Is It Possible? (09-30-15 part II)

Use the very distractions to remind you of the priorities.

For one thing, as the story suggests, Enoch was drawn into a closer relationship with God in the midst of being a father. He was able to use his family relationships to remind himself about God.

Those who are parents understand this potential dynamic. As you watch your children grow, and as you feel your own tenderness in your heart for your children, you can’t help but be in awe of the experience of unconditional love. You recognize how much you value and love your children, no matter what they do. And as you see how resilient children can be—even when you might be mean or unloving toward them at times, they bounce back in love toward you—their unconditional love melts your own heart. The possibility of understanding God’s unconditional love increases and grows.

And so it’s possible, little by little, to use our natural family relationships (or loving, trusting relationships with significant others) to point our own hearts toward God, to let our own hearts be melted by the love and grace of God. When we make those deliberate connections between the earthly and the divine, our loyalty and attention to God can be strengthened and purified, we become more undivided and single-minded.

Is it Possible? Part I

Is It Possible? (09-29-15 part I)

So how is it possible to have a pure heart in the middle of the competing demands on our attention every day, most of which are necessary or good? Is a pure heart really possible in the 21st century?

There’s a fascinating biography in the Old Testament that describes this spiritual possibility. The story of this man’s life is told in only six verses, the first four being in Genesis 5. “When Enoch was 65 years old, he had a son named Methuselah. After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God 300 years more and had other sons and daughters. So Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked with God; one day Enoch could not be found because God took him.” (Genesis 5:21-24)

Imagine having that kind of longevity! There’s a guy with good genes! Of course, according to Bible history, people in those days lived a long time—consider that his son Methuselah ended up living for 969 years—but that is another story. The point is, life was very long in those days. So imagine the dynamics of trying to live a spiritual, God-connected life for that long. As the story states about Enoch, there were several “modern-day” realities he faced during his life.

He had family obligations as a father and husband. So you know his life was filled with things screaming for his attention every day. Also, he lived at a time when the world was incredibly evil. In fact, the next story (Genesis 6) goes on to describe the world being so wicked that God has to step in and intervene lest the population destroy itself. So you can imagine Enoch’s long life is filled with all kinds of attention-getters beckoning for his heart and mind.

But in the midst of all of these focus-grabbers, says the story, Enoch walked with God. What does that mean? How does he do it? The New Testament talks about Enoch this way: “Before Enoch was taken, the Scripture says that he was a man who truly pleased God.” (Hebrews 11:5)

How did Enoch please God? Was he completely sinless in his life, never making any mistakes or having any failures so God was happy with him? The next verse puts it this way: “Without faith it is impossible to please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that God is real and that God rewards those who truly want to find him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

In other words, the secret to Enoch’s walk with God, his spirituality, is that he learned how to place God in the center of his heart. He was willing to place his trust and belief in God. He truly wanted to find God and enjoy his relationship with God. That fact that the original story in Genesis uses the word “walked” with God implies going on a journey with God. In other words, Enoch takes God with him into every aspect of his life. Everywhere Enoch goes, God goes with him. Enoch is conscious of God in everything he does. Enoch believes that God is real and so places God at the center, allowing that priority to affect every other demand on his life.

The Jews have a tradition called “mezuzah.” On the right side of every Jewish doorpost is nailed a small piece of parchment rolled and inserted into a wood, metal, stone, or ceramic case called a mezuzah. On the front of the parchment are lettered the twenty-two lines of the Shema, the Hebrew prayer from the Torah about God being the only God and that they will worship God with all their heart, mind, soul and body. The Hebrew word “Shaddai” (God Almighty) is inscribed on the back in such a way that it can be seen from the outside. As people go in and out the door, they touch the mezuzah, sometimes then touching their lips in a “kiss,” as a visible reminder of what they want to focus their lives on.

This mezuzah was a ritual code that said to everyone entering and leaving that home, “As for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.” Touching of the mezuzah and saying this prayer serve as regular reminders of who they belong to and what place they want God to occupy in their lives.

Enoch figured out meaningful and powerful ways to “mezuzah” his world, ways to help him grow his own soul and spirituality by “modulating the mundane into the eternal.” One author, in writing about the life of Enoch, commented: “The infinite, unfathomable love of God became the subject of Enoch’s meditations day and night; and with all the fervor of his soul he sought to reveal that love to the people among whom he dwelt.” (White, p. 84)

How did he do that in practical, tangible ways? How did he develop this perspective and experience with God?

A Pure Heart (09-28-15)

This is also a profound and powerful spiritual principle. Jesus made the statement, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) The Hebrew word for “pure” (on which Jesus builds this saying) is used to describe things like liquids without mixtures (for example, milk or wine unadulterated with water); things like metals without alloys, an army without defectors, grain that has been sifted and cleansed of chaff, a person free of debt, and a sacrificial animal without blemish or defect. “Pure.” In other words, the word means unmixed, unadulterated, undistorted, undivided, completely focused.

What’s Jesus’ point? One Bible translation defines purity as single-mindedness. “Blessed are they who are not double-minded, for they shall be admitted into the intimate presence of God.” Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian and statesman, defined it this way: “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” In the context of this saying by Jesus, what is that one thing? God.

