Faith Venture

Way back when Twitter was very new, I was at dinner with some executives of a leading process control company. A couple of us taught a VP about Twitter and signed him up. He tweeted just once. That is how I became one of the subjects of his only tweet, “I am having dinner surrounded by a bunch of idiots.”

Sometimes we feel like we’re in that song by Stealer’s Wheel

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.

I wrote recently about listening with thoughts from Toru Sato’s new book, Two, One, None: Conversations on Meditations. The book is written as a long series of conversations, so it reads sort of like reading the script of a play. Kim and the reader (designated by 2<1<0 or two, one, none) are on a pilgrimage. Following a discussion of listening, Kim says,

I guess our presence is meaningful even if it feels like nothing is getting done.

Too often, especially for men, we feel that a conversation must lead to some sort of problem solving. Or that after listening for a while we are obligated to say something wise.

Sometimes we’re not stuck, just in the middle. Sometimes we are like one of the idiots at dinner just sitting there. Sometimes just being fully present with the other person is all that is required. Often that is better than words. But it can only be done with love and kindness.

Fear generates many other emotions. It is often the root cause of anger, hate, jealousy, argumentativeness.

Sometimes fear saves our lives. It gives that shot of adrenaline so that we can outrun danger.

Sometimes it is that deep unease that things are changing, that new people are moving in, that we may be losing jobs to other people, or that we’re hearing different languages.

This fear drives us to sow hate and discord and even pull out guns to shoot people.

The sad and unnecessary part is that so many of these people are self-proclaimed Christians. And they have failed to digest the most basic command we find in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures–Fear Not!

Jesus told his little band of followers that many bad things were going to happen to them, but “Fear Not, for I am with you.”

We need the giant economy size box of Fear Not today. And calm everybody down.

Be Kind.

Certainly the word of the year–or the word that we need to practice in a year of emotions pent up and then released by the unnatural order of things given the pandemic.

It’s the sort of release of tension certainly America has witnessed many times in its history. And the world has seen many times in the history of humans walking the earth.

Can you be kind when posting on social media? I’ve tried, and I think I’ve failed. How difficult it is to even try being kind on media.

I’m socially awkward. Even in speech I don’t always come across with the attitude I think I have.

How about you? Have you tried?

First, we must be kind to ourselves. It is really hard to be kind to others when we have not searched ourselves and forgiven ourselves and sought forgiveness.

Be kind to others. Small acts of service are always much appreciated. Referring to others as human beings rather than objectifying others as groups. I hear “the blacks” or “the French” or “the poor” or “the gays”. Remember all are humans and children of God. Kindness toward others begins with an attitude of non-violence and non-hatred and non-fear within us.

Be kind to nature. Treat the land and the plants and creatures upon it as creation of God and respect it as such. It is part of a deep attitude of kindness.

Be kind…

To Yourself,

To Others,

To the World.

Make that our spiritual practice for the remainder of this difficult year.

To listen is to continually give up all expectation and to give our attention, completely and freshly, to what is before us, not really knowing what we will hear or what that will mean. In the practice of our days, to listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear. Mark Nepo (quoted by Toru Sato in Two, One, None: Conversations on Meditations)

It could be said that failure to listen is the sign of our times. But it could be said of the 50s and 60s–1850s and 1860s in America, that is. And also the 1840s when there was a considerable anti-immigration movement in America–against the Irish.

And again, I have searched the most ancient of human writing and find that the failure to listen is a human trait.

I don’t think that Richard J. Foster and Dallas Willard ever talked of listening as a spiritual discipline. At least not a core one.

I argue that listening is indeed the precursor to spiritual disciplines. It must come before study, meditation, prayer, fasting, for that is what we are doing in those disciplines. And also in worship and service. How can one spiritually serve others and not listen as Nepo describes?

Want to begin to heal the divisions found today in many, many countries around the globe?

Try listening to others. Softly. Freshly. With a willingness to be changed by what we hear. Not necessarily to change our politics. Definitely to change our hearts.

I missed a post yesterday. There was an event for media and analyst people, and they included me. Normally we’d be in a hotel conference or meeting room. Breakfast would be served from a buffet table in the hallway outside the doors. Coffee is sometimes plentiful. Breakfast was at 7 EDT, which meant 6 am for me.

I made my own breakfast of oatmeal with blueberries and a slice of toast with direct trade coffee. Sat on my patio. And tuned in via the Internet on the newly popular Zoom.

The speakers were speaking from their living rooms or home offices from England, California, Boston, and several other geographically dispersed locations. Questions during the Q&A session were from Wisconsin, India, and other places.

