Spirituality Adventures 6/21/21 Spirituality Adventures 6/21/21

Lifelong Learning & Jesus’ Commission

Listen: “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2

I was recently having a conversation with someone who was deconstructing their faith journey. (I’ve actually had hundreds of these conversations with people over the last two years.) Many of the things he had believed as a teenager and young adult had proven to be destructive to his soul. He was still incredibly hungry to learn and grow spiritually, but he was open to new ideas and spiritual practices.

I have always had an extraordinary desire to learn and grow. As a teenager, I committed myself to following Jesus and one of the things that changed in my life (among many) as a result of that commitment was a voracious appetite to read and learn and study. I started devouring books and began a lifelong journey of formal and informal education. Since I have gone through my own personal crisis and deconstruction, I have continued to value lifelong learning.

I have also been thinking about lifelong learning and spiritual growth in relationship to the Great Commission given by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20. All four gospels record a slightly different version of the Great Commission, but Matthew’s version is the most famous. Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20; ESV). Let’s consider and maybe reconsider the essence of this challenge.

Go. It’s an action verb (present participle). “As you are going” is a good translation. As you are living life, think about its meaning and purpose. This life is a spiritual adventure. It’s a sacred life, and we don’t want to waste it

Make disciples. A disciple is a learner, a student, a pupil. Good students are open and curious and inquisitive. God is revealed everywhere in his creation, and all truth is his truth. I am reminded of the Teacher in Ecclesiastes (Qohelet): “I, the Teacher, was king of Israel, and I lived in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to search for understanding and to explore by wisdom everything being done under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 1:12-13; NLT). Or the words of Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Lifelong learning is good for the brain and good for our spiritual and emotional health.

Of all nations. Everyone is included. This lifestyle is not the exclusive domain of any one group of people. It includes all nations. Every life is sacred, and we have the privilege of joining together in this sacred journey called life.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. This Trinitarian formula speaks to the nature of ultimate reality. Ancient philosophers tried to figure out what unified everything and what accounted for diversity—unity and diversity. This ancient Trinitarian formula speaks of a community of unity and diversity, masculine (Father/Son) and feminine (Spirit). When God created humans in his image and likeness, he created them male and female (Genesis 1:27). Ultimate reality is a loving community of unity and diversity. Baptism means “immersion.” So we are to be fully immersed in a loving community of unity and diversity. Read Richard Rohr’s book on the Trinity entitled The Divine Dance. It’s the best book I have read on the Trinity, and Rohr’s vision is beautiful. A must read!

Teaching them to observe all I have commanded you. Jesus is certainly one of the greatest teachers in history. His teachings reverberate throughout the world. The Sermon on the Mount, his parables, his gospel for misfits, his heart for healing, his love of community, his servant leadership, his ethic of forgiveness and love for your enemy, and his sacrificial love are some of the most breathtaking examples of humanity at its best. Regardless of your faith tradition or lack thereof, Jesus’ teachings are truly compelling.

So what is a disciple? A disciple is a learner, a student. One of the beautiful things about 21st Century living is the availability of information. It’s a curse and a blessing. Most people in the world have cell phones. I’ve been in remote, poverty stricken African villages, but I have seen charging stations for cell phones. Sub-Saharan Africa has over 240,000 cell towers providing mobile coverage to about 70% of the population. Remarkable. We can access the world’s greatest libraries and the world’s greatest teachers almost instantly from our phones. We can also get trapped into mind-numbing algorithms of information fed to us by multibillion dollar marketing companies. (See the documentary Social Dilemma on Netflix.) My vision for Spirituality Adventures is to ignite spiritual growth and transformation through blogs, podcasting, teaching, events, community groups, and community service. I look forward to growing together as lifelong learners.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 6/14/21 Spirituality Adventures 6/14/21

What Is Radical Inclusion?

Listen: “One Love” by Bob Marley

Tennessee Williams is my favorite American playwright. He is best know for plays like A Street Car Named Desire, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, and The Night of the Iguana. His characters are beautifully flawed, both tragic and resilient. Williams says, “My chief aim in playwriting is the creation of character. I have always had a deep feeling for the mystery in life, and essentially my plays have been an effort to explore the beauty and meaning in the confusion of living.” In my view, Tennessee Williams displayed an ability to capture redemptive notes in tragically flawed human beings—a gospel for misfits. Blanche DuBois, in A Street Car Named Desire, has a famous line at the end of the play: “Whoever you are—I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Angels unaware. A gospel for misfits.

Jesus was criticized harshly by religious people. He was accused of being a glutton and a drunkard because he didn’t fast enough and attended too many parties. He was accused of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners because—he was—a friend to the marginalized, the outcasts, and the misfits (Luke 7:34).

Radical inclusion was at the heart of Jesus’ practice and teaching. This was in contrast to the religious environment to which Jesus was born. The major Jewish religious and political parties of Jesus’ day were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Zealots, and the Essenes. One thing that all four religious groups had in common was a desire for purity. Purity was defined by avoiding contagious people or things (based on the purity codes in Leviticus and traditions surrounding it). Some foods were considered contagious like pork (scavengers) or shell fish (fish with no scales)—the misfit and blemished animals were the ones you shouldn’t eat or sacrifice. Some people were considered contagious like lepers or tax collectors—basically the sick, the handicapped, the sinners, and the Roman sympathizers—people who were misfits or blemished.

