Category: Notes Anthology

I’m responsible for what I say, not for what you understand.

What we’re thinking

In January, the Pew Research Center released a startling report describing parents’ priorities for their children. An extraordinary 88 percent said that financial independence was extremely or very important. The same percentage placed the same priority on their kids having careers they enjoy. In contrast, only 21 percent said it was extremely or very important for their children to get married. A mere 20 percent said it was extremely or very important for their kids to have children.

Hope

Hope is not primarily for the future. It’s for now! Hope is a way of seeing time and understanding the present. It’s a way of tasting and receiving the moment. It gives us the capacity to enter into the future in a new way. In that sense, we can call hope true realism, because hope takes seriously all the many possibilities that fill the moment. Hope sees all the alternatives; it recognizes and creates an alternative consciousness. That’s the hope of the prophet.  

The person who can see the moment fully is never hopeless. Hopelessness is an experience whereby a person’s sight is set in one direction: “The only way I’ll be happy is if such and such happens.” When we can imagine only one way to be happy, we don’t recognize the fullness and possibilities of the moment. We collapse if our one way is taken away from us. That’s the power of the prophets—to recognize that there is always another way for the promise to be fulfilled, another way for Divine Love to reach us. 

Richard Rohr

PPP Loans

Lakewood Church in Houston, pastored by televangelist Joel Osteen, recently announced that it will pay back a $4.43 million dollar PPP loan. A church spokesman said the loan will be paid back with interest over 60 months.

More than 8,800 religious groups have asked for their loans to be forgiven — as the program was designed to allow, and a relatively common practice for all PPP borrowers. The status of another approximately 4,500 remaining loans has not yet been reported to the SBA by local banks.

All told, 11,823,594 PPP loans were approved, for a total of $799.8 billion.

Is it possible?

Is it possible to be HORRIFIED and PISSED OFF (yes that is the right word) over the terrorism of Hamas on Saturday and not succumb to the same barbarism? Is it possible to see that Palestinians are my brothers as much as Jews in Israel? Is it possible? Is it possible to grasp that the State of Israel, in the name of security, has in fact perpetuated crimes against the Palestinians? Is it possible to condemn what Hamas has done and recognize that the reality of how Palestinians live on a daily basis? Is it possible to recognize that more Palestinians are my brothers and sisters in Jesus than Jews in Israel? Is it possible to think rather than just react emotionally? Does Truth, Justice, Love and Shalom play any role in how we look at the State of Israel (and the Palestinians too)?

For a Christian it should not only be possible but a way of life. Hate begets hate. Violence will not stop the cycle of violence. Grace will. Love will.

I do not expect that non-believers in King Jesus will hold to my views nor why I hold them. What I do expect is that my own views, and the reasons I hold them, will express my allegiance to biblical theology and the kingdom of God. The Greatest Commands of Love God and Love my Neighbor do not change when bad things happen. Jesus made this abundantly clear in the Sermon on the Mount, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5.44).
https://stonedcampbelldisciple.com/2023/10/10/i-stand-with-israel-what-do-you-mean-a-plea-for-truth-justice-love-and-shalom/

Bobby Valentine

God is not a puppeteer 

God is not a puppeteer but he is an amazing stage director. Puppets have no will of their own. Their movements are never left to chance. Actors, on the other hand, must learn a script. They must be trained in the art form. They can take cues or reject them. An actor can heed the director’s command or do something completely different. The best actors become so immersed in the script and trained in the mind of the director they can improvise in the moment to effect an outcome never seen before but only imagined in the heart of the director.

Some think of the sovereignty of God as though God were a divine puppeteer. There is no effect God does not cause; no outcome he did not predestine. People, like puppets, have no free will. Some of the smartest theologians in the room believe this. I do not claim to be among them in intelligence or in belief. I think of the sovereignty of God as though God were a divine stage director. There are infinite effects from manifold causes; thousands of possible outcomes not predetermined neither unforeseen. He has complete control over every aspect of the production, but he chooses to work with actors who have a mind and will of their own. He expects the cast to know the script(ure) by heart and to intuit his mind from hours and hours of practice through the gift of the Spirit. God’s chief desire is willful obedience inspired by holy love yet his will cannot be thwarted even by total insurrection and the most heinous rebellion.

