Negative power of positive thinking

Interesting post from Ed Yong in which he discusses a study in which researchers discovered that the self-help idea of giving yourself positive thinking messages actually does more harm than good for those that have lower self-esteem.

In the end, it was all about Mao

Just finished reading, Mao, The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, a page turner at 650+ pages.   Mao was an evil man, who delighted in using violence to destroy the social order and maintain power. No matter that 20-30 million died in famines directly caused by his ambition to be a world military power.  In the end, it was all about Mao, not about ideology or about the masses.  As Chang writes about Mao’s last hours,

“His mind remained lucid to the end, and in it stirred just one thought: himself and his power.”  654

Picture of Limp Bibles

New updated image on the limp Bibles too many have around their house from John Frye over at Jesus the Radical Pastor.

Is Unity worth the effort?

Still thinking about Psalm 133.  Today, I was thinking about the precious oil flowing down Aaron’s head, beard to the bottom of his robe.  Found some references in Ex and Lev that refer to the initial anointing of Aaron and his sons by Moses if you are interested: Ex 30:30-33; 40:13-15; Levit 8:10-12, 30

Wanted to find some paintings but I only find one by a Kabbalist painter, Moshe Tzi Berger, whose has done paintings of all the Psalms. Kabbalists are a bit too weird for me, they are Jewish mystics who focus on the “inner meaning” of the Hebrew texts. But, with persistence, I found a calligraphy done by Connie Jones for a class under Dr. Stephen L. Cook and posted on his blog.  Below is higher quality image I uploaded.

NT reading was in Col 3:5-18 today.  Wow, want a text on how to build unity–here it is!!

1. Remember your life is now hidden with Christ in God v3
2. Don’t live like you once did 5-8 (Put off . . .)
3. Do not lie to one another 9
4. Start by remembering that you are chosen by God, you are holy and you are deeply loved by God. 12
5. Focus on being (Put on the new self . . . Clothe yourselves with . . . ) 12-14

• compassionate 12
• kind 12
• humble 12
• gentle 12
• patient 12
• bearing with one another 13
• forgiving 13 (Paul had to say this twice since it is so important)
• (Put on) Loving–since love binds all the above together into unity 14

Guess this means that unity is something we will need to work towards!  Is it worth it my brothers and sisters?  With fear and trembling, I say yes.

Christians with limp Bibles?

John Frye at Jesus the Radical Preacher uses Dali’s 1931 Persistence of Memory to talk about Christians and their limp Bible reading habits. “Bibles might be best sellers, but they aren’t read much. They lie limp on the bedroom dresser or backseat of the car waiting until next Sunday.”  I can’t comment on the readership of the Bible in America but I wonder how many people feel the need to bring Bibles with them on Sunday since the text is up on the screen!  That seems to lead into John’s next point.

One of the problems he suggests is pastors buying into the cry of ‘lazy Christians run around crying, “Feed me! Feed me! My pastor is supposed to feed me.”’  This prompted someone to suggest that in the church we need “good leadership, not good eatership.”

I wonder if another problem is the “one-size-fits-all” mentality of discipleship that I wrote about yesterday? Maybe this worked in the past but in today’s world, I am not so sure.   Good post, John, thanks.

Following is a pics of the Dali painting, “Persistence of Memory,” John talks about in his post,  followed by his 1952 Disintegration of Persistence of Memory.  I am not posting his final 1994 painting, called “Memory.”  Warning: Dali has images that some may find offensive.  Now, I am waiting for someone to photoshop in Bibles for the watches to see what will happen!

What is so pleasant about unity?

Continuing to read in Psalm 133 and I spent some time looking up the two words the Psalmist uses to describe the unity of brothers dwelling together.  He says in verse one this unity is good (Heb tov) and pleasant (heb na’im).   I don’t have all my OT tools with me to study these two Hebrew words with me but I did a concordance search.

