“Leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.” — Shunryu Suzuki
Focused thinking is good. But sometimes in a quiet moment, when meditating, or while half-awake at night thoughts ceaselessly flit. Don’t be hospitable.
Our mind is the instrument of knowledge, but it is very imperfect and filled with all sorts of ignorance. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
“You think you’re so smart!”
How many times have we heard that? From teachers? Parents? Spouses? Children?
And that is not meant as a compliment, right?
Unless we have other problems, we do think we’re pretty smart.
But, are we really?
When we develop the attitude of continuous learning, then we can overcome that problem of ignorance. Partially, at least. The brain is malleable throughout our life. If we stretch it and use it.
Let us recognize our shortcomings and adopt the attitude of continuous improvement.
The story of the three men walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus captivates me to this day.
Evidently things had settled down a bit after Jesus’ execution. Although the stories of his subsequent appearances had spread through the community of followers leaving more questions than answers.
We don’t know why these two, only one named in the story and we don’t know really who he was, decided to walk from Jerusalem. They did not seem to be fleeing in haste. They were simply walking and talking.
A brief aside—this activity should become part of our routine. This walking and talking. We don’t walk enough. We don’t discuss deep subjects enough. I heard of a program where a guy organizes trips to places like Thailand for a week of walking and talking. But I bet the neighborhood park would do just as well.
So, they were discussing all they had heard and seen. A third man joins them, seemingly from nowhere. But, perhaps there were many other travelers along the road, so it wasn’t that surprising.
And this man seemed to know the Law and the Prophets more thoroughly than anyone they knew. And he explained from the beginning to the end how all the words of the Law and Prophets pointed to Jesus as the Messiah, not the warrior king as David but as the one Moses predicted who would be greater than he.
They stopped and ate. When the stranger broke bread and gave thanks, they recognized him as Jesus. And the man disappeared.
What was it about the act of breaking bread (it came in little loaves back then, not sliced in a plastic bag) that was so distinctive? I can picture a man taking a loaf of flat bread in both hands, breaking it, and giving thanks to God for the bread. But my imagination falters at that point.
I think about that story often. I wonder if I would recognize Jesus if he were to come alongside me during my daily walks. I wonder if I would allow him to show me things I thought I knew (depend on it, those two men had also memorized the Scriptures) in a new and better light. I wonder what Jesus actually told them, word by word.
Sometimes I research topics thinking I have the answers. Time passes. New information appears. I discover that I don’t have the answers.
Sometimes I think I know the exact meaning of a passage from Scripture or some spiritual writing. Then someone says, doesn’t that word in Greek mean this…? Then I need to ask again, just what did the writer mean?
Just when I’m comfortable that my opinions reflect reality something changes and I’m wrong.
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but for us humans, it never ends.
The sign along the highway proclaimed a Bible verse something about Jesus and rest or another about Jesus and peace.
I wondered what message whoever erected that sign wished to convey. I wonder where you go to just find rest and peace.
Do we join a church and get uptight about many things? Do we get trapped in an endless circle of meetings and busyness? Do we worry about having the correct theology?
Or, did they point to a place where you walk in and people accept you and are there for you when you need someone to listen or a meal when times are tough? Is it like “Cheers” where everybody knows your name—“Hi Norm!”
Or, I wonder why when I see a sign along the road that I wonder about motivations. Maybe just accept the thought and move on. Follow my own advice about people who think too much..
Just accept the fact that following what Jesus told us will lead to a more peaceful and restful life.
Or, I could wonder why I had a series of dreams last night that started with trying to get certain tones from musical instruments, capturing the waveform, going through analog to digital, doing a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), finding the fifth harmonic, and solving a complex manufacturing problem. Probably just random neurons firing. But I wish it had told me exactly what problem was being solved and the algorithm that came from analyzing that harmonic!
See, I type a sentence to start these posts and never know where I’ll wind up.
Occam’s razor is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements. Another interpretation holds that the simplest answer is often the best.
The story goes that a second-year university chemistry student asked the professor at the beginning of class “why doesn’t water burn?” The professor, now blissfully diverted from the day’s topic, proceeded spend the hour filling the blackboard with equations as he sought to explain the problem.
The students, meanwhile, were left puzzled. So, a couple students went to their high school chemistry teacher with the question. “Well, water doesn’t burn because it’s already oxidized.”
We tend to overthink many things.
Didn’t Jesus often take complex questions thrown at him by adversaries, turn them around on themselves, and then offer a simpler, but difficult, answer?
What are laws and the prophets? “Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.”
What should we do? “Follow me.”
