Faith Venture

Letting Emotions Go

March 21, 2025

We are all subject to a parade of emotions through our awareness. Anger, envy, pride, lust, listlessness, greed. These provoke us.

I love to read the Desert Fathers. They were early Jesus-followers trying to figure it all out. They were strange at times. We must remember they were writing to other monks and not to us. But wisdom may be gleaned from their thinking.

A brother became concerned about whether these random thoughts and emotions were sinful and would prevent his communion with God.

He asked Abba Poeman about this. And the “old man” said, “An axe cannot cut down the tree by itself.”

OK, I’ll provide an explanation.

The thought or emotion by itself won’t grow and harm you. But, if you metaphorically grab that axe, that is, dwell on the emotion, thinking constantly, letting it take up active residence in your life, then you are ripe for sin.

I have anger; I am not anger.

I have thoughts of lust; I am not a lustful person.

I see someone’s possession; I am not a person dwelling on thoughts of needing also that possession.

Become aware of the emotion attacking you. Intentionally let it go. Ignore it or divert your attention elsewhere and let it slide away unwanted and uncared for.

Posted in emotions, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Unprecedented Move

March 20, 2025

A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I took a year between undergraduate and graduate school to earn some money to pay off debts and prepare for the next step. During that year I met a young woman who became my wife.

We moved from Ohio to Louisiana where I had an assistantship to work on a Masters degree. Halfway through that year, the faculty voted to disband the program. I had a job offer back in Ohio, so we moved back to my home area of western Ohio. The temporary job turned into a permanent (well, as permanent as anything really is) position. We stayed in the area.

One day, my wife asked, “How much do you think we could get if we tried selling our house again?” Two weeks later we had sold the house. Now, where to move. Well, our family resided in the Chicago suburbs.

Five years ago today I met the moving van at what was no longer our house. They loaded up everything. I pushed (with my neighbor’s help) the last of perhaps 2,000 pounds of excess stuff we’d accumulated to the street for the rubbish pickup. And, poof, we were gone.

That entire process was six weeks. On March 23, I met the moving van at our new house along with the cable guy bring me an internet connection.

That was also the first day of the Covid lockdown. Covid plus a new environment and loss of our fitness center and church did have an impact.

I guess all that should have been traumatic. I think we survived quite well.

Sorry for the autobiography, but five years is a milestone.

Posted in Awareness | Leave a Comment »

Why, Why, Why

March 19, 2025

Del Shannon asked back in the 60s

To end this misery and I wonder

I wah-wah-wah-wah-wonder, why

Why, why, why, why, why she ran away

I come across this in my studies. I encounter it when I teach. Or even in conversations regarding Bible study.

I don’t understand this thought. In fact, I think I disagree. This thought leaves me downright emotionally disgusted.

We have several options.

We can ignore the passage (hard to do if we’re emotionally involved)
We can just cut it out and pretend it was never there
We can call the author names and decide that not all the Bible is true
We can quit reading the Bible altogether and cut ties with Christians

—Or—

Like Del Shannon, we can wonder why, why, why, why, why.

I purposely wrote why five times. A time-honored technique for finding the root cause of a problem in manufacturing is to ask why five times. Imaginatively called the Five Whys, one will discover the answer usually before five. On a recent interview, the head of creativity at Disney said that in his experience it may take asking six or seven times.

<Statement>I don’t like this passage.

Why?

I don’t agree with it.

Why?

It offends my values.

Why is that, what values do you have versus those?

Why do you hold those views?

(Statement, maybe taught as a child or read it somewhere, etc.)

Why did you believe that rather than this?

But I add another step—

What if?

What if I can show you a companion thought that places this thought into context?

And so on.

Try this on yourself. Try it with a friend. Caution—when asking why don’t sound like a defense attorney cross-examining a witness. We ask why from curiosity. We must ask as a curious person who then listens carefully to let the other person fully explain. Pauses after the comment are acceptable. That shows thoughtfulness and consideration.

Posted in Disciplines, Study, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Love Your Enemies

March 18, 2025

Jesus set such impossible ways of living for us. We try to live according to his teaching. How could we possibly do this?

Love our enemies?

Early venture capital fund director and current executive coach Jerry Colonna stated on a podcast interview about loving even your enemies. While neither he or the interviewer was a Donald Trump supporter, he responded to a question about loving even him.

Colonna replied that he can see the injured little boy trying to live up to an exacting father, and he could love that little boy who was injured for life.

19^th Century American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow noted, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each person’s life enough sorrow and suffering to disarm all hostility.”

Meditation teachers for most of my life have taught about awareness. Expanding that awareness beyond seeing just me (which many people are not even aware of themselves) to those around me and even far from me.

These practices can help us bring Jesus’s teaching into our lives in order to somehow bring some love even to our enemies.

Posted in Love | Leave a Comment »

Good Quality of Life

March 17, 2025

Aristotle wrote and taught about 350 years before Jesus walked the earth, yet I think that Jesus would have agreed with much of his thoughts about life. For example, inculcating habits of moderation, generosity, and self-control. These qualities elevate not only mood but also the quality of life itself.