The amazing thing about God as sovereign stage director is he is directing billions of different stages all at once as though they were in one great theater. No matter what forgotten lines or errant improvisations or outright deviations from the script, one thing is for certain—the outcome:

The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Rev. 11:15)

J D Walt

 Health and Wholeness

Health and wholeness cannot be found in an endless pursuit of pleasure and in the avoidance of pain. Because all of this is true, great care must be taken in the therapeutic work of the Church. We do not pursue pain for the sake of pain. Kindness, gentleness, empathy – co-suffering – are all required in the fearful work of a soul’s journey through the Cross. But there remains no path to wholeness that is not a path through the Cross.

Fr Stephen Freeman

Good works

Work then is not the result of the fall but is “an integral part of God’s original intent for humanity. God creates humans to do good works, and doing good works is therefore part of what it means to be a human in right relationship with God. Work, in other words, is originally a form of worship.”

The Doctrine of Good Works: Reclaiming a Neglected Protestant Teaching

Platitudes

Whenever we face unfathomable things, human beings crave simplicity: something to soothe our psyches and make us feel we’ve dealt with it appropriately and completely. We want a simple platitude that can exempt us from really steeping into the complicated, terrifying, bloody pit of humanity’s capacity for inhumanity, and to admit just how outside of our depths we are.

John Pavlovitz 

American Christianity in Crisis

Well, it was the result of having multiple pastors tell me essentially the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount parenthetically in their preaching – turn the other cheek – to have someone come up after and to say, where did you get those liberal talking points? And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ, the response would not be, I apologize. The response would be, yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak. And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.

Russell Moore

Kindness

Niceness serves me. Niceness makes people like me. But kindness? Kindness is sacrifice for the service of others. 

Sarah Jane Souther

View from the Front Porch

In the midst of life, we “practice the presence of God” by listening and speaking to him in every circumstance. Spiritual formation happens through a life of contemplation. In the midst of our daily activities, we ponder and meditate on God’s words and works. We talk to him in prayer. We listen, we question, we complain. We give thanks, make requests, and express our doubts. We study, analyze, and consider how to apply his teachings. We walk or sit silently with him and enjoy his presence. For a believer the veil between this world and the “heavenly places” is thin and there is constant interaction between the two realms.

https://imonk.blog/2013/05/26/another-look-spiritual-formation-what-is-it/

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

Why is there a ‘D’ in fridge, but not in refrigerator? 

Nobody is wrong 100% of the time. Always look for the nugget of truth in those you disagree with.Nobody is right 100% of the time. Always look for the faults and mistakes in those you agree with.
Mark Manson

one of my favorite Billy Connolly gags: “Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away — and you’ve got their shoes.”

Scot McKnight

Relevance

As we’ve all come to see, the hunger for continued relevance is the corroding lust that devours the very old.

David Brooks

Colorado football

In The Washington Post, Rick Reilly, a native of Boulder, Colo., and a graduate of the University of Colorado, exulted in the early-season promise of its football team, the Buffaloes, by noting their awful past. “A couple of years ago, a buddy said he left two Buffs tickets on his desk at work and somebody broke in overnight and left two more,” he wrote, going on to note that Colorado lost to Minnesota by 42 points in 2022. “Most schools could start the faculty against Minnesota and not lose by 42 points.” Part of the problem, he suggested, is how inhospitably monoracial Boulder, where the university is, can feel to Black players: “We are whiter than Tucker Carlson eating a Wonder Bread mayonnaise sandwich at Cracker Barrel.”

Kindness

For years I’ve kept posted on the back of my office door a journal entry from one of my students. The student wrote:

I once encountered a woman in Walgreen’s who I swear changed my life.  I was there buying some film for my 35mm and maybe some lip gloss, just normal Walgreen’s stuff;  she was working at the cosmetic counter.  When I gave her my things, she looked at them and said, ‘I think I have a coupon for both of those,’ reached under the counter, and pulled up this lunch bag full of coupons in little baggies.  I asked her why she has so many coupons and what she was doing with them (out of curiosity) and she said she cuts them out of coupon books and keeps them under her counter to give people she checks out.  ‘Times are hard,’ was her only explanation, ‘and all we can do in this world is help each other.’

