Monthly Archives: August 2018
“SIMPLE DEEP TRUTHS”
“Be careful! That water is deep!”
So said a girl whom I was desperately hoping to impress. She was very pretty and nice, but I was much older than she was. After all, I was seven and she was only six-and-a-half!
I was staying with my brother and his wife and daughter. We had gone over to the house belonging to a friend of my brother. It was a pretty place out in the country, and they had an old-fashioned spring house.
I suppose that I should spare you the trouble of googling the term “spring house.” You almost never see them anymore, but once upon a time, they were fairly common.
In the olden days, if you had a nice spring of water near your house, you could build a small structure over it. This structure was called a spring house. It protected your spring from leaves and other debris. You could use the spring for drinking or cooking or to keep things chilled.
This particular spring house was at the edge of the yard. My niece and the younger girl in the story had been “playing croquet,” which probably consisted of us trying to hit the balls in a more or less straight line. One of us (probably me) had hit a ball that rolled down the hill and through a very small hole and (Ker plunk!) into the spring.
The young lady of the house thought we should go tell her parents, but I, being much older and more mature, took a dim view of involving adults when it was at all possible. Besides, my arms were much longer than the girl’s arms. I could reach that croquet ball in the spring. After all, the water was very clear, and the ball was plainly visible just a few inches below the surface.
Or so I thought! I figured that the young lady’s warning was an exaggeration. “Girl’s are bad about that,” I thought to myself. I stretched out on the spring house floor, and thrust my arm into the chilly water.
I couldn’t touch the ball. Furthermore, now that I had my arm in the water, I could see the ball was much deeper than I could reach.
So, the adults were involved after all. Her father came down to the spring house. Even he had to get a long-handled shovel to scoop the ball out of the water. The spring was at least five feet deep! The young lady’s warning had been spot on.
That was the end of our croquet game, but it isn’t the end of the story. Like all good stories, it doesn’t have an ending. The truth is, I often think of that incident. It haunts me to this day. But it’s a good haunting.
A friend and I were chatting on the phone the other day, and he mentioned a Buddhist book he was rereading, and a couple of the simple truths that the author was pointing out.
My friend and I agreed that simple truths are usually also the deepest truths. We also agreed that they are the ones we need to be reminded of on a regular basis.
And the memory of the spring house came back to me. I told my friend the story, and then I said, “ You know, I think that truths are kind of like that croquet ball in the spring house. They may seem very accessible, but they lie in deep clear water. We can think that we can easily grasp them, but that is not so.”
And, to press the analogy a bit, there is always danger in thinking that what appears within easy reach is, in reality, dangerously deep. A “simple” truth can drown the unwary. The antidote? We need to respect both the simplicity and the profundity of Truth.
There is a mystery to all truth, even the simplest. Perhaps, the mystery is the deepest in the simplest truths.
Why does my wife love me? Because she does. Simple, but profoundly mysterious!
How can admitting my powerlessness over my addiction be the first step toward recovery? Who knows? But it is!
These and a million other not-so-simple simple truths surround us all the time. The water surrounding these truths is so clear that you would swear that you can easily grasp these truths. But ultimately, truths are not made to be grasped. Neither your arms nor your mind are long enough or strong enough to entirely grasp them. But although they may not be grasped, they can be lived out. And that is enough.
“SO MUCH JOY!”
Some days, there is so much joy! Not all days. But many.
Joy in the fact that the semi-final softball game was rained out this morning. Not that I didn’t want to play. I just rejoice because the rainout is a fact.
Joy in weeding the flower bed with my sweetheart, even though I forgot to wear a belt, and my shorts were in constant danger of falling down.
Joy in writing a blog about mental noise.
Joy in looping Rich Mullins’ song “Calling Out Your Name.”
Joy in the breeze outside.
Joy in my puppy sleeping on my lap, as I write this post.
Joy in the goldfinch outside my study window.
Joy in having lived.
Joy in living right now.
Joy in thinking about my own death.
Joy in getting the paperwork together for donating my body to U.C. Medical.
Joy in looking forward to Heaven.
Joy in this planet.
Joy in my wife making gumbo for our dinner tonight.
Many years ago, a friend said to me, “You know, I think you have more joy than you know.”
Yes! And now, I know!
Readers, may you be joyous today! And may you come to enjoy your joy, and to know that you are in joy!
“PURSUING PEACE WITH EVERYONE”
“Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness– without it no one will see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14, Holman Christian Standard Bible)
I am not a peaceful person. I struggle to be at peace with myself, with me wife, with other drivers on the highway (I’m probably completely alone in this), with anyone who disagrees with me, even with those who basically agree with me. I tend to be an equal-opportunity non-peaceful person.
So, I don’t like Hebrews 12:14. Need? Yes! Like? No!
But I do not believe that Bible verses (or anything else in the universe) exists for me to like them.
On the other hand, the very fact that this command to seek peace with everyone is in the book of Hebrews suggests that folks in the church probably didn’t like it either. After all, if you have to write to someone to do something, the very fact that you have to tell someone something suggests that they might not be doing it. Right? I take some comfort from that fact.
However, while misery loves company, misery is still misery. And the truth is that being an un-peaceful person is pretty miserable.
In the original Greek, the tense of the verb “pursue” is a present tense. In Greek, the present tense suggests ongoing, continual action. We need to be continually pursuing peace.
And then there is the verb itself: diwkw.(diōkō). In secular Greek and in New Testament Greek, this word is used both literally and metaphorically. It means “to eagerly pursue” someone or something, either for a hostile or good purpose. Thus, in a hostile context, it can be translated with the word “persecute.”
But it can also be used for someone running hard in order to win a race. For example, in Philippians 3:12, Paul uses this word for how he lives his life as a follower of Christ. (Ironically, this same word is used by the risen Jesus when he confronts Saul/Paul about Saul’s persecution of the church. See Acts 9:5 for further details.)
The use of this particular word in Hebrews 12:14 for the quest to be at peace with everyone may suggest that peace is an elusive goal. You aren’t going to encounter peace strolling down the path to meet you. You’re going to have to chase it. Strife is natural to us humans. Peace is not.
So, how do I go about pursuing peace? Well, I can tell you two things that won’t help much: reading a blog post about peace, or writing a blog post about peace. (Okay, maybe those would help a little.) But what does work?
Let me mention a few things that help me—when I actually do them.
First, I am more likely to pursue peace with everyone else when I am somewhat at peace with myself. If I am a walking civil war, that war will spill out across my borders. Civil wars do that. Accepting myself as I am, with my particular blend of strengths and weaknesses, is a wonderful way to be at peace with myself. It is also a wonderful way to pursue peace with everyone else.
Of course, accepting myself as I am and being at peace with myself does not mean that I don’t try to make some changes for the better in my own life. In fact, doing the right things, living well, deepens my genuine at-peace-ness with myself.
Second, I will need to think about what peace would look like in relation to other people and situations. For example, I can tolerate a certain amount of clutter. (In truth, I can put up with entirely too much clutter.) My wife, however, does not like a bunch of dishes piled up in the sink. I try to tell her that I’m soaking the dishes, but after three or four days of soaking the dishes, that explanation wears very thin.
The solution is very easy. Pursuing peace with my sweetheart is not difficult. Wash the dishes in a timely manner, dry them, and put them away.
Hey! Maybe pursuing peace isn’t so hard after all!
Well, of course, this is a very small example. However, we all have to begin somewhere. And that brings me to a third and final practical suggestion. I will put this in all caps, bold font, so that neither you nor I can miss it. BE WILLING TO BEGIN SMALL IN PURSUING PEACE! A consistent pursuit of peace in small things will help you to pursue peace in bigger things.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to people or institutions that make a significant contribution to world peace. There may not be a prize associated with your and my quest to live at peace with everyone, but it does matter. Rest assured of that! It does matter!
What will you do to pursue peace today?
“TAKING YOUR HANDS OFF THE CONTROLS”
“Let go, and let God.” (Twelve-step slogan, based on one possible translation of Psalm 46:10.)
“In his book The Right Stuff, Tom Wolfe describes how, in the 1950s, a few highly trained pilots were attempting to fly at altitudes higher than had ever been achieved. The first pilots to face this challenge responded by frantically trying to stabilize their planes when they went out of control. They would apply correction after correction, yet, because they were way out of the earth’s atmosphere, the rules of thermodynamics no longer applied, so the planes just went crazy. The more furiously they manipulated the controls, the wilder the rides became. Screaming helplessly to ground control, “What do I do next?!” the pilots would plunge to their deaths.
This tragic drama occurred several times until one of the pilots, Chuck Yeager, inadvertently struck upon a solution. When his plane began to tumble, Yeager was thrown violently around in the cockpit and knocked out. Unconsciously, he plummeted toward Earth. Seven miles later, the plane re-entered the planet’s denser atmosphere, where standard navigation strategies could be implemented. He steadied the craft and landed. In doing so, he had discovered the only life-saving response that was possible in this desperate situation: don’t do anything. Take your hands off the controls.” (As told by Tara Brach, https://www.tarabrach.com/taking-your-hands-off-the-controls-4/, accessed 08-07-2018. The whole blog post is well worth your reading.)
