Posts Tagged ‘spirit’

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Spiritual Energy Crisis

August 14, 2010

The motivational speaker industry sort of sprung up in the 70s and eventually became a big business. There are now speakers who target business people, sports people, men, women–wherever there’s money to be made. The first time I heard one of these speakers was at a management conference in the 70s during a previous energy crisis. His point, though, was that the real energy crisis was personal. Too many people just don’t have the kind of energy they need to succeed in life.

Doug Wysockey-Johnson, executive director of Lumunos (formerly Faith@Work, a leader of the small group movement), just posted an essay on the Lumunos blog about this same energy crisis. Have you noticed a lethargy, a lack of energy for your work for God? He links this to “call.” You sometimes need to remember your call, and renew your commitment to it. Your call should give you energy. Check out his essay. Overcome your personal energy crisis.

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Balance Needs Focus

August 13, 2010

Yoga is a discipline of bringing body, mind and spirit together. Psychologists, even those who observed humans 5,000 years ago, know that one sign of illness is when your emotions, mind, body are out of balance and working at cross purposes. One classic Yoga pose that is often the picture used when someone discusses it is called tree pose. This is a balance pose where you stand on one leg, the foot “rooted” to the ground. The other foot is placed on the inner thigh of the “trunk.” The hands are above the head with palms together.

I try to hold this pose for at least 10 breaths. What you discover is that the trick is not balance, per se, but focus. You must clear your mind, focus your eyes on a stable object then concentrate on your breathing.

I’ve been writing a lot about focus lately, because I’ve discovered it is key to a spiritual life. My study of Mark has reached the last 3 chapters where Mark tells the story of Jesus’ last couple of days on earth as a human. I’ve been contrasting Jesus (our model) with Peter (someone with whom we can identify).

Except for the interesting story about his cursing the fig tree, Jesus faced his coming trials and knowledge that his friends would desert him with tremendous focus and balance. His stable object of focus was God. He never wavered from his life with his father. And he kept his balance. Whether being grilled by the ruling council of his religion or by civil authorities with the power to kill him, he was a model of balance. He did not lash out at his accusers–even though the accusations were not true and even contradictory.

Peter, on the other hand, lost it. His emotions swung from blustery “I’ll never desert you” to “I never knew that man.” He lost his focus out of fear. But do not condemn him. Can you say that you have Jesus’ perfect courage? Look inside yourself. What would you have really done in his place? Stand up in the face of the crowd and be killed, too?

Then Peter came to self-realization. He saw into his own mind, body and spirit. He wept. This was a moment of realization. You cannot truly live with God until you realize deeply that you don’t have that focus on God. We also know the rest of the story. Jesus said he would go ahead of them to Galilee after he was raised from the dead. He did. And he met Peter. And he blessed Peter three times to counter the three denials. And Peter realized his focus, his strength, and his balance. And he became a great leader.

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Wakeful or sleepy prayer

August 12, 2010

You have a friend facing a great trial. Life or death hangs in the balance. She’ll know shortly. She asks her friends to pray for/with her. But the threat doesn’t seem real to you. Somehow you just cannot work up the same level of concern as she. While she is sweating in anguish over what might happen to her in the next hours and days, you close your eyes to pray and … fall asleep. She wakes you. You try again. And again…you fall asleep. Some friend!

Jesus brought his three closest friends to a hillside garden across the valley from Jerusalem to pray with him. He knew that the events were building and that his final confrontation with the religious leaders was coming soon. He knew it wasn’t a game he was playing. It was for “keeps.” It was life or death. He had the dread we all face when we are about to undergo a trial and can’t really picture the outcome. We don’t know how bad the experience will be. He wanted support. He got…nothing. They went to sleep on him. They just didn’t feel that same sense of urgency that the one about to undergo the trial felt.

In the discipline of meditation, there is a state called “restful awareness.” You are resting, focusing your mind on God, yet you are aware of things around you. You hear sounds, feel presences. Your focus remains on God. In some traditions, masters watch their students. They may ring a gong. Some will be startled. They are the ones who are dozing instead of praying. It’s a lesson.

Prayer is a discipline. It requires training and practice. Earlier, the disciples asked Jesus how to pray. They noticed that he went often to a quiet place to pray. They wanted to emulate him. But in the hour of need, they went to sleep.

