Faith Venture

To Do Righteousness and Justice

January 23, 2024

Reading through the Proverbs in January. Trying to start the year on the front foot. Here is an example of a theme found throughout the Hebrew and Christian texts.

To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

The closest we can come in modern American (and other) culture is that it is more acceptable than going to church.

Not that you shouldn’t gather together with others. A social life is good for both body and soul.

Maybe the rest of the proverbs can be condensed to those personal characteristics–one who lives out righteousness and justice.

What if we all made this the year of righteousness and justice? What a wonderful world it would be!

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When Today Is Done

January 22, 2024

When you begin a day, preferably with reading and meditation, where do expect the day to end? How will you spend the next precious 15 hours? Where will your focus and attention take you?

I hope that you don’t have a calendar filled with what to do every 15-minute time block of the day. That is stifling. It fails to allow for thinking and serendipity.

I do hope for you and for me that we place our attention on what good we can do as we travel through the day. That we are aware of what surrounds us and meets us such that we can show kindness and service.

And when we perform our evening Examen we can say that today we have done some good for the world.

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Sit and Think

January 19, 2024

How have you used your precious time and attention so far today? This week? What will you do tonight?

Have you ever been in the shower and forgotten whether you have shampooed your hair yet because you’ve been lost in thought?

I remember I think it was second grade. So I was maybe six. We were sent outside for an extra recess. There were men cutting down a tree and then cutting it into pieces. I was totally focused on what they were doing and how they did it. I have no idea how long it was before I realized that there were no other kids around. Strangely, I just went back to the classroom and found my seat. I don’t recall any comments.

There is a story, this could have been me but it wasn’t, of a little boy in elementary school. He was staring out the window totally lost in thought. As each classmate and then the teacher noticed the room grew noticeably quiet. This brought the little boy back to present reality.

“What were you doing?” asked the teacher. “Thinking,” said the little boy. To which the teacher responded perhaps a little too quickly, “Don’t you know that you’re not supposed to think in school?”

Is this not an important part of the well lived life? To sit and think. Ancient people had time in the evenings and perhaps mornings to sit and think. Modern life of the past two hundred or three hundred years has robbed us of that time.

Remember, even Jesus went off to be alone to sit and think and rest in God. That is a good example for us.

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There is Understanding and Then There is Opinion

January 18, 2024

Try out some wisdom on yourself that is at least 3,000 years old. I guess people have been the same since the beginning of culture. From the book of Proverbs (18:2)

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion.

We experienced that often even before social media amplified it I seldom watch TV news, but what I have seen amplifies this with the appropriate (trained) facial expressions.

I catch myself—have I researched this appropriately or am I merely parroting some thought that originated in Russia or China?

Or, perhaps we violate this additional warning (18:13).

If one gives answer before hearing, it is folly and shame.

How often we impulsively blurt out an often stupid opinion on someone’s problem without ever fully listening and understanding.

I have that problem, too. Working on it…

Posted in Attitude, Learning, Listening, Wisdom | Leave a Comment »

First Things

January 17, 2024

Physicists talk of first principles. The basic laws or principles of nature. You can jump from a second-story window and hope you won’t fall and break some bones, but you will fall. Gravity is a law.

One of my mentors when I was learning mechanical design told me, “You can’t violate the laws of physics.”

Another first is what you do.

Suggestion:

Put first things first.

What is your first thing, your first principle? Or your next first thing?

God? Work? Family? Yourself? Your image? Your addiction?

Better sort out what the really important first thing is. Then put it first. Use intention. Don’t drift into it. Or, you may drift into violating a law of nature and wind up with fractured health or relationships or life.

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Holding Your Tongue

January 16, 2024

I write several emails a day responding to various requests for my time and attention. I have discovered that I need to take a deep breath, refocus, then cut 80% of what I’ve written.

I say too much. Explain too much. Drag in thoughts about motivations that probably are not there. I can get snippy, especially when tired or stressed.

Reading a chapter of Proverbs a day for January in order to start the year on the right foot, I noticed over and over the admonitions of reining in anger and minding your tongue.

Every time I have violated that prescription I have lived with regret.

And I know better.

The distance from knowing to speaking or writing within the brain is short. The only circumventing technology is a breath. Maybe also counting. Take Jesus’ advice to Peter about forgiving and use it here—count 70 times 7.

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Peace and Justice and MLK

January 15, 2024

Today in the United States we recognize the work and person of Martin Luther King, Jr. Even though I lived where there were no black people and similarly there were no black people in my university as far as I can recall, the civil rights movement captivated me. I had read stories of the Ku Klux Klan and lynchings and cross burnings as a youngster. I was deeply affected. I can remember lying awake on some nights wondering if some local KKK would discover I was a closet believer in rights for black people and surround our house.

Of course, that was never a threat in the north with no black people around. But some of the local people had joy teasing me about following MLK in the late 60s.

King took lessons from Gandhi in India going about working for change in a peaceful manner. That appealed to my personality.

King was correct in his analysis that few seem to remember. He affected much change in society as we began to change laws that specifically discriminated. But he also talked of the need to change people’s hearts. He knew as a Christian pastor how difficult, yet essential, that is.

Many things are much improved in America following that time. Yet, many human hearts remain closed and biased.

That’s a human thing, not just an American one. I’ve seen looks and subtle comments on trips to Germany (where I speak a little bit of the language). I’ve experienced it elsewhere in many countries.

We have so far to go as seekers of peace and justice to show people how to live with kindness, humility, empathy, justice.

In the end, we must see hearts change. “I have a dream…”

Check out Abraham, Martin, and John by Dion.

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Take Time To Breathe—For Health and Spiritual Uplift

January 12, 2024

So, how is the new year going? Already have forgotten your resolutions? Maybe you’re in northern Illinois where I am as I write this. We had about six inches of snow on the ground at 6 am. Morbid curiosity drove me to the community Facebook page. Already people were complaining about snow removal. It was still snowing. We received perhaps four more inches.

Maybe other things are getting you uptight? Perhaps the trouble is resting enough prior to going to bed that sleep comes late?

Part of my Yoga teacher training dealt with breath. Yes, we all breathe constantly all day and all night. Are you ever aware of that breath?

I offer a simple, easy breath method to help you to relax. Dr. Andrew Weil recommends it often. When Ted Lasso of the popular TV series was experiencing panic attacks, his therapist recommended it. I’m in good company.

The key to this method is to not stress over it or force it. It’s easy. Let it be easy.

Sit. Upright. But not tense.
Inhale through your nose counting to four. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow you count. Breathe as deeply as is comfortable for you.
Hold your breath for a count of seven. Try to make it the same pace as the four. If you don’t make it to seven at first, no problem. Don’t stress over it.
Exhale through the mouth for a count of eight. Try to make a whoosh sound through pursed lips. Try to keep the same pace to your counting. Imagine your lungs completely empty.
Repeat 2-4 times.

When all those questions and more crowd your hyperactive brain that many people call the “monkey brain,” pause, sit, breathe.

4-7-8

It’s easy.

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So You Want To Be a Prophet?

January 11, 2024

Parents sent notes. They came to my house. They pleaded. I was an elected member of the school board. There were parents who wanted us to start a “gifted and talented” program because they were convinced their little offspring would be the next Mozart—or something.

I advised seeing the movie Amadeus. Do you really want your child to be sub-threshold or even over-threshold psychologically disturbed?

These memories returned while I was thinking about how many “Christians” over the past 2,000 years have wanted to be prophets.

For one thing, they thought that meant foretelling the future. They missed the part of the Bible where God says he hates fortune-tellers.

And they inevitably get it wrong.

And they think that means telling everyone else they have it wrong and they are all going to hell.

They don’t know. I’ve not heard of a human person yet who had the power to look inside another person and know for certain the status of their soul. Sure, people leave trails. But, I certainly would turn back any power vested in me to determine someone’s future. Although I’m sure that there are people who just love telling other people off.

They also, unless they had some weird persecution complex (check out Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ for a Freudian take on Jesus), they haven’t read and understood the bios of most of the prophets. They had lonely and frustrating lives.

You are what you are. As Paul once told a church that was messing up organizing itself, they should look at the spiritual gifts of everyone and everyone look at their spiritual gifts. They should be tested. Don’t try to be someone you’re not. That is the road to grief.

Note: we instituted a “gifted” program like everyone else. The teachers that first year said, great, we have the brightest kids, we’ll make them work. The parents said, our kids are in this special program, they should all receive automatic A’s that are worth 5 points on a 4-point scale. In the end, I don’t think it mattered much. There are many kids not from that program running around with MA’s and PhD’s.

Note Two (don’t read if you are going to read the book):

The last temptation was marrying Mary, having kids, and sitting on the doorstep enjoying family life.

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Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

January 10, 2024

Apologies to Paul Simon and his 59^th Street Bridge Song:

Slow down, you move too fast

You got to make the morning last

Just kicking down the cobblestones

Looking for fun and feeling groovy
Paul Simon, 59th Street Bridge Song

We have laptop on the lap. Amazon is so easy. Instead of getting off our butts and going to a store like millennia of shoppers, we click and buy. Next day, delivery.

I cannot for the life of me fathom why a 55-and-older community has so many people in a hurry. But as I go out for morning exercise, I cannot believe the number of speeding cars who also have not enough time to stop at a stop sign.

I just listened to an interview with Michael Easter, author of Scarcity Brain: Fix Your Craving Mindset and Rewire Your Habits to Thrive with Enough. He talked about staying for a while in a monastery and again staying with natives in the Arctic. He learned to slow down. Then he felt much better—mentally and physically.

Once I rushed everything I did. Perhaps it was Chicago traffic that helped cure that inner urge to rush. If you can’t go anywhere faster than 5 mph, then you just turn on some good music and chill.

Paul Simon had an image of just kicking down the cobblestones on the approach to the 59^th Street Bridge in New York. We all need an image of slowing, taking it easy, feeling groovy. We can get our work done without raising a cloud of dust—and anxiety.

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