Monthly Archives: August 2021
“A Very Serious Teeter-Totter!”
A good friend of mine, in an accountability-support phone call yesterday made some intriguing comments about his core values. He spoke of courage and discipline, which are balanced by wisdom and compassion. He pictures these qualities as if they are a teeter-totter. For him, learning is the fulcrum.
I am not sure precisely what he means, but those words and the image of the teeter-totter has been marinating in my brain for the past twenty-four hours. Here is the current flavor of my thoughts about these qualities and the fulcrum.
Let me take a stab at the first two core values—courage and discipline. My first observation would be this: I don’t really know what these words mean, and I’m not sure that I want to know what they mean. Courage and discipline sound scary and costly to me.
I googled “courage” and found this definition at https://www.google.com/search?q=define+courage&rlz=1C1GCEA_enUS844US844&oq=define+courage&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i512l9.3232j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8.
“cour·age
noun
- the ability to do something that frightens one.
‘she called on all her courage to face the ordeal’
- strength in the face of pain or grief.
‘he fought his illness with great courage’”
I suspect that the first step in cultivating courage is admitting that I’m afraid. And I am very much afraid to admit that. I would sooner admit that I am angry than to admit that I am afraid. (Typical man!)
Perhaps I could begin with some small fears and work my way up. Okay. Let me begin right now!
I am afraid of . . . Wow! I’m having a difficult time thinking of any little fears. All the ones that come to mind seem big. Hummm . . .
Perhaps I should just move on to discipline. To paraphrase a saying of Jesus, “If they persecute you in one word, flee to another.”
Discipline! I don’t like that word either. But perhaps, discipline is courage in the small things. Maybe discipline prepares me to develop some courage.
I use these blog posts, not just to write, but to grow. So, here is what I am going to pledge to you, myself, and God: Today, I will make disciplined choices about what I eat. I will eat only healthy foods today. That is about as much discipline as I can probably muster. I will let you know how I did tomorrow in my post.
“Remembering Who’s in Charge Here”
“Psa. 93:1 The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.
2 Your throne is established from of old;
you are from everlasting.
Psa. 93:3 The floods have lifted up, O LORD,
the floods have lifted up their voice;
the floods lift up their roaring.
4 Mightier than the thunders of many waters,
mightier than the waves of the sea,
the LORD on high is mighty!
Psa. 93:5 Your decrees are very trustworthy;
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, forevermore.” (Psalm 93, English Standard Version)
Like everyone else, I was hoping that covid was mostly behind us. I did not believe that it was, but, as I say, I was hoping.
So, who’s in charge here? If that sounds more like an accusation than a question, that sounds about right.
As a Christian, I believe that God is ultimately in charge of this and all planets and of all other aspects of the universe. However, that doesn’t mean that God is responsible for everything. He has given his creation free will. Our choices matter, and God does not, in my opinion, override all the bad decisions we make. Whether we choose to wear masks or not, get vaccinated or not, socially distance of not—these things matter. Yes, God is charge here. But then, so are we, at least to some degree. God sometimes intervenes. These interventions are called “miracles”. However, God generally lets things play out as they will.
But we need to counterbalance human responsibility with God’s sovereignty. As the psalmist reminds us, God is ultimately on the throne—not the Taliban, not the Democrats, not the Republicans. Not covid either! God! And while the raging waves can and do lift their voices (Psalm 93:3), God gets the last word.
“Getting in Tune and Staying in Tune”
I long to make beautiful music, but it’s hard to stay in tune.
This matter of staying in tune is on my mind because of a Hazelden Publishing reading that I did recently. Here is part of the reading:
“Meditation for the Day
You should strive for a union between your purposes in life and the purposes of the Divine Principle directing the universe. There is no bond of union on earth to compare with the union between a human soul and God. Priceless beyond all earth’s rewards is that union. In merging your heart and mind with the heart and mind of the Higher Power, a oneness of purpose results, which only those who experience it can even dimly realize. That oneness of purpose puts you in harmony with God and with all others who are trying to do His will.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may become attuned to the will of God. I pray that I may be in harmony with the music of the spheres.” (From Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation.)
This reading led me to think about keeping in tune with God’s will. How can I get in tune? And how often do I need to get a tune-up?
So, I began with the literal. How long does it take musical instruments to get out of tune? I asked Professor Google. The answer wasn’t easy to find, nor was there a consensus, but here is one interesting comment that I found. One musician who responded to the question wrote this:
“At a smaller size, I reckon that the persian (sic) hammered dulcimer, otherwise known as the santoor, is very tough to tune. If played vigorously by a professional, it needs quite a bit of tuning after every piece played.”
It has to be tuned after every vigorously played piece! Yes! That would also be me! I require almost constant tuning. I get out of tune and out of sorts very quickly. I am a santoor kind of person.
So, how do I get in tune? Here is a list of things that seem to help me get in tune:
- Reading the Bible.
- Reading other good books.
- Listening to good music of all kinds.
- Nature.
- Exercise.
- Talking with my wife.
- Laughter.
- Friends.
- Spending time with our little dog.
- Doing something thoughtful for others.
- Gratitude.
Some of these things may be on your list, but you need to come up with your own list of what works for you. When you’re having a rough day or simply waking up grumpy, you may want to say to yourself, time to tune up! This is especially true if, like me, you are a santoor.
“Keeping your Heel Behind You”
“What a title! What on earth does it mean?!?”
I was hoping that you would ask that. Let me explain.
“The reward for humility and fear of the LORD
is riches and honor and life.” (Proverbs 22:4, English Standard Version)
The word translated “reward” here is the Hebrew word that may be transliterated “ʿēqeḇ”. As Christine Roy Yoder points out, “‘Reward’ is related to the Hebrew word for ‘heel’ or ‘hind quarters’ and, like the English expression ‘on the heels of,’ it refers to the ends or consequences of something . . . .”[1]
So, here’s the deal: the verse is not primarily about riches, honor, and life. Those are the consequences of humility and reverence for the LORD. In fact, they are biproducts. What is the really important product and process are humility and fear of the LORD.
We all get out of sync sometimes. We all, at least occasionally, get focused on results to the exclusion (or, to say the least, to detriment) of the process. We all forget that good things usually come at the heels of good character. We all want to “get results.” Our society is very outcome driven. But outcome doesn’t come out of nothing. It comes from good processes and good character.
Of course, we can all think of bad things that happen to good people. The biblical proverbs, like all proverbs, speak of general truths. They are wonderful rules of thumb, not iron-clad promises. The human authors who wrote these proverbs down (as well as the God who is their ultimate Author) were well aware that things did not always work out well for the person with good, godly character. Such proverbs as the one recorded in Proverbs 16:8 reveal that much:
“Better is a little with righteousness
than great revenues with injustice.”
This proverb suggests that there are times and situations where righteousness does not lead to having a lot, and where injustice leads to great wealth. Nevertheless, it is better to have a little along with a godly character.
So, the process is not a mechanical do-this-and-you’ll-get-that approach to spirituality. Rather, humility and fear of the LORD are about character, about who we are. I am inclined to say that a person’s character is the process.
The question that I need to ask myself is this: Am I focused on the results or on the character that can produce, and generally does produce, the results? Turning this around and concentrating on the second half of the proverb—the riches, honor and life—is like turning around your foot 180 degrees and trying to walk straight.
I asked my wife, who is a nurse, what the medical term was for a person whose ankle is turned all the way around, so that the heel is facing forward. She did not hesitate with her reply. “You call that a broken ankle.”
[1] Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009), 223.
“Whom Am I Imitating?”
“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.” (Ephesians 5:1, (New Living Translation)
I am a chameleon. In order to please others, I try to blend in.
No, that’s not true. I am not trying to please others. I am trying to get them to please me.
But it is true that I am a chameleon. I try to fit in so well that I will stand out.
Contradictory? Yes. But unfortunately, it is true.
But I need to be careful as to whom I am imitating and in what ways I am imitating them.
Above all, since I am a Christ-follower—or at least, aspire to be one—I need to imitate Christ, who came to show us what God was like with human skin on. “Following Jesus” doesn’t simply mean hanging out with Him. Following means imitating him.
So, what was Jesus like? Well, he seems to have loved all kinds of people, he modeled humble service, he put God first, he taught wonderful things about the Kingdom of God. He also did miracles, howbeit often with great reluctance.
I don’t think that I have the gift of doing miracles, but who knows? However, those other things that Jesus did are things that I could do, at least, in theory. They are not easy, but they are possible.
One thing that Jesus did that I often refuse to notice is that Jesus noticed. He noticed when his disciples were arguing about who was the greatest. He noticed when his disciples were shooing away parents who were bringing their little ones to Jesus. (Jesus didn’t like that, even a little!) Jesus noticed a poor widow who had put a small coin in the offering box. (Jesus was very impressed with that!) Jesus noticed when his disciples needed their stinky feet washed.
Jesus noticed? He noticed that we were all lost and didn’t even have the sense to ask for directions. He noticed that we had all messed up our own lives and the lives of others. His ministry of noticing eventually took him to the cross.
Where is my imitative noticing taking me, I wonder?
DTEB, “Playing with God”
Recently, my daily affirmation was about working with God. “Today, by God’s grace, I am working with my Heavenly Father on myself, my relationships, and other assorted little tasks. I am enjoying working with God. It is the best way to get better acquainted.”
One of my twelve-step sponsors made a provocative comment (as he often does about my reports and affirmations) about my idea that working “. . . is the best way to get acquainted with God.” My sponsor replied, “So is playing with God.”
I had never really thought about playing with God. Playing at being God—yes. Unfortunately, I have often been unclear about the distinction between me and deity. But playing with God? Hummm . . .
However, I have to admit that playfulness is part of any good human intimate relationship. Whether it’s married couples or good friends, there is a playfulness about relationships. Why not in our relationship with God?
I suppose that there are at least two reasons (in addition to my sad attempts to act like God) why I was reluctant to think in terms of playing with God.
First, the expression “playing with” can be used pejoratively. It can be used for everything from teasing someone (“He’s just playing with you”) to having intimate physical relations with someone without any real love or commitment (“He’s just playing with you”).
Of course, if we are merely teasing God or wanting “benefits” (Christians often call them “blessings”) without any real commitment to God, that is not a good way to “play” with God. The expression “playing with fire” comes to mind. Not a good idea!
The second reason why I wasn’t too sure about the idea of playing with God is that I couldn’t think of any portion of Scripture that spoke of us playing with God. At least, I couldn’t think of anything initially. And then it hit me: Proverbs 8:30-31!
These verses are part of an extended praise of personified wisdom.
“then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing (playing) before him always,
rejoicing (playing) in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.”
(English Standard Version. The parts of the verses that are placed in parentheses and italicized represent another possible translation of the Hebrew word.)
Did you notice that wisdom plays with God and also with human beings? And if Wisdom plays with both God and us humans, then guess what? We are the playmates of both Wisdom and God!
Do not misunderstand what I am saying. We have a serious God. And God most definitely deserves to be taken with ultimate seriousness.
But perhaps we need to balance taking God seriously with the idea of a playful God. After all, who would want to spend all of eternity with a God who was never playful? That would be my idea of hell.[1]
[1] Carew and Price have some wonderful observations about the word “play” (or “delight”) in Proverbs 30:30-31. They note that, in these verses, the Hebrew word for “play” or “delight” is in the middle of a chiasm (i.e., an A-B-Bʹ-Aʹ arrangement. (Think of the Dr. Seuss’ book that starts off with the chiasm,
“I am Sam
Sam I am”.
See! Understanding these technical, literary terms is easy-peasy!)
More importantly, Carew and Price point out, “This chiastic arrangement serves to emphasize wisdom’s exuberant joy. . . . As the instrument of and witness to creation, wisdom personified takes exuberant joy in God’s creation.” (New International Dictionary of Old Testament Exegesis and Theology, volume 4, p. 207.) Exuberant joy: yes!
“THE MATTER OF WORDS MATTERING”
A few days ago, I did a post on gratitude. In it, I used the word “supernature” (https://www.downtoearthbeliever.com/?p=2157). A friend of mine, who is a loyal reader of these posts, asked a really great question about this word “supernature”. Her question and my attempt to answer it is the basis for this post. (I mention, in a positive way, Buddhists in this post. No, I am not a Buddhist, but I do value certain things that some of them say.)
Dianna wrote,
“Good morning,
It’s good to have an attitude of gratitude. What do you mean by supernature? Tried looking it up, but only found a weird song.
Thanks,
Dianna”
My reply was as follows:
“Dear Dianna,
Thanks for reading and thanks for being a close reader!
Sometimes, I just use the wrong word. At other times, I am using a noun intentionally where an adjective should be used. (It jolts me and hopefully readers out of my/their verbal lethargy.) At other times, I just make up a word.
In this case, I was thinking to myself, “Well, we have the adjectives “natural” and “supernatural”. Why not have the word “supernature” to balance “nature”? I had never heard the word “supernature” before, but I decided to use it anyway.
Sometimes, I also use an all-embracing noun where a more specific one might seem more appropriate. For example, I will say/write that I am anger instead of angry. I learned this from some of the Buddhists I hang out with. Some of them hold that you are whatever you are thinking or feeling at any given moment. So, if I am angry, I am at that moment anger. This helps me to take ownership of whatever I am thinking or feeling in the moment and to realize the importance of whatever I am thinking or feeling in the moment.
Good catch and good question! What we say and how we say it matters. And it is good to be held accountable for how we use our words.
With your permission, may I use your good question and my response as tomorrow’s post?
Daryl”
And permission was graciously granted! But, of course, I was too busy piddling around to write the post right away.
I really do believe that our words—my words—matter. My mom (like most moms, quite likely) used to quote the old saying,
“Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words will never hurt me.”
My mom was an honest person, but I think she was not speaking the whole truth on this one. I tend to change one word in the saying. I think that it better reflects reality.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones,
but words will really hurt me.”
Jesus said that we would give an account of every idle or useless word (Matthew 12:36). How much more so, words that are harmful!
If it were not for Jesus Christ, for his redemptive death on behalf of all humanity, and the forgiveness of sins, my words alone would send me to hell. I’ve said a lot of useless and harmful words across my lifetime.
So, my intention is to be careful with my words today. Care to join me?
“Our Forty-Eighth Wedding Anniversary”
Today is a very special day for my sweetheart and me. We were married on this day in 1973. I love her so much more than I did the day we married.
I wish that I could tell you how wonderful it is being married to this smart, funny, creative, thoughtful woman, but I can’t. I am a person of words. I love words. I cherish them. But, for some things, there simply are no words.
As love grows, so does joy. We enjoy such little things together these days. For example, last night we had a lot of fun with cherry tomatoes. She was tossing them to me, and I was trying to catch them in my mouth. Between her lousy pitching and my equally lousy catching, one poor tomato had been thrown and missed and washed and thrown again so many times that it was practically tomato juice when my love gently put it in my mouth.
There is a proverb in the Bible that says, “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD” (Proverbs 18:22) Yes indeed!
I love you babe. I have a lot of friends who read my posts, and I appreciate them all. But you . . ., you are the best! When I struggle to believe in the grace and goodness of God or my own worth as a human being, I think of you. The dark doubts melt away and the sun throws both legs over the horizon. And I know it’s going to be a good 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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