At the end of his physical life on Earth, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
I didn’t say simple was easy. But the simplest answer is easiest to remember. And therefore the clearest to follow.
How have you used your precious time and attention so far today? This week? What will you do tonight?
Have you ever been in the shower and forgotten whether you have shampooed your hair yet because you’ve been lost in thought?
I remember I think it was second grade. So I was maybe six. We were sent outside for an extra recess. There were men cutting down a tree and then cutting it into pieces. I was totally focused on what they were doing and how they did it. I have no idea how long it was before I realized that there were no other kids around. Strangely, I just went back to the classroom and found my seat. I don’t recall any comments.
There is a story, this could have been me but it wasn’t, of a little boy in elementary school. He was staring out the window totally lost in thought. As each classmate and then the teacher noticed the room grew noticeably quiet. This brought the little boy back to present reality.
“What were you doing?” asked the teacher. “Thinking,” said the little boy. To which the teacher responded perhaps a little too quickly, “Don’t you know that you’re not supposed to think in school?”
Is this not an important part of the well lived life? To sit and think. Ancient people had time in the evenings and perhaps mornings to sit and think. Modern life of the past two hundred or three hundred years has robbed us of that time.
Remember, even Jesus went off to be alone to sit and think and rest in God. That is a good example for us.
As the story goes, Solomon was about to become king at a young age. God said to him, what would you like? Solomon asked for wisdom. He got enough to fill two books. His renown for wisdom spread through the known world.
Yet his life was a shambles. His son destroyed the kingdom in short order.
Reading through the book of Proverbs every January starts the year off providing a solid foundation for which to build a good life in the new year.
Buried in the beginning of Chapter 4 lies a bit of a warning.
Get wisdom, and whatever else you get, get insight.
Wisdom itself will not provide the righteous and good life. People with PhDs who have no sense about how to live are more numerous than stars you can count at night.
Insight—accurate and deep understanding; the capacity to gain understanding; to perceive clearly or deeply.
Do not merely read through the proverbs. Take some time daily to ponder them. Think about the meaning. Think about how these apply to how I will live today.
Need an example of wisdom without insight and the ability to live out the wisdom—think Solomon.
Don’t be a Solomon. Be like someone who puts wisdom into action—be like Jesus.
Former US President Jimmy Carter tells about interviewing with Admiral Rickover the leader of the nuclear-powered submarine fleet for a position after graduating from the US Naval Academy. Rickover asked him, “Have you always done your best?” Carter reflected and answered honestly, “No, I have to say I haven’t.”
That led to a resolution to always do his best. (And immediately brought to mind several, or many, times I’ve failed to do my best.)
Writer and venture capitalist Om Malik says (about surviving a heart attack 16 years ago), “I often ask myself: am I making the most of this additional time? Why am I wasting time on meaningless things? Today, I’ve pondered this a lot. If I’m honest, I admit I do need to make a few adjustments.”
This week as we look forward to a new year and perhaps a new start these questions are a great launching for reflecting on where we go from here.
One of my wife’s friends recently talked about the genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew’s gospel. She was left with questions—something like where is Mary when other women are mentioned in the list and others.
I wrote back to her. The Messiah is supposed to be a descendent of David. So, beginning with David, Matthew traces through Solomon and Luke through Nathan. Interesting. Both go to David, but through different sons.
Then there is Joseph. Matthew and Luke ascribe Joseph to different fathers.
A very early church leader suggested that Matthew traces the genealogy through Joseph who was Jesus’ legal father. That seems to fit the overall tone of his story. Luke, on the other hand, traces through Mary, but he couldn’t actually say that due to cultural norms. Given Luke’s generally positive portrayal of women, that makes sense to me.
But…
The same leader thought some more—always a dangerous thing. He remembered the cultural norm about when a brother dies childless the next brother in line marries the wife to father children in the brother’s name. Remember the story when the Sadducee asked Jesus about such a case and who would be the husband in heaven. And Jesus told him he missed the point.
Anyway this early thinker supposed that perhaps Solomon fathered a child in Nathan’s name and that Heli or Jacob fathered Joseph in that same brother marries wife situation.
I like the Mary genealogy scenario because it is simpler and makes sense. There is a philosophical razor that suggests the simplest explanation that fits the facts is probably the best.
But, unfortunately, what was my wife’s friend to do? Why is it so confusing. Why didn’t they just come right out and say what they meant plainly and clearly?
I don’t know.
I do know that I’m happy that I changed my career to technology rather than being a philosophy professor. Professors spend their time on these idle speculations.
For me, Jesus was born, and he died, and he came back to life. And what he taught (I think he actually meant what he said) are words that we can live by. Anything else is mere froth on the latte.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 