“One Tangle at a Time”
We are re-staining the deck and some surrounding woodwork. As with all tasks, there are always pre-tasks to do. One of them was taking down some lights that my wife had put up around the woodwork. There is a catch. We have wisteria.
Wisteria is a wonderful plant. It is tough and grows fast. It vines and can provide some wonderful shade.
However (why is there always a however?), the wisteria and the strings of light seemed to be getting along a little too well. They weren’t quite married, but they seemed to be headed in that direction.
I got to one place where I wasn’t sure that I could disengage the wisteria and the lights. So, I mulled the alternatives. I could cut the wisteria. No! I don’t like killing living things. Houseflies, ants (when in the house), and poison ivy are exceptions.
Or, I could give up on this strand of lights. However, I am rather frugal, so that didn’t seem to be a good alternative.
Somewhere I read or heard that if you have only two choices, you don’t have a choice. Instead, you have a dilemma. So, I tried to think of a third possibility. And sometimes when I slow down and think, I actually have a thought.
I said to myself, “Well, why not start trying to slowly disentangle the wisteria from the light, and see what happens?” So, that is what I did. And within a couple of minutes, I had succeeded. The plant, the lights, and I all breathed a sigh of relief.
Is there a point to this story? There is!
All of my life, I have been pretty tangled. And I have longed—indeed, lusted—for a quick and easy solution. And my quick and easy solutions were indeed quick but were almost never easy. In fact, that weren’t even solutions. They simply deepened the original problem and created some new problems.
There is a verse that says,
“Desire without knowledge is not good,
and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.”
(Proverbs 19:2, English Standard Version)
Slow down, dear reader—and dear self! Be content to make a little progress! One tangle at a time. One tangle at a time.
“No More Looking Back!”
Looking back is a prescription for failure and misery. We were made with eyes in the front of our heads for a reason.
Our pastor preached an excellent sermon yesterday, based on Luke 9:57-62, zeroing in on Jesus’ saying, “He who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is not worthy of the Kingdom of God (vs. 62). He briefly gave us some helpful background information about ancient plows and plowing techniques. He took an ancient custom and its metaphorical meaning, and translated it into a helpful life-lesson for June 7, 2020—or for any day.
He pointed out that, if you aren’t looking forward, you won’t plow a straight furrow. I grew up on a farm, and he is correct. (When I was learning to plow, I rode down part of our fence with the tractor at the end of the field because I was looking back.) He also pointed out something that I had never thought of. The ancient plowmen had to lean his weight on the plow in order to keep it in the ground to plow deeply. He couldn’t do that while looking back.
Even when I was little, I tended to look back a lot. And now that I am old, there is so much more to see when looking back. Some of it is good, some of it very bad indeed. But it is all in the past.
I am committed to looking forward. The Kingdom of God, according to Jesus, is a forward-looking kingdom. I will look forward. I will lean on the plow. No more looking back!
“No Reason to Fear”
I enjoy doing a daily devotional exercise from Loyola Publishing. I particularly enjoyed this morning’s meditation. You can do the same by accessing the entire meditation—free of charge—at https://www.loyolapress.com/retreats/the-lord-goes-before-you-start-retreat/. (It takes about three minutes to go through the retreat. Just saying.)
Here is the Scripture on which today’s “3-Minute Retreat” was based. “It is the LORD who marches before you; he will be with you and will never fail you or forsake you. So do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)
So, what has Deuteronomy 31:8 got to say to us? A lot!
The Israelites were about to enter the promised land, after wandering in the wilderness for forty years. They had gotten lost, because they had lost their GPS, their “God Positioning System.”
Or rather, their parents had lost their GPS. Their parents, even after seeing God’s miracle-working power in rescuing them from slavery in Egypt and preserving them in the wilderness, had come to the very edge of the promised land forty years earlier. But they decided that they were not able to enter the land. Best to go back to Egypt! Best to go back to slavery.
God said to them, “No, you can’t go back to Egypt. But you won’t go into the promised land either. You will die in the wilderness since you refuse to trust me.”
And now the children of these needless wanderers are themselves standing on the brink of the Promise. Like any of us who are standing on the brink of a major unknown, they needed some reassurance.
