Posts By Dteb
“On the Leash, Off the Leash, and Free in Both Cases!”
I learn a lot about God and myself from my dog. I’m not saying that my dog is well-trained, but I am saying that she is training me well.
Sometimes, I have to keep her on short leash. She doesn’t weigh very much, but she is really fast and more than a little willful—especially around cats, squirrels, and birds. If I give her too much freedom, even on the leash, her quick and sudden sprints could pull my arm clean out of joint. More importantly, she could break her own neck or run out in front of a car.
Sometimes, perhaps usually, I also need to be on a leash. Today, my 12-step affirmation was as follows:
“God is with me today, whether I like it or not. I am asking God today to keep me on a short leash whenever that is needed, and to allow me to run free whenever God knows that I can do that safely. I will return consciously to God, the source of my protection and freedom, often during the day.”
Well, I’m writing this post late in the day, and I really have no idea how I’ve done. I can think of several times that I needed a leash. I didn’t break my neck—nor anyone else’s, thank God! I didn’t run out in front of any cars, either. But I could think of several times when I wanted more freedom. But I wasn’t ready for freedom. I needed to be kept on a leash.
An ancient Israelite was warned by God, “Don’t be like a horse or a mule that have to be controlled by a bit and a bridle.” (Psalm 32:9, my translation.) Perhaps “Don’t be like a dog that needs to be controlled by a leash” would work too. In any case, I need to enroll myself in obedience school. Dogs aren’t the only ones who need some training. Other species could benefit from something like that as well.
“Thoughts on Our Forty-Ninth Wedding Anniversary”
I love my wife more than ever. I think that she has improved over time, but she was awful good, even when I married her. I think that the main reason I love her more is that I have improved. I suspect that nobody loves anybody because the one who is loved is better. No. If anybody loves anybody better, it is because the lover has grown.
I can think of 10,000 reasons why I married my sweetheart. I can only think of two reasons why she married me. The first is that she needed a fixer-upper to satisfy her creative instincts. She saw potential where it took a lot of guts to see. The second thing that I bring to the party is that I really and truly value her. I haven’t always shown that, but I think that she correctly intuited that I appreciated her. And I appreciate her more with each passing day.
To be young and in love is a wonderful thing. The poets and singers are right to praise such love. But to be old and more in love than ever is an even more wonderful thing.
Of course, as you grow older, your ways of expressing your love change a bit. Sharon demonstrated her love for me today by going to my Thursday morning senior softball game. I just learned today that my coach for the Thursday team and his wife (our score-keeper) were married on August 4 as well. They are celebrating sixty years of marriage. It makes me feel like a newlywed!
If I were asked the secret to a long and happy marriage, I would answer with a two-part response that sounds a little like a Buddhist koan: Marriage is an amazing free and gracious gift that requires incessant work. Today, I am most aware of the Gift. Tomorrow, I will get back to work.
“Redefining Losing”
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, New Living Translation)
These words, according to the Gospel of John, were spoken by Jesus’ disciples a few hours before the arrest, “trial” (if you can call it that), torture, and crucifixion of Jesus. In fact, the “all this” that Jesus had told his disciples included these horrible things. So, how on earth can Jesus speak of overcoming the world. It sounds more like Jesus is a loser to me.
Perhaps we need to redefine what it means to lose in the light of Jesus’ life, teachings, and death. Years ago, when everybody was talking about “yuppies” (young urban professionals), I saw one of them wearing a t-shirt that read: “The Winner is the one who dies with the most toys.” This struck me at the time as being inadequate to the point of laughter or tears or both. It still strikes me that way.
In the shadow of the cross, Jesus claimed to be able to give peace to his disciples. Jesus claimed that he had achieved a decisive victory—not over the Romans or the Jews, but over the whole world. In fact, the Greek word that is translated “I have overcome the world” is in the perfect tense. This conveys decisive action completed in the past, with ongoing results.
I freely admit that the world doesn’t look very conquered by Jesus, but appearances can be deceiving. Perhaps appearances are always deceiving. According to the earliest followers of Jesus, he was raised from the dead. That, among other things, should give us pause for thought about how to define losing.
