Barney Wiget's Blog, page 36

Ruminate on What’s Right

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

As a prescription for healthy thinking Paul recommends a solid dose of what is true, a regular regimen of what is noble, and a daily diet of what is “right.” Clearly we can’t very well practice right thinking without thinking about what is “right.”

Unfortunately the world we live in right now isn’t right, not right in the head and even less right in the heart. It can be discouraging sometimes that after all these millennia we aren’t any better than our ancestors, and in some ways we’re worse. We might know more stuff and have more stuff but we don’t seem to be better where it counts.

When receiving his Noble Prize in 1964 Martin Luther King Jr. said: “In spite of spectacular strides in science and technology, and still unlimited ones to come, something basic is missing. . . We have learned to fly in the air like birds and swim in the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers.”

That “simple art of living together as brothers (and sisters)” is the kind of right that Paul encourages us to set our minds on. About two-thirds of popular Bible versions translate this word, “just.” One translation even uses the word “fair.”

For a lot of Christians, when they consider things that are not right, their minds go straight to things like alcohol, adultery, and anger (or whatever other dirty deeds that God forbids). The “just” treatment of the least, last, and lost are not so much on their radar. If they do think about justice at all it’s all too often “just us” (our family, our group, our people) on their minds. Even our country’s founders were thinking about what was right when they spoke of the “common good” and “liberty and justice for all.”

As in the case of each of these eight mental themes, the best place to begin our meditation on justice is on the God who is just. “The Lord is known by his acts of justice,” says David (Psalm 9:16). If we want to be like him, we have to “do justly” as well as “love mercy, and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8).

Then if we’re going to live justly we’ll have to first imagine what justice looks like. If we’re to “Do unto those downstream as we would have those upstream do unto us,” as Wendell Berry says, people less fortunate than us will have to show up on our radar.

When I’m particularly dismayed about injustice in the world, which is pretty much all the time these days, I have to tell my soul to double down on the God of justice, the Creator who will ultimately bring about a just society. “A bruised reed he will not break,” says Jesus, “and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory” (Matthew 12:20). Every time I sneak a look at the back of the Book, I feel better that someday we will live in a world of justice.

Another healing balm for my dismay over injustice is the example set by those who prioritize, love, and care for those suffering under the hammer of injustices such as racism, classism, inequality, and meritocracy. Such legacies as William Wilberforce, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Bishop Tutu, Malala Yousafzai*, and many others give me hope for a better world today and tomorrow.

*Google some of the names if you’re not familiar with them, especially if you need to be reminded that there is good in the world.

So, take a few minutes right now and soak in one or more things that are just and see if it doesn’t right your flight for the rest of the day. Share some of those things with us…

Stay tuned for Pondering Things Pure.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The President of the United States!

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Where to begin?

Let’s start with accuracy.

Though I have no particular affinity for the policies of these, three of the four of the congresswomen he speaks of were born in Cincinnati, Detroit and New York respectively. All pretty much American cities last I checked. The fourth was born in Somalia. She came here as a child and became a U.S. citizen as a teenager. But, as always, facts don’t matter to POTUS, as long as he regurgitates his morning dose of Twitter bile.

So “fixing [the] totally broken and crime infested places from they came” means what exactly? I guess, if we were to attempt to get in his muddled head we’d have to forget that these women were elected officials who represent their United States districts in governing. How dare these women, all who happen to be women of color (hmmm). How dare these members of Congress make proposals about how our government is to be run!

Wait. Isn’t that their sworn duty, as members of the legislative branch of our government to––I don’t know––legislate and to hold the executive branch accountable? How dare they do their job?

If outright lying and vindictiveness toward supposed colleagues isn’t enough, to say nothing of the childishness of it all, what sickens me is that MAGA fans are actually inspired by it! They applaud it when the Commander in Chief of the United States of America acts like a twelve-year old schoolyard bully who lies and threatens to beat up smaller kids. (I’m not saying these congresswomen are “smaller kids” but that he exploits them with his louder voice and presidential powers.)

But what nauseates me most is that Mr. Trump’s MAGA fans swig this stuff like Red Bull. His mendacity and petulance don’t exasperate them––they are energized by it! They cheer and clamor for more and louder temper tantrums. The filthier, the more outrageous the better!

It grieves me no end that people who identify as “Christians” join in this insanity. They don’t care if he bold-faced lies or displays racist, immature, and sociopathic tendencies. They refuse to budge in their tireless support. It doesn’t bother them that he’s inept as a world leader, vindictive toward anyone who opposes him, courts tyrants and screws his our allies. In point of fact, though it flies in the face of everything Jesus teaches and stands for, these so-called Jesus followers admire him for it.

Come on, folks. Care!

What think ye? I really want to know…

 

 

 

 

Is Narcissism a Positive for Presidents?

 

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Egotism, egoism, solipsism, and narcissism.

There are fine distinctions between these decidedly un-Christ-like personalities. Let’s take a look.

While I’m not in favor of slapping a label on anyone, these characteristics came to mind recently when hearing some self-serving obfuscations of a certain world leader. The peculiarities of each of these may be illustrated this way:

“If I got fired from the company, all the work would stop”… That’s a solipsist.

He’s either the only one who matters or the only one capable of doing something that matters.

“If I got fired from the company, the quality of work would become pathetic”… That’s an egotist.

He may not be the only person, but he’s sure he’s the best person.

“If I got fired from the company, what will happen to me?”… That’s an egoist.

His approach almost always revolves around him (his future) as opposed to someone else’s (i.e. the company’s future).

“If I got fired from the company, then it must be because they envy my skills”… That’s a narcissist.

He honestly believes that his way is beyond reproach, and cannot fathom a reality in which he deserved to be fired. He will resort to twisting reality itself, before he even considers admitting personal flaws. Admitting defects is something a narcissist will never do. (For a more detailed description and derivation of narcissism see this.)

I’m not qualified to diagnose anyone’s antisocial behavior, let alone someone I only “know” from afar, to say nothing of the enormous log obscuring my best vision and preventing me from playing eye surgeon to anyone else. But I have been wondering if any or all of the above diagnoses might describe the personality of said politician. (In order to protect the guilty I won’t use any names, but his initials are the same as the condition of severe withdrawal symptoms––shaking, confusion, and hallucinations––that alcoholics experience when deprived of their preferred inebriant.)

In case the hint above doesn’t ring a bell, some of the things this person has said about himself might jar your memory:

“I’m a very stable genius!”
“I’m the least racist person you’ve ever met!”
“I know more than my generals!”
“I alone can fix it!”
“I am the smartest person in the room.”
“Every one of these people is a stable genius, and I am by far stabler and more geniuser than any of them.” (I love that one!)
“I’m, like, the most mature person in the country!”
“I am a great Christian.”

Reminds me of Psalm 36:2 “In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin.”

What about judging and name-calling?

Rather than to label people, if necessary I prefer to identify a behavior. That is, rather than call someone a name like “fool” or “narcissist” my preference would be to say that he does foolish things or she displays narcissistic tendencies.

I don’t think Jesus prohibits such assessment of someone’s behavior when he commands us, “Do not judge.” After all, just a sentence or two later he tells us to discern the difference between a sheep in his own skin and a sheepskin with a wolf in it. He goes on to say that there’s a qualitative difference between a true prophet and false one, between sheep and goats, a true believer and a mere behaver. (Matthew 7)

Those who claim that any form of moral discrimination is a sin, refute their own argument, because they judge others for judging. It is not judging per se, but self-righteous judging that Jesus prohibits. That is, there’s a difference between making a moral judgment and being judgmental.

On another occasion Jesus warned, “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.” (John 7:24) “Right judgment” is not pronouncing judgment on someone. Distinguishing right from wrong and damning those who do wrong are not the same. To correct is one thing, to condemn, another.

