“The Lust to Get Back to Normal”
“To be human is to exist, not in stasis or equilibrium: only fossils do that.”[1]
“‘Normal’ is just the name of a town in Illinois.” (Source unknown)
We all want—or even long—to get back to normal. Yes, I do too. However, let me ask you, as well as myself, several questions.
- What is normal?
- Why do we want to go back to it?
- Is our normal “normal” (or perhaps better, our usual normal) a private reality/construct, or a societal reality/construct? If reality is a societal or relational reality, which society or relationships are we talking about?
- If we are Christians, is normal even a possibility for us? As believers, we are called to be counter-cultural. Have we forgotten this?
Cornelius Plantinga wrote a book titled Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin.[2] I’ve only dipped into the book, but I love the title. Those of us who try to take the Bible seriously recognize that our world has not been “normal” since Genesis 3:6.
And one more question: Was our normal, whether it was individual, familial, or societal, really ever all that normal? I suspect that, for many of us, good memories are primarily a result of bad memory.
As a believer, indeed as a human, it seems to me that there is something better than “getting back to normal.” It is making the day, this day, better. And we can do that, no matter how abnormal our days are or seem to be. Making this day better appears to me to be infinitely better than lusting after a normal which probably was pretty messed up anyway.
[1] Anthony J. Griffiths, Courage and Conviction: Unpretentious Christianity (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2018), 180.
[2] Cornelius Plantinga, Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995).
“My Eating Addiction: Playing the Short Game”
“The one who keeps the law is a son with understanding, but a companion of gluttons shames his father.” (Proverbs 28:7, English Standard Version)
“Help my friend to savor his food, because savoring is the opposite of gluttony.” (A friend who prayed with and for me over the phone.)
I was blindsided by the second half of the verse. What!?! You mean to tell me that the opposite of keeping God’s Law, God’s Instruction, is gluttony?! That can’t possibly be right!
So, I checked it out in Hebrew. Yep! That does seem to be what it says. How dismaying.
I see now, as I have seen before, that my eating addiction is, in many ways, even more serious than my other addictions—even more serious than my “major” addiction. Food (particularly sweets) was likely my original gateway drug. For sure now, overeating tends to lead my mind in directions that I know it should not go. So, I have to stop thinking that this is not a serious matter. It is.
I can’t change my eating attitudes and behaviors for the rest of my life, or even, for the rest of this day. What I can do is to change my attitudes and behaviors for the next little while. Being a serialist writer of good, short stories about my life is my best shot at making a big difference in my life. And these short stories are not written with a pen or a keyboard, but with consistent attitudes and actions.
What story will you write today, dear reader?
“In Praise of Gruggles”
What, you ask, are “gruggles”?!
“Gruggles” is a word I made up in conjunction with a friend who may or may not want to share the birthing of such a bizarre word. “Gruggles” is a blend word. It’s a bit like “smog” (smoke + fog), or “staycation” (stay + vacation). “Gruggles” is a word that combines the idea of growth with the idea of struggles.” Hence, “gruggles”!
My friend and I were talking about how we have the same issues that we deal with over time. I used the word “struggles”, but he preferred the word “growth”. So, I took it on myself to coin the word gruggles.
I suspect that all growth is related to struggles. I wish that there was a way we could simply go to bed and grow, and maybe there is. However, I haven’t yet discovered it. (God knows I’ve tried!)
I thought about quoting a lot of Bible verses at this point in the post, but do I really need to do that? Common sense and our experience repeats this truth over and over. The only thing that doesn’t take struggle of one kind or another is death.
No struggle; no growth. Thank God for gruggles!
“Nibbling our Way to Lostness”
Psa. 119:10 “With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!” (English Standard Version)
How do you get lost? Sorry to ask such a personal question, but I’m curious as to whether I’m the only one who gets off the right path little by little.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I can also go into what a friend of mine called, “a premeditated backslide.” Absolutely, I can!
But more often, I deviate from the right path ever so slightly. The problem is that, once I get off the path, it is so easy to keep going.
Psalm 119 exudes an intense desire to stay on the path that God has marked out. The psalm is filled with words of love for God’s words and commands, as well as motivations for obeying those words and commands. “With my whole heart I seek you . . .” (the first half of verse 10) is typical.
However, the second half of verse ten recognizes a distressing truth. The psalmist prays that he may not wander from the truth. We humans do not generally pray for something that is a slam dunk. Apparently, wandering is always an option.
Victor P. Hamilton, my beloved undergrad Old Testament professor, notes that the Hebrew root translated “wander” in verse 10 “. . . is used to describe how sheep got lost (Ezek 34:6). They simply nibble their way to lostness.”[1]
A question I need to ask myself often is “Am I nibbling myself to lostness?” I have a track record of doing that. Sometimes, the nibbling is literal. Eating just a little more than I need, and I’ve gained fifteen pounds. Not all at once, of course. I was just nibbling!
Tolerating evil thoughts. But of course, I was just nibbling. Judging others is one of my current hot-button nibbles. I struggle with this, even though I am well aware that Jesus said “Don’t!” Oh, come on! Just a little nibble of the botulinum toxin won’t hurt.
Watching/reading/listening to too much news and depressing myself is one of my current drugs of choice. But of course, I was just nibbling. (This is an incredibly now issue. I was tempted to check the internet to see what stupid things we were doing or plotting to do to one another currently. I decided to finish writing this post instead. Good decision!)
In his book, The Screwtape Letters,C. S. Lewis noted that “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one–the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
Don’t nibble yourself to death today. I’ll try to avoid that as well.
[1] Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, volume 2, page 904.
DTEB, “Fair—and Merciful—Weights and Measures”
As I was out walking the dog and listening to my You Version Bible on my smart phone this morning, I was struck by the following verse:
Prov. 11:1 “A false balance is an abomination to the LORD,
but a just weight is his delight.” (English Standard Version)
I was even more struck with a rather personal extended application of the verse to my own sometimes judgmental attitude. I did not like the application, but I no doubt needed it.
False weights and measures are, in the literal sense, an economic issue. Here is what Kidner says concerning the matter: “The Law (Lev. 19:35f.), the Prophets (Mic. 6:1f.) and the Wisdom Writings (see also 20:10, 23) agree in condemning dishonesty primarily for God’s sake. For the same reason we are encouraged to give not only in full but to overflowing (Luke 6:35, 38). See also 16:11 . . . .” Christine Roy Yoder comments that, of eleven things that are listed as abominations of Yahweh in the book of Proverbs, three of them involve unjust weights and measures.[1] (See also Amos 8:5; and Micah 6:10-11.)
However, the figurative meaning of this saying was what I especially needed and didn’t like. I felt that God was asking me about my tendency to want mercy for me, but judgment for others. Isn’t that having different weights and measures? Other people’s wrongdoing is heavier and more than mine, surely! And, of course, my motivations are always pure, whereas the motivations of other people are often suspect.
I was hoping that I had misheard God’s Spirit, but was pretty well certain that I had not. When I looked up Luke 6:35-38 (to which Kidner referred, as already noted), all doubt was removed.
“Luke 6:36 “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:37 “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Notice how Jesus intensifies this business of a fair “measure.” We are not simply to be just. Rather, we are to be merciful and generous. In fact, this merciful measure doesn’t stop with not being judgmental. No! Jesus calls his disciples to forgive!
And since I need a lot of mercy and forgiveness, I need to extend a lot of mercy and forgiveness to others. Measure for measure! The same standards of mercy for others that I need for myself.
Man, do I ever have a lot of work to do!
[1] Christine Roy Yoder, Proverbs, Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries (Nashville: Abingdon, 2009), 130.
“Not All Repetitions are Vain”
The praise team at our church was singing a song in which they repeated the same words over and over. Vain repetition? Well, there is such a thing. But I don’t think that the praise team was guilty of it.
Admittedly, repetition can be empty or vain. Jesus warned his disciples about this, and we also need to hear that warning. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.” (Matthew 6:7)
The King James Version of this verse warns against “vain repetitions.” However, not all repetitions are vain or empty. Some are very helpful and rich.
One good function of repetition is that it emphasizes a thing, a person, a prayer, an idea. When that thing, person, prayer, or idea is important, then repetitive emphasis is in order. I tell my wife every day that I love her. Vain repetition? I don’t think so! Emphasizing something that is true and important? Yes!
Another advantage of repetition is that it is wonderfully helpful when I’m trying to learn something. There is a saying that goes something like this:
“Repetition is the handmaiden of learning.
Repetition is the handmaiden of learning.
Repetition is the handmaiden of learning.”
I am currently learning a bit of Spanish with the help of Duolingo. The lessons are very repetitious. Thank God! With my a.d.d. mind, I have to go over and over things before I really get them. Only when something has become second nature to us is it really part of our nature at all.
Of course, what I/we are repeating needs to be true and helpful. In this day of the twenty-four-hour, seven-days-a-week news cycle, there is a tendency to simply repeat whatever news or allegations are currently making the rounds. And the problem is that if a thing is said over and over, we tend to believe it. But lies can be recycled over and over too. That doesn’t make them true, however.
And, of course, there is the anonymous net and antisocial media. Things are repeated and repeated until we believe them. Now that is vain repetition!
But if a thing is true and important, it is worthy of repetition. Such repetition is anything but vain.
Sing that repetitious song one more time, praise team! At least one more time!
“A 360, a 180, or a 1?”
I’m not good with numbers, but I am fascinated with words. On the other hand, sometimes I get excited even by numbers.
Take the expression, “doing a 180,” for example. Sometimes people talk about a radical change as “doing a 360”. However, if you do a 360°, all you’ve done is a circle. You’re right back where you began. So, unless I’m missing something (always a possibility), I think that a radical change is doing a 180.
As our Bible study guide pointed out last night, the Hebrew word teshuvah means “to turn”. Interestingly, this Hebrew word for repentance is also the word for apostasy! It all depends on which direction you are turning. Are you turning away from sin and toward God (repentance), or are you turning away from God to go your own way (apostasy)?
Now, I freely admit that I get lost easily. This is true whether you’re talking about traveling geographically or in terms of life itself. There are times when a 180 is precisely what I need to do.
However, why should I wait until I’m that lost? Why not seek to live so that, if I get even a little off the path, I allow God to make me aware? Why not repent quickly, before I’ve done a lot of damage to myself, other people, God’s loving and tender heart?
So, my goal is to get it down to 1°, to repent quickly, not to wait until I’m crazy way lost.
I can’t be among the one-percenters when it comes to material wealth. Never really wanted to be. Don’t now. But the one-degree-ers—now that is a worthy goal.
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