A Pause

I'm taking a bit of break today. After doing a lot of agitating lately, on various issues, I feel the need to pause and appreciate a beautiful spring day.

It should be easy enough to do, as spring has arrived in spectacular fashion, as it always does. For instance, in addition to the usual mallards, wood ducks and geese, we've had such a wonderful variety of water fowl on our ponds this year. Right now I'm watching American coots dive and paddle, and yesterday, scaups, I don't remember seeing them before, were gliding around on the water. Other visitors have stopped by, too. Such diversity in nature and such harmony.

So, I'm embracing harmony today. I'll be back to agitating soon, but for now, I just need to take a deep breath and appreciate many blessings. Take care, friends -- I hope you find something to smile about today!

How Might It Really Be?

The idea of a nation with laws built strictly around the Bible, a country in which there is no separation of church and state, is gaining traction in certain circles. However well-intentioned that notion might be (and I'm giving some promoters of the idea the benefit of doubt in huge way when I say their intentions might be good) if it were to happen, it would not have the desired effect of making our nation a better place.

Let's put aside political leanings and personal beliefs for a moment and think about this issue logically, in the context of the Constitution and of scripture. Christians, our religious beliefs should guide our individual lives, but as I have been trying to make the point over the past couple of weeks, we are never instructed by Jesus to try to FORCE our beliefs on others. It was not his Way, nor should it be ours. Let's consider some things.

If we used what Jesus taught as the law of the land -- not political or religious IDEAS about the Bible, but what Jesus SAID -- many things would no longer be permitted: calling someone a fool, lawsuits, greed, gossip, lying, not taking care of the poor and war, for instance. Jesus spoke against those things.

Interestingly, since Jesus did not specifically mention contraceptives, abortion or gay marriage, it would be difficult to build a case making them against the law. Yes, it might be possible to take bits of scripture, here and there, and come up with reasons to outlaw them, but then you would have to ignore some very direct commands about other things which are mostly overlooked in this debate. For example, adultery and divorce (simply based on incompatibility) would definitely be illegal. If the New Testament were to be our nation's policy manual and law code, we would have to accept it all, not part, and that's simply not practical, quite honestly, because almost everyone would be in jail.

Are we prepared for divorce, outside of adultery or abuse (and perhaps with no exceptions), to be illegal, especially since the divorce rate is as high among Christians as non-Christians? What about adultery? If it were against the law, many high-profile preachers and politicians, along with millions of others, would be among those who do jail time or pay hefty fines. Most who are promoting separation of church and state probably don't intend for those things to happen or think that they would, but that doesn't mean they would not, eventually, if we ever started sliding down that slope.

Jesus intended for his followers to heed his teachings and do right, but there is no evidence he meant for any nation's legal system to be governed by his words. Believers should strive to live according to what Jesus proclaimed, even though we all fall short. Thankfully, our Christian faith provides for making mistakes, seeking forgiveness and going on, hopefully learning lessons along the way. We may pay for disobedience with our personal peace or well-being, but we are not put in prison for our sins nor should we be.

I, personally, would love for the conscience and decision-making process of every leader, at every level, to be influenced by the intent of Jesus, but that is not the same as the joining of church and state. Let us please never ask for that union. And let us please stop asking others to live their personal lives according to our standards.

The Irony of Christ's Church - Part 2

Having been emboldened by positive responses to last week's post, I'm going to venture a little further down the same road: I've never met a Christian who believes every word of the New Testament is relevant to our lives today. Many of us think we do, but when it comes right down to it, we don't.

Mostly because of the churches or denominations in which we were raised, or at some point became a part of, we have certain prejudices about what we accept and what we don't. For example, some denominations believe miracles still happen, and others think those times are past. Some embrace speaking in tongues and others do not. Some adopt certain clothing preferences. There are those who won't drink alcohol and some who think men shouldn't have long hair (and yet, interestingly, they often have "portraits" on display in their homes of Jesus with flowing locks). All sides of those issues can be justified using the New Testament, by the way.

