Faith Venture

Intellectual Discipline

January 11, 2022

The man sat next to me at lunch at the conference I attended last month in Florida. He is a reliability engineer. His professional life has a foundation built on numbers. He began talking about Covid and how he and his wife had both contracted a bad case of the virus. She took a medication recommended by few doctors. She did recover. I’m not talking about medicine here.

He quoted statistics from India to support their decision.

I was surprised. He has far more training in numbers than I, yet he quoted statistics that had a spurious rigor. If he used numbers like that in his plant, some very expensive equipment would be broken.

We all get suckered in by statistics that are incomplete or misleading. And we all can miss those numbers that tell us something important. Just like we should apply intellectual discipline when studying the Bible, we should also stop and consider when we see numbers thrown around in the news or even from the pulpit.

Soon after my conversation, I ran across The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics by Tim Harford. This book does not require a background in math. It is readable. Packed with stories about people who famously got the numbers wrong and those who got them right. This book will help you not be fooled by every number you see flashed at you.

I suppose I should hint at the ten rules (dare I say 10 Commandments in a spiritual disciplines blog?).

Stop and notice our emotional reactions
Combine the “bird’s eye” statistical perspective with the “worm’s-eye” view from personal experience
Look at labels on the data, do we understand what’s really described
Look for comparisons and context
Look behind the statistics at where they come from
Ask what is missing
Ask tough questions about algorithms and the big datasets
Pay more attention to the bedrock of official statistics
Look under the surface of any beautiful chart or graph
Keep an open mind

And finally, Harford’s “golden rule”—a good trait to develop for life in general—Be curious.

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Mind Like Water

January 10, 2022

We should develop a mind like water. A pebble drops into a still pond. It causes a splash. Then ripples. Then the ripples smooth out until the surface of the pond is smooth again.

We cannot prevent disturbances from entering our lives. Stuff happens. Sometimes we are prepared. Sometimes not.

The disturbances can cause ripples that gradually smooth out. When we learn to calm our minds, we can deal with the disturbances.

Yoda in Star Wars sensed a disturbance in the Force. Sometimes we sense a disturbance in the Spirit. We breathe. Focus. And allow ourselves to be like the water in the pond letting the ripples gradually smooth.

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Further Questions of Ourselves For Guidance for the New Year

January 7, 2022

A couple of days ago, I asked a number of questions to guide us toward health for the new year. Let’s take it deeper with some questions from today’s reading in the Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community.

Why do we call impossible what God calls possible?
Why do we call unforgivable what God has forgiven?
Why do we compromise with what God calls sin?

How we need to know God’s heart, and reach out in His love and wisdom to others.

Maybe those are questions we can write on a note card to place on our desk to remind us daily. Especially when we are discouraged. Or when we are judging others harshly. Or when we are tempted.

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How Can I Improve My Overall Health, Part 2?

January 6, 2022

I asked many questions yesterday for us to consider regularly to keep us on a healthy spiritual, intellectual, physical path. Today I’ve compiled a list of suggestions from a number of sources. They are all good, but way too many to implement all at once. Just consider them as suggestions. Pick one or two deficiencies and begin a habit to correct them.

Longevity and Mindset

Prioritize sleep
Build muscle mass, begin resistance weight training
Move (walk, run, bike, swim)
Minimize sugar intake
Socialize more
Adopt a diet more rich in plants (Eat food, not too much, mostly plants)
Practice gratitude daily
Find your passion and purpose
Consume optimistic and future optimistic content (turn off TV news and other negative sources)
Practice data-driven experimentalism
Take ownership of your health decisions
Practice simple habits
Practice change as lifestyle

Drink water

After waking up
After workout
Half-hour before a meal
Before going to bed (this has been a great change for me)
When you’re feeling sick or tired
When surrounded by sick people

Work smarter

Have a weekly plan
Focus on what you’re doing
Get organized
Have a routine (but be flexible)
Take breaks
Turn phone off
Prioritize

Hope you find some good ideas within.

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How Can I Improve My Overall Health This Year?

January 5, 2022

Four questions for the year.

How can I improve my spiritual health this year?
How can I improve my physical health this year?
How can I improve my intellectual health this year?
How can I improve my emotion health this year?

Rather than goals or resolutions this year, how about beginning each week with a series of questions and answers?

Each week as part of our weekly review of projects and tasks, we can devote five minutes to answering each of these questions for the week:

What one thing will I do for my spiritual health?
What one thing will I do for my physical health?
What one thing will I do for my intellectual health?
What one thing will I do for my emotional health?

I hope you have completed an annual review of where you’ve been and where you’d like to go this year. Monthly reviews help you stay on track or make course corrections as necessary. Weekly reviews bring it home. You can look at the week and see the days you’ll exercise, the pattern of study and meditation, and so forth.

For me, I need to learn to ask better questions.

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Be More Like Jesus

January 4, 2022

This thought is not original with me, but I endorse it and encourage us all to adopt it as this year’s lifestyle.

This year I would like to be more like Jesus

Hang Out With Sinners
Upset Religious People
Tell Stories That Make People Think
Choose Unpopular Friends
Be Kind, Loving, and Merciful
Take Naps on Boats

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Wisdom, Or Be Careful What You Ask For

January 3, 2022

Solomon as an adolescent knew he would be king after his father, the famous King David. He talked with God, who told him he would grant a wish. Solomon asked for wisdom.

I often recommend reading the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Scriptures (Christian Old Testament) during the month of January in order to set off the year with good momentum. It’s the writings of Solomon’s wisdom teaching. 31 chapters—31 days in January. Read a chapter a day.