Of course tov means good but it can also have the idea of phyical beauty, sweetness of taste or a sweet smelling aroma.  When I think of good, I think of one of those defining characteristics of God.  Apart from God, we cannot understand goodness–only one is truly good says Jesus to the rich young ruler, and that one is God!  But tov is not the only word, the Psalmist uses to describe unity–he also uses na’im, a word that my abridged BDB says can be translated as either delightful or lovely or beautiful and which is translated here as “pleasant.”

Na’im is used thirteen times in the OT and in four of those, it is combined with tov.  But, there are other words with which it is combined that are interesting–beloved, beautiful( shapar), beautiful (‘avach), precious (‘aqir).  What else is na’im besides brothers dwelling together in unity?  David as the beloved singer of Israel 2 Sam 23:1, Saul and Jonathan–beloved and beautiful in life 2 Sam 1:23, Job 36:11 says those who are obedient and serve will spend their last years contented and their days in goodness, the boundary lines that have fallen to the Psalmist in Ps 16:6 are na’im and his inheritance is beautiful. In Ps 16:11, the Psalmist says God makes me know the path of life–the abundance of joy, his pleasant (na’im) face and his everlasting hand. The Psalmist in 135:3 and 147: 1 tells us to praise YHWH because He is good (tov) and our music or praise is said to be na’im before God.  God’s words are na’im when they are treasured Prov 22:18 but our delightful (na’im) words are wasted before a selfish person.  When we have knowledge in Prov 24:14 it is like our rooms are filled with precious or rare and beautiful (na’im) treasure.  Finally, the bride says that her beloved is handsome and says how pleasant (na’im) is it to have their luxurious bed SOS 1:16

After reading these verses, I ask myself, “Is  there is something about unity that we are missing? I think so!!

If you need help to flesh out unity,  Romans 12 may provide assistance as we move towards unity.

Discipleship or spiritual formation?

Just had an interesting conversation with an old friend just as she was about to depart from where I am staying.  When she asked me what kind of training my wife and I do, I told her that my area was spiritual formation and/or spiritual direction.  “Do you mean discipleship?”, she asked, as in the training the Navs give.   How do you answer such a question in a few minutes? This is not the first time I have had this conversation.  Here is what I started to say plus, plus.

The assumption for most of us growing up in the evangelical church is that if we just read our Bible and pray every day, we will grow, grow, grow. Right?   Well, I think for a lot of people, reading the Bible is just not getting it done in terms of leading to a spiritual intimacy with God.  I think that I could summarize what I am trying to do is to walk with people in their journey with God and to help them enjoy their relationship with God.

Perhaps using the metaphor of journey for the spiritual life changes the way we view things.  We never arrive–yet we are always arriving?  We recognize that we all journey differently and so we should consider personality types as we journey with God.  We are on a journey with God but also with other pilgrims.  As our life and environment change, we may need to travel differently and growth will not always look the same.

One thing that we always need is input from the Word but the best way to get that will be different for each one of us.  I personally love the traditional discipleship model of quiet, reflective reading and study of the Word, combined with Scripture memory and prayer.  But, is it possible that may not be the best way for everyone?  That is why I tend to avoid the use of “quiet time” or “devotional time” to describe my time alone with God.  Perhaps there is an awareness that God is present in all of my life and I am to be aware of his presence and to enjoy it 24/7 not just during an hour in the morning. That is not to say that people ever said that we were not to live our life as an integrated whole under the Lordship of Christ.  But, for many of us it just didn’t work out that way.

I suppose the biggest change in my thinking has been in the area of seeking to help people enjoy their relationship with God.  Maybe this reflects a narcissistic tendency in me?  But, have we not been invited to enjoy (in some way, at some level) the fellowship between Father, Son and Spirit?  Perhaps that is why I enjoyed reading The Shack so much.  Although flawed from the moment anytime someone tries to depict relationships within the Trinity, I think William Young is onto something as he describes the comfortable and genuine relationships that Mack observes and participates in during the book.

