For the Joy of the Journey

Cost Benefit Analysis

George April 22, 2021 Faith Challenges 0 Comments

““Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it?”
Luke 14:28 NIV

The subject “Cost Benefit Analysis” has been a draft post for many months. It is one of those subjects that crossed my mind and I made a note to write about. As I have ruminated on it at various times, I concluded Cost Benefit Analysis’ meaning and application, like a lot of things in our society, has experienced significant change.

A cost-benefit analysis is a process businesses [and individuals] use to analyze decisions. The business or analyst sums the benefits of a situation or action and then subtracts the costs associated with taking that action.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cost-benefitanalysis.asp

I believe Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA)is a broadly relevant. CBA is a decision making tool that we all use, whether in a formal way or intuitively as we are faced with decisions on a daily basis. Asking ourselves ,”What do I have to lose?” or “How much should I pay..?” require some level of CBA to answer.

My formal CBA experience came at Ford. In that context, it was more about cost than benefits. Cost is paramount in manufacturing, an entire accounting department was devoted to Cost Analysis. As an assembly plant cost determines success. Although the company’s ultimate success depended on profitability, a plant’s viability was determined by cost performance. In reality, there were other factors, product quality, healthy employee relationships to name a couple. The Ford culture of that day, was characterized by a management philosophy based on control and accountability. A plant manger’s performance was primarily measured on his ability to drive down costs.

That myopic approach fostered organizational dysfunction. Irrational cost reductions, particularly in manpower, resulted in diminished product quality and gaslit an already adversarial environment. Ford’s reliance on that management philosophy led to the company to the brink of failure and extinction.
To over simplify, Ford recognized that there is more to success as a company than controlling costs. Through a complex process of deconstruction and renovation Ford survived.

The Ford experience was tunnel vision… The habit or tendency to only see or focus on a single priority while neglecting or ignoring other important priorities. A good tool, cost benefit analysis offers opportunity for making informed decisions and improving performance, but when utilized with tunnel vision for cost, results can be disastrous. I naively thought analysis was intended to compare all costs and other factors to determine the best decision, when in fact analysis was to identify and reduce costs. The end game was cost reduction, decisions to reduce cost won out. It was true that Cost was a problem, but it was not the problem.

To get to my point, as stated earlier, everyone does some sort of cost benefit analysis when making a decision. Its effectiveness as a tool is determined by one’s ability to avoid tunnel vision and consider competing priorities. When a single priority prevails, analysis will always support its achievement. I am of the opinion that the calculus in cost benefit analysis, tracking societal changes, has changed dramatically, and has produced a condition analogous to Ford. The difference being, benefits predominates rather than cost. Evidence for this change, at least anecdotally, can be be found in any conversation between generations or a with person struggling with addiction. The most important factor is the benefit to be derived. Not to say cost is ignored, but the consumeristic ethos will bias any analysis in such a way that the desired benefit will be justified.

Possessing tunnel vision for self-interest, we are faced with dire consequences. The perceived value of our desired ends most often exceeds any costs to be incurred. Extremism demands victory, no matter the cost. Materialistic sensibilities may well restrain us when monetary/ material costs are high, but disenchantment ignores or minimizes emotional, relational, spiritual, social and environmental cost, rendering CBA an ineffective tool.

This issue is epidemic. its cuts across all segments of society. Most disappointing is that Christians are not an exception.

…the fundamental materialism of our consumerist, hedonistic society is profoundly anti-Christian.
Rod Dreher

“Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.”
Philippians? 2:3-5 NLT

Cost benefit analysis is needed more than ever. Clear-eyed analysis of our lives will will reveal the cost of benefits to be for more than we could imagine.

“And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
Mark 8:36-37 NLT

My understanding of Jesus’ warning always related to salvation, eternal life, but I think it is deeper and more profound than that. Interestingly “soul” is footnoted as “self”. Peterson catches this in his paraphrase, “What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?” MSG

For us salvation-assured Christians, with our “get out of jail free card”, we embrace consumeristic materialism all the while using Jesus’ warning as leverage on unbelievers. Is it any wonder why people are confused about what it means to be a Christian?

“Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”

While eternal life is not in jeopardy … “a rich and satisfying life.” that Jesus promised is.

Still on the journey.

