Faith Venture

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Four separate accounts of the life of Jesus.

They are distinct in their approaches. They all agree on the person–Jesus.

I love the directness of Mark and the straightforward history of Luke. If you know someone who is new to faith and asks, “What is it about this Jesus dude?”, then suggest they read one or both of these. [By the way, I’d follow them up with Romans. Jesus introduces us to the Spirit. Paul in his letter to the followers in Roman lays out the path of our spiritual formation.]

DO NOT send a new person to John.

I love John. It is the most deeply spiritual and theological of the four. He sucks you into a deep dive into the meaning of many words–light, the world, “I Am”, true light, eternal life (the only definition in the New Testament), love, the Father.

John also deals frankly with the opposition–the world, Jews, Pharisees.

I mentioned yesterday that I am reading Walter Issacson’s biography of Einstein.

Einstein was born in Germany and lived in Berlin for something like 20 years. He was also born a Jew. He was not religious. He was, however, a member of the tribe (as he once put it).

As Issacson describes the cultural climate in the late 1910s and the 1920s, we begin to understand the German dislike (hatred?) of Jews. This, by the way was not new. When I was studying Marx’s thought prior to Das Kapital, I ran across an essay Die Judenfrage (the Jewish Question) written in 1848.

This helps to understand the thinking of the very influential German New Testament scholars of that period who tried to remove the Jewishness of the writings. With John, it seemed easy because the writing seemed Greek with the use of Logos, the Word. But that is actually a mistake. John was quite Jewish. In fact, looking at his apocalyptic work, The Revelation, with understanding of Jewish Temple worship and Jewish thinking will lead you away from the errors of so many interpretations.

Sometimes reading just relaxes the brain. Sometimes it expands our understanding.

Write someplace you’ll see daily, This year I will be a reader.

The running around, stress, parties, families are past now. Christmas was a couple of days ago.

Along with taking time for reflection about the past year and future year this week, I like to read. Something that will stretch me a little.

This year I’m finishing Walter Issacson’s biography of Albert Einstein. He’s returning me to the reasoning behind Special Relativity, General Relativity, the universal law of gravitation. And the beginnings of quantum theory.

Cool stuff.

It is not a bad thing for everyone to learn some science. Plus he had an interesting life.

Reading every day is a good thing. If you are not in the habit, begin picking up something to read at a set time every day. Read fiction and non-fiction. Science, philosophy, history, biography. I’m partial to detective novels and murder mysteries. These are habits I formed at least by age 10. And continue until today.

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but curiosity makes us grow.

I hope you all found a place to worship, celebrate, and be with family and/or friends.

We use “Merry Christmas” as a greeting. But one hopes that the merry part seeps inside.

We are in that week between the holidays. We build up to Christmas, many get time off from work or school, then we get to New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to celebrate a more ancient thankfulness of getting to another year.

I, as do many, use these days for a kind of relaxing. It is a good time to reflect on the experiences of the last year in the context of how we need to grow and change in the new year.

What did we learn in the last year?

Where can that point us to change in the new year?

• New career?
• Improved career?
• New relationships?
• New beginnings?
• New things to learn?
• New places to visit?
• Better health?

I quoted John Dewey recently about the importance of reflections on experience. Any time is a good time, but if you get this week “off”, it is a perfect time to set aside an hour or so a day to reflect, journal, visualize the coming year.

I don’t do the traditional “goal setting” of New Year’s Resolutions. But I still look at where I am and where I need to be. And where I can grow.

A salesman I knew was known for “Always be closing (a sale)”.

Make this year one of “Always be growing”.

How about giving yourself a gift that keeps on giving? Further, it benefits everyone around you.

The gift of health. At least, the best you can be.

I got this graphic from James Altucher. He’s weird. He interviews interesting people on his podcast show.

Thanks to him, I now listen to Shawn Stevenson. At 18 he was shown an x-ray of his spine. He had the spine of an 80-year-old. Eventually, he made a decision. He has a degree in nutrition. He started eating well. He started working out. He interviews people on The Model Health Show podcast.

Wonder what I listen to when I’m exercising?

You can make a decision.

Sometimes you need a trigger. I have a locker at the Y. Every work day that I’m in town I go to the gym. I meditate in the sauna. You only need 10-15 minutes of meditation to set up the entire day. The sauna is healthy. I shower and dress for the day. That’s the trigger. The Y is where I go to get ready for work.

This chart contains some good advice.

My gift to you. Merry Christmas.

Nutrition and fitness comprise some of the areas I study regularly.

Now I could develop this line of thought into the gap of knowing and doing, but I’ll save that.

Last night while listening to my favorite health podcast (The Model Health show), I was struck by how this degreed Ob/Gyn being interviewed departed from science to give an emotional justification for some of her ideas. (Note: I like the show, but as with everything you have to listen with your brain as well as your heart.)

It seems for every 2 certified nutritionists, there are 3 opinions. Maybe more.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t continue to listen and read in the field. It just means I take in information and think about it and consider it along with other information I’ve taken in. That’s the “TP” of the Myers-Briggs scale (I’m an ENTP, fyi).

During a Bible study once many years ago, someone with strong political opinions loosely based on the Bible exclaimed, “It’s all there in black and white. How can anyone dispute this?”

I thought (but I hope didn’t say out loud), “You can gather a dozen scholars with multiple Ph.D.s in a room (you can literally with books) and the likelihood of 13 opinions is high.”

Does that mean you stop reading the Bible?

No, of course not.

It just means to not go through the Bible looking for verses you agree with and (mostly) remembering them. It means reading with an open heart and mind to see how God is speaking to you. And using discernment to reflect upon the context both within the paragraph or letter you’re reading and within the long tradition of the church.

Sometimes you can read the passage 50 times before a glimmer of understanding happens.

And read a longer passage. If Paul, read at least an entire chapter, if not the entire letter. I’m betting that had men read certain passages in their entirety rather than pulling out a particular verse, women and other people would have been spared much grief over the last 2,000 years.

We are responsible for coming to our own understanding. As we approach the end of a year, it is an ideal time to reflect on this year and to decide what kind of person we wish to be next year. How about one who grows in discernment and understanding, and whose daily life reflects that?