DTEB, “The Most Important Day of Your Life: a Day Called ‘Today’”
“Psa. 95:1 ¶ Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Psa. 95:2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
Psa. 95:3 For the LORD is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
Psa. 95:4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
Psa. 95:5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.
Psa. 95:6 ¶ Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
Psa. 95:7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
Today, if you hear his voice,
Psa. 95:8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
Psa. 95:9 when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
Psa. 95:10 For forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known my ways.”
Psa. 95:11 Therefore I swore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter my rest.”(Psalm 95, English Standard Version)
“Like Jesus, Today is often crucified between two thieves: Yesterday and Tomorrow.” (Source unknown)
The Bible talks a lot about today. Psalm 95 is a command to sing to the LORD. Ample reasons are given to do so. However, in verse 7, there is this crucial word “today”. “Today, if you hear his voice . . . .” Then the psalmist turns to history, an incident that happened on the way from Egypt to the promised land. After seeing many miracles in Egypt and along the way, the Israelites still didn’t really trust God. The problem wasn’t God. The problem was the human heart. Specifically, the Israelites “hardened their hearts” and grieved God.
The upshot of all this was that they put God to the test. They wanted to see even more miracles. They went astray, not geographically, but in their hearts. God got royally ticked off and swore an oath. “No rest for you!” he said.
How can a psalm that begins so positively end so negatively? Well, I guess that’s what happens when we willfully harden our hearts and go astray. Ancient Israel had no monopoly on such hardness and heart-straying. It can happen to any of us. Keeping a tender and grateful heart toward God is not easy, but if we want to enter into the rest that God gives, it is absolutely essential. It is a daily task. Why? Because our hearts can get hard and go astray in a day—or even a small part of the day. The most important day of our lives is always Today.
DTEB, “God the Recycler—and the Scavenger”
“Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. . . . But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so very much, that even while we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s special favor that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ, and we are seated with him in the heavenly realms—all because we are one with Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:1, 4-6)
My pastor made an intriguing comment in yesterday’s sermon about God being a Recycler. That is a wonderful metaphor for God. However, in my usual ADD manner, I let the metaphor run away with me. It occurred to me that God is not just a Recycler. God is also a Master Scavenger. I like to think of God in this way because I myself am a scavenger.
I grew up fairly poor, though I didn’t realize it until recently. I was taught to make do, to make repairs, and to do without. It was a good way to grow up, and I am profoundly grateful for it.
But even as an adult, my conservative—sometimes overly conservative—nature manifests itself on a regular basis. Usually, this happens on Wednesday mornings. There is a reason for this being my weekly scavenging day. Wednesdays are trash day in the really nice development across the road from us. I walk and pray and scavenge. What the folks across the road call “trash”, I call “Oh boy!” We’ve gotten a nice table, some golf clubs (we gave them away), and a couple of grills. Also, a nice bench and various and sundry other items.
Probably most of us humans sometimes feel as if we have been kicked to the curb. Or perhaps, we were carried there. It doesn’t even have to be Wednesday for us to feel as if we’ve been left for the garbage truck to pick up. We feel useless and unwanted and like has-beens that are ready for the trash bins. Sometimes some other human being comes along who values us, someone who likes the saying, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
I think that God likes that saying, too. God is the Master Recycler. God is also the Supreme Scavenger.
“A God Who Does More than We Can Ask or Think”
“20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20-21, New Living Translation)
I know that there is a lot that I can’t do. I think that I frequently make God in my own image. However, a “god” made in my image is a very small god indeed. On the other hand, the Apostle Paul had a God who was extremely powerful, wise, and loving.
The quote from Ephesians that leads off this post are the verses of the day in the YouVersion app. As the author of the story that comments on these verses notes, when read in its context, these verses are not primarily about God’s power in the lives of individuals. Instead, the context invites us to realize God’s power to overcome really serious divisions in our society. In Paul’s day, this was the division between Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 3:1-19).
The author of the comments on these verses in the YouVersion notes that this would be like Yankees fans and Red Sox fans loving one another, or like Democrats and Republicans actually valuing one another.
