Who, what, when, where, and how are also important words.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand, why do you say that?”
“I am not sure what you mean. What do you mean?”
“That is interesting (when someone says something with which you disagree). Where did you learn that?”
Of course, when you use these words, it follows that you must listen carefully. Otherwise, all is futile.
When you don’t understand something, ask why five times. Sometimes even by the third time understanding will come.
Some of this morning’s reading:
Pay no attention to what the gossips say
They call the wide-eyed flower Jasmine.
They call the wide-eyed flower a thorn.
The wide-eyed flower doesn’t care what they call it.
Labels blind and tear us apart.
Rumi
I hear so much gossip, innuendo, the Bible calls it “whispering”. People rush to put a label on other human beings. Yet, we are all humans, children of God, made in the image of God.
Perhaps we could change our outlook on life. We could rest in the fruit of the Spirit. When we feel the urge to place a label on someone, we can pause, feel the tension between our thought and our spiritual outlook, and change our thought.
And when they label you…pay no attention. There is no need to respond. We live in the spirit and let the gossips go where the wind blows. Perhaps someday they will understand.
And we, ourselves? We will shun the urge to gossip and label about others.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote a series of books on preparing to survive random events. The book is part philosophy of life and part investing in the markets. I’m rereading Fooled by Randomness: The hidden role of chance in Life and in the Markets.
Reflecting on the book, I thought of all the random events in my life.
Perhaps you can think of random events from near and far that changed everything. But your preparations could make all the difference.
We purchased a coffee mug when we visited the Will Rogers estate a couple of years ago. It says, “Live your life so that whenever you los, you are ahead.”
Here are a few suggestions:
Jesus and the group that followed him packed up what they carried with them. They left to go to another place. They were always wandering from place to place. You’d think they would have the packing thing down to a habit.
They forgot to pack the bread. Did you ever start out on a trip with that funny feeling in the back of the mind? That feeling that suddenly bursts into “Oh my god, I forgot to pack the ….”?
Well, the guys were probably blaming each other as they realized they had left a pile of bread behind. “I thought you had it.” “I thought he had it.” “Didn’t you pick it up?”
Jesus said, “Forget the bread. Beware the yeast of the Pharisees.”
It took two times for the message to sink in that Jesus wasn’t reprimanding them for the bread. He used this simple real-life example as a teaching moment.
Don’t let the wrong ideas or teaching infuse your brain and soul. Use awareness and discernment to filter those out as you do your daily reading and listening.
Let the words and actions of Jesus be the yeast that infuses your soul and grows into a beautiful bread.
January 31 has arrived suddenly. And thus ends the 31 days of a chapter of Proverbs a day.
This collection of sayings ends with “The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him.”
Among the wisdom of the mother, “Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
The ending is an acrostic poem—Ode to a Capable Wife. Among her many good works, “She opens her hand to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy.”
Further, “ Give her a share in the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the city gates.”
And again, “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
Does the Bible teach that women should be subjugated? I think not.
Proverbs teaches us to be industrious and not lazy. We should reach out and be helpful to the poor and those without a voice in the government (Proverbs would say city gate or assembly). Further, our hearts must be aligned with God.
After many years of reading through this wisdom literature for a month, am I wiser? You cannot tell by what I know but by how I act. And the same with you. Are we acting a bit kinder? More aware of the needs of others? More aware of the things in life that can trap us into slipping? Greet people with a smile. Really listen. Help where you can.
Day 30 of reading a chapter from the Proverbs a day. Reflecting upon how often liars are despised.
Perhaps you were kids on the playground. Perhaps it was later in young adulthood. Someone gets angry and wants to fight. All the people around encourage him. They are not going to fight. But the angry one grows ever more belligerent and ready to go into the fight.
Liars on social media are in search of “likes”. Each like is a hit of dopamine for the mind. Like the encouragers in the mob encouraging the one to fight, the “likers” obtain some joy watching someone else play the fool. The “liked” person feels vindicated and backed up ready to go further.
We may think this is a new phenomenon—all this lying on social media. But literature from 3,000 years ago containing sayings most likely passed down from many generations before show us that lying is not new. It is as old as humans in community.
Yet, we also have the examples of the wise, the truthful. They existed at the same time.
Community, society, exist in tension between the wise and the fool, the truth teller and the liar.
Our choice, my choice, your choice is to become aware and then choose—within which side of the tension shall we reside?
