Category Archives: habit

February 14, 2013 · 12:55 pm

We Do Love Our Tools

The Tool HouseHumans are tool-making and tool-using creatures.  Our opposable thumb and finger grasp strength provide the springboard to create and use machines as extensions of our bodies and brains.

We are also tool-purchasing creatures.  Tools to cook, tools to communicate, tools to study, tools to build, tools to create, tools to clean, tools to repair, tools to heal, tools to build muscles and increase stamina, even tools to help us relax and have fun. We really do like ‘em.

Last spring I saw what a tool-wonder New York City is for my two-year old grandson. A north-south avenue near his house is undergoing reconstruction for a subway extension. Giant, noisy, smoke-bellowing tools provide constant entertainment for an enthralled little boy.

Take a talented cook into a high-end cookware store and the same sense of enthrallment will take over. Or an enthusiastic do-it-yourselfer in a yet unexplored hardware store.  Or someone with a new craft project into a hobby supply store . . . and watch the bank account empty.

Whenever I go to the State Fair, I am a sucker for the areas where slick salespeople offer skilled demonstrations of their mops, knives, and cleaning solutions. This year, it was the steamer that emptied my pocketbook—oh my, was I awed by the way it did clean.  And probably would still, if I would get it out and use it!

Yes, we do love our tools.  Each one promises, “This is the one that will make your life easier and will magically make your dreams come true.”

That is, of course, the siren song. “Buy me, and you will get what you want with so little effort!  Twenty minutes a week for the ideal body!  In days, the perfect home-make-over!  Clean up is a snap with our super-duper pots and pans!  Speak your thoughts into your phone and that great piece of literature shall easily appear!”

So, I’m wondering what kind of tools are available to magically transform and fast-track a spiritual infant into a well-functioning, spiritually grounded adult.

None.

Yes, we can now access hundreds of electronic biblical texts and condense formerly months-long research tasks into seconds. Commentaries by erudite scholars and messages and Bible studies by the most famous of pastors reach us with the click of the mouse.

And while I asked my church members to actually show up at an Ash Wednesday service and make an intentional and solemn entry into the Lenten season, a number of clergy were offering a drive-by imposition of ashes, instant repentance, so to speak.

But lasting spiritual growth can’t be implanted or manufactured or show up within seconds.

It doesn’t happen in ten easy steps or in deciding your purpose or in declaring boldly that you are living your best life now.  There are no spiritual steroid supplements to create the muscles needed to live richly grounded in the love of God and willingness to expend oneself generously for the love of neighbor.

There are no short-cuts here.  No spiritual equivalents exist to combines that can harvest in minutes what used to take days of back-breaking labor to achieve or to ice-makers that regularly pop out perfectly formed ice cubes with the flip of a button.  The steps to spiritual maturity are rather more like laboriously cutting large blocks of ice from a frozen lake and then carefully storing and watchfully distributing those precious blocks during hot and dry weather.

Our tools?  The spiritual disciplines: communal worship, fasting, prayer, study, giving, serving, confession, repentance, forgiveness.  Once learned and practiced, they shape profoundly good and well-functioning human beings who carry the light of God with them everywhere they go. Everyone is called to this kind of spiritual depth.

Only a few reach it.  Simply too much hard work. Only a few . . . but those that do change the world.

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Filed under Ash Wednesday, character, fasting, generosity, habit, sacrament, worship

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February 5, 2013 · 10:12 am

A Time to Feast and a Time to Fast

If every day were Christmas, we’d be miserable.  We’d be stuffed, bored, broke and fractious.  Irritations would win the day and gloom and unfulfilled expectations would slather everyone with despondency. Adults would desperately turn to TV, youth and teens to video games, as a way to disconnect from person-to-person contact.  Children, surrounded by piles of overly-stimulating toys, would resort to whining, “Is that all there is?” as a way to remove themselves from their mental and emotional chaos.

Christmas is special because it comes just once a year. But no one can stay in a fever pitch of excitement for long. Instead, we are made with certain rhythms of living that need to be respected.

Periodically, we must slow down, take stock of who we are, celebrate our progress and examine our failures in order to learn from them. Just as we need to repair and maintain our houses, tools and automobiles to prolong their usefulness, we also need to repair and maintain our souls, our relationships with each other, with the created world and with the Creator.

We need plans and places to free ourselves from habits that threaten to shut us down.  Some habits operate like sand in the gears or viruses in computer programs—they bring everything to a halt if we won’t stop and clean things out. That’s what Lent is all about: time intentionally set aside for self-examination. The best of Lenten disciplines takes place both in private, in our chosen fasts, and in community, in accountability with others with like goals.  It is much like Boot Camp: each must do the exercises but as teammates we can do more, cheering each other on.

Lent starts with a day called “Ash Wednesday.” Often, this follows a night of partying, such as Mardi Gras celebrations.  Mardi Gras, which actually  means “Fat Tuesday,” began as a way to rid the household of all food forbidden during the 40 days of Lent. Mardi Gras, also known as “Carnivale” in Brazil, now has almost completely removed itself from its religious roots. It has unfortunately turned more into a time of wanton excess and competitions to see who can engage in the most degraded actions. Ideally, it is a time of communal celebration before the communal fast, with the expectation that everyone seen partying on Tuesday night will also be seen in church on Ash Wednesday morning, preparing for the extended fast.

Ash Wednesday is the day to mark, and I mean literally mark, the formal entrance into Lent.  As part of Ash Wednesday worship, participants will have the cross marked with ashes (from burned palm fronds) on their foreheads or hands.  Then, ideally, they will begin with a fast of some sort, and an additional activity to help build their spiritual muscles.

Our society has nearly forgotten the art and practice of fasting.  We’re so self indulgent that if we don’t get what we want immediately, we resort to temper tantrums in response.

Fasting teaches us much. It exposes our unhealthy addictions. It teaches the vital art of self-denial and the even more vital art of delayed gratification.  Fasting calls us to freeing maturity as we struggle to stay faithful to our fast.  Ideally, an extended fast reminds us of our human state, our need for God’s loving grace, and teaches us deep compassion for the endless suffering of others as we experience our own momentary suffering and discomfort.

Do a fast this year.  Start Wednesday, February 13.  Not before, not later.  Go to a service somewhere–they’ll be all over the place.  The church I serve, Krum First UMC, will have them at 7 am, noon and 7 pm and everyone is welcome.

I do not know of any other act that will give you more self-awareness, and more God-awareness, than to engage in this time of sacrifice, fasting, and discipline.  It will set you more free than you have ever been.

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Filed under accountability, Ash Wednesday, change, fasting, habit, worship

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December 5, 2012 · 10:47 pm

The Phone Call and the Novena

praying-handsA dear friend of mine phoned earlier this evening.  She refers to herself as my “spiritual mother” and I very much believe it.  She’s in her late 80′s, and is simply beautiful. I describe her as a piece of pure light wrapped in a tiny piece of increasingly frail human flesh.

We connected about a year and a half ago.  She had been reading my newspaper columns in the Denton Record Chronicle and phoned to talk with me and see if perhaps the church I serve would be able to embrace her and her unique understanding of Christian spirituality.  I assured her she and her husband would be both welcomed and celebrated here. An immediate friendship sprang up between us.

This dear saint has practiced regular, focused prayer and meditation for decades, and the the lifelong habit of that spiritual discipline gives her powerful awareness of things many of us just can’t see.

I’ve been having a bit of a tough time recently over some personal issues.  This has brought some sadness.  That sadness has been coupled with an unusually hard hit for me this year with my lifelong struggle of coping with the shorter and darker days of fall as we approach the winter solstice.  Simply put, I am more than a bit down.

A few minutes before she phoned me, the Spirit of God spoke to my friend and told her, “tomorrow, you will do a novena for Christy.”  She called to let me know.  Very simply, every hour on the hour for nine consecutive hours, she will stop everything she is doing and go to concentrated prayer for me.

The tears sprang to my eyes as I said a simple “Thank you.”  This will be hard on her physically, and will interrupt some needed rest time, but I would not dream of suggesting she should not be obedient to God.  It is a giant, huge, gift of love for me.

I already feel enfolded by it.  It’s like nestling in fluffy down comforter on a crisp night, sleeping with an open window or even outside, but knowing warmth holds me.

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Filed under " obedience, comfort, habit, prayer, rest, thank you

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August 24, 2012 · 10:46 am

To Do An “Akin”

 

There is probably not even one halfway awake person in the US who has not heard about the comments made by a formerly obscure candidate in Missouri for a US Senate seat.

Last Sunday, Todd Akin suddenly burst from his obscurity with a comment so hateful to women and so stupid in reasoning that I wouldn’t be surprised if a new phrase is formed. Can’t you hear it now?  “Oh boy, I just did an “akin.”  People might utter that upon discovering they have just done or said something both imbecilic and hugely insulting to others.

Thanks to the instantaneity of our news media, Akin’s comment ricocheted to every possible publicity source within seconds.  News articles reporting it had thousands of comments, the vast majority decrying this man’s ignorance and insensitivity.

Akin certainly apologized for having said what he said.  Multiple times, apparently.  He is now a political pariah, although at the time I wrote this article, he was determined to stay in the race.  But no one who has any hope of political power or influence wants to be affiliated with him.

But I always have to ask this question, “What is the gracious response to this man?” I have to ask because, no matter how appalled I was at his statement, Todd Akin is still a fellow human being.  As such, he should be treated with respect.

