Faith Venture

Let Jesus Do The Talking

August 10, 2023

During a tour of the sites Louise Penny popularized in her detective novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the tour guide gave us identifying wrist bands saying What Would Gamache Do? This brought back memories from years ago when the popular fashion accessory was a rubber wrist band emblazoned with WWJD (what would Jesus do).

Jon Swanson gave me an idea today when he wrote about how sometimes we decide what Jesus would say (and do). That resonated with much of my thinking.

My wish is that we who identify either as Christians or as Jesus-followers would actually read, digest, infuse his actual words and deeds instead of making up stuff or taking at surface-value what others have said about him.

Rather than What Would Jesus Do, perhaps better is What Did Jesus Do and Say and how do we incorporate that into our every day lives?

I like the word infuse. I approach spiritual disciplines with the idea of infusing Jesus’ teachings into my very being reflected in the way I behave.

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Make Haste Slowly

August 9, 2023

Sometimes I allow other people to influence my behavior. It’s not intentional. It just happens. Like yesterday when I was unloading the dishwasher. My wife decided to help. She wants to get it done. I unconsciously speed up. I grabbed a coffee mug from one of her favorite sets. It slipped from my fingers. Dropped onto another mug. In an instant what had been one useable object was three pieces of trash.

Once I rushed through everything. And I made mistakes. I overlooked part of the equation or one silly word in the story problem.

Slow is actually fast. And better. A slight reduction in hurry and my wife would have a full set of six coffee mugs in the set instead of five.

A slight reduction in reading speed and I would have more perfect scores on my Duolingo language lessons. A slight reduction in learning new chords on the guitar would result in deeper understanding of the nuances of the chord.

Not rushing through meditation and prayer—priceless.

Pausing to ponder one of Jesus’ stories—deeper understanding.

Slowing down to actually listen to those I’m with—better relations.

Slower can be faster and with more quality.

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Sharing Christ

August 8, 2023

Church people are often encouraged to “share Christ” with others. People undergo training not unlike the sales training I suffered through as an introverted engineer transitioning to a sales position. I can still remember the “furniture store close”.

The furniture store close is a short term event. People come to the furniture store to look. Statistically they will not return to buy. Therefore, you must sell them before they leave. Salesperson has an order form. Fills it out as they talk with prospect. Then say, just sign here and we can ship next week.

Is this like “sharing Christ?”

First the question: Why are you sharing Christ?

Most likely you wish for that person to experience a changed life. A random conversation will rarely do that. However, you could view this as the farmer scattering seed in one of Jesus’ parables. You may never know which soil you planted the seed. But for the receptive soil, it will be life changing.

The best salespeople I have known (and what I tried to be the few years I was a sales engineer) were relationship sales people. They spent time and effort getting to know their clients.

In our context here, this approach answers the question, “Can we share Christ without knowing what question the other person has weighing on their soul?” Can we take the time and effort to really know someone?

There is another approach. We find this one in the book Acts of the Apostles. The sharing part was simply living a life filled with the fruit of the spirit. And people around those people said, “I want what they’ve got.”

How much of this one have you experienced lately? It is your fault?

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When To Quit and When Not To

August 7, 2023

The hardest decisions for the owners and managers of a successful athletic organization involves timing the retirement of its star athletes. The hardest decision for almost all premier athletes is knowing when time and age have caught them and they need to step down.

The same can be said for politicians and business leaders. I’ve observed church leaders in the same situation. They stay too long. Lose their edge. Begin to make mistakes. Think they are not only above the law, but that they are the law.

The opposite holds true in the spiritual life. We can retire too early. We may have had a spiritual experience of oneness with God. Then spend our lives trying to recapture that moment.

Or we become convinced of a certain “truth” early on and never grow from that or re-evaluate in light of further study and experience.

Every day in the spiritual life we can sit in the first hour of the morning and open ourselves to God asking what new experience or opportunity will be shown us that day. And opening ourselves to making the appropriate response. Living a life of loving God and loving other humans only ends at death. There is no retirement.

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Expanding Frontier of Ignorance

August 4, 2023

I recently saw this reference to the acclaimed physicist Richard Feynman who talked of living on the expanding frontier of ignorance, where each closed door leads to several newly opened ones.

How many people along the path of Christian (or other) spiritual path have you found who know it all? Actually, I’m a bit embarrassed this week. Twice I ran into people who said if they ever wanted to know something they would ask me since I would know. I think they were all joking.

But I have lived a life beginning in my mid-teens where I lived on that frontier of ignorance powered by curiosity. In high school I rather neglected my official studies for I was deep into studying both electronics and philosophy (Marx, Freud, St. John of the Cross—I was an equal opportunity reader).

I still live on the frontier of ignorance. I actually wish that for you. Whenever we think we know everything, we are stuck. And also most likely not welcome dinner partners. It’s OK to know things, but it is better to foster curiosity about the things you don’t. Always be open to learning something new. Be like a 2-year-old. Always exploring. Always the joy of discovery.

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Dream Dreams To Pass On To Others

August 3, 2023

I am not Roman Catholic, but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating Catholic leaders and thought. This from Pope Francis I found especially meaningful.

