the forwards in a soccer match to even just the 25-30 minutes or whatever that it would take me to run 5K.

Life is not like that.

How many people we know who have sprinted out of the gate only to run out of energy and falter?

They were quick in school. Rushed through. Played the game. Got the M. Div. or MBA or master of whatever. Then grew no more. They think, “Here I am 26 years old and still not CEO of the company; I’m a failure.”

Sat down and began meditation. Did not reach enlightenment that first week. Quit.

Maybe physically we shun the idea of running 26 miles plus.

But spiritual life, like life in general, is not a sprint. You are in it for the long haul.

It is practicing day after day after day. Putting in the time and effort. Rewards that come too quickly are corrupting. The wise person, the superior CEO, the enlightened monk, they all put in the daily time and effort over a long period until one day came the realization.

OK, so it’s a holiday weekend. I watched some European soccer on TV yesterday afternoon, and then a couple of episodes from Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives while awaiting dinner.

The old reality show Restaurant Impossible has been renewed. Someone writes the producers and asks for help. Chef Robert and his team swoop into town and evaluate the problem.

They revise and simplify the menu;

Organize the kitchen;

Organize and motivate the servers;

Clean and beautify the physical interior;

Install good business practices such as cost control;

And work with the owner/manager–especially on attitude change and people skills.

The crew packs up leaving behind happy and motivated people with a formula that should make a profit for some time.

Six months later, many of those recipients of Chef Robert’s grace have reverted back to their old ways and gone out of business.

Sometimes people change; sometimes they don’t.

Same in spiritual matters. Sometimes people listen to the preacher and are baptized into a changed life. Six months later, they’re the same old person they used to be.

Changing requires a set of practices (habits) that we can follow intentionally until they are instilled deep within and we’ve left that old person behind.

Chef Robert can only stay a week. That’s not long enough to help the owner begin to work those practices into their lives.

Same with churches. Sometimes they don’t stick with the new person long enough to instill practices that truly change lives.

See how much this observation applies to your church, or a church that you know:

You are fond of contention and full of zeal about things which do not pertain to salvation.

Change a word, and the observation applies to the marketplace as well:

You are fond of contention and full of zeal about things which do not pertain to success.

How often have I witnessed this very thing.

Small churches have divided in acrimony over some issue that should never have been a point of contention. They forgot the goal–“go into all the world and make disciples”. The goal instead became about doctrinal points that are often akin to the splitting of hairs. Or about pride and ego. Or simply a contentious personality.

I once hired a guy despite several red flags in his past who immediately set out to divide the company and remove me so that he could become manager. He succeeded in the small thing. I, meanwhile, had seen the imminent demise of the company. Our product was old in electronics years and the anticipated market did not develop. I was moving on anyway. But still, I could have done without the drama.

That observation?

It is from Clement of Rome. He was with the Apostle Paul at Philippi. He wrote this about the very early church in the first century.

The human condition has been with us a very long time. However, recognizing the problem is the first step to correcting it and returning to the goal.

What has gotten you off target?