Now that’s power! It is a power that only God has. Yet God also gives such power to us. It is, according to Paul, God’s “. . . mighty power at work within us . . .”! If we are to love people who are “not like us” (and who is like us, when it comes down to it?), we will need this power. If we try to work up a power like that, the divisions will go on their not-so-merry way, dividing us from everyone else, God, and our own better selves.
Only God can bring oneness into our divided hearts and world.
“Hallowing God’s Name is God’s Business. Our Business is to Pray”
Is our business as Christians to make God’s name holy?
No and yes. And the “No” needs to come first.
Here is a long quote from Karl Barth that sets out what we must be doing. Barth is discussing the words addressed to God “hallowed by your name” in the Lord’s Prayer.
“It is clear that we pray in the midst of our present in which God’s name is not hallowed but is desecrated in the world and even in the church and our own lives as Christians by the division which dominates all things. But now we are not abandoned to the scandal and evil of this division nor thrown back on our own resources. We are not directed either to sink into a hopeless silence or assault the clouded and covered heavens with hysterical cries of protest and distress and appeals for help. Jesus Christ lived once, but not only once. As the one who lived once, he also lives today, even in this confused present of ours. As he forbids us to come to terms with our confusion, he does not leave us stuck in our impasse in relation to it, but shows us the way out by ordering us to turn to God with the request that he himself will take in hand the sanctifying of his name.” (Karl Barth, The Christian Life, translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley (New York: Bloomsbury, 2017), p. 237. Italics mine.)
I don’t always (ever?) entirely understand Barth, but I think what he is saying is this: Only God can make God’s name holy. The world won’t and the church can’t. In fact, the church can and does frequently bring shame on the name of God. We do so by our inconsistent behavior—as well as by venting our spleen and calling it speaking the truth.
So, if God’s name is to be holy, it must be God who does it. However, we are given the task of praying that God will do precisely that. And as we take the posture of humility and pray, perhaps we will also find that we do a better job of living holier, more consistent lives—even in this confused present.
“Refraining from Complaining”
“From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. 5 And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” 6 Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. 7 And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” (Numbers 31:4-10, English Standard Version)
“Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody is doing anything about it.” (A common saying.)
“Can’t complain, but sometimes I do.” (Another common saying, and possibly part of the lyrics to a song I can’t quite recall.)
My affirmation for today is this: “Today, by God’s grace, I am choosing to refrain from complaining about anything or anyone.”
I started to add the words, “It is not going to be easy.” However, I caught myself before I did so. It occurred to me that I was about to complain about how hard it was not to complain. Complaining about my tendency to complain is part of the complaining loop.
I just read a bit about the positive aspects of complaining in a prestigious psychological journal. However, even in this article, the author acknowledged the many negative aspects of complaining.
The truth is that complaining can even harm us physically. Apparently, complaining releases cortisol into our system, and cortisol triggers stress. So, you may think that you’re decreasing your stress by complaining, but you’re not; you are actually increasing it.
None of us likes to be around a person who complains a lot. Guess what! If you are the complainer, you are probably around yourself a lot. But, like body odor, we can’t smell the stench of our own complaints.
So, in the midst of writing this post, my sponsor (to whom I send my report and daily affirmation) responded, “What do you think about _____________?” The blank wasn’t a blank. I added the blank. Let it suffice that there was a name of a person whom I do not care for. Suddenly, I was confronted with my tendency to complain about this person.
My reply to my sponsor was as follows, again with blank where a name would be.
“I am trying to use _____________’s frequent attitudes, words, and behavior to give me some insights into myself during my own not-so-good times.”
Perhaps this gives me some notion of how to use my own grinchy tendency in a healthy fashion. I can use the things and people that I am inclined to complain about to give me a doorway to work on some things that need to be changed in me.
And a final thought: For me, as a person who says he believes in a good God who supplies everything I need, complaining is also a practical form of atheism. Complaining that I don’t have enough time, money, prestige, or anything else is a practical denial of what I am only theoretically believing.
And then there are also the snakes.
