In my post of February 6, 2009 on “Ministry and Leadership” I argued that there were people who were called out from the rest of us to be ministers, pastors, and priests and these people had “a special responsibility to others to teach, facilitate, and to show others what it means to be missional in their lives.” An example of this kind of missional leadership is…of course…Jesus.
Many who follow the teachings of Jesus contend that the Gospel of Matthew in the new testament portion of the bible is a manual of missional leadership. In this writing, we are presented with stories of Jesus teaching others, facilitating their efforts, and, perhaps most important, showing others what it means to be missional with their lives. So, we can look on these stories as a guide to how we might lead others into being missional in their lives.
Let me say right up front, however, that one of the most important parts of this leadership that Jesus exhibits to us comes when he tells his disciples…”Guys, I am going to go away. You are going to be on your own!”
Why was this so important?
It was important because Jesus understood that the disciples could not grow and mature in their missional calling if…they still had Jesus to directly lean on. Look at what weak individuals the disciples seemed to be when Jesus is still in their physical presence. Look at what a sniveling idiot Peter was when Jesus was around. Peter had to be out on his own…he had to call on the memory of what Jesus taught him, both verbally and by example…before he could truly grow and mature in his missional activity.
Now, Jesus obviously knew this problem existed…and more specifically…he knew Peter was going to have problems. Remember, in loving others, Jesus gave us the example of one who “knew” a lot about those who he was working with…this is a part of showing “love” to the other. So, remember that Jesus called Peter…the “Rock”. At the time Jesus refers to Peter as the “Rock” many readers have to wonder about where Jesus is coming from. How can Jesus call this weak, uncomprehending person, the “Rock”?
Jesus “knew” Peter and knew that as Peter grew and matured that he would turn into the “Rock” that Jesus claimed he would be.
But, Peter could never have become the “Rock” if Jesus had stayed around. The same with all the other disciples: Jesus “knew” who they were and chose them because of this knowledge. Jesus also knew that each of them would never reach their calling unless they were allowed to grow and mature into their own missional person.
So, the first lesson of missional leadership is that the leader must understand that those that they are working with must be released at some to go out on their own. So the leader teaches, facilitates, and shows the one preparing for missional activity what it means to be missional knowing full well that at some time in the future the student, for his or her own good, must be “on their own.” The leader must be able to turn the student loose from his or her power and control…for the student’s own benefit!
Now let’s go back to the other three items mentioned above that have to do with missional leadership: teaching, facilitating, and acting. To me, the most important of these three factors of leadership is the acting part. In fact, this is how we have defined missional activity…acting toward the other…whether it be another person (literally the neighbor)…or creation…or oneself…or God…in a loving way. The best way we can be missional is to show other people what it means to live a life that is consistent with what we believe contributes to wholeness and unity. The leader sends out a message in his or her words…but, unless people see how living in that way can change their lives…and change them for the better…the words are just empty.
In this, missional activity is very pragmatic…the life style we are promoting in our missional activity works! And, because it works, people can see for themselves what results from living in that particular way. And, by seeing it, before their eyes…they have something concrete to latch onto…and hold onto when times are not going their way.
This is where I believe the “spirit” comes into play…whatever the “spirit” is. The person has the memory of what a life lived in this particular way means…the memory of what kind of decisions one should make to live such a life…and the feeling or understanding that has been experienced to know that these kinds of decisions lead to greater wholeness or unity…even in times that are very bad. There is a “spirit” in living in this way…and, we are told, this “spirit” will be available to us in the future when called upon. One knows when one is in unity… and that is a signal that the “spirit” is present in the situation.
Teaching is important. Words, alone, are not enough…for they must be consistent with actions. But, words are important…telling stories…relating facts…inspiring others. Teaching helps us to learn things. Teaching helps us to pull things together and understand relationships. Teaching helps us to comprehend in a way that we have not been able to, up to this point. Teaching can inspire us to want to learn and do more. Teaching can be done in many ways…as different people respond to different types of learning experiences. Of course, we know Jesus applied many different kinds of teaching techniques to his followers…this was the only way that he could possibly reach all the different people he had chosen to be with him. He told parables…he told stories…he told proverbs (like, for example, in the Sermon on the Mount where he was just talking to his followers after he drew them away from the huge crowds.)
However, what is learned must be practiced. This, to me is the facilitation part. Those that have been taught must be given opportunities to experience the “acting” under the watchful eye of the teacher. Jesus did this by asking his followers to pass out the fishes and bread to the entire crowd that had followed him for days…and the followers saw what happened right before their eyes. As they became generous with the little they had…the crowd also became generous with what they had…and much more was collected than the followers had given out. A miracle? Or, was this a lesson in what unconditional giving can bring about?
Jesus sent his followers out on different “day” journeys…and then asked what happened on those journeys. In these, and other, ways, the followers of Jesus got feedback on how to live, the impacts of their decision making on outcomes, and how things might be done differently. It was this process that actually got them started on the road to taking full responsibility for their missional activity…the responsibility they would have once they no longer had their leader.
Then, the followers became the leaders. The followers became the implementers of missional living. These followers could now grow and mature fully into the faith and confidence that would bring them unity and peace in their lives…and a feeling of wholeness. Peter could become the “Rock”.
To me, this is what missional leadership is all about!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
Ministry and Leadership
In my blog post of February 2, 2009, I discussed what I consider to be the general responsibility of individuals…to be missional. This general responsibility is to live a life that “reveals the image” of the life you think everyone should live. Note, however, this does not mean that you want people to live just like you in the specific things you do or say. That would require people to seek a specific “outcome” and this is where we can get into a tremendous amount of problems.
If we require people to achieve specific “outcomes” then, essentially, we want people to be and act exactly like us. We then have an explicit standard by which we can judge you and hold you strictly accountable for not behaving in exactly the same way we do. The “outcomes” become the “law” which you must be able to recite and the “law” then becomes your judge and jury. Your life is bounded and controlled.
The alternative to this approach is to stress that the image you want to reveal is of a “process”, not one of “outcomes”. By “process” I suggest that we can reveal how one addresses problems or decisions; by stressing “outcomes” one has already determined what the solution to the problem should be or what the decision is that one should make.
I take an example of what I mean by the reported behavior of Jesus. Let us look at what he did when he healed people. One could think that Jesus revealed the image of God by healing people from their infirmities. Certainly, a loving God…and we are told that God is love…would want to heal people and in this way make their lives better.
I don’t believe that this is what Jesus is showing us. The thing that has proven to be so remarkable to me is that after Jesus heals the individual physically, he has a message for that person. To one person, he tells them to go do this. But, to the next person he tells them to go and do something else. And, to a third person he tells them to do something entirely different from the first two people.
I wondered about this for a long time. Why did Jesus do this? And, even more important to me…why is it important that we know that Jesus did this? The answer finally came to me that it was important for us to see that, first, it was not the healing that revealed the image of God to us, and, second, Jesus treated everyone differently in terms of his relationship to them. Maybe…just maybe…it was the “process” of what Jesus was revealing and not the “outcomes” of the actions of Jesus…the healings.
More specifically, if Jesus really loved these individuals, he would want to do the best thing he could for them…that is, he would want to suggest or commend to them the action that would be as helpful to them, in terms of living a better life, that he could. But that action would necessarily be different for every person he talked to…because everyone is different from every other person.
This, to me, is what loving is all about. Jesus is revealing to us what loving our neighbor really is. Jesus is revealing to us what it means to say that God is love. And, it this is the way in which we are to behave.
How can I say this? Look at the encounter that Jesus had with the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler asks Jesus what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds with the question, “What do the commandments say?” The rich young ruler responds correctly and adds that he has done all this. And then we are told that Jesus looks on the rich young ruler “with love”. Then tells him that he must sell all he has for his riches are getting in the way of his wholeness.
The point here is not that Jesus tells the rich young ruler to get rid of his riches. The important thing is that Jesus looks on the rich young ruler “with love”.
This is all fine and good…but if we are to reach out to each person in the way that is best for them…we have to know an awfully lot about each and every person. Please note…this does not mean that we reach out to the other person is a way that they would like or a way in which they would like us. In the example of the interchange between Jesus and the rich young ruler, Jesus certainly did not give the rich young ruler a pleasant task…for the rich young ruler went away very unhappy…he had many riches.
The focus should be upon the “process” of love. Jesus knew a great deal about everyone. In the Gospel of John we are told that the woman that Jesus talked to by the well reported to her neighbors that Jesus told her all that she had ever done. This was one of the reasons Jesus was special. We are told that he had great insight into others. And this is how he could love. Because he could see what it was that others needed in order to be more whole, more complete, more at peace within themselves.
And this is the image that is revealed to us…that we are to try and become as knowledgeable of “the other”…whether it is another person…another group…or creation…or parts of creation…as we can so that we can be in unity with them in the sense that we, like Jesus, can see what is really needed in a situation and “through love” act or be in a way that serves “the other” in what is needed. This is the “process” of love…and this is what, I believe, we mean when we say we have a responsibility to be missional in our behavior. We are to reveal in our actions this “process” of love because it is the way that we believe that others should lead their lives.
In being missional, we are all asked to be leaders. In being missional we are leading other people, by example, into the way we believe that all people should live their lives. In being missional we, like Jesus, are “revealing the image” of a god we believe to be the ideal of love. In being missional we are showing others what it means when we say that God is love.
In showing this leadership we are being ministers and this is what comes out of some of the New Testament writing. This is called “the priesthood of all believers.” In essence, everyone is, or can be, a minister. And, yet we are told that everyone has different talents…different abilities…different experiences. Everyone is not supposed to do the same thing that everyone else does.
And, in this light, certain of us are separated out to be ministers of the ministers…that is, to be ordained pastors or priests or ministers. And, given what has been written above, this to me means that these ministers that have been separated out have a special responsibility to others to teach, facilitate, to show others what it means to be missional in their lives. This means that these ministers that are separated out have a special responsibility to focus on what I have called “the process” and not emphasize “outcomes.”
I believe that too many of our “separated out” ministers have been taught in seminaries to focus on “outcomes” and been encouraged by their peers to focus on “outcomes” and been charged by their religious organizations and churches and congregations to focus on “outcomes” and this has left us in the state that we are now in. These ministers are not entirely blameless themselves for they like the power and control that comes to them by being the one who is in charge of telling their flocks what “outcomes” they should be pursuing…and their flocks…what they still have of them…blindly follow their shepherd.
Energy and initiative come from the teaching and facilitation of “process”. Energy and initiative come from people that are missional…that study and learn and gain experience in what they do so that they can “love” others…including creation…as they have been commanded to do. Our ministers that have been “separated out” need to step back and discern how they can release all this energy and initiative to the world…even if they lose some of their power and control.
If we require people to achieve specific “outcomes” then, essentially, we want people to be and act exactly like us. We then have an explicit standard by which we can judge you and hold you strictly accountable for not behaving in exactly the same way we do. The “outcomes” become the “law” which you must be able to recite and the “law” then becomes your judge and jury. Your life is bounded and controlled.
The alternative to this approach is to stress that the image you want to reveal is of a “process”, not one of “outcomes”. By “process” I suggest that we can reveal how one addresses problems or decisions; by stressing “outcomes” one has already determined what the solution to the problem should be or what the decision is that one should make.
I take an example of what I mean by the reported behavior of Jesus. Let us look at what he did when he healed people. One could think that Jesus revealed the image of God by healing people from their infirmities. Certainly, a loving God…and we are told that God is love…would want to heal people and in this way make their lives better.
I don’t believe that this is what Jesus is showing us. The thing that has proven to be so remarkable to me is that after Jesus heals the individual physically, he has a message for that person. To one person, he tells them to go do this. But, to the next person he tells them to go and do something else. And, to a third person he tells them to do something entirely different from the first two people.
