Faith Venture

When asked about the greatest commandment, Jesus responded with the Shma, “You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, strength.”

I have been thinking about the different ways of spiritual formation. Paul talks about body, mind, spirit. Jesus talks like that, too. Paul talks about our bodies as the Temple of the Spirit.

I could go into strains of philosophy, but it is enough to say that we as a Western people have been guilty of splitting these aspects of our spiritual life into compartments.

What if every day we tried to develop and improve ourselves in each of these categories that Jesus repeated?

What if, at the end of every day, we asked ourselves these reflections?

Heart

What have we done to help someone else today? Did we pass someone by who needed encouragement or a helping hand?

Did we love someone?

Soul

How long and with how much intention did we pause and meditate and pray today?

Mind

What have we read today? Something from the Bible? Something difficult to stretch our brain? Something fiction or poetry to strengthen our imagination?

Strength

What have we eaten today? Was it the best thing for our bodies? How much did we exercise (walk, run, swim, cycle) today? Did we get sufficient rest today? Did we do something to build strength (Yoga, weights, and the like)?

Did we do it all to honor God?

Last week I was in San Francisco at the GE Digital Minds + Machines conference. This is part “thought leadership” and part user seminars.

These conferences always have general sessions where they bring out company leaders to talk about how the company is doing or explain all the great features of its new products. In this case, we got to hear John Flannery, the new CEO of GE, talk a little about his strategy.

Then there is the keynote where they bring in some well known speakers/authors/consultants. These are designed to get you fired up and learn something outside the technical box we’re in.

So GE brought in two famous authors for a conversation—Charlene Li (Groundswell) and Walter Issacson (biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Steve Jobs, and lately Leonardo da Vinci).

Talking to a room including about 3,000 engineers, Issacson talked about how Steve Jobs described standing at the intersection of art and science. Engineering is good. But the sensibilities of an artist are also needed for a complete life. And for developing great products.

And I’d add—for gaining a more complete understanding of the spiritual life.

You can practice the methods of meditation (I’ve learned many). You can read and read and read. You can pray. But you also need music, painting, sculpture. Do your own, as well as appreciate others.

Another thought from the conversation.

Smart people are a dime a dozen. It’s those with imagination that stand out.

Can you remember being a kid and letting your imagination wander wherever it wanted? One thought led to another and to another?

You can still do that. 

Do you think Einstein just sat down and worked out a lot of advanced math? No. First he imagined a universe. And imagined the movements and how different bodies moved relative to each other. That gave him the insight to go back to the math and say Ah! Ha! That’s how to solve those equations. And they were elegant. And they worked.

Bring that practice to your spiritual discipline. When you read, let your imagination take you there. And imagine your conversations with the text.

Stand at the intersection of art and science.

Carol Dweck wrote a book entitled Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Get it and read it. It’s well worth the price.

I read it several years ago. It is popping up here again because twice yesterday speakers referenced it.

John Ortberg, senior pastor at Menlo Churches, used it talking about what Christians often get wrong.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, referred to it in his discussion of corporate transformation as part of the keynotes at the GE Minds + Machines conference I’m attending this week in San Francisco.

Dweck describes two mindsets–fixed and growth.

People with the first mindset say, “I know it all.”

People with the second say, “I’ll learn it all.”

Ortberg referenced Christians who are like the first statement. They are viewed negatively by people at large. No one likes a “know-it-all”.

Nadella, talking about changing an organization’s culture, discussed going from a know-it-all culture (many of us who have dealt with Microsoft for many years know well of the know-it-all culture) to a “learn-it-all” culture.

Everyone I know who works at Microsoft says that the culture under Nadella is much better than what it was like under Steve Ballmer.

Our question for the day:

Maybe we are often learners, but where are we caught in a fixed mindset? And how can we get over that problem and open up to a learner mindset?

The young family was walking at the park. Parents were probably in their 20s. She was pushing the baby stroller while simultaneously trying to control the dog on a leash. He had a remote-control unit in his hands as he piloted his remote control all-terrain vehicle along the road.

I guess some boys never grow up.

It’s like the 30-something guy beside me on a plane late one night. He’s watching an action movie on his laptop. It’s amazing the perspective when you aren’t into the story and can’t hear the dialog and just watch the picture. There were cars flying all over the place. Up over ramps and colliding. Speeding around turns. And colliding. Reminded me of little boys playing with their toy cars. They build ramps and take the cars and have them speed and fly and collide and make exploding noises while they do it.

I know. There are probably girls who have a hard time growing up, too. And there is a place in God’s great universe for fun.

But, I wonder at times.

Especially I wonder when I watch TV news with no sound (thank God) while I’m in airports or the United Club. It looks like junior high boys shouting at each other—challenging, provoking, antagonizing. Problem is, these little boys are supposed to be leading our country.

This is not unique to our times, I think. Maybe just more widespread. I’m thinking of Solomon’s son who took the throne and sought advice from his father’s advisors. They advised him to go easy on the people and give them a break. Then he consulted with his buddies. They were enjoying the benefits of being bff’s with the new king and advised him to pile on more taxes so that he would have more revenues. What followed was rebellion and a divided kingdom.

Failure to grow up has consequences.

Do you ever watch TV commercials from the 1950s? Or even TV shows from that era? Or print ads from the 30s through the 50s?

Are you ever shocked at the way women are treated in the media from those days?

Society has come a long way from those days regarding the treatment of women—and actually even among men, too.

And yet.

News still percolates out about men using power relationships to get sexual activity that otherwise would never come their way.

Silicon Valley. Of course that is filled with semi-adolescent geeky boys who evidently never learned how to treat people.

The movie industry. But that became a caricature years ago. Yet it is still going on.

The media industry.

Politicians.

Even in ordinary life. Flight attendants, who must work in close quarters with their customers, all tell of the many times that men “reach out and touch”.

2,000 years ago, Jesus gave us a commandment. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul, likewise, every time he talked about human relationships it was all about being sensitive to the other person.

It takes a long time to change a culture, I guess. Or maybe a long time for people to grow up.

There is so much talk of freedom of speech. Or, “I’ve got my rights.”

But we seldom hear of responsibility.

Yes, I could say that. But, is it the wise thing to do?

Would I be proud about what I did or said if it were on the evening news?

Think of the ethical decision of some prominent people even in the last month who have had to explain away moral failure. Deeply “conservative” lawmaker who a) has a girlfriend even though he’s married and b) texts her that perhaps she should terminate the ensuing pregnancy.

We’ve had more than our share of political leaders and religious leaders and sports leaders who have had to try to read a statement composed by their lawyers with an appropriately contrite attitude to the national media.

But what about us? Our likelihood of being on national news is not as great—but these days, think about a video clip going viral on YouTube. We could all be in that situation.

Jesus came to give us freedom—but not license to do whatever we please.

Yes, we can do it or say it, but is it the wise thing to do?

Proverbs 18:13 (NIV)“To answer before listening — that is folly and shame.”

Did you ever answer someone’s problem only to discover you misunderstood the problem?

Perhaps you took longer to give the answer than was the description of the problem?

I discover this anew every day—sometimes several times a day:

Sometimes the answering lies in just the listening.