I’ve got everything I want, nothing that I need.—song by Lord Huron
I’m thinking about Thanksgiving coming tomorrow. This song arrived on my streaming channel. It describes much about American (and others, I’m sure) culture right now.
How far apart are our wants from our needs?
Am I thankful for the right things?
My mom’s younger brother, Uncle Doyle, passed along to me his love of the comic strip Pogo. Walt Kelly was insightful and witty. In one cartoon, Pogo the possum notes, “Having lost sight of our objectives, we redoubled our efforts.”
Much software development happened because they could do it, not because it was good for society. Take for instance monitoring applications. Especially used during Covid when people had to work from home, managers could see how busy their employees were. Not necessarily how productive, but busy, for sure.
A recent The Pump Club Newsletter noted, “Busyness becomes a performance. We confuse activity for accomplishment because slowing down feels uncomfortable. Stillness can feel like failure.”
The reality? “But ask anyone who’s truly built something, whether their health, a business, a relationship, or a legacy. Progress doesn’t come from frantic motion. It comes from directed motion. Fewer things done with more intention. Effort pointed in the right direction.”
What are you working on? Health? Fitness? Prayer or meditative life? Service? Study?
One day at a time with intention doing what you need. Choose your direction, follow the path.
Movement can be a treadmill. Progress is a path. One keeps you occupied; the other gets you somewhere.
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We live in an era where every message encourages continual personal growth. Can I lift heavier weights? Score more followers on social media? Increase income year-over-year? Live a happier life? Go on more exotic vacations? More. More.
This focus on ourselves easily leads us into the lands of a narcissistic life. Not necessarily clinical diagnosis of narcissism personality disorder. But into that realm of self-absorption that turns off everyone in our path.
Spiritual formation, however, is my passion. Curiosity. Diving more deeply into spiritual reading. Consistent meditation and prayer.
Lest this interior focus take me (and you) too deeply into ourselves, we must remember the advice from the concluding chapters of Paul’s exploration of spiritual formation—his Letter to the Romans.
Whew. If we can resemble the person described here, Jesus would certainly call us his disciple. Couple inward spiritual strength with outward acts that Jesus taught.
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How can I expect people to listen to me if I don’t listen to them?
So asks black musician Daryl Davis describing his conversations with members of the Ku Klux Klan and various neo-Nazi groups.
This conversation on Adam Grant’s podcast, ReThinking: Talking people out of hate with Daryl Davis and former neo-Nazi Jeff Schoep — Worklife with Adam Grant, could be one of the most important conversations you’ll hear.
Davis recounts his early life as the child of a US diplomat living abroad and his first encounter with hate and racism at age 10. He couldn’t understand. “How can they hate me when they don’t even know me?”
Listening, with focus, and intent, without judgement, to someone whose views are anathema to us. This is so important. It is the beginning of conversation. It may not change the other person. But to them to realize they have been heard without shouting and condemnation opens doors that otherwise would be closed forever. And leading just one person out of a life of hate would cause rejoicing in heaven.
[Note: the link goes to my favorite podcast application. There was no link that I could find on Adam Grant’s website.]
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Often throughout human history a small group (usually men) gather and think that they are somehow endowed with the wisdom to tell everyone else how to live.
Jesus opposed the Jewish religious establishment of his time.
Plato wrote an essay called The Republic wherein he argues that government should be run by a small group of philosophers—because philosophers of his time pursued the “truth” and were therefore wise. Unfortunately, not all people who think they know the truth are also wise.
Throughout a large chunk of the history of Europe, the small group was composed by clerics.
Sometimes it is a group of the very wealthy.
Jesus looked at everyone who through some situation became wealthy or politically powerful or held religious power and asked a simple question—what is the status of your heart?
I have others to expand on that. Where is your focus? Do you have the humility to lead well? Can you handle your wealth for the benefit of the community?
Do not listen to mere words. Evaluate their actions. Seek the status of their heart.
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Why do smart people do stupid things? Ryan Holliday asks this in his Daily Stoic newsletter. It’s a question that jarred me. As an introvert, I feel as if I recall every stupid thing I’ve ever done. (Not saying I’m smart, but I do stupid things.)
Holliday cites the Roman philosopher Seneca, who says that anger makes us stupid.
I cite my favorite, John Climacus, aka St. John of the Ladder. In our metaphorical climb up the ladder to spiritual wholeness, anger is viewed as one of the passions that needed to be overcome.
It’s not that we’ll never experience anger. It’s an emotion that will flare like a bonfire within us. We must not lose our self-awareness. When we see these flaring up within, we need the habit of the deep breath and pause. Righteous anger can move us to make necessary change. But even it can consume us and destroy our relationships—with God, as well as with other people.
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“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: Every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.”— Søren Kierkegaard.
Kierkegaard was a Danish theologian whose thought I admire.
Need to lose a few pounds and feel more fit?
Trying to solve a vexing problem?
Looking for ideas for that essay or meditation you’re writing?
Feeling anxious?
Need to connect with God?
Take a walk.
No air pods. No headset. No music. No podcast. Just nature…or life. Maybe a small notebook and pen in your pocket with which to record ideas. OK, I cheat. I use the Notes app on my phone with the microphone and dictate thoughts.
It’s great for physical health, mental health, spiritual health. Get outside and go.
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Vincent Van Gogh on inspiration: “I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”
I have devoted a substantial chunk of my time and energy to studying and teaching the Bible. Many have taken that journey before me.
We must pause that journey and ask an important question.
Does the more we read correlate to a growing level of certainty?
Joking with a friend recently, I pointed out the scholarship journey—I know more and more about less and less until I know everything about nothing.
Perhaps the best study follows Van Gogh’s insight—when did we last read something that caused us to lay aside the book and dream?
Van Gogh’s dreams led to paintings that move us.
To what actions and creativity do our dreams lead?
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“Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am, stuck in the middle with you.”—Stealers Wheel
That lyric speaks to me on so many levels.
For today, I’m thinking of the middle. Our middle. The place where the heart and lungs reside. Our core (not in the Pilates sense).
My meditation teacher has us exploring the middle.
We had been exploring breath by focusing on the sensation at the upper lip. The rhythmic cooling caused by the breath.
Now it is the lungs with the rhythmic rise and fall, and the rhythm of the heart.
My exploration of the core led to realization of Jesus’s concern for the status of the heart. Not at an intellectual level, which tends to divide mind and body, but at the core of our being. It is from that core that our following lives. And from that following come the action verbs we learned from Isaiah yesterday:
These are things pleasing to his sight. Just as Paul wrote in the concluding chapters of the Letter to the Romans. Life doesn’t stop with realization of grace—it begins. That is new life. And then we live according to the new heart.
“The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.”
Thus opens the document we call the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah proceeds to speak to the kings (and the people) words that God gave him. He takes the next several paragraphs detailing the evil ways of the people of Judah (which had split with Israel thanks to the stupidity of Solomon’s son).
I’ll not document all that right now. We can translate to today the idea of what and how do we worship and acknowledge God. Is our worship of prayers and offerings consistent with the intent of God or is it not performed with the right orientation of the heart?
Let us look at the prescription that God offers followers spoken through Isaiah. Pay attention. Look at the verbs.
I am convicted—where have I learned to do good? Do I seek justice for everyone? How am I working to correct oppression? Where can I bring justice and peace to the oppressed of society?
Think on your own situation. You and I, we cannot do it all. But we can do something. What is it we can do today?
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Gary Mintchell
Faith Venture 