What about you? Can you sit in silent prayer, alone with God, for minutes, hours, without sleeping? Try it. Paul used the words of athletics when discussing spiritual training. Think in terms of the hours of practice that a star athlete puts in so that he can perform well on game day. Emulate that. Start practicing and training so that when your friend needs your support, you are a champion supporter.

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You Better Have Figs

July 28, 2010

“I just know one thing, if the creator of the world comes to you and asks you for a fig, you’d better have some–lots of them.”

I’ve been meditating on the Gospel of Mark for the past several months. Getting toward the end, we came to the story (not parable) of Jesus cursing the fig tree. I sort of skipped over that part of the story and went to the explanation. Jesus’ closest friends were shocked to see him exhibit such impatience and pointed out that the fig tree he cursed the day before (May no one ever eat a fig from you again) was now dead all the way to the roots. And that happened overnight.

Driving to Chicago last night, I was listening to the weekend message from Willow Creek Community Church on my iPod. Pastor Wayne Cordeiro from Honolulu was speaking. He cited that passage as one of his examples. He said, I have studied that passage for years. Never could figure it out. Finally I just thought, “If the creator of the world asks you for figs, you’d better have figs.”

A little later in Mark’s story (Chapter 13), Jesus tells his followers to stay awake, be aware of what’s going on around them, be aware of God’s movement in the world and their lives. I bet he was thinking something along the lines of “When I’m gone and you’re the leaders, you’d better have been cultivating figs–and you’d better have plenty. Because you’ll need them. And God’s asking.”

Got any figs?

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Just be one

July 22, 2010

Ever go to a meeting where there are endless arguments and discussions about what the committee should be, or what it should do? Ever get bored? Wish everyone would just get off their “backsides” and get on with the work?

OK, this guy isn’t a Christian writer, but Marcus Aurelius was on target with this thought, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be; just be one.”

I once had a boss who said, “Everyone knows who the good teachers are.” Quantifiable? Not particularly. Explainable in a few words? Not really. But by the quality of the person, truly everyone just knows. By the way, he was an engineer. They are typically fact driven people. But if you just go forth to “be one,” people will know. You will know. God will know.

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Learning or Living

July 21, 2010

The United States is not unique in world history in placing its youth in a competitive atmosphere in learning. We’ve just tried (with mixed results) to extend it to all youth, not just those in either privileged classes or who show interest and potential for learning. So, after 13 years of constant comparison with our peers relative to learning, we are guided to think that learning (intellectual development) is the highest goal of life.

True, you do need to know certain things. To be completely ignorant is not a path to God. However, Thomas a Kempis rightly says, “Indeed, it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God.”

I’ve been studying Mark for the past several months. I much prefer the Gospels to Paul’s letters. Paul is so culturally bound and focused on how to organize the new movement that he is often hard to understand. Jesus, on the other hand, although enigmatic at times, points us to how to live.

Learning  is easy compared to living a holy life minute by minute. It’s not only what you know but what you do with it.

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Politics and religion meet the spirit

July 20, 2010

By what authority do you teach? When you stop to think about it, that’s an interesting question. In today’s world, if you’re “ordained” by a religious body (say, Catholic, United Methodist, Lutheran, and so on), then you teach by the authority of that organization. Me? I just started teaching. Never thought about authority.

That question directed by the Jewish leaders (who were both religious and, in many ways, civil, leaders) to Jesus was what we call a loaded question. Jesus was openly questioning their authority. They thought they were just part of the leadership lineage that traced back to Moses. Somebody had to be in charge. Somebody had to oversee religious rites, tell people what was right, interpret God to the people. There had always been priests beginning when Moses appointed some. They were appointed to be part of that line of authority. They were essentially political leaders.

Mark says that this confrontation came the day after Jesus drove the commercial people out of the Temple. This was a revolutionary act directly affecting the income of the leaders–as well as their authority. So they asked Jesus by what authority he did that. But Jesus asked them about where John the Baptist derived his authority. Many people thought it came directly from God. But the leaders had opposed him.

Ah, here is where politics and religion meet the Spirit. If you are a leader and you want to maintain your authority, you begin to think like Mark reports. “If we say from man, the people will get mad at us. But if we say from God, then they’ll ask why we didn’t support him.” So, they didn’t answer. And that’s the problem with organizational leadership where people in power want to maintain power as their objective. This can happen at any level of any organization where someone gets comfortable and likes being in charge.

