Faith Venture

I spend very little time scrolling through Facebook any more. Recently I saw one of those picture things that pass around instead of personal updates. Upon reflection, I sensed that here was an opportunity to refer to both AC/DC and Led Zeppelin in the same blog post on spirituality.

Someone compared “Highway to Hell” and “Stairway to Heaven” to the relative traffic toward those two destinations.

It’s supposed to bring a knowing chuckle to the “saved”.

But let’s reflect for a moment.

Why should we get satisfaction that we are on the stairway while the majority of God’s children are on the highway?

Should not we instead pray for God’s grace on all of these people?

I also have a feeling that many of people that one group would assume to be on the highway actually feel the same way in reverse.

Think of Jesus’ time. There were two groups–Pharisees and “tax collectors and sinners”.

The Pharisees thought they were the chosen few for the stairway (metaphorically speaking). Jesus never let an opportunity to poke at them pass. He, instead, hung out with the sinners and tax collectors.

Yes, I think instead of delight that our side is on the stairway while all those not like us–the majority–are on the downward highway, we should feel sadness and remorse and pray for God’s grace upon those of us with prideful thoughts and upon all who need it. That would be everyone.

I thought of ways we could pray:

God, please have grace upon all sinners. (That would include the prayer!)

God, please cure me of a vengeful and vindictive heart. Instead fill it with grace.

God, cure me of the pride in thinking that I’m on the stairway when it’s possible I’m not.

God, heal us from the taking joy in others’ misfortunes.

John Fischer teaches “Grace turned outward”. That’s a great thought. And an even better practice. Grace is not something to be hoarded within our small groups. It is something to share with the world.

On my other blog, I wrote about things schools should be teaching instead of focusing on subject matter. Typically they teach obedience. But they could be teaching creativity, thinking, communication, and the like and then apply to subject matter.

This list was floating around LinkedIn. I thought it was worth sharing. These are personal characteristics that require no talent. No matter what job or profession someone pursues, these characteristics will carry you to success. Not necessarily riches, but definitely to a successful life.

Most of these characteristics are things I talk about when I’m training soccer referees. These are relevant to anything. People who embody these are people you love being around.

1. Being on time
2. Work Ethic
3. Effort
4. Energy
5. Body Language
6. Passion
7. Doing Extra
8. Being Prepared
9. Being Coachable
10. Attitude

People have heard of the benefits that come from meditation.

Many say, “I try to meditate. It’s hard.”

Yoda says, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

I advise sometimes another phrase to turn the word try back on itself. Try easy.

Better is to consider meditation a practice.

Michael Jordan shot jump shots over and over. Every day. A golf pro hits a hundred shots out of the sand every day. It’s called practice. You begin with limited success until one day you make the shot almost in your sleep.

In Yoga, we come to practice, not to class. We practice our poses over and over. Then one day we realize that our hip muscles have stretched and we are effortlessly in the pose.

We sit to meditate. Or, we can lie on our backs. Or, we can even walk (just meditate with your eyes open if you try that one).

You don’t need a special meditation pillow to sit on. Or incense. Or a gong. Or special music. Or a dark room. Or even quiet around you.

Those are all nice, but not a requirement.

Gurus advise sitting erect in a firm (hard?) chair.

Why? So you don’t go to sleep.

But maybe what you need in that moment is sleep. What’s wrong with that?

Maybe it’s only a minute to start with. You don’t need two hours–but two hours is refreshing if you can do it.

All you need is to set aside some time and then practice. Just do it.

A small group I’m part of is studying 1 Peter. At the very beginning of the letter, Peter gives some tips for a small community of Jesus-followers trying to get along in a society that either doesn’t care or is openly hostile to them.

“Be holy,” he advises.

I asked, what is holy. Or, put it this way, if someone is described to you as holy, would you invite them to dinner?

No way!

Then obviously what we are thinking is not what Peter had in mind. For Peter was trying to build community–a group of people who enjoyed having dinner with each other.

We are thinking descriptions such as arrogant, self-righteous, sexually repressed, joyless.

Actually that is what was called a “holier-than-thou” attitude.

Peter says the key word to holy is love. Be like Jesus, act with love.

Throughout my life, I’m positive that many people have looked at me and said, “He thinks too much.”

Maybe true. Or, maybe I just spent the first third of my life withdrawn.

When I was first introduced to fundamentalist churches (now called evangelical, I guess), I expected a cult-like atmosphere filled with superstition. Same with off-shoots like Jehovah’s Witnesses or (once popular in my area) The Way International.

What I discovered was–they think too much.

Recently I was attempting to explain a few of the many theories drawn from The Revelation of John from the New Testament. And I stopped and said, “They all just thought too much. Each grabbed a few verses and then they thought out entire scenarios based on that. In fact, often they all go back and subtly modify translations from the Greek in order to make everything fit together in a nice, neat, rational explanation.”

The story part of the classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance ends with the hero in shock therapy. What happens when you think too much, suggests the author, is insanity.

Rationality devolves into rules and following rules.

I’m reading an ancient Christian church father who noted, “The spirit of discretion enables us to do the right thing at the right moment; it teaches us how to be zealous for divine justice and to offer pardon at one and the same time.” (St. Bernard)

Fifty years of contemplative life have mellowed rigorous rationality. Understanding of both justice and pardon–guilt and grace–supersedes rule following.

Stop thinking so much and get with the flow of God’s spirit.

When a jar is full, it is of no use when you need someplace to store something.

When we are filled, there is no place for God to enter and reside.

We start by emptying

Worries

Anger

Prejudice

Bitterness

Prejudice

Pride — most of all

Then, when we have stripped away these negative parts, there is room for God to live.

Ancient wisdom that is new every new day.

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.