The prophet Joel once promised: “Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men will have visions” (3:1). The future of the world depends on this covenant between young and old. Who, if not the young, can take the dreams of the elderly and make them come true? Yet for this to happen, it is necessary that we continue to dream. Our dreams of justice, of peace, of solidarity, can make it possible for our young people to have new visions; in this way, together, we can build the future.

The challenge for those of us a bit past prime time—what are we dreaming that we wish would have been better? How are we passing those dreams to the new generation?

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Not Just Listening To His Words But Acting Upon Them

August 2, 2023

Yesterday I looked at Jesus’ teaching about not just listening to his words but acting on them.

This from a health and fitness newsletter that intentionally comes my way:

People will post about schools failing our kids on social media and never offer to volunteer at an after-school program or as a tutor. They’ll tweet about childhood obesity but never think of coaching youth sports. Their Facebooks are filled with complaints about rising homelessness, but they’ve never donated or volunteered to help expand shelters. They’ll say our politics are rigged but never volunteer to collect signatures to get political reforms on the ballot or through the legislatures.

If you want to complain about something, stop, and find something you can do about it.

I was president of an organization once upon a time. A prominent man approached me one day. A thoroughly capable professional with an interest in our purpose. He said he had an idea. I said, wow, that sounds great. Would you like to lead that initiative? He disappeared.

Ideas, complaints, suggestions—they are all cheap. The trick is not just listening to the words but acting upon them. That is all the difference.

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Keeping Yourself Firmly Grounded

August 1, 2023

Carole King put it, “I feel the earth move under my feet…”

Jimmy Buffet sang, “Earth she’s movin’ under me…”

These are powerful images. We expect the earth to be solid under our feet. When we teach Mountain Pose in Yoga (standing upright), we lead the students to feel their feet firmly grounded as they lengthen their spine yet relaxing their shoulders. Feel strong and grounded like a mountain.

The relaxation meditation I used last night told us to sit in the chair, place our feet flat on the ground, and feel grounded to the solid earth.

We want our emotions grounded. Not like air, moving randomly this way and that.

Building our spiritual, emotional, and intellectual life upon a solid foundation leads to a stable life ready to grow and serve.

Perhaps Jesus had something like that in mind when he told us, To hear my words and do them is like building a house on a solid foundation of rock where the rains, and the storms, and the winds came and yet did not destroy it.

Posted in Attention, Awareness | Leave a Comment »

Beyond Labeling People

July 31, 2023

Our brains have less work to do when we can devise shortcuts. Thinking is hard work requiring attention, focus, and energy.

One of my favorite detective novel series comes from Rex Stout whose lead character is an overweight, narcissistic “genius” private detective called Nero Wolfe who hates to go to work. One sub-theme of the series involves the assistant, Archie Goodwin, trying to find the appropriate time to prod, cajole, irritate Wolfe into working—which in this case is thinking.

Thinking is hard work.

Reading from a late 18^th Century German philosopher where he complained about contemporary philosophers were dismissing one of the previous generation by applying labels. Labels serve no good purpose toward understanding, wrote FWJ Schelling.

A psychologist explaining autism to an interviewer mentioned that higher functioning people with autism resisted the label of autistic preferring to being acknowledged as people with different social skills. Labels often cause harm. People become easily dismissed.

We look at someone and immediately apply a label. We now can adjust our attitude of how to relate…or not. Or we hear someone or read something they wrote or listen to someone else describe them.

How often have I been surprised when I’ve taken the time for a conversation and listened. The label disintegrates before my eyes as I discover the person beneath the label.

Maybe I mute you on Facebook, because I don’t wish to see the information you’re reposting. Yet, there is a person with hopes and fears and pressures and pleasures.

Behind the label exists a human. One of God’s children. Worthy of respect and consideration.

Posted in Listening, Thinking | Leave a Comment »

Beyond the Law

July 28, 2023

How many people do you know who think they are beyond the law? Maybe you are one?

Maybe it is driving your car faster than the posted speed limit? Perhaps thinking Stop signs are merely a suggestion? Maybe more serious than that, such as, cheating on income tax or stealing something from your company or organization? I’ve seen people stealing time—being paid for doing something and collecting the money without doing the work. This even extends to physical or emotional abuse, sexual activities, or worse.

Paul the Apostle liked to write about freedom from the Law. His life had been devoted to learning about and following the Jewish Law. One day he experienced blindness, an event that completely shook his foundations. Then God got his attention. He discovered a life filled with the spirit. That life was beyond the Law.

He preached that and wrote about it. The problem was that these early (and many later) Christ Followers were confused. They said, “Hallelujah! We don’t have to follow the law. We can do whatever we want!”

Paul said, “Whoa, guys. Not so fast.”

It’s not about ignoring the law. Life in the spirit means we don’t focus on the law because life in the spirit naturally does the intent of the laws.

Freedom doesn’t mean that we are above the law like a rebellious teenager. Freedom means that we don’t have to worry about it continuously. It means living in the spirit we will behave responsibly because that is what people in the spirit do.

I think Paul went to his grave trying to explain that. Even today we have people who miss the freedom part and read Paul for a list of new laws. Or we have people who, like the early Christians in Corinth, absorbed the freedom part without the responsibility part.

What a balancing act we must perform while living in the spirit. Freedom and responsibility.

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