Wednesday Wisdom

 

Lent 2021: 40 Days of Self Improvement

It has been a number of years since I've looked at Lent as anything more than a season on the liturgical calendar. I think this year I will attempt to look at it in a little different light. I don't mean to be sacrilegious, but I'm going to use it in a very non-religious way. I do see it as a time of spiritual growth, but probably not in a traditionally accepted kind of way. It will mostly be a time of self evaluation and personal growth rather than any kind of self sacrifice or personal penance.

I'm calling it 40 Days of Self Improvement.

The Lenten season begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sunday. That's actually 46 days minus 6 Sundays (don't ask me why) for a total of 40 days.

Here's my plan:

40 days of 16/8 intermittent fasting
40 days of:  40 minutes of exercise (walking, cycling, weights, yoga, etc.)
                    40 minutes of intentional reading (philosophy, religion, faith, something contemplative)
                    40 minutes of purposeful prayer and/or meditation
Send 40 cards, letters, or messages of encouragement.
40 days of writing. I haven't figured out what this will look like -- blogs, personal journaling of what I'm reading, random thoughts of daily events -- I don't know, but it will be something.

It really isn't that much, but it will take some discipline to budget a couple of hours out of every day and to be purposeful about contacting people. I'm really not very good at working through a regular daily/weekly schedule. Hopefully, I'll be a healthier (both physically and spiritually) person by the end of it all. 

Any Lenten plans?

Be well,
John

Winter Weather

On most snowy, wintery days I am grateful to be retired and not have to get out in the cold. This morning was a little different. The Venues Church has opened its downtown venue as a cold weather shelter for our homeless friends, so I was up early enough to enjoy my morning coffee before making my way to Downtown Springfield.

It looks like most of our friends in need have gathered at another more familiar place and I'm not sure that we'll remain open throughout the entire day. Nonetheless, I am so pleased to be associated with the kind of Christ followers that are always prepared to put their faith into action and to love out loud. 

Where ever you are, if you are safe and warm please consider helping someone that is not. If you are in the Springfield MO area, you can check out The Connecting Grounds to see how you can help.

Be safe, my friends!
John

Not your typical love story

 This is the lesson for this morning's Student Venues. It's not your typical love story nor is it about the kind of love you might expect on Valentine's day, but it is about the kind kind of love that we (or at least I) most need to hear today.

 

It’s Valentine’s Day!
St Valentine was executed on February 14, 470 CE for performing weddings for Roman soldiers - which was against the law. I guess it’s appropriate to celebrate romantic love by honoring a guy that was killed for performing illegal marriages. It’s a little weird how little we’ve changed in 1500 years.

When it comes to talking about romantic love, 1Corinthians 13 is often read or recited. It’s a common wedding text. It was read at our wedding nearly 40 years ago.
Although we might be familiar with the text, we rarely consider that Paul wasn’t writing it for future wedding ceremonies. He was writing it as an admonition to a church group that was in conflict and needed some instruction on how to get along with each other.  When I find myself thinking about that now I’m a little embarrassed at how I’ve acted toward some of my “neighbors” that have different political views or even religious views. In fact, I’ve probably been more tolerant (or loving) toward those with different religious views than with different political views.
Shame on me.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

Paul begins this text by really emphasizing the importance of love. He says that without it, we are nothing and all of our status and stuff is worth nothing.

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

In looking at what he writes about what love is, we are reminded of the kind of love that God has for us. Our love for others isn’t supposed to be about us; it’s about them. It isn’t about them understanding us; it’s about us understanding them. It isn’t about them being patient and kind toward us; it’s about us being patient and kind to them. Love isn’t about getting our way and it isn’t resentful about letting them have their way.
Geez! Love is hard!

Sometimes you may find yourself loving someone that doesn’t really love you back - at least not to the extent that you love them. This can be the kind of love between friends, coworkers, even family members. Understanding our differences and making allowances for them is difficult. Many friendships or even romantic relationships and marriages are lost because we fail at understanding each other.