That said, let’s veer away from name calling, i.e. “he’s an egoist” or “she’s a narcissist.” After all, labels are too small and humans are too big to fit inside them. We’re just too complex to be accurately described by a label. Yet, as I said, we might find ourselves or someone else acting like one or more of these anti-Christ attitudes.

In other words, someone’s behavior might warrant being called “narcissistic” or “egoistic.” That way we identify the behavior and not label the person as “a narcissist” or “an egoist.” Make sense?

An altogether different thing than self-confidence

Someone said to me, “All politicians are narcissists.” That’s just not true. Self-confident, strong sense of self, bold, even proud? Yes. But take another look at the definitions of the sociopathic personalities above and I think you’ll see the difference.

Michael Gerson points out this individual that I have in mind seems to have a “bottomless need to project himself as wealthier, stronger, smarter and better than he actually is.” Behaving this way is not necessarily an indication that he actually possesses great qualities but that he knows he doesn’t and is afraid for others to know it too.  Problem is, we already know it, and many are just not willing to break rank with our party and admit it.

These behaviors are not just a stronger form of ambition, but as Gerson indicates, they are a “different and distorted way of perceiving the world. Part of psychological wholeness — and of responsible political leadership — is the ability to consider reality from someone else’s perspective. But [this man] seems incapable of escaping the small, dark cell of his own immediate needs and desires.”

The antithesis to this is humility. As a reminder, here are a few of my favorite passages on the subject:

“Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought”
“Pride comes before a fall”
“Consider others better than yourself”
“My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.”

While I am not suggesting that you offer a psychiatric diagnosis or slap a label on this certain unnamed world leader, I wonder if you have an unofficial estimation of his behavior? 

Solipsistic?
Egoistic?
Egotistic?
Narcissistic?
None of the above. 

And does it matter? Should we expect (and vote for) someone better than this?

Four Anti-Christ Attitudes

 

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Egotism, egoism, solipsism, and narcissism.

There are fine distinctions between these decidedly un-Christ-like personalities. Let’s take a look.

While I’m not in favor of slapping a label on anyone, these characteristics came to mind recently when hearing some self-serving obfuscations of a certain world leader. The peculiarities of each of these may be illustrated this way:

“If I got fired from the company, all the work would stop”… That’s a solipsist.

He’s either the only one who matters or the only one capable of doing something that matters.

“If I got fired from the company, the quality of work would become pathetic”… That’s an egotist.

He may not be the only person, but he’s sure he’s the best person.

“If I got fired from the company, what will happen to me?”… That’s an egoist.

His approach almost always revolves around him (his future) as opposed to someone else’s (i.e. the company’s future).

“If I got fired from the company, then it must be because they envy my skills”… That’s a narcissist.

He honestly believes that his way is beyond reproach, and cannot fathom a reality in which he deserved to be fired. He will resort to twisting reality itself, before he even considers admitting personal flaws. Admitting defects is something a narcissist will never do. (For a more detailed description and derivation of narcissism see this.)

I’m not qualified to diagnose anyone’s antisocial behavior, let alone someone I only “know” from afar, to say nothing of the enormous log obscuring my best vision and preventing me from playing eye surgeon to anyone else. But I have been wondering if any or all of the above diagnoses might describe the personality of said politician. (In order to protect the guilty I won’t use any names, but his initials are the same as the condition of severe withdrawal symptoms––shaking, confusion, and hallucinations––that alcoholics experience when deprived of their preferred inebriant.)

In case the hint above doesn’t ring a bell, some of the things this person has said about himself might jar your memory:

“I’m a very stable genius!”
“I’m the least racist person you’ve ever met!”
“I know more than my generals!”
“I alone can fix it!”
“I am the smartest person in the room.”
“Every one of these people is a stable genius, and I am by far stabler and more geniuser than any of them.” (I love that one!)
“I’m, like, the most mature person in the country!”
“I am a great Christian.”