Jesus practiced radical inclusion by touching, healing, forgiving, and eating with people who were considered unclean. It seems clear that in Jesus’ mind, grace-filled community was a healing agent. He had more confidence in the healing power of grace-filled relationships and community than he had in the fear of becoming contaminated.

We are all oddballs and misfits in one way or another. We all need grace-filled relationships and community in order to grow spiritually. Through the power of vulnerability and acceptance, we find hope and healing. We have to move out of our comfort zone in order to experience this kind of community. Here are a few practices that can pay rich rewards.

Eating. It’s not that hard to invite someone to coffee, lunch, or dinner that is different than you. They might be a different gender, race, nationality, economic status, education level, religion, lifestyle, or sexual orientation. Jesus broke bread with the misfits, and we can begin with people who are simply different. It might feel awkward at first, but it’s good.

Listening. Listening to the stories of people is one of the most powerful ways to connect with someone. Learn to ask great questions and listened deeply. (Check out my podcast called Spirituality Adventures for a great example.) Listen for the hurts and the pain, the loves and the passions. This is where human beings connect deeply.

Sharing. Learn to practice vulnerability. The quickest way to connect with someone is not necessarily sharing our strengths and accomplishments. (Although asking about someone else’s is a good thing.) Most deep connections come from being vulnerable. I have sat in recovery meetings with people from different backgrounds, lifestyles, and religious beliefs and watched people open up about their struggles with emotional health, addictions, or relationships. Something happens. The S/spirit moves. It’s magical.

This is something for which our hearts long. This is good news (gospel) for misfits—it’s beautifully flawed and wonderfully redemptive. It helps heal our shame and connects us to ourselves, others, and something greater. It breaks down the walls of indifference and hatred and allows love to grow.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 6/7/21 Spirituality Adventures 6/7/21

Was Job a Buddhist?

Listen: “I Lived” by One Republic

I have grown to appreciate the book of Job more than ever before. Job went through enormous darkness, doubts, and harsh judgments from his friends. He is an example of someone who suffered horrible losses even though he had lived a relatively righteous life. I say “relatively” because we know that everyone has fallen short of perfection. Job anguished over the idea of a just God who allows good people to suffer atrocities like his own loss of family, wealth, and health—or like cancer, war, natural disasters, and the Holocaust. Job’s story would extend to people who experience disproportionate suffering like someone who is young and struck down by disaster or someone who serves God faithfully for decades and falls under the load. (The variations are endless.) If you know my story, you might understand why I have found a renewed appreciation for Job.

Job pre-dates Buddha, so he was not a Buddhist, but both Job and Buddha grappled with suffering in deep and thoughtful ways. The themes of suffering and the nature of ultimate reality were at the heart of their reflections and philosophies. Many scholars believe that Job is the oldest book in the Hebrew Bible, pre-dating the Books of Moses (the Torah) and finding its origins in the Patriarchal period (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob). Buddha was a contemporary of Confucius, Socrates, and Zechariah, so Job pre-dates Buddha by maybe 1,000 years.

If you could read Hebrew fluently, you would understand that Job is a literary masterpiece. At forty-two chapters, it’s far too long for most American audiences. One of my favorite commentaries on Job is by John Walton, who teaches at Wheaton College (Job: The NIV Application Commentary). Walton lays out the problem which Job is confronting in a succinct way through highlighting the main characters and what they are defending. Job is defending his own righteousness. Job’s friends are defending the principle of reciprocity (you reap what you sow or karma). Ultimately, God’s justice is on trial.

Job defends his righteousness throughout the story. This may seem bold (nobody is perfect), but don’t get hung up on it. Otherwise, you will be like Job’s friends. Most of our suffering seems disproportionate to what we deserve. I’m thinking of when William Munny (Clint Eastwood) finally confronts Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), the man who killed his friend, in Unforgiven—“Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” Except it does.

Job’s friends defend the principle of reciprocity. You reap what you sow. This principle is taught in all the major faith traditions in one form or another. It works in both directions. We love it when it works in the positive direction. If we sow generosity, kindness, and forgiveness, we reap generosity, kindness, and forgiveness. What you put out comes back to you. We don’t like it so much when it works in the negative direction. If we sow stinginess, meanness, or unforgiveness, we get all that in return. Job’s friends were certain that Job got what he deserved. They are defending the principle of reciprocity with various nuances, and in the process, they come off as harsh, judgmental, and full of self-righteousness. Most people fall in the category of Job’s friends when they think about the world and give advice to others. The guilty should be punished. Consequences are a bitch. There are only two things that seem to disrupt this principle: (1) when the righteous suffer disproportionately; and (2) grace. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve, and most people want grace when it comes to themselves. Truth be told, the church in America has an identity crisis—while professing to be grace-based communities, the church many times functions like Job’s friends.