Here’s the point: you only see what you have in your heart. So if you want to see God, you have to have God in your heart and mind. Only those with a single-minded focus and passion to know God will be able to connect with God. The pure in heart.

Jesus was probably quoting from the Old Testament when He spoke those words. The book of songs called Psalms says, “Who may go up on the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy Temple?” (Psalm 24:3-4) In other words, this question is really, Who is able to have access to God’s presence? Who will really see God?

The passage continues: “Only those with clean hands and pure hearts.” (Verse 4) Sounds like a saying of Jesus. But what does it mean? Is this suggesting that only those who are sinless, who have attained to a perfect moral purity, who never make mistakes, will be able to see God?

Notice how the parallelism in this verse defines that phrase: “Only those with clean hands and pure hearts, who have not worshiped idols, who have not made promises in the name of a false god.” (Verse 4)

What’s the point? A pure heart is one that is devoted singularly to God. It’s one that has no idols or competitors to God set up to take God’s place. It’s a heart which refuses to allow distractions to block a view of God. Seeking God is the number one priority and passion.

And what is the promise in this Psalm for the pure heart? “They will receive a blessing from the Lord; the God who saves them will declare them right.” (Verse 5) In other words, they have the privilege of enjoying intimacy with God, a right and good relationship with God. They see God for who God really is because nothing is allowed to distract their view. And therefore they have the joy of enjoying God. Their spirituality is alive and well and healthy and growing.

You won’t see birds in your yard until you have birds in your heart. You only see what you have in your heart. Only the single-minded focus for God will facilitate an experience with God.

John Ogilvie (author and spiritual leader) once met a man who earned his living as what he called an attention getter. That caught John’s interest. “What do you mean?” John asked.

The man replied, “My job is to get the attention of the American people. I’m an advertising executive. It’s my task to use everything I can – media, print, billboards – to impress people with the absolute necessity of buying the products I promote.”

So he, along with his entire industry, pours billions of dollars every year into whatever it takes to secure the public’s riveted attention. If they can capture attention, they can capture the sale. That’s why companies are willing to spend millions of dollars for a 30 second advertisement on Super Bowl Sunday, or $2 million for 30 seconds on the final episode of Jerry Seinfeld. It is a fundamental principle: What captures your attention can capture your heart and then capture your response.

A group of businessmen were talking over breakfast one morning about the one thing in their lives which made it difficult to be faithful and growing spiritually. The last man to share cut to the core: “I have too many commitments competing for my attention and my ultimate commitment. I’m going in a hundred directions. I end up thinking about God and my spirituality only in a crisis.”

What difficulty is he describing? Distracted attention; a lack of priority focus; a double mindedness. In other words, his heart isn’t “pure,” it’s not single-minded, focused and undivided in its passion for spiritual things. And since we see only what’s in our hearts, no wonder it’s so often difficult to see God or pay attention to our spirituality, the deepest core values of our lives, in the midst of day-to-day living.

Influences on Your Spirituality (09-25-15)

Newsweek magazine reported on a statue that sits in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s a three-foot statue of Cupid in a courtyard fountain. Thousands of people walk by it every day. Many admire its beauty, but most don’t pay much attention.

Then an art professor, on her way home from work one evening, stopped to look more closely at it and made an amazing discovery. This Cupid statue was in fact a work of art created by none other than Michelangelo himself, the great 15th century artist. This incredible art treasure had been missing from the art world for 90 years. Thousands of people had been walking by it every day, but no one recognized it as a valuable treasure, until one person looked more closely at it. What made the difference?

John Burroughs was one of America’s best-loved naturalists. In simple style, his books convey his avid enthusiasm and vast knowledge of nature. One day, Burroughs was visiting a neighbor friend. She was familiar with his writings and particularly impressed with his knowledge of birds. As they sat on her front porch, she asked him, “Why is it, John, that there are so many birds at your place, but I have no birds at all in my yard? Do I need to build some special kinds of bird houses and plant some bushes and trees that attract birds? What’s your secret?”

Burroughs smiled. For the last 15 minutes he’d been watching all sorts of birds flutter in her bushes, land in her shrubs and trees. He replied, “You won’t see birds in your yard until you have birds in your heart.”

Another story is told of a naturalist and his friend walking down a city street. The naturalist stopped suddenly and said, “Listen to that cricket!”

His friend was amazed. “All this city racket, and you can hear a cricket?” “Oh, you can hear what you ears are attuned to,” said the naturalist. He pulled a tiny, thin dime out of his pocket and dropped it on the sidewalk. All around them, people stopped and turned their way.

People do not hear the crickets or see the birds, but money? Oh, yes! What makes the difference? You see only what you have in your heart. That’s why the art professor discovered Michelangelo’s invaluable statue but not the thousands of others who walked by every day. She had art in her heart, so she saw art on the street. That’s why John Burroughs saw the birds that were invisible to the woman, and the naturalist heard the cricket. You see what you have in your heart.

Faith – Conclusion (09-24-15)

A Sunday school teacher said to her children, “We have been learning how powerful kings and queens were in Bible times. But, there is a higher power. Can anybody tell me what it is?” One child blurted out, “Aces!”

You can see how significant a person’s worldview is in shaping a helpful response to life. This child had no background or understanding of biblical history. So when the words “kings and queens” were used, the immediate context that came to mind was poker. And, admittedly, for some people, the rules that operate poker (the ability to count the cards played, to know what the deck is made of, etc.) comprise their “higher power.”

Your view of the “higher power” does indeed shape your faith. What is your ultimate “Ace”? And what are the rules of the game so that when you have the Ace you win?

Getting a Faith Upgrade (09-23-15)

Faith is a journey, a process that continues through all of life. Our choice is to decide whether or not our faith is serving us and others well. So here are some strategies to upgrade your faith.

1. Evaluate your faith regularly. Set aside times to assess your faith. Ask yourself the questions presented in my previous blog “Evaluating Your Faith” periodically (perhaps in the context of a personal retreat; or take a question every day and spend 15-30 minutes reflecting on your answers). Faith that isn’t re-evaluated becomes toxic or static or unusable. If faith is your personal worldview, and the world is constantly changing, then it becomes mandatory to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your faith often.

How does God or your picture of God fit into a changing world? How does your current faith respond to the challenges and crises of a changing world; is it adequate? Are the perspectives and answers of your current faith meaningful and effective in helping you and others navigate the ever-undulating journey of life?

2. Read and reflect deeply. Reading Sacred Scriptures helps to fine-tune and shape our worldview and our faith in God. We must continually expose ourselves to the deep faith of other people, people who seem to possess a faith that makes a difference in their lives and in the world. We must expose ourselves to the rich sacred literature of spiritual giants through the centuries, men and women who have developed purposeful and meaningful faith, who have wrestled with the deep and difficult questions of life, God and the world.

The New Testament makes the statement, “By beholding, we become changed.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) That’s a hugely significant human process. Life change and transformation (which includes our faith journey) comes by contemplating, reflecting upon, thinking about the highest values of life. And in that scriptural context, the author is talking about the dynamic of Godlikeness, becoming transformed into the character of God by looking at Jesus who manifested God so completely. The spiritual principle is that we become like that which we spend time observing.

Another New Testament faith development principle suggests this dynamic: faith comes by hearing the words of God (Romans 10:17). In other words, according to this sacred example, if one’s faith centers around belief in a personal God, then that faith is grown and deepened by spending time listening to the words of God, reflecting on them, and allowing them to penetrate the heart and mind and soul. Sacred Scriptures in every religion provide one of the resources for encountering the words of God.

The New Testament book called “Hebrews” has a chapter (11) often referred to as the “faith chapter.” It tells abbreviated stories of many of the faith heroes in biblical history and what constitutes their faith. These are great biographies of people who wrestled with God and life, who struggled to build and maintain faith in the midst of crisis and suffering, doubts and uncertainties, who experienced spectacular failures as well as successes, who were at times both faithless and faithful. These stories (the more complete versions are told in the Old Testament) are powerful resources to building your own faith journey in the real world.

So if you want to build your faith (upgrade it), do you have a regular time set aside to do spiritual reading and reflection on that reading? Are you willing to immerse your mind, heart and soul in those words from people who have journeyed before you and who have encountered the struggles of faith that have often resulted in a deepening of their faith?

Are you willing to expose yourself to contrasting points of view about faith from people or sources you perhaps haven’t always agreed with in the past, to challenge your current worldview, your current faith perspectives? Iron sharpens iron. Either that exposure will help to deepen your current faith or it will expose flaws and weakness or inadequacies in your current faith so you can reshape and reform and make more effective your faith life.

3. Develop faith-building relationships. Faith is a relational experience. Spirituality is most effectively shaped and built in the context of supportive and mutual relationships. As one psychiatrist said, “There are two things in life you cannot do alone: be spiritual and be married.”

So whom do you have in your life that is journeying with you and supporting you along your faith path? Who is there that you trust with whom you can talk, raise doubts and questions, share your deepest fears and wonderings, bounce thoughts and ideas off of; people who can be supportive of your personal journey, people whose own lives can help transform yours, people who might not only share your beliefs but who might also challenge yours, and people with whom you can do the same?

Faith, for it to be genuine, helpful, and based upon reality and truth, must be upgraded. The world is too complex and ever-changing for an old “operating system” to be effective. The basis of your faith might never change. But the details and dynamics and way you live it out in order for your life to be meaningful and significant to yourself and others might need to.

Evaluating Your Faith (09-22-15)

So let’s go back to the definition of faith we’ve been working with. “Faith is a state of relative certainty about matters of ultimate concern sufficient to promote action.”

Faith is our basic operating system, our worldview of how life operates, where the connecting points between the divine and human exist and what they imply about how to live life in the now and here-after. We all have a basic faith. So the process of healthy living is to evaluate that worldview as time goes on to make sure it’s based on as much reality as possible and that it works itself out as effectively as possible in today’s world. The truth is, we need regular “upgrades.”