Reminds me of Psalm 36:2 “In their own eyes they flatter themselves too much to detect or hate their sin.”

What about judging and name-calling?

Rather than to label people, if necessary I prefer to identify a behavior. That is, rather than call someone a name like “fool” or “narcissist” my preference would be to say that he does foolish things or she displays narcissistic tendencies.

I don’t think Jesus prohibits such assessment of someone’s behavior when he commands us, “Do not judge.” After all, just a sentence or two later he tells us to discern the difference between a sheep in his own skin and a sheepskin with a wolf in it. He goes on to say that there’s a qualitative difference between a true prophet and false one, between sheep and goats, a true believer and a mere behaver. (Matthew 7)

Those who claim that any form of moral discrimination is a sin, refute their own argument, because they judge others for judging. It is not judging per se, but self-righteous judging that Jesus prohibits. That is, there’s a difference between making a moral judgment and being judgmental.

On another occasion Jesus warned, “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.” (John 7:24) “Right judgment” is not pronouncing judgment on someone. Distinguishing right from wrong and damning those who do wrong are not the same. To correct is one thing, to condemn, another.

That said, let’s veer away from name calling, i.e. “he’s an egoist” or “she’s a narcissist.” After all, labels are too small and humans are too big to fit inside them. We’re just too complex to be accurately described by a label. Yet, as I said, we might find ourselves or someone else acting like one or more of these anti-Christ attitudes.

In other words, someone’s behavior might warrant being called “narcissistic” or “egoistic.” That way we identify the behavior and not label the person as “a narcissist” or “an egoist.” Make sense?

An altogether different thing than self-confidence

Someone said to me, “All politicians are narcissists.” That’s just not true. Self-confident, strong sense of self, bold, even proud? Yes. But take another look at the definitions of the sociopathic personalities above and I think you’ll see the difference.

Michael Gerson points out this individual that I have in mind seems to have a “bottomless need to project himself as wealthier, stronger, smarter and better than he actually is.” Behaving this way is not necessarily an indication that he actually possesses great qualities but that he knows he doesn’t and is afraid for others to know it too.  Problem is, we already know it, and many are just not willing to break rank with our party and admit it.

These behaviors are not just a stronger form of ambition, but as Gerson indicates, they are a “different and distorted way of perceiving the world. Part of psychological wholeness — and of responsible political leadership — is the ability to consider reality from someone else’s perspective. But [this man] seems incapable of escaping the small, dark cell of his own immediate needs and desires.”

The antithesis to this is humility. As a reminder, here are a few of my favorite passages on the subject:

“Don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought”
“Pride comes before a fall”
“Consider others better than yourself”
“My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.”

While I am not suggesting that you offer a psychiatric diagnosis or slap a label on this certain unnamed world leader, I wonder if you have an unofficial estimation of his behavior? 

Solipsistic?
Egoistic?
Egotistic?
Narcissistic?
None of the above. 

And does it matter? Should we expect (and vote for) someone better than this?

Meditate on What is Honorable

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

We’re given at least eight different kinds of thoughts on which to fix our minds as alternatives to the stinking kind of thinking to which many of us are accustomed. Last time we talked about the “whatever is true.” Next Paul lists “whatever is noble,” by which he refers to things or people that are honorable, things that own a certain dignity.

This world is full of outright dishonorable things toward which our lower selves are attracted, like the ocean tides to the moon. Then there are those things that, while they may not qualify as utterly shameful, don’t quite fit the description of honorable. They’re neither dignified nor ignoble, but generally speaking lack any life-giving quality.

Filling our thoughts on things honorable may sound stilted and predictable, but how many utterly trivial, shallow, and nonsensical matters use up our brain cells everyday? “There’s a time to weep and a time to laugh.” We could stand to make a little more room for thoughts more honorable.