I won't undertake to comment on what practices in those areas might be right or wrong, because it is not my job to do so. I will say almost all of those positions, and many more, have been reached not based on what Jesus taught, but on cultural and religious traditions and on letters written by followers of Jesus to address specific problems going on within other groups of followers.

If we actually believed and practiced what Jesus taught, first of all, we would not worry or fret, and we would also realize many of the things which have become important to organized religion, don't matter all that much to Jesus. His teachings focus on love, peace, relationships and trying to get us to break free from the bondage of tradition. I encourage you to read it for yourself in Matthew 5-7.

What is important to each of us? What are we passionate about? Good questions to ask ourselves, but for those who follow Jesus, a better question is, in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, especially, what is Jesus passionate about? If what is important to us doesn't match up with what is important to him, we know where the adjustments in thinking need to be made.

The Irony of Christ's Church

Philip Gulley, who is a Quaker minister, has written a book titled If the Church Were Christian. In it, he says, "This is the great irony of Christ's Church -- a significant number of its members care more about believing certain things about Jesus, than following his example of love and service. If the church were Christian, mirroring the compassion of Jesus would be more important than echoing the orthodoxy that has built up around him."

I have often contemplated this issue over the years, but never more so than in recent days. The judgmental attitudes flying around in the name of Jesus -- what some of his followers claim he would and would not approve of or demand of others in the context of society-at-large -- are truly astounding. The simple teachings which Jesus proclaimed about the Way have been distorted and complicated with the passage of time. Now that Jesus has been fully-politicized, the situation has become downright disgraceful.

Jesus did not teach we should change the world by insisting that others get in line "because we say so and because we know better than you." He made it plain he did not intend to force his message on anyone and neither should believers attempt to do so. His teachings were meant to inspire his followers to live lives free of hypocrisy, filled with joy and contentment which would lead others to want to become his disciples, too.

Jesus lived during a time of extreme government corruption and when the world around him was, in many ways, a cesspool of immorality. Yet he did not expect to change those circumstances by condemning indecency or those who did not believe in him. He expected his followers to concentrate on fixing their own shortcomings to become lights shining in the darkness, and it is the same now.

The instructions from Jesus are for his Body of believers, for his Church, to follow. This includes anyone running for any office who claims to be a Christian. If you're attempting to use Jesus to get elected, you better be on board with what he taught and not be promoting your own interpretation of what you think he meant because it lines up with what you believe.

Much of the church world has it backwards today. A certain segment of those calling themselves Christians pat themselves on the backs because they are so "good" and "right," and then they hurl insults and abuse at those they identify as "sinners." This is not the Way of Jesus. His harshest words were aimed at the religious people of his day who were filled with hypocrisy, telling others how to live while continuing in unrepentent sin themselves. His kind words and actions were toward those believers who walked in humility and who sought forgiveness, as well as for the outsiders who had not yet come to know to him. We should stop believing most of what we think we know about Jesus and start knowing him for who he was.

Our Job Description

Many of us have jobs which have a written outline of what our day-to-day duties should encompass. For those who are fellow workers with Christ, have you ever thought about the description of that job? The teachings of Jesus, as described in the New Testament, contain the details, but what about a more condensed version? How can we sum up our job as believers?

I invite us all to study the gospels -- the Sermon on the Mount, in particular, would be a good place to start -- and think about this concept. Don't even necessarily think about what you've been taught in church over the years, don't think about what you've read or heard from other sources, merely consider the character and nature of Jesus and what he asks of us. What it really comes down to is very simple, recorded in several places in scripture, including I John 3:23, "This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us." Love and belief are at the very heart of our job and anything else we do must fall in line.

That basic job description can and should be filled out a bit to include: going the extra mile to help others who are in need, being kind and merciful, making peace, providing comfort where we can, not being attached to material possessions, etc. And don't forget an important one: treat people the same way you want them to treat you.

Let us consider for a moment what is NOT included in our job description. Two things which come immediately to mind are "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them..." (Matt. 6:1) and do not judge others (mentioned multiple times in scripture). In other words, the job description of Christianity, as proclaimed by the vast majority of politicians and pundits and many others who are jumping into the fray, doesn't line up with the teachings of Jesus.

