When have you seen despair give birth to hope? What “midwife” made the difference? Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 1280).
Tonight Donald Trump in a stump speech said that in the future when he is president we will once again be able to say “Merry Christmas” in a public forum. He said that when he is president it will be acceptable to be Christian again. That is music to my ears. I am sick and tired of living in America and finding myself curtailed in the affirmation of my faith except within the narrow confines of delimited arenas. Such a view of Christianity – of any religion – hobbles it and makes it in a real sense unlivable as a faith. Such a view yields total credence to the unrealistic and one-dimensional view of religion ascribed to by religiously ignorant materialists. I think those who wrote the Constitution would be shocked to find that the document redacted any religion from the public square under the purported banner of freedom – heavy irony indeed.
That said, I will not support Donald Trump, but instead vote for Bernie Sanders on Tuesday. That is because I realize that Donald Trump is a genius at currying favor. He knows just what notes to play to endear even those carrying burning hatred in their hearts . He says he’s a Christian, but the majority of his speeches are completely foreign to the spirit of Christianity. I choose to vote for a Jew who has fought for migrant farm workers and decline to vote for a snake-oil Christian.
When the direction of your life undergoes a “midcourse correction,” how do you generally respond?
by getting mad at God
by getting defensive
by lashing out at others
by beating up on myself
by asking for forgiveness
other_____________
(The Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition)
Like many others who sincerely try to do right and not hurt others, I find it exceptionally easy to beat up on myself after committing even a social faux pas. I’m sure that this is very much an inherited trait as my mother showed similar characteristics. My mother who never once robbed a bank or even thought of it, prayed that God forgive her many sins. What sins, I ask myself, did she commit? I’m sure that she would say those many times she failed to be consistently helpful to others. Sometimes I fantasize what it would be like to have a carefree spirit and to go about my life totally confident that I had done the right thing – totally absent any painful regret. But is unadulterated euphoria necessary for abundant life? Isn’t abundant life in part made possible because we are reluctant to engage in overbearing thoughtlessness? Should our prayers not always acknowledge the sins that we commit and especially those misguided sins we fail to see? Can we afford to outgrow the need for lent with utter facility?
Several weeks ago I was having lunch with John Reynolds, a 92 year-old retired middle school coach whose prior students still greet him affectionately when seeing him about town. John could readily appreciate my obvious need to lose weight, and he approached the matter very tactfully and helpfully. He said, “If it were me I would consider whether I value more living a long life and putting my heart under less stress or whether I enjoy rich food so much now that I had rather do that. Wayne, it’s for you to think about and it’s your decision to make.” I straight away felt empowered and ennobled for it is empowering and ennobling to face a question squarely and then to do the responsible thing. I made my decision without hesitation and since have eaten baked chicken and fish and fresh green and yellow vegetables without heavy oils. My goal is not far off and rosy, but is met every time I do the right thing at a daily meal. I have lost 5 pounds after making that decision. John makes a point of seeing me every day with his usual cheerful and positive smile and wants to know how it’s going. He says he’s thinking and praying for me. I feel very blessed to have a seasoned and beloved coach now coaching me.
What do you do when someone says something you do not want to hear? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 1395).
It all depends on who is telling me something I do not want to hear. On one extreme let us say that it is a medical doctor I respect saying I should get a bone marrow biopsy to test for cancer. This is not music to my ears, but my inclination is not to get a second opinion, but rather to do what he advises as soon as possible. At the other extreme is someone who lacks credibility for me, at least in the subject at hand. I have a friend that is politically at odds with me. He is given to sending me emails with recommendations for his favorite candidate. If I can tell from the subject line such a recommendation is what the email is all about, I don’t even open the email for I detest the candidate and am frustrated that my friend could in any way support him. So these are two factors in the accessibility equation–the credibility of the source and the nature of the subject. A further factor is the measure of control I have over the situation. Say I am a student in a class taught by my aforementioned friend. It is a political science class and he freely professes all the great things about the candidate I detest. Since I am now in a position with significant lack of control (I can be tested on a political essay question that includes reference to his candidate), I must at the least show that I have listened to what my friend the professor has said on the subject. A final factor, of course, is emotional valence. If the subject matter or personage elicits major negative emotional stress on my part, a typical response is avoidance. I have taken courses in which the subject matter was particularly stressful for me due to the alien nature of the subject. I did not feel adept or at home (the smell of biology lab comes to mind). In these cases “study time” were tense times of enforced moral duty and desperate mental flights. I suppose the “right” answer for the beginning question is that I marshal fairness, goodwill, and calm; and with an open mind consider objectively with full attention all that is said. That might be the right answer, but it does not work for me.
What comes first in your spirituality: (a) Action? (b) Sacrifice? (c) Prayer? (d) Talk? Why? What comes second?... (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page (786).
When we consider thought self-talk, and when we consider conversation whether alone or with others oral thought; then talk becomes the precursor and sustainer of action, sacrifice, and prayer. Talk whether written or oral is a tool for the further framing of thought. It is arresting to consider the role of talk in defining terms, attaining symmetry in sound and sense, mapping action, identifying purpose, and discerning/interpreting results. An important function of the Holy Spirit is to stimulate the genesis of verbal thought. Talk, far from being cheap, is a priceless medium of exchange.
When, if ever, have you “run away”? Where did you go? For how long? What were you escaping? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 456).
Today is communion Sunday, a day we remember the grace of God who loves us unconditionally and yearns for us to come to him with full integrity – fully cognizant of and fully fessing up to our heretofore reflexively veiled and carefully concealed imperfection – a heady dishonesty that inevitably leads to a practiced defensiveness and hypocrisy with shades of neurosis. Christian psychology tells us that being unconditionally loved and coming to Christ with humble honesty and unflinching integrity is the only route to freedom. Everything else is an escape from freedom in which we defensively run away from other people, God, even ourselves. It is in this light that I no longer pray for scintillating confidence; I pray instead for the steady anchor of abiding peace that suffuses one’s life when assured that one is fully known, fully accepted, and eternally loved.
What feelings do conflict stories, especially your own, bring out in you? Do you tend to avoid or create conflict? Why? (Serendipity Bible Fourth Edition, page 504).
There are two types of conflict: orderly conflict and disorderly conflict. Disorderly conflict occurs in an unruly, chaotic classroom or in a forum where everyone is talking at once. I don’t like this kind of unfocused, meaningless conflict. I do enjoy focused conflict–two boxers fighting it out in a spotlighted ring or the focused conflict when David felled Goliath. The first type of conflict prostitutes the soul of conflict, the second type elevates it to a type of moral order that is essential for life and progress – providing a dramatic stage for the establishment, even creation, of meaning rather than its nihilistic destruction.
