For the Joy of the Journey

I am currently reading Shaped By the Word by Dr. Robert Mulholland. As he writes about spiritual formation, he has this to say about being conformed to the image of Christ:

This aspect of spiritual formation also moves against the grain of our acculturation. Ours is an objectivizing, informational, functional culture. We are largely governed by a materialistic/humanistic worldview that perceives everything “out there” as something to be grasped, controlled, and manipulated for our own purposes or, even worse, for the purposes of God! This perspective is so deeply ingrained, as we shall see, that we determine our own self-image, our meaning, our value, our purpose by the effectiveness of our grasp, control, and manipulation of the world, of other persons, even of God. We seek to exercise our control by gaining information in order to manipulate what is “out there” for our purposes.

The very thought of “being conformed”-which clearly implies that we are to be grasped, controlled, and shaped by some one other than ourselves-confronts our deeply ingrained sense of being. “Graspers” powerfully resist being grasped by God. Controllers are inherently incapable of yielding control to God. Manipulators strongly reject being shaped by God. Information gatherers are structurally closed to being addressed by God. Information takers have extreme difficulty being receivers. Frenetically functional activists find it extremely difficult to be still, and know God as God (Ps. 46:10). Already we see something of the deeper dynamics of what Jesus meant when he said, “Whoever would save their grasping, controlling, manipulating false self will lose it; and whoever loses that false self for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35).

As a “Grasper”, controller, manipulator, information gather/taker, frenetic functional activist, I am reminded of Matt 19:23-26

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Who then can be conformed?

With “Graspers”, controllers, manipulators, information gather/takers, frenetic functional activists it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

The current financial crisis provides opportunity for a lot of lessons to be learned. An article today by David Brooks in the New York Times is a good example. He writes about the behavioral assumptions upon which economic and social science disciplines are based. 

Roughly speaking, there are four steps to every decision. First, you perceive a situation. Then you think of possible courses of action. Then you calculate which course is in your best interest. Then you take the action.

Over the past few centuries, public policy analysts have assumed that step three is the most important. Economic models and entire social science disciplines are premised on the assumption that people are mostly engaged in rationally calculating and maximizing their self-interest.

But during this financial crisis, that way of thinking has failed spectacularly. …

… perhaps this will be the moment when we alter our view of decision-making. Perhaps this will be the moment when we shift our focus from step three, rational calculation, to step one, perception.

I find that there is a striking parallel in my personal and corporate (church) experience. In recent years it has become more apparent to me that I, likewise, have religiously (pun intended) focused on step three as the most critical step in the decision making process. There was little emphasis on step one. I assumed unbiased vision and understanding which in turn resulted in faulty assumptions which obviously subverted steps two and three. Brooks says it this way:

Perceiving a situation seems, at first glimpse, like a remarkably simple operation. You just look and see what’s around. But the operation that seems most simple is actually the most complex, it’s just that most of the action takes place below the level of awareness. Looking at and perceiving the world is an active process of meaning-making that shapes and biases the rest of the decision-making chain.

Brooks cites Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s description of the perceptual biases that distort our thinking:

• our tendency to see data that confirm our prejudices more vividly than data that contradict them; 
• our tendency to overvalue recent events when anticipating future possibilities; 
• our tendency to spin concurring facts into a single causal narrative; 
• our tendency to applaud our own supposed skill in circumstances when we’ve actually benefited from dumb luck.

… looking at the financial crisis, it is easy to see dozens of errors of perception. Traders misperceived the possibility of rare events. They got caught in social contagions and reinforced each other’s risk assessments. They failed to perceive how tightly linked global networks can transform small events into big disasters.

He [Taleb] subscribes to what he calls the tragic vision of humankind, which “believes in the existence of inherent limitations and flaws in the way we think and act and requires an acknowledgement of this fact as a basis for any individual and collective action.” If recent events don’t underline this worldview, nothing will.

This meltdown is not just a financial event, but also a cultural one. It’s a big, whopping reminder that the human mind is continually trying to perceive things that aren’t true, and not perceiving them takes enormous effort.

I have aquired some animal “friendly” traps. This may be the start of a new adventure. My intention is to catch feral cats, have them spayed or neutered and release them back into our neighborhood. The first catch was an opossum. I suspect there are some raccoons around also. I was able to catch a cat yesterday. My plan seems to be breaking down. The place that does free spay and neuter has not returned my call. I may have to revise my disposal plans. Don’t worry! My unfriendly cat will be released far from home in lieu of spay/neuter.