God is left to defend his justice, which is on trial. Except he doesn’t. This is a problem. Theologians (Job among them) in the Abrahamic tradition (Jewish, Christian, or Islamic) have a tough challenge. If ultimate reality is governed by a just God who is all-powerful, who could cure cancer and prevent the Holocaust but doesn’t, then God is a moral monster. (For thoughtful discussions, read Is God a Moral Monster? by Paul Copan or Satan and the Problem of Evil by Gregory Boyd.)

If you dive into the book of Job, I would encourage you to notice two things. First of all, in chapter three, Job speaks of the darkness with which he is confronted through his loss of family, wealth, and health. He virtually exhausts the Hebrew vocabulary with words and metaphors describing his darkness, even resorting to the use of mythological creatures of darkness—the “word cursers” and the Leviathan (Job 3:8).

Secondly, notice that when God finally speaks in chapter thirty-eight, he doesn’t defend his justice. He basically points to mystery and paradox. Mystery in the sense that our three-pound human brains can’t possibly understand all the mysteries of creation and ultimate reality: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job 38:4). Paradox in the sense that God refers back to the theme of darkness from chapter three, but then he contrasts darkness with light—darkness and light—destruction and beauty—violence and love—death and birth—yin and yang. The paradoxes of this life.

When Gautama Siddhartha (Buddha) pondered the nature of suffering and reality, he explored the concepts of illusion, attachment to cravings or desires, and the separate self. Job points to mystery and paradox. None of the answers satisfy our quest for certainty, but we long for a mystical union or relationship with ultimate reality. Jesus embraced redemptive suffering through the cross and prayed that we might “all be one, as he and the Father are one” (John 17:21).

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 5/31/21 Spirituality Adventures 5/31/21

Avoid Temptation by Celebrating Creation

Listen: “Ulysses” by Josh Garrels

How do we celebrate life, culture, and creation while at the same time avoid the pitfalls of temptation and dysfunctional behavior? Every faith tradition throughout human history has grappled with this question. The universe contains incredible order and chaos, beauty and decay, goodness and destruction. So does the human personality. We can all relate to the paradox within ourselves—angel or demon, sinner or saint.

Creation

In the creation account of Genesis 1-2, God is revealed as creator of all things, and everything he creates is declared “good” by Creator God. This is an important place to begin our thinking about how to live in God’s creation. Despite the primordial chaos depicted in Genesis 1:2, the creation story teaches us that there was an original goodness to the order of creation. Creation is inherently good and human beings created in the image of God were “very good.” (Read Original Blessing by Matthew Fox.)

The Fall

Genesis 3 introduces us to “the Fall.” This is the biblical account of how sin entered the world or how God’s good creation was tainted by evil. The story of Adam and Eve is the story of the human race: temptation to the dark side, the fall, shame, and blame. Notice that all of creation was affected by the resulting curse after the Fall (Genesis 3:14-24; Romans 8:18-25). However, original goodness is not eliminated, only marred. Notice that after the Fall, scripture still affirms that people bear the image of God (Genesis 9:6-7). After the Fall, the Psalmist still declares that “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1; ESV). After the Fall, the apostle Paul declares “For from him [God] and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36). So while all of creation has suffered from the Fall, evil (the Serpent) is really a “deceiver,” trying to divert humanity from original goodness.

God’s Plan of Redemption

After the Fall, the Bible unfolds a long story of redemption and restoration. From Abraham to Moses to Jesus, the Bible unfolds God’s plan for redemption for all creation. In essence, restoring original goodness and beauty and creativity and love and connection. The scriptures reveal that through Jesus, God’s plan is to reconcile all things:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him…and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven (Colossians 1:15-20; ESV).

God in Christ is on a mission to restore all of creation. As we follow Jesus and live in a beautifully flawed world, we need to keep this in mind (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). We are, in effect, living to bring heaven to earth (“on earth as it is in heaven”).

Evil Behavior or The Dark Side

What makes a thing or an action evil? Since everything is created good, what makes something evil or bad? The Bible teaches us that anything disconnected from its created purpose is sin. The Ten Commandments can basically be divided into two categories: sins against God (first four) and sins against people created in the image of God (last six). In other words, when we disconnect our heart from loving God and loving people, we move to the dark side (sin). This is why Jesus sums up the greatest commandments as—Love God. Love people. (It’s also a summary of the Ten Commandments stated positively; Matthew 22:34-40.)

Idolatry

Idolatry is worshipping or pursuing a false god, a false image which leads to destructive behavior. In idolatry, we become addicted to the dark side. Even good gifts like food or sex or wine or money, can become idols which enslave us. When we disconnect our heart from ourselves, others, or God, we can quickly slip into idolatry and addiction and destructive behaviors. Rather than celebrating creation, we become enslaved to it. Entropy accelerates.