So how does that part work? Unlike our computers, where we receive information about operating system upgrades as often as they come out on the market, in our faith life we don’t necessarily receive those advertisements. But perhaps they do come to us in different forms and equally frequent?

Here are some questions to ask yourself regularly as an evaluation of your need to upgrade your faith:

1. Does your current worldview adequately answer some of the basic questions of life such as: Where have I come from? What is my purpose in the world? Where am I going ultimately? How do I explain evil and suffering in the world? Does that explanation make sense to those who are suffering? Does it provide a modicum of comfort and hope?

2. Does your current worldview give you courage and strength to face the difficulties of life? Does it give you a reason to live, even when the going gets tough? Does it give empowerment to others going through difficulties?

3. Does your current worldview prompt you to an active life of compassion, justice and service to others? Does it reinforce the human core value of equal rights and respect for all? And does that empower you to treat all others in harmony with those values? Does your current worldview center around the highest core values of what it means to be human? Does it bring out the best in you and others?

4. Does your current worldview shape you into a person that people enjoy being around? Does it give you a humble confidence in who you are and what you’re all about? Does it make you approachable to people who are uncertain about themselves or life in general? Does it make you a person who listens well?

5. Does your current worldview empower you to face death with confidence, no regrets, and peace?

6. Does your current worldview leave open the possibility of God? If so, how you describe God? If not, what do you replace the God-factor with?

If you answer no to any of these questions, or if your answers are a bit hazy or incomplete, then you would benefit from a faith upgrade. So how does a faith upgrade take place most effectively? 

The Elements of Healthy Faith (09-21-15)

So what is “good faith”? What are the characteristics of a healthy attitude of believing?

1. Good faith is humble, teachable, and inquisitive. If I am aware of how contingent and limited my knowledge is, how can I be proud about how much I know? How can I look down on someone else for knowing less? Isn’t pride—the sense of certainty that I am right and superior and don’t need to learn or listen—the greatest possible barrier to faith?  In this way, isn’t religious pride the most hideous sin imaginable—because it is incredibly dangerous—and ridiculous? If there is a God, wouldn’t good faith begin by humbling oneself before God, acknowledging one’s ignorance and asking for guidance and enlightenment?

If I am appropriately humble, isn’t it possible that anyone can become my teacher, from a little child to a mental patient, from a sage of old to a comedian of today? Isn’t an open mind, eager to learn, the essence of good faith (as it is of good science)? Aren’t yesterday’s certainties sometimes the enemies of tomorrow’s faith, since we’ll be tempted to say, “The old wine is good enough; I don’t need any new wine”? Shouldn’t humble, childlike inquisitiveness by characteristic of good faith, since I’m young, new here, with an awful lot to learn? Wouldn’t it make sense to ask God my questions and see if any answers are forthcoming?

2. Good faith is grateful. If I reach some conclusions as I humbly and teachably continue on my quest, some working hypotheses to base future experiments upon, shouldn’t I be grateful for them? Even if they are only a few very basic things, such as “God exists and loves me and wants me to imitate God by loving everything God loves,” aren’t these few basic things very precious and worth celebrating? Even if I can’t claim to comprehend (or grasp completely) everything, can’t I acknowledge that I have at least apprehended some things (having at least touched them, come into contact with them, begun to experience them)? And rather than being pulled up by this “knowledge,” shouldn’t I be grateful to God and others for helping me learn what I’ve learned, being sure not to close myself off to further learning?

3. Good faith is honest. Shouldn’t I feel free to be as accurate as I can about what I am relatively sure about and relatively unsure about? Shouldn’t good faith feel free to express both doubt and confidence, neither overstating nor understating its level of certainty? Shouldn’t I abhor dishonesty, since it clouds the already difficult search for truth? Shouldn’t I seek to honestly acknowledge and remove my own blind spots before critiquing others about theirs? Shouldn’t I be as honest about the weaknesses of myself, my faith, and my community of faith as I would want others to be about theirs?

4. Good faith is communal. Since my individual understanding is so limited, don’t I need connection with a group of trusted companions, so we can help and encourage one another in our common search for faith, God and truth? Don’t I especially need friends – a faith community – who will gently confront me when they see me losing these qualities of good faith? And just as I value highly my cohorts in my faith community, don’t I also need honest, humble dialogue with people of other groups (religions, ideologies, parties, denominations, and so forth), since they may see things I and we are missing, and vice versa? And shouldn’t humility and teachability prompt me to include in my faith community people from the past, so I can learn from the writings and art of the great sages through history? Granted, we don’t want coercion and pressure, but don’t we need mutual encouragement and support from other seekers past and present, in our spiritual search?

5. Good faith is active. If I apprehend what I believe to be truth, am I not obligated to live by it? Shouldn’t I abhor apathy (not acting on my beliefs), hypocrisy (covertly acting contrary to my beliefs), inconsistency (overtly acting contrary to my beliefs) just as I abhor dishonesty? Shouldn’t my pursuit of truth be “hot” rather than “lukewarm,” suggesting a hunger and thirst for more truth, rather than complacency about what I believe I have already found? And if I believe the search for truth and faith and God are indeed important, shouldn’t I sensitively try to influence others (who are open to my influence because I have earned their respect) to take steps forward in their own search, always without coercion?

