Faith Venture

I work and eat most meals on the patio when I’m home and the weather cooperates. I’ve been watching a pair of little House Wrens. They have chosen to build a nest here. They have a perfect collaborative division of labor.

He searches out likely homes. She chooses carefully. I watched her measure carefully, check the entrance for safety from enemies. He brings a steady supply of longer “sticks”. It is not easy putting a piece of dried grass or thin stick through a small opening into the cavity when you have no hands. Using only his beak and dexterity, he builds the nest. She finally comes back and brings soft grasses and fuzzy seed to prepare the nest for her laying.

She lays the eggs. He is not allowed in the house. But he stays just outside on a perch where he can see anything coming. And woe to the gray squirrel who decides to walk the fence close to the house. The tiny wren will attack and drive the squirrel away.

The eggs hatch and the two of them work constantly bringing small insects and caterpillars to feed the fledglings. They must grow quickly for they haven’t time for toddler and adolescent stages like humans.

It is all choreographed by centuries of experience passed through the genes.

If only we could work so diligently and collaboratively! So many of our enterprises would be accomplished to good outcome.

It is a paradox.

You cannot gain communion with God until you have stripped away everything and left yourself in complete darkness. Only then can the light of God shine within you.

Strip away pride; acknowledge yourself as humble before God.

Strip away ego; it’s not all about you.

Strip away greed; it’s not about comparing yourself to another who may have more.

Strip away sloth; be diligent pursuing God.

Strip away anger; for it comes from pride and subjugates peace.

Then it is just you and God. And there is room now for God to shine.

(Thanks to the first contemplative I read at about 16–John of the Cross, Dark Night of the Soul.)

This quote from the Stoic philosopher Publilius Syrus came to me recently.

This is a thought often echoed.

It is what I learned from studying the ancient Christian contemplatives. I expected reports of great spiritual visions–and indeed there are some–but mostly they wrote about how to conquer themselves so that the path to seeing and following God would be cleared.

When we see people whose public morals border on the illegal elevated to important offices or revered for their wealth in popular press, we could hardly be accused for wondering about sticking with virtues and morals as a way of life.

To live a rich and complete life, the experience of many throughout human history teaches this wisdom.

Do not be tossed about by the vagaries of emotion. Rule over yourself.

We in the US have become a nation of personality rather than a nation of character.

Technologists invented ways to make “moving pictures”, which became “movies”, which have become videos.

Artists invented ways to tell stories and make dramatic art with each advancement of the technology.

Business people using the skills of marketing and public relations invented ways to progressively promote the actors making them famous in the minds of people who would in turn buy tickets and then merchandise.

Hence, we have the Kardashians and other reality show personalities dominating news and politics. People magazine replaced Shakespeare.

Our founders, rich white guys all, had a common education in the classics. They reflected the religion of the time, but also philosophers such as John Locke and especially the Stoics–Seneca, Marcus, Cato. Remembering Benjamin Franklin’s wry comment that by signing the Declaration of Independence these rich guys were risking it all, “We shall hang together or we shall hang separately.”

Modern Stoic Ryan Holliday writes, “At the core of the American experiment was liberty. At the core of Stoicism we have not only a love of freedom, but the counterbalancing virtues to that freedom: Justice. Duty. Self-Control. Honor. Selflessness. Remember that the comfort you enjoy now grew out of a philosophy that was made to embrace discomfort and to do the right thing, whatever the costs.”

In the writings of the founders, we often find reference to these virtues and to the concern that, upon losing these virtues, democracy and freedom would no longer exist.

Today is the 243th anniversary of the birth of an idea–an experiment in democracy that we are still challenged with figuring out.

The idea spread. But each culture still struggles to implement it. As do we.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, is to continue the experiment and not let those who would usurp the power to succeed.

You can manage your business or your life to stay within the letter of the law. You can avoid being prosecuted. Maybe even sued.

But that doesn’t make what you do the right thing.

Jesus almost seemed to enjoy poking at pompous people who maneuvered the law to make themselves prosperous while putting down other people.

I can’t believe the number of business meetings I’ve been involved in where the discussion devolves into how we can do the minimum to be legal.

Sometimes we interpret the law in our favor even if we must stretch logic like Silly Putty to do it.

Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right.

Choose to do the right thing.

It was a loud, boisterous conversation at a coffee house. Half-dozen guys. One regales the others with a story of an obnoxious neighbor. They argued over how to cut their grass. “Of course, he’s an X supporter” by way of explanation for the neighbor’s behavior.

I thought, how silly. I know X supporters who are not obnoxious. I know plenty of Y supporters who are obnoxious. Aside from politics, I know many people across the US who consider fans of a certain large football-oriented university as the most obnoxious in the country. However, I’ve met one or two who aren’t.

We impute from whom you support or how you’re dressed or what accent you have what your personality is.

