Read The Whole Passage

November 1, 2021

One sure way to irritate me is to quote a writer out of context. It is done often. And it is lazy. And often deceitful.

I love good analogies. Much like how Jesus taught–with brief stories of deep observation.

The Roman thinker Seneca said this about those who do that very thing. “Examine the separate parts, if you like, provided you examine them as parts of the man himself. She is not a beautiful woman whose ankle or arm is praised, but she whose general appearance makes you forget to admire her single attributes.”

Yes, I see someone and wish to know the whole person. Same with reading someone. It is cute to pick out aphorisms. Better is to understand the breadth and depth of their thinking.

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Changing Your Mind

October 29, 2021

When is the last time you changed your mind? About anything?

Go on, I’ll wait…

Maybe at a restaurant? You know you always get lasagna at this restaurant, but you sit down and change your mind ordering the linguine with clams.

How about something more major? Say you saw a person you vaguely knew across the room. You remember you don’t like that person for some reason. Maybe politics or theology or social views. Then circumstances happen that you wind up in a conversation with that person. You discover a quite delightful person with a balanced outlook, friendly, inquisitive. You change your mind. That person is really OK.

There is an old folk song, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”

This is changing your mind.

But is there more? Perhaps.

We must not only change our mind; we must also change our behavior. Ancient wisdom says we become what we think about. We change our minds. Which changes our behavior. Which changes who we are.

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Standing Out or Outstanding

October 28, 2021

Pink Goldfish: Defy Normal and Exploit Imperfection

I’ve offered feedback to one of the authors of this book. It came in the mail yesterday quite by surprise. It’s a book on marketing by a couple of crazy and smart guys. The idea is to succeed by standing out—your product or you yourself.

I’m offering a marketing book rather than theology or philosophy or similar because staring at it this morning, a thought struck me.

You (or your church) can stand out or you can be outstanding.

The first thoughts concerned all the outlandish ways Christians, especially in America, try to stand out. How can I make a big news splash, they ask. There are futile demonstrations. Shouting. Anger. Even hate. Sometimes shooting.

Then I thought about how the early church grew. It was by being outstanding followers of Jesus.

The first type drives most people away from Jesus. The second type is attractive.

Maybe you can succeed in marketing your product by being different by being outlandish (pink suit anyone?).

Maybe in life you succeed by being an outstanding disciple.

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Knowledge of Sin is the Beginning of Salvation

October 27, 2021

The knowledge of sin is the beginning of salvation. I could be quoting that from many sources. This one happens to be the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca. At times he sounds so much like the Apostle Paul that it is painful.

One gimmick that always worked for humor in cartoons is to exaggerate an action with consequences poised in suspense until the character realizes his predicament. Take the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons. The coyote would miss the roadrunner running off the top of a cliff. But he didn’t drop until he realized there was no ground beneath his feet.

That works metaphorically with us. We just go on our merry way with our hateful attitudes or sexual affairs or consuming too much food or drink or carrying that grudge against someone.

Then one day it all comes crashing down around us. Health, relationships, finances.

Unless…

We wake up before reaching the edge of the cliff. Stop. Think it over. Realize what we’re doing. Understand the consequences of the direction we’re traveling. And allow salvation to heal us.

Or you will be like the subject of The Rolling Stones song:

You better stop, look around

Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes, here it comes

Here comes your nineteenth nervous breakdown

Keith Richards/Mick Jagger

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Unless We Control Our Affairs By a Guiding Purpose

October 26, 2021

Lay’s Potato Chips once had an advertising challenge—“Bet you can’t eat just one.”

When we find something pleasurable, we cannot stop at some sensible place. We rush headlong into overindulgence—or, as the ancient philosopher Seneca put it, “the abyss of sorrow.”

I could take that Lay’s challenge—sort of. I could eat just one. One bag full, that is. No matter the size of that bag. And then I would get on the scale the next morning and read the results right there between my feet in large, black, unforgiving numbers!

Seneca pointed out how hard to keep something pleasurable within bounds. Food, drink, sex, games, whatever. He told us “there are only a few who control themselves and their affairs by a guiding purpose; the rest do not proceed; they are merely swept along, like objects afloat in a river.

We can read the Hebrew Proverbs learning the difference between the wise person and the fool. Or the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Or the teachings of his brother James in the Christian Scriptures. Here and many other places we are taught about that guiding principle that keeps us from going overboard with our freedom to pursue pleasure being swept away by the currents.

Bet you can’t eat just one!

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Four For The Road

October 25, 2021

Here are four pieces of wisdom for living.

Experiment. Life is an experiment. You try something. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. When it doesn’t, then you try something else. Always.

Invent. Look for new ways to do something. Invent a tool, a pattern, a lifestyle. Go on a new path beyond the same old experiences.

New Ideas. One way to train your brain to come up with new ideas is the 20 things method. Sit with a page of paper and a pen. Write a question at the top of the page that you are trying to solve or figure out. Write an idea. Write another, maybe just playing around with the words. After about 15 answers, you’ll notice the ideas are becoming more creative. By 20, you will have the solution you are seeking.

If you missed writing class in school, that will be much to your detriment. This is a variation of the list method (a thought which just occurred to me). You begin with an idea and begin to write an essay. By the time you have finished the essay, you will have ideas that you never imagined when you began. It happens with me almost every day that I sit down to write this blog.

