Requesting the Doable

Where do you think the world will be in 70 years?...What investment would God want you to make in the future of your world, as a testimony to your faith in God? (Serendipity Bible 10^th Anniversary Edition, page 1109).

God never asks me to make an investment I cannot make. The spiritual investments he asks of me sometimes entail investments of material resources—but never outside the realm of what is doable. To put it in a crass way, he never wants me to purchase a million dollar yacht when all I can afford is a row boat. The row boat can adequately accommodate both symbolic and practical significance. To put it another way, God demands my best efforts within the realm of the doable, not the impossible.

Print Page

Reassessment Overdue

Proportionality: Harmonious arrangement or relation of parts or elements within a whole (as in a design) [WordWeb Pro]

Design: to have as a purpose [Merriam-Webster] 

Foundation: : a basis (as a tenet, principle, or axiom) upon which something stands or is supported [Merriam-Webster]

The concepts of proportionality, design, and foundation are interrelated. Foundation forms the basis from which design develops. Proportionality is an inherent quality of nature that can be seen in the human form itself wherein symmetry though not perfect is pronounced. To a certain extent we can deduce foundational purpose from the manifestation of design. Disproportionality as in metastasis is a cause for urgent concern as the implied purpose therein is untenable with life and health. Designs amenable with flourishing states also involve proportionality reflective of underlying purposes. Political economies do so as well. The presentation below signals a deeply troubling disproportionality—a deformity that cries out for a reassessment of underlying assumptions and purposes.

Print Page

The Demystification of Epiphany

Right now, would you say your spiritual life is closer to a sunrise or sunset? Is a new day dawning in your life? How so? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition page 1104).

I've heard the saying that prayer changes things...but prayer also changes me. This gets to the kernel of why I will never feel I am approaching a spiritual sunset – things are always changing and so am I. And the change is not pointless and to no effect but opens up windows of insight previously unattainable. Add to this the fact that not only I change, but so does everyone else. Thus ever hour of every day new revelations abound.

Humanity is known as the tool-making species. Tools often are used to enhance perception--say that of a microscope or telescope. What is sought for is heightened clarity. The Ten Commandments brought clarity to human behavior in societies seeking abundant life. It is difficult to see how any society could flourish if theft and murder held predominant sway. Jesus came to clarify the nature of love itself and the direct relation of love to abundant life.

Most all human endeavors open their fields of study to multiple viewpoints. Whether it be science or literature, it is held that the more eyes that look upon a phenomenon the better hope we will have of seeing what's there. I have often heard it said that the Bible never goes out of date for when it is reread during one's life, one always find something new as their storehouse of personal experiences increases. Thus, as a microscope is one type of tool to help clarify, personal experience also becomes a tool to enrich perception.

But as a new microscope might have hidden defects, the perception of our experiential reality can also have hidden defects. Based on such flawed perceptions, a majority can be wrong--popular vote is certainly no guarantor of correctness. It is interesting to speculate if the Ten Commandments would have garnered a majority vote in Exodus or even now.

In the physical world we can search for facts using the tools of the scientific method. Identifying the proper tools to access what should be (rather than what is) is a thousand times more problematic. Jesus taught that it is spirit subservient to love that is important here. For example, I can ask two children to play fair--but how each defines “fair” can be a territory filled with bickering. The tools we use for seeing the physical world are only slightly helpful here. Rather we must have a shared sense of what love means and hold it as regnant to have any hope of sharing common perceived implications. Blatant stealing from one another is not very defensible and is usually illegal. But the human mind can find it an irresistible challenge to devise a way to steal without being blatant about it. That is why Jesus shifted the criterion from rules to spirit.

Overwhelmingly what we need today is avoidance of promising the undoable for fruition at some flippant future date rather than defining the incremental doable at dates certain. We need to stop being pious about our insufferable claims to fairness and spell out exactly what a fair result would look like in concise specificity. It is time to demystify epiphany with precision in the ethical as in the physical world.

Print Page

An Essential Management Function

A key insight required of management is the understanding that there are cases where rules cannot be uniformly applied. Let us take parents (home managers) as an example. Parents of several children know full well that though they love all children equally, when it comes to discipline some tailoring of rules is necessary due to differences in personality. The same approach and rules are not appropriate and effective in every case.

The same applies to organizations. It is not enough for managers to have a firm grasp of organizational rules and apply them with regimented gusto, it is also necessary that wisdom be applied to arrive at optimum results and that in some instances the application of rules must be relaxed. Managers are paid the big bucks not to be machine-like rule enforcement robots, but for the recognized necessity that wise judgment is required—that fairness paradoxically entails the lack of total uniformity. It is not uncommon for managers with an anal bent to look down their noses at more relaxed managers—finding them incompetent and loose. Wise managers assume a more humble aspect knowing that true justice and fairness is more problematic than simply applying a set of rules.

Print Page

I Beg to Differ

English Standard Version (©2001)

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

New International Version (©1984)

[Love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

The Message

[Love] Always looks for the best,/ Never looks back,/

But keeps going to the end.

[Love] rejoices in the happiness and virtue of others, and will not believe the contrary except on irrefragable evidence. (Barnes' Notes on the Bible: http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-7.htm).

One of the most insidious underminers of the concept of love is when love is equated with credulity in its most abject and ridiculous form--when irrefragable evidence standing tall as a 10 foot fact must be ignored due to wildly unlimited "love" demands. One should not underestimate the pressures that can arise when a loved one asks "Whose side are you on anyway?" The answer must always be that I'm on your side; but this cannot mean I am thereby obligated to throw out all shreds of responsibility, discernment, and honesty--that I must in the end abandon all traces of intelligence. Manipulative people often tend to engage others on a guilt trip--especially when it is known that the others aver love--even Christian love. The manipulators well know that their mark takes love seriously--even of utmost and final importance and view it in ethical terms. The first and favorite charge thrown at their mark is "you're a hypocrite....(if you don't see and do things precisely my way)." Such attempted manipulation of those who love is a cheap and easy stratagem to gain the upper hand and with it complete control at the total expense of those manipulated and of truth itself.

Those who love must out of principle resist such blackmail. They must do this not only to retain self-respect, but also out of a sense of obligation to maintain the integrity of the concept of love and the standards of human interaction.

Print Page

On Seeing, Speaking, and Hearing

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity. (Proverbs 17:17 NIV).

Friends love through all kinds of weather, and families stick together in all kinds of trouble. (Proverbs 17:17 The Message). 

First I would like to share with you the personal card I recently had printed.

The Scripture readings from Proverbs says that a friend loves at all times (through all kinds of weather). There was a popular song during the 60s with the words "what the world needs now is love, sweet love." While unconditionally believing in the truth of this message, I have always winced at the phrase "sweet love." I react this way because I know full well that love cannot always be "sweet" if this means innocuous—kindness cannot always mean candy. It must also at times be flat-out honest. Otherwise, it is not love at all. This honesty can be called for in regards to others and most particularly in regards to oneself. Love never can be represented by the three silences of "hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil" when evil does not refer to sin so much as simple, obvious, and sometimes painful truth. The need is for intrepid honesty in facing, speaking, and hearing the truth. Say what you will about the contentious divisions that sometimes rack our society, it is undeniably important that people be honest with those they respect (and love) as fellow citizens even when, especially when, this causes controversy. The Scripture says that "perfect love drives out fear." That is a good thing to remember when we feel constrained to be dishonest about significant matters with those we love.

Print Page

Feeling Like a Social Oaf

When I feel like a social oaf and make boneheaded mistakes lacking in any trace of the social graces, I step back and look at the true origin of the blunders. This helps me to stop whipping myself out of embarrassment and consternation—to break the recursive loop of asking myself again and again how could I have been so rude, callous, or cruel. For example, yesterday when I was visiting a church, I asked a lady of uncertain age if a soloist of about 20 years-of-age was her grandson. She quickly corrected me that, no, rather the little toddler was her grandson. After the service I attempted to engage a long-time acquaintance in a rather lengthy catch-up of happenings only to have him reluctantly cut me short because he had immediate responsibilities to perform. In both cases, I sought to do the loving thing executed with the ease and grace of an ice-skater gliding effortlessly on the ice--only to find myself sprawled out spread-eagle on the floor. With my heart so much in the right place, how could I have blundered so badly?

The ultimate source of virtually all social blunders is a lack of complete knowledge. A full and complete knowledge of the situation and the person or persons encountered would allow me to do the right thing--not just try to do the right thing. But in social situations we never have complete knowledge especially when in unfamiliar environments. Therefore, I simply must accept the fact that so long as I do not retreat into a shell like a clam (which itself would be impolite), I will be vulnerable to committing faux pas now and then. On such occasion I must remember that people are largely forgiving--especially since they realize that I could not have known all the facts—and that, after all, my heart was in the right place. I remember in the hospital when my wife Kathy was seriously ill, a nurse wanting to be congenial and compassionate asked if the patient was my daughter. I explained that no, she was my wife. I hope and pray that the nurse understands how much I appreciate that she made some personal connection with me at this painful time, and it means absolutely nothing to me that she did not have complete knowledge--she had knowledge enough, my wife was deathly ill.

Print Page