I wondered about this for a long time. Why did Jesus do this? And, even more important to me…why is it important that we know that Jesus did this? The answer finally came to me that it was important for us to see that, first, it was not the healing that revealed the image of God to us, and, second, Jesus treated everyone differently in terms of his relationship to them. Maybe…just maybe…it was the “process” of what Jesus was revealing and not the “outcomes” of the actions of Jesus…the healings.
More specifically, if Jesus really loved these individuals, he would want to do the best thing he could for them…that is, he would want to suggest or commend to them the action that would be as helpful to them, in terms of living a better life, that he could. But that action would necessarily be different for every person he talked to…because everyone is different from every other person.
This, to me, is what loving is all about. Jesus is revealing to us what loving our neighbor really is. Jesus is revealing to us what it means to say that God is love. And, it this is the way in which we are to behave.
How can I say this? Look at the encounter that Jesus had with the rich young ruler. The rich young ruler asks Jesus what he could do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds with the question, “What do the commandments say?” The rich young ruler responds correctly and adds that he has done all this. And then we are told that Jesus looks on the rich young ruler “with love”. Then tells him that he must sell all he has for his riches are getting in the way of his wholeness.
The point here is not that Jesus tells the rich young ruler to get rid of his riches. The important thing is that Jesus looks on the rich young ruler “with love”.
This is all fine and good…but if we are to reach out to each person in the way that is best for them…we have to know an awfully lot about each and every person. Please note…this does not mean that we reach out to the other person is a way that they would like or a way in which they would like us. In the example of the interchange between Jesus and the rich young ruler, Jesus certainly did not give the rich young ruler a pleasant task…for the rich young ruler went away very unhappy…he had many riches.
The focus should be upon the “process” of love. Jesus knew a great deal about everyone. In the Gospel of John we are told that the woman that Jesus talked to by the well reported to her neighbors that Jesus told her all that she had ever done. This was one of the reasons Jesus was special. We are told that he had great insight into others. And this is how he could love. Because he could see what it was that others needed in order to be more whole, more complete, more at peace within themselves.
And this is the image that is revealed to us…that we are to try and become as knowledgeable of “the other”…whether it is another person…another group…or creation…or parts of creation…as we can so that we can be in unity with them in the sense that we, like Jesus, can see what is really needed in a situation and “through love” act or be in a way that serves “the other” in what is needed. This is the “process” of love…and this is what, I believe, we mean when we say we have a responsibility to be missional in our behavior. We are to reveal in our actions this “process” of love because it is the way that we believe that others should lead their lives.
In being missional, we are all asked to be leaders. In being missional we are leading other people, by example, into the way we believe that all people should live their lives. In being missional we, like Jesus, are “revealing the image” of a god we believe to be the ideal of love. In being missional we are showing others what it means when we say that God is love.
In showing this leadership we are being ministers and this is what comes out of some of the New Testament writing. This is called “the priesthood of all believers.” In essence, everyone is, or can be, a minister. And, yet we are told that everyone has different talents…different abilities…different experiences. Everyone is not supposed to do the same thing that everyone else does.
And, in this light, certain of us are separated out to be ministers of the ministers…that is, to be ordained pastors or priests or ministers. And, given what has been written above, this to me means that these ministers that have been separated out have a special responsibility to others to teach, facilitate, to show others what it means to be missional in their lives. This means that these ministers that are separated out have a special responsibility to focus on what I have called “the process” and not emphasize “outcomes.”
I believe that too many of our “separated out” ministers have been taught in seminaries to focus on “outcomes” and been encouraged by their peers to focus on “outcomes” and been charged by their religious organizations and churches and congregations to focus on “outcomes” and this has left us in the state that we are now in. These ministers are not entirely blameless themselves for they like the power and control that comes to them by being the one who is in charge of telling their flocks what “outcomes” they should be pursuing…and their flocks…what they still have of them…blindly follow their shepherd.
Energy and initiative come from the teaching and facilitation of “process”. Energy and initiative come from people that are missional…that study and learn and gain experience in what they do so that they can “love” others…including creation…as they have been commanded to do. Our ministers that have been “separated out” need to step back and discern how they can release all this energy and initiative to the world…even if they lose some of their power and control.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Reveal the Image Of...
Over the past several years I have used the term “Missional” to capture what it is that I think that we should be doing. We all should be “missional” in our lives.
The word “missional” was created to be more meaningful in a modern sense to the worn out terms of “mission” or “missionary.” These terms were used to describe any number of different activities, some of them not so positive, and so people produced the word “missional” to captured a more specific and limited type of behavior. To be “missional” one was to behave in a way that was representational of the way a Christian was supposed to live. To be “missional” was to glorify God in all that one did. Then, to take a Roman meaning of “glorify” where a statue of the current Caesar was put on a cart and drawn around a area where the statue revealed the image of the person who was then Caesar. That is, the image looked like the reigning Caesar and this then brought the populace into closer contact with the Caesar because individuals now knew what Caesar looked like.
In similar fashion we are to glorify God by acting in a way that will reveal the image of our God. We take as an example of this a person, Jesus of Nazareth who was thought to glorify God better than any other person who has lived. That is, Jesus is said to have revealed the image of God to others so that individuals would have a real, concrete image of how one should live ones’ life as God would have him live his life.
But, in what way did Jesus reveal the image of God?
Well, we are told that “God is love.”
But, what does this mean? Do we have any more information about how one should live ones’ life? I mean, if God is love and we are to reveal the image of God…then we must be “love” as well. How do we become “love”…how do we reveal this image?
Perhaps our next clue comes from what we are told we are commanded to do…the “Great Commandments.” These are to love God with all our heart and all our soul and all are mind and the second is like it…it is to love our neighbor as ourselves. So the whole thing about revealing the image of God is about love…about loving God…about loving others…and in the broader sense other people and creation…and about loving ourselves. In this was we reveal what is meant by “God is love.”
How do we “love God”?
First of all we must know God…know about God. That is, we must put ourselves out and learn…gather information about God…review existing knowledge about God…and keep open and search in every way we can for more information about God.
Why do we have to put out this effort?
We have to make this effort because we cannot really love…we cannot really love God…unless we know as much as we can about the one to be loved. We have to know as much as we can because how can love the one to be loved if we don’t know who the loved one is, what the loved one does, what is best for the loved one…where the loved one is.
If we are to love the loved one we need to know where the loved one is and what will make the loved one happy and what will be the optimal things to do in relationship to the loved one. That is, to love God, we need to know where God is and what we can do to be in unity with God.
But, to be able to love God we also must be able to love ourselves. If we don’t love ourselves, how can we love anyone, anything, or whatever. We must have, at a minimum, a certain care or concern for ourselves. Again, in order for us to love ourselves we must learn about ourselves…know ourselves sufficiently so that we can act in our best interests. This does not mean to act selfishly, or greedily, or in a controlling way to get our own way. It means that we must really find out about who we are, what we need to do to really act in our best interest, and to then act in a way that will bring us into greater unity with who we really are. So, knowledge and a long term view is very necessary to love…both self and God.
The same is also true of loving our neighbor as our self. We must again gain as much information as we can about other individuals and about creation. We must make an effort to learn a sufficient amount about others and creation so that we can move to attain greater unity with others and with creation. Study, learning, knowledge…all sorts of efforts like these must go into loving the other…not trying to get our way…but to learn where they are and what is in their best interests. This is how we love our neighbor as our self.
So, this is what it means to love…to study…and to act. To learn about the one to be loved…the part of creation to be loved…and then to act in the best interest of the one that is loved.
This is what God does…we are told. This is what Jesus has revealed to us…in his life and actions. This is what we are supposed to do…this is what it means to be “missional.” We are to live a life that shows to others the example of how we think people should live…how we believe God loves.
We are told that God “created” the world…and that he saw that it was “good.” That is, God saw the world and he loved the world.
When we study physics…when we try and learn the way nature works…so that we can work with nature in a way that raises our standard of living and helps people…and then we work to build this knowledge and act in a way that is beneficial to all. This is seeing God’s creation…it is loving God’s creation…and it is revealing the image of God to others…so that others will emulate this behavior.
The same thing is true of loving another person…let’s take a potential spouse…as the extreme. We date…we do things together…we talk with each other…we learn to become friends…we learn whether or not we can tolerate each other over a long period of time…we learn whether or not we can act in the other’s best interest putting aside our own interests when it is important to the relationship…we learn about each other so that we can be where they are not where we are…and this is love…and this can lead to a great marriage.
This is the foundation of “missional” behavior. If we are to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves…then let us act in that way…let us be “missional” to one another. It doesn’t mean that we go overseas…or that we go into the cities…or that we make a special effort to reach out. Yes, being “missional” may include all of these…but being “missional” starts with the next person you talk with…the next person you see…the next thing you do. Being “missional” is action…right where you are…right with what you are doing at this very moment.
Being “missional” is revealing the image of what you believe to be the most important way to live.
The word “missional” was created to be more meaningful in a modern sense to the worn out terms of “mission” or “missionary.” These terms were used to describe any number of different activities, some of them not so positive, and so people produced the word “missional” to captured a more specific and limited type of behavior. To be “missional” one was to behave in a way that was representational of the way a Christian was supposed to live. To be “missional” was to glorify God in all that one did. Then, to take a Roman meaning of “glorify” where a statue of the current Caesar was put on a cart and drawn around a area where the statue revealed the image of the person who was then Caesar. That is, the image looked like the reigning Caesar and this then brought the populace into closer contact with the Caesar because individuals now knew what Caesar looked like.
In similar fashion we are to glorify God by acting in a way that will reveal the image of our God. We take as an example of this a person, Jesus of Nazareth who was thought to glorify God better than any other person who has lived. That is, Jesus is said to have revealed the image of God to others so that individuals would have a real, concrete image of how one should live ones’ life as God would have him live his life.
But, in what way did Jesus reveal the image of God?
Well, we are told that “God is love.”
But, what does this mean? Do we have any more information about how one should live ones’ life? I mean, if God is love and we are to reveal the image of God…then we must be “love” as well. How do we become “love”…how do we reveal this image?
Perhaps our next clue comes from what we are told we are commanded to do…the “Great Commandments.” These are to love God with all our heart and all our soul and all are mind and the second is like it…it is to love our neighbor as ourselves. So the whole thing about revealing the image of God is about love…about loving God…about loving others…and in the broader sense other people and creation…and about loving ourselves. In this was we reveal what is meant by “God is love.”
How do we “love God”?
First of all we must know God…know about God. That is, we must put ourselves out and learn…gather information about God…review existing knowledge about God…and keep open and search in every way we can for more information about God.
Why do we have to put out this effort?
We have to make this effort because we cannot really love…we cannot really love God…unless we know as much as we can about the one to be loved. We have to know as much as we can because how can love the one to be loved if we don’t know who the loved one is, what the loved one does, what is best for the loved one…where the loved one is.
If we are to love the loved one we need to know where the loved one is and what will make the loved one happy and what will be the optimal things to do in relationship to the loved one. That is, to love God, we need to know where God is and what we can do to be in unity with God.
But, to be able to love God we also must be able to love ourselves. If we don’t love ourselves, how can we love anyone, anything, or whatever. We must have, at a minimum, a certain care or concern for ourselves. Again, in order for us to love ourselves we must learn about ourselves…know ourselves sufficiently so that we can act in our best interests. This does not mean to act selfishly, or greedily, or in a controlling way to get our own way. It means that we must really find out about who we are, what we need to do to really act in our best interest, and to then act in a way that will bring us into greater unity with who we really are. So, knowledge and a long term view is very necessary to love…both self and God.
The same is also true of loving our neighbor as our self. We must again gain as much information as we can about other individuals and about creation. We must make an effort to learn a sufficient amount about others and creation so that we can move to attain greater unity with others and with creation. Study, learning, knowledge…all sorts of efforts like these must go into loving the other…not trying to get our way…but to learn where they are and what is in their best interests. This is how we love our neighbor as our self.