What the basic postures of kindness do, it seems to me, are to situate ourselves along with the grain of the universe: life teaches us that all is gift, all is grace. None of us are self-sufficient. None of us are “self-made men” or “self-made women.” Indeed, times are always, in some way or the other, hard. Such is life. To practice kindness is to acknowledge all these realities, and is a sweet salve, easing life’s daily challenges and hardships

Lee Camp

Listening

Listening well is not simply hearing the words being said, it’s also feeling the emotions being felt. People usually don’t want solutions as much as they just want to be understood.

Mark Manson

Loneliness 

Loneliness crushes the soul, but researchers are finding it does far more damage than that. It is linked to strokes, heart disease, dementia, inflammation and suicide; it breaks the heart literally as well as figuratively.

Loneliness is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and more lethal than consuming six alcoholic drinks a day, according to the surgeon general of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy. Loneliness is more dangerous for health than obesity, he says — and, alas, we have been growing more lonely. A majority of Americans now report experiencing loneliness, based on a widely used scale that asks questions such as whether people lack companionship or feel left out.

Nick  Kristof

The wrongness of being right

Truth matters. I want to be clear that I believe that. But knowing truth, and being wise about when kindness and mercy matter more than correcting theological error or ignorance, is an important skill to hone. Because I want to be right. I want to fix you so much it’s literally painful at times. I’m a sick, sick puppy who’s not near as smart as he thinks he is. But I’m learning that the need to be right on every little thing—even when it comes from noble intentions—obliterates my ability to speak the ultimate Truth. 

Chad West

Modernity

According to Charles Taylor, the modern “secular age” lives in the “immanent frame,” a disenchanted culture that has lost touch with transcendent sources of meaning. We’ve lost the metaphysical framework that tells us who we are and where we are going.

The modern person is abandoned, therefore, to their choices, radically free to make decisions and chart a direction in life but without a map or any compelling reason to navigate in a particular direction. There is no “point” to anything, just you and your choices. Any meaning or telos for your life is the one you choose for yourself. There is no grand narrative or plotline you’re being caught up in. Life is, rather, a Choose-Your-Own adventure novel.

Richard Beck

Individualized Christians

For Christians this individualized concept of the self undermines many of the primary realities of the faith. The Church cannot be rightly understood as a voluntary association. We are Baptized “into the Body of Christ.” The modern concept of the individual runs deeply contrary to Scriptural teaching on the nature of the Christian life. The sacraments, whose foundations rest within a world in which true communion and participation are possible, become more and more foreign to the individualized Christian experience. The sacraments are either deeply minimized (even to the point of extinction) or re-interpreted in voluntaristic terms. It is this re-interpretation of the sacraments that undergirds the modern notion of “open communion,” or “Eucharistic hospitality.” The exclusion of persons from the Cup of Christ is seen as an insult, a denial of their self-defined Christian identification. I have been told, “Who are you to say that I should not be allowed to come to communion?” However, “Individual communion” is an oxymoron.

Fr Stephen Freeman

View from the Front Porch

Echo chamber

A whole lot of us go through life assuming that we are basically right , basically all the time , about basically everything : about our political and intellectual convictions , our religious and moral beliefs , our assessment of other people , our memories , our grasp of facts . As absurd as it sounds when we stop to think about it , our steady state seems to be one of unconsciously assuming that we are very close to omniscient .

Schulz, Kathryn. Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

The unrelenting pursuit of rightness pitted against our incontrovertible fallibility is a paradox each of us find ourselves in as we strive for meaningful and authentic lives. Amazingly, left to our own devices, rightness will almost always win out.
Our desire for rightness leads us to echo chambers where our “rightness” is amplified and error is filtered out. Like a butterfly from a cocoon, we emerge in the beauty of our rightness, confirmed in our infallibility.

The cost of rightness can be high.
The avoidance of controversial issues or alternative solutions creates a loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. Rightness binds and blinds us. An “illusion of invulnerability” (an inflated certainty of our rightness) can prevail. Stereotyping of, and dehumanizing actions toward, dissenting persons can develop. As true believers we can produce fantasies that don’t match reality. Interpersonal communication outside our echo chamber is stifled. Immersion in the comfortable confines of an echo chamber may result in significant losses, not the least of which, can be family and community relationships.Echo chambers reinforce our natural tendency to restrict our relationships rather than expand our social interactions.
Residing within an echo chamber strips our lives of serendipity and wonder. We trade off the opportunity to engage the endless diversity of the world around us.
https://www.georgeezell.com/2021/02/the-importance-of-being-wrong/

STILL ON THE JOURNEY