6. Good faith is tough. How much is an easy, untested faith worth? If faith brings all benefits and no costs, how can we be sure our belief is an honest pursuit of truth and goodness, as opposed to a pursuit of benefits? If my faith always gains respect and compliments, and never rejection or misunderstanding, might I not just be a believer out of social convenience? My faith may feel strong today, but how will it fare under tomorrow’s tragedy, depression, disappointment, or delay? When money is tight or when money is flowing freely, when friends are few, when temptations are enticing, when patience is thin, when I’m in the middle of a project and the end seems to elude me, will I abandon my faith? Is a faith that doesn’t cost me anything worthy anything? Is a faith any good that doesn’t challenge me to do good and become better, even when I don’t feel like it?

7. Good faith is relational. If I believe there is a personal God behind (and with) the universe, shouldn’t my search for truth in God’s universe begin with an acknowledgement of my relationship with God? In other words, given my personal limitations and the limitations of human knowledge, wouldn’t it make sense to live in dependence on God to help me learn and search fruitfully, to live with expectancy and hope that God will in some way be my teacher and guide? Wouldn’t my relationship with God thus become the basis or context for my search for truth? And shouldn’t I consider what loyalties and responsibilities are incumbent upon me as a party in this relationship with God?

And if I can’t quite wrap my mind and heart around the idea of a personal God, shouldn’t I be open to experiencing the highest values of life in the context of meaningful relationships with others, recognizing that the core human experience is relational; that the best of human life is experienced in the context of loving, supportive relationships; that good, healthy faith is forged most effectively and productively within healthy relationships?

Characteristics of Bad Faith (09-18-15)

Sometimes it is helpful to see what something is not in order to more clearly understand what it is. What does “faith” look like that doesn’t stand up under closer scrutiny or doesn’t lead to positive, helpful action and empowerment for life in the most meaningfully possible ways. Bad faith is a version of faith that affects the operating system in negative and unhelpful ways. It either collapses when confronted with new information or perspectives or it is abandoned because it does not provide meaning or significance when a person is evaluating changes in life. Bad faith is faith that does not “work” in the real world. It does not stand up to the scrutiny of life issues and challenges and crises.

1. Bad faith is based solely on unquestioned authority. In other words, in bad faith a person believes simply because an authority figure or structure tells them to. They don’t think for themselves. They don’t question. They comply, thoughtlessly believing what they’re told to believe. This “faith” is never internalized. It simply lies on the surface of the mind or heart because they never had a part in the process of developing it, they just received it from another source. It was never truly owned.

This kind of faith is easily abandoned or rejected when another authority comes along with what appears to be a stronger argument or more persuasive reason. The Bible calls this kind of person “a reed blowing in the wind.”

2. Bad faith is based on pressure or coercion. People in religious communities and organizations can be susceptible to this approach to faith. Even in our culture, we are so used to the subtle “tyranny of the majority” that we seldom buck it. Madison Avenue (with all its slick advertisements telling us what we must have and why we must have what they’re selling) has created a culture of consumerism. People watch, buy, use, and discard mindlessly, never evaluating the true need, the issues behind the need, and how what we buy contributes or doesn’t contribute to the diverse range of global challenges. We are all largely unaware of the ways the groups and cultures in which we participate pressure us to conform and chastise us when we rattle the cage.

To the extent that a religion or ideology operates in the same way, it is not real faith. Faith cannot function in that kind of mindless atmosphere. Faith cannot be pressured or coerced for it to be genuine and real. Faith must be allowed to emerge in freedom and encouragement for it to become real and genuine and ultimately meaningful.

3. Bad faith often exploits the psychological need for belonging. Maybe no one is coercing me to believe, but if I am so desperate to belong that I will claim to believe anything the desired in-group requires of me, how can my faith be authentic? I must regularly evaluate my motives for believing. What is motivating me? What internal needs am I trying to fill? Who am I trying to please and why?

4. Bad faith appeals to self-interest and base motives. There are some evangelists who have actually offered financial incentives to people to attend their events. (You get paid for coming and staying through the whole meeting.) That is very blatant. More subtly, some churches use the promise of wealth, health, revenge, power, pain avoidance or easy solutions to all life’s problems to attract people to their church. Or they use fear and guilt to motivate belief and faith.

But the sad truth is, belief and faith based upon the desire to become rich, popular, comfortable, or to avoid hell or God’s displeasure and so on, with no real desire for the true, the good, or the beautiful, is not genuine faith. Jesus described that kind of faith as a house built upon sand instead of rock. When the storm comes, the house collapses.

5. Bad faith is arrogant and unteachable. When a person takes pride in feeling “right” and rewards himself with a sense of superiority, when his faith puts him in a high and mighty posture to look down in judgment on others, it’s hard to feel that we’re dealing with good faith. When the religious indulge in spiritual status-seeking—Look at how much I give! Notice how much I suffer! Aren’t you impressed with my knowledge, my piety, my zeal.—their desire for attention seems even more disgusting than those who parade their material wealth in a quest for social status. That know-it-all spiritual attitude; that pretended certainty that makes one talk, talk, talk, but never listen; that obnoxious “you can’t teach me anything I don’t already know” spirit; that “I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude; these traits are ugly in the irreligious, pathetic in the religious.