I looked at Deuteronomy 31:8 in Hebrew. There were several fascinating things that are difficult to put into an English translation. This gets a bit technical but hang with me; it is worth the effort!
First, God emphasizes that He—God—will be with them. In Hebrew, as in many languages, the verb does not need to be expressed for simple, short statements. Therefore, if the independent pronoun is included, it is often for emphasis. The independent pronoun that stands in for God (“he”) occurs twice in this little verse, even though grammatically it is not needed for making sense of the sentence. God is underlining the fact that He, their God, will go before them. God does not lead from the rear. God goes in on the first wave of this battle.
Second, God will not only go ahead of them. God will be with them. God is not simply a God who leads. God is also a God who accompanies.
Third, Go encourages the Israelites not to fear or be dismayed. In fact, the Hebrew word that is translated “dismayed” in many English translations is quite a bit stronger than our word “dismay” suggests. The Hebrew word is used (sometimes literally) for something or someone who is broken. In a more metaphorical sense, it connotes panic. If God is God and if God is with us, then panic is always premature.
The retreat from Loyola connects Deuteronomy 31:8 with the New Testament in an interesting manner.
“We have every reason to trust in God. The Book of Deuteronomy promises that the Lord goes ahead of us and will never abandon us. Jesus is the fulfillment of this promise. By his Incarnation, Jesus accompanied us in our human experience. When we call Jesus Emmanuel, which means “God is with us,” we are reminded that we are not alone. After the Resurrection, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be with the disciples and to remain with us always. There is no reason to fear.”
No reason to fear! That is always a good thing to remember.
“On Not Being the Alpha Dog”
Our little dog Laylah likes to jump up in my seat at the dining room table. I don’t know why. Does she just like the scent of me? I can’t imagine that! But then, I’m not a dog. Or does she aspire to be the alpha dog, and thinks that she can be the alpha dog simply by sitting in my seat? Seven-and-a-half pounds of four-footed ambition!
I frequently have to tell her to vacate my seat. Sometimes she does so quickly, but sometimes I have to use the Voice of Authority.
The serpent whispered, when tempting Adam and Eve, “You will be like God . . . .” (Genesis 3:5) This is often called “the first temptation.” I suspect that it may be the only temptation. Every other temptation is simply a variation on that theme.
But God says, “I, I alone, am God, and my glory I will not give to another.” (Isaiah 42:8)
So, I have to choose every moment between living in Genesis 3:5 and Isaiah 42:8. And if I am trying to sit in the place of God, I need to vacate. Sometimes, I do this quickly and willingly. Sometimes, God has to use the Voice of Authority. I need to always remember: I am not the alpha dog.
Now, Laylah is lying in her little bed at my feet, looking up at me every now and then. Perhaps you and I should curl up at God’s feet today. Perhaps that is a much more comfortable place to be anyway.
“Molding the Material into the Spiritual”
I struggle to believe that anything I do is terribly significant. I have a hunch that you may struggle with that as well.
Here is an excerpt from one of my daily 12-step readings. It is followed by my musings about my day.
“Meditation for the Day
Molding your life means cutting and shaping your material into something good, something that can express the spiritual. All material things are the clay out of which we mold something spiritual. You must first recognize the selfishness in your desires and motives, actions and words, and then mold that selfishness until it is sublimated into a spiritual weapon for good. As the work of molding proceeds, you see more and more clearly what must be done to mold your life into something better.
Prayer for the Day
I pray that I may mold my life into something useful and good. I pray that I may not be discouraged by the slow progress that I make.” (From Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation.)
I was especially struck by the sentence, “All material things are the clay out of which we mold something spiritual.” Have I done this today? Have I taken material things, and molded them into something spiritual? I ask the question, but can I answer it? My day seemed pretty mundane to me.
- I cleaned and straightened the garage.
- I talked to 12-step friends.
- I listened to about 12 chapters from the Bible.
- I was here when the plumbers came to fix the outdoor water spigot.
- I went out and bought a new riding lawn mower (my first!), a small trailer for the tractor, a water hose, and a reel for said hose.
- I took care of the dog.
- I tried to prop my leg up some.
- I sent out the assignments and challenges for my Hebrew class.
- I did the dishes.
- I wrote out a gratitude list of 50 items.
- I am writing this blog.
How “spiritual” is any of this?