Culture

Culture is a product of people living in God’s creation. Culture consists of patterns of behavior, symbols of achievement, and ideas and their attached values. Human groups of people living in God’s creation create culture. Culture is expressed through language, arts, technologies, religion, music, ideas, writings, recreation, laws, education, governments, and institutions (not an exhaustive list). Because culture is created by flawed people, all cultures have aspects of sin and evil and idolatry that are attached to them. Because culture emerges in God’s creation through people created in the image of God, all cultures have aspects of beauty and goodness and truth attached to them.

How does God in Christ relate to culture? He wants to redeem and reconcile those aspects of culture that have been distorted by sin and evil and idolatry. (For an interesting discussion on this topic, see Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture.) As followers of Jesus, we are called to join with this mission of God in the world: To restore and reconcile culture with God.

Celebrating Good Gifts and Avoiding Temptation

One approach to life is to focus on avoiding all the bad things. There’s some merit in this approach, but it can lend itself to an excessive focus on evil, avoiding contamination, and living with a bunch of “don’ts” or “thou shalt nots.” Rules and dogma without love and beauty kills grace (the letter kills, but Spirit gives life.) Another approach is to focus on beauty and all the “do’s.” Love God. Love people. Pursue beauty and goodness and connection and love. See it everywhere, even in the flawed nature of our world and people. Hunt for treasure everywhere, celebrate creation, and leave the world a better place.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 5/24/21 Spirituality Adventures 5/24/21

Is Penny Dreadful a Christian Gothic Horror Tale?

Listen: John Clare reciting Wordsworth in Penny Dreadful Finale

In my office, I have a collection of leather bond books from Easton Press 100 Greatest Books Ever Written. I haven’t read all of them, but it’s on my bucket list. Contained in the collection are several 19th century Victorian Gothic literary masterpieces—Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, to name a few—which employ supernatural characters to explore themes of spirituality and the paradox of human nature. I’ve always been fond of these characters and all their reincarnations through film and literature—dark themes and characters with glimmers of redemption and hope.

Like many Americans during the pandemic, I was searching for some streaming online series to watch. My favorite of 2020 was The Queen’s Gambit (I highly recommend it for anyone), but I found one gothic horror series that intrigued me—Penny Dreadful. (I don’t recommend this for everyone—dark themes for mature audiences. It was originally released on Showtime 2014-16 and now available on Netflix.) What drew me to the series was its writer and creator—John Logan. (I’m going to geek out a bit, but I have always tried to mash up the Bible with literature, music, history, philosophy, and pop culture, so I hope you enjoy!)

John Logan is one of my favorite American playwrights, screenwriters, film producers, and television producers. He is a three-time Academy Award nominee; twice for Best Original Screenplay for Gladiator (2000) and The Aviator (2004) and once for Best Adapted Screenplay for Hugo (2011). In Penny Dreadful, Logan mashes up gothic characters like Dr. Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll, Mina Harker; new characters like Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett), and Vanessa Ives (Eva Green); and various monsters and witches into a gothic horror thriller that explores the apocalyptic battle between good and evil, the existence of God, human depravity and dignity, and redemption set against the gaslight and fog of Victorian London.

John Clare is one of Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s creations in Penny Dreadful (named after a British poet). Clare has a love for poetry much like the original monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Dr. Frankenstein was the creator, not the monster). John Clare is played by Rory Kinnear, which is an astonishing performance. I feel like he should have won an award! John Clare is poignantly presented as a “monster” who is capable of great violence and vengeance, but who is also poetic, compassionate, and an existentially tortured soul. He narrates and reads Romantic poetry throughout the series by people like Keats, Blake, Tennyson, and Wordsworth.

This brings me to my original question: Is Penny Dreadful a Christian Gothic Horror Tale? The short answer is “no, I don’t think so.” However, its finale episode features sacrificial love—of which Jesus is the primary example—as the key to the redemption and the salvation of the world. As the “end of days” is about to unfold in the finale episode and darkness is about to engulf the world, Penny Dreadful displays the loving, sacrificial embrace of the two main characters quoting the Lord’s Prayer—Vanessa Ives and Ethan Chandler—and Vanessa gives her life in loving sacrifice to vanquish the threat of darkness embodied by Dracula.

In the final scene of the series, the main cast of characters are gathered around the grave of Vanessa Ives, and John Clare, the monster, quotes lines from William Woodsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. The lines of poetry are a haunting reminder of our own mortality contrasted with the dream children sometimes have of immortality. Death speaks eternal:

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream

The earth, and every common sight

To me did seem

Appareled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream.

It is not now as it hath been of yore;—

Turn wheresoe’er I may,

By night or day

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

—But there’s a Tree, of many, one,

A single field which I have looked upon,

Both of them speak of something that is gone;

The Pansy at my feet

Doth the same tale repeat:

Whither is fled the visionary gleam?

Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

I love the fact that the deep truth of Jesus’ sacrificial death for humanity echoes throughout the ages in literature and movies and music and plays and history and nature and romance. There are reminders and echoes everywhere. Our hearts are strangely warmed when we find this kind of sacrificial love in unsuspected places—eternity beats in our hearts.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 5/17/21 Spirituality Adventures 5/17/21

Abusive Authority or True Leadership?