6. Bad faith is dishonest. Faith with integrity is faith that admits you don’t have all the answers. It’s faith that is honest with the evidence as far as is possible. It is faith that upholds the highest human values like equality for all, justice and compassion for every human being, respect for life and the natural environment.

When I continue to recite the “party line” even when that “line” goes against those highest human values, how can I have integrity? Bad faith puts more emphasis on image and perception than on truth and openness.

7. Bad faith is apathetic. Since genuine faith inspires action, if a person’s faith produces no action, it cannot be healthy and good. If he or she cannot say that their faith makes a difference in making the world a better place, if they would behave just as they do without their faith, then their faith is bad faith, if it is faith at all.

“Sometimes this lack of action is covered by a surplus of talk,” writes McLaren. “Sometimes the jargon flows thick, like lots of strawberry jelly on moldy bread. Sometimes people substitute the active life of faith with the fascinating lore of faith, terminology, facts, opinions on religious esoterica, and so forth. This immersion in words no doubt positions them well to win at religious ‘Trivial Pursuit,’ but that’s about it. Who is fooled by the barrage of words besides the talker himself?”

8. Bad faith is a step backward. If a person adopts a faith given to them by a religious organization in order to be told what to think, believe and do, that faith is really an excuse for immaturity. If a person is overwhelmed by advances in science, by complexities in ethics, by gray areas in their personal life, and they throw themselves into a religion that tells them easy answers so they don’t have to think for themselves, their religiosity is an excuse for fear or laziness, not a motivation for growth and courage. “Good faith ought to produce good fruit; I ought to become a better person for holding it. A faith that makes me less loving, mature, wise, alive, or responsible sounds to me like bad faith.” (McLaren, pp. 34-38) Healthy people don’t step backward or down; they only step forward or up. Healthy faith acknowledges both the mysteries of life and the certainties of life and can live with some ambiguity and uncertainty. Healthy faith embraces a both/and paradigm rather than an either/or. Healthy faith acknowledges areas of weakness and courageously works at bringing as much resolution and growth as possible. And then lives with what can’t be changed.

It is often the case that a person who says they have rejected faith has in fact been turned sour by another person’s or group’s example of bad faith. Lack of integrity and honesty and authenticity among people who claim to have faith are strong determinants for how people respond to faith at all. The great spiritual need of this world is for good faith exhibited by honest people.

Defining Faith (09-17-15)

Brian McLaren, in his book Finding Faith, provides an intriguing definition of faith: “Faith is a state of relative certainty about matters of ultimate concern sufficient to promote action.” He breaks down this definition into four parts:

1. A state. Faith is a condition we find ourselves more or less “in.” It’s the context in which we feel and experience and think about everything in life. It includes data—propositions, ideas, specific beliefs—that form an intellectual framework, a paradigm, in which all other phenomena take place and by which they are evaluated. It is a person’s worldview; how they look at life and how they interpret what they observe and experience in life.

An analogy of the computer might be helpful. The operating system of the computer is the “state” in which the computer operates. It provides the foundation and framework upon and within which all the operations of the computer occur. Faith is, in this analogy, the operating system of the computer. It is the state or condition or system a person operates in. That is not to say it is “static” or changeless, though. Genuine faith continually self-modifies, like an operating system that continually upgrades.

So using this analogy of the computer operating system, we would say that everyone grows up with faith, a framework and foundation in which to interpret life. A lot of this is determined by what family a person is born into, the influences a person experiences as a child, and what exposure to the rest of the world a person has. Everyone has this faith.

But even as it is important to upgrade the computer operating system to include new and more useful features to meet the ever-changing technological advancements and needs, so our faith must continually be re-evaluated and “upgraded” to meet the diversity and growth and dynamic nature of life. We’ll talk about how to do this later.

2. Relative certainty. The reality is that there is very little in this world that we can face with absolute, unquestioned certainty. Even the best, most brilliant scientists face their explorations with a degree of awe, humility and sense of mystery. Spirituality is no different. We don’t have all the answers and those who try to convince people that they do are misguided and arrogant. So we acknowledge our predicament: that we have to function in relative certainty which always includes relative uncertainty. Genuine faith acknowledges this reality.

3. Matters of ultimate concern. Faith is involved with the core values of life, universal principles, those issues that go to the heart of human existence such as meaning, purpose, destiny, process, origins. We aren’t simply talking about mathematical equations or scientific formulas or, as Brian McLaren puts it, the middle name of the vice president or the cost of green beans at the grocery store. “Matters of ultimate concern” refer to how we live our lives, make our decisions, solve our moral dilemmas, face death and the possibility of an afterlife for ourselves and other people, how we cope with suffering and loss, how we decide whether life is worth living or not, etc.

