Posts By Dteb
“Introspection Addiction”
My wife recently accused me of being too introspective. My immediate response was, “You may be right. Let me think about that more deeply.” Of course, I was joking. I was also serious.
Looking into our own mental, spiritual, and emotional internal goings-on can be a good thing. I suspect that most of us are very outwardly focused. Families, jobs, hobbies, Facebook, tv—the list goes on, but I will not. Perhaps a famine of introspection is problem for many people.
However, my wife is right. I am prone to the opposite problem. I fear that I am addicted to introspection. I am tempted to start a new twelve-step group called “I.A.—Introspectors Anonymous”!
You may say, “Well, what’s wrong with self-examination?” The answer is nothing at all. But anything that is excessive becomes a problem. Actually, excess gives birth to manyproblems.
For one thing, my introspection addiction sometimes keeps me from enjoying life. There is always something to find fault with (or at least to be unsure about) when I look within too much. While there is much in me that does need to be changed, excessive self-scrutiny simply sabotages my joy. Is misery really a good way to change for the better? I doubt it.
Then too, if I’m forever looking inward, I will almost certainly miss some upward and outward realities. Upward, there is God to be loved. Outward, there are people to be loved and a planet to be cared for. In fact, caring for the planet is one aspect of loving people. If we don’t care for our world, people suffer.
We all need a certain amount of introspection. Some folks probably need more than others. But if I’m forever examining myself, my thoughts, my feelings, I become a very small person. As someone has said, “A person all wrapped up in himself makes a very small package.”
“A Very Human Chipmunk”
I met a very human chipmunk yesterday. It was caught in some netting that we had put around our raspberries to protect the fruit against birds—and other little opportunists such as the aforementioned chipmunk.
Sharon noticed the chipmunk. I did not. I was already running late for my softball game and did not feel obliged to be in the rescue business. Sharon didn’t want the rodent to die slowly, but I had a solution: I regret to inform you that I proposed bashing the little critter’s head in and putting him/her out of his/her misery (and ours) quickly.
However, my wife’s tender heart melted my own heart. Being the occasionally dutiful husband that I am, I got out some clippers and began to cut the netting. Of course, the chipmunk thought of me as a predator and started frantically trying to escape. This had a predictable effect: The more the chipmunk squirmed, the more enmeshed he became.
But finally, I cut the netting enough to let the little varmint run away. And what he did he do with his newfound freedom? He ran straight into the netting again. By now, I was committed. I cut the netting—again. Again, he ran into the netting, but this time, he wiggled free and dashed under the wooden privacy fence and into our neighbor’s yard.
I don’t really know God very well, but a persistent rumor has it that God is in the rescue business with humans. We get ourselves into trouble again and again, and can’t get ourselves out. We sell our souls for less important things than raspberries. We squirm and struggle and can’t seem to get free. In fact, we get more and more tangled up.
But there is Jesus, who said, “If the son sets you free, you are really free.” (John 10:10) God notices our fatal predicament and does something radically crazy. He sends his son to get us out of the mess that we had gotten ourselves into.
That is wonderful, good news. However, I need to ask myself what I am to do with my freedom. There’s got to be a better choice than using my freedom to run into the same net again.
How about loving God who freed me, and loving people who are either caught in the net or who have been given their freedom too?
Let’s live free today! Also, let’s be on the lookout for our fellow chipmunks who are caught in a net and see if we can be of service to them.
“The Fine Art of Correcting Someone”
DTEB, “The Fine Art of Correcting Someone”
“Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” ( Galatians 6:1, English Standard Version)
Receiving correction from someone gracefully is never easy. Correcting someone else who needs to grow is never easy either. Giving good correction requires thought, practice, and the right mindset. Correcting someone else is an art. Indeed, it is a fine art.
A friend of mine is a supervisor. His boss wanted him to speak to some of his coworkers about some ways they could improve. My friend asked me if I had any tips. Here is what I wrote:
“When you need to give some difficult feedback to others, four things may help you. At least, they have helped me when I have actually done them.
- Expect some resistance and defensiveness. You won’t always get it, thank God! However, that is a normal reaction when someone is hearing that they need to change.
- Assume that the other person really wants to be better and to do better. That is not always a correct assumption, but it is always the correct assumption to make. In fact, it might be good to preface your remarks with some comment such as “I know you want to do the best job you can . . .” and so on.
- Rehearse what you’re going to say beforehand. Ask yourself if you yourself would want someone to speak with you in this way?
- Leave the results in God’s hands.
