Faith Venture

Deliver Us From Evil

November 17, 2023

…Deliver us from evil (or deliver us from the evil one). — Jesus on prayer

I was in high school thinking through my newfound stance on pacifism encouraged by my reading of the words of Jesus. I have a fuzzy memory of sitting on the front porch of the house of a couple of girls I knew. Probably I was there to talk to one of them. But I was a socially awkward geek. My memories are of talking with their mother. She asked pointed questions probing the various ramifications of a pacifistic life orientation. We had to my mind great and meaningful conversations.

Some who adopt an orientation toward peace forget that Jesus tells us, as if we couldn’t figure it out on our own, that evil exists.

He told us to ask God to deliver us from the grasp of evil.

Most of us can manage to wander through life without coming face-to-face with evil. That is a blessing. Many cannot. It can intrude at the most unexpected times and places. Maybe from friends and neighbors we have known for years.

We can debate theology, but that leads nowhere. The foundation question concerns how we respond. Do we let evil become our master and respond to evil with evil?

Maybe we allow God to deliver us—maybe by providing the extra strength we need to confront evil and conquer it.

When we are living with God perhaps we are infused with trust that we can respond to each situation as God would have us—seek peace, confront with strength. And also ask for discernment so that we don’t mistake someone’s angst for evil and respond wrongly.

Posted in Living, Prayer | Leave a Comment »

Justice and Restoration

November 16, 2023

Justice, it seems, isn’t about punishment or vengeance or getting even. It’s about restoration, wholeness, setting things right.

I am neither liberal nor conservative. Most people call me liberal, but that is not my orientation. My life direction concerns peace and justice. These attributes go along with each other.

Rich Dixon, who wrote those sentences on his blog about “Rich’s Ride” with a focus on justice for those caught up in sex trade and forced labor, resonates.

There are people who use justice, as in getting justice, meaning achieving vengeance. As in “getting even.”

I like Rich’s thought that it’s not about getting even or protecting my “rights.” Justice concerns setting things right. Returning to the way we should be. The way God created us all to be.

This sounds like how Jesus always raised the bar on people’s understanding of the Law. Committing adultery might be bad, but lusting after another person while committed to another is also bad. It’s a higher bar. Obeying all the commandments might be good, but selling all you own and following Jesus is a higher bar.

Getting our own justice might be one thing, but working for justice for the other is a higher bar. And Jesus always wanted us to strive for the higher bar.

Pray for peace; work for justice—for all.

Posted in Justice, Peace | Leave a Comment »

Enough for a Life

November 15, 2023

“To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing, to contemplate the beautiful thing: that is enough for one man’s life.”― T.S. Eliot

My favorite poet. Deeply contemplative and exceptionally observant, but unfortunately too literary.

Let us contemplate.

Benjamin Franklin every night asked of himself, what good have I done today. Every morning begins a period of time where we are presented with an opportunity to serve. Have we responded correctly?

Maybe not every day, but too often, someone misstates something about another person or group of people. Do we tacitly nod as if in agreement? Do we gently respond with corrective information? How often do we say the healing word for the moment?

When walking in nature, do we pause to look at the miracle of a leaf? Or of a different bug or bird or critter? Or visit an art museum and pause to contemplate a beautiful piece of art? Or the beauty of the moment observing mother and child or adult child with elderly parent?

There is a word. Awareness. Do we go through the day mired deep into our own thoughts and miseries? Or, we are aware of the world around and our place in it?

I pray for awareness.

Posted in Awareness | Leave a Comment »

What would you pack?

November 14, 2023

Jon Swanson puts sticky ideas into my awareness. He asked once, If you were leaving to follow Jesus, what would you pack?

I have a small pile of things on my office floor. We are leaving for a hiking and relaxation trip to southern Ohio hills and forests. As I remember items that I should bring I grab them and stack them in the corner—small rucksack for water and snacks, week’s supply of medicines and supplements, beef jerky, toiletries.

I’m sure that Jesus looking upon this if I were to respond to his ever-present invitation to “Follow me” would smile and wonder how long it would take me to realize I was over-packing!