Faith is the worldview that informs those kinds of conversations, decisions and paradigms. It’s a way to describe our perspective on reality, the truth of our world as we see it. This kind of faith isn’t satisfied with make-believe or pretending or fantasy. It’s a serious search for truth and reality as far as is possible, not simply accepting things that are “nice” or make us feel good. As iron sharpens iron, so genuine faith is willing to be shaped and molded and sharpened by exposure to alternative views and paradigms, willing to be engaged in exploration and discussion and challenge and questioning. The goal of faith’s search is to find the most universal truths and intents for what is real and true “in here” (subjectively) and “out there” (objectively). Anything less than that is “bad” faith.

4. Sufficient to promote action. The ultimate goal of faith is action. If a professed belief or paradigm of life (worldview) is not sufficient to promote action, then it would better be called an opinion or idea or concept. We may hold it as data in our memory banks, but it does not constitute part of our operating system. If an idea (say, for example, that God exists) doesn’t promote action (say, to search for God or pray or monitor one’s own moral behavior or love one’s neighbor), it isn’t genuine faith at all, it’s just an idea.

So the question is: How much certainty is sufficient to qualify as faith? The answer revolves around whether or not that understanding of reality empowers a person to act on it, to lean into it, to engage life from within it. Faith that leads to action is genuine faith.

One of the ways to evaluate whether the faith a person claims to have is helpful or not is to perhaps evaluate the kind of action that it prompts. If that faith empowers one to act in harmony with the universal principles of love and compassion and service to others, than that faith is based upon a meaningful world view (assuming that love and compassion and service are truly life-enhancing universal principles). And most people of faith would make that assumption.

What is Faith and How Do I Get? 09-16-15

The teacher in a children’s Sunday school class asked what faith was. A little boy raised his and said, “Faith is believin’ what you know ain’t true.”

Many people have that concept of faith. Faith is the opposite of reason. It’s that special something that helps you hang on in spite of the evidence or in the face of no evidence, contrary to what reasonable people know. Faith is what you turn to when knowledge runs out. It is what you need when beliefs and knowledge conflict.

Nine-year-old Joey was asked by his mother what he had learned in Sunday school. “Well, Mom, our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind enemy lines on a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his army build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked across safely. Then he radioed headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers to blow up the bridge and all the Israelites were saved.”

“Now, Joey, is that really what your teacher taught you?” his mother asked.

“Well, no, Mom. But if I told it the way the teacher did, you’d never believe it!”

This is the way many people approach life; if something doesn’t make sense, then faith steps in and rewords reality so that we have something to hang on to, something to still believe in. Faith is believing something you know isn’t true, the big leap across the chasm of the unknown, the big jump no matter what the evidence. But is this genuine faith?

Signs of God’s Future (Part III 09-15-15)

Not every Christian believes in some of the popularized Christian notions of an eternal lake of fire, the annihilation of all creation (rather than purification by fire), etc. But in closing (and perhaps this is the place we should start with some individuals) here are some ways you can suggest to your friend that she might sense, in N.T. Wright’s memorable phrase, “echoes of a voice.” This voice speaks about the way the world should be.

3. Community: Like justice and beauty, relationship—the longing for community—is an “echo of a voice.” And, like beauty and justice, relationships are not uncomplicated. Indeed, they are perhaps one of the most complicated features of being human. But this is also an echo. We were created for each other, to live for something beyond ourselves.

There is a deep longing in the human heart to know and be known. This is confused with lust and sex. People end up exploited and broken, but the longing for true love—the love and be loved—is undeniable, and points toward a reality that, once again, lives just out of reach.

Much more could be said about all three of these categories, whether through public speaking, lecture, small group or one-to-one conversation, about the way the world ought to be. This sense of how the world ought to be is a sign of the eternal that God has placed in every heart.

Intuitively we know that humanity has a destiny; that we were created for more than our own selfish pleasure. This intuition is an opportunity to introduce people to what the Bible says God has in mind for creation, a plan to restore God’s whole creation to its original beauty and to eradicate sin and pain and brokenness once and for all.

Signs of God’s Future (Part II 09-14-15)

Not every Christian believes in some of the popularized Christian notions of an eternal lake of fire, the annihilation of all creation (rather than purification by fire), etc. But in closing (and perhaps this is the place we should start with some individuals) here are some ways you can suggest to your friend that she might sense, in N.T. Wright’s memorable phrase, “echoes of a voice.” This voice speaks about the way the world should be.

2. Beauty: Another “echo” is in the realm of beauty. N.T. Wright writes, “This is the position we are in when confronted by beauty. The world is full of beauty, but the beauty is incomplete. Our puzzlement about what beauty is, what it means, and what (if anything) it is there for is the inevitable result of looking at one part of a larger whole. Beauty, in other words, is another echo of a voice—a voice which (from the evidence before us) might be saying one of several different things, but which, were we to hear it in all its fullness, would make sense of what we presently see and hear and know and love and call ‘beautiful.’” (Wright, 2006, p. 40)

The beauty that we see in the world—in people, relationships, nature, music, art, children—is not equal to God or even necessarily an accurate picture of God. Just as a desire for justice sometimes misdirects people into violence (one of the great paradoxes), so beauty fades and misleads, because it is incomplete.

But the point that can be perceived is that in the mind of the Creator, the original masterpiece still exists. Though we don’t see the complete picture—just shadows—the beauties we perceive around us are like signposts, pointing to something greater. And they point to the beauty that will one day arrive when God the Creator rescues, heals, restores and completes the beautiful creation.

Signs of God’s Future (09-11-15)

These preceding sections are background material about some ways of approaching eschatology that may help you communicate about this important topic with a secular person or one with a postmodern worldview, a person who is incredibly suspicious of end-of-the-world scenarios. So, rather than emphasize a view of the end of time which is focused on getting one’s self out of here safely and to a “better place,” you can speak about God’s “ends” in terms of healing a broken creation and our privilege to be a part of this process by working for justice, peace and fairness in the world.

But even this may be too advanced a place for a person to begin. What if the person to whom you are speaking seems to have no basis for understanding God whatsoever? Imagine that your friend is a self-professed atheist but is nevertheless interested in why you believe that there is a God. More to the point, let’s say your friend is curious about two specific things. First, she wants to know, “Why do you believe that your God, who you say created a perfect world but somehow let the whole thing fall apart, wants to destroy the whole thing in an apocalyptic ball of fire?” Second, she wants to know what this belief has to do with the reality of life today.

You have some resources above to suggest that not every Christian believes in some of the popularized Christian notions of an eternal lake of fire, the annihilation of all creation (rather than purification by fire), etc. But in closing (and perhaps this is the place we should start with some individuals) here are some ways you can suggest to your friend that she might sense, in N.T. Wright’s memorable phrase, “echoes of a voice.” This voice speaks about the way the world should be.

1. Justice: There are two realities that are important here:  First, our innate impulse to fairness, goodness and justice, and second, the promise of God to put the world to rights.

Every human being who pauses long enough to consider the point, knows that the world is out of kilter. The human race is out of joint. Things are not right. When children in Uganda, for example, are armed and told to shoot and kill other people in a war they are not capable of understanding, you don’t need to be super spiritual or religious to know that’s simply not right. When people die of starvation, from lack of clean water, or from preventable, curable diseases, it is not right. When wars of ethnic cleansing are fought, we intuitively know this is terribly wrong. The question is, where does this intuition come from?

People all over the world, regardless of their religious affiliation, if any, are working to solve some of the greatest problems the human race has ever faced. Why is it that we all want the world to be made right but we can’t seem to do it? Even more disturbing, why is it that more often than not I know what I should do about these issues, but I don’t do it?

One more disturbing question: Why do Christians sometimes use their faith as an excuse not to be involved in putting the world to rights? When we see that happening we can almost be sure that a faulty eschatology is at work. But, by the same token, the echo of a voice in the heart of each person is, whether they realize it or not, reaching out after a God-given vision of the way the world should be.

By beginning with a passion for justice to be done on earth, we can begin to understand the eschatological prayer of Jesus: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10) The desire for justice is a desire for the kingdom of God. The longing in our hearts for fairness and peace and right is a longing for our internal sense of the way the world should be. This is the seed of God’s kingdom that is planted in every person’s heart. Continued………..

Living with the Absence of God 09-10-15

The flip side of any theology of God’s presence is the existential reality of God’s absence. In talking with people who are not yet committed followers of Jesus there will most likely be a deep sense of God’s absence, if indeed this sense of absence can be understood as “God” at all. The worst thing a Christian could try to do is deny this sense of absence or explain it away as though it only seems like God’s absence. The first thing we must do is honestly acknowledge that the experience of the absence of God is real and palpable at times. If we are honest we will recognize this ache in our hearts as well. Questions about why God doesn’t act to spare innocent people from terrible events are only one example of the sense of God’s absence.

Being Adventists in the most general sense of the word means being people who live in hope; people who live in the midst of the tension between the presence and absence of God. This tension captures very well one of Jesus’ finally discourses with the disciples. In John 16:16-24 Christ told His disciples, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.” The passage continues:

“Some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What does he mean by saying, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,” and “Because I am going to the Father”?’ They kept asking, ‘What does he mean by “a little while?” We don’t understand what he is saying.’ Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, ‘Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me”? I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.’”

Notice the disciples’ confusion about the presence and absence of Jesus. Jesus says “you will see me no more” (absence). Then He says “you will see me” (presence). What is going on here? In answer to these questions Jesus uses the metaphor of birth pains. There is severe pain in child birth, but once the baby is born, the mother forgets all about the pain because of her joy in the new child. Jesus also gives a double answer about His presence in this chapter, referring both to the coming of the Holy Spirit and His own physical return. Christian life—indeed, life in general—is an exercise in living with the presence and absence of God. This is why the Bible speaks of Christians living in hope and anticipation and admonishing the vital and active spiritual discipline of “waiting.” (See Matthew, chapters 24 and 25)

Finally, we should recognize that the sense of God’s absence is potentially an evidence of   God’s presence. The longing for a thing is an indicator that the thing itself exists, at some level. A sense of loneliness speaks powerfully of the reality of companionship and friendship. Emptiness means that there is fullness, both a space to be filled and something with which to fill the space.

In most people’s personal experience they can recognize that indeed the sense of God’s absence was in fact a sign of his presence.