Faith Venture

Are you trying to become successful?

Do you wish for success for your children? For your business? For your organization?

What is success?

Too often pursuit of success involves taking shortcuts. Cutting moral corners.

We lie and cheat and deceive in business. We offer bribes to get out children into the best schools. We measure success in churches by number of “cheeks in the seats”. And we don’t care who we push aside to get the biggest whatever.

Rather…

We could strive to add value to the world.

Businesses thrive by adding value to their customers.

Churches and nonprofits thrive by adding value to those whom they serve.

Thrive means healthy, not necessarily large. You and your organization thrive by starting each day with the mission of finding at least one way to add value to the world.

At the end of the day, ask yourself, “Where did I add value today?”

Once upon a time, a human looking for a source of food discovered that she could eat beans. Especially if they were boiled.

However, when she served them to the family, some acute gastrointestinal distress followed.

Eventually someone had experimented enough to discover that cooking for a long time eliminated that problem and beans became a staple food source for huge areas of the world.

Until recently when humans said, “We don’t have time to cook these things for a long time.” And acute gastrointestinal distress followed. And someone said, don’t eat beans.

We modern humans are so smart.

Actually, that’s a small part of the scientific method. We see a problem, think about it, come up with an idea to solve the problem, and then we experiment. Other people can perform the same experiment, and then you have knowledge.

And then someone discovered throwing in a bay leaf and some ham….

Notice the problem. We modify the idea and force things to fit in with what we think. We don’t have time, oh, well, let’s just speed it up and not cook so long. We make the hypothesis match what we want to happen not what actually happens.

The same thing applies to religious studies.

We get an idea of the way things should be. This is human psychology or anatomy that we don’t like. Or this is behavior we don’t like. Or we explain the end of times such that we can separate ourselves and our friends from the riff raff.

We go to the Bible and find ways to make its facts fit our new idea. Sometimes we even go back to New Testament Greek and subtly modify some meanings or grammar. Voila, what we believe is now in the Bible.

The best response is to stick to the things that have been proven over time and replicated by thousands. When we strike out on our own, we are headed for a pool of quicksand in the swamp.

I came across these thoughts from Mohandas Gandhi during some research. These are worth pondering frequently. Put them in your notebook to review periodically. How many have I violated? How recently? How do I use these to evaluate people and businesses I may deal with?

1. Wealth without Work
2. Pleasure without Conscience
3. Knowledge without Character
4. Commerce without Morality
5. Science without Humanity
6. Worship without Sacrifice
7. Politics without Principle

Stop. Think. Digest. OK, now move along with your day.

How many people do you know who have college degrees yet don’t seem to know anything?

I never finished an engineering degree. Before I entered the university I was already taught through books, friends, experience about electronic circuits and the math involved. I went to university and refused to be channeled into a regimented system.

But in my third year, I discovered the game. And I was even able to hit the honor roll sometimes even though I don’t think I ever studied with the goal of a grade.

Then I had 10-20 years of jobs where the graduate engineer came in who knew tons of math, but couldn’t figure out the practical side of manufacturing or how to design to standards or any number of other things.

It’s the same for wherever my curiosity took me. Philosophy, psychology, Yoga, soccer, health, fitness…

I offer myself as a poor example of Mark Twain’s comment, “Don’t let education get in the way of learning.”

I know many professionals–engineers, doctors, lawyers, and more–who make good use of education and degrees.

But I know far too many people who have the paper yet are still unlearned.

They are the ones who asked, “Will this be on the test?” They remembered long enough for the test. They worked for a grade. Got it and moved on.

But there are many who barely remember university or maybe even made it there who are among the smartest and most knowledgeable people I know.

Curiosity and imagination are more important than rote memorization. (Although it is useful to remember many things. A paradox.)

“How can I meet girls?” asked the young man in an online q&a session with a famous author.

“Just be yourself,” was a suggestion.

“How can I be myself? Aren’t I always?” came the reply.

I presumed his age as young, because evidently he was not aware yet of the masks people wear to project being someone they are not.

If he were aware, perhaps he’d be concerned that being himself may not be appealing to others. Perhaps he would be correct. Or perhaps just insecure. Doing things that develop self-confidence such as learning a skill or developing an expertise helps.

Maybe first, he (as well as all of us) first need to ask for the power like Robert Burns did in his poem “To a Louse”–‘O wad some Power the giftie gie us / To see oursels as ithers see us!’

You can change and improve once you know your true starting point. It begins with attitude and continues to behaviors.

Or for this young man, I like Andy Stanley’s advice (paraphrased)–be the person that the person you want to be with wants to be with.

Oh, and ask questions. Then listen–really listen. And show interest and concern. It’s a gift to be quiet and let others talk. Then they think you are a great conversationalist. One of life’s many paradoxes.

A blogger/writer/podcaster whom I respect recently told an interviewer, “I probably throw out five bad ideas before coming up with the one I write about.”