Jesus did not organize in that manner. His organization technique–one that is being emulated by many even in businesses today–is one of teaching, empowering, setting free. He gathered willing people to join him. Taught them. Gave them the power to act along with the foundation that would prepare them to act in a right manner. And eventually he set them free to lead themselves.

No matter where you are a leader–family, church committee, civic organization, political, denominational–think on these things. Are you in it for you? Or are you in it because God wants you to lead, teach, empower and set free?

Oh, Jesus authority? It came from God. By whose authority do you teach?

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Overcoming Distraction

July 13, 2010

This could probably be the topic of a book. Maybe I’ll do it. But I wrote yesterday about how people get worried and distracted by many things. Jesus said, focus on the one thing.

Today this quote was sent to me:

Constant attention wears the active mind,

Blots out our pow’rs, and leaves a blank behind.”

— Charles Churchill: 18th century English poet

Sometimes, we need to just “chill.” Did you ever just sit on the patio and take in the beauty of a garden? Watch the birds? Let your mind drift to nothing?

Or, do you have your TV on constantly tuned either to Fox or MSNBC? Or even other channels? Especially the first two are designed to manipulate you into an emotional frenzy. They want to keep your attention permanently on the screen so that they can serve up more ads.

Take care what you put in your mind. Take care that you have intellectual control of your emotions and spiritual control of your intellect. I have tuned ALL TV news out of my awareness. I am so much more at peace. Focus on Jesus instead. That is far healthier.

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Worried and distracted by many things

July 12, 2010

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.”

These words of Jesus to Martha were meant to change her attitude–that is, the relationship of her life with the direction it should be headed, much like the attitude of an aircraft is its relationship to the direction of travel. She needed first to achieve calm. Unless you can put worry behind you, you will never be able to focus on the “one thing.” Worry has the power to change your attitude. Likewise, distraction–the opposite of focus. Just as almost everything you worry about is beyond your control, so is much distraction. We think about this or that. We think about things we need to do. We think about things other people should or need to do.

The foundation to my spiritual and intellectual growth was built from the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 60s. While I still maintain the values of equal rights and peace, I never really was a “True Believer” as the philosopher Eric Hoffer might say. The single-minded fanaticism of many of my contemporaries seemed to me to come at a loss of perspective of spiritual life. Therefore, many hated the “Serenity Prayer” attributed to theologian Reinhold Niebuhr which asks God to grant the serenity to know that some things can’t be changed. This is a continual problem with some people–exacerbated, I might add, by the way “news” is presented on TV–where they are “worried and distracted by many things.”

There is only one thing–God. What matters is your relationship with Him. You cannot worry about other people, or tell other people what to do (well, you can, but what good does it ever do?). You can witness about how your life with God has brought you the fruits of the spirit.

Are you focused on the “one thing?” Or are you worried and distracted?

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Where to focus

June 21, 2010

I used to have to pass running tests to maintain my grades and certifications as a soccer referee. First you ran a distance within a certain time limit, then you ran sprints. It sort of simulated how well you could run at the end of a match. Since I really don’t like distance running (even the short 1.5 miles of the standard test), I think about how to do the run. Every morning when I face the 3.5 miles at the park, I can’t think about the end. I have to think about one step at a time. Otherwise I wear myself out. Sprints, on the other hand, especially the shorter 40 or 50 meter ones, entail focus on the finish line. I just start as quickly as possible and try to keep going faster until the end. 200 meters is about where I can see the goal but emphasize the stride.

Putting this is the context of patience (and perhaps adding perseverance–the ability to keep going even when you’re tired), sometimes life is like the distance run. You know there is a goal ahead, but you need to focus on a day at a time. The Buddhists have a phrase, “Wherever I go, there I am.” Jesus also said to not be worried about the past or the future. Just live in the moment. And be there in the moment.

Jesus tried to teach us–don’t be burdened down worrying about all the rules of the Pharisees (and the modern pharisees who surround us). Just live each moment in the Spirit. You’ll know what to do. Things will be taken care of. The things of the future you worry about don’t happen. Or, if they do, they are not what you were afraid of. That’s because you just live in the moment with God in you and leading you. And that’s all you need.

Just take one step at a time in the direction of your goal.

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