But, the story of Solomon didn’t turn out well. He lived a dissolute life. Many of his wives brought pagan gods into Israel. His son was barely king when he caused a split in the kingdom due to his lack of wisdom. The huge kingdom was gone in an instant.

Think about this. What if…what if he had asked God to help him act wisely instead of just to have wisdom.

We can know a lot, but we can still act like a fool. We can be a couple of lengths short of a PhD, yet we can live wisely.

I don’t care how much of the book of Proverbs you have memorized. What matters is what you do after you rise from bed tomorrow morning. Ask God to help you live wisely and with kindness this year.

Posted in Disciplines, healing, Living, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Happy New Year, We Hope

December 31, 2021

Welcome to the last day of 2021, or maybe the first day of 2022 depending upon when you get this. We hoped 2021 would be an improvement over 2020 when we had the shock of the first major pandemic perhaps since the Spanish Flu of 1918. It has caused immense changes in how we live and interact.

Still, a year end is an ideal time for reflection and gathering ideas for change in our lives–and maybe our thinking. We, the people, seem to be woefully short on reflection. Since most people have a few days left of holiday, use yours to set aside a few hours to just sit and think. That is called reflection.

What good did you do last year?

Where could you have done something and didn’t? No guilt. No excuses. Just a short list.

Who did you lose track of, perhaps due to Covid or not?

Where did you grow last year?

Then we can project into the new year.

What one thing can do in 2022 to grow intellectually, spiritually, or in relationship? What trigger can I set up to encourage it? For example, setting out workout clothes at night so that in the morning they are right there to be put on getting you in the mood of exercise.

What good can I do in 2022?

I stopped doing New Year’s Resolutions many years ago. I think of what kind of person I’d like to be and what changes I can make in my daily life to assimilate it.

I started this blog in 2008 as a service to my local church with another person. She left to go to seminary. The pastor was transferred to another place. I changed it in 2009 and then took it seriously a year later. Eleven years and 2,600+ posts later, it’s a part of my daily discipline. The blog never caught on to the tune of hundreds of thousands of readers. But I only promote it on Twitter. I seldom try to hit a “click bait” issue to trick people into clicking. And still there are a few thousand readers. If you care to pass it on, I’d appreciate it. I have no income from this. It’s as much for me to organize some thinking as anything.

Posted in Disciplines, Growth, Habits | Leave a Comment »

I Choose Health, and Other Things

December 30, 2021

It happened many years ago. I remember lying on the bank of a creek in the warm spring sun watching otters play. I pulled out a cigarette. Back then I had taken up that disgusting habit for no apparent reason. The feeling of deep incongruity overcame me. How could I feel at one with nature and yet put such unhealthy stuff into my body? I stopped.

I learned to drink coffee with milk and sugar at university. And tea with sugar. One day grabbing a coffee in the break room at the manufacturing plant where I worked I became aware of the spoonfuls of stuff I was putting into my body (they used artificial creamer, of course). I stopped adding stuff to my coffee and tea–well, unless I have a cappuccino or, as I am now, having a chai tea.

I chose health.

Today, when faced with food or lifestyle choices, I have already chose. Or, if I choose to deviate, it is a conscious decision without guilt while knowing I will have to make up for it.

And I wear a mask and am vaccinated, because I’ve already made the choice for health. I understand those who fear needles or don’t want to “give in to authority”. I don’t agree, but I understand. I undertook a several year study into brain science and other physiology in order to understand. I won’t go into details, but suffice to say that the famous Descartes saying, “Cogito, ergo sum” was wrong. Reality is “Sum, ergo cogito.” For the Latin deprived, I am not a person because I think. Rather, I am, therefore I can think.

This is the week for New Year’s Resolutions. Or, does anyone make those anymore? Looking at the new year with a break in normal activities naturally leads to thinking of the future. I suggest choosing whom you will be. Not a resolution such as “I will lose 25 lbs.” which you will never do. Better are statements such as “I choose health” and “I choose to exercise every day.” Or, you can say, “I am the type of person who eats healthy and nutritious meals” or “I am the type of person who gets some exercise every day” or on another area “I am the type of person who gets up and writes three pages every day” or “I am the type of person who carries a sketch book and looks for interesting things to sketch every day.”

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The Whole Thing and its Parts

December 29, 2021

Entrance to Lightscape at Chicago Botanic Gardens

We visited Lightscape at the Chicago Botanic Gardens last evening. Various artists transformed groves of plants and trees into light and music experiences.

We had our first significant snow of the year yesterday. Even with temperatures above freezing (38F or 3C) causing some melting, the vestiges of the white snow perfectly enhanced the experience.

The highlight for me was a laser light show across a small lake. Dancing lights to a festive piece of music. In contemplation just in the moment, I de-focused my eyes and absorbed the experience. Yet all the while part of my mind was thinking of the technical intricacies of the lights themselves and the programming required.

Listening to s symphonic orchestra is the same experience. I listen to the whole piece while also noticing the work and movements of each instrument and how the composer and then conductor has brought them altogether for a beautiful whole piece.

Similarly, one should read a great book including Scripture. You must absorb the whole of the main argument of the writer while yet enjoying the parts. One errs by picking out sentences while yet missing the whole thought.

Yet, how often readers of spiritual texts do just that. And not only Christians. Check out how often you also see that trait in the Hindu and Islamic traditions. A human trait, this is, as Yoda might have put it.

And a human trait we can learn to overcome with awareness and practice.

Just don’t think so much that you miss the beauty of the whole.

Posted in Awareness, focus, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »