The vehicles they drive.
Hairstyles.
Clothes.
Physical size—fit, heavy, obese, short, tall.
Race, skin color, gender.
Have we already judged? Type cast?
Do we take time for conversation?
Figure out their story?
Could we learn from the Master?
When Jesus met someone, he looked first into the heart.
And he helped according to need.
It’s all about the heart.
I heard something this morning. Then I paused. I don’t really understand what that means. How can I visualize that idea? How can I adopt it as part of my life?
Wouldn’t it be great if we humans were more willing to pause and think, “I don’t really understand what that means” or “I don’t really understand what you mean.” Maybe we could discuss so that I could understand you better and you could understand me better.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb—The fact that people in countries with cold weather tend to be harder working, richer, less relaxed, less amicable, less tolerant of idleness, more (over) organized and more harried than those in hotter climates should make us wonder whether wealth is mere indemnification, and motivation is just overcompensation for not having a real life.
Jesus—…but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
The pursuit of wealth or worrying about wealth of which we may not have enough puts us on an endless treadmill running to nowhere.
It is not too late no matter the season to “have a real life” or to be “fruitful.”
I’ve been thinking on a concept almost unheard of today—virtue.
Virtue is what I do when no one is looking.
Virtue is when the income number I show the tax collector is greater than the income number I would show my neighbor.
Virtue is when I follow through on what I say I will do.
Virtue is when I am kind to someone for no apparent reason.
Virtue is when I help someone who cannot repay.
Virtue is when I shine the light on someone else rather than hogging the spotlight.
You’ve got to make the morning last. (Apologies to Paul Simon from when he was feelin’ groovy)
My handwriting in cursive degenerates to a scrawl as I hasten to capture all the ideas tumbling through my mind.
Then I remember my engineering drawing classes where they taught “lettering.” Slow down. Form the letters. The idea train will slow down as if for entry to the station.
Sometimes I review notes being unable to read them. Not a good thing.
Slowing ourselves brings our awareness into the scene. We have time to think before writing or talking. We have time to notice the other. And only the other. Time to focus on the task. And only the task.
A story poet Carl Sandberg told concerned a farmer (imagine the old days) out contemplating his fields when a stranger stopped and asked, “What sort of people live around here?”
“What sort of people were there where you’re from?”
“Well, they are a mean, cantankerous, angry lot,” came the reply.
“Well, I imagine you’ll find the people around here a lot like that,” opined the farmer.
Later, a second stranger stopped and asked the farmer the same question. The farmer asked his question again, “What sort of people were there where you’re from?”
“Well, they are honest, hardworking, loyal people.”
“I expect you’ll find the people around here the same.”
The point?
The people you surround your self with determine your outlook.
Surround yourself with lying, thieving people and you’ll find yourself falling into that culture.
Surround yourself with honest, hardworking, achieving, generous people and you will find yourself being much the same.
How often do you yield to the urge to voice an opinion? Maybe it is live conversation where someone must be corrected? Or perhaps responding to some inane comment on Facebook.
I confess. Far too often. Many times silence is the better option. I once taped a little reminder to my notebook—STFU (shut up). Hmm, reminder…or reprimand?
John Climacus wrote instructions to monks around 600 CE. 1,500 years ago he noticed,
A man should know that a devil’s sickness is on him if he is seized by the urge in conversation to assert his opinion, however correct it may be.
Mahatma Gandhi wrote in 1909, “Formerly the fewest men wrote books that were most valuable. Now anybody writes and prints anything he likes and poisons people’s minds.”
We are far better served today reading from the classics and a few, carefully selected (like me), contemporary writers than we are by scrolling through much news and other opinions found on the variety of social media.
A popular theme of cartoons from years ago concerned a seeker climbing to a mountain top to find the guru sitting cross-legged at the summit. “What is the meaning of life?” the seeker questioned. Then the cartoonist would riff on jokes.
The meaning of life is what happened while you were wasting time finding a guru hoping they would tell you the meaning of life.
We find meaning through what we do and how we act as we make our way daily through life. As Jesus-followers we follow the way he taught so that each day’s meaning plays out in our relations to other humans.
Few arenas of life reveal as much as youth sports does about—parents. I remember my own good times and, with much chagrin, my bad ones. Thirty-five years working as a referee in youth and high school soccer revealed the growing trend of “helicopter” parents who hovered over their kids to protect them and “snow plow” parents who tried to pave the way for them.
I have written a blog on technology, leadership, and industrial applications for just over 20 years. Many, many PR agencies have me on their radar. Sometimes I get strange releases. Here is one I just received where a data company did an analysis of TikTok and Google search data.
Job Shift Shock is the most popular work trend with a total 1.7B TikTok views and nearly 121K monthly searches on Google. The trend leads the list as it describes the transition from initial excitement of beginning a new job to the disappointment of unexpected responsibilities.
I can think of few clearer signals about what happens to young people when they have always had someone there to smooth the way for them. I remember hiring a young man recently graduated from university. He wondered how long (a year or two?) before he would be in line to be president of the company.
The book of Proverbs contains some excellent advice for raising kids—as long as you are not a literalist reader. You must provide guidelines, guardrails, and discipline. And also appropriate and increasing measures of freedom to go play and learn to get along with other humans.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 