I think you just helped me write today’s blog post!”
Paul reminded some folks in Galatia (part of what is now the country of Turkey) that they might need to correct someone, but they needed to do so in the right way. The goal is to “restore” or “mend” the person, not to harm them or prove that we are more “spiritual” than the other person is (whatever being “spiritual” might mean).
So, just for today, if you really do need to correct someone, keep these four suggestions in mind. Let me know if they work. Maybe I will use them more often myself.
“The Privilege of Serving”
Our trip to England has been wonderful. We’ve seen so many stunningly beautiful things—ruined castles and abbeys, flowers everywhere. And we’ve enjoyed so much visiting with friends and chatting with random people we’ve met. I plan to enjoy our last few days here as well.
However, I am feeling out of whack. Why? I asked God and myself that very question this morning. The answer was profoundly simple: I am trying to enjoy myself rather than looking for opportunities to serve others. The privilege of serving is where the deepest joy is found.
So, today I am going to be on the lookout for chances to serve others. It doesn’t have to be anything profound. In fact, the simpler and smaller the better.
Also, when all is done and said, serving others enhances all other joys. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in England, or scrubbing your bathroom floor.
“Identifying Love”
“3 1-2 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
3-4 Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.” (Colossians 3:1-4, The Message)
Love always identifies with whatever or whoever is the beloved. Do you love stuff? Then you identify with stuff? Do you love validation from others? Then that love becomes a part of your identity.
This is especially evident with parents. We identify with our children. It may not be an altogether healthy identification, but there it is. And it is (at least in part) an example of love identifying with what or who is loved.
The Bible—both the Old and New Testaments—indicates many things that are hard to believe. I am not now talking about garden-variety miracles such as feeding multitudes with a few fish and loaves or raising the dead. No, I am talking about a really big miracle: God’s miraculous identification with us in our sinfulness.
There are many things in the Bible that I have a hard time swallowing. One that always chokes me and chokes me up is that God not only loves sinners but also identifies with them. Ancient Israel was a bunch of rebellious sinners, like the rest of the world. Neither Moses nor the prophets were impressed with Israel. God didn’t pretend that the Israelites were a box of chocolates either.
But even though God disciplined his rebellious children severely, God never quite gave up on them. Instead, God identified with them. Isaiah, who points out that Israel is in exile because of their rebellion against God, also speaks repeatedly about God’s identification with Israel. For example,
“In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” (Isaiah 63:9, English Standard Version)
God’s identification with the sinners God loves is more than hinted at in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, God’s identification with this whole messed-up species that calls itself homo sapiens (“knowing man”) becomes a laser-like focus in Jesus Christ. He hung around with sinners all the time and was criticized for it. The religious sinners were his most merciless critics. Of course, we always are, aren’t we!
At the cross, Identifying Love showed itself as Redeeming Love. The One who had hung out with sinners was now hung out to dry—or rather, hung out to die.
And die he did. But there is a persistent rumor that he did not stay dead for long. Yes, I know that is hard to believe, isn’t it? But there are many of us who do believe it. On my better days, I do too. On my worse days, I don’t believe much of anything. Sorry, but that is true.
And, according to the Apostle Paul, when Jesus came out of the tomb we came out with Jesus. Identifying Love had so identified with us that we have already died, been buried, and been raised from the dead. It is not first and foremost about us identifying with Jesus. No, it is first and foremost about God’s identification with us in Christ.
So what do I do in the light of God’s identification with me and with the whole human race? There are many responses to such loving identification. One is simple gratitude. God, thank you, thank you, thank you, for identifying with me. Another response is to keep pursuing Christ. The verb in Colossians 3:1 that speaks of “seeking” or “pursuing” Christ is in the present tense. In the Greek language of New Testament times, the present tense suggests an ongoing, repetitive, life-style choice. We don’t “have” Christ in the way that we “have” objects that we can put in some drawer and dig out (if we can find him) when we need him. Christ is to be sought on an everyday and every-moment basis.
And there are the choices we make every day. Paul talks about those choices in the rest of the book of Colossians: such choices as telling the truth, being sexually pure, and forgiving others. A friend of mine pointed out that, on average, every person makes 35,000 choices every day.
The first choice of this and every day should be to dare to believe in the identifying love of God. That same daring choice should infuse the other 34,999 choices with meaning.
“Humility Keepers”
Stewart Rhodes, the founder of Oath Keepers, was sentenced to eighteen years in prison for his role in planning the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. capitol. When he was allowed to speak at his sentencing, he compared himself to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a political prisoner for many years because of his opposition to Joseph Stalin. Rhodes claimed that he would be “an American Solzhenitsyn.”