So, this is what it means to love…to study…and to act. To learn about the one to be loved…the part of creation to be loved…and then to act in the best interest of the one that is loved.
This is what God does…we are told. This is what Jesus has revealed to us…in his life and actions. This is what we are supposed to do…this is what it means to be “missional.” We are to live a life that shows to others the example of how we think people should live…how we believe God loves.
We are told that God “created” the world…and that he saw that it was “good.” That is, God saw the world and he loved the world.
When we study physics…when we try and learn the way nature works…so that we can work with nature in a way that raises our standard of living and helps people…and then we work to build this knowledge and act in a way that is beneficial to all. This is seeing God’s creation…it is loving God’s creation…and it is revealing the image of God to others…so that others will emulate this behavior.
The same thing is true of loving another person…let’s take a potential spouse…as the extreme. We date…we do things together…we talk with each other…we learn to become friends…we learn whether or not we can tolerate each other over a long period of time…we learn whether or not we can act in the other’s best interest putting aside our own interests when it is important to the relationship…we learn about each other so that we can be where they are not where we are…and this is love…and this can lead to a great marriage.
This is the foundation of “missional” behavior. If we are to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves…then let us act in that way…let us be “missional” to one another. It doesn’t mean that we go overseas…or that we go into the cities…or that we make a special effort to reach out. Yes, being “missional” may include all of these…but being “missional” starts with the next person you talk with…the next person you see…the next thing you do. Being “missional” is action…right where you are…right with what you are doing at this very moment.
Being “missional” is revealing the image of what you believe to be the most important way to live.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Practical Living
In recent posts I have been attempting to present a general view of how human beings go about living and go about trying to achieve greater unity in their lives that would make them feel more whole and at peace within themselves. Much of this effort I would argue centers around what could be called “practical living” or “pragmatic living”. This approach is also captured in the field of psychology called “Cognitive Therapy” a practicing branch of the subject, much of it deriving from the work of Aaron T. Beck.
The basic idea of this approach is that human beings are problem solvers and the methodology the use, implicitly or explicitly, is that of inductive inference. Inductive inference is basically a process of problem solving or decision making that assumes that people have models, schema, rules or whatever which they use to make predictions with. The predictions are, of course, to be used in deciding which solution or which decision a person should make in a given situation. All decisions are made on the basis of predictions…we have to have some idea of how things are going to come out…given the different choices of actions that we have…before we can decide which action to take.
Where do these models, schema, rules, etc., come from? They can come from parents, families, friends, groups we belong to, reading, the Internet, almost anyplace you can think of. Any source of information is a place where these operational tools can come from. And, the models we work from can be as simple as that coming from the old fable: “Slow and steady wins the race.” Or, the models can be extremely complex and formal, explicitly stated. Or the models can be held subconsciously thereby being just implicit in our decision making.
The important thing is that we human beings work from all sorts of models and we use these models, in a given situation, to make predictions about what result we can expect if we were to take different actions. First, I have to make sure the model I use is appropriate for the specific situation I am facing. For example, if I use the model “slow and steady wins the race” and apply it to, say, a sprint race…well, I should realize that this model is not really the appropriate one for this given situation. Maybe I should use the model, “the race goes to the swiftest” instead.
Then, I need to determine what possible actions I can take. In something like a sprint race, the situation is not too complex and the model is very simple. Hence, I have very few possible actions that are reasonable for me to take. A more complex situation will generally have more choices of action. Think about the way that you would like to have your children brought up, for example. Lots of different possibilities there…and you have to choose one.
One I have decided on an action plan…I will then go ahead and act. Let it be noted at this stage, however, that one of the actions I can take is to get more information. I may believe that I don’t have sufficient information on which to make a decision…so I bring in parents or friends for advice, I hire a consultant, I go to the library, I surf the Internet, and so on and so on. This is a legitimate action to take. I am then gathering additional information that may cause me to adjust my model…or bring in a new model…or continue to search for new information.
At sometime, I will have to make a decision on the problem I am trying to solve or on the action I need to take. So, decide to choose the action that will give me the result that has the best “possible” outcome. I emphasize the word “possible” because we are acting in a world of incomplete information and, therefore, we realize that we don’t know with certainty what the outcome of a particular decision will be. When we make the decision we believe that the result we will get will be the most favorable result we can obtain. But, we know that things may not work out exactly as we would like them to…we might be wrong…and we have to live with that fact. Our models are only partial…and they are all fallible!
One other thing that can be mentioned here: I write that the purpose of building a model is so that we can make a decision…take an action. This is very important in the evolution of human beings. Human beings have evolved as “good” problem solvers. This is their primary trait and they excel at it more than any other living organism. But, humans have used this ability to solve not only problems of survival…they have also used in to develop brain exercises…I call them entertainments. So, I look at a spectrum of problems that humans set out to solve and these problems are continuous all the way from situations that are life-threatening to those that have no purpose at all except to entertain the species…pure “entertainments.”
One of the interesting things about humans is that they can get so caught up in “entertainments” that they spend an inordinate amount of time emphasizing them relative to the importance of other problems of a more crucial, life-enhancing nature. For example, I look at the effort to determine the number of angels that can fit on the head of a pin…as pure entertainment.
Our process continues, however. We take an action…and get receive information about the consequences of that action. Things may work out exactly as we had planned. Or, some things did not work out exactly as projected. Or, things were all wrong. Or…something else…
We must not discard this new information for it is very useful in analyzing the adequacy of the model that we used. If we find that the model made very good predictions, then we probably will not want to alter the model at this time. If the model made lousy predictions, we may want to alter the model, adjust it for the future so that the modified model will make better predictions for us. Or, we may find that the model was not useful at all in such situations and we may want to find or create a new model to use in these situations at some future date.
Thus we have come full circle…we are back to where we started out…with a model, schema, rules, etc., that can be used in decision making and problem solving. The theologian David Tracy argues that the models we use should be “relatively adequate.” That is, our models are not “absolutely” adequate…they are partial and fallible. A relatively adequate model is one that is logically consistent…that is, it does not make contradictory predictions…and it predicts at least as well as any other model that can be used in the given situation.
And this is the point I am trying to make in this post. The models we use in life should work to some degree. That is, they predict at least as well as any other model for this given situation. And, one of our criteria for the models working is that the decisions that we make from these models help us to gain greater unity in our lives and bring us to a more complete wholeness. The process we use in decision making…the process of inductive inference…should help us lead fuller and better lives. If they don’t then we need to look for models, schema, rules, etc., that do achieve this goal.
And, we should not limit ourselves to where we get information about the models we might use. Religion is not off bounds as a source. Two things are important to remember, however, when one is dealing with religious models. First, ALL models are partial and fallible…even religious ones. We must not lock ourselves up in authority or power to the point that we “put-a-lid” on our God-given ability…the ability to problem-solve. Second, we must not get tangled up in religious “entertainments”, problems that have nothing to do with making decisions. We can enjoy them as intellectual exercises, but we must not let them keep us from the reality that we do have to make decisions relating to actions that determine what happens to us in life.
Where does this leave us…with a world of information where we have to pick and choose the models that “work for us”? Again, I go to David Tracy for the answer to this…”Start where you are, but be open.” That is, use the models and schema that you have inherited and been brought on to this point in your life. But…be open to whether or not the models you use are “relatively adequate”. I do not believe, as Richard Rorty seemed to, that we just pick the models that give us the results we want. Some models work better than others; we can’t just be arbitrary.
The basic idea of this approach is that human beings are problem solvers and the methodology the use, implicitly or explicitly, is that of inductive inference. Inductive inference is basically a process of problem solving or decision making that assumes that people have models, schema, rules or whatever which they use to make predictions with. The predictions are, of course, to be used in deciding which solution or which decision a person should make in a given situation. All decisions are made on the basis of predictions…we have to have some idea of how things are going to come out…given the different choices of actions that we have…before we can decide which action to take.
Where do these models, schema, rules, etc., come from? They can come from parents, families, friends, groups we belong to, reading, the Internet, almost anyplace you can think of. Any source of information is a place where these operational tools can come from. And, the models we work from can be as simple as that coming from the old fable: “Slow and steady wins the race.” Or, the models can be extremely complex and formal, explicitly stated. Or the models can be held subconsciously thereby being just implicit in our decision making.
The important thing is that we human beings work from all sorts of models and we use these models, in a given situation, to make predictions about what result we can expect if we were to take different actions. First, I have to make sure the model I use is appropriate for the specific situation I am facing. For example, if I use the model “slow and steady wins the race” and apply it to, say, a sprint race…well, I should realize that this model is not really the appropriate one for this given situation. Maybe I should use the model, “the race goes to the swiftest” instead.
Then, I need to determine what possible actions I can take. In something like a sprint race, the situation is not too complex and the model is very simple. Hence, I have very few possible actions that are reasonable for me to take. A more complex situation will generally have more choices of action. Think about the way that you would like to have your children brought up, for example. Lots of different possibilities there…and you have to choose one.
One I have decided on an action plan…I will then go ahead and act. Let it be noted at this stage, however, that one of the actions I can take is to get more information. I may believe that I don’t have sufficient information on which to make a decision…so I bring in parents or friends for advice, I hire a consultant, I go to the library, I surf the Internet, and so on and so on. This is a legitimate action to take. I am then gathering additional information that may cause me to adjust my model…or bring in a new model…or continue to search for new information.
At sometime, I will have to make a decision on the problem I am trying to solve or on the action I need to take. So, decide to choose the action that will give me the result that has the best “possible” outcome. I emphasize the word “possible” because we are acting in a world of incomplete information and, therefore, we realize that we don’t know with certainty what the outcome of a particular decision will be. When we make the decision we believe that the result we will get will be the most favorable result we can obtain. But, we know that things may not work out exactly as we would like them to…we might be wrong…and we have to live with that fact. Our models are only partial…and they are all fallible!
One other thing that can be mentioned here: I write that the purpose of building a model is so that we can make a decision…take an action. This is very important in the evolution of human beings. Human beings have evolved as “good” problem solvers. This is their primary trait and they excel at it more than any other living organism. But, humans have used this ability to solve not only problems of survival…they have also used in to develop brain exercises…I call them entertainments. So, I look at a spectrum of problems that humans set out to solve and these problems are continuous all the way from situations that are life-threatening to those that have no purpose at all except to entertain the species…pure “entertainments.”
One of the interesting things about humans is that they can get so caught up in “entertainments” that they spend an inordinate amount of time emphasizing them relative to the importance of other problems of a more crucial, life-enhancing nature. For example, I look at the effort to determine the number of angels that can fit on the head of a pin…as pure entertainment.
Our process continues, however. We take an action…and get receive information about the consequences of that action. Things may work out exactly as we had planned. Or, some things did not work out exactly as projected. Or, things were all wrong. Or…something else…
We must not discard this new information for it is very useful in analyzing the adequacy of the model that we used. If we find that the model made very good predictions, then we probably will not want to alter the model at this time. If the model made lousy predictions, we may want to alter the model, adjust it for the future so that the modified model will make better predictions for us. Or, we may find that the model was not useful at all in such situations and we may want to find or create a new model to use in these situations at some future date.
Thus we have come full circle…we are back to where we started out…with a model, schema, rules, etc., that can be used in decision making and problem solving. The theologian David Tracy argues that the models we use should be “relatively adequate.” That is, our models are not “absolutely” adequate…they are partial and fallible. A relatively adequate model is one that is logically consistent…that is, it does not make contradictory predictions…and it predicts at least as well as any other model that can be used in the given situation.
And this is the point I am trying to make in this post. The models we use in life should work to some degree. That is, they predict at least as well as any other model for this given situation. And, one of our criteria for the models working is that the decisions that we make from these models help us to gain greater unity in our lives and bring us to a more complete wholeness. The process we use in decision making…the process of inductive inference…should help us lead fuller and better lives. If they don’t then we need to look for models, schema, rules, etc., that do achieve this goal.