Happiness Professor Arthur Brooks says that Aristotle had a unique take on happiness. Instead of seeing it as something to be found, Aristotle believed it was something we attract by living well. He called this eudaemonia, or “good spirit,” and argued that happiness visits us when we practice specific virtues and turn them into habits.

Similarly, I think that following spiritual practices (prayer, meditation, reading, and the like) attract the Spirit of God into us. And when the Spirit of God resides in us, the quality of our life improves.

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

What Matters Now

March 14, 2025

That is actually the title of a book discussing business leadership and strategy by Gary Hamel. I opened my eyes following meditation staring at that title.

It’s a wonderful thought for the day.

One of the many things that annoy me about almost all media that’s shoved at us these days (even my favorite news sites fall into this trap) is speculation. This might happen!! Or What if this??

These only lead to emotions such as worry or anxiety. Publishers wish to invoke those emotions so that you’ll come back for more…oh, and by the way, look at the ads.

I understand the need to forge an income. My other blog has a sponsor. Most of my business life found me figuring out ways to serve customers or shave costs in order to make enough profits to pay us and enable the organization to survive.

The key for us on the receiving end lies in the daily (hourly?) reflection on What Matters Now.

I cannot solve the leadership crisis in countries or the wars and destruction ongoing in our world. I can find ways to serve others in my communities. I can find ways to grow intellectually and emotionally. I can find what matters now that I can work on—and then do it.

Posted in Awareness, Intention | Leave a Comment »

Looking for Cause of Life

March 13, 2025

When someone dies, we usually want to know the “cause of death.” Especially if we are addicted to TV detective mystery shows, cause of death is crucial to the investigation.

This may be an indelicate inquiry, but if someone were looking at your life, would they need to inquire into a “cause of life?”

How many people seem to be sleep-walking through life! No interests, no service, not much in the way of relationships.

Intelligence is not a factor. I’ve known fascinating people with either lower IQ or biological emotional problems who pursue interests with the ability to talk through them to anyone who cares to relate.

On the other hand, some highly intelligent people just seem lost in the world.

Once again, how about you (and me)?

Perhaps we are involved in important work.

Perhaps we need to climb out of the rut we’ve built. It can start with small acts of service to others. Accompanied with walks in nature. Movement helps. Paying attention to others adds crucial herbal flavoring to life.

Posted in Attitude | Leave a Comment »

More Inconsistencies

March 12, 2025

Yesterday’s post considered inconsistencies in what some of us call ourselves and what we believe.

Sometimes we need to open our eyes to see past marketing and labels media pastes on things.

Consider:

Social media is actually anti-social
Health foods are mostly unhealthy
Knowledge workers are often ignorant of what’s around them
Social sciences are not scientific
Christians sometimes do not look like someone following Jesus (predicted by Jesus himself)
Listeners often are not listening
Observers often fail to see
Protein bars are often really candy bars

Posted in Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

Theological Inconsistencies

March 11, 2025

There are people (churches, denominations) who claim Wesleyan, yet only acknowledge half of John Wesley’s teaching.

Again, there are people (churches, denominations) who claim Calvinism, yet only acknowledge parts of John Calvin’s teaching.

Worse than those are the people who claim the Christian Bible, yet pick and choose pieces of it as their guide.

They may say, you need to take out a black magic marker and just blot out these certain passages. They are inconvenient. I don’t agree. And so forth.

Author and professor Tony Campolo wrote Red Letter Christians as a challenge specifically to evangelicals about living out the words of Jesus. (In some Bibles, direct quotes of Jesus are printed in red letters.)

There may be thoughts in the New Testament with which I disagree. Perhaps in meditation I would prefer to argue with Paul or John or James or, even, Jesus.

I find two things helpful either reading the New Testament or John Wesley (whom I prefer over Calvin, but that’s just me). The first step is to admit to myself that I just don’t understand. That launches both debate and inquiry.

The best next step entails reading the words of Jesus (red letter Christian!). What did he actually say? With that context, interpreting other New Testament writers and later thinkers becomes clearer.

I may still not agree. I think arguing with God is just fine. Certainly throughout the Hebrew Scriptures people argue with God all the time. And God argues back. (Hint—God wins.)

People perplex me in their inconsistencies. Looking in the metaphorical mirror, I resemble that remark. But that gives us something to work on.

Posted in Awareness, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

What They Say, or What They Do

March 10, 2025

When I was young, people used a phrase about some other people, “They talk big.”

Translation—these people talked about what they would do, but they actually never got around to doing anything.

Certain professions lend themselves to this behavior. Certainly politicians. Sometimes preachers. Sometimes executives. Sometimes the neighbor down the street.

When I taught kids to play defense in soccer (I think it’s about the same in basketball), I told them to watch the hips. They weren’t going anywhere without them. They may do fancy footwork. Don’t get sucked in by excess motion.

Similarly, don’t get sucked in by lots of hot air escaping from people’s lips.

Watch what people do.

Happy are those whose words and actions align—especially if they are right and moral and helpful and kind.