There exists some percentage of humans who just can’t seem to get along with other people. Fortunately, these constitute just a minority of people.

Before imputing some negative on someone you’ve just met, I suggest a conversation. I’ve met many interesting people whom at first glance I’d have never thought it.

Most of all, don’t let politics color your perceptions. There really are plenty of good people on both sides. Church politics and office politics as well.

Taken literally the original words that compose our word psychology can be translated science of the soul.

If I asked 20 people randomly about the origin of psychology, most would respond with Freud. Some of the more well read may add Jung and James.

That’s what I thought when I read some of their writings while yet in high school.

I’m not positive just when it dawned on me, perhaps when I read John Climacus (St. John of the Ladder) and discovered not mystical realms of another world but depth psychology.

Then I put it all together in my mind. All of the readings of ancient spiritual seekers. They all probe the depths of the human soul–psychology we would call it today. Take the example of writings from 3,000 years ago composed and compiled by King Solomon. We call the collection Proverbs. The analysis, diagnostics, and treatment are just as valid today as then.

We were just reading in the letter of James compiled as part of the New Testament. He probes deeply.

“Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you?”

He recommends drawing near to God as “treatment” for his “diagnosis”.

When you read the entire Hebrew Scriptures and the entire Christian Scriptures, you will find this consistent thread of meaning about how to live.

It consists of:

• Removing ourselves as the center of the universe
• Recognizing that there exists a spiritual power that formed the universe and all within it
• Reaching out and drawing near to that spiritual power that in English we call God
• Realizing a life lived with and in the spirit

Doing so (James says be doers of the Word, not hearers only), we can live beyond those “conflicts and disputes.”

Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel Prize for economics. He is an academic psychologist and researcher. I could make a comment about the state of economists, but I’ll let it pass. I am reading Kahneman’s latest book, Thinking Fast and Slow. This thought struck me (kind of goes along with my post about assumptions this week). The great comedian Danny Kaye had a line that has stayed with me since my adolescence. Speaking of a woman he dislikes, he says, “Her favorite position is beside herself, and her favorite sport is jumping to conclusions.”

Economists thought for a long time that humans made economic decisions rationally. They called it “the economic man.” Kahneman’s research showed that in fact humans make decisions emotionally and justify through rationality later.

To me, that was a “duh” moment. Want to buy that new house? Want that new bass boat? How about a new car? Emotionally, you want that new thing. Then your thinking mind figures out why you need it. That is the “thinking fast and slow” in the book.

Preachers have known this for thousands of years. They hit you emotionally then give you a few reasons for faith. Or maybe they start with what sounds rational and then work your emotions to get you to agree with them.

The point of Kaye’s description that struck me was the “favorite sport is jumping to conclusions.” Kahneman says that if we are in familiar territory deciding on things we’ve seen before, the “thinking fast” part serves us well. It takes too much effort to think. But if we are faced with something we haven’t seen before or where we have little experience, thinking fast (jumping to conclusions) is almost always wrong. We should have done the work of thinking things through thoroughly.

And when we hear something about a neighbor or meet someone for the first time jumping to a conclusion often leads us astray. I look at someone, and their appearance puts me off. Then we talk, and I discover she’s a really nice and intelligent person.

Sometimes we jump too soon and we wind up off the cliff like Wile E. Coyote.

“Everything works better if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” –Anne Lamott.

Three engineers were riding in a car when it suddenly stopped. The mechanical engineer noticed a clunk sound and reasoned it was the transmission that broke and they’d need to start walking. The electrical engineer thought he saw a flicker in the lights just before things stopped and reasoned it was a short in the electrical system. They would have to trace the wiring. But the computer engineer suggested, “Why don’t we all get out and shut the doors. Wait a minute. Then get back in and start it up.” (Old computer nerd joke.)

We all know this about our computing devices from desktops to laptops to tablets and phones. It is good to occasionally turn it completely off, count to 20, turn it back on. This isn’t magic. There are reasons in electronics physics that explain how it works.

It is the same with us.

One of the Biblical characters I’ve always been most impressed with is Daniel. He was chief administrator for two of the world’s largest empires (up to that time), yet he was disciplined to take three breaks a day to go to his rooms and meditate on God. It’s an example always in my mind.

We can unplug two to three times every day for perhaps 10 minutes or so. Stop, get into a good posture–sitting upright, standing, laying on your back–just breathe evenly for a time. You can meditate on a word or a picture–I often suggest a peaceful location to go off to in their imagination.

The Pomodoro technique to thought work is to work 25 minutes then take a 5 minute break. I will batch work then get up and walk around. I find walking refreshing. Even for five minutes, it’s like the old commercial tag line–the pause that refreshes.

Then take longer breaks–long weekends, week-long vacations.

You can even write all of these breaks from the 5-10 minute ones to the week-long one right into your calendar. Set reminders. Begin now.