And, we should not limit ourselves to where we get information about the models we might use. Religion is not off bounds as a source. Two things are important to remember, however, when one is dealing with religious models. First, ALL models are partial and fallible…even religious ones. We must not lock ourselves up in authority or power to the point that we “put-a-lid” on our God-given ability…the ability to problem-solve. Second, we must not get tangled up in religious “entertainments”, problems that have nothing to do with making decisions. We can enjoy them as intellectual exercises, but we must not let them keep us from the reality that we do have to make decisions relating to actions that determine what happens to us in life.
Where does this leave us…with a world of information where we have to pick and choose the models that “work for us”? Again, I go to David Tracy for the answer to this…”Start where you are, but be open.” That is, use the models and schema that you have inherited and been brought on to this point in your life. But…be open to whether or not the models you use are “relatively adequate”. I do not believe, as Richard Rorty seemed to, that we just pick the models that give us the results we want. Some models work better than others; we can’t just be arbitrary.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Synchronicity
Last Tuesday, January 20, I posted a blog that included parts of the following quote from Goethe:
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Considering all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.”
“All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manners of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no person would have believed would have come their way. Whatever you think you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
People have referred to this type of occurrence as “synchronicity” which is basically defined as things happening, existing, or arising at precisely the same time. It is my belief that some form of synchronicity takes place when people come into greater unity with God, within oneself, with others, and with creation. It is what happens when one loves God and loves their neighbor (which I define more broadly as including all of creation as well as other people).
Why do I think this way?
It is because if we are not in a high degree of unity, as explained above, things don’t connect, we are separated, alienated, and we, as individuals are uncomfortable, unsettled, and feel discomfort. That is, when we are not in unity…our whole lives suffer…nothing goes together.
If we are really ourselves, if we love God and neighbor…if we know, as much as possible, where we are, where God is, where others are, and where creation is…so that we, in love, can respond to others where they are and not, selfishly, where we are…then things can move together…and they do.
The point is, that being committed to the two major commandments, which means that we also are committed to truly loving ourselves, I believe gets us into Goethe “magic groove”. And, if we do achieve this in some way, “a whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manners of incidents and meetings and material assistance…”
This can be a test…if things seem to be moving together and coincidences and weird things start to run in parallel…then accept the fact that maybe…just maybe…you are doing some things that are bringing greater unity into your lives…greater unity with God, within yourself, with others and with creation.
The times when this happens does not have to be related to “earth-shattering” events…or incredible commitments. Situations can occur within the context of the “little things.” But, these times are times to cherish…to be thankful for…and to possibly learn something from. For it is times like these that we are trying to make more and more a part of our lives. In times like these we see what life can be like. In times like these we feel whole…and at peace.
The difficulty with Goethe’s statement above has to do with what we commit to. I will argue very strongly with the point that it doesn’t matter what one commits to…we just have to commit to something. It is important what we commit to. And, we don’t want to waste commitments.
Note, we are dealing with hesitancy, the chance to draw back, ineffectiveness. There is the reality that we don’t know what action or actions will bring us that greater unity. We deal with the reality that we still have to make decisions, take actions, based on incomplete information. Thus, we are faced with deciding or acting in the wrong way…making the wrong commitments. This, of course, is a real possibility. So, it does matter what we do…which path we take.
Again, we are problem solvers…we use the process of inductive inference…we determine the choices we can make that we believe can contribute to the greater unity we seek. We are not deciding or acting in a vacuum. But, we finally must act…we finally must commit…and…
Our hope is that our commitment will bring us into that greater unity we seek. What Goethe is telling us…I believe…that when we come to making a decision…we make that decision…take that action…with real commitment…with the real giving of oneself to the effort. But, again, we may be wrong…or, at least, not quite correct. We still have learning to do…we still need to incorporate the new information we have gathered and apply it to the effort. That is the process of how human beings go about solving problems.
What we are after, however, is that feeling of unity…that feeling of wholeness. That is really what we are after…not riches, not wins, not sex, not a lot of other things. What we want is our lives to come together. We want the various parts of our lives to fit together. If they don’t, we struggle…we fuss…we drink too much…we argue and fight…we are unhappy with ourselves and our lives. We don’t want the different components of our lives to be separate, disjointed, or out-of-whack. We want things to fit and we want to feel like we are one…we are whole.
Let me try and put this together in summary. We want our lives to be meaningful. I believer that when we are in greater unity…as described above…when we are more whole…when we experience synchronicity…life does seem meaningful to us. We can’t explain it. We can’t write a treatise on it, let alone an essay. But, when things go together and we achieve some of that feeling of unity…we sense meaningfulness in life. Why? Because if things are flowing together…even in very small things…we feel that things must be meaningful because everything is going together…and that is the way life is supposed to be.
Funny…we don’t need a philosophical or theological book to explain life to us or to speculate on the meaningfulness of life. When we sense things flowing together in some sort of synchronistic way…we feel that life is good. God, we are told, looked at his creation and said that it was good. When we feel that life is good…we feel in tune with God…and we feel that life has meaning. We feel that we are what we are supposed to be…we feel we fit within God’s creation…and we feel that we have meaning. This is what we are looking for.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Considering all acts of initiative there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.”
“All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manners of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no person would have believed would have come their way. Whatever you think you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
People have referred to this type of occurrence as “synchronicity” which is basically defined as things happening, existing, or arising at precisely the same time. It is my belief that some form of synchronicity takes place when people come into greater unity with God, within oneself, with others, and with creation. It is what happens when one loves God and loves their neighbor (which I define more broadly as including all of creation as well as other people).
Why do I think this way?
It is because if we are not in a high degree of unity, as explained above, things don’t connect, we are separated, alienated, and we, as individuals are uncomfortable, unsettled, and feel discomfort. That is, when we are not in unity…our whole lives suffer…nothing goes together.
If we are really ourselves, if we love God and neighbor…if we know, as much as possible, where we are, where God is, where others are, and where creation is…so that we, in love, can respond to others where they are and not, selfishly, where we are…then things can move together…and they do.
The point is, that being committed to the two major commandments, which means that we also are committed to truly loving ourselves, I believe gets us into Goethe “magic groove”. And, if we do achieve this in some way, “a whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manners of incidents and meetings and material assistance…”
This can be a test…if things seem to be moving together and coincidences and weird things start to run in parallel…then accept the fact that maybe…just maybe…you are doing some things that are bringing greater unity into your lives…greater unity with God, within yourself, with others and with creation.
The times when this happens does not have to be related to “earth-shattering” events…or incredible commitments. Situations can occur within the context of the “little things.” But, these times are times to cherish…to be thankful for…and to possibly learn something from. For it is times like these that we are trying to make more and more a part of our lives. In times like these we see what life can be like. In times like these we feel whole…and at peace.
The difficulty with Goethe’s statement above has to do with what we commit to. I will argue very strongly with the point that it doesn’t matter what one commits to…we just have to commit to something. It is important what we commit to. And, we don’t want to waste commitments.
Note, we are dealing with hesitancy, the chance to draw back, ineffectiveness. There is the reality that we don’t know what action or actions will bring us that greater unity. We deal with the reality that we still have to make decisions, take actions, based on incomplete information. Thus, we are faced with deciding or acting in the wrong way…making the wrong commitments. This, of course, is a real possibility. So, it does matter what we do…which path we take.
Again, we are problem solvers…we use the process of inductive inference…we determine the choices we can make that we believe can contribute to the greater unity we seek. We are not deciding or acting in a vacuum. But, we finally must act…we finally must commit…and…
Our hope is that our commitment will bring us into that greater unity we seek. What Goethe is telling us…I believe…that when we come to making a decision…we make that decision…take that action…with real commitment…with the real giving of oneself to the effort. But, again, we may be wrong…or, at least, not quite correct. We still have learning to do…we still need to incorporate the new information we have gathered and apply it to the effort. That is the process of how human beings go about solving problems.
What we are after, however, is that feeling of unity…that feeling of wholeness. That is really what we are after…not riches, not wins, not sex, not a lot of other things. What we want is our lives to come together. We want the various parts of our lives to fit together. If they don’t, we struggle…we fuss…we drink too much…we argue and fight…we are unhappy with ourselves and our lives. We don’t want the different components of our lives to be separate, disjointed, or out-of-whack. We want things to fit and we want to feel like we are one…we are whole.
Let me try and put this together in summary. We want our lives to be meaningful. I believer that when we are in greater unity…as described above…when we are more whole…when we experience synchronicity…life does seem meaningful to us. We can’t explain it. We can’t write a treatise on it, let alone an essay. But, when things go together and we achieve some of that feeling of unity…we sense meaningfulness in life. Why? Because if things are flowing together…even in very small things…we feel that things must be meaningful because everything is going together…and that is the way life is supposed to be.
Funny…we don’t need a philosophical or theological book to explain life to us or to speculate on the meaningfulness of life. When we sense things flowing together in some sort of synchronistic way…we feel that life is good. God, we are told, looked at his creation and said that it was good. When we feel that life is good…we feel in tune with God…and we feel that life has meaning. We feel that we are what we are supposed to be…we feel we fit within God’s creation…and we feel that we have meaning. This is what we are looking for.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Free to Be Me!
In my last post, I discussed the topic of “Determining Who One Is.” I argued in the post that one must make the effort to love oneself and to love oneself one must follow the learning process that humans use in all other activities. The goal of learning about oneself is unity within self…wholeness of being. And, we are commanded to engage in this process for it is a part of the commandments to love God and to love our neighbor (people and creation) as we love ourselves…to be in unity with God, within ourselves, with others, and with creation.
This last post follows the line of several other posts that I have written for this blog site. The foundation for all my thinking is that human beings are problem solvers. This is the most unique of all the characteristics of human beings and the degree of improvement and the level of sophistication these humans have attained in this skill has separated them from all other life that we know of. I wrote of this in my post “Problem Solving: The Most Human of Activities,” which appeared on February 22, 2008.
The basic goal of problem solving…or in other words, decision making…is to observe the regularities of creation and create models, schema, rules, and so forth to use as a means of prediction when an individual is faced with a situation or a difficulty that requires some form of action. The use of these models is very pragmatic…they must be logically consistent and they must predict at least as well as any other model that can be useful in such a situation or difficulty. I discussed these issues in my post of October 31, 2008 entitled “Models that Work.”
The thing is that we must develop a “trust” in our models. Since we work in a world of incomplete information ALL of our models are going to be partial or fallible. Humans do not have models that predict the future perfectly…that is why “trust” is so important. The question, of course, becomes…what models, schema, rules, and so forth do I “trust”? The basic concept here is that through use, education, example, and so forth, we develop what is called a “warranted belief” in those models, schema, rules, and so forth. Warranted, here is used to mean that the individual has sufficient evidence or proof that the model, etc., is logically consistent and predicts at least as well as any other model that can be applied to the given situation or difficulty. Warranted, in this case, means that a person has, for him- or her-self, sufficient justification to put their “trust” in the model being applied to the situation or difficulty. With new information we improve, modify, or introduce new, logically consistent models that predict better than the old ones. This concept was expanded on in my post of March 14, 2008 entitled “Warranted Belief.”
An important thing to remember, however, is that we do not do all this work alone…we live in the world…we have families…we belong to groups…we are part of communities…and so forth. We are not meant to be alone…to do it all alone…or to be separated…or alienated…or isolated. We learn in communities; communities give us a chance to practice problem solving and decision making; communities allow us to make mistakes and look foolish; and communities help us to grow and develop. They provide us with a (relatively) safe place for us to experiment and try out things without facing the temptations, threats, and disappointments of the “outside” world.
But, groups and communities can present problems. Groups or communities can attempt to impose their ideas on individuals. Groups or communities can try and control individuals. Groups and communities can limit thinking, learning, experimenting, growth, and becoming whole. Groups can be very destructive to becoming who one is.
