Faith Venture

What We Can Do

March 5, 2025

Poet and novelist Hermann Hesse on what we all can do: “To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do.”

Hermann Hesse’s writings have influenced some of my thinking. The early 20^th Century German writer published several important books including Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game.

Here he summarizes several things we can all do:

To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping,
To smile without hostility at people and institutions,
To compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters,
To be more faithful in our work,
To show greater patience,
To forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism.

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Grace

March 4, 2025

Some believe that God’s grace hits you from “out of the blue” one and done. Certainly there are examples of people who have been unexpectedly overwhelmed by God’s grace. I just shared the song “Amazing Grace” at a gathering—a story of one such encounter.

Those of us in the tradition of John Wesley recognize that grace is actually an integral part of our spiritual journey.

I lifted this thought from a fitness newsletter by Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Fitness is not a 30-day challenge or even 90 days. Fitness is a lifelong commitment.”

This applies not only to our physical life, but also it applies to our spiritual journey. I think this fits with John Wesley’s ideas—we can call it Prevenient grace where God is already at work on us before we become aware, Justifying grace hits us (sometimes hard) when we cross from unbelief to belief, and Sanctifying grace nurtures our spiritual growth throughout our lives.

Spiritual life is not one-and-done. Spiritual life becomes a journey of both personal growth and service. Paul’s letter of spiritual development (Romans) does not end with belief. You must not stop reading at chapter 11. Paul continues in what we call chapters 12-15 to describe life after belief. It is how we live our life in grace.

The old gospel song “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” includes the line “No turning back, no turning back.”

Following Jesus is a lifelong commitment.

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If Only

March 3, 2025

If only everyone agreed with me, the world would be a happier place.

If only the world conformed to the picture I have, it would be perfect.

I think of the many people I know and about whom I read who have a picture of how the world should work in their minds. They persist in trying to make the world conform to their picture. They are perennially frustrated when things don’t work out that way.

Then there was Jesus.

He actually knew what the world should be. He called it the Kingdom of Heaven. He taught people about it. About how to live in it. He actually lived in it.

Yet, when he met people who did not exhibit much of that Kingdom, or had their own (wrong) view of what the Kingdom was, he understood.

Most of the time his confrontations with these people was gentle—his followers, the rich young man, the 10 lepers who were cleaned when only one returned to thank him.

Sometimes his words were gentle, yet pointed. No compromise. Like when he was invited to dinner with an important Pharisee. These dinners were like a mini theatrical production. It was meant for show for the “common” people who would walk by to see who the honored guests were. And the woman invaded the dinner washing his feet with her tears and anointing him with perfume. His words to the host were a firm rebuke. But evidently not spoken harshly.

Jesus could react with anger. He had a picture of the proper respect for the Temple. When he encountered merchants ripping off pilgrims coming from afar to offer sacrifice, he acted with emotion turning over tables and scattering merchandise.

When people are exploiting other people, Jesus’s example shows us anger is justified. Otherwise, replying with gentleness makes a better point.

Especially since you and I are not Jesus. We might be wrong.

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Learning and Self-Esteem

February 28, 2025

My parents left a legacy, unintentionally as all such legacies are, of low self-esteem and worry. My three brothers and I all coped differently. I went into business management and was drilled on sounding self-assured. It’s a mask. I’ve recently seen studies revealing how my father approached ordering me to get better grades at school actually achieved the opposite result.

Despite all that, I was, and remain to this day, insatiably curious. The trouble with curiosity appears when you learn something new that contradicts long-held beliefs. That does not boost self-esteem.

Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz noted, “Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one’s self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.”

It’s why the ability to say, “I don’t know” remains one of the most powerful tools to growth. These days I’m often consulting claude.ai or Google when I run into something I don’t know. The more I learn, the older I get, the less I know.

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Finding Your Center

February 27, 2025

Oliver Burkeman writes The Imperfectionist newsletter. “Imperfectionist” alluding to his writing about how trying to execute everything in your life perfectly is detrimental to one’s mental and physical health.

His latest effort discussed how our psychological centre of gravity must be in our real and immediate world. We must live in the world of family and friends and neighborhood, our work and creative projects. Trying to live in the far-off world of presidents and governments and social forces and global emergencies leads to distress.

This reminds me of the early days of the Internet in the early to mid 1990s. I joined several Usegroups. These were online forums organized around a single topic. I remember being on comp.realtime and comp.C+ and a few others. These were civil discussions with tips and tricks and news. I first joined Facebook to keep up with family and a few close friends and acquaintances. Then it went downhill rapidly.

The first two years of Twitter gave me a great communication tool with like-minded people discussing industrial automation. Then it slid into news, then algorithms, then just trash.

You might intentionally visit the outer world at times. You need to remain grounded locally.

Jesus gives us many pre-internet clues. He was aware of political and religious structures of the time. He knew about political power and religious/political power. He spoke directly at times about the Jewish religious/political power structure.

His actions were unmistakably local. When he was somewhere, he was present there. He dealt with real people in the present moment.