So Much to Think About

George April 11, 2021 Notes Anthology 0 Comments

“When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.”
– Winston Churchill

Communication
We need to be careful of the desire to be clever in our communication. Twitter and Facebook have made this ubiquitous but we should be careful because it often shuts down actual thoughtful communication. A clever response can sometimes be helpful, but also it can shut down the possibility of extended discussion of complex issues.
Matt Redmond

Truth of the Gospel
I’m going to tell you now what I believe may be the deepest, perhaps the hardest (and as a consequence, most neglected) truth of the gospel. We tend to believe our love for others originates from God’s love for us, and it does—just not how we think. Our love for others will never exceed our love for ourselves and our love for ourselves will never exceed our awareness and experience of God’s love for us. No one knew this better than Jesus, who put , this way: “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:39).
J D Walt

Mattering
…we want our lives to be “high stakes.” We want our actions to have weight, import, and significance. But it’s hard to achieve this sense of “mattering” through self-talk. And yet, self-talk is the only tool our therapeutic culture gives us. Just stare into the mirror and try to talk your way into significance. Convince yourself that you matter.
Richard Beck

Lament
He often wrote about how difficult lament was, pointing out that we only learn to lament when the pain allows no other option. “Lament has been a journey for me,” he wrote, “a journey into grace, repentance, and wholeness.” On another occasion, my friend wrote, “If we don’t understand lament, we will never understand celebration.”
Lament without anger isn’t lament; it’s just whining. Honest anger is healthy and healing. Anger is a significant element in lament and one of the reasons for the freedom that follows it.
Steve Brown
https://www.keylife.org/articles/jesus-died-to-make-us-nice-right-a-brief-for-anger/

Implications from Leviticus
God’s Otherness is absolutely necessary for a doctrine of grace. Grace is a gift, a gift that comes to us from the Outside, as a divine interruption. Grace is grace because is crosses over a vast unbridgeable abyss, a chasm so great we cannot cross it from our side. It is the Otherness of God that makes grace an experience of God’s free, unprompted, unilateral movement of love toward us.
Richard Beck

Evil people
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”

Scapegoating
Human nature, when it is seeking power, wants either to play the victim or to create victims of others. In fact, the second follows from the first. Once we start feeling sorry for ourselves, we will soon find someone else to blame, accuse or attack—and with impunity! It settles the dust quickly, and it takes away any immediate shame, guilt, or anxiety. In other words, it works—at least for a while.
Richard Rohr

View from the front porch.
Our neighborhood is very transitional. Numerous rental properties assure ongoing change. New pedestrians show up regularly. We are sad to lose Mary, our long-time friend and neighbor who moved last week. Another neighbor has been placed in a nursing home and his home across the street will be sold soon. We are looking forward to getting to know new neighbors. It is amazing how you can get to know your neighbors by sitting on the front porch.

LISTEN for the WEEK
My introduction to Drew Holcomb. It won’t disappoint.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tokens-with-lee-c-camp/id1513178238

Intersections – Strange Bedfellows

George April 10, 2021 Intersections 2 Comments

strange bedfellows – A pair of people, things, or groups connected in a certain situation or activity but extremely different in overall characteristics, opinions, ideologies, lifestyles, behaviors, etc.

This post continues a series entitled intersections. As I reflect on my life’s journey, various intersections along the way come to mind. My ambition was for a straight and narrow path. but, that’s not how life goes.

Meet my old friend Hans Kung.

I was surprised to learn of the passing of Catholic theologian Hans Kung. I was grieved as he and I were strange bedfellows. You can read about his amazing life and career HERE.
I found the following quotes reminiscent of my engagement with Kung.

Truth-seeking was the chosen task to which Küng brought his insatiable probing and unquenchable intellect.

… the audience with Paul VI confronted him vividly with the question: For whom was he doing theology? Already in late 1965, Küng understood: “My theology obviously isn’t for the pope (and his followers), who clearly doesn’t want my theology as it is.” On that very day Küng resolved he would do theology “for my fellow human beings … for those people who may need my theology.”

I list Kung’s “The Church” as one of the most influential books in the development of my ecclesiology, ultimately, a key factor shaping my spiritual journey. To understand how ironic that is and just just how strange a bedfellow he was, I need to share the providential nature of our relationship.
For those familiar with my religious heritage in the Church of Christ, you will understand the weirdness of a Catholic theologian being a bedfellow, very strange indeed. In my early experience Catholics were to be avoided (except attractive girls), strange Friday fish eating, beer drinking, rhythm method weirdos, not to mention their seemingly pagan worship practices, eating and drinking the real body and blood of Christ and those inexplicably long masses.If there was anything to be learned from Catholics, it was what not to do.

Those preconceptions remained in my subconscious even after a personal spiritual revival prompted me to return to college after a ten year absence. One of the early courses I took was “Church of Christ” taught by Dr. Everett Ferguson, PhD, a distinguished scholar. The class was eye-opening, to say the least. I still have my handwritten notes. Most surprising was the assigned reading of “The Church” by Catholic theologian Hans Kung. I still remember being shocked by Kung’s bold analysis and critiques of the Church. It began to dawn on me that although “the Church” he was referring to was the Roman Catholic church , the issues he was addressing were echoes of my concerns with the “Church of Christ”, my church. Being in the beginning of my struggle with the incongruity of my church experience and what I was coming to understand from scripture, Kung was a game changer. What a shock to discover your religious heritage’s ecclesiology was closer to Catholicism than the New Testament church which we thought we had restored.