Thus, the groups and communities we belong to are important. Understanding this and learning and growing are important in how we decide on the groups and communities we join or remain with. This was why I discussed this concern in “The Communities We Belong To” in my post of March 7, 2008. This choice can be a difficult part of life and sometimes the choice separates us from some individuals that are very close and dear to us. Yet, for us to become who we are as fully as possible and to grow into greater unity with God and ourselves and other people and creation, sometimes we must make the difficult choice.
For this reason I say that I can’t approach my religion any differently than I approach other decision or problems in my life. That is, why should I suspend the way I go about decision making or problem solving in all other facets of my life; why should I check these practices at the entrance to anything religious or theological? This doesn’t make sense…yet, it is exactly what is expected of us by many religious groups and organizations around the world. I cannot accept this…at least for me!
I have two points to add to this. First, if you try living differently in one area of your life and try to force that part into the other areas of your life, you will never achieve the greater unity you seek. You will be condemned to being something less than whole. But, this is what is often encouraged in trying to live the religious life. You take the dogma; you take the creeds; and you suspend your approach to living when you enter the religious part of your life. Then you are encouraged to carry this religious approach to life into everything else that you do. It just doesn’t work.
Many people complain that people are only religious for one hour a week…the time that they attend a worship service. The more I have thought about this the more I have come to the conclusion that people don’t extend the “religious” part of their life work…to their home…to the other parts of their life…because the approach to doing things in a “religious” way…just doesn’t work. And, human decision making and problem solving abilities have evolved for one simple, pragmatic reason…they work.
Let me note right away that this does not mean that one does not live an honorable, meaningful life outside the “religious” part of their life. We are still commanded to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The crucial thing in living well is that we keep on trying to discover the models of life that bring us into greater unity with God, etc., and that bring us into greater personal wholeness. But, that gets me into my second point.
My second point is that God wants us to be problem solvers in everything that we do. We, in a real sense, believe that God has given humans this gift…has given us the talent to solve problems and make decisions. God, we believe, has claimed that “this is good!” God, we believe, wants us to practice and develop this capability throughout our lives. It is through the use of this ability that we can grow into greater unity with God, within ourselves, with others, and with creation. Therefore, this talent is to be used in all our activities…including those pertaining to religion and theology.
Therefore, I cannot accept any institution or person telling me that I have to live or believe a certain way. They can suggest certain ways of living or believing for my consideration. But, I have to be free to decide for myself…and that is the only way that I can be me.
This last post follows the line of several other posts that I have written for this blog site. The foundation for all my thinking is that human beings are problem solvers. This is the most unique of all the characteristics of human beings and the degree of improvement and the level of sophistication these humans have attained in this skill has separated them from all other life that we know of. I wrote of this in my post “Problem Solving: The Most Human of Activities,” which appeared on February 22, 2008.
The basic goal of problem solving…or in other words, decision making…is to observe the regularities of creation and create models, schema, rules, and so forth to use as a means of prediction when an individual is faced with a situation or a difficulty that requires some form of action. The use of these models is very pragmatic…they must be logically consistent and they must predict at least as well as any other model that can be useful in such a situation or difficulty. I discussed these issues in my post of October 31, 2008 entitled “Models that Work.”
The thing is that we must develop a “trust” in our models. Since we work in a world of incomplete information ALL of our models are going to be partial or fallible. Humans do not have models that predict the future perfectly…that is why “trust” is so important. The question, of course, becomes…what models, schema, rules, and so forth do I “trust”? The basic concept here is that through use, education, example, and so forth, we develop what is called a “warranted belief” in those models, schema, rules, and so forth. Warranted, here is used to mean that the individual has sufficient evidence or proof that the model, etc., is logically consistent and predicts at least as well as any other model that can be applied to the given situation or difficulty. Warranted, in this case, means that a person has, for him- or her-self, sufficient justification to put their “trust” in the model being applied to the situation or difficulty. With new information we improve, modify, or introduce new, logically consistent models that predict better than the old ones. This concept was expanded on in my post of March 14, 2008 entitled “Warranted Belief.”
An important thing to remember, however, is that we do not do all this work alone…we live in the world…we have families…we belong to groups…we are part of communities…and so forth. We are not meant to be alone…to do it all alone…or to be separated…or alienated…or isolated. We learn in communities; communities give us a chance to practice problem solving and decision making; communities allow us to make mistakes and look foolish; and communities help us to grow and develop. They provide us with a (relatively) safe place for us to experiment and try out things without facing the temptations, threats, and disappointments of the “outside” world.
But, groups and communities can present problems. Groups or communities can attempt to impose their ideas on individuals. Groups or communities can try and control individuals. Groups and communities can limit thinking, learning, experimenting, growth, and becoming whole. Groups can be very destructive to becoming who one is.
Thus, the groups and communities we belong to are important. Understanding this and learning and growing are important in how we decide on the groups and communities we join or remain with. This was why I discussed this concern in “The Communities We Belong To” in my post of March 7, 2008. This choice can be a difficult part of life and sometimes the choice separates us from some individuals that are very close and dear to us. Yet, for us to become who we are as fully as possible and to grow into greater unity with God and ourselves and other people and creation, sometimes we must make the difficult choice.
For this reason I say that I can’t approach my religion any differently than I approach other decision or problems in my life. That is, why should I suspend the way I go about decision making or problem solving in all other facets of my life; why should I check these practices at the entrance to anything religious or theological? This doesn’t make sense…yet, it is exactly what is expected of us by many religious groups and organizations around the world. I cannot accept this…at least for me!
I have two points to add to this. First, if you try living differently in one area of your life and try to force that part into the other areas of your life, you will never achieve the greater unity you seek. You will be condemned to being something less than whole. But, this is what is often encouraged in trying to live the religious life. You take the dogma; you take the creeds; and you suspend your approach to living when you enter the religious part of your life. Then you are encouraged to carry this religious approach to life into everything else that you do. It just doesn’t work.
Many people complain that people are only religious for one hour a week…the time that they attend a worship service. The more I have thought about this the more I have come to the conclusion that people don’t extend the “religious” part of their life work…to their home…to the other parts of their life…because the approach to doing things in a “religious” way…just doesn’t work. And, human decision making and problem solving abilities have evolved for one simple, pragmatic reason…they work.
Let me note right away that this does not mean that one does not live an honorable, meaningful life outside the “religious” part of their life. We are still commanded to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The crucial thing in living well is that we keep on trying to discover the models of life that bring us into greater unity with God, etc., and that bring us into greater personal wholeness. But, that gets me into my second point.
My second point is that God wants us to be problem solvers in everything that we do. We, in a real sense, believe that God has given humans this gift…has given us the talent to solve problems and make decisions. God, we believe, has claimed that “this is good!” God, we believe, wants us to practice and develop this capability throughout our lives. It is through the use of this ability that we can grow into greater unity with God, within ourselves, with others, and with creation. Therefore, this talent is to be used in all our activities…including those pertaining to religion and theology.
Therefore, I cannot accept any institution or person telling me that I have to live or believe a certain way. They can suggest certain ways of living or believing for my consideration. But, I have to be free to decide for myself…and that is the only way that I can be me.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Determining Who One Is
How does a person determine who he or she is? How does a person gain that self-confidence that they are comfortable in their own skin? When is a person at peace with themselves?
These are some of the most difficult questions a person ever faces.
These questions go back to the fundamental characteristic of human beings…the ability of human beings to solve problems or to make decisions. But, what is the basis for the use of this capability to provide answers for the above questions?
The basis is what has been called the greatest commandments which Jesus limited to just two. The first was to love God with all you heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. The second was like the first…you should love your neighbor as yourself. Many people have pointed out the fact that one cannot really love your neighbor if you do not love yourself. So, to me, the way to answer the questions posed in the first paragraph is to love God and by loving God coming to love yourself so that you can love others, including all creation, as yourself.
So, the charge becomes knowing God and knowing ones self sufficiently so that you can move into greater unity with God and within yourself. This is how one comes to love ones self. This is how one comes to know who he or she is…it is how a person becomes comfortable in their own skin…it how a person achieves peace within themselves.
Still, the process is one of problem solving or decision making. It is the same as everything else we do…we just turn the focus on other objects. The problems we have to deal with in this instance are concerned with how we solve those problems and how we make the decisions that bring us into greater unity…with God…and within ourselves.
And, what is so extraordinary about this? We are to learn and grow and mature in our lives so that we can make better decisions or solve more difficult problems. We are to take responsible for ourselves and our mental state.
This sounds easy…but as we know it is very, very difficult. We live in a world of incomplete information…including a lot of things we don’t know about ourselves. We have to live with uncertainty and change. We have to learn to live with the fact that our worldviews, our models and schema, our rules of life…are partial and fallible. We can be wrong. And, we don’t like that.
One response to this situation is to crave certainty…to crave rules and creeds and dogma that promise “the truth”. We crave a solution to our disunity…our alienation…our lack of wholeness. And, many of us are willing to give up our minds and lives to rulers who will control our lives so that we, maybe…just maybe…may control the things and people around us.
In the end, however, this is not satisfying…it is giving up yourself to others.
We must live in this world of incomplete information…in this world of uncertainty…and accept the fact that our models and worldviews are partial and fallible. Yet, in a very pragmatic way, we stay with models and worldviews that work…that help us make better decisions and solve more difficult problems.
The crucial thing is that we must desire this greater unity with God and with ourselves and this desire must be met with the effort to gain more and more information about God and about ourselves. We must enter into a lifelong search to strengthen our models and worldviews or to modify them or change them if we find new information that leads us into these changes. Like everything else we do, we must go forward building upon the foundations we have established and work to grow into greater unity…and wholeness…and peace.
We must listen to ourselves…we must be aware of disunities…we must be aware of our alienation…and we must question…and we must seek help…and we must be open to new information.
This effort must be intentional on our part…we must address our issues…we must have confidence that we can achieve what we are setting out to do. We must believe, with Goethe, that if we must commit….for when we commit for “the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves to.”
“All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manners of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no person would have believed would have come their way. Whatever you think you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
Seek peace within oneself…seek wholeness…seek self-confidence in one’s own skin. Use what you have been given…and be open to what is possible…to surprise…to wonder.
Be open to God…
These are some of the most difficult questions a person ever faces.
These questions go back to the fundamental characteristic of human beings…the ability of human beings to solve problems or to make decisions. But, what is the basis for the use of this capability to provide answers for the above questions?
The basis is what has been called the greatest commandments which Jesus limited to just two. The first was to love God with all you heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. The second was like the first…you should love your neighbor as yourself. Many people have pointed out the fact that one cannot really love your neighbor if you do not love yourself. So, to me, the way to answer the questions posed in the first paragraph is to love God and by loving God coming to love yourself so that you can love others, including all creation, as yourself.
So, the charge becomes knowing God and knowing ones self sufficiently so that you can move into greater unity with God and within yourself. This is how one comes to love ones self. This is how one comes to know who he or she is…it is how a person becomes comfortable in their own skin…it how a person achieves peace within themselves.
Still, the process is one of problem solving or decision making. It is the same as everything else we do…we just turn the focus on other objects. The problems we have to deal with in this instance are concerned with how we solve those problems and how we make the decisions that bring us into greater unity…with God…and within ourselves.
And, what is so extraordinary about this? We are to learn and grow and mature in our lives so that we can make better decisions or solve more difficult problems. We are to take responsible for ourselves and our mental state.
This sounds easy…but as we know it is very, very difficult. We live in a world of incomplete information…including a lot of things we don’t know about ourselves. We have to live with uncertainty and change. We have to learn to live with the fact that our worldviews, our models and schema, our rules of life…are partial and fallible. We can be wrong. And, we don’t like that.
