I haven’t gotten anything done today. I’ve been in the Produce Department trying to open this stupid plastic bag.
the naive algorithm
…the naive algorithm is the “idea that good intentions, a good heart, a love for people, and faith in Jesus will invariably lead to ministry success.”
Carolyn Moore – When Women Lead
God knows us
That God knows us (we wrongly imagine) simply comes with the territory of being God. “God knows everything,” we say, and assume that He should therefore be able to manage everything and run the universe in a way that is pleasing to Him. This, I suspect, is what we ourselves would do were we to suddenly become a god.
The world is created in such a way that God Himself holds it in wonder and awe. He sees not only its goodness, but its very goodness. This is more than mere knowledge and utterly transcends knowledge-as-information. This is knowledge of the most intimate possible meaning.
The modern world suffers from a crisis of loneliness we are told. I believe that much of that crisis is simply the by-product of an information society. The economy (whatever that is) knows pretty much everything about us. It is carefully mined from every action we take in the electronic world. That data is mined, stored, and sold. This is not only true, it is more true every day. But all of that information is the opposite of intimacy. Whoever possesses that information does not know you – though they could easily use it to destroy you. The information is dangerous precisely because those who possess it do not love you.
God has no desire to gather information about us. I’m not certain that God knows anything in a manner that could be described as information. God knows us as He knew Simon Peter. He could predict Simon’s denials while reassuring him that he was being prayed for (and preserved). Perhaps those words of reassurance are the very thing that saved him in the end. God knows us as He knew the Woman at the Well (John 4). He Himself was thirsty, but He knew her thirst (living water).
Fr Stephen Freeman
Crisis contemplation
When we’re in a crisis situation, the question becomes, “What’s the answer?” and “How does contemplation help, if it can?” No one is going to like the response because there isn’t a response in the ordinary ways. Everyone is going to want a clear process to resolve something. What do we do? How do we do it? What’s going to make us all feel better? There aren’t any answers like that. When there is nothing to do, some of the things that can be done are things we don’t want to do. Philosopher Bayo Akomolafe says it most clearly. He says the first thing you do is slow down:
To ‘slow down’ … seems like the wrong thing to do when there’s fire on the mountain. But here’s the point: in ‘hurrying up’ all the time, we often lose sight of the abundance of resources that might help us meet today’s most challenging crises. We rush through the same patterns we are used to. Of course, there isn’t a single way to respond to a crisis; there is no universally correct way. However the call to slow down works to bring us face to face with the invisible, the hidden, the unremarked, the yet-to-be-resolved…. It is about staying in the places that are haunted.
Barbara Holmes
Are You Bullsh*tting Yourself?
Sent on June 26, 2023
Two things for you to think about
Expertise makes something complex appear simple and intelligible. Bullshit makes something simple appear unnecessarily complex and unintelligible.
Expertise creates value for people who don’t know better. Bullshit extracts value from people who don’t know better.
Reflect: Then consider sharing this thought with others.
One thing for you to ask yourself
In what area(s) of your life are you bullshitting yourself? That is, what areas of your life are you over-complicating and making unnecessarily complex?
Recommended: Use these as journaling prompts for the week.
One thing for you to try this week
Stop bullshitting yourself. We often over-complicate problems as a way of emotionally coping with the problem. It feels hard, so we convince ourselves that it must be really hard.
If someone breaks our trust, we assume it must be for 27 different reasons and we have to approach the person like a chess match, when really, we’re just hiding from the painful fact that this person we care about broke our trust.
What’s one way you can stop bullshitting yourself this week?
Mark Manson
OFFER YOUR BODIES AS A LIVING SACRIFICE.
There are at least two massive dilemmas here. If the Bible has a singular call to action it is contained in this phrase. For most of the years I read this, I read it like this: “offer your bodies as living sacrifices.” In fact, that’s the way my favorite bible translation translated it—the 1984 New International Version. They actually mistranslated the singular word “sacrifice” as the plural “sacrifices.” You’re seeing the issue, aren’t you? The text actually says, “Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.” Bodies (plural). Sacrifice (singular). Many bodies—one sacrifice. The New Testament church, the one Jesus is building, is not a bunch of independent individuals running around trying to make Jesus famous. This is perhaps the greatest challenge of the church of our time—to become the body of Christ living the will of God rather than millions of individuated bodies doing their own thing in God’s name.
J D Walt
During a visit to my doctor, I asked him, “How do you determine whether or not an older person should be put in an old age home?”
“Well,” she said, “we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the person to empty the bathtub.”
“Oh, I understand,” I said. “A normal person would use the bucket because it is bigger than the spoon or the teacup..”
“No” she said. “A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?”
Knocking holes in the buffered self
As Anne Lamott has written, our prayers gather around three words, Help, Thanks and Wow. Lorica prayers–“You, O Lord, are a shield around me”–are prayers of help, prayers of protection.
Bishop Robert Barron, taking an insight from Charles Taylor, describes what he calls “knocking holes in the buffered self.” According to Charles Taylor, the modern self is “buffered,” closed off from external realities, especially spiritual realities. Consequently, the modern self feels itself to be autonomous and secure within itself, lacking the sharp sense of vulnerability intrinsic to finite, creaturely existence. To “knock holes” in the buffered self is to open it back up to larger realities.
Lorica prayers, prayers of help and petitions for protection, are tools that can foster this recognition. Beginning your day with the prayer “You, O Lord, are a shield around me” knocks a hole in your buffered self and places you in a vulnerable posture.
Simply ask for help. Pray for aid and protection. Ask regularly. “You, O Lord, are shield around me.” Such prayers restructure your ego and knock holes in your buffered self.
Richard Beck
Humor
“Although it is often considered trivial, humor is a universal and essential part of human social life – hence the saying ‘Whenever two or more are gathered … there is a joke!’ Indeed, after crying, laughter is one of the first social vocalizations by human infants. Later in childhood, humor recognition and enjoyment are key indicators of healthy cognitive development. The erosion of the capacity for humor is an indicator of cognitive decline as we age. It has been shown that humor is a key social attribute in communities in which people live much longer-than-average lifespan than in other communities.”
“When he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master worker,
and I was daily his delight,
playing before him always,
playing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race” (Prov. 8:29-31).
Humor Us! Preaching and the Power of the Comic Spirit
Photo credit – Susan Clark
View from the Front Porch
Things this old man thinks about:
“There is no I in TEAM”
I am increasingly aware praise and worship experiences are dominated with “I” and “Me” references and seldom any “We and “Us”; in contrast to:
“…so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” or
“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”
“I” and “Me” overshadow the prophets’ vision of shalom for God’s people.
Brueggemann says it well:
The most staggering expression of the vision [shalom] is that all persons are children of a single family, members of a single tribe, heirs of a single hope, and bearers of single destiny, namely, the care and management of all of God's creation. The origin and the destiny of God's people is to be on the road of shalom, which is to live out of joyous memories and toward greater shalom, which is to live out of joyous memories and toward greater anticipations. If there is to be well-being, it will not be just for isolated, insulated individuals; it is rather security and prosperity granted to a whole community-young and old, rich and poor, powerful and dependent. Always we are all in it together. Together we stand before God's blessings and together we receive the gift of life if we receive it at all. Shalom comes only to the inclusive, embracing community that excludes none. Walter Brueggemann- Living Toward a Vision
STILL ON THE JOURNEY