“Willing to Submit my Will”
“Not my will, but yours, be done.” (Jesus, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before his death and crucifixion)
“Not your will, but mine, be done.” (My prayers most of the time)
The simplest insights can bring me up short. They can also help me to stand a little bit taller and to walk a little bit straighter.
An Italian psychologist that I had not heard of until today said some very simple and profound things about the human will. In an interview with Sam Keen of Psychology Today, Roberto Assagioli asserted the following:
‘The will is not merely assertive, aggressive, and controlling. There is the accepting will, yielding will, the dedicated will. You might say that there is a feminine polarity to the will – the willing surrender, the joyful acceptance of the other functions of the personality.’” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Assagioli, accessed 07-28-22)
Assagioli had not had an easy life in some ways. He had been imprisoned in solitary confinement for 27 days by Benito Mussolini for “praying for peace and inviting others to join him along with other international crimes.” After his release, he went into hiding in the Alps. His young son died there, likely due to their living conditions.
Assagioli was almost eighty-two years old when he did this interview. He would die the following August after the interview.
At the end of the interview, the interviewer, Keen, concluded:
“It is hard to know what counts as evidence for the validity of a world view and the therapeutic it entails. Every form of therapy has dramatic successes and just as dramatic failures. Enter as evidence in the case for psychosynthesis an ad hominem argument: in speaking about death there was no change in the tone or intensity of Assagioli’s voice and the light still played in his dark eyes, and his mouth was never very far from a smile.”
To be willing to yield—even to death—is an amazing use of the will.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus used his will to submit to the will of his Heavenly Father. He told God what he wanted, but Jesus also bowed to the will of God. Many people believe that Jesus’ willing submission to the will the God has transformed their lives. I am one of those people.
Oh God, help me to use my will wisely today, whether that means exercising my assertive will or my submissive will. Amen!
“Working with The Gift”
Most real things in life are simple. However, these simple things are almost always inherently complex. Take life, for example. There are lots of verses in the Bible that indicate that life is a gift. There are many others that point out that life is a task. Sometimes, this gift-life combination is spoken in the same breath. Here are two samples.
“See, I have set the land before you. Go in and take possession of the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their offspring after them.’” (Deuteronomy 1:8, English Standard Version) The land was given to Israel, but they still had to go in and possess it.
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work forhis good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13, English Standard Version) We are to work out the gift that God has worked into us.
One of my twelve-step readings today was particularly helpful for setting this gift-and-work tone for the day. It is from a book titled Touchstones, published by Hazelden.
“Wednesday, July 27
You cannot get it by taking thought;
You cannot seek it by not taking thought.
—Zenrin poem
We are transported into unfamiliar worlds in this program by ideas that sometimes confound our mind. In the spiritual realms we learn things we didn’t learn anywhere else, and gradually they bring us peace. We can decide with our will to follow a spiritual direction, to turn our life and will over to the care of our God. We cannot control what God will do with them. When we learn that part of our problem was trying too hard, being too self-sufficient, or being too controlling, our old ways tell us to try hard to control that. But then we are only doing more of the same old thing. We learn that after making our decision, our Higher Power takes over. Now it is possible to be released from our own trying, to move beyond our own efforts by falling into the caring hand of God.
I must give this program first priority in my life, remembering my spiritual progress comes as a gift, not as an achievement.” (From Touchstones: A Book of Daily Meditations for Men.)
I was especially struck by the following sentences: “When we learn that part of our problem was trying too hard, being too self-sufficient, or being too controlling, our old ways tell us to try hard to control that. But then we are only doing more of the same old thing.”
Yes! I have often been guilty of trying to control the realization that I am not in control. I am like a dog chasing his own tail. I may be getting exercise, but I’m not really getting anywhere.
Life is hard work. Life is also a gift. When I am lazy and discontented (and discontentment is laziness for me frequently), I need to get busy and do the hard work. But when I get too focused on working hard (and do that occasionally), I need to call to mind the truth that life is a gift.
Don’t chase your own spiritual tail today, dear friends. Instead, fall into the hands of our (and your) loving God. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to work diligently through the day.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “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 […]
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