Listen: “Killing In the Name” by Rage Against The Machine

“If you think you are leading and turn around to see no one following you, then you are only taking a walk” (origin uncertain). I have heard this quote from several different sources, and I have always identified with it. True leadership is not about force, manipulation, or deceit; its about authentic relationship and influence.

Early in my ministry, I devoured books on leadership. I remember hearing John Maxwell talk about the five levels of leadership: position, permission, production, people development, and pinnacle. (See The 5 Levels of Leadership by John Maxwell.) Positional leadership is the lowest level. Somebody exercises positional leadership when they have a positionin an organization, authority in a governmental system, or power due to an advantage in strength or weaponry. Not all positional leadership is inherently bad or abusive, but it holds the greatest potential for abuse because it can be forced upon the followers. If a follower doesn’t obey, they can suffer adverse consequences like loss of job, demotions, fines, social exclusion, jail time, or even death.

The higher levels of leadership are granted by the follower because the leader has contributed in a positive way to the follower’s life. When people feel inspired, illuminated, coached, included, valued, and loved, they will gladly follow a leader. When a leader not only inspires those who follow, but also empowers the followers to accomplish missional goals, to develop skills and character, and to thrive in an atmosphere of creativity and generosity—these are the highest levels of leadership and influence.

I have found that people with positions of leadership who tell their followers that they need to submit are invariably abusive. Coerced submission creates negative energy in relationships like anger, bitterness, resentment, gossip, backbiting and slander—work environments become toxic. The best kind of servanthood is when people joyfully give up some of their individual rights because of love and/or a common vision or mission. True love and respect is mutually and joyfully sacrificial. Both parties are devoted to one another. This is the ideal environment for love and work and community.

True leadership is visionary. It creates movement and momentum towards a preferred future. True leaders aren’t able to make everybody happy all the time; that’s not possible even in small, democratic groups of people. However, true leadership optimizes the potential for all involved to thrive individually and collectively. This is the art of true leadership.

Much discussion has taken place on the difference between leadership and management. Some people say that leadership is doing the right thing while management is doing things right. These distinctions get blurry at times. Leaders are decidedly visionary, for sure, while managers help their people execute the vision. I think the best managers are good leaders. The Gallup Organization analyzed more than one million employee interviews and found twelve elements employees needed their managers to provide (12: The Elements of Great Managing). Here they are:

1. Let everyone know what is expected of them

2. Ensure people have all the tools they need

3. Let people actually do what they do best

4. Give recognition and praise for jobs done well

5. Care about employees on a person level

6. Foster and encourage personal development

7. Make everyone’s opinions count

8. Help everyone feel their job is important

9. Associate with others who do quality work

10. Encourage strong and vibrant friendships

11. Evaluate performance in person regularly

12. Provide opportunities to learn and grow

Perhaps the best term for true leadership as I am describing it is servant leadership. Max DePree wrote an excellent book on this topic called Leadership is an Art. DePree said: “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant.”

I believe Jesus is the best example in human history of servant leadership. He came into the world to demonstrate the heart of God through love and service. He embodied the elements of true leadership as I have described it. In response to a mother who asked if her two sons could have positions of power next to Jesus (the mother of two disciples), Jesus said:

You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. For even the Son of Man [Jesus’ most frequent title for himself] came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:25-28; NLT).

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 5/10/21 Spirituality Adventures 5/10/21

Can You Trust Your Heart?

Listen: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” performed by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole

This question came up in a discussion with some friends who are in recovery. It was not a particularly religious group of people, but definitely people who are spiritual. I was surprised to hear that many people in the group had a negative assessment of whether or not they could trust their heart for guidance. Many of them had made some horribly destructive decisions under the influence of drugs or alcohol or both. I was surprised because many of my friends who are not particularly religious, who are not in recovery have a very optimistic assessment of their own intuition and instincts. On the other hand, many of my friends with a strong religious background (particularly Christian background) have grown up with a negative view of the human heart and whether or not you can trust it for guidance.

Studies of the human brain reveal that we are creatures of habit and adaptability. (See Incognito and Livewired by David Eagleman.) In biological terms, our heart pumps blood; our brains do the thinking. Our brain is an amazing biological mechanism. It comes pre-programed with certain algorithms for learning, evaluating new data, and storing memories (especially emotional memories and data needed for navigating life). Neuroscience of the brain is a fascinating field of study as it relates to human behavior. Suffice it to say, our survival on the planet is based on our brain’s ability to intuit its way through life. None of us could survive without some level of trust in our own instincts and our ability to make decisions.

Malcolm Gladwell wrote a fascinating book about intuitive feelings and snap judgments, which are often more accurate and insightful than months of analyzing data, called Blink. In the book, Gladwell points out how the human brain is capable of making complex, rational decisions about the world (using big data), while at the same time doing something which he calls “thin-slicing.” “Thin-slicing” is using small amounts of data combined with intuition and experience to make big decisions or conclusions about life. Gladwell shows how these decisions and conclusions can be amazingly accurate. He does balance his argument by pointing out how snap judgments can be wrong and harmful. So there’s a paradox in this brain of ours (or the human heart in colloquial terms).