Dad decided for whatever reason I don’t know to send me to a percussion teacher when I was about eight years old. I learned the variety of rhythms–marching, Bossa Nova, rhumba, waltz, and so on by the time I moved on to guitar at 20.
I thought of rhythms thanks to a new book I’ve begun reading this week, Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity, by Gloria Mark, PhD. She is a psychologist who has researched things such as focus.
I’ve only gotten through the first four chapters so far. She has gone through some research on flow, a topic popularized mostly in athletics but also in creative work. This observation is derived from that feeling you have when you are deeply immersed in something–a book, painting a picture, playing soccer–and time passes unnoticed.
She points out that much of our work, and indeed our lives, are not in flow. Rather there is a rhythm. Perhaps the daily circadian rhythm. There are points of a day where we are more alert and times when we need a break.
Reading through the Proverbs (my annual January refresher course) I sense rhythms. The wise person rises early, attends to the work to be done, helps other people, avoids fools. The fool’s rhythm depends on the whims of the moment, the vagaries of the moment, the suggestions of “friends.”
Our trick is to find our daily/weekly/monthly rhythms and live them out. Hopefully the rhythm of the wise and not that of the fool.
Today’s chapter in Proverbs hit the fools, the lazy, and the “whisperer.” So, I thought, who is a fool? Is there a picture of a fool? How would I know one, really?
Wow, did that ever send me down into a rabbit’s warren of Ecosia searches. That was 12 hours ago. A busy day and several zoom meetings later, here I am after dinner still thinking.
Perhaps I am the fool?
Speaking of fools, I thought about our politicians in the US. A big group of them keep trying to run every detail of our lives. Many of these were youth and adolescents of the 70s.
This 70s song by Jonathan Edwards (Sunshine Go Away Today) appeared on our Sonos speakers
Sunshine, go away today
I don’t feel much like dancing
Some man’s gone, he’s tried to run my life
He don’t know what he’s asking
When he tells me I better get in line
I can’t hear what he’s saying
When I grow up, I’m gonna make it mine
These ain’t dues I been payingWell, how much does it cost?
I’ll buy it
The time is all we’ve lost
I’ll try it
And he can’t even run his own life
I’ll be damned if he’ll run mine, sunshine
The song is packed with teenage rebellion. On the other hand, I was impacted by the line–he can’t even run his own life I’ll be damed if he’ll run mine.
How often do we, yes we, you and me, try to tell other people how to live yet our own lives leave so much to be desired?
Once again a use for the discipline of pause, breathe, consider, be quiet.
Sometimes the writers of the Proverbs include a saying that is blunt. Do not do this…for this will happen. Sometimes the sayings are little pictures. Sometimes, like Jesus, the stories require work on our part to understand.
Once I quoted from the German writer Thomas Mann, “If everyone swept in front of their house, the whole world would be clean.” An engineer wrote to me and explained how that was impossible. He was thinking of a literal broom. Mann was most likely thinking of what would happen if each of us got ourselves in order first, rather than trying to fix everyone else.
Sometimes, like this one, the story is pretty clear.
“I passed by the field of one who was lazy,
by the vineyard of a stupid person;
and see, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want, like an armed warrior.”This material may be protected by copyright.
Proverbs 24
Avoiding laziness pops up often in the Proverbs. This is a nice little story to illustrate.
Get your 7-8 hours of sleep. Then get up and work on your field–whatever that field may be. I wrote a few days ago about the Japanese theory of ickigai–having a purpose to get out of bed in the morning. Find your purpose and work at it.
Still reading through the Proverbs a chapter a day.
“All deeds are right in the sight of the doer,
Proverbs 21
but the LORD weighs the heart.
To do righteousness and justice
is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.”
You think you’re OK, but God looks into your motivations. In our words of today, God would rather we did right and worked for justice even more than religious ritual. Of course, both is good. But…what is in our heart?
“and the borrower is the slave of the lender.”
Proverbs 22
I had a boss who was President of the company back in the 80s. He complained of the stupidity of our bankers. I told him, “Dave, the bank is the actual owner of the company. You six stockholders only put in $250,000. The bank has $3 million in here. They own the business and fixed assets.”
Sure enough, the bank called the loan and we were forced into selling for whatever we could get. Most of us lost our jobs. The president wound up working at a gas station. Proverbs also speak to pride and arrogance leading to a fall.
Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 