I mean how many YouTube videos of cats playing pingpong can you watch in a row without your brain going to mulch? Or how profound can your thoughts be during an eight-hour video game marathon?

Brothers and sisters, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults. 1 Corinthians 14:20

How inane are the things that we permit through the portals of our minds to take up valuable space. I know this sounds like the ranting of an old man stuck in another time. At best this is the musing of someone who notices the gradual shallowing of our culture.

Oh how the thought of God attracts

And draws the heart from earth,

And sickens it of passing shows

And dissipating mirth!

‘Tis not enough to save our souls,

To shun the eternal fires;

The thought of God will rouse the heart

To more sublime desires. (From The Way of Perfection by Frederick W. Faber)

The only other two times this Greek term for “noble” is used it the Bible it refers to people who are “worthy of respect.” Maybe a good place to begin cultivating noble thoughts would be to bring to mind a person or two for whom you have great respect, and why. Of course, begin with Jesus, the noblest of all humans. Then search your mind for others who embody some of the same qualities and meditate on what it is that makes them so honorable.

So, take a few minutes right now and soak in one or more things that are noble and see if it doesn’t right your flight for the rest of the day.

Stay tuned for “Ruminating on What’s Right”

Think Things Through What is TRUE

 

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

“No man in the whole world can change the truth.  One can only look for the truth, find it, and serve it.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Last time I introduced what Paul had on his mind about things we should have on ours. It seems significant that the first thing on his mind was the truth. His menu for healthy thinking begins with whatever is “true.” If you want the best, consult the menu and order the truth. Something else might taste better but it won’t be nourishing and might make you sick.

Truth is in disrepair these days. Like no other time in my lifetime are we facing such dangerous levels of truth decay. It’s not the truth itself that is rotting; but the skill of ferreting it out from fiction that seems to be out of vogue.

It’s more difficult than ever to detect faulty logic and so called “alternative facts.” The Internet, social media, our man in the White House, most other politicians, and the “Father of lies” himself, have us so confused we have a hard time knowing which way is up. In reference to a certain politician Peter Sagal said “[He] is to lying what Charles Lindbergh was to flying. Nobody else would dare go that far!”

If truth frees like Jesus claimed, it follows that lies enslave.

If we’re taking our cues from the “Father of lies” or any of his disciples, reality is whatever they’re able to convince us that it is. The reality that liars want us to embrace is a world of make believe, one wherein they try to make us believe what’s not there and un-believe what is! Reality is whatever they can get away with.

There is a flight instrument that informs the pilot of the aircraft orientation relative to Earth’s horizon called an “Attitude Indicator” or “Artificial Horizon.” Otherwise, while flying deep in a dark cloud you might be upside down and not even know it. Sound familiar? While flying wrong side up or in the wrong direction altogether everything in us might be saying, “All is well. Just keep going as you are.” We need an Attitude Indicator to show us, Someone to tell us, friends to remind us what is true and what is not.

Brothers and sisters, we need to find our way back to what’s true. We can’t take a daily bath in the media mud and expect to emerge squeaky clean. Jesus not only speaks the truth, he is the Truth speaking. Therefore watching him and listening to his words can keep us from a fatal crash.

So, take a few minutes right now and soak in one or more things that are true and see if it doesn’t right your flight for the rest of the day.

Stay tuned for “whatever is noble”…

A Thousand Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

During the G-20 meetings our president said so many ridiculous things that, rather than put them in separate posts or attempt to place them in some sort of order of toxicity, I thought I’d just throw them down like objects in a hopscotch game (you know, where you hop over the square where the marker lands). While much of the American public simply leaps over the swarm of his noxious words and deeds everyday, I just can’t do it. It’s death by a thousand tweets and just too much to take in. I am unable to hop over them and dodge the obvious conclusion that Mr. Trump is grossly unfit to lead our country.

Remember when he said this? “You know what else they say about my people? The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? It’s like incredible.” Incredible is one way to describe it.