I haven’t read a lot of Solzhenitsyn and have to look up his name every time to get the spelling correct. His books are as vast and sprawling as the Soviet Union itself was back in the day. However, I do remember one thing that he said:
“The line between good and evil runs not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart.”
If the line between good and evil runs through every human heart, then we all need to stop thinking that all our problems are “out there” and that they are caused by someone else. It isn’t the Republicans or the Democrats, Biden or Trump, who are causing my problems or ours. It is me, and it is the “us” that includes “me”.
One of the most profound human and political truths ever written was penned by the creator of a cartoon strip, “Pogo” for Earth Day in 1970: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
This is of course a play on a famous saying from The War of 1812. The United States Navy defeated the British Navy in the Battle of Lake Erie. Master Commandant Oliver Perry wrote to Major General William Henry Harrison, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” However, in the form of a funny play on words is a truth as deadly as an assault rifle and as life-giving as the air we breathe: We are often our own worst enemies. Sometimes, we are our only enemies.
So, what is humility? It is recognizing the truth, as my brother used to say, “Ahh, I ain’t such a much.” None of us is such a much.
And yet, humility is very short supply these days in our county. I’m not sure that we even regard it as a virtue these days. Humility is so rare that it would be difficult to even recognize it. Humility is the persistent awareness that the line between good and evil is within each of us.
Here is the problem as I see it: It is so much easier to dwell on the evil in _________________. (Fill in the blank with your favorite, least-favorite person/group/ institution.) However, it is so much easier to call out the evils in others or in society than it is to face the evil within me. It’s more fun, too!
In the interest of full disclosure, I have my own least-favorites list, and it is a long one. I’m working on crossing off people, institutions, and events on that list, but it’s hard work. Nevertheless, I truly believe that there are only two kinds of people in the world—those who divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don’t.
See? I told you this is hard.
“Don’t Aim for the Stars!”
“We all stumble in many ways.” (James 3:2a, New International Version)
A friend of mine was confessing to me that he tends to beat himself up for the smallest of infractions. These infractions may require a powerful microscope to even see. They may in fact be imaginary. Still, the beatings continue. My reply to him was, to a great extent, me talking to myself.
“I have many of the same tendencies that you do. When I screw up—even a little and even when it may all be just in my head—I tend to go off on myself and off the good path. My perfectionism tends to make me much less perfect. An acquaintance told me decades ago that I ought to get off my own back. He was right back then. He still is.
I’ve heard it said, “Aim for the stars and you might hit the moon.” I think that a more realistic and helpful (though rather negative) saying might be, “Aim for the stars and you might hit rock bottom.” Perhaps it would be even more accurate to say, “Aim for the stars and you will hit rock bottom.” We were not made to aim for the stars in our lives. We were made to aim at and to walk on the earth in a humble and loving way. That is where our focus needs to be. That is where we need to be.”
Aspirations are all very well and good, except when they are not. Sometimes we just need to get off our own backs. Getting on our own backs takes way too much energy and flexibility anyway. And staying on our own backs just makes us swaybacked.
“Earned, Not Given”
“Earned, Not Given” (Seen on a lady’s t-shirt while I was out for a run.)
“For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” 1 Corinthians 4:7, English Standard Version)
Are good things earned or given? I can answer that question with absolute certainty. The answer is YES! And also, the answer is NO! My basic approach is, when you have an either/or question the answer is probably Sic et Non, yes and no. (Sincere apologies to the memory of Peter Abelard. Who is Peter Abelard, you ask? Well, that is a secret that you’ll need to figure out on your own time.)
Paul wrote at least three letters to a church that was a little too sure that they had it all together. Spoiler alert: They didn’t. He reminds these Jesus people in Corinth who had been given a lot of wonderful gifts that being wonderfully gifted means that you didn’t earn what you’ve got. A gift is a gift is a gift.
Now, it is true enough that earning and giftedness are not implacable enemies. One way to look at it is to say that we are given life, but we also need to live our life in a lively and healthy manner. If we don’t, it isn’t much of a gift or much of a life. I have a friend who is an excellent tennis player. He is gifted. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t need to keep himself in shape and practice.
If we don’t remember that all of life is a gift, we will become full of ourselves. And anyone who is full of him/herself is very empty indeed. On the other hand, anyone who doesn’t remember that gifts require hard, sustained work in order to develop and use his/her gifts is equally empty.