With nationalism rampant in politics these days in many places (UK, US, Turkey, China, and more) business and technology continue to cross borders just like we read about in the Hebrew Bible in stories dating back 4,000 years.

Christians get caught up in the same fever of nationalism. Jesus died only for us in the [United States or fill in your own blank].

Remember that Paul said in Jesus there is no Jew or Greek. We are all the same. Men and women are all people. Americans and Chinese and Iranians and Nigerians (also fill in the blank) are all people, created by God, loved by God, and invited to live in God’s Kingdom.

I write this blog and a business/technology blog. After the US in terms of readership, the next largest group of readers on both blogs hail from Germany and China.

There’s politics, and then there’s Jesus. It’s OK to look out for the common good of your nation or city or tribe. But, we need to maintain our real focus on the greater kingdom–God’s.

I have been thinking about the early Christians. The ones from the time of the Pentecost at around 30 AD (or CE depending upon your tradition). As I read from the writings of the early apostles (Peter, Paul, James, John and so forth) and the writings that were used for teaching but not included in the “Bible”, I marvel at the searching for how to organize their lives in this new reality of the Kingdom of God.

For 300 years or so they struggled with spirituality and daily living and how to be true to this new faith.

There was the time I was shown how I am capable of all of the vices. It was a scary vision. But truthful. It’s enough not to put myself forward as the leader of some “moral crusade”.

Immediately afterward, I was shown the grace of God toward all people–every race, gender, skin color, age. That was the solution to realizing I was a sinner, but that grace is there for the asking.

We have in America another example of a fall. It should be a lesson to us of the sin of pride. And also to take care when we offer ourselves as an example of moral rectitude. When we think we are that good, we should ask what we are hiding.

I observe that it is difficult for a prideful person to ask for forgiveness, and doubly so for a prideful well known person to admit wrongdoing publicly and seek forgiveness from those who put faith in their leadership. How many examples will it take before we realize this?

Cal Newport wrote in Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, “The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it core to their working life, will thrive.”

Life has a rhythm. Each day is a rhythm of sleep, rising, eating, working, relaxing, sleep. Each week is a rhythm. Even the months and the years.

There are times for focus and concentration during the day. There are times to relax. Even we should allow ourselves time to be bored. Great ideas spring from times of boredom.

I think of the time Jesus told Martha, “You are distracted by many things.” I’m not going to try to explain the entire story. Just focus on the word distraction.

Say you are serving some people. Serve with focus on the task. Don’t become distracted about the little things—oh, my, the salt and pepper shakers don’t match, or such. The focus is on the guest and the service.

Marketer and thinker Seth Godin talks of his friend the great science fiction writer Issac Asimov. “He just knew it was 6:30 and he needed to sit down and write.” He would sit and focus until the day’s work was done, then he could relax, eat, enjoy the time, and go on to the next task.

Just so, our spiritual practices. When it is time to meditate and pray, sit and meditate and pray. If you are worried about things to do today, pause, pull out your notebook and write them down. Now that they are safely out of mind, return to your focus. Don’t just sit and let you mind worry over things. Learn to focus and concentrate. The time will be up before you know it.

And with study. And with service. Ever notice when you’re serving someone and deeply, mindfully into the service, that the time just seems to fly by. The task is completed before you realize it’s time.

Today, not tomorrow, try practicing deep work. Put away distractions and focus on the task, no matter how mundane.

The story goes that a young woman (novice) approached the teacher of the community (abbot) and stated that she wanted to experience God’s presence.

He gave her a set of spiritual practices. She followed them faithfully, studying, praying, meditating, fasting.

On another day sometime later she saw the teacher and said, “I have not yet experienced God, yet I have followed all the practices faithfully.”

“Does the sun rise every morning?” he asked. “What causes it to rise?”

“Nothing,” she said.

“It’s the same with the experience of God.”

So, why pursue the spiritual practices?

It is the preparation for the experience. To change metaphors, it is like preparing the soil and planting the seeds. Then one day the crop grows and yields fruit.

This thought even though 600 years old seem just right for our times.

Thomas à Kempis—But if Christ is amongst us, then it is necessary that we sometimes yield up our own opinion for the sake of peace. Who is so wise as to have perfect knowledge of all things? Therefore trust not too much to thine own opinion, but be ready also to hear the opinions of others. Though thine own opinion be good, yet if for the love of God thou foregoest it, and followest that of another, thou shalt the more profit thereby.

We like to say, “I have a right to my opinion.” I say that we have the right to think. Not the right to shout my unfounded opinion louder than the next person.

Are we “so wise as to have perfect knowledge of all things”?

Perhaps listening to others with love is the perfect response.