My wife and I had a friend over for dinner last evening, and it was great fun. She spoke of breaking a fairly long bad habit. She had tried everything, and nothing worked. Finally, God “spoke” to her—not in an audible voice, but very clearly. She knew she had to quit. She also knew she couldn’t. So, she did a very simple, yet profound, thing. She said to God, “You’ll have to do this! I can’t.”
And she did it! Or, rather, God did it!
Sometimes, there is a long process in breaking unhealthy habits. Sometimes, there are relapses. Sometimes, it is two steps forward, and one step back. There are even times when it is one step forward, and two steps back.
But then, there are those times when you come to end of yourself. Often, this is the beginning of God’s fairly direct and dramatic entrance into your situation.
People who don’t really understand the twelve-step slogan “Let go, and let God” (which includes the writer of this post sometimes) find fault with the slogan. “Aren’t we supposed to do something?” we ask.
And the answer is, “Yes!” However, what we too often overlook is the fact that the first “something” we need to do is to let go. And letting go is one of the most difficult and often one of the most productive things anyone can do.
In a sense, my friend was practicing the first three steps:
Step 1: We admitted that we were powerless and that our lives had become unmanageable.
Step 2: Came to believe that power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.
These first three steps are often summarized as I can’t, God can, and I think I’ll let him.
In many situations, we are simply not in control. It might be wise to ask a higher power for help. Even if you don’t believe in God, you might try it. I knew a man in our twelve-step fellowship who was an atheist, but he realized that when he prayed, good things tended to happen. One of his sponsees (also an atheist) challenged him about that. “It’s probably just coincidence,” said the younger man. The older man chuckled and said, “Probably. But I’ve noticed that when I pray, coincidences seem to happen a lot more often.”
“ON BEING EVALUATED AS A GUEST”
“And I tell you this, you must give an account on judgment day for every idle word you speak.” (Matthew 12:36, New Living Translation)
“And just as each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,” (Hebrews 9:27, New Living Translation)
My wife and I, for our forty-fifth wedding anniversary, took a nice trip to Hocking Hills State Park. We stayed in an Airbnb. We’ve stayed in bed and breakfast establishments before, but not an Airbnb. I did not realize that it isn’t just the b & b that is evaluated by the guests. The guests are also evaluated by the person who runs the b & b.
Our host gave us a glowing review, which I appreciated a lot. However, this whole set-up has set me to thinking about other evaluations.
For example, I believe in a final judgment by God. What will he say about me as His guest?
But it’s not just God. What about the other guests I interact with while I’m here? In a sense, they are also my hosts. After all, I depend upon them in many ways and for many things. How would they evaluate me as a guest?
My softball coach?
My teammates?
My church sisters and brothers?
My twelve-step fellow soldiers?
My Hebrew students?
My wife? (Oh, my! Now there’s an important review!)
But also, what about the people with whom I have more casual contact? The server who takes care of me when I go out to eat? My chiropractor? Other drivers on the highway?
Would all of these people—and many more—give me a good review. Would they rank me as kind and polite?
And then there is the planet itself. Do I strive to leave it in a clean and respectful manner? If the earth could talk, what would the earth have to say about my time here? Perhaps the earth can talk, and the real problem is that I don’t listen.
All teachers know that, no matter what subject is being taught, there is one question every student wants to ask: “Will this be on the test?”
Perhaps if I started every day knowing what the questions are (and I generally do know that), I would live more mindfully. Knowing that I will be reviewed might make me a better person.
“FORTY-FIVE YEARS OF LEARNING TO LOVE”
Today, my bride and I celebrate forty-five years of being married. I am more in love with her than ever, more than I ever thought I could be.
I am still a beginner at this love business, but beginners can teach a lot. So, here are some rather random thoughts about love and marriage from this beginner.
- Love is not something you fall into. It is a discipline to which you commit yourself, like running a marathon, but without a finish line.
- When I am not acting or feeling lovingly toward my sweetheart, I need to change me, not her.
- Heraclitus said, “You never step into the same river twice.” He was right about more than rivers. Relationships are the same. I never wake up with the same women twice. She has changed and so have I. There is never a reason to get bored.
- To restate Heraclitus, there is enough mystery and joy in every face to last a lifetime.
- Marriages are not made in heaven. Neither are they forged in the fires of hell. They may be suggestive of either heaven or hell (or both), but they are built on earth.
- Gratitude is the lifeblood of a loving relationship. If I am not being grateful every day for this woman who has loved me all these years, I am in trouble and headed for more.
- If I want my love to love only me, I am opting for less love, rather than more. She loves our children and grandchildren, making lovely things, baking, flowers, serving others, our dog. I should be glad, and most of the time I am! The more she loves people and things other than me, the more she has love for me.
- I also need to extend my love to others. To limit my love to my love is to limit my love for my love.
- Laughter is even better than making love. Perhaps laughter is making love.