Some questions don’t lead to easy, clear-cut answers. The answer is found in paradoxical tension or what some call non-dualistic thinking. Most faith traditions embrace paradox, but some interpreters of certain faith traditions like to eliminate paradox. For example, I have met many people in my faith tradition (Christianity) who have clear-cut answers for everything. I’ve heard people say things like “the Bible says it and I believe it” without much realization that the Bible says many things that are paradoxical.

Take for example the human heart as a source of guidance. I am speaking of the human heart as the center of emotion, intuition, and intention—the inner-self (how ancient Hebrew and Greeks thought about the heart as well as colloquial English). The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah spoke about the human heart in some interesting and paradoxical ways. He delivered his message during the Babylonian Exile of the Jewish people (605 BC), one of the darkest periods of ancient Israel’s history. Jeremiah believed that Israel was in this dark situation because they had forsaken their true identity and fallen into idolatry and injustice. Jeremiah says, “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9; NLT). This negative assessment of the human heart is similar to the perspective I have heard from people in recovery. They have had to come to grips with their own insanity and “believe that a Power greater than themselves could restore them to sanity.” They have gotten brutally honest about their own insanity while under the influence of substances. What’s interesting to me is that you don’t need to be an drug addict or alcoholic to make some really bad decisions in life. Behavioral addictions can be just as destructive.

Later on in Jeremiah’s message to ancient Israel in Exile, he became much more optimistic in his assessment of the human heart. If people would turn away from idolatry and injustice, they could find new hope and a new heart. Jeremiah says, “‘But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,’ says the Lord. ‘I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people…. For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:33-34; NLT).

So the human heart is amazingly complex and reliable, but, at times, it can be misleading in its narrative. (Neuroscience of the brain confirms this paradoxical assessment. The human brain is always telling itself stories about events.) I love Proverbs 4:23, “Guard your heart above all else, for from it flow the springs of life.” This Proverb affirms in a positive way the guidance which flows from the human heart, while at the same time giving the caution to guard our hearts.

How do we guard our heart? One way is to have some true friends, counselors, and therapists who can listen to our thoughts and ideas and intuitions. This gives us some important feed back as we navigate life. Another way is to practice meditation, journaling, and spiritual reading. These practices can help sharpen our intuitive skills over the course of our lifetime. Finally, we can seek a sense of connection to God or a higher power. This connection moves us beyond our own limited view of the world, ourselves, and others and provides vital interdependence for guidance.

I will close with a beautiful Psalm from the Hebrew tradition. With appropriate connection and interdependence, our heart is a beautiful guide to wholeness. “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4; ESV). The human heart effervesces with creativity and goodness and dreams if planted in the proper soil to nourish it.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 5/3/21 Spirituality Adventures 5/3/21

Where Are the Peacemakers?

Listen: “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Bob Dylan

Peacemaker is a compound word—a word made famous by Jesus in his most memorable message “The Sermon on the Mount.” It’s one of the beatitudes (beati is Latin for “happy” or “blessed”) in Matthew 5:9: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” The idea is that the person who “makes peace, works for peace, or helps bring about peace” is a child of God. I like to think of building bridges with people, instead of making enemies. It’s a characteristic to which I have always aspired. In my mind, we have a shortage of peacemakers in the world today.

In the Greco-Roman world, peace was basically the absence war. For example, the Pax Romana (“Roman Peace”) was roughly a 200-year-long timespan of Roman history (27 BC to 180 AD) with relative peace and prosperity. However, in the Hebrew worldview, shalom (“peace”) has a rich history. Shalom can mean an absence of war, but it also means wholeness and health from a physical, mental, emotional, relational, and spiritual perspective. It is also a beautiful greeting for both coming and going. The Greek New Testament draws upon this rich Hebrew context of meaning for its use of “peace” (eirene). This is what Jesus had in mind when he spoke of peacemakers.

So what does a peacemaker look like?

Politics and war. When I was a seminary student in the 1980’s, I had the privilege of studying with Dr. William Estep. (I took every class he offered at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he encouraged me to do PhD studies with him. I pursued pastoral ministry instead, but always cherished my studies with him.) Dr. Estep taught Reformation history, but he was a world-renowned scholar on Anabaptists history. (For a wonderful history, read The Anabaptists Story by William Estep.) The Anabaptists were birthed out of students who were studying with the Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingli. The Anabaptists were pacifists and consequently were killed by all of the Magisterial Reformers, Catholics and Protestants alike. For this reason, among others, I have always admired them.

The Anabaptists were the forerunners to the Mennonites and Amish. They took the teachings of Jesus about nonviolence (“turn the other cheek”) and loving your enemy very seriously. They withdrew from state sponsored war and violence, serving in the military, and policing because of their desire to follow the teachings of Jesus. In my opinion, anyone who follows Jesus should lean towards pacifism. I have always leaned towards pacifism, especially in personal relationships and social interactions. I stop short of calling all followers of Jesus to abstain from military or police service. I do think there is a place for Jesus followers to serve in these roles, but their purpose should always be to protect, serve, and keep the peace. State sponsored violence is a last resort. By the way, for an excellent presentation of this perspective, watch the movie Hacksaw Ridge. Pfc. Desmond T. Doss was a pacifist who served in World War II. Truly inspirational. Jesus followers would do well to draw inspiration from this powerful story.