But perhaps I should let God judge my day—and me. I am often my harshest critic. I suspect that God is much more kind and fair to me than I am to me.
The same is probably true of you.
“A Recipe for Stone Soup”
Here is one of my twelve-step readings for today. Since I am trying to learn to cook, I liked this recipe a lot. It is simple.
“Wednesday, June 3
Men will find that they can prepare with mutual aid far more easily what they need and avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides, by united forces.
—Baruch Spinoza
Three travelers stopped in a small town on their way to the city. They had tents to sleep in, but no food or money. They knocked on doors asking for a little food, but the people were poor, with little to eat and nothing to spare.
Cheerfully, they returned to their camp and built a fire. “What are you doing?” asked a bystander, “Building a fire with nothing to cook?”
“But we do have something to cook!” they said. “Our favorite dish, stone soup. We only need a pot.”
“I think I can find one,” said one of the bystanders, and she ran home to fetch it.
When she returned, the travelers filled the pot with water and placed two large stones in it. “This will be the finest soup we’ve ever made!” said the first traveler. “I agree,” said the second, “but don’t you think it would taste better with a cabbage in it?”
“I think I can find one,” said another bystander. And so it went the whole afternoon until, by evening, the travelers had a hearty, fragrant feast, which they shared with the hungry townspeople.
What can I do with help today, that I couldn’t do alone?” (From Today’s Gift: Daily Meditations for Families ©1985, 1991 by Hazelden Foundation.)
There isn’t much I can add to this. I think I’ll go build a fire!
(You can purchase this book from Hazelden Publishing. Hazelden publishes lots of good things. While not overtly Christian or even religious, they are often very helpful, even if you’re not an addict.)
“Seeking God’s Face: Impossible, Difficult and Easy”
Wait a minute! How can something be impossible, difficult, and easy?!
Good question! Glad that you asked. I was meditating this morning on the statement in the Scriptures that we are to “seek God’s face.” I thought that this sounded like a worthwhile goal, and that I ought to do that. In fact, I made it my daily affirmation: “Today, by God’s grace, I am seeking the face of God, no matter how difficult that may be.”
My sponsor responded to my twelve-step affirmation by reminding me that I could see God’s face in the face of my wife or of a child. Good reminder. Sometimes I make things more difficult than they are. It is certainly possible that I am doing that in this case.
However, this whole idea of seeing God’s face—or seeing God—is very problematic in the Bible. Some verses say that mortal man cannot see God. For example, God says to Moses that even Moses would not be permitted to behold God’s face (Exodus 33:20).
Other Scriptures say something very different. For example, Exodus 24:9-11 says that Moses, along with seventy elders of Israel, did see God.
And then, there are verses that encourage, yea indeed command, us to seek God’s face.
“You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, LORD, do I seek.” (Psalm 27:8, English Standard Version)
Of course, those who think that the Bible is a hopelessly contradictory book have no problem at all with this. They simply say, “See! We told you so!”
However, those of us who hold the Bible in high esteem (as I do) want to look a bit more deeply. The average person (if such a person exists) may say different things at different times. We may recognize that this does not automatically mean that the person is contradicting him/herself. Perhaps we should extend the same courtesy to the Bible that we give to one another on a routine basis.
Context is everything, as I often remind my students. There are times when it is appropriate to speak of God’s face being inaccessible, and there are times for seeking God’s face.
On the other hand, our default position should be to seek God’s face. Thus, Psalm 105:4 says that we are to “seek God’s face continually.”
Perhaps the most helpful thing is to realize two things.
First, the word “face” in Hebrew, when it is not a literal face, often refers to a person’s presence. Especially, there is the nuance of a person’s gracious presence. In the famous priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24-26, the Israelite priest is to say to the people of Israel,
24 “The LORD bless you and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
A second observation about the idea of “face” is that it suggests how we get to know people. Most of us prefer “face-to-face” meetings, even though in this day of global pandemic, we may not be able to meet face-to-face.
A person’s face is the best way to get to know that person. The eyes, the facial expressions, and above all, the words a person speaks, helps us to know the person.
So it is with us and God. God is already well-acquainted with our faces. We just need to seek God’s face more diligently.