- Sharing good memories together is wonderful. So is sharing good forgetories.
- The past needs to be buried quickly. It needs to be given a decent burial, yes. But it does need to be buried.
- The more I love my God, the more I love my wife. The converse is also true.
Happy anniversary, dearest. I hope that we have many more.
“LABELS? OR NAMES?”
My wife and I were talking about labels today.
No, we were not discussing labels on canned goods or jelly jars. We were discussing labels for people. My wife often provokes me to say something wise. She did that this morning.
“I think the labels we give people gives us the illusion of knowing them, while we really don’t know them at all,” I said. And then I added, “The only label that we should use for people is their name.”
But, of course, we don’t know people’s real names either, do we?
Take the labels “liberal” and “conservative,” for example. I describe myself as fairly conservative theologically, but fairly liberal politically. I have a guy on my softball team who describes himself as an “ultra-conservative.” But the question that I asked him is the same I ask everyone and myself as well: “What are you conserving?”
In fact, I need to ask myself two questions: “What am I conserving? About what am I being liberal?” Simply labeling myself is as pointless as labeling other people.
And what is my name?
Both the Old and New Testament talk a lot about names. They also talk a lot about having a change of names.
In a previous blog posted on this site, I wrote about my struggle with depression. That post is called “A Man Named Forgiven.” You can go back and read it, if you like.
But, in the context of labels and names, I need to remember that I don’t know the real name of anyone I encounter today. I don’t know the real name of the guys on my softball team. I don’t even know the real name of my wife of forty-five years.
And I dare not label anyone. Why? Because labeling is a shortcut for trying to really understand them. If I really know their name/s, I don’t need shortcuts, and if I don’t really know their names, a shortcut is another term for a dead end.
Perhaps I shouldn’t even label myself. Perhaps that is a dead end as well.
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 […]
“A FEW SMALL CHANGES”
My wife is a great cook. As part of her great-cook-ness, she has very sensitive taste buds. She can detect tastes that I can’t even imagine. This sometimes has amusing, unintended consequences.
We went out last night for a nice anniversary dinner in the Hocking Hills of Ohio. Our meals were excellent!
However, my sweetheart was not entirely pleased with her salad. It was a bit bitter. Even I could tell that.
So, my excellent wife/cook said, “I think it would be better if they had used candied walnuts. That would have made it sweeter.” Then she added, “Also, they could have used sweeter apples.” She thought for a few seconds more and continued, “They should have left the blue cheese crumbles off. . . . Oh! And they should have added croutons.”
“It sounds to me,” I ventured (rather timidly), “That you have just made a different salad.”
We laughed. The same qualities that make my wife a wonderful cook also make her a . . . What is the word I’m struggling for here? “Picky?” No, that’s not it. “Hard to please?” Nope! “Particular?” No, that’s not exactly it either. “Discerning!” That is the word! The same qualities that make my wife a wonderful cook also make her a discerning diner.
People who are really good at anything need to be discerning. Whether they are surgeons, concert cellists, farmers, or plumbers, the difference between those who are okay and those who are excellent often boils down to being discerning.
And then, there is life itself. We all need discernment there, don’t we? And yet, that is precisely where it is difficult to practice discernment.
There is a wonderful verse from the book of Hebrews that speaks of the importance of being discerning. The author of the letter is encouraging the believers to whom he is writing to grow up, and he gives them a helpful way of achieving spiritual maturity.
“Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.” (Hebrews 5:14, New Living Translation) Matthew Henry makes some helpful comments on this verse.
“There are spiritual senses as well as those that are natural. There is a spiritual eye, a spiritual appetite, a spiritual taste; the soul has its sensations as well as the body; these are much depraved and lost by sin, but they are recovered by grace. (6.) It is by use and exercise that these senses are improved, made more quick and strong to taste the sweetness of what is good and true, and the bitterness of what is false and evil. Not only reason and faith, but spiritual sense, will teach men to distinguish between what is pleasing and what is provoking to God, between what is helpful and what is hurtful to our own souls.”
In the context of my wife’s ideas for improving the taste of her salad, I was especially struck by Matthew Henry’s words “It is by use and exercise that these senses are improved . . . .”
My wife was not a great cook when her mother gave birth to her. She did not come forth from the womb with a spatula in her hand—a fact for which, I’m sure, her mom was profoundly grateful. She practiced, and she learned.
It is the same with life. We practice and we learn. There are shortcuts in life, but there are no shortcuts to life.
There is an old joke that I’m sure you’ve heard, but that bears repeating here. A tourist was trying to find his way around New York City. He asked a man on the street how to get to Carnegie Hall.
“Practice! Practice! Practice!” the man on the street replied.
Same for cooking food and for cooking up a life well lived.