Peace with adversaries. All human beings are created in the image of God and are people of worth and dignity. Regardless of race, nationality, gender, religion, or politics, we have far more in common with each other than we often imagine. I have had spiritual conversations with people around the world from every walk of life, and I have always been amazed at how easy it is to find common ground. I believe peacemakers seek to build bridges rather than build walls with those whom we disagree. Even in the face of injustice, peacemakers seek nonviolent ways to stand against injustice while advocating love, peace, and forgiveness. I think we have a lot to learn from Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. to name of few shining lights. In the words of MLK: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Peace with self. The mental health movement is a peacemaking movement. Healing from emotional wounds, trauma, shame, and addiction are vital for personal health and wholeness. Health professionals and grace-based people are following Jesus’ call to be peacemakers.

Peace with others. Every person on the planet will invariably be the source of hurt for another human being. I often hear parents talk about why their kids will need therapy as a result of their parenting. I think we are all aware of how we have the potential to hurt others even when we have the best of intentions. Learning how to make amends to those we have harmed is a work of peacemaking, for ourselves and others.

Peace with God. Having a relationship with something greater than yourself that is loving and caring is transformational. A “higher power” according to one’s understanding has brought peace to millions around the world. It was for this purpose that Jesus suffered a loving, sacrificial death on the cross. This ultimate act of nonviolence in the face of oppressive injustice while forgiving those who inflicted the suffering is inspirational. This kind of sacrificial love is disarming and liberating from the oppressive forces of sin and darkness and hatred. “For God in all his fulness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20; NLT).

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 4/26/21 Spirituality Adventures 4/26/21

Faith is Spelled R-I-S-K

Listen: “Oceans” (Live at RELEVANT)

One of my mentors in pastoral ministry (John Wimber) was known for his many axioms of wisdom. Several of them have stuck in my head through the years, and I have repeated them many times. “Faith is spelled R-I-S-K” is one of them.

Faith is one of those words that gets used in many contexts with ten different nuances. It’s like the word “love” in its multivalent meanings. In the biblical worldview, faith is primarily a word for trust—trust in God—but also trust in others and trust in yourself to some degree. It can also be used to talk about a set of beliefs, like the Christian faith or the faith of our fathers.

My focus in this blog is on the relational aspect of faith—faith as trust. I think its important to establish what faith is not. Through thousands of hours of conversations with people about faith, I have found that many people have misconceptions about the nature of faith. So here’s a short list of what faith is not (from a biblical perspective at least, maybe intuitive as well): (1) Faith is not the absence of fear. Faith and fear dance together. (See my blog “Can We Dance with Fear?”); (2) Faith is not the absence of doubts and questions concerning what you believe. Almost every biblical character had doubts and questions concerning their faith, even Jesus; (3) Faith is not the absence of uncertainty. Most faith adventures have a strong possibility of failure; and (4) Faith is not a mystical force like gravity, but it does involve a relationship with God and people and self, all of whom can be very mysterious!

Because faith is a relational term for trust, faith can ebb and flow. Faith can be somewhat bipolar. There are times when we feel confident in our relationship with God, others, and self; and there are times when those relationships can feel shattered, broken, and in need of repair. For many people, faith rises and falls with a vacillating sense of confidence and trust in the current status of any particular relationship. You might have an unwavering sense of confidence and trust in God’s love and grace, but even the best examples of people of faith from every tradition (the heroes of faith or the saints that have gone before us) have had seasons of darkness in which their faith was weighed and found wanting.

Faith and love are risky endeavors. (See my blog “Is Unconditional Love Possible?”) Upon entering into a faith-filled relationship, we can always wonder if it will last. Fear of failure and fear of abandonment can accompany any love relationship. However, if we try to avoid fear of failure and abandonment, then we are, in essence, trying to avoid faith and love which leaves us alone and isolated.

The encouraging news is that faith can be incredibly small and still have an extraordinary affect on life and love. In one of Jesus’ most famous sayings on faith, he spoke of it in a fantastic way: “I tell you, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible” (Matthew 17:20; NLT). The mustard seed is one of the smallest of seeds. So encouraging!

For some, the first and obvious thing to trust is God. They have grown up trusting in God and in the God of their faith tradition. But this is not at all easy or obvious for many people. In the 21st Century, doubt is as common as faith in the most developed countries of the world.

Maybe the first thing to trust is what is real, even if it seems tragic and difficult. I love what Richard Rohr says in Falling Upward:

The tragic sense of life is ironically not tragic at all, at least in the Big Picture….The tragic sense of life is not unbelief, pessimism, fatalism, or cynicism. It is just ultimate and humiliating realism, which for some reason demands a lot of forgiveness of almost everything. Faith is simply to trust the real, and to trust that God is found within it—even before we change it. This is perhaps our major stumbling stone, the price we must pay to keep the human heart from closing down and to keep the soul open for something more.