After reading some of my stuff, you may be amazed to learn that I do about the same thing. I have an idea, consider it, dismiss it, and then go on to the next.

Worse is when I am thinking of a Bible verse or song or quote. Then, just to be safe, I research it. Oops. I discover that the verse isn’t in the Bible. The song had a totally different meaning. That person never said what I was about to quote.

We have a conversation. Someone quotes the Bible. They feel deep into their being that they are right. Even if you open the book and point it out, they will continue to believe it.

Entire political or religious movements have begun due to someone remembering a phrase inaccurately.

When I find that I’m wrong, well, I just go on to the next idea. Or morph the bad one into something better.

That response is within the personality of an Enneagram 5, which I am (mostly). But I think it is also something the other 8 personality types can do–learn to dismiss an inaccurate memory and move on.

The palest ink is better than the strongest memory. Said Pope. Or was it Swift? Or Shakespeare? I think someone famous and old said that…

We define ourselves many times in just a few words. Maybe we think we are being cute, or funny or pugnacious. Many of the phrases are political or religious.

This one I saw when I finished my run at the park really hit me.

I have no idea who the owner of the vehicle is. But I wonder.

Did they have kids of their own? I certainly hope not.

Are they so up-tight that they cannot enjoy the unbounded energy of youth?

Have they forgotten their own childhood?

I think that I would not like to meet this person.

Is your self-definition-in-a-phrase inviting or repellent?

Imagine the decisions ancient men had to make every night. Where do I sleep? Do I sleep in my own tent? Or maybe that of wife number 1? Or wife number 2? Or maybe the personal maid to wife number 1? Or the personal maid of wife number 2?

Here we have the story of Jacob grandson of Abraham. Who worked seven years to earn a wife only to find out that the wily father-in-law substituted the older daughter. And then began seven more years of work to earn the wife he wanted.

So, Jacob married Leah and then Rachel. And he had children with each. But when Leah was feeling distance from Jacob for want of another child, she had Jacob sleep with her maid Zelpha. Later, Rachel had Jacob sleep with her maid Bala.

Leah bore seven children; Zelpha two; Rachel two; and Bala two. Quite the busy guy.

Now, we could study this as a story in itself perhaps even as history of the Hebrew people. The sons became the 12 tribes of the Hebrews (it gets complicated because Joseph, the favorite who wore the coat of many colors, did not father a tribe).

Ancient writers and thinkers did not always take things so literally as we do today. The writer of the 1100s, Richard of St. Victor, took this story and applied it to describe the development of human spirituality. I cannot reproduce his essay in 300 words or less. Take this as an introduction to spiritual interpretation.

Taking words directly from the Hebrew text (although probably reading in Latin), Richard traced the development of two sides of human character.

Leah stands for affection and her maid for its complement sensuality. Leah’s children–Ruben for Fear of God, Simeon for Sorrow for sin, Levi for Hope for forgiveness, Judas for Love of the good God, Issachar for Joy in inward sweetness, Zebulon for Perfect hatred of sin, and Dinah for True shame for sin. From Zelpha (sensuality) are born Gad–Abstinence and Asser–Patience.

The other side of our personality is rationality. Rachel stands for Reason and Bala for its complement Imagination. Rachel (reason) bore Joseph–Discretion and Benjamin–Contemplation. Bala (imagination) bore Dan–Sight of sufferings to come and Nephthalim–Sight of joys to come.

We could study this story and just come away with a history which we may or may not believe to be factual in today’s way of thinking of history.

Or, we could use the story by reading the descriptions and exclamations within the story, and contemplate on these attributes for a long time.

When have you felt fear of God? Or sorrow for your sin? Or Hope for forgiveness? Or used your reason and practiced discretion in a situation?

The richness and depth of Holy writing yields great rewards. Richard would never get a Ph.D. today with his analysis. But his words have moved people for 900 years.

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’
Into the future
Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’
Into the future (Steve Miller Band)

We have a cuckoo clock in the living room. Authentic German Black Forest purchased at some small town along the Danube.

Given the vagaries of temperature and humidity, it either slows or speeds. Its accuracy keeps slippin’, slippin’, slippin’.

Having vestiges of an engineering mindset, I spent months patiently trying to adjust the pendulum to just the exact spot for perfect time.

It never happened. The clock is just not designed to be a precision instrument.

Then a better solution presented itself.

Why don’t I just adjust the time occasionally when it needs it? I pull out my iPhone, check the time, adjust the hands. Duh…

I have met Christians who think they have fine-tuned their lives to the point where they are in perfect time. “I’ve accepted Jesus into my heart, and now I’m perfect…”

Only life doesn’t work that way.

Following Jesus (another whole different thing) means that periodically (daily?) I pull out a “Jesus measuring instrument” which necessitates my adjusting my life to get back into sync.

Are you in sync?