Faith Venture

First Law—no one wants advice, especially unsolicited.

Second Law—if you feel the urge to give advice, see First Law.

My dad used to give me unsolicited advice—every six weeks when school report cards came out—for six years. I had taken some sort of standardized test in sixth grade. My parents went to visit the teacher. After that, the lectures began. Like I told a professor at the fitness center this morning, I think my IQ as measured by a test is higher than my intelligence. At any rate, the advice never took hold. I didn’t start getting good grades until my third year at university. I always have pursued learning on my own initiative unbound by curriculum.

That bit of biographical discourse began by reading this piece of wisdom:

Philosopher Baltasar Gracián on giving advice: “When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see.”

Doing that will require listening to and understanding the other person. And being aware of whether or not they wish to improve.

Yesterday’s post considered inconsistencies in what some of us call ourselves and what we believe.

Sometimes we need to open our eyes to see past marketing and labels media pastes on things.

Consider:

• Social media is actually anti-social
• Health foods are mostly unhealthy
• Knowledge workers are often ignorant of what’s around them
• Social sciences are not scientific
• Christians sometimes do not look like someone following Jesus (predicted by Jesus himself)
• Listeners often are not listening
• Observers often fail to see
• Protein bars are often really candy bars

When I was young, people used a phrase about some other people, “They talk big.”

Translation—these people talked about what they would do, but they actually never got around to doing anything.

Certain professions lend themselves to this behavior. Certainly politicians. Sometimes preachers. Sometimes executives. Sometimes the neighbor down the street.

When I taught kids to play defense in soccer (I think it’s about the same in basketball), I told them to watch the hips. They weren’t going anywhere without them. They may do fancy footwork. Don’t get sucked in by excess motion.

Similarly, don’t get sucked in by lots of hot air escaping from people’s lips.

Watch what people do.

Happy are those whose words and actions align—especially if they are right and moral and helpful and kind.

Just as eating cow meat doesn’t turn you into a cow, studying philosophy doesn’t make you wiser.—Nassim Nicholas Taleb

We could say the same about those people who call themselves Christian, yet for all the Scripture they can quote they could not be identified by an outsider as a follower of Jesus.

Notice those who exhibit that delicate balance of knowing and doing. And others see them and think, “I’d like some of that.”

Poet and novelist Hermann Hesse on what we all can do: “To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.”

Hermann Hesse’s writings have influenced some of my thinking. The early 20^th Century German writer published several important books including Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game.

Here he summarizes several things we can all do:

• To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping,
• To smile without hostility at people and institutions,
• To compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters,
• To be more faithful in our work,
• To show greater patience,
• To forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism.

Question asked of speeding driver by the traffic police person.

Lily Tomlin once said, “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.” 

From a 1950s era cartoon, “The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.”

Are you a church-going person? Do you find yourself on eight committees plus working at a marketplace job plus caring for a family?

Have you found yourself volunteering for extra assignments at work thinking that will lead to promotions (and even more of that work)?

Need I ask anything more?

Is it time to practice saying “No”?

Buffalo Springfield sang at the beginning of For What It’s Worth, “It’s time to stop, children…”

Take a breath. Pause. Reflect.

What are the most important ways you can contribute to yourself, your family, your community, to those you meet along the way? Know that you can’t solve all the world’s problems, but you can help where you are.

Leave time for walks in nature. Conversations. Reading good books (rather than doom scrolling). When you work, work. When you are not, focus on the present.

Jesus seemed to be busy and swamped with people, yet he always stopped along the way to teach or heal or prevent an injustice. Try to be like him.