One response to this situation is to crave certainty…to crave rules and creeds and dogma that promise “the truth”. We crave a solution to our disunity…our alienation…our lack of wholeness. And, many of us are willing to give up our minds and lives to rulers who will control our lives so that we, maybe…just maybe…may control the things and people around us.
In the end, however, this is not satisfying…it is giving up yourself to others.
We must live in this world of incomplete information…in this world of uncertainty…and accept the fact that our models and worldviews are partial and fallible. Yet, in a very pragmatic way, we stay with models and worldviews that work…that help us make better decisions and solve more difficult problems.
The crucial thing is that we must desire this greater unity with God and with ourselves and this desire must be met with the effort to gain more and more information about God and about ourselves. We must enter into a lifelong search to strengthen our models and worldviews or to modify them or change them if we find new information that leads us into these changes. Like everything else we do, we must go forward building upon the foundations we have established and work to grow into greater unity…and wholeness…and peace.
We must listen to ourselves…we must be aware of disunities…we must be aware of our alienation…and we must question…and we must seek help…and we must be open to new information.
This effort must be intentional on our part…we must address our issues…we must have confidence that we can achieve what we are setting out to do. We must believe, with Goethe, that if we must commit….for when we commit for “the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves to.”
“All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise never have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manners of incidents and meetings and material assistance which no person would have believed would have come their way. Whatever you think you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.”
Seek peace within oneself…seek wholeness…seek self-confidence in one’s own skin. Use what you have been given…and be open to what is possible…to surprise…to wonder.
Be open to God…
Friday, January 16, 2009
On Not Being Will-Full
The last post (January 12, 2009) argued against any person, group, or organization imposing doctrine, creed, or “truth” upon others. That is, one should be suspicious or stand-offish against anyone that demands 100% allegiance to the rules or laws concerning what they believe.
This position, however, opens up on the other side, the issue which is that individuals have complete freedom to choose whatever they want to, at any time they please. I call a person who takes such a position, a will-full person…a person who imposes their will upon a situation.
I find myself uncomfortable with this extreme position as well. I guess I am just wishy-washy.
There are two aspects to this issue that I believe to be very important. First, people, groups, and organizations do possess beliefs, worldviews, and other content that are helpful to one leading a better, fuller, or, more whole and alive life. These people, groups, and organizations can provide us with models and schema that allow us to make better decisions or solve more difficult problems.
To me, there is no question that this is the case. And, these people, groups, and organizations continue to provide guidance to individuals over time because, in a very pragmatic sense, a large part of what they have to offer succeeds…it truly helps others. The reason that they have “staying power” and are still around is that they do provide people with good models upon which these people make decisions or solve problems.
Where these people, groups, and organizations can go wrong, I believe, is when they either come to believe so strongly that they are “right” in their beliefs that they feel everyone should believe the same way they do, or, when they take a successful way of looking at something and use this success to build power and control for themselves. Of course, you can have situations where both occur and build upon one another over time.
The extreme of the first of these can be seen in the 16th century practice of burning people at the stake for their own good because they did not adhere to a particular form of belief. That is, these people were “going to hell” anyway, they could not be redeemed, and so they might as well get on with it…with the help of good Christians who knew of their depravity.
The extreme side of the second of these is the person who uses his or her charisma to gather followers to themselves, followers who seek certainty in one way or another. These people use their power over these people to enhance their own position and gain more and more control over others even to the point of committing mass suicide as the wish of the leader.
Variations can be found of both of these paths in highly organized clerical situations, political movements, or grass-roots assemblies. The foundation for such happenings is that there is fundamentally something positive that is offered people…whether it is hope, or certainty, or healing, or whatever. It is what happens in the evolution of the idea or ideas that corrupts the effort and turns it into something negative rather than positive.
My objection is that when the ideas, rules, laws, models, or schema start to be imposed upon individuals so that they cannot question or debate or investigate or be open to new information trouble begins. People must be free to ask questions. They must be free and open to new information. They must be at liberty to follow where their own minds lead them.
The problem with this, of course, is that people only have incomplete information about any subject. Thus, whatever questions they have or problems they face, they must go into them knowing that the answers they produce or the solutions they come up with are only uncertain and fallible. People must live with this deficiency…and this is a hard thing to do…for individuals, deep down, crave certainty. Individuals must learn to be strong and accept the fact that this is the reality of life. And some…because of life situations, of experiences, of personal weaknesses…cannot live with such uncertainty. They constantly search out those that offer a kind of shelter from the storm.
This leads into the second major aspect of the situation. There are people, groups, and organizations that do have successful worldviews, models, schema, and so forth and do not impose their ideas and beliefs on other people. These people, groups, and organizations accept the incompleteness and fallibility of their ideas and beliefs yet realize the positive aspects of their worldview, models or schema and want to share this fact with others.
I believe this to be true of those who truly follow Jesus…as argued in my post of January 12, 2009. I also believe that it is the responsibility of those that follow Jesus to share what Jesus has to offer with others. This is called “Missional” behavior and it is what we are supposed to engage in if we support the teachings of Jesus.
To go through the whole argument quickly: we argue that God is Love. Our objective is to love as God loves. First, we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. Second, we are to love God’s creation…ourselves, other people, and the rest of creation.
To love God and to love our neighbor…creation…we need to have some idea of what it means to love like God. This is where Jesus comes in. We who follow Jesus believe that he was an example of what it means to love God and to love God’s creation. In this, Jesus glorified God which translates into the statement that Jesus revealed the image of God in all that he did. Thus, Jesus is our model of what it means to love God and to love God’s creation.
This is what it means to be “Missional”. We are to do as Jesus did and that is reveal the image of God to others. That is…we are to “go and do likewise.”
Notice…in no way are we to force our ideas on others…in no way are we to impose on others…in no way are we to try and control the beliefs and actions of other individuals. We are to reveal what kind of life is led by those that follow the teachings of Jesus. No doctrine…no creed…no toeing the line to a specific way of thought.
The idea is, of course, that leading a life in this way will result in us being in greater unity with God, within ourselves, with others, and with creation. It will lead to greater wholeness and more aliveness. It will lead to a life that others will want to imitate.
Thus, there is no forcing…no imposing…no intimidation…no will-full-ness. We believe in a way of life that is our choice. We live that life and are able to reflect on and explain to others why we live the way we do and why, we believe, we get the results we do.
This, to me, is the way we live our lives. We believe in something. Our choices are not arbitrary. And, it is the way we help other individuals.
This position, however, opens up on the other side, the issue which is that individuals have complete freedom to choose whatever they want to, at any time they please. I call a person who takes such a position, a will-full person…a person who imposes their will upon a situation.
I find myself uncomfortable with this extreme position as well. I guess I am just wishy-washy.
There are two aspects to this issue that I believe to be very important. First, people, groups, and organizations do possess beliefs, worldviews, and other content that are helpful to one leading a better, fuller, or, more whole and alive life. These people, groups, and organizations can provide us with models and schema that allow us to make better decisions or solve more difficult problems.
To me, there is no question that this is the case. And, these people, groups, and organizations continue to provide guidance to individuals over time because, in a very pragmatic sense, a large part of what they have to offer succeeds…it truly helps others. The reason that they have “staying power” and are still around is that they do provide people with good models upon which these people make decisions or solve problems.
Where these people, groups, and organizations can go wrong, I believe, is when they either come to believe so strongly that they are “right” in their beliefs that they feel everyone should believe the same way they do, or, when they take a successful way of looking at something and use this success to build power and control for themselves. Of course, you can have situations where both occur and build upon one another over time.
The extreme of the first of these can be seen in the 16th century practice of burning people at the stake for their own good because they did not adhere to a particular form of belief. That is, these people were “going to hell” anyway, they could not be redeemed, and so they might as well get on with it…with the help of good Christians who knew of their depravity.
The extreme side of the second of these is the person who uses his or her charisma to gather followers to themselves, followers who seek certainty in one way or another. These people use their power over these people to enhance their own position and gain more and more control over others even to the point of committing mass suicide as the wish of the leader.
Variations can be found of both of these paths in highly organized clerical situations, political movements, or grass-roots assemblies. The foundation for such happenings is that there is fundamentally something positive that is offered people…whether it is hope, or certainty, or healing, or whatever. It is what happens in the evolution of the idea or ideas that corrupts the effort and turns it into something negative rather than positive.
My objection is that when the ideas, rules, laws, models, or schema start to be imposed upon individuals so that they cannot question or debate or investigate or be open to new information trouble begins. People must be free to ask questions. They must be free and open to new information. They must be at liberty to follow where their own minds lead them.
The problem with this, of course, is that people only have incomplete information about any subject. Thus, whatever questions they have or problems they face, they must go into them knowing that the answers they produce or the solutions they come up with are only uncertain and fallible. People must live with this deficiency…and this is a hard thing to do…for individuals, deep down, crave certainty. Individuals must learn to be strong and accept the fact that this is the reality of life. And some…because of life situations, of experiences, of personal weaknesses…cannot live with such uncertainty. They constantly search out those that offer a kind of shelter from the storm.
This leads into the second major aspect of the situation. There are people, groups, and organizations that do have successful worldviews, models, schema, and so forth and do not impose their ideas and beliefs on other people. These people, groups, and organizations accept the incompleteness and fallibility of their ideas and beliefs yet realize the positive aspects of their worldview, models or schema and want to share this fact with others.
I believe this to be true of those who truly follow Jesus…as argued in my post of January 12, 2009. I also believe that it is the responsibility of those that follow Jesus to share what Jesus has to offer with others. This is called “Missional” behavior and it is what we are supposed to engage in if we support the teachings of Jesus.
To go through the whole argument quickly: we argue that God is Love. Our objective is to love as God loves. First, we are to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. Second, we are to love God’s creation…ourselves, other people, and the rest of creation.
To love God and to love our neighbor…creation…we need to have some idea of what it means to love like God. This is where Jesus comes in. We who follow Jesus believe that he was an example of what it means to love God and to love God’s creation. In this, Jesus glorified God which translates into the statement that Jesus revealed the image of God in all that he did. Thus, Jesus is our model of what it means to love God and to love God’s creation.
This is what it means to be “Missional”. We are to do as Jesus did and that is reveal the image of God to others. That is…we are to “go and do likewise.”
Notice…in no way are we to force our ideas on others…in no way are we to impose on others…in no way are we to try and control the beliefs and actions of other individuals. We are to reveal what kind of life is led by those that follow the teachings of Jesus. No doctrine…no creed…no toeing the line to a specific way of thought.
The idea is, of course, that leading a life in this way will result in us being in greater unity with God, within ourselves, with others, and with creation. It will lead to greater wholeness and more aliveness. It will lead to a life that others will want to imitate.
Thus, there is no forcing…no imposing…no intimidation…no will-full-ness. We believe in a way of life that is our choice. We live that life and are able to reflect on and explain to others why we live the way we do and why, we believe, we get the results we do.
This, to me, is the way we live our lives. We believe in something. Our choices are not arbitrary. And, it is the way we help other individuals.
Monday, January 12, 2009
The Search for Knowledge
Jesus is reported to have said this during his ministry: “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” This comes from the book of John, chapter 8, verse 32. He prefaces this by saying, “If you continue in my word…”
The question about the meaning of this…and of other sayings attributed to Jesus…is whether or not Jesus wanted us to take his sayings as “law” or as “process.” If we take his sayings as “law” then we must obey exactly what he says. But, this has its own problems.
When Jesus is ask by a Jewish lawyer, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds by asking the lawyer “What is written in the law?” The lawyer smartly replies that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” This comes from the book of Luke, chapter 10, versus 25-28.
This is the law and Jesus commends him: “You have given the right answer…” but then he goes on, “do this, and you will live.”
Whoa! Here is the law. We are told what to do. But…there is a hitch…how do we act? How do we carry out the meaning of the law? Like, for instance, “And who is my neighbor?” the lawyer replies.
Good question.