Keep in mind that I found the comment so distasteful that I refuse to reproduce the contents of his statement in this column (if you haven’t heard about it, just do an Internet search for Todd Akin, Missouri—you’ll find it quickly).  Even so, I must search my own soul and say, “OK, Christy, how would you want others to treat you in a similar situation?”

I’d love to say I’d never be so stupid or so hateful, and so would never have to worry about this.  But in all honesty, I’ve done my own “akins” on occasion.  Not so publicly, to be sure, but I, too, am excruciatingly human.

I suppose that is why the concept of grace has long intrigued me.  The word carries lots of meanings. They all seem to be positive.  A dictionary offers these possibilities:  elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action; favor or goodwill; a manifestation of favor, especially by a superior; mercy; clemency; pardon.

Synonyms include:  attractiveness, charm, gracefulness, comeliness, ease, fluidity, kindness, kindliness, love, forgiveness, charity, mercifulness, lenity, leniency, and reprieve.

While I appreciate the idea of fluid, easy movement and comely appearances, I find myself far more drawn to the concepts of forgiveness, charity, mercy, and leniency.

So, in the name of charity, mercy, leniency and forgiveness, should Todd Akin be elected to a spot of national leadership?

Akin has apologized multiple times for having made the comment.  However, I did not see a place where he personally disowned the idea itself, although he obviously regretted saying it aloud.  But is that enough?

I would guess that he still holds to the core principle behind that remark, a principle that both demeans women and has been proven to be untrue by good quality research.

This seems to me like so much of human experience. When we are caught doing something wrong, the “I’m sorries” are quick to flow.  However, often those apologies are not accompanied by a real change of mind and heart.  The only plan in place concerns not getting caught again.

Again I ask, “Is that enough?”

Jesus once said that many were called, but few were chosen.  Could it be that many are called to lives of leadership and influence in the Kingdom of Heaven, but only a few are chosen because only a few are willing to discipline their thoughts and actions to be conformed to a holy example?

Can willful ignorance be enough to disqualify ourselves from hopes of heavenly grace?  What do you think?

 

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August 14, 2012 · 12:38 pm

Root Dry and Cracked Open

Let’s face it: July and August are always hot and miserable months, although this summer has been far from the worst. And a wonderful thing has taken place three times in the last several weeks: we saw rain.

I was home for the first rain. I sat outside and watched it descend. The elephant ears bobbed up and down with the drops. The rain spouts from the gutters flowed with water, directing it on to flower beds. I sensed even the drought resistant plants drawing a big breath of relief. But not all parts of my lawn or garden received benefit from the rain.

In this part of the world, much of our soil has some clay in it. When it dries, that kind of soil becomes rock hard and tends to form deep cracks—the kind of cracks that can swallow long-handled rakes.

When the ground gets that hard, it may need several days of slow rain to soften it adequately. That type of rainfall is rare here in Texas summers. Our recent storms, as we know all too well, were brief gulleywashers accompanied by wild thunder and lightning and scary winds. The rains ceased quickly.

Only the soils that already had some dampness to them could actually receive water from these sudden storms. Those pre-watered soils had, in a way, developed the habit of being able to receive rain. The never or rarely watered spots had become so hard that they were unable to change quickly enough to let the water in. The root-dry plants and cracked-open soils were untouched by the blessing of rain. They had become habitually dry.

There is a Bible verse in the Gospel of Matthew that is often misunderstood. It reads in part, “for he . . . sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.” In extremely rainy areas, where yet another rainy day brings despair of heart and depression of mind, the idea of sending rain sounds like a curse rather than a blessing. But in more arid areas, as was the area where the Bible was written, rain was an unequivocal blessing. And God sends it to fall on both those who deserve the blessing and those who don’t.

Those who don’t deserve blessings are those who refuse to receive blessings. Many people suffer from the same fate in receiving the goodness of God as do our hardened and impermeable soils when the rain comes. Without some means to be kept receptive, we can’t take it in. God’s invitation to open ourselves to the Holy and Loving Presence rolls off and gets lost in the deep cracks of our souls.

We’re root-dry and cracked-open. Quick fixes won’t help this any more than brief summer showers solve the hard ground problem. We say we give God a chance by showing up at a worship service every once in a while, or occasionally uttering a desperate, demanding, “God, HELP me” prayer. When we don’t get what we want, when no blessing penetrates to our deepest needs, we respond, “Well, I tried God and God didn’t come through.”

It takes time and careful preparation to become open to blessings. We have to develop habits that water our souls.

Those who have become rich in the spiritual life, those who have discovered God’s peace in the midst of fear, death and disruption, those who can see glimpses of the Holy in the midst of human sin, those who know the difference between genuine lasting joy and cheap, fleeting happiness have diligently prepared themselves. They have developed the habits of the spiritual life that permit goodness to trickle into the depth of their hearts, minds, emotions. Those habits offer riches that most people envy instead of realizing that those same riches are available to everyone.

Our habits will make us or break us.  More on Sunday.

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