Faith Venture

TS Eliot began a poem saying April is the cruelest month. Sometimes I think it’s May. We get teased with the heat and sun of summer and reminded of winter with snow mixed in the cold rain.

We want to be out in the parks and beaches and swimming pools, yet for half the days most years we experience rain and 40 degrees F.

And our souls become restless, yearning for the pace of summer.

To add to the restlessness, most of us are 60 days (or even more) of some type of stay-at-home order.

The books that teach us discipleship all extol the virtue of patience. But living through trying times when you are so close to the end, but not quite there, pushes our tolerance for patience to the limit.

Still, we’re not the first humans in history to live through one of these. Just humans with no one around with experience living through one this widespread. I remember stories from my grandfather of 1918. But I never imagined it happening to me.

It did.

We always recover and life goes on. And my grandchildren will tell their grandchildren about life when a virus with no known cure sweeps around the globe.

The only response we can make is search for the presence of God and maintain our daily routines. And wash our hands.

In the ancient Christian training manual for discipleship, the Shepherd instructs Hermas, “First, do not speak evil of anyone.”

A scan of social media drives home the point that perhaps there are many Christians (and everyone else) who need to also begin with this teaching. And bring this teaching into our minds and print it on our hearts.

Do. Not. Speak. Evil. Of. Anyone.

But much in the pattern of Jesus, who never stopped at the obvious, the Shepherd further instructs his pupil Hermas, “And to not enjoy listening to someone who does.”

Ouch.

Perhaps reading through social media feeds we encourage others with our “likes” and “hearts”.

In so doing, we also participate in the spreading of evil words.

Sounds like Jesus. He doesn’t let anyone off the hook. Both the speaker and the hearer are equally culpable.

Confession. The other day, I sinned. I open Facebook once a day (most days) to check notifications and wish people I know a happy birthday or offer condolences when bad times strike. Even though about 80% (or 99%) of my “friends” are fervid Trump supporters and one is a liberal, I managed to fail to contain myself and commented on one of each.

After the second comment, I logged out and didn’t return for two days. “Don’t participate” became my mantra for the week.

Maybe you, too.

Do not speak evil of others, and do not enjoy listening to those who do.

The Shepherd of Hermas is a book written in the early 100s or perhaps in the 90s to teach early Christians discipleship—how to live in the days, weeks, months, or years following belief in the one God and in the resurrection of Jesus.

A being dressed as a shepherd appears to Hermas, probably an early Christian in Rome, and proceeds to guide him in the Way.

This morning I read self-control. Here’s a thought for you to ponder and incorporate into your life.

“Listen,” he said, “Be self-controlled regarding evil, and do not do it; but do not be self-controlled regarding good, but do it.”

Earlier, he had talked of opening your hands in giving.

One reason the early church added to its numbers a couple of times before becoming an official religion and therefore becoming political were the times of plague in Rome and the followers of Jesus were the ones who were generous with their time, talents, and resources helping those were the victims.

Quite a challenge, and an example, for those of us who claim to be followers and disciples today!

We are now many weeks into captivity, er, I mean shelter-in-place or lockdown or whatever. Even though many of us are still working (I have worked from a home office for 20 years, but I miss the coffee shop), I’m picking up vibrations of boredom from my various feeds.

Someone tweeted that boredom was an evil. Something to be avoided.

In truth, boredom lets the mind roam freely. It is in such moments that creativity thoughts well up from deep inside the mind.

I tend to be mostly serious with a dry sense of humor. But there are times…

Boredom can also lead to silliness. Just goofing around we used to say.

The very dry and logical philosopher who in later life loosened up, Ludwig Wittgenstein, wrote, “If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.”

If ever there was a time for that, now is it.

Those who make their income from arousing your passions as a ploy to manipulate your attention, capture it time, and sell that attention to advertisers.

Be mindful of what you choose to allow into your mind.

Monitor your passion and awareness. Is it for building up or tearing down?

Using tools gleaned from the scientific study of psychology, people have learned how to manipulate others for gain. Once it was only the traveling “snake oil salesman”. Now it is on many cable TV channels and scattered throughout social media.

We need constant reminders around us to focus on what is good and true and building up. Leave the negativity and destructive emotions behind.

The writer of The Didache: The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles began bluntly:

There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways.

The first way teaches of love and humbleness and respect for life.

Reading the second way, I thought of a waiter presenting a menu:

And what will it be today ma’am (or sir)? We have an extensive menu for your pleasure today…

• Murders
• Adulteries
• Lusts
• Sexual immoralities
• Thefts
• Idolatries
• Magic arts
• Source Ries
• Robberies
• False testimonies
• Hypocrisies
• Duplicity
• Deceit
• Pride
• Malice
• Stubbornness
• Greed
• Abusive language
• Jealousy
• Audacity
• Arrogance
• Boastfulness

It starts out with some big ones. “I’ve not murdered anyone…for a while at least. Although lately, I’ve been thinking…”

However, beginning with false testimonies for the rest of the way down the list are things just about everyone indulges in…some more than others.