And yes, one way to do that is as easy as seeing God’s face in our daily relationships. Yes, God’s face is mysterious. But then so is my wife’s face, even though I’ve had the privilege of studying it for a very long time.
“So Frail a Dwelling”
Sometimes, when our children were little, I would go into their room when they were asleep. Of course, the toys had not been put away, despite my repeated admonition to do so. However, they looked so peaceful that I just stood still, thinking of how grateful I was for them. They probably never knew, nor will they probably ever know.
A story is told of the founder of the Jewish Hasidic Movement, who was usually referred to as “the Great Maggid” (“the Great Preacher). The Great Maggid sometimes went into his disciples’ room as they were sleeping, and looked at them in love. Once, when he looked at one of his disciples, Rabbi Zalman, the Great Maggid said to himself, “Miracle of miracles that so great a God lives in so frail a dwelling.”
Paul, who often spoke us of being “in” Christ, or of Christ being “in” us, made a similar point. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
All we see is the frail dwelling, the jars of clay. But God sees more. And God not only sees. God inhabits us. We are possessed, but not in the negative way that this word is usually used.
Yes, the dwelling is frail. As if I needed another reminder, I have a blood clot causing me problems right now. Frail indeed!
But wherever the King is, there is a palace, no matter how frail the superstructure may be.
“Is God Thankful?”
Is God thankful? I had probably never thought of the question before today, because I never thought of God as needing anything. And perhaps it is true, as many theologians have said, that God does not really “need” anything.
However, I have noticed something about thankful people: They are thankful, even when they do not need a thing. Their response to an offer to help is, “No, I’m good, but thank you so much for offering!” And for grateful people, this is not simply a matter of being courteous. They mean it.
Admittedly, there are not any Scripture passages that say, point blank, that God thanks anyone for anything. However, there are passages that might suggest that God is, in fact, grateful for certain things.
Take, for example, this story from Jesus:
Matt. 25:31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25:31-40, English Standard Version)
The words “thanks” or “gratitude” do not occur in Matthew 25:31-40. Yet it seems to me that there is a wonderful atmosphere of gratitude in the King’s words to those who had shown kindness to “the least of his brothers.”
Then, there is a verse in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. “But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God” (Romans 2:29). Paul is talking about how God expects faith and obedience from the Gentile and from the Jew, without any partiality.
It is often noted that the name “Judah” (from which we get the word “Jew”) is a Hebrew word that suggests the idea of “praise.” Indeed, in Genesis 29:35, speaks of Leah praising God as the result of the birth of Judah. In Genesis 49:8, the Scriptures speak of Judah’s brothers praising him.
But I think there is more than just a word play going on here. Notice how Paul speaks of the one who belongs to God as receiving praise from God. What?! I thought that humans were supposed to praise God, not the other way around! However, Paul is clear at this point. He is speaking here of God praising believers, rather than the other way around. (In John 5:44 Jesus speaks of “receiving glory from God.” This also sounds a bit like God thanking us.)
Perhaps there is a broader argument for thinking of God as being thankful. Most of us would, I think, acknowledge the fact that gratitude is a good thing for humans. Why, then, would it not be a good thing for God as well?
Why not indeed? A grateful God is much more appealing than a god who never says, “Thanks!” to anyone.
“Bullied by a Gang of Thoughts”
I am just starting my “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Publishing. Today, as with many days, the retreat starts out with an admonition to let go of any distracting thoughts. I am not sure if I am holding on to such thoughts or if they are holding on to me. I have a lot of clingy thoughts.
Well, I should be mature enough to do this. I am in charge of my thoughts. I am bigger and meaner and more determined than they are. I refuse to be bullied by a gang of nasty, useless thoughts!
And what are the names of these gang members? Regret, Resentment, Guilt, Fear, A-Sense-Of-Worthlessness, Desire-For-More (and his twin brother Discontent).
So, I decide that, today, I’m going to stand up to these bullies. I say, to Regret (who seems to be their spokesman), “You little boys, run along. I’m moving forward, and if you try to stop me or follow me, I will hurt you.”
And so, I walk on. I look around and they are gone.
Huh! It works! I think I’ll get on with my day. Maybe you could too.
Three practical suggestions:
- Name the thoughts that are bullying you.
- Tell them to shove off.
- Walk in the direction of the next right thing to do.
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