For the Joy of the Journey

Christian Values – Step 1

George August 8, 2020 Christian Values 1 Comment

This post is the third addressing Christian Values. If you haven’t read the first two, you can read them HERE and HERE.

In the the last post I suggested a two step approach in assessing Christian Values. Step 1, the subject of this post, was: “Conduct a complete and thorough self-examination to determine my real values .”
In the intervening three months since that post, I have continued to ponder and examine my values. Although far from complete and through, the exercise has been exasperating and enlightening.
In the beginning, I naively assumed clarity about (my) Christian values. It did not take long to run aground. A previous post included a list of 100+ values. I suggested examining them and eliminating the non-Christian values and put them on card to carry with you. Conducting that exercise, I found only a handful that I would eliminate as non-Christian and most of those were debatable. Interestingly, each value examined closely could produce a neat Biblical Sunday School lesson.
(I’m thinking about writing “100 Values for the Christian Life” or a daily devotional entitled “Christian for a Day”)
It occurs to me “Christian Values” are, perhaps a unique product of a post-Christian age. Dominated by individualism and relativism esteeming choice, we create a super market of values to satisfy our consumeristic desires.
Examining my “real” values:
[the things that I believe are important in the way I live and work, determine my priorities, and, deep down, are the measures I use to tell if my life is turning out the way I want it to]
I found the list of values to be a handy reference. Essentially, I thought of values I hoped would be the content of my eulogy.
Weirdly, the Boy Scout pledge from my youth came to mind:

On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight
“A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.”

That would sound pretty good at my funeral: “George did his duty to God and country, helped people, stayed fit (not) and morally straight. He was a nice guy trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.
My grieving family and friends are tearful, but in their mind they saying “Yeah, he was a nice guy but…”
I really don’t want to be cancelled at my funeral.

Here some conclusions from Step 1:

I have good values.
I may be a better Boy Scout than a Christ follower.
I have chosen values that I feel best fit my definition of Christian.
In that regard, I have chosen to eat the fruit of the forbidden ” Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” (This idea is explored in Greg Boyd’s book “Repenting of Religion: Turning from Judgement to God’s love”)

Here are some thoughts I’m pondering.

Choosing to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil results in alienation from God and death.

Only the fruit of “The Tree of Life” produces eternal life.

Perhaps values I hold are more akin to Aaron’s Golden Calf, idols created from God’s good gifts I have chosen to worship rather than trust God.

Values are derived from the fruit we eat.

My next post will address Step 2. How do my values align with “Christian Values”?

Still on the Journey

Front Porch Skeptic

George August 6, 2020 Poetry 0 Comments

Front Porch Skeptic

Lovely afternoon.
Serene front porch repose,
Dusk coming soon.
Claims of truth tested, put to rest.
Vigilance drowses.
Welcome reprieve,
from smoke’s deception.
Truth, that is the question.

Mother Robin intrudes,
gathering worms in verdant grass.
Hungry mouths await,
Mother Robin persists.
How can this be?
It is half-past three.
Truth is certain,
The early bird gets the worm.

An enigma too profound,
Truth is certain.
Obsessed with promptness,
what am I to do?
Deny my mother’s plea?
“Don’t be late, you know,
The early bird gets the worm.”
If you delay, you will pay.
Truth is certain.

The early bird gets the worm.
How can this be?
It is half-past three.
There are worms at half-past three!
Mother Robin knows,
the worms reside,
in early morn’s light,
at noon day bright,
at half-past three,
and day’s last light.

She is not belated nor sedated.
Her call is clear, mouths to feed.
Truth is certain.
The early bird gets the worm,
in early morn’s light,
at noon day bright,
at half-past three,
and day’s last light.

Careless in God’s care,
Mother Robin is free.
Mother Robin to be.
She is not belated nor sedated.
What about me ?
Truth is certain.
The early bird gets the worm.

Shall I distain my Mother’s plea?
Alas, truth is certain.
Noon begets bare shelves,
No TP for me.
Can it be, Mother Robin
Is more valuable than me?
I think not.
Truth is certain.

GeorgeEzell

Weekly Rerun 8-4-2020

George August 4, 2020 Notes Anthology 2 Comments

I use the iPhone Notes app religiously ( no pun intended). Most often I save quotes, quips, etc from daily readings. I save them, hoping to eventually post about them or share later. Mostly they stay hidden on my iPhone. There is no intended theme or thread, but they may give some insight into the drumbeat in my head.

Music
“Deep calls unto deep,” the Psalmist says (42:7). The sound of God echoes within us, because we are made in His image. The frequency of the voice of God calls forth a sympathetic sound within us. The Church teaches that bells are “icons of the voice of God.” In our prayers, it is possible to become lost in the words. It is important to remember to sing – and to do so often.
Fr Stephen Freeman

No such thing as life without struggle
I know that there is no such thing as life without struggle. There is no one, not anyone, who escapes the soul-wrenching experiences that stretch the mind but threaten to calcify the spirit.
There is no one who has not known what it is to lose in the game of life, to feel defeat, to know humiliation, to be left standing naked and alone before the cold and staring eyes of a world that does not grieve for your grief.
Joan Chittistier – Scarred by Struggle – Transformed by Hope

Root of all sin
..the root of all sin—the beginning of the knowledge of good and evil—is entertaining a lie about who God is. If our mental picture of God is skewed, our relationship with God, with ourselves, and with others will be skewed as well. Conversely, the root of all healing and growth in life is found in being rooted and grounded in the truth of who God is, and this truth is decisively disclosed in the One who is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14: 6).
Greg Boyd – Repenting of Religion

Holy discontent
Holy discontent is that sense of soul that says, “There must be more of God than what I presently know.” It is the size of the gap between the story the Bible tells and the story your life is telling. Holy discontent is the distance between the truth one knows and the reality one experiences. Holy discontent is the beginning of the movement from spiritual milk to spiritual meat; from infancy in Christ to mature faith.
J D Walt

Grace
Pete Alwinson has a great definition of grace. “Grace is doing good for someone when there is no compelling reason to do so and every reason not to.”
That’s it! That is the grace God has given to us.

Immigrants
Immigrants are far more patriotic and far more deeply invested in “American” values such as reverence for our founding institutions, than either side of the political spectrum believes.
As the Cato Institute showed in a 2019 study, for example, three out of four naturalized citizens say that they are “very proud” of being American; among natural-born citizens, the figure is notably lower. Conversely, 69 percent of native-born Americans say that they are “ashamed” of some aspects of America; among immigrants, just 39 percent agree.

Non-violence
At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. The nonviolent resister would contend that in the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives.
MLK

Speak out
Speak out, Hildegard says. And when you do, when you recognize that inner voice as the voice of God and say what it has taught you, the sickness in your heart will melt away. The fatigue you have lived with for so long that you did not even notice how weary you were will lift. Your voice will ring out with such clarity and beauty that you will not be able to stop singing. To speak your truth, Hildegard teaches us, is to praise God.
via Richard Rohr

Ill health of religion
It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless.
Michael Spencer

When All is well
How easy it is to not notice that we are unloving when our religious activities are going so well! Our religious noise drowns out the cry of God’s heart.
Greg Boyd – Repenting of Religion

SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT