Wielding the Political Sword

If you create dis-trust in everything but yourself, it may come back to bite you.

How does the saying go?  "You reap what you sow."

You live and die wielding the political sword.

We All Have Choices To Make

The only thing we can't do is nothing.

-- Simon Sinek

We all have choices to make.

An easy slide appears to be into the belief that I can't choose because of the variety of things that have been done to me or that are going on around me; because I am a victim and, therefore, impoverished to the point that I can no longer choose.

We all can still make choices...and, in fact, do anyway.

Granted, awful things DO happen—consequences of other people's choices, consequences of my own, and sometimes of neither (...whatever happened just happened, as far as we can tell).  These realities can make choosing extremely challenging.

But, we all still have the power of choice.

And, we all have choices to make.

Society—which meant pagan society, limited by the horizons and prospects of life “in this world”—was regarded by them as a shipwreck from which each single individual had to swim for their life. . . . These were people who believed that to let oneself drift along, passively accepting the tenets and values of what they knew as society, was purely and simply a disaster. The fact that the Emperor was now Christian and that the “world” was coming to know the Cross as a sign of temporal power only strengthened them in their resolve.

-- Thomas Merton, re: Desert Fathers and Mothers after Edict of Milan, 313 A.D.

Keeping Score

I've noticed...when I start keeping score, something needs attention within me.  Something is anxious.  Something is looking for an object, or an outlet.  Something wants to blame others.

Something is appealing to my desire to keep track of what others are or are not doing.

Noticing is one thing.  Keeping score is another.  I've learned to pay attention to that.

As Jesus Did

Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

-- 1 John 2:6


"Oh, sure I do that. ...not perfectly, of course, but hey none of us are perfect right?  At least I try!"

Do I...really?

I suspect we are nowhere even close to truly living how Jesus did; it's too uncomfortable.  In fact, we seem pretty content to have 'let him do it'.

...if we claim to live in him, we must live as he did.

Um, this IS getting uncomfortable now....

The art of asking the right questions

Visual: Skyter II

Visual - "Skyter II":

Winona Lake, IN

Power

Power seems to be a blood-lust for nearly all political endeavors. 

The current Republican ideology seems to be preoccupied with power, as if they believed in nothing else other than their own ability or need to preserve themselves.  It will use any rule it can to its own advantage, even if it has to contradict itself to do so. 

You can smell it on Democrats' breath, too (they want it, too...more than ever).  Ideologically, it seems to me, Democrats seem closer to the plight of the common man (you know, those the economy uses up for the benefit of the wealthy).  Unfortunately, their vision too often seems confined to the powers of government; which, in the end, appears to be a self-serving thing...more than it is a people-serving thing.

Power seems to be the king (rather than things like integrity) of the political process right now; when it rules, nearly anything will be done to retain it...or get it.

I don't like much of what either political party is about right now—which seems mostly like confronting the evil of the other party, rather than the people it should be serving. 

So, the irony is, for all the power-seeking going on, both groups seem to have largely lost their real power...which comes from serving the people.

I predict, a third way will emerge—the question is, how long and painful it will have to become for it to happen?

On Police Funding, Which Position Do You Support?

 
Does anything here surprise you (in light of mainstream media narrative)? 

What factors are important to you?

"Is that the most important thing?"

If you want to have an argument, to raise tempers or to distract, the easiest thing to do is start bringing up things that are easy to argue about.

Not the things that are important.

Because the important things require nuance, patience and understanding. They require an understanding of goals, of the way the world works and our mutual respect.

If someone keeps coming back to an irrelevant, urgent or provocative point instead, they’re signaling that they’d rather not talk about the important thing.

Which is precisely what we need to talk about.

-- Seth Godin, “Is that the most important thing?”

Starts With Listening

Any worthwhile conversation starts with listening.

-- Simon Sinek

God Told Me To

Ever noticed...something odd when people say, "God told me to..."?

I don't question the possibility (well, actually, I do...a little).

But, I am suspicious when it feels like this phrase is used to legitimize something, shut down a conversation or close something off.  Not to mention the rather selective nature of when this does (does not) get used.  ...which is what makes me wonder about the objectivity the statement seems to claim.

It often feels like an announcement; and, not an invitation.

Lot of Crap, But...

Instagram: nakedpastor

Regarding the church, half of what it believes is a lot of crap...simple religious socialization (not that all socialization is bad); but, the other half...can save your soul.

Perhaps, some of life's spiritual journey is learning how to know the difference.


And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change . . . you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
‭‭
-- Matthew‬ ‭18:3‬

Some Pro-Life Activists Think Twice About Supporting Trump

A pro-life spokeswoman quit her job rather than endorse Donald Trump for another term in the White House.

Trump has called himself the most pro-life president in history. But Stephanie Ranade Krider, executive director for Ohio Right to Life, decided she couldn’t support him and couldn’t keep working for the prominent pro-life group as it prepared to help him win re-election.

She resigned June 30. The next morning, she woke up and felt like she could finally breathe again.

“You learn to hold certain things in tension, and for me it came to a point where I couldn’t anymore,” Krider said. “I’ve been grateful for the things Trump has accomplished and skeptical of his pro-life views.

Always, there has been this undercurrent where he just does not respect women and he does not like black and brown people. I can’t look at any of his behavior and see evidence of the Holy Spirit in his life. Nothing about his words or actions are kind or gentle or faithful or full of self-control.”

It wasn’t an easy decision to quit...continue.

-- Daniel Silliman


For additional consideration on what pro-life should mean, see here:

For some, treating the 2020 election as a referendum on abortion is a way to live with Trump’s moral ugliness. If there is only one issue on the ballot, then only one policy position counts, not Trump’s character as a man and a leader. This has the virtue of simplicity and the drawback of complicity in grave wrongs.

-- Michael Gerson

Diabolic

'Poem for the week' -- "Diabolic":

“Their colour is a diabolic die.”

            —Phillis Wheatley

What they say they are

And what they actually do

Is what Phillis overhears.

It’s like she isn’t there.

It’s like she’s a ghost, at arm’s length, hearing

The living curse out the dead—

Which, she’s been lead to believe

No decent person does in a church.

How they say they love her

And how they look at her

Is what Phillis observes;

Like she’s the hole in the pocket

After the money rolls out.

God loves everybody—even the sinner,

(they say)

Even a mangy hound can rely

On a scrap of meat, scraped off the plate

(they say).

What they testify

And what they whisper in earshot

Is as dark as her skin, whistled from opposite sides

Of a mouth.

Is she the bible’s fine print?

--Cornelius Eady

From the author:

“‘Diabolic’ is part of a cycle of poems I’m writing on Phillis Wheatley, concerning the complication of the slave learning their captor’s language. The quote at the top of the poem is a line from Wheatley’s poem ‘On Being Brought from Africa to America.’ In it, Wheatley challenges a common dilemma, which is still a problem today—the distance between white, ‘progressive’ Christian beliefs about race, and resistance by those same progressives to actively examine those problems in their own house. ‘Diabolic’ is such a hurtful term, a term of difference and distancing—I wonder how many times she heard it, while she sat close by in a room, and my poem tries to imagine how she turned that word in her head—a child of God, yet always to be considered a devil—certainly, always ‘less than’—before she wrote it down in one of the most American poems I think we have.”

Not A Straight Line

Healing is not a straight line, it is a weaving process.

-- from an NPR program


You cannot heal what you do not acknowledge.

-- Richard Rohr

Catalyzes

I’m not sure that anything catalyzes our ability (or willingness) to change more than our direct experience with pain. Or, being constrained; that also seems to catalyze desire for change.

If that's true for us, why would it not be true for other people; you know, those people who aren't like us?

Most Profound Message

The most profound message of racial segregation may be that the absence of people of color from our lives is no real loss. Not one person who loved me, guided me, or taught me ever conveyed the suggestion that segregation deprives me of anything of value.

-- Robin Diangelo


My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.

-- Bryan Stevenson


If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

-- Jaime Schehr

None Of Us Will Succeed

I've noticed...if we don't all succeed; in the end, none of us will.

In other words, it is always about everyone—not just me, not just white people, not just the middle-class, not just Americans...like for Jesus—not just religious leaders, men, or Jews.

The nature of redemption is not singular.

Feeding the Poor

Why, when Jesus talks about feeding the poor, it's Christianity but when a politician does it, it's Socialism?

-- Lisa Sharon Harper

Something We Imagine

Love is largely something we imagine, until we actually have to do it.


This thought has been peculating in my mind, as I have approached this day—the great day that my son, Conner, got married.  What a privilege it is to experience love.

I'm so glad for Conner and Gina:

Basic Need

Our basic need for human acceptance (if not love) is primal, or perhaps another way to say it, God-given.

The irony is that full human acceptance is not possible…acceptance of all that we truly are can only be manifested fully in God.

And, because this is true, our ability to be accepted can only be completed within our own selves, because only God fully knows and inhabits us (image-bearing). Another person is not capable of that kind of in-habitation, that kind of full acceptance.

And so, though we crave it at a basic-need level, we can’t wait for or expect another person to provide the full acceptance we desire.

Add Another Risk Factor To Those Faced By Players In The NFL

Sports commentator Mike Pesca reflects on the beginning of the NFL season as some players opt out because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Players were already dealing with health concerns like concussions.

An interesting assessment, it seems to me, regarding health issues related to the sport:

• No uniformity in how seriously people take health warnings
• Wide variety in the public's willingness to curtail activities
• Accuracy related to belief systems
• No consensus on what the price may be

If You Want To Change

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

-- Marcel Proust


If you want to change, you have to see things differently.

In order to see things differently, you have to see different things.

And to see different things, you have to put yourself in different places, where you can see things you don’t normally see.

This will expand your vision.


Unless you don’t want to change….

But, that may be a bigger problem than you think because life is changing, with or without you.  It is not a fixed thing; it is dynamic—always moving, evolving...changing.

An example; you are not the same as you were 30 years ago, or even 10 years ago.  For one thing, you are getting older.  You are physically changing.  Hopefully, you are also becoming more mature, too; even wiser.

Some of this change, wasn't appropriate when you were younger.  But, now it is.  In fact, it is necessary.  We refer to this as growth.

After all, you get weirder and weirder if you try to act like you did in high school.  It is not only unbefitting, it is damaging to those around you.  This is true physically, but also emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.  In fact, all of these (and other) dimensions are working together, to the benefit (or neglect) of the other.

And, to the degree that this is true individually, it is also true collectively.  We can't continue to think together, like we 'used to'—when things like women's rights, slavery, and rapacious consumption of the earth with no regard for things like pollution were the norm.  That was a bad norm.  But, we had to recognize it first and then we had to learn how to deal with it.

This dynamic is not over, just because we did it once about this or that topic.  It is the nature of our existence.  We have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes—collectively and individually—if we choose to.

If we don't acknowledge this, though, we perpetuate the damage caused by our immaturity, insensitivity, neglect, lack of insight.

This is why this Baldwin observation about change is so true—devastating if we don't, liberating if we do.

Give us new eyes.

LT: Victim Card

Leaders don’t play the victim card; narcissists pretending to be leaders do.

Cherry-Pickers

Ever noticed...how often it looks like politicians want votes more than they want what is right—goodness, justice, harmony?

Perhaps this is why, each side tends to cherry-pick truth...using select portions of it, in an attempt to leverage their advantage. Truth used for advantage is, at the very least, misguided; but, also, actually much worse on many different levels.
Truth is innately not selective—it is interested in the whole.  It is interested in how things work out for everyone, not just a few.

When votes are no longer connected to words like the above which define what rightness is (or should be), we have a clearer view of what happens when the ends and the means are no longer the same thing. When votes become primarily about power and control — rather than inclusion, reconciliation, and the wholeness of all — we see the distinction in its more stark political forms.
You can't really cherry-pick truth; because when you do, all you're really doing is moving away from it.

Deadly Mix

Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy.  He was brought down by law and order allied with religion, which is always a deadly mix.

-- Barbara Brown Taylor


It seems to me that we need this kind of prophetic voice, now more than ever—especially in light of the increasing conflation of the forces Taylor describes above.

Stop Fighting And Start...

COVID-19 has come for our plans and left us overextended in lots of ways. This is an emotionally and financially exhausting time to be living through. One of the most difficult things about this moment is having clear conversations about topics we never really had to talk about before.

Whether it's canceling plans with your closest friend because their pod is bigger than yours or questioning a family member who isn't wearing a mask, these conversations can get really heated, really fast.

But as with so many things in 2020, the only way out is through. That's why I spoke with Kwame Christian, an expert in negotiation and conflict resolution, about how we can have these tough conversations without letting them boil over into full-blown arguments.

Christian's technique centers on a simple, three-step process that goes like this:

• Acknowledge and validate the emotion. Recognize how everybody is feeling about the situation, even if it's difficult.
• Get curious with compassion. Ask lots of questions and genuinely listen to the answers. 
• Joint problem-solving. Once both parties have acknowledged how they're feeling and identified why there's an issue, come up with solutions together — so that there is buy-in from both sides.  

Continue....

-- Sylvie Douglis

Visual: Yellow

Visual - "Yellow":

Varieties of Disbelief

Everyone, without exception, has found some things to not believe in. Things that are demonstrably true that we just don’t want to accept.

A bit like a fingerprint, each person’s pattern of disbelief is probably unique. You might believe that water is made of atoms, but that the moon is made of cheese. It’s hard to predict.

But the interesting question is: What has to happen for you to change your mind? What standard of proof, from what source, is sufficient for us to accept that something we’re sure wasn’t true, is true?

That’s a great place to begin.

-- Seth Godin, Varieties of disbelief

What We Believe

How do we come to believe what we believe, especially when what is believed by some seems so much in contrast to what others believe (another example here...)?

What is really going on with the nature of belief and the systems that enable it?  What dynamics are in play—ones that we're aware of, ones that we're not?

People think they believe things because of facts.  But, that's largely not why people (including religious 'believers') believe what they believe (follow the facts thread here).  Study after study shows that even if people are presented with 'new' facts, they consistently still believe what they believed before...sometimes, even more so.

It seems we have a need for things to be true and we often hold onto them...even if they're not.

No Point Arguing

There's no point arguing with folks who have already made up their mind.

-- Christopher Elliott


It seems like there are a lot of people who are only interested in listening to whatever reinforces what they already believe.

...like they don’t want to learn anything new; why would that be?  There’s probably a reason....