Every day there are millions of believers and thousands of church organizations quietly doing the work which Jesus called us to do. And there are others, who are quite vocal and getting considerable attention, who claim to be called by God and/or doing his work. However, based on their attitudes and actions, compared to the example of Jesus, it seems some of the loudest have, perhaps, been reading the wrong job description.

Overcoming Fear - Part 2

For those who did not read my blog last week, here's a brief re-cap of the basic situation: Our cat recently allowed himself to become stuck in a tree because he was afraid to climb down, and my husband rescued him (overcoming his own fear of heights, by the way). This week, our helpful cat has provided me with more fodder.

A couple of days ago, Allen once again went out in the morning, as he does every day, to feed our outside furnace. Max, our now-notorious cat, was high up in a tree, a different tree than he was stuck in last week and about 20 feet further up than in his previous predicament. Allen reports he looked up and said to Max, "I am NOT climbing up that far to get you down." After putting wood in the furnace, Allen noticed Max slowly backing his way down the tree. Coincidence? Maybe. But sometimes I think that cat knows exactly what we're saying.

My observation last week was that often we keep ourselves trapped in circumstances due to our fears. I offer a further observation this week. Sometimes we aid others in staying trapped in their fears, usually without meaning to do so. Our words of caution, while said with good intentions, often squelch a spirit of adventure. I think of children, in particular. When fed a steady stream of 'don't run too fast, you'll fall down' and 'don't jump around so much, you might get hurt,' eventually, what they will hear is 'don't, don't, don't or something bad might happen' which can lead to being locked up in a prison of caution. We should all want to display a good measure of common sense -- wouldn't it be nice if more people did? -- but common sense, taken to an extreme, can overtake freedom. I believe a life of faith should be filled with spontaneous compassion, love and mercy, taking chances along the way, not being constantly worried about being hurt.

Back to Max. Sometimes the right course of action might be to rescue someone, but more often than not, the best that can happen is to help the person who is stuck realize they can usually get unstuck when they let go of fear. Last week, we rescued Max. This week, it was time to say, 'you're on your own, buddy.' He knew it was possible to get down. He overcame his fear and did it.

Getting Unstuck, Overcoming Fear

On a recent morning, about 6:30, when my husband Allen went to put wood in our outside furnace, he noticed our cat, Max, up in a tree, sitting on a limb, probably twenty feet off the ground. When we left for work, Max was still there, not making an attempt to get down. We assumed he would eventually get hungry, overcome his apprehensions and escape his predicament, as he has done on at least one other occasion. However, when we got home, he was still there. Not frantic, anxious I would say, and not making progress in leaving the tree. We figured after at least ten hours up there, he might like a little help, even though eventually he would have found the gumption to free himself.

Allen pulled our flatbed truck along side the tree, put a ladder on it and climbed up a couple of limbs to be within reach of the cat. Allen is not a fan of heights, especially when convoluted combinations of truck beds, wooden ladders and negotiating tree limbs are part of the deal. One would think Max might show some appreciation by immediately allowing himself to be rescued. But no. He wanted to hang on a while longer. Freedom was near, but fear kept him trapped. After being coaxed and with fairly gentle man-handling, Max was off the limb. Man and cat returned safely to the ground.

From time to time, most of us get stuck in situations because of fear. Without delving into the amount of fear which might be healthy (for example, we should be afraid enough of bears to know not to share a sandwich with one) and what is irrational, we can at least observe that many are needlessly imprisoned, in one way or another, by their fears -- both large and, more often, small -- for years or even a lifetime. Encouraging us to be set free from fear is a continuous thread in the teachings of Jesus, because he knew how pointless it is to be paralyzed by fear, how easily life is wasted by worry.

Max missed an entire day of roaming the countryside, enjoying life (plus, I'm pretty sure birds taunted him all day long) because he couldn't bring himself to grab on to that tree and inch his way back down to the ground. What are you missing out on because of your fears? What are your unfulfilled hopes and dreams? Even if you're not ready to take a big leap of faith, take a step toward your goals. You might be scared when you first decide to go forward, but try doing it afraid. It's better than the alternative of being stuck where you don't want to be, wondering what it would be like to be free.