That is not to say that there will always be felt enjoyment or consolations in our enjoyment with God.  God may have taught me far more in the times when I only experienced the seeming absence of God or desolations.  Sometimes, we the main thing is to keep on the journey when the way around us is dark.  Well, many have written on this eloquently and I won’t even attempt to do so here.  The point I am trying to make is that we are always on a grace-filled journey with God.

I have learned and grown so much over recent years and am grateful for the many spiritual friends and mentors and yes, spiritual directors that have helped me in my journey with the Lord Jesus.  As I try to honestly reflect on what is happening in my ruach journey, may this blog encourage a few others fellow-sojourners!

Unity in community

Reflecting on Psalm 133 this week and my NT passage for the day was Eph 4–both carrying themes of unity.  Four comments about unity and fellow pilgrims in Psalm 133

• Unity is to be enjoyed–it is pleasant and wonderful.  The “sensory properties of oil” (as a fragrance) “convey a sense of richness.” (Dictionary of Imagery) Images that come to mind–a team working together, a symphony playing, a finely tuned engine, a fine work of art.
• Unity is valuable–precious like anointing oil on Aaron’s beard.  It is inconceivable that Aaron would be anointed priest without oil just as it is inconceivable that fellow pilgrims on the way would not be moving towards the same goal.   Can we say that unity is an essential extravagance?  Is it to be obtained at all costs?  Well, as much as it is possible (cf Hebrews and peace)
• Unity is refreshing–dew on Mt Hermon affecting the mountains in Zion.  Like a drink of cold water given to our brothers ala Mtt 25.
• Unity is a sign of the blessing of God.  By this will all men know that you are my disciples.   John 13, 17  This suggests that “brotherly unity is an epiphanic experience, combining calling, holiness, life and power.”  Imagery 126

Of course this fits well in Eph 4:1-16.  What struck me there is the essential core of unity.  Not that we are all the same since there are diversities of gifts given.  Yet, these gifts were given one to another so that “As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”  Eph 4:16 New Living

And then, reading in A Guide to Prayer, an oft-mentioned quote from Bonhoeffer,

Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.  He will only do harm to himself and to the community. . . If you refuse to be alone you are rejecting Christ’s call to you, and you can have no part in the community of those who are called. . . But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.  Into the community you were called, the call was not meant for you alone; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray. . . If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you.”

I don’t know about you but I find these words challenging.  For one, I see too much disunity and how painful it is to see fellow pilgrims on the way wounding one another.  Second, I recognize my tendency to withdraw and yet, I know I cannot, I must not if I want to be whole.  Somehow, mysteriously, our well-being is connected one to another.  Maybe this is connected with Hebrews 11:40–never did quite understand that last part of the verse??

Our Embodied Will

This is at least my third  post on Dallas Willard’s article, “Warfare between the Flesh and the Human Spirit” in Journal of Spiritual Formation and Soul Care 1:1.   For Willard, the flesh “consists of our natural human abilities, considered in themselves and on their own, unaided by Divine assistance and direction.” And so, it is not surprising that the focus of the flesh is on desire, that is, for self-gratification.  When I do what I feel like doing, I am following the desires of the flesh.  The problem is that what I feel like doing is not always the best and it may even be in contradiction to the will of God. Willard sees the will or the human spirit as the “God-give ability by which we have an interest . . . in what is better or best.”  So, we follow the desires of the spirit when we choose to do what is good or best rather than just doing what we crave.

Willard says that we have three kinds of wills.  The first is what he calls a “vital or impulsive will.”  As one might expect, this is the will that chooses to do what is attractive, choosing to do what you (or your flesh) desire. Reflective will, on the other hand, considers what is good for the self and others and ultimately what God and Christ desires and chooses to do good even if it means I do not get to do what I desire to do.  Willard describes a third kind of will, the embodied will.

What Willard calls the “embodied will” is the actual life practices of either the impulsive will of desiring or the reflective will of choosing the good. Perhaps another way of saying this is that the embodied will reveals what is our daily disposition, commitment and practice about how life is lived. Our choices to follow the flesh or the spirit have actual consequences in the body. Spiritual transformation (or the lack thereof) will be demonstrated through life in our human body.  As Willard says, “Spiritual formation is never merely inward, but it is always also explosively outward.” How then do we make the embodied will to be the reflective will and not the impulsive will?