The book I purchased for the class was a paperback edition, worn and marked up, I lost it somewhere along the line. A decade or more later, my ecclesiastical angst re-emerged, unable to locate my book, I purchased the book pictured above. Because The Church is out of print I was pleased to get a used copy and it remains a useful reference, seemingly more relevant than ever.

Perusing some bookmarks and faded highlights, here are excerpts I thought worth sharing:

The problem of God is more important than the problem of the Church; but the latter often stand in the way of the former.

Ther is no doubts that the message of Jesus has had, if not a destructive, at least a disturbing effect on the Church in any age, challenging it, rousing it, goading it into new life; in short, it has always been a “stumbling block”.

The Church is not the kingdom of God, but it looks towards the kingdom of God, waits for it, or rather makes a pilgrimage towards it and is its herald, proclaiming it to the world.
The Church on its pilgrimage is not deserted or forgotten by God; it is not wandering totally in the dark. Even though it is not the kingdom of God which is to come, it is already under the reign of God which has begun; though looking forward to the final victory of the reign of God, it can look back to the decisive victory: in Jesus the Christ; while still wandering in the shadow of death, it has the resurrection not only ahead of it, but its decisive form behind it; in Jesus the risenKyrios.

…by baptism in the spirit received in faith all believers are consecrated as priests. Christians do not stand on the threshold of the temple like impure people begging for grace, in fear and trembling, through the priest as a holy middleman. They themselves stand in the very midst of the holy temple of God, as holy priests chosen by God, able to communicate directly with God.

The Church confronts this ambivalent world with an ultimate freedom; it must not bury itself in the world nor flee from it, it must not abandon itself to the world nor be hostile to it, but it must approve while it denies, and deny while it approves, resisting it while it devotes itself to it and devoting itself to it while it resists it.

The Church does not wish to remain isolated. It wishes to be a vanguard. As a vanguard of mankind the people of God journeys on its way- but where is it going? Once again the question arises: has the Church a future?

Although my encounter with him was a minuscule ripple on the far edges of his influence, I am indebted to Hans Kung. Important as the ecclesiastical understandings I gained from him are, perhaps, the more important lesson came from the realization of how small and sectarian my world was. He was a gateway to an adventure that continues to this day.
Seeking God’s presence can produce some very strange bedfellows.

Still on the journey.

Heading Out or Holding On – Dynamic Stability

George April 8, 2021 Heading out or Holding On 0 Comments

This post concludes the Heading Out or Holding On series with some final thoughts and observations on dynamic stability. If you are not familiar with the concept you can read an excerpt HERE from Thomas Friedman’s book “Thank You for Being Late” which introduced the idea to me.

At the conclusion of my previous post I wrote: I have chosen to head out. Making that decision has not exempt me perils of the journey, ie rapids. Dynamic stability becomes relevant to those negotiating rapids or riding a bicycle.
Having failed as promised in my previous post, my next post will explore dynamic stability in more detail and what it looks like for me negotiating the turbulent waters of these days.

The events of 2020 and now 2021 have created a maelstrom in our lives. For many it has been like negotiating class 5 rapids. The past year has been exceptional, but reality is we often encounter rapids in our lives. The difference in the past year is we have been constantly fighting dangerous rapids with little or no relief. It is difficult to maintain stability in such circumstances. The lessons of dynamic stability can be helpful keeping one stable, assuring survival when difficult times are encountered.

No matter if you are kayaking rapids, riding a bicycle or following Jesus, holding on is not a viable option. To do so assures failure. Holding on is an intuitive response to fear. Kayaker, fearful of whitewater drags his paddle and is quickly overturned. The youngster learning to ride her two-wheel bike, propelled by a starting shove, fearfully drags her feet and falls. Life circumstances overwhelm a Christ follower, consumed by fear, he doubts and grasps his bootstraps.

Confronting fear is key to maintaining stability in dynamic, rapidly changing or unexpected circumstances. For kayakers and cyclers fear is overcome by training and confidence through experience. Understanding and employing counterintuitive principles of paddling and peddling to maintain momentum builds confidence. Ultimately their survival depends upon self-discipline.

Life’s rapids are “…a never-ending series of moral challenges and choices. And you don’t get a moment off. There is no halftime or time-outs. Act or refuse to act, each decision determines your destiny, the moral arc of your life. The darkness is always close at hand, and we fight it off, hour by hour” [Beck], self-discipline will not sustain us.
Life’s challenges are a fearful reality. At this point, Christ followers should rightly proclaim the answer to fear lies beyond us, an infinite loving God whom we can trust to save us. Unfortunately, our disenchanted age renders God irrelevant, making Christ followers’ proclamation nonsensical to the disenchanted.
Christian’s proclamation is further diminished when Christ followers grab their bootstraps rather than trusting God with our fear. Grabbing our bootstraps, holding on, occurs when we co-opt prayer, spiritual disciplines, worship, pietistic actions as means to our own ends rather than tools to engage God. A biblical illustration, that comes to mind, is the people of Israel’s fearful impatience which prompted to them to worship a Golden calf (Ex.32). Doubting God’s promises they chose to worship false gods.

Like it or not, living life is about navigating dynamic waters… from gentle ripples to raging whitewater, There is no turning back. We can never know for sure what we will encounter around the next bend in the river. The challenge is maintaining stability when we hit the whitewater. If faith is an abstraction, it will not suffice in times of crisis. Confronted by undeniable reality, we desperately grab for a life preserver, what we trust the most…ourselves. In doing so, our fears are confirmed, we cannot save ourselves.

Fear is the enemy of dynamic stability. Fear takes hold when reality strips away illusions of immortality, invincibility, infallibility and self-righteousness. Gut wrenching fear overwhelms when we realize we cannot save ourselves. This is the malaise of our secular society, God has been removed and all we have in His place is ourselves. Confronted with our inadequacy and God’s absence, fear dominates our lives.

Sometimes [fear] can have no face at all. If it is successfully avoided, it leaves almost no trace of its presence. And so those of us who are good at avoiding our sources of fear may come to conclude that fear has no part in our story. But we are mistaken. Fear—though not experienced—is still present and a source of bondage. (*)

Maintaining stability when encountering life’s dangerous whitewater depends on our response to fear. It is my belief that fear can only be overcome outside ourselves… through an infinite, transcendent God who created us and loves us.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18 NKJV
Such belief does not, as Timothy Keller said when faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis, “…automatically provide solace in times of crisis. A belief in God and an afterlife does not become spontaneously comforting and existentially strengthening. Despite my rational, conscious acknowledgment that I would die someday, the shattering reality of a fatal diagnosis provoked a remarkably strong psychological denial of mortality. Instead of acting on Dylan Thomas’s advice to “rage, rage against the dying of the light,” I found myself thinking, What? No! I can’t die. That happens to others, but not to me. When I said these outrageous words out loud, I realized that this delusion had been the actual operating principle of my heart.
Death is an abstraction to us, something technically true but unimaginable as a personal reality….our beliefs about God and an afterlife, if we have them, are often abstractions as well.
I realized that my beliefs would have to become just as real to my heart, or I wouldn’t be able to get through the day. Theoretical ideas about God’s love and the future resurrection had to become life-gripping truths, or be discarded as useless.

I know what my head says:

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

The question is are they real to my heart?

Still on the journey

Things this Old Man thinks About

George March 24, 2021 Things this old man thinks about 0 Comments

From an old man’s perspective, things that are ordinary and unremarkable, often become an occasion to contemplate and speculate. I had such an experience recently in my appointment with my opthalmologist.

When you have diabetes, your vision is vulnerable to its effects and so regular check ups are necessary. I was pleased with my report, no indications of deterioration . There is one troubling issue unrelated to diabetes but common in older persons… sagging skin, in my case my eyelids (not my only sagging skin problem but the one effecting my vision)

It is pretty obvious that my vision is impeded by the sagging eyelid. I notice it particularly when I am reading and it gets worse as the day goes on. Older readers will understand how skin sags more as the day goes on. (I only look in the mirror naked early mornings.) This is not a new problem but it is getting worse. There is a surgical solution for my condition. The doctor and I have discussed this before and it it’s a matter of deciding if and when to have the procedure. No problem.

As we discussed the procedure and the condition, she says, “It is really nothing more than excess skin.”
At that point my old man brain kicks in and I say, “So, it’s kind of like circumcision?”
Doctor chuckles, “Well I’ve never heard it described that way.”
To which, I reply, “Looks like I am coming full circle, 78 years later.”
Realizing the conversation is running off the rails, my old man brain turns to alternative solutions to the surgical procedure.
“Maybe you could just suture my eyelid to the my brow?”
“That would be risky, not any flexibility.”
Undaunted I suggest, “How about an eyebrow ring? That would work and it would be a great conversation piece.”
Doctor is losing interest and has patients waiting, but I persist.
“So what about tape?”
Dr, “yes that could probably help but it might be inconvenient.”
I am thinking, “Yeah, better than circumcision.”

As you can see the tape isn’t all that effective and it doesn’t have the gravitas of an eyebrow ring. Apparently there is circumcision for me in the near future..ok, it is blepharoplasty, not circumcision but…

So later I’m sharing this story with a friend, Alter making my case for the procedure being a circumcision, He muses for a few moments and asks, “So, would that make you a dickhead?”

Still on the journey.