Right now there is a great level of disharmony in our nation. It goes beyond the political divide. There is also distrust and division between social classes, between races and cultures, between people of different sexual orientation or gender identity, and of course--people of different religious backgrounds.
The community at Corinth was facing the same kinds of diversity that devolved into discord that we are facing today. Paul’s words from nearly two thousand years ago are very appropriate for us today. We need to seek to understand each other and care for each other -- we need to love one another.

Even though these words make for a pretty wedding reading, that’s not how they were written. I think Paul was angry when he wrote them. He was writing to people that were supposed to be modeling the love of Jesus and they were being selfish and childish. Paul closes out this admonition by saying - Grow up! Quit acting like spoiled brats! 

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Ugh!
Is he talkin’ to me?
Am I going to have to delete social media posts or comments?
Love is hard, isn’t it?

But there is good news --
In the end -- Love wins!

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

John

It almost time

It is almost time for a new laptop. This old 2 in 1 is getting to the point where the battery charge isn't lasting very long. The keyboard part of it went out about a year ago and I replaced it with Bluetooth keyboard and repurposed and old tablet/keyboard folder to accommodate it. It's actually still useable for a few hours at a time, but it's a pain to have to be near an outlet for longer use or to have to plug it in every time I finish using it (since I'm forgetful about such things). I also forget to charge the keyboard every couple of weeks.
When the time comes that I do replace it, I'll probably hang on to the tablet part to use as my e-reader. I only use the kindle app occasionally, usually opting for my phone's kindle app instead. I think I'll look for a comfortable sized Chromebook. I'd like something bigger than the minis I've had in the past, but don't really want something too big, either. The minis were great for taking to work or shoving into a backpack, but I'd like a little larger keyboard and larger screen. Truthfully, I'll probably be using this for some time since I'm too cheap to want to spend the money on a new one. 

I've been spending much less time on the internet lately. I need to be more purposeful about writing and reading. It's still pretty easy to get caught chasing rabbits. I'm pretty sure I'll be on here quite a bit in the coming days as our daytime high temperatures will be well below the freezing mark for the next week or so. I'm sure i could find something that needs to be done around here without having to go outside, but the internet is an easy, comfortable place to be with plenty of variety and useful information.

Later today I'll be getting my lesson for Student Venues together. I may post it here on Sunday or Monday. I also owe a book review to a friend and will be posting that soon, as well. 
Be well, my friends!

John

Random Things

This morning I had to retrieve my tablet/laptop from my backpack in order to write. It's been there since my Monday night shelter duty, so I obviously haven't been spending as much time with the social media stuff. Oh sure, I still use my phone for that, but not as much as I have in the past. Even though I've narrowed my "friends" list enough to make it a more pleasant experience, it can still be pretty time consuming and is usually pretty non-productive time.
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Wednesday morning I received my second shot of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. Although I had no side effects (other than a little soreness at the injection site) from the first shot, this one left me with some fatigue, chills, and an all-day headache that started about 12 hours after receiving the shot. All-in-all, it wasn't too bad--just enough to be a nuisance and cause me to lie around doing nothing all day.
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At some point during the week, I recognized that it is February and I wasn't putting out a haiku every day like I have for the past several Februarys. (Writing that makes me wonder why it isn't Februaries instead of Februarys. Hmmm...just checking with Google -- it's either!) For those that care, February is National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo) and offers the challenge of writing a haiku every day. The traditional Japanese haiku is a little different than the Americanized version of three lines consisting of five, seven, and five syllables.
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We are about to experience another cold snap due to a split in the polar vortex. Here in Southwest Missouri, we will have one or two days where the daytime highs will remain below freezing, but we aren't expecting any snow or freezing precipitation this weekend so the super spreader Super Bowl parties can continue as planned. The real cold won't hit us until Tuesday. I'll be happy if Kansas City wins, but I'm not a big fan so it really doesn't matter. I may or may not watch any of it. The Blues' weekend games are postponed, so ... maybe.

Then again, I might just enjoy the fireplace and a good book.

Enjoy your weekend!
John

Focus on the Family -- NOT!

This is the lesson I wrote for our Student Venues for the week. It follows along with Pastor Phillip's current study, mostly using his scripture texts and (hopefully) conveying a similar message. (Again -- sorry about the font. Also, the hyperlinks don't open in a new window so you'll need to use the "back" button to return to the text. Just an issue with the copy and paste from Google docs to Blogger)

There are a lot of things that cause family feuds. Some differences last lifetimes. A 150 years ago there were brothers fighting against brothers in our nation’s Civil War. Even in today’s very polarized political landscape we see great political differences that have viciously divided families.

Some family disputes happen in family businesses; some in dividing family estates. There are marital differences and divorces that tear families apart. Often it’s finances.
Dealing with a tragic death can destroy a family unit as can addiction or mental illness.
Sexual orientation is often the reason a person gets outcast from a family unit.
It seems so weird that God is also a reason that families fall apart.

But maybe it shouldn’t.

Both in church life and in society, we are taught that the family is the core unit. Destruction of the family is the beginning of our downfall. I do believe that the family unit is important and I believe that the Commandments teach us about honoring our parents.
But the New Testament has some contradictory stories.

In Matthew’s gospel (4:18-22) we see two sets of brothers that suddenly leave the family businesses to follow Jesus. This is a pretty big deal. It was more than leaving the business; they were leaving the family. Not only was Jesus okay with this, he was the one that told them to follow him!

What about Luke 9:59-60?
Maybe this was the case of someone telling Jesus that he couldn’t follow until after his father was dead and it wasn’t like the dad was going to die any time soon. I have a difficult time thinking that Jesus didn’t want someone to go to a parent’s funeral - but I don’t really know.

In Luke 14:25-26, Jesus tells us that we must hate our family.
What’s up with that?
Is this a case of real hatred or is it a comparison kind of thing like placing love of God so far above family that it seems like hate?

Have you ever had to prioritize your love for family against your belief is something else?
Politics?
Social justice?
Sexual orientation?
A particular person?
Religion?

Even though your choice doesn’t mean that you hate your family (or that they hate you), being on the short end of that priority stick certainly hurts -- a lot.

Jesus even said that families would be divided because of him.
So what happens when the family values of society or religion clash with the values of Jesus?
What happens when we see the values of God differently than our family sees the values of God?
How important is it that we see God’s way the same way that others see it?
Jesus didn’t seem to make a big deal of it. He taught God’s way and moved on. He didn’t demand that people follow him -- not even the members of his own family.

Is that something that we can do? Can we love people the way Jesus teaches us to love them and be okay if they choose not to do the same for us?
Jesus knew that he wasn’t always going to be accepted by his community, his religion, even his own family -- and he seemed to be okay with that. It wasn’t his mission to please everybody. He taught us to love as God loves us. He taught that God loves us without conditions. God doesn’t demand we love him first or even after he demonstrates his love for us. God doesn’t hold out his love as a bargaining chip or something to be earned.

I don’t know how you compare total love. I don’t know if you can.
Is it possible to love God completely and not make that your most important love? Can we love our family as much as we love God or is it possible that we may have to make a determination of whom we love more?

Personally I believe that we need to focus on our love relationship with God. I believe that when we are in a right relationship with God it is impossible for us to be a poor son or daughter. We can’t be a rebellious child when we are right with God. We can’t be an unfaithful spouse when we are in a right relationship with God. We can’t be an abusive parent or a bully when we are in a right relationship with God. We can’t be a lazy employee or a manipulative boss if our relationship is right with God.

I’m not talking about following church rules or checking off religious boxes. I’m saying that when we understand the love of God and choose to love like God, our other relationships flow out of that.

Will that make it a perfect world?
No, it won’t. Remember that the religious leaders of Jesus’s day worked to have him arrested and crucified. Love isn’t easy.
But there is a peace in knowing that you are loved by God and doing your best to love others the way God loves you. It is a peace that is beyond our ability to understand or express.

It is my hope and prayer that you find this peace. John

Six Years

It's a cold, damp January day with a forecast high of just 34f (1c) degrees. I may have to postpone my six year retirement anniversary cigar until later in the week. Wednesday it is supposed to be around 50 (10c) and I can also celebrate having received my second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. 

I might go out in search of a nice barrel-aged stout for today. That's been the other half of my traditional retirement celebration. True to form, my grand annual retirement celebration has been a party of one -- a nice barrel-aged stout, a good cigar, and a peaceful hour and a half or so to enjoy it.
There was no beach trip this year as travel is still on hold, but I'm sure that I can find a beach state of mind somewhere in my head. Beach travel will have to wait for safer travel days in a post pandemic world.

Anyway you look at it, retirement has been a pretty good gig. I'll celebrate today --  even without the smoke.

John

A New Day...Or is it?

If you've know me at all, you know that I am pleased with the inauguration of Joe Biden as POTUS. I was greatly encouraged by his inaugural address that stressed unity more than any other inaugural address in our nation's history. I hope that is the case...but I wonder.

As a left-leaning centrist my voice has been unheard for the past 12 years. In 2009, Senate Minority Leader McConnell vowed to oppose everything the Democrats proposed and to make President Obama a one-term President. He blocked everything that he could and used the Senate filibuster rules to prevent votes on proposed legislation until he became Majority Leader in 2015. Since then, with a Democratic led House of Representatives, he has left hundreds of House passed bills sitting on his desk and never brought them to the Senate for discussion, much less a vote.

Now that the tide has turned and Democrats control (by the slimmest of margins) both chambers of Congress and the White House, I wonder if the President's call for unity and desire to be President to all Americans will really bring us together or if it will just be a case of the other side of the aisle having the ability to shutdown all Republican proposals. Many Democrats have criticized Joe Biden as being too soft, too willing to compromise, to weak to advance their causes. Even if the President truly desires a unified nation (and I believe he genuinely does), is it possible in an evenly split Congress?

I posted this on Facebook while listening to the President's Inaugural Address:

I believe that.
I also believe that there are those that think they know what is best for all without listening to everyone affected by their decisions. What I am uncertain of is whether or not I will become one of those that are unwilling to listen to or act on behalf of those that have differing opinions. I've been on the side of the unheard long enough. But I don't want to become the side that refuses to listen.

I am hopeful.
But true to my character, I am also skeptical.

John

Who Are You?

Are you the person you want people to see?
Do you put on a figurative mask to hide the real you from others?

People have been losing jobs or suffering consequences from being at the US Capitol last week. Their presence there, and their beliefs demonstrated by their actions have surprised some people that now want to disassociate from them and their beliefs. Some of the people in DC have themselves tried to disassociate from the riotous part of the mob by scrubbing their own social media from anything that would connect them to the racist, conspiracy theory followers that stormed the Capitol, broke laws, and tried to stop our legislators from performing their constitutional duties. And still others are embracing their identity as Q-anon following, racist radicals. 

If someone were to study your social media habits, would you look like the person you publicly claim to be or would your posts betray that you hide a darker side? 
If you were to run for a public office, how much of your past would campaign handlers want to scrub?
If you were to apply for a new job, would your social media help you or hurt your chances of success?

Are you more of a "what you see is what you get" kind of person or do you always generally present a persona that is more acceptable to whatever audience you are in front of at the time?  
Is your social media the real you or do you use it to present a more desirable you online?

How "clean" are you?
Does your influence go beyond your circle of like-minded people?
Do you want it to?

These might be questions some are wishing they would have considered prior to their actions of last week. 

John