Practice these daily.

Ask better questions. This got me into trouble as a student. Some people just seemed to have an ability to take things on faith. I still remember chemistry class in high school, but the same held through in almost every class I took even throughout university. Some people accepted whatever the teacher said, remembered it, wrote it on tests. They were the A students. I always asked, how do they know that? I puzzled things out. I didn’t care about the test. It was superfluous. I was a B student.

I feel I lack on asking better questions many times. That is my personal challenge. What is yours?

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We Assume Wrongly

October 22, 2021

I believe something about someone or something without thinking it through. In other words, I assume something as true that quite probably is not.

There is a humorous parsing of the word assume — “it makes a ass out of u and me”.

The current British crime drama my wife dug up for us to watch the series straight through is set in and around Newcastle in north of England. Inspector George Gently wound up with a cocky young sergeant who has something negative to say about almost everyone. “Is there any human that you don’t have an opinion about?” Gently asks him after another flip dismissal of someone of a particular ethnicity.

I am guessing that the writers are drawing a caricature of a north England young man. TV often requires a couple of caricatures to play off the deeper, conflicting emotions of the lead actor.

But he also represents us all. I bet you don’t have to dive very deeply into memory before you recall the last time you made some flip remark about poor people, or black people, or white people, or homosexual people, or people from some other ethnicity.

Note my use of the word “people.” I try to remind myself of the humanity of all people. How we all struggle to live a good life. How we all struggle with our weaknesses. But we are all children of God, loved by the Father.

When we feel ourselves assuming, we would do well to remember the First Principles of the faith—we are to love God with all of our hearts, strength, soul, and mind; and we are to love our neighbor. And then banish those assumptions.

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Give It Time

October 21, 2021

I learned something this morning. When I learn something before 7 AM, then I’m good for the day, right?

We have been taught Benjamin Franklin’s decision making method. Draw a vertical line down the middle of a sheet of paper. Write all the reasons for the decision on one side; write all the reasons against the decision on the other. Total, and there you have it.

Except, you don’t. There’s more. Franklin continued…after making the lists, let it sit over night. Revisit the list the next day and look at your thoughts again. You will see more things one way or the other.

Give it time to percolate in your subconscious. More ideas will come to you.

Company CEOs, marketing directors, and product managers brief me on their new developments. Then they’ll ask for my feedback. Do I agree that this is really a revolutionary advancement? I give an initial impression, but I tell them that I must digest the information and let ideas fester for a time.

This is often what happens when we study. For example, we may read a sentence in one of Paul’s writings. We think, wow, what a great command. I think he is completely correct.

Except…perhaps we continue reading and see that Paul expands on that thought. Perhaps what Paul meant in total is quite different from what we thought from the one sentence. Then we leave the passage for a time and revisit it the next day. And now we have more ideas, more understanding, more questions.

Many times in many conversations and things we read it is optimal if we give it time. This will save us much misunderstanding and embarrassment.

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What Do You Do With Your Time?

October 20, 2021

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’

Into the future

Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’

Into the future

Steve Miller Band

I was listening to Seth Godin this morning while I was doing my wind sprints and walking around the ponds here in northern Illinois. He reminded me of something I’ve often thought about.

Technology was supposed to make us productive. Why? So that we wouldn’t have to work so many hours to make sufficient income. Why? So that we’d have more “free” time.

It did make us more productive. So, what do we do with our time?

Research into people’s behavior shows that we—watch more Netflix, spend more time with the TV, spend hours on social media. In other words, our time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’…

Between moving to a new state and the pandemic, I have lost all the old services I used to do—teaching Bible, teaching Yoga, serving on nonprofit boards. It’s been hard picking up. I tried with a new church, but there was no place for someone like me.

On the other hand, I’ve read more deeply into some good books. I’m currently 327 pages into a 981-page novel by David Foster Wallace called Infinite Jest. Supposedly the book “everyone” says they have read, but few actually have. I view that as a challenge. This guy is incredibly observant of people and culture. That helps sharpen my own observational skills.

I am still writing two blogs and keeping up with technology. But I have time to workout. Read. See more of the family up here.

What about you? What are you doing with your free time? How many hours do you spend with a screen? What could you do that would be more healthful and of service? Take a walk in nature? Read a good book? Maybe read a great book again? Set aside a little more time for meditation and prayer? Call a friend?

The Steve Miller Band in the next verse said “I want to fly like an eagle.” Just soaring on the air currents. Watching. Observing. Getting an occasional meal. Enjoying the freedom. Reminds me of Isaiah, “Those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.⁣ They will soar high on wings like eagles.” Just taking pleasure in being.

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A Fool’s Life

October 19, 2021

A fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fear.

Ancient Greek Proverb

Some of us develop mind tricks or habits in order to cultivate a daily focus on gratitude. Sometimes we get busy and forget that for which we should be grateful.

If our life is filled with gratitude, there is no room for fear to creep in.

This reminds me of my typical New Year’s reminder. Don’t do resolutions or goals. Decide what kind of person I will be in the new year.

Meeting a person whose life is filled with gratitude is a joy. It makes that day so much better.

Meeting a person whose life is void of gratitude can ruin our attitude for the day. Or longer.

I choose gratitude. And quickly refocus when I slip.

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