Interestingly, while never really addressing the Roman power structure, his message of love as the opposite of Roman crude power wound up upending Rome by the early 300s.

Just being present where you are with whom are around you is the most powerful thing you can do to change worlds.

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Hindrances

February 26, 2025

When a day opens with the same message from different sources, I pay attention. Surely God must be trying to tell me something important.

I had met some resistance with my daily meditation practice. An opportunity to study with a teacher for a period of time presented itself. He has defined through his study and practice seven hindrances (I love that word). These roughly align with what I learned long ago from John Climacus, aka St. John of the Ladder. These are:

Restlessness
Reluctance
Worry
Dullness
Desire-craving
Aversion-resistance
Doubt

He advises becoming aware of which hindrance is interfering and just sitting with it. Recognize it. Label it. Maybe play with it in your mind.

It’s a bit like Steve Carter observed in his book on grief—Grieve, Breathe, Relieve. Sometimes you just have to sit with your grief for a period of time until you can breathe into it.

The next thing I read following the introduction of the hindrances to meditation and prayer came from my health and fitness app. The moderator asked us to define what is holding us pack from our regular fitness and nutrition practice. The first step to getting back on track is to recognize that hindrance. Then we can deal with it.

What is holding you back today from being the Jesus follower you were meant to be?

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Where’s the Fire?

February 25, 2025

Question asked of speeding driver by the traffic police person.

Lily Tomlin once said, “The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.”

From a 1950s era cartoon, “The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.”

Are you a church-going person? Do you find yourself on eight committees plus working at a marketplace job plus caring for a family?

Have you found yourself volunteering for extra assignments at work thinking that will lead to promotions (and even more of that work)?

Need I ask anything more?

Is it time to practice saying “No”?

Buffalo Springfield sang at the beginning of For What It’s Worth, “It’s time to stop, children…”

Take a breath. Pause. Reflect.

What are the most important ways you can contribute to yourself, your family, your community, to those you meet along the way? Know that you can’t solve all the world’s problems, but you can help where you are.

Leave time for walks in nature. Conversations. Reading good books (rather than doom scrolling). When you work, work. When you are not, focus on the present.

Jesus seemed to be busy and swamped with people, yet he always stopped along the way to teach or heal or prevent an injustice. Try to be like him.

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Infused

February 24, 2025

I read the word “infused” in Eugene Peterson’s Message Bible translation. That word and the concept held within it is fascinating.

Zen Buddhist monk Henry Shukman said recently during an interview, “Life is like hot water and meditation is like the tea bag.”

Try this thought for size.

You (me, everyone) are body living within the soul. We don’t know the true meaning of the Temple that Paul references when he says that our bodies are now the Temple where the Spirit resides. Ancient peoples built temples for a place where their god lived.

Jesus sort of blew up that entire view. He said that God was all around us. As a spirit. And Paul tried to explain it that God as the Holy Spirit lives in us. It would be like that tea bag that infuses the hot water of our being.

Before I get too nerdy in philosophy, let us just consider this:

What would it mean for us that we opened to the Spirit allowing it to infuse our entire being, our entire life, how we live, how we think, how we relate?

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That I May Not Seek So Much to Be Understood as to Understand

February 21, 2025

Some people (often called husbands) tend to jump immediately to propose a solution during a conversation. Other people (often called wives) are fully capable of devising a solution. They just want to be understood.

The descriptions, of course, are somewhat of a generalization. I am not sure I can count the number of husbands who have expressed frustration at that above conversation whom I have counseled to withhold solution in favor of listening—with focus and intention. (I wish I were as perfect as I sound here!)

Let’s take that conversation to the next step when one person disagrees with the solution or any other proposal.

People don’t always care if you agree with them. They would like it if you tried to understood.

From the Prayer of St. Francis, a song by Sebastian Temple:

O, Spirit, grant that I may never seek

so much to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love with all my soul.

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Sitting With God

February 20, 2025

I once had a favorite phrase responding to the way I saw the attitude many people had toward prayer—God as the Great Vending Machine in the Sky.

Put your prayer token in the slot; get your goodie in the slot at the bottom.

I’ve been meditating since I was maybe 17. But I am always searching for feedback for assurance I’m still on the right path. People recently recommended a new app. The leader/teacher refers to each session as a “sit.”

Then I pictured times when I may have dropped a few “prayer tokens” into the vending machine, then speeding off to my next thing to do expecting a few good things to drop out in the end.

Then I tried a different picture. Try this one on for size. See if it can fit you.

Rather than an agenda and to-do list, we just sit. We are in a comfortable posture on a chair or pillow that we can maintain for 20 minutes or so. We can have soft instrumental music or nothing in the background. We close our eyes focusing on regulating our breathing into a regular, easy pattern. We ask God to visit—which is easy because God is always around us.

Then, we just sit with God. That’s it. Just God and me. Sitting together. Sometimes God might say something to us. If we are not so busy with our own agenda, then we may hear the whisper of the spirit.

We can then gradually return to the present, refreshed and ready for whatever the day holds in store. Be assured that God has felt what is on our heart.

This daily practice can make all the difference toward our health—physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.

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