I can almost see the headline now:

“President Trump walks away from bloody corpse in Times Square with a smoking 38 in his hand leading the crowd in a cheer: ‘Fake News, Fake News!’”

Here are just a few of his more pernicious outbursts last week during the meetings in Japan too high to scale without doing some serious damage to my soul.

Mr. President, have you told President Putin not to meddle in our elections?

“Don’t meddle in the election, please… ha, ha, ha…”

If you have the stomach for it look at the video. He and Putin make light of one of the worst attacks on our democracy in history. The Mueller Report, our intelligence community, and the whole world knows it.

Mr. President, what do you have to say about being the only country in the G-20 who pulled out of the Paris Agreement on climate change?

“It doesn’t always work with a windmill. When the wind goes off, the plant isn’t working.” 

I can’t find it in me to dignify this cluelessness with a comment.

Mr. President, what will you do about the Saudis’ Khashoggi murder?

“Saudi Arabia is a big buyer of (American) product. That means something to me. It’s a big producer of jobs.”

It doesn’t matter that that the UN claims “credible evidence” linking the Prince in the murder and dismembering of the journalist. Never mind that a lot of the weapons we’re selling them go to the slaughter of Yemenis in what many call the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

Mr. President, how is your relationship with Kim John Un?

“We met, and we liked each other, from Day 1.”

Jesus told us to love, not “like” our enemies. After their first meeting he said Kim has a “great personality” and is a “lover of his people.” Most of the people with great personalities and love people don’t execute 300 people who stand in the way of their career path, at least one of them with an antiaircraft gun! Not to mention having his own brother assassinated with lethal chemicals rubbed on his face in an airport and executing his uncle and incinerated his body with flame throwers! If that’s loving his people, I’d hate to see what hating them would look like.

As Forrest Gump said, “That’s all I have to say about that.”

Mr. President, what do you have to say about the most recent of 22 allegations of rape?

“I’ll say it with great respect. Number 1, she’s not my type…”

OK, that settles it. She’s not “his type.” So he’s saying that if she were his “type” he might have raped her? Is it just me or is this man not running on all cylinders? Does that sound like “great respect” to you? And that’s “Number 1,” as though the first thing he wants us to be aware of his standard for assessing women?

Mr. President, what do you think about Putin’s assertion that “Western-style liberalism is obsolete”?

“San Francisco and Los Angeles are sad to look at because they are run by liberal people.”

What is actually “sad” is that the leader of the free world doesn’t know the difference between “Western-liberalism” and West Coast liberalism. If his excuse is that he just didn’t hear the question rightly, my follow up question would be, “So why would you think that Putin would be so concerned about our ‘West Coast’ politics?” Just sayin’

Mr. President, what do you think of school busing programs?

“It has been something that they’ve done for a long period of time. There aren’t that many ways of getting people to schools.”

This sounds like a Saturday Night Live sketch! He was asked this in light of Kamala Harris’ mentioning in the Democratic debate that she was bussed as a kid. Is he really so out of touch with the real world, that he has never heard of the integrating efforts of bussing kids to schools across town? Maybe one “way of getting people to schools” on his mind is the chauffeured limousine?

Hurdle over these and hundreds of other clear clues that Donald Trump should quit his day job and go back to ripping people off in real estate if you want to. I just can’t.

Touching Untouchables

If anything, Rahab represents the dehumanized, marginalized, and overlooked people in any society. These are folks who are invisible, or worse, untouchable. Yet, if we see them through the lens of Scripture, we might consider them some of the world’s most reachable of souls.

Consider Jesus’ repeated claim that “the first will be last and the last will be first.” Among other things I take this to mean, “Reach out to the last first.” It’s not that he loves them most, but they’re the most needy of love, so he begins there. It’s not that he cares nothing for those who are at the head of society’s line, but that he rushes first to the back of the line!

