“Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.” — Ambrose Bierce
“How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire.”—James
“A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”—Proverbs of Solomon
We can know all these thoughts, and, yet, still we can say hurtful things..
The most important moment in your life can be the pause before answering someone. Or the pause between a thought and a response.
Pause. Contemplate your time on Earth so far.
Have you been truly alive?
Does the sun warm you to the bone?
Does the movement of wind against your face make you wonder where it’s been and where it’s going?
Do you delight in the touch of another human?
When the spirit of God makes its presence felt within your heart, do you bask in the deep joy and peace it brings?
When someone speaks, do you listen.
Speaking American English, we say hello, and it is merely a greeting. In many languages, the word of greeting connotes a meaning much like, “My soul reaches out to touch your soul.” Our overly rational culture misses out on the richness of being.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to try life.
Thinking more on yesterday’s post (just scroll down one on the website). The Parable of the Sower and understanding when the soil is prepared for the growth of the Word.
Farmers in my area completed the harvest in a timely manner. The fields once hiding the view from rural roads now afforded a view across the way to the ponds and woods in the distance.
No sooner had they put away the harvesting machinery, out came the tillers. Soon most of the ground was tilled lying prepared through the winter for spring planting. Next May sprouts of corn and soy beans will green those dormant fields.
Returning to our church-going friend who wishes to share what a relationship with God means with another. I suggested beginning with a question. This acts in the same manner of tilling the soil. The soil (person) must be prepared for sowing the seed (Word). Otherwise, our well meaning person wastes time and effort, perhaps even alienating the other.
Let us now look at ourselves. We also must prepare our own soil for the Word to take root, grow, and multiply. We often find that best preparation is silence. Sitting in a supportive chair. Perhaps contemplating some story from Jesus. Silence. Allowing God to speak.
Walking in nature without Air Pods or headphones. Aware of the sounds of the season—birds, frogs, dogs, the wind, a train in the distance. In the silence of our head, we open ourselves in preparation for the planting of the Word. Or perhaps cultivating that Word already planted (maybe another contemplation from farming).
Think on this common question among church-going folks.
“How can I share my faith?”
I shall ease into a suggestion.
Dallas Willard has published a new book. Not easy to do when you had passed away in 2013. Actually, some friends compiled a series of lessons he had given at a church years ago on the parables of Jesus. The book is called The Scandal of the Kingdom.
He builds on the idea of the gospel of Matthew as written in somewhat chronological order. Jesus came to preach (after the time in the wilderness, he emerges with the message “Repent, for the Kingdom of the heavens is around us”), teach (the Sermon on the Mount), and heal (the following several chapters of Matthew).
The preaching and teaching didn’t seem to catch on with the people. He began teaching in parables (stories with a point).
The first parable is the parable of the sower.
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
Jesus’s Word was not catching on because some of it (the seed) fell on ears not ready to hear. Others fell on ears but the hearer didn’t have time to digest the Word because of cares and concerns.
Some people were ready and receptive to a message. Jesus’s Word came to them, they were ready, and they lived with the Word.
Back to the inquiring Christian person.
It’s not on you. It’s on the person you wish to talk with. (Hopefully not “to”.)
The best thing is to begin with a question. People want to have deep conversations. They usually need an invitation. So, ask a question.
Ah, but now the burden is on you to listen. Really listen. With your heart as well as ears and brain. Then you can ask follow up questions.
Perhaps there comes a point where you can share. Not your faith exactly, but like a witness in a trial. Sharing your experience of living with God. Tell it like a story.
People listen to stories (maybe it’s my Irish heritage, but I think it’s true). They tune out a string of Bible verses that may or may not be relevant to their lives.
If you don’t have a story, well, that’s another problem. You will need to think about that and find and live your story. Then you can share. That could be the subject of a book.
Love begins with paying attention to others. —John O’Donohue
Do we notice the person we serve when we perform an act of kindness?
When holding a door open for someone at the coffee house, pause, make eye contact, smile. Sometimes a smile is a little nudge of love that can perk up a down day.
When giving the person a couple of dollars to buy a StreetWise, looking at the person, acknowledging their existence. A bit of love’s energy flows to someone who needs it.
When someone speaks, listen with attention.
[Note: StreetWise is a street magazine sold by people without homes or those at-risk for homelessness in Chicago.]
[Updated to finish sentence] Elizabeth and Zeccharia lived an entire married life in anticipation of a baby. One didn’t come—until it did.
The last thing Mary wanted was a baby. She was anticipating a big wedding day. Then God said, you’re pregnant.
Luke writes of people who lived their entire lives anticipating a special kind of leader. They saw a baby and knew their prayers were answered.
Writings from the time around 2,100 years ago in the Palestine region of the Roman empire, indeed even further abroad, show an even more general attitude of spiritual awakening and anticipation.
I’m writing this during the first week of Advent. I wonder, what is my anticipation? What is our anticipation? Are we in an era of spiritual awakening? Or, are we in just another era?
Rather than “we,” what about “me?” Or you? Are we living with anticipation of a spiritual awakening?
May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.
John O’Donohue
I posted this a year or so ago. But I needed a refresher. Bet you did, too.
What if we stopped endless debates on theology?
What if we just started, one small group at a time, to live differently?
The first three hundred years of the Jesus movement changed the world.
These little groups, in Greek called ekklesia, gathered to share meals, pray, and sing. But even more, they changed the relationships of men and women a bit at a time. Men were morally allowed promiscuity. And if babies were accidentally born, well, they were often left to die. Those early followers of Jesus caused a change in that culture.
And when illness and even epidemics swept through the ancient world, those early followers of Jesus were on the front lines of healing and bringing peace to the grieving.
Jesus followers were the leaders in spreading education.
What if we return to the roots of the faith? What if we saw needs and served them?
What if we just started now?
Many years ago I accepted a position as sales & marketing manger in a small electronics company. The product was a computer peripheral that appeared to solve a real problem for digital designers. This was early in the computer market. I had an idea of how to go to market. I didn’t know how short our financial runway was.
My position turned out to have been superseded by a newer way of going to market. We had no time. We went out of business.
I bet most of us have entered something with a fixed idea of how it works or what it means.
“I am sure that Jesus meant this when he said that,” only to face a question when someone asks, “But what about this?”
What would you do when confronted with another way of approaching something? Maybe a new way of reading Paul’s letters. Maybe a new way of thinking about what church really is. Maybe a new way of organizing your life.
The key question:
Do we have the courage to face a new thought and consider how we might change?
Sherlock Holmes, “The temptation to form premature theories upon insufficient data is the bane of our profession.”
We call it “jumping to conclusions.”
My mind forms a picture of a kid jumping over a water puddle following a rain. The jump is short landing the poor child in the deepest part of the puddle splashing water, becoming wet all over much to the parent’s chagrin.
I hired a young man newly graduated with a B.A. from a leading state school in Ohio for an entry level position. Something came up in conversation. He replied, “I took a course in that at university. I’m an expert.”
We read one part of a sentence from Scripture. We conclude we know everything about that idea. We read it in English. It was written in Greek.
We look at someone newly arrived. We note their clothes, height, weight, hair. We assume we know all about that person.
We know nothing.
We jumped into the middle of the puddle splashing bad thoughts all around.
We didn’t clear the puddle, that is gather sufficient data, in order to form a more accurate conclusion. Realizing that when more data arrives we may need to revise that conclusion.
Life is all about “I don’t know” and “I wonder about that”.
Faith Venture 