I would call it a thought experiment although I’ve been there:

It’s a meeting. A dozen, more or less, people are gathered in a room. The leader states the purpose of the meeting. “Jesus had a persistent invitation when he met people. He asked them to follow him. Now, what did he really mean? Did he really expect them to get up from their business place and move? I know that Matthew and Peter and Andrew and James and John all immediately left their businesses to literally follow him. But us?”

And they discussed the meaning of following Jesus for hours. Weeks. Sermons were preached. Classes were taught.

Did Jesus ask us to discuss following? Did he ask us to dissect the meaning of following?

I have this funny quirk when I study Jesus’s words. I think he meant what he said. I think he meant literally following.

We can find a way to serve others. And we should do it. We don’t need a committee meeting or group discussion. Jesus has a funny way of putting opportunities before us that we may not recognize at first. Just being kind and helpful is a start.

Posted in Service, Work | Leave a Comment »

Can there be peace without justice?

November 13, 2023

People of the world have lives so much better than ever before. In general, people are healthier. More people live under democracy despite movements to return to authoritarian rule. Most people have electricity, heat, mobile phones (those led to an increase in literacy among other things).

And yet, our 24-hour breathless news cycle leads people, especially in the USA but other places as well, to believe that they are worse off. Indeed, there remain too many places where anger and fear drive terrorist attacks, wars, killings.

Can peace exist without justice?

Justice without humility?

Humility without faith?

Reduction of anger and fear without living a with-God life. Recognizing others as God’s children?

We need fewer driven, successful entrepreneurs and politicians. We need more people practicing kindness, justice, and, yes, love.

Posted in Justice, Love, Peace | Leave a Comment »

The Story of a Family

November 10, 2023

Let me tell you a short story about a family.

Every member of this family lives their role as a server to each other. They look for ways to help. They anticipate the needs of other members of the family placing them before their own.

Just so, the wife serves her husband.

Being a family of followers of Jesus, the husband treats his wife well. He builds her up to be the best she can be. In fact, just like the example of Jesus, he is willing to give up his life for her.

The parents treat their children well concerned with their well being and education. In turn, the children respect the parents. (OK, when they are 2 and later as adolescents, there may be moments…)

When the family goes out, say to a restaurant, they treat the hostess and servers kindly. Same with sales associates at stores they visit.

I have been thinking about how to describe a modern family in English taken from Paul’s description of a family of Jesus-followers in first-century Greece taken from the letter to the Ephesians. Incidentally, the same passage often quoted by people to justify woman’s subservience to men.

I also think Paul would similarly describe the ekklesia, the gatherings of Jesus-followers that today we call the church. He seemed to be big on our finding our roles to best serve each other. And the community. And the world.

Posted in Attitude, Grace | Leave a Comment »

You’ve Got To Know When To Hold’em Know When To Fold’em

November 8, 2023

Apologies to Kenny Rogers, but I’ve just finished two books packed with research and advice on growing in our interpersonal relationships. As a socially challenged geek, I need all the help I can get.

One book STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut, Dan Lyons tells us how is overpowering urge to talk almost cost him a relationship with his family when he found himself alone in an apartment. He reflected on a life filled with chatter. He worked on learning to maintain quiet. This is a superpower I wish I had. I can be quiet. If someone brings up a subject with which I’m conversant, I will, er, converse….

I used to tape a little label on my phone case: STFU. It was a reminder that I sometimes heeded.

Of course a good essay needs a compare and contrast (one of my political science professor’s favorite test question). NY Times and The Atlantic columnist and author David Brooks explored how to have significant conversations in order to learn How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.

Shall we stop and reflect on our interactions with others? Do we find ourselves talking at someone or talking with someone? Talking with requires that we actually hear the other person. And not only the words that vibrate our hearing system. What are they saying between the lines? What expressions do they hold? What was left out? Posture? Gaze?

I think a teacher of personal growth could take this book and turn it into a meaningful short-term class.