Well, we all know the experience of Romans 7, that when the flesh and spirit battle each other, “sin wins.”  But, when we experience God’s enabling, “Sin then loses as the desires of the flesh are ordered under the goodness and power of God in us.” Thus, this inability to win the spirit-flesh battle on our own is why, according to Willard, that we need Paul’s dual commands to crucify the flesh and to walk by the Spirit.  About crucifying the flesh, Willard writes,

Restraining the flesh is an essentially divine work, though we also must act. . . We simply refuse natural desires the right to direct our life.  We decide we shall not live for them to be satisfied. . . We make a general surrender of the right to get what we want in favor of the call to do what is good under God.”

Spiritual disciplines help us to retrain the body to embed “the will of Christ into our body.”

Walking by the Spirit involves trusting the Holy Spirit  “to enable me to do the good and right things I am engaged with.” It means a setting of our minds on the things of the Spirit and not placing our hope on our natural abilities. “Spiritual formation conquers the flesh and makes it the servant of the spirit, human and divine.”

A few questions remain for me: Is this helpful?  Does it work?  Does it prove to be true in our experience? Is it biblical or at least compatible with the biblical text?

Spiritual selfishness

Oswald Chambers suggests that we are being spiritually selfish when we want to always be in a “mountain top” experience with God.   Writing about Mark 9:2-29, he says

The test of the spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have power to rise only, there is something wrong.  We all have had times on the mount when we have seen things from God’s standpoint and we wanted to stay there; but if we are disciples of Jesus Chrsit, He will never allow us to stay there.  Spiritual selfishness makes us want to stay on the mount; we feel so good, as if we could do anything–talk like angels and live like angels, if only we could stay there.  But there must be the power to descend; the mountain is not the place for us to live, we were built for the valleys.  This is one of the hardest things to learn because spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount.” 51

I think this would not make a popular title in todays’ bookstores!  Chambers says that our mountain top or exaltation experiences with God are “always exceptional. . . After every time of exaltation we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they are, where things are neither beautiful nor poetic nor spiritual nor thrilling.”  He goes on to say, “. . . it is in the valley that we live for God. . . It is in the sphere of humiliation that we find our truth worth to God, and that is where our faithfulness has to be manifested.”

Chambers gives an answer to the question why, that I did not expect.  “The reason we have to live in the valley is that the majority of the people live there, and if we are to be of use to God in the world we must be useful from God’s standpoint, not from our own standpoint or the standpoint of other people.” 55  Similar themes echoed from 2 Corinthians?

Floating in the love of God

Just did a quick read this morning of an Oswald Chambers’ book, The Love of God. Actually, it is a series of small books written in the 1930s but put together in this volume in 1973.   We are sorting through old books in our library and in our center and I thought this is one might be an interesting read.   There are a couple of posts here.

First, what is love?  In thinking about “God is love” from 1 John, Chambers provides the following definition

Love is the sovereign preference of my person for another person, embracing everyone and everything in that preference. 21

Now that I think about it, we talk a lot about love but few would ever give a definition.  I think that the definition of  love given here entails a level of committment that few would mean when they say, “I love you.”

In the previous chapter, Chambers had commented on the phrase from Jude 21, “keep yourselves in the love of God.”   He makes a point to say that Jude does NOT say “keep on loving God,” because “none can do that.”  Of course, we are to do both, aren’t we? “We love him because he first loved us,” says John in 1 John 4:19.  Maybe it is an order of priority, one that we evangelicals easily get mixed up?  Chambers writes,

When once you have understood the truth about your heart’s own sinfulness, think not again of it, but look at the great, vast, illimitable magnificence of the love of God.  Oh may we be driven, driven further and further out into the ocean of the love of God! only taking care that nothing entices us out again.

May we all enjoy floating or soaking in God’s love this day!