It begins with murder and adulteries (I bet that one has been reduced by the shelter-in-place) but it hits us all as the writer brings in jealousy, arrogance, boastfulness. There is a lot of that in the news!

We must have impressed deeply into our minds that list so that when the urge wells up from deep within us, we remember these are the way of death. Choose the way of life.

I close my eyes. In that darkness, I see a mosaic of…jigsaw puzzle pieces. Yes, the old Christmas family ritual is now a covid-19 shelter-in-place ritual.

It used to be said that the first thing a baby bird saw was imprinted on its mind as the parent. There were some cute cartoon jokes constructed from that observation.

I’m more interested in what we allow to be imprinted on our minds.

The Apostle Paul taught that we must set our minds on things of the spirit rather than things of the flesh.

Where we set our minds, what we allow our minds to dwell upon, becomes imprinted on our minds much like that jigsaw pattern I see when I close my eyes.

I can with intention change that picture I see within my eyes. So, too, can we change the nature of what we allow to impress upon our minds and set our minds on things of the spirit rather than things of the flesh.

That changes how we experience what life throws at us.

There is a scene in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (one of the more influential books on my development) where the author is attempting to fix something on his motorcycle. He gets the appropriate tools out, prepares his mind with the proper workflow, and takes a screwdriver to a machine screw in order to remove the cover.

Oops. The screwdriver slips. It destroys the little groove in the head of the screw.

Unless you realize that your immediate problem is not the chain you were going to fix but removing that reluctant screw, you will not get the job done.

Maybe we thought we had a problem finishing a project at work. Maybe we were organizing a trip. Or figuring out a new way to make my small business profitable.

Unless we realized that the real problem for the time being is avoiding attracting the coronavirus and becoming ill, then we will become frustrated and accomplish nothing.

Maybe our real problem for the short term (actually should be a long term way of life) is maintaining or becoming healthy. Build up our immune system through nutrition, exercise, and sleep.

A publicist sent an email notifying me of a registered dental hygienist who is also an “oral fitness coach” (just when you thought you’d heard of everything). She (aside from selling her latest oral hygiene products) was reminding us to brush, floss, rinse. Yes, oral health impacts our entire immune system. Sometimes the little daily habit is the real problem of the moment.

I don’t know where April went. The pandemic has killed more Americans than the Vietnam war. But, we must still live cautiously, not fearfully, for a time, yet, as we gradually return to a more normal life. Happy May Day.

Quick! Yesterday’s post…how long does it take to change?

A nanosecond. Remember.

I dislike using old “church” terms. The words have acquired so much unnecessary baggage that the true meaning is lost.

Reading in The Shepherd of Hermes, one of the earliest documents used for discipleship training. “To repent is great understanding.”

Repent is one of those church words that conjure unhelpful pictures in the mind. Better is “to change direction.”

“I was on this path. Then I made a decision to change. Now I am on this path.”

After that nanosecond to change, how long does it take to incorporate that change into your life? The rest of your life. A minute at a time.

Sometimes living in times that force us out of our usual daily routine sharpens our awareness of our wrong path. We decide to change. Or someone you are around more than usual points out your need for change, and the thought sinks into awareness. We come to that point. We decide to change.

That is where these books on discipleship and spiritual practices become our guides. Even books such as Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit are a great help.

All will explain that living the change is not easy. There is no instantaneous moment when I stopped being a jerk and became a nice guy. But there was a moment when I recognized my failure. And the moment burned into memory. And when I have an opportunity to be a jerk or a good person, I start picking the right way.

And then, I understand.

Charles Duhigg, writing in The Power of Habit, suggests it takes 30 days to exchange a bad habit for a better one. Dr. Henry Cloud, author of many books you should read beginning with Boundaries, says actually the number is closer to 60 days.

Tom Peters writing in The Pursuit of WOW! says actually it takes just a nanosecond—one billionth of a second.

He knows what every Baptist preacher knows—you make the decision in an instant.

Why do you think that pretty much all Christian writing after the Gospels talks about how to live?

Because, after the decision, after that nanosecond, you’ll spend years living it out. Developing the change.

In Christianity it’s called discipleship. Jesus-followers are instructed by the guy their following to “make disciples.” That means you don’t get people to make The Decision and then move on to the next one. You now have a responsibility for what happens after the nanosecond.

That is where knowing the spiritual disciplines—spiritual practices—comes in. The disciplining process in many, if not most, churches if it even exists, leaves much to be desired.

And there is no time like now to realize that having developed the spiritual practices in a daily discipline helps get you through the day. Probably minimizes the inevitable frictions of being around the same people all day every day for who knows how long.

In Ancient Greek the word for spirit and the word for breath is the same word. For good reason. Need a refreshing of the spirit just now? Inhale deeply. Hold for a moment. Exhale slowly. Four times. Feel the relaxation.

Now, you’re ready to face the day. Or the next hour.