A particularly moving chapter tells the story of the depression and eventual suicide of Brooks’ lifetime friend. How he didn’t even realize the depth of depression. How he didn’t see the suicide coming. His lesson came later as he realized that not being a professional there was nothing he could have done to heal his friend. But he reflected on the many times he could have heard, deeply heard, his friend. That would have been helpful, if not healing.

Compare and contrast? Sometimes you have to be quiet and really listen to the person you’re with.

Posted in Disciplines, Listening, Relationship | Leave a Comment »

Jesus Was a Hard “A”

November 7, 2023

This professor randomly “cold calls” on students during class. Students must attend class and stay awake. They must all be prepared and ready to speak to the topic at any moment on any of the topics covered.

Is this scary? Do students dread the class? On the contrary. Students love it. The class is oversubscribed. Everyone in the class is involved and committed to the class and to learning. There is no waste.

The professor in my freshman chemistry class should have been so cool. Of course, 350 students in a large lecture hall renders such intimacy impossible. I had mistakenly pledged a fraternity that year. (If you haven’t figured out from my writing that my lack of social awareness should have precluded any such idea, well, then I have not revealed enough of myself.) We were encouraged to hang out with “pledge brothers” wherever we were. One of the guys was a ringleader type who invented a crude religion during the lectures instead of paying attention and being invested in the course. I got better grades when I left the fraternity and actually studied with a small group.

Thinking of these teaching and learning styles, I realized that Jesus was a hard A. He also asked hard questions seemingly at random. Even when you were positive of the right answer, say quoting from Scripture, he’d prove you wrong. He took a harder stance, often turning the answer upside down from cultural knowledge.

It pays to be awake when we study the words and actions of Jesus—as well as the words of Paul and James and John—for those times when they upset our preconceived ideas and teach us a new way of seeing the world and others.

We need to be prepared. That means reading and reflecting and observing.

Posted in Disciplines | Leave a Comment »

Giving and Receiving Grace

November 6, 2023

I have been able to discern through the practice of many spiritual disciplines that God comes to us through grace, or maybe more understandable (less theologically laden) we can say kindness. Some say forgiveness. I like kindness. God extends it. We humans can accept it, or not.

Accepting it, we can begin living with-God. Jesus called it living in the Kingdom of Heaven. It starts with the realization and acceptance that there is a God, and that God offers a better way to live. No rules, no judgement. God tried that rules thing (614 plus additional ones in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish 1^st century practice?).

Sounds simple. Why do we complicate it?

Unfortunately for us, it doesn’t stop there. It’s not all about you (and me).

Living with-God having accepted God’s grace, we must extend that grace to others. Responding to those who are injured and hurting; giving with a generous heart; having conversations with (not at) people showing care; practicing active listening.

Thinking we can live within God’s grace and not share it is like that light hidden under a basket or being salt without savor. Pretty much worthless.

Perform a thought experiment. What would your household, neighborhood, community, nation, world be like if even half of us practiced sharing grace?

Posted in Grace, Living | 1 Comment »

Leaders, Make Others Powerful

November 3, 2023

Are you a leader? Do you aspire to be a leader? Doesn’t matter what level—organization, committee, mission group, weekend soccer league.

Ben Zander, conductor, teacher (search YouTube for his clinics with young musicians), leader, shares this observation:

The conductor of an orchestra doesn’t make a sound. He depends, for his power, on his ability to make other people powerful.

We read maybe with some Schadenfreude about the downfall of prominent leaders whose ego grew large in the belief that they were the organization.

Zander’s observation remembered often and incorporated into our very actions will save us. Sorry, leaders, it is not all about you. You had better thank all those people who make you look good.

I like bringing many things back to the realm of energy. I can sense it in an organization almost as soon as I enter a lobby. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft who rescued it from the Steve Ballmer-generated slide, said this about business, but equally meaningful for any organization of any size, “The only way a business is successful and productive is if employees feel that sense of empowerment, that sense of energy and connection for the company’s mission and are doing meaningful work.”

Posted in Leadership | Leave a Comment »