Holding out for joy

We are not those without hope–for that I am grateful.  Joy will come after the will of God is done.  So much He has done for us as I read in Romans 5:1-11 .  Thank you God for bringing us into friendship with you, for making possible a relationship with you.  I am grateful this day.

Trying to grieve

I really don’t want to be reading a Psalm this week about joy from Psalm 126.  I want to be reading a Psalm of lament, something that will help me to grieve, to complain, to express the deep pain and loss of yet another close friend.

Peterson writes about joy, “It is not what we have to acquire in order to experience life in Christ; it is what comes to us when we are walking in the way of faith and obedience.” 92   So, can I be in mourning and still have joy?  I don’t know about that.

More from Peterson, “All suffering, all pain, all emptiness, all disappointment is seed: sow in in God, he will, finally, bring a crop of joy from it. . . One of the most interesting and remarkable things that Christians learn is that laughter does not exclude weeping.  Christian joy is not an escape from sorrow.  Pain and hardship still come but they are unable to drive out the happiness of the redeemed.”  96

“Christian joy is actual in the midst of pain, suffering, loneliness and misfortune,” says Peterson.

I don’t know, maybe joy is coming but it sure doesn’t feel much like joy right now.  I have hope in the resurrection and that reality takes away some of the seeming futility of life right now. Maybe that is what Peterson means when he says, “The joy comes because God knows how to wipe away tears, and, in his resurrection work, create the smile of life. Joy is what God gives, not what we work up.”

We will see.  For now, it just hurts and I hope I can avoid expressing my anger toward those who do and say such hurtful things.  Life is too short.

Sowing with tears

Back-breaking

heart-wrenching

service

to sow seeds of love

love that will only be watered

by our tears

and by a few grace-filled words carefully chosen

from meditation on Psalm 126, esp vv 5-6

Struggle shows that we are in the battle

Enjoying reading the new edition of the Journal of Spiritual Formation & Soul Care, 2009, Vol 2, No. 1.   From an article by Gerald L. Sittser, “The Battle Without and Within: The Psychology of Sin and Salvation in the Desert Fathers and Mothers,” p48

In the end, struggle implies that we are engaged with rather surrendered to the enemy.   When Abba Cyrun of Alexandria was asked about the temptation of lust, he replied, “If you are not tempted, you have no hope; if you are not tempted, it is because you are used to sinning.”

Daily renewal even at 54

My reading today was 2 Cor 4–one of my favorite chapters in the Bible and a passage which surely fits the passage of yet another year for me.  Today, I celebrated my third 18th birthday and the following words of Paul in 2 Cor 4:16-18 are encouraging to me.

16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our inner man is (spirits are is the wording in New Living but I prefer the phrasing of inner man) being renewed every day.17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Your view of God

More from Brennan Manning’s Abba’s Child

“If God is viewed primarily as omniscient, growth in wisdom and knowledge becomes the foremost priority of human existence. If God is envisioned as all-powerful, seeking authority in order to influence others is the way to become like God.  If God is viewed as immutable and invulnerable, grantite-like consistency and a high threshold for pain is the way to godliness.67

For Manning, I think His primary view of God is that of compassion or love.

Tenderness

I find the following discussion on tenderness by Brennan Manning in his book Abbas Child to be challenging.  Maybe  I am afraid of tenderness?

As we experience the tenderness of God towards us, this tenderness, makes us feel secure and we discover that “we are thoroughly and sincerely liked by someone. . . The defense mechanisms of the imposter-sarcasm, name-dropping, self-righteousness, the need to impress others-fall away.  We become open, real, vulnerable, and affectionate.  We grow tender. 64

“The way of tenderness avoids blind fanaticism.  Instead it seeks to see with penetrating clarity. The compassion of God in our hearts opens our eyes to the unique worth of each person.” 73

“The rhythm of  relentless tenderness in the Rabbi’s heart makes loving terribly personal, terribly immediate, and terribly urgent.”  164

That last quote does not leave much wiggle room!