Though he loves all people equally, he may seem biased toward the world’s neediest. But as Ron Sider points out, “equal concern for everyone requires special attention to specific people. In a family, loving parents do not provide equal tutorial time to a son struggling hard to scrape by with D’s and a daughter easily making A’s. Precisely in order to be ‘impartial’ and love both equally, they devote extra time to helping the needier child… (Good firefighters do not spend equal time at every house; they are ‘partial’ to homes on fire.)”

If God puts the disadvantaged and disregarded at the head of the line, doesn’t it follow that we should do the same?

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

Things to Think

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8

“Habits are something you can do without thinking,” says Frank A. Clark, “which is why most of us have so many of them.” If we don’t make up our own minds, something—or someone—will make them up for us. It’s a good idea to make our minds mind. Rather than permit outright lies and half-truths to camp unchallenged in our thoughts, with the Lord’s help we can “bring every thought back into captivity” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Thoreau said, “To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

I suspect, while sitting in his tiny, cold prison cell Paul thought a lot about thinking. He discovered how one defends against toxic thoughts and conversely how to exercise the mind as a tool for virtuous purpose.

In his concluding thoughts about thoughts in his letter to his friends in Philippi he says, “Finally…” which is to say, “Let me sum it for you and be direct. Think about these kinds of things.” He proceeded to list eight categories of healthy thoughts. What is true and noble and right and pure and…

Don’t forget that our God is “embodiment” of each of these. Jesus was God embodied and modeled this mindset in his life here. He was and is true and noble and right and pure and lovely and admirable and excellent and praiseworthy. So when we meditate on these realities we’re contemplating him.

Lately I’ve been using this menu as a means of my own meditation. I’ll go through the list in my mind, maybe even speak them out loud, with the expectation that one or more of them will stand out in my mind. If and when it does I’ll double down on that one and contemplate its implications, in hopes of getting that quality to tunnel down into a deeper part of me. That is, I want that particular quality to make the journey beyond my mind and into my spirit.

Meditation is far more than a cerebral exercise. It is intended to be a spiritual one. It may or may not begin in the mind, but the hope is to take it beyond into deeper, much deeper places than our simple minds can take us.

Undoubtedly Paul learned the practice of meditation from his mentor, the doctor of Jewish Law, Gamaliel. I suspect that when he met Jesus and was filled with the Holy Spirit his meditations soared into regions beyond what he’d learned from the good doctor. Fast forward to his time incarcerated in a Roman pokey for preaching Christ. All day and all night in his cell with nothing but the Scriptures he had memorized, he had ample time to go even deeper in his contemplation of whatever is true, whatever is noble…

I hope you’ll follow along with the following eight or so posts and with me cultivate better thoughts and deeper contemplation as we highlight each of these: Things to Think…

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Befriending The Banished

“I used to think that to be Christlike meant to be alienated and put off by the sin of others. But it’s quite the opposite. Refusing to be alienated and put of by the sin of others is what allows me to be Christlike.” Brant Hansen

“If you owned a Rembrandt covered in mud, you wouldn’t focus on the mud or treat it like mud. Your primary concern would not be the mud at all, though it would need to be removed. You’d be ecstatic to have something so valuable in your care. But if you tried to clean the painting by yourself, you might damage it. So you would careful bring this work of art to a master who could guide you and help you restore it to the condition originally intended. When people begin treating one another as God’s masterpiece waiting to be revealed, God’s grace grows in their lives and cleanses them… Do you see the mud or the masterpiece?” John Burke

We can’t very well reach Rahabs if we villainize them and let our revulsion for their lifestyle trump our compassion for them as fellow beloveds. Some “Christians” are quick to pull out their morality pistols and start firing away, but it’s up to us to show more instinctual empathy than moral aversion for the least, the last, and the lost among us. We can’t act like people disgust us and say that we love them at the same time. I’ve heard it said, “If we succeed in loving we succeed big; if we fail to love we fail completely.”

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends