As tempting as it may seem not to require it, action must be informed.
In and of itself, action may have affect, but not necessarily a desired one.
Action too easily can simply becoming activity, without much efficacy. It needs to be informed, so that the quality of the action can have the substance that is needed to prevail against what otherwise are simply just other ideas.
On the other hand, being informed is simply not enough for what is needed. Ideas can (technically) exist, but to no real avail without some form of implementation or action.
The battles of our time, unfortunately, seem content with simply the disputes of ideas. But, ideas themselves do not change much without an attending and corresponding action that embodies them. We can talk all day, but it doesn’t really matter that much who is right or wrong if there is no practical utilization of them.
It has been observed that ideas have power. But, their power comes in the form of agency — without agency they largely just float around in the atmosphere ...without much impact.
It is the actionability of ideas which impacts the true quality of them.
We need the quality of both, especially right now where there is so much talk and so little action...not to mention the truth that should inform them.
The most successful people don't fight their nature. They architect their environment to amplify it.
Stop asking: "How do I fix myself?" Start asking: "How do I position myself where my natural traits are assets?"
-- Shane Parrish
I've noticed...that I’m interested in truth wherever it is, and less and less based on the surrounding ideology that claims it has the corner on it.
The great temptation of Christianity has always been to think that if we were in control, if we had power, we would “win,” but that’s exactly what Jesus warns us against. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us to be salt—not the meat, the potatoes, or even the vegetables—just the invisible but very effective salt. Salt is what gives zing and taste to food and Jesus is calling us to be people who give purpose, meaning, and desire to life. If we look at the history of Christianity, whenever we were “in charge,” that’s when we became the most corrupt. Christianity operates best in a resistance position, in a position where we can discern and choose how to be salt, how to be light.
Likewise, the metaphor of light as Jesus uses it here is not controlling or forceful. As Alcoholics Anonymous says, it’s not moving forward by self-promotion, but by attraction. Just set the light on the lampstand and if it’s good, and if it’s real, and if it’s beautiful, people will come. This is very different than what we expect. We basically think we can only move the world by being in control. Yet both of the images that Jesus offers here warn us against wanting to be in control.
That is so contrary to our common sense. We think “If only we had the power, if only we had the majority, we could create the kingdom of God,” but it’s never been true. I know from my years of traveling that when Christians are a minority in a country, and they have to choose and decide to be the salt of the earth, to be light on a lampstand, they make a real difference.
Jesus calls us to give the world taste, meaning, purpose, direction, desire. It’s a humble position, isn’t it? We’d much sooner be in charge. But whenever someone or something has all the power, they mostly misuse power. Jesus warns us against power, because very few people can handle it. Most of us use it for our own aggrandizement, our own promotion and advancement in the ways of the world, which usually means more money and more power.
Either we learn how to be the salt of the earth, a true alternative to the normal motivations and actions of society, or as Jesus put it very clearly, we might as well throw it out and trample it underfoot. We have to find our inner authority through Christ in us; we have to find our purpose in our love of God and neighbor, and actions of mercy and justice. Otherwise, we’re not offering anything that the world doesn’t already have or can’t find in other places.
-- Richard Rohr, on Matthew 5:13–16
Our fears are often irrational — so, now that we’ve cleared that up….
You need to know what centers you and how to maintain being grounded.
For my overall health, I'm slowing recognizing that removing distractions from my life is not optional.
Both are wealthy, but does it seem like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the same kind of people as Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger...or Jimmy Carter?
What do you do when you realize people's perceptions of you aren't what you want them to be? What if that is most palpable when they say you're not who you should be?
Both seem to escalate our interest in identifying who we are.
So, why then does becoming who we are seem to actually scare us more than inspire us?
Sometimes, it seems like it’s almost easier to try to be someone else, than it is to be ourselves. Perhaps, that is because this strategy appears to give us the option with less consequence when we can't pull it off. In other words, if I’m not able to be someone else, then what is the real consequence of that? I’m just…not them (which everyone else already knew). But, if I try to be more fully who I am, and somehow fail (whatever form that takes), the implications somehow seem far more significant.
Most of this, of course, is imagined in our minds much more than it is true in reality. And, certainly, we have encountered people who are genuine and authentic and just, as we say, “who they are”. These people seem free and simultaneously attract something in us…something we desire to be.
While we might mistake this as wanting to be like them, I think what we are really engaging is our innate desire to be free ourselves.
One aspect of discovering and being who we really are is related to the ideas, in general, that we have about becoming something. For example, what do we do with the idea that we have to become something in the first place?
I suspect the question here is influenced by many of the religious sensibilities that we have accumulated, especially about our need to become 'more like Christ', which is often juxtaposed as something unique or different. This version of our becoming is often predicated on another religious feature that seems to emphasize the inherent badness (wretchedness) of who we are, and therefore sets up what I think is a false-binary that, rather than becoming ourselves, we need to become more like Christ.
But, this bifurcation sets a couple things in motion that are hard to bind together, in the end. And, because of this, it seems to result in divergent directions, including the requirement to hold more deeply to one or the other (rather than to both). My sense, at this point, is that the two are not really incompatible at all. In other words, I become more of who I truly am because of who Christ has made me to be.
Whatever layers I’ve added on to the equation about the badness of who I am, and the need to conform that to something other than me (like Christ) is predicated on key notions related to our starting points. If my starting point is that I am bad, then one could see how self-actualization is a problem. But, I think most religious traditions themselves even support the notion that I need to be who I am inherently because of who I am in Christ — the image of God in me. And, therefore, it seems more consistent to recognize, in that frame, that my ultimate aim is to become more aware of what the image of God, that I represent, is including the shape that takes in the uniqueness of me as a person.
It is in this context that I feel the most comfortable with the notion of increasingly becoming aware of who I am, including the ever-increasing discovery of the unique manifestation that is of me. This, in fact, would seem to enable the most capacity to set me free — to be who I am and to offer more of who I am to the world around me.
After all, when we see others doing (being) this somehow, we almost universally recognize what is happening.
Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are.
Both in in his presidency and in life, Jimmy Carter, was a model of true public service.
“President Carter was a man of character, courage, and compassion, whose lifetime of service defined him as one of the most influential statesmen in our history,” Biden said in a White House statement. “He embodied the very best of America: A humble servant of God and the people. A heroic champion of global peace and human rights, and an honorable leader whose moral clarity and hopeful vision lifted our Nation and changed our world.”
The son of a farmer and a nurse, Carter served in the Navy Reserves during the Second World War, returning home to manage his family’s peanut farm in Georgia following his father’s death. A humanitarian, man of faith, public servant, and lifelong Democrat, he served as a Georgia state senator, the state’s 76th governor, and ultimately president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.
In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development. Continue here....
-- Jennifer Mattson
Setting partisanship aside as he could, Jimmy Carter served people and their interests above his own. Though not perfect (but, by many estimations, better than most), he strove to better his fellow-man by famously committing to never lying to the American people and living his life as one of them (a real contrast, it seems to me, to many so-called public servants):
Former President Jimmy Carter lies in state at U.S. Capitol
How former President Jimmy Carter's hometown of Plains shaped his life
This may say it best:
Ever noticed...all that is conspicuously absent in the media after a US election? Like, where did all the bad news (not to mention terrifying) suddenly go?
President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets.
-- Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics
The country that President Joe Biden and his Democratic administration will leave behind when they leave office is in the best shape it’s been in since at least 2000.
No U.S. troops are fighting in foreign wars, murders have plummeted, deaths from drug overdoses have dropped sharply, undocumented immigration is below where it was when Trump left office, stocks have just had their best two years since the last century. The economy is growing, real wages are rising, inflation has fallen to close to its normal range, unemployment is at near-historic lows, and energy production is at historic highs. The economy has added more than 700,000 manufacturing jobs among the 16 million total created since 2020.
-- Peter Baker
Seek out what magnifies your spirit.
-- Maria Popova
The function of contemplation in all its forms is to penetrate illusion and help us to touch reality.
-- Parker Palmer
Trust is a process, not an event.
-- Hillary L. McBride
One thing we all must cope with is that life is very likely to provide terrible blows, unfair blows. Some people recover and others don’t. But every mischance in life, however bad, provides an opportunity to learn something useful. Instead of becoming immersed in self-pity, the most successful among us utilize each terrible blow in a constructive fashion.
-- Charlie Munger
Prior 4 Observations (from Others).
Do you know what your greatest asset is?
Your desire.
It is true that your desire will probably drive you into a few ditches. But, it will also be what motivates you to get out of them.
One of the best things you can get in the habit of doing is asking yourself each day what is it that you want most from it. The answer provides you the greatest opportunity to direct your attention and resources.
If you don't do this, you are highly at risk of drifting along in mindless feeding on the delivery systems of our culture, which aren't nearly as interested in you as a person (in spite of what it sometimes looks like) as much as they are in lining the pockets of those benefitting from those systems.
What you really need most is already within you. Your work is discovering what that is and connecting it to the needs of the world (more likely, to one piece of the world). How you do that is through your familiarity with what you want. It is your desire that can guide you and ultimately lead you toward a deeper sense of fulfillment.
Like any asset, your desire can be unattended, suppressed, or corrupted. But, also like any asset, it can reveal the deeper and freeing truth about yourself and your contribution to life.
Do you know who you are? Do you want to know? What if this year you learned how to follow your desire — in the end, it may be the best asset you have.
The holidays are a special time to pause, reflect, and give thanks. It's a chance to appreciate our accomplishments, the lessons we've learned, and the blessings in our lives. As we gather with loved ones, let's remember that the genuine essence of the season extends beyond gifts, and the true meaning lies in the deeper connections we foster.
-- Carey Lohrenz
I'm wondering...about our relationship with anxiety, especially as we head into another year.
Anxiety is not just a personal matter.
As we deepen into this vision of our common unity, we come to understand that we are one with all humanity, all creatures, all creation, and God. So nonviolence is much more than a tactic or a strategy; it is a way of life that is based in the oneness of creation, the unity of life itself. It is not passive but active love and truth that seek justice and peace for the whole human race and all of creation, and so resists systemic evil and violence, persistently reconciles with everyone, works to create new cultures of justice and peace, yet insists there is no cause however noble for which we support the killing of any human being. Instead of killing others, we work to stop the killing and are even willing to be killed in the struggle for justice and peace.
-- John Dear
What you do today sets up your tomorrow.
Lord, enable me today to step toward what I might otherwise hang-back from.
One of the gifts we really have to give ourselves is to identify what it is that we believe about ourselves — because what we are believing about ourselves is what is driving almost everything we do.
Do you think you cherish your life?
Prior 3 Observations & A Question….
Take something that moves you and shine the light of the gospel on it.
-- Jürgen Moltmann
Oh Holiest of Holies Entering Into our humanity Star of the nativity Culmination Of all the covenants Evidence of your promise Brought to fruition Hope of the world Our salvation
Oh Holiest of Holies Your deity Wrapped in rags For swaddling Inhabiting A vulnerable body Ushering in The era of jubilation Woven from Threads Of humanity And divinity The answer To our hearts Deepest longings And desires
Oh Holiest of Holies You abandoned Your royal residence To exemplify For us The way for us To live, to be You walked amongst us Taught us The way of love
The way of peace Oh Holiest of Holies During this season Of anticipation And celebration Remind us Consume us Envelope us Expand us To be bridge builders Peacemakers Ambassadors And carriers Of your love
Oh Holiest of Holies May we see your Incarnation As an insurrection Of empires And powers that be An invitation To be co laborers In the work Of emancipation For every Tribe and Every nation
-- Deb Miller
The genealogy of Jesus reveals that God chooses to work with us as we are, using our weaknesses, even more than our strengths, to fulfill the divine purpose.... In a world as cold and cruel and unjust as it was at the time of Jesus’ birth in a stable, we desire something better. And in desiring it, we come to believe that it is possible. We await its coming in hope.
-- Kathleen Norris
I've noticed...that something happens in me when I’m around people who are singing together (especially this time of year).
I don’t even have to participate, but when I do, that something extends further.
Sometimes I am surprised at the amount of low-grade terror that I feel in my mind. And, the startling thing for me is that the tendency of it seems to be growing the older I get. At the very least, this is not what I was expecting.
When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.
-- Madeleine L'Engle
It could very well be that I just know more now, more about the things that threaten something about me. It could also be that the broader climates that are in play right now are impacting me at deeper levels than I would’ve guessed. And so, maybe it is phenomenological or maybe it is psychological. Maybe it is spiritual. It could even be physical...or some combination of all the above. Perhaps, though, I am, as L'Engle puts it, just a little more alive to things.
One thing that feels conspicuous, as I try to contemplate the realities operating in and around me, is not so much what is happening as it is what feels required. And, even putting it that way, exposes something. Something along the lines of agency that I feel I increasingly don’t have. Not unlike being thrown up against a wall, it strikes me that this doesn’t as much require something of me, in terms of agency, as it calls out something in me regarding what I am ultimately trusting in.
Perhaps, for longer than I realized, I have slowly been building a kind of self-sufficiency that increasingly adds to my sense of burden and distorts my perception of reality. A small scripture floats across my mind, “In this world you will have trouble…". One of the distortions in my perception is somehow related to that observation. I actually think, more than I realize, that because of that simple truth, something more is needed from me in terms of mitigating that trouble.
But, the reality is that my capacity for such (not to mention the range and depth of threat itself) is diminishing, not increasing. And, so, what is needed, at least the more part of it, is not more effort aimed at agency for myself. What is needed is more acknowledgment. More acknowledgment of my dependence, as opposed to my independence. What is needed is an increasing awareness of the lack of ultimate jeopardy I really am in.
In other words, faith. Not the simple, desperate finger-crossing kind of hoping that something will prevent my demise (as if it would be a stroke of luck of some kind). But, the kind of faith that ultimately rest more, rather than strives more. A kind of faith that not only acknowledges, but understands the degree to which I am held by divine goodness. In our culture, we sometimes call this God. That works, for the most part. I am held by God, especially with regard to the ultimacy involved in my existence. This is what the world misses much of the time, as it struggles for our self-sufficiency rather than God-dependency.
The Scriptures basically tell this story over and over and over the one about the with-ness of God, with us. Perhaps this is why there is some kind of cord that is struck within us around times like Christmas. Because over the centuries, the real story of Christmas persists. There is an undeniable nexus of both the rawness and innocence of it. It meets us something in us. Something that we need as we struggle to embrace the realities of the threats that we feel.
The trifecta+one of the power words of Advent, our simultaneously, systematically and mysteriously, timeless. When we lose our hope, we come as close as we ever do to losing everything. It is hopelessness that leads to war of one kind or another. But with hope we experience a kind of peace — the kind that we ultimately need. That kind of peace is what enables a kind of joy that confoundingly undermines our prevailing atmosphere of fear. And, it is from that base that our true capacity for something actually surprising can happen — love. To love ourselves, to love another, to love the world. This capacity — to make love — is ultimately what it means to love God.
And, it is in these dimensions of existence that we are able to move from the normalized condition of human fear that is isolated from reality to an open, embracing, joyful ability to both experience and distribute the love of God.
In the light of eternity, we’re here for a very short time, really. We’re here for one thing, ultimately: to learn how to love, because God is love. Love is our origin, love is our ground, and love is our destiny.
-- James Finley, Wisdom in Times of Crisis
Some of the greater hymns of the season have surely captured the essence of these core truths. Perhaps that is why when the words are combined with the melodies we often innately repeat this time of year, we sense something sublime, and we bow our knee in adoration of it…for such a miraculous depiction of the relationship we have with reality through God.
Even in the seeming slowness of waiting, the pace picks up speed as we near a destination.
At some point, people just can’t keep up, and the purveyors of fear know that.
Eventually, we realize that the goal is not to catch up or keep up — so, at some point, we have to ask what the goal really is.
Escaping the present by constantly anticipating the future may result in a different future than you imagine — if you don’t know how to live in the current present, how are you going to live in the next one?
Prior 3 Observations & A Question….
Vulnerability is the only authentic state. Being vulnerable means being open, for wounding, but also for pleasure. Being open to the wounds of life means also being open to the bounty and beauty. Don't mask or deny your vulnerability: it is your greatest asset.
-- Stephen Russell
At the end of the day, you are your own primary caregiver.
Someone else may join you and even help you in that task, for which you should be so grateful. But, it is not their primary responsibility to care for you. It is your responsibility to care for yourself (which, by the way, enables you to be that much better off, should someone else join you in your care, too).
Just like it is not somebody else’s job to make you grow (or prevent your poor choices); that, too, is primarily your job.
When we take ownership of our well-being, we not only receive the benefit of doing so, we also enable ourselves to be in a position to offer care to others.
For too many, consenting to this notion is not an insignificant first step. But, once accepted, the tasks involved in what this means can form a rather long list.
What all is involved in true self-care? What does it even mean to be healthy?
...it is not someone else's job to answer those questions.
In a world of misinformation, we need to have a sense of history and stay informed about what is true...and how we got here regarding things like the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Ever noticed...that, typically, we tend to presume that God needs to come ‘down’ (that God is somehow 'up' — above us…we look to the heavens, to a star, etc)?
Perhaps, this orientation helps us imagine something that we often feel we can’t quite reach here (on this plain). We need help and want or need something to come to us (Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel, Your Kingdom Come, etc).
Somehow, the direction of that coming seems important...to us.
We see in the original Gospel stories of Jesus’ birth that there’s really nothing pretty about the first Christmas. The only way human beings can understand spiritual things is that they have to be presented in physical, material form. We can’t get it otherwise. We have to see it and we have to touch it. How God comes into the world would also seem to be very important, as if to say to us: this is where God is to be found. The great question has always been, “What is God? Who is God? Where is this God hiding?” because initially, God isn’t really obvious to most people. The mystery we celebrate at Christmas is saying that the divine has chosen its hiding place in the world, and it’s in all material things. And that all becomes summed up now in the body of Jesus.
Where is this God being revealed? Not in the safe world, but at the edge, at the bottom, among those where we don’t want to find God, where we don’t look for God, where we don’t expect God. The way we’ve created Christianity, it seems like it’s all about being nice, pretty, middle class, “normal” and under the law. Here we have in the Gospel stories Jesus, Mary, and Joseph being none of those things. It might just be telling us we should be looking elsewhere.
-- Richard Rohr
The only way out of the rut of my mind is to get moving physically.
You can’t become somebody tomorrow that you’re not already today — whatever you want to be…needs to be discovered and cultivated now.
Art is a way of speaking to you — not always, of course, but when something is happening in you that lines up with something an artwork expresses…we say something like, "it really speaks to me".
If podcasts aren’t exactly church, what do we miss without church?
Prior 3 Observations & A Question….
'Poem for the week' -- "The Christic":
I am looking at a tree, but I see such astounding beauty and
graciousness, the tree must be You, O God,
I look at the wild weeds playing across the fields, and their
wild joyful freedom speaks to me of You, O God.
Yesterday, I saw a child crying alone on a busy corner, and
the tears were real, and I thought, you must be crying, O God.
God, you are the mystery within every leaf and grain of sand,
in every face, young and old, you are the light and beauty
of every person.
You are Love itself.
Will we ever learn our true meaning, our true identity?
Will we ever really know that we humans are created for
love?
For it is love alone that moves the sun and stars
and everything in between.
We are trying too hard to find You, but You are already here,
We are seeking life without You, but You are already within,
Our heads are in the sand, our eyes are blinded by darkness,
our minds are disoriented in our desperate search
for meaning.
Because You are not what we think You are:
You are mystery.
You are here and You are not,
You are me and You are not,
You are now and You are not,
You are what we will become.
You are the in-between mystery
The infinite potential of infinite love,
And it is not yet clear what You shall be,
For we shall become something new together.
-- Ilia Delio
I can’t seem to get into Christmas this year.
Come to think of it, I felt this way last year, too.
And, then it happened. It snuck up on me.
The normal seasonal activities just don’t seem to tip the scale for me anymore. Their magic doesn’t work. Am I just getting old and cynical or does the over-the-topness of it all now just bury the truly energizing substance of it?
Maybe, though, it isn’t really just me? Maybe it’s the consumption and marketing orientation of it all that sucks the life out of its meaning. Never-ending power ballads (even on the best of the season’s songs), in the end, seem to make one just more tired than inspired.
There is a certain poverty about the core message of Christmas that makes part of its dimensionality so rich. But, that seems to be the very part of it that is overcome by the glitz and tinsel of which it has become.
Sometimes I wonder if I really can blame it fully on external factors, though. I feel a niggling of something telling me that it is more about something internal than simply external forces. Should that be possible, I wonder about what factors I'm working with (or not) that essentially dim my awareness of things, including the real essence of what is involved in things like Christmas. To that end, identifying what I'm giving attention to seems helpful (if not wise).
Either way, I will likely still try to see if the cookies, my favorite egg nog, or a late-night candle while listening to a favorite carol will do the trick. More than once, though, I've discovered that what I really need has been sitting beside me the whole time...waiting for me. In other words, it didn't move as much as I did. So, I've learned that I just need to direct my attention, be patient with such things, and wait for my encounter with the real spirit of it all.
Perhaps, it is this posture anyway that makes it work...whenever it does.
Besides attention and waiting, note other suggestions (at bottom)...here.
I'm wondering...if reality is awareness.
What are you aware of? Why are you aware of that?
Is the journey of our lives primarily about the degree to which we are becoming increasingly aware?
If we give the benefit of the doubt; of what, then? Aware of what?
…of what is actually real?
Don’t believe every worried thought you have. Worried thoughts are notoriously inaccurate.
-- Renee Jain
Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there — buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.
-- Deepak Chopra
Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.
-- Wayne Dyer
The Holy Spirit is looking to essentially flow into our lives, take whatever is left of us, and reassemble it into something that can become our unique gift to the world.
-- Adam Bucko