So, perhaps the shirt should have read: “Given and earned”.
“Out of Focus”
“John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,
John 5:40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (English Standard Version)
In this story from the Gospel according to John, Jesus is immersed in a controversy with some religious leaders who thought (and said) that Jesus was in the wrong because he had healed a lame man and then had told the formerly lame man to get up, pick up his sleeping mat, and walk. The healing wasn’t the problem, although at other times, Jesus was indeed accused of working on the Sabbath because Jesus healed people on the Sabbath. However, the problem in this story was that the man was carrying his mat on the Sabbath. That was work, and the Jewish leaders knew that the Torah forbade any and all work on the Sabbath.
The man who had been healed had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. For thirty-eight years his mat had been holding him. Now, he was holding it and walking. Was that work for this man? I have my doubts. I have a hunch that the former cripple was holding his mat close to his chest and dancing around with it. This reminder of what he used to be was now a beloved dance partner.
Now, allow me to come in with a word of commendation for Jesus’ opponents.
“Don’t you mean condemnation?”
No, I mean commendation. The Old Testament Law did indeed forbid any and all work on the Sabbath. This was absolutely clear to the Jewish teachers of the Law. They were trying to love God by keeping God’s Law quite strictly, and that can be a very good thing.
Here was the problem: The Old Testament does not spell out precisely what work is. So, the religious leaders helped God out by defining what work is. They wanted to be obedient to God and to love God in every corner of their lives, but they got out of focus. They began to put their interpretations of God’s Word above God’s Word itself.
But it may be even worse than that. If, as some of us believe, Jesus was God in the flesh, then the religious authorities were seriously out of focus. The One who had authored the Old Testament through humans and human words was standing in front of them as a human, but all they could see was a Sabbath-breaker.
However, before we get all high and mighty about these Jewish religious rule-makers, we had better take a long, hard look at ourselves. We all have interpretations of everything. We all sometimes elevate our interpretations to the level of Absolute Truth. Democrats do it, and so do Republicans. (Independents, too.) Men do it and also women. Atheists do it. Christians do it a lot. Getting out of focus is an incredibly human thing to do.
Getting out of focus is also an incredibly dangerous thing to do. When we can’t see things clearly, we are likely to stumble and fall. When we get out of focus, we can’t see God, other people, the world, or ourselves clearly. When we are certain that our interpretations and our rules should rule the world, we come unraveled and so does our world. Before too long, we can’t even walk. We become the invalid. Even worse, we become dead folks in need of life. Our rules are killing us and we don’t even know it.
So, just for today, I am challenging myself not to live by rules, but to live graciously and lovingly. Today, I will choose to refrain from judging and critiquing. Instead, I will choose to dance around with my mat. Who knows? I may discover that my real dance partner is God.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
- “A Pastor or a Teacher?” September 8, 2024I went to the Asbury University President’s Brunch yesterday morning with Sharon. It was billed as a non-fundraiser. I have learned to be skeptical of such claims. However, it really wasn’t a fundraiser! It was a wonderful time. The university paid for everything, including valet parking. It was good to meet new people, all of […]
- “Even When We Mess Up” September 8, 2024One of my students in the Luke-Acts course I’m teaching right now online made a very perceptive comment in a post to another student’s work. She and the other student, Mackenzie, agreed on an excellent point: God can even use our mess-ups for his purposes and glory. Here is Victoria’s comment: “Mackenzie, your perspective on […]
- “On Playing Chimes and Being Jesus” September 6, 2024“John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. John 13:35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (English Standard Version) One of my students did […]
- “A Confrontation in a Kroger Parking Lot” September 4, 2024My wife was waiting for a lady to pull out from a parking spot in a Kroger parking lot. She had waited for quite a while, but when the lady finally pulled out, another “lady” who had just come around the corner from the other direction whipped into the parking space. My wife is not […]
- “The Crushing Debt I Owe to God” September 3, 2024“A Sinful Woman Forgiven Luke 7:36 ¶ One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. Luke 7:37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought […]
- “Only Two Kinds of People?” September 1, 2024“Psa. 5:1 ¶ Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my groaning. Psa. 5:2 Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. Psa. 5:3 O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning […]
- “On Being a Good Ad” September 1, 2024I was buying candy corn for a friend at Ollie’s the other day when I eavesdropped on an interesting conversation. The lady behind me said to the cashier, “This is a really good store with good prices, but I didn’t even know it was here. You should advertise more!” The young cashier replied, “If we […]
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