What does the law mean? How should it be applied? And, to whom should it be applied?
The law is the law, but the application of the law…is interpretation.
I believe that we get some sense of how Jesus sees the law being applied in two incidents that are reported in Mark 2:23-3:6, Matthew 12:1-14, and Luke 6:1-11. The first incident occurs when Jesus and his disciples are going through a grain field. (Mark 2:23) The second takes place in a synagogue on the Sabbath. In both cases the “upholders of the law” take issue with what is being done. In the first case the issue is about doing work on the Sabbath…plucking heads of grain. In the second case the issue concerns Jesus healing the withered hand of a man.
Upon facing the claim that he or his disciples are “doing what is not lawful” (Mark 2:24) Jesus replies citing scripture. “Have you never read…” he responds to the Pharisees. Also, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” (Mark 3:4)
He justifies the actions by saying “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath…” (Mark 2:27) and “I desire mercy and not sacrifice…” (Matthew 12:7) In other words, think about what the law is supposed to do. Is the law supposed to constrain man, limit him, and box him in? Or, is the law about freeing up man, opening up his possibilities, and providing liberation.
Did Moses liberate the Hebrews from bondage…or did he impose the law on them to bring them into a different kind of bondage?
I believe that what Jesus is saying is “think rightly.” What is this all about? The law is supposed to build up life…to create greater wholeness…to allow one to live more fully. You shouldn’t use the law to destroy life…or create division…or to smother the living. The law is supposed to help people live with God…to live with themselves…to live with others…and to live with creation.
The law is a guideline…but the law needs interpretation…the law requires knowledge and understanding. And, what does the law say? Well, Jesus says that the lawyer “gave the right answer.” The right answer is…“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
But, this answer opens up two issues that require definition. The first one, the lawyer goes for…”who is my neighbor?” Jesus doesn’t provide an answer to who the neighbor of the lawyer is. This is the story of the Good Samaritan and when Jesus finishes the story he asks…”Which of the these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” And this deals with the second issue…what does it mean to love you neighbor.
Not…who is my neighbor?...but who was a neighbor. And, the lawyer gives Jesus the right answer again, “The one who showed him mercy.” The one who loved.
Note, by providing the other with the response he or she needs…you are being a neighbor. YOU are the only one you can control. YOU are the only one that can carry out the commandment for YOU. And, you respond to the needs of others, which requires that you make the effort to know what the other needs…and this is not what YOU want to give to the other…it is what the other needs!
And, this gets me back to the quote at the beginning…”If you continue in my word…YOU will know the truth…and the truth will make YOU free.” That is, if you take the time and effort to learn what the other needs and give to the other what he or she or it needs then YOU will become free…become whole…become fully alive. It is not the responsibility of the neighbor or who the neighbor is.
So, loving requires knowing…and knowing requires effort on the part of the individual to learn. We don’t know what the answer is until we make the effort to learn. THE LAW DOES NOT GIVE US THE ANSWER…the law only guides us. We must “think rightly.’
To put this in another way, it seems to me that any one or any group or any organization that requires you to subscribe to something that is rigid, dogmatic, or imposed upon you violates the teachings of Jesus. Any one or any group or any organization that tells you what to believe or tells you what to do or tells you who you can associate with violates the teachings of Jesus. We should be immediately suspicious of any one, any group, or any organization that has the final word on things, that will not us allow us to test things out and make our own judgments.
Jesus says that if you open your heart and soul and mind and strength to love…to love God, yourself, others, and all of creation…you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. That is, we have to develop and trust the inherent abilities we have as human beings and problem solvers if we are to be fully human, fully whole, and fully alive. We must oppose those that try and constrain us, who allow us anything less.
The question about the meaning of this…and of other sayings attributed to Jesus…is whether or not Jesus wanted us to take his sayings as “law” or as “process.” If we take his sayings as “law” then we must obey exactly what he says. But, this has its own problems.
When Jesus is ask by a Jewish lawyer, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus responds by asking the lawyer “What is written in the law?” The lawyer smartly replies that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” This comes from the book of Luke, chapter 10, versus 25-28.
This is the law and Jesus commends him: “You have given the right answer…” but then he goes on, “do this, and you will live.”
Whoa! Here is the law. We are told what to do. But…there is a hitch…how do we act? How do we carry out the meaning of the law? Like, for instance, “And who is my neighbor?” the lawyer replies.
Good question.
What does the law mean? How should it be applied? And, to whom should it be applied?
The law is the law, but the application of the law…is interpretation.
I believe that we get some sense of how Jesus sees the law being applied in two incidents that are reported in Mark 2:23-3:6, Matthew 12:1-14, and Luke 6:1-11. The first incident occurs when Jesus and his disciples are going through a grain field. (Mark 2:23) The second takes place in a synagogue on the Sabbath. In both cases the “upholders of the law” take issue with what is being done. In the first case the issue is about doing work on the Sabbath…plucking heads of grain. In the second case the issue concerns Jesus healing the withered hand of a man.
Upon facing the claim that he or his disciples are “doing what is not lawful” (Mark 2:24) Jesus replies citing scripture. “Have you never read…” he responds to the Pharisees. Also, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?” (Mark 3:4)
He justifies the actions by saying “The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath…” (Mark 2:27) and “I desire mercy and not sacrifice…” (Matthew 12:7) In other words, think about what the law is supposed to do. Is the law supposed to constrain man, limit him, and box him in? Or, is the law about freeing up man, opening up his possibilities, and providing liberation.
Did Moses liberate the Hebrews from bondage…or did he impose the law on them to bring them into a different kind of bondage?
I believe that what Jesus is saying is “think rightly.” What is this all about? The law is supposed to build up life…to create greater wholeness…to allow one to live more fully. You shouldn’t use the law to destroy life…or create division…or to smother the living. The law is supposed to help people live with God…to live with themselves…to live with others…and to live with creation.
The law is a guideline…but the law needs interpretation…the law requires knowledge and understanding. And, what does the law say? Well, Jesus says that the lawyer “gave the right answer.” The right answer is…“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
But, this answer opens up two issues that require definition. The first one, the lawyer goes for…”who is my neighbor?” Jesus doesn’t provide an answer to who the neighbor of the lawyer is. This is the story of the Good Samaritan and when Jesus finishes the story he asks…”Which of the these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” And this deals with the second issue…what does it mean to love you neighbor.
Not…who is my neighbor?...but who was a neighbor. And, the lawyer gives Jesus the right answer again, “The one who showed him mercy.” The one who loved.
Note, by providing the other with the response he or she needs…you are being a neighbor. YOU are the only one you can control. YOU are the only one that can carry out the commandment for YOU. And, you respond to the needs of others, which requires that you make the effort to know what the other needs…and this is not what YOU want to give to the other…it is what the other needs!
And, this gets me back to the quote at the beginning…”If you continue in my word…YOU will know the truth…and the truth will make YOU free.” That is, if you take the time and effort to learn what the other needs and give to the other what he or she or it needs then YOU will become free…become whole…become fully alive. It is not the responsibility of the neighbor or who the neighbor is.
So, loving requires knowing…and knowing requires effort on the part of the individual to learn. We don’t know what the answer is until we make the effort to learn. THE LAW DOES NOT GIVE US THE ANSWER…the law only guides us. We must “think rightly.’
To put this in another way, it seems to me that any one or any group or any organization that requires you to subscribe to something that is rigid, dogmatic, or imposed upon you violates the teachings of Jesus. Any one or any group or any organization that tells you what to believe or tells you what to do or tells you who you can associate with violates the teachings of Jesus. We should be immediately suspicious of any one, any group, or any organization that has the final word on things, that will not us allow us to test things out and make our own judgments.
Jesus says that if you open your heart and soul and mind and strength to love…to love God, yourself, others, and all of creation…you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. That is, we have to develop and trust the inherent abilities we have as human beings and problem solvers if we are to be fully human, fully whole, and fully alive. We must oppose those that try and constrain us, who allow us anything less.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Speaking of Children
The psychologist Robert Coles was featured on Krista Tippett’s Speaking of Faith program this last Sunday, January 4, 2009. The topic was “The Inner Lives of Children”, http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/robert-coles/. Coles discussed his work with children and especially his work that connected with the spiritual side of children. The thing that resonated with me was how his description of the way kids went about life as ‘problem solvers’, learners and strivers, just as are all adult humans.
Cole’s description of the process used by children to address issues is, of course, a description of how all human beings go about their daily lives. Human beings are problem solvers and in this specific talent, no other species alive even approaches the capability of the human animal in his or her ability to solve problems. (For more on the development of this ability within a religious context one can go to the book by J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, “Alone in the World?: Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology”, which is his Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, or, my work “Plausible Reasoning within a Religious Context”.)
The basic idea is that the ability to solve problems is the unique characteristic that human beings have and, given its contribution to the survival of the species, has been developed to a very advanced and sophisticated stage. Given the importance of this capability to the survival of the species it is not unexpected that younger humans possess this characteristic and practice it and perfect it throughout their childhood.
What is particularly enlightening about the work that Coles reports upon is how this human trait exhibits itself very early on in terms of how children generate questions about life, about value, about meaning, about relationships, and so on. His work just reinforces the idea that humans have possessed a curiosity about “spiritual” matters for as long as we, humans, can trace back this trait in what our ancestors have left us. That is, the early drawings left in the caves of France, as well as artifacts in other places, speak to the quest of human beings to understand more than just the physical world around them.
Human beings ask questions…and they seek and propose answers.
Where do these answers come from? Are they divinely inspired? Are they human concoctions? Are they just picked out of the air?
Many different people give us many different explanations as to where the answers come from. I have my preferences…but, that, to me, is not the crucial issue at this point.
What is important at this point is that people, being problem solvers, require that the solutions they get for specific questions work. That is, these solutions have practical value to humans…remember problem solving is a ‘survival’ characteristic. Thus, these solutions must contribute to life and to a ‘better’ life if they are to continue to serve as solutions to human beings.
Let me just throw in two words of caution at this time of a more skeptical nature. First, I would argue that all solutions are tentative…that is they are fallible…they may not work forever. In seeking answers all humans work in a world of incomplete information. That is, humans never have complete information in solving any problem or in making any decision. Yet, in life they have to make decisions…they must act…even with incomplete information. That is why humans continue to ask questions, seek more information, and continue to question the solutions they have been working with.
This last point leads to the second word of caution: specific solutions may work for a while, but as these solutions are tested through acting and living, and as new information becomes available, the specific solutions may be modified…or, they may be replaced. We can believe in a specific idea so strongly that we will die for that idea, but that does not mean that the specific solution will live on and continue to be used by others. Thus, solutions that provided certain people with a ‘better’ life at one time may not be solutions that provide them with a ‘better’ life at a later date when more or better information is available to them.
How does problem solving and living a ‘better’ life and spiritual issues fit together?
The answer to this question, I believe, is connected with what is meant by experiencing wholeness in life…by being “Alive”. I spent a little time on this in my post of January 5, 2009 entitled “Aliveness.” To me, the essence of ‘Aliveness’ is in living in unity with God, within self, with others, and with creation. To survive in life is important, but one must also experience a ‘better’ life in order to live as full a life as possible. And, I believe that living a ‘full’ life is a good thing and is something that human beings, as a species, crave. It is a basic drive.
In other words, creation is good…creation includes ourselves and others…and God is behind this creation in some way…so it would seem that it would be a good thing to work “with” this creation and “with” God than to work at odds with either creation or God. The solutions we use to solve problems or make decisions or take actions, therefore, need to conform as much as possible to the way things work…the way God is.
Our solutions result from incomplete information, however, so that the unities that we achieve are only partial and, in most cases, temporary. In our lives, we constantly must struggle to maintain or increase the unity we experience. In a sense it is the burden that we must continue to carry up the hill as Sisyphus is pictured doing in the Greek myth.
Human beings continue to struggle in life…they continue to solve problems in the best way they can…even those of a spiritual nature.
In the work of Robert Coles we see how this very human characteristic is manifested early on in life when we are children.
Human beings, I believe, are spiritual in nature. They continually ask questions of a spiritual nature and their lives and cultures are full of spiritual answers. As Paul Tillich informed us…humans build the spiritual into their lives and cultures…even as they vehemently deny it.
In this sense, we have been spiritual beings since our childhood. May we never lose that hunger
Cole’s description of the process used by children to address issues is, of course, a description of how all human beings go about their daily lives. Human beings are problem solvers and in this specific talent, no other species alive even approaches the capability of the human animal in his or her ability to solve problems. (For more on the development of this ability within a religious context one can go to the book by J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, “Alone in the World?: Human Uniqueness in Science and Theology”, which is his Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh, or, my work “Plausible Reasoning within a Religious Context”.)
The basic idea is that the ability to solve problems is the unique characteristic that human beings have and, given its contribution to the survival of the species, has been developed to a very advanced and sophisticated stage. Given the importance of this capability to the survival of the species it is not unexpected that younger humans possess this characteristic and practice it and perfect it throughout their childhood.
What is particularly enlightening about the work that Coles reports upon is how this human trait exhibits itself very early on in terms of how children generate questions about life, about value, about meaning, about relationships, and so on. His work just reinforces the idea that humans have possessed a curiosity about “spiritual” matters for as long as we, humans, can trace back this trait in what our ancestors have left us. That is, the early drawings left in the caves of France, as well as artifacts in other places, speak to the quest of human beings to understand more than just the physical world around them.
Human beings ask questions…and they seek and propose answers.
Where do these answers come from? Are they divinely inspired? Are they human concoctions? Are they just picked out of the air?
Many different people give us many different explanations as to where the answers come from. I have my preferences…but, that, to me, is not the crucial issue at this point.
What is important at this point is that people, being problem solvers, require that the solutions they get for specific questions work. That is, these solutions have practical value to humans…remember problem solving is a ‘survival’ characteristic. Thus, these solutions must contribute to life and to a ‘better’ life if they are to continue to serve as solutions to human beings.
Let me just throw in two words of caution at this time of a more skeptical nature. First, I would argue that all solutions are tentative…that is they are fallible…they may not work forever. In seeking answers all humans work in a world of incomplete information. That is, humans never have complete information in solving any problem or in making any decision. Yet, in life they have to make decisions…they must act…even with incomplete information. That is why humans continue to ask questions, seek more information, and continue to question the solutions they have been working with.
This last point leads to the second word of caution: specific solutions may work for a while, but as these solutions are tested through acting and living, and as new information becomes available, the specific solutions may be modified…or, they may be replaced. We can believe in a specific idea so strongly that we will die for that idea, but that does not mean that the specific solution will live on and continue to be used by others. Thus, solutions that provided certain people with a ‘better’ life at one time may not be solutions that provide them with a ‘better’ life at a later date when more or better information is available to them.
How does problem solving and living a ‘better’ life and spiritual issues fit together?
The answer to this question, I believe, is connected with what is meant by experiencing wholeness in life…by being “Alive”. I spent a little time on this in my post of January 5, 2009 entitled “Aliveness.” To me, the essence of ‘Aliveness’ is in living in unity with God, within self, with others, and with creation. To survive in life is important, but one must also experience a ‘better’ life in order to live as full a life as possible. And, I believe that living a ‘full’ life is a good thing and is something that human beings, as a species, crave. It is a basic drive.
In other words, creation is good…creation includes ourselves and others…and God is behind this creation in some way…so it would seem that it would be a good thing to work “with” this creation and “with” God than to work at odds with either creation or God. The solutions we use to solve problems or make decisions or take actions, therefore, need to conform as much as possible to the way things work…the way God is.
Our solutions result from incomplete information, however, so that the unities that we achieve are only partial and, in most cases, temporary. In our lives, we constantly must struggle to maintain or increase the unity we experience. In a sense it is the burden that we must continue to carry up the hill as Sisyphus is pictured doing in the Greek myth.
Human beings continue to struggle in life…they continue to solve problems in the best way they can…even those of a spiritual nature.
In the work of Robert Coles we see how this very human characteristic is manifested early on in life when we are children.
Human beings, I believe, are spiritual in nature. They continually ask questions of a spiritual nature and their lives and cultures are full of spiritual answers. As Paul Tillich informed us…humans build the spiritual into their lives and cultures…even as they vehemently deny it.
In this sense, we have been spiritual beings since our childhood. May we never lose that hunger
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Aliveness
“Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of our existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being. Someone will say, “I come alive when I listen to music,” or “I come to life when I garden,” or “I come alive when I play golf.” Wherever we may come alive, that is the area in which we are spiritual. To be vital, awake, aware, in all areas of our lives, is the task that is never accomplished but it remains a goal.”
Brother David Steindl-Rast
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and then do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
Howard Thurman
What is it that makes us come alive?
I believe that we really come alive when we are whole, when we are in unity with God…within ourselves…with others…and with creation. I believe that we can come alive listening to music, gardening, playing golf, helping other people, doing our daily chores, performing in our profession and so on and so on because we can find ourselves as more complete beings…more whole…working with and within God’s creation rather than against or in conflict with it.
I believe that in the times we are “alive” in this way, we are revealing to others an image…an image of God. In times like these we reflect a love that is God-like and that is why we feel “in unity”…why we experience the feeling of wholeness and peace.
One cannot control the world and in trying to do so we experience separation, alienation, and anxiety. All that one can hope to control is one’s self and a person must exert his or her efforts to bring themselves into a greater unity with all that there is. But, this requires love. And, if we are to love, we need to bring this love into everything one does…and, in acting “in love” we need to reveal this image of love in all we say and all we do.
We have been told that there are two commandments—to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I believe that we must take an enlarged definition of neighbor and expand the definition to include all of God’s creation, not just another person. That is, we are to love what God has created and that includes all that is within this creation. This is our neighbor.
Thus, to love our neighbor consists of coming into unity with others…and with creation. One should note, however, that loving our neighbor and coming into unity with our neighbor may not mean that we get along with them or are not at odds with them for some reason. Being in unity means that we are acting within the situation that we may agree to disagree. Since we do not control the other, we may not be able to bring them into unity with us. This raises a question, therefore, about what do we mean by love?
My definition of love is this: to love someone or something is to try to be where they are, see things as they see them and then respond to them with as full an understanding of this knowledge as possible. To love someone or something is not to respond to them as we would like them to be or as we see the world. We must learn as much as we can about those we are to love so that we can respond appropriately to where they are. Sometimes this means that we sacrifice for them. Sometimes this means that we work together. Sometimes this means that a “tough love” must exist between parties. But, to love someone or something means that we must work hard to try and understand them and their needs within a specific situation. I believe that God does this for us.
Another important point in this understanding of love is that to love our neighbor as ourselves…we must love ourselves. We must learn about ourselves and work to bring ourselves into a higher degree of unity, internally. We cannot really love someone else until we are confident in our love of ourselves. And, this does not mean that we are to be ego-maniacs!
And, of course, to be as “alive” as possible we must love God…be in unity with God. But, how do we do all this? We, of course, need examples. We are told that “God is love” and that we are to glorify God…that is “reveal the image of God.” We do have an example of a person who reflected God’s love and glorified God by revealing to us the image of God. This person is Jesus. By looking to the example of Jesus we can see how a person can love as God loves us.
Jesus is our example of what it means to love our neighbor, to love others, to love God’s creation, and to love God. Jesus shows us how to love as God loves.
This is our charge. This is why we can “feel alive” in doing something. We can “feel alive” in doing something because we can be more whole, more in unity with God, when we do those things…even playing golf.
Having played golf I can admit that this activity can be looked upon as rather trivial. Yet, it should remind us that even in doing very trivial things we should take them on as an opportunity to reveal the image of God. Others see us, see how we act and behave…and break golf clubs…see how we speak…and swear. They respond to the image we create. Realizing this we must decide whether or not we want the image we reveal to be helpful and productive to others…or are we satisfied as having little or no influence on them…or even a negative influence on them.
The image we reveal to others is important for that image not only reveals to others whether or not we “are alive” but how they might be “more alive” as well. In everything we do…whether it be playing golf, listening to music, or gardening…we should be exhibiting love…and in exhibiting love we “reveal the image of God.”
Brother David Steindl-Rast
“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and then do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
Howard Thurman
What is it that makes us come alive?
I believe that we really come alive when we are whole, when we are in unity with God…within ourselves…with others…and with creation. I believe that we can come alive listening to music, gardening, playing golf, helping other people, doing our daily chores, performing in our profession and so on and so on because we can find ourselves as more complete beings…more whole…working with and within God’s creation rather than against or in conflict with it.
I believe that in the times we are “alive” in this way, we are revealing to others an image…an image of God. In times like these we reflect a love that is God-like and that is why we feel “in unity”…why we experience the feeling of wholeness and peace.
One cannot control the world and in trying to do so we experience separation, alienation, and anxiety. All that one can hope to control is one’s self and a person must exert his or her efforts to bring themselves into a greater unity with all that there is. But, this requires love. And, if we are to love, we need to bring this love into everything one does…and, in acting “in love” we need to reveal this image of love in all we say and all we do.
We have been told that there are two commandments—to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. I believe that we must take an enlarged definition of neighbor and expand the definition to include all of God’s creation, not just another person. That is, we are to love what God has created and that includes all that is within this creation. This is our neighbor.
Thus, to love our neighbor consists of coming into unity with others…and with creation. One should note, however, that loving our neighbor and coming into unity with our neighbor may not mean that we get along with them or are not at odds with them for some reason. Being in unity means that we are acting within the situation that we may agree to disagree. Since we do not control the other, we may not be able to bring them into unity with us. This raises a question, therefore, about what do we mean by love?
My definition of love is this: to love someone or something is to try to be where they are, see things as they see them and then respond to them with as full an understanding of this knowledge as possible. To love someone or something is not to respond to them as we would like them to be or as we see the world. We must learn as much as we can about those we are to love so that we can respond appropriately to where they are. Sometimes this means that we sacrifice for them. Sometimes this means that we work together. Sometimes this means that a “tough love” must exist between parties. But, to love someone or something means that we must work hard to try and understand them and their needs within a specific situation. I believe that God does this for us.
Another important point in this understanding of love is that to love our neighbor as ourselves…we must love ourselves. We must learn about ourselves and work to bring ourselves into a higher degree of unity, internally. We cannot really love someone else until we are confident in our love of ourselves. And, this does not mean that we are to be ego-maniacs!
And, of course, to be as “alive” as possible we must love God…be in unity with God. But, how do we do all this? We, of course, need examples. We are told that “God is love” and that we are to glorify God…that is “reveal the image of God.” We do have an example of a person who reflected God’s love and glorified God by revealing to us the image of God. This person is Jesus. By looking to the example of Jesus we can see how a person can love as God loves us.
Jesus is our example of what it means to love our neighbor, to love others, to love God’s creation, and to love God. Jesus shows us how to love as God loves.
This is our charge. This is why we can “feel alive” in doing something. We can “feel alive” in doing something because we can be more whole, more in unity with God, when we do those things…even playing golf.
Having played golf I can admit that this activity can be looked upon as rather trivial. Yet, it should remind us that even in doing very trivial things we should take them on as an opportunity to reveal the image of God. Others see us, see how we act and behave…and break golf clubs…see how we speak…and swear. They respond to the image we create. Realizing this we must decide whether or not we want the image we reveal to be helpful and productive to others…or are we satisfied as having little or no influence on them…or even a negative influence on them.
The image we reveal to others is important for that image not only reveals to others whether or not we “are alive” but how they might be “more alive” as well. In everything we do…whether it be playing golf, listening to music, or gardening…we should be exhibiting love…and in exhibiting love we “reveal the image of God.”
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