This openness to “something more” is the key to faith and trust. In recovery, people talk of surrendering to a “higher power of your understanding.” This is a good place to start. You might start with the love and trust you have in your dog or your cat—that’s a source of profound love for most people. You have faith that your dog is going to love you all over again as soon as you return home. Or, you might put your faith in the joy you experience when you walk in the woods, or soak up the sun on a beach, or smell pine trees in the mountains.

Faith in yourself can be tricky, but it is necessary. Faith in the way your brain works, the way you experience and think about yourself and the world around you. Trust in your intuition and instincts is invaluable for navigating life’s journey. (Read Blink by Malcom Gladwell.) Trusting in yourself when your self-confidence and self-worth has been shattered can be extremely difficult, but it is absolutely necessary for healing and wholeness. Do you have enough self-compassion to believe in yourself?

Faith in a circle of friends and family is foundational to meaningful life and existence on the planet. All faith traditions and evolution itself would tell us that we are made for loving community. Isolation is dangerous for all species, plant and animal alike, especially humans. This is extremely challenging for survivors of relational trauma, but healing comes through grace-filled relationships. Do you have enough interdependence to believe in others?

Faith in God or something greater than yourself that is loving and caring is a big leap for some. I have met thousands of people through the years who have abandoned faith in God, a higher power, or organized religion because of religious trauma, religious dogma, or religious violence and hatred. Despite this aversion, we can all recognize the interconnectedness of all things in the universe. The butterfly effect seems to me to apply to more than just chaos theory. Do you have enough sense of mystery to believe in a power greater than yourself?

So faith is spelled R-I-S-K. When it comes to business and relationships and community and life, we must exercise faith—and there’s always a risk. Taking appropriate risks is vital to success in any arena of life. Risk management is a key ingredient to successful endeavors. I find great hope and comfort in the words of Basil King, a Canadian clergyman: “Go at it boldly, and you’ll find unexpected forces closing round you and coming to your aid.”

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 4/19/21 Spirituality Adventures 4/19/21

Is Unconditional Love Possible?

Listen: “When It Don’t Come Easy” by Patty Griffin

I’ve often wondered if unconditional love is humanly possible. As a pastor, I have heard plenty of evidence to support this uncertainty. During the course of my pastoral career, I have counseled with hundreds of couples torn apart by relational conflict. I have counseled with hundreds of parents who were facing destructive struggles with their children. I have counseled with the victims and survivors of abusive relationships. I have also consulted with hundreds of churches across denominational lines and continents concerning congregational conflict and disharmony. I have also witnessed the toxic dysfunction of political, cultural, and racial divisions threatening to tear nations apart (whether it be in America, Ethiopia, Ireland or Israel). Quite frankly, there are times when I think unconditional love is an unrealistic longing or a sentimental platitude. No one really loves another human being unconditionally—not really. We love because we hope to get love in return.

On the the other hand, I think we do hunger to be loved unconditionally. I desire to be loved unconditionally. Despite this hunger, we recoil from exposing our true self for fear of being rejected. Naked vulnerability? No thank you. Too risky. We say to ourselves, “I’ll keep my mask on and be very careful about who sees the real me.” And yet, we hunger for people to know us, really know us—with all our flaws and imperfections, with all our beauty and originality—and still love us. This is the kind of love for which we hunger.

This kind of love is risky. Human love cannot exist without boundaries. Some human beings seem to be incapable of healthy, loving relationship. They only seem to inflict harm and abuse on those they supposedly love. How can we love another human being unconditionally when they can’t be trusted? When they are repeat offenders? Or when we need to end a relationship in order to stop the abuse?

Maybe, unconditional love is only possible with God. God is love (I John 4:8). God is able to love unconditionally. It’s somehow comforting to think that a God who knows everything about us, about me, still loves me. Even when I am at my worst, God’s love for me does not change. God’s love never fails (I Corinthians 13:7).

Perhaps, the extent to which we love others as God loves them is the extent to which we know and love God. As challenging and daunting as this thought is, is there really another way to love someone? How do we love others and still have healthy boundaries? How do we love our enemies? Jesus taught us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43). How do we love our enemies without empowering abusive, unjust behavior and systemic injustice? It seems to me that the Anabaptists (certainly not the Magisterial Reformers) and Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela have something to teach us along these lines.

I still want to strive for this kind of love because “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them” (I John 4:16; NLT). And I long to love and be loved by perfect, unconditional love. There is always a risk. Maybe Jesus’ death on the cross speaks to this risk for all time—sacrificial, subversive, radical love. What are the alternatives? Endless hatred and retaliation? A cycle of retribution and revenge? An eye for an eye where no one ever wins; no one ever gets even; and everyone is blind?

C. S. Lewis wrote a wonderful book based on the four Greek words for love (storge, phileo, eros, and agape) entitled, The Four Loves. Here is my favorite quote from the book:

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 4/12/21 Spirituality Adventures 4/12/21

It’s Friday, but Sunday is Coming

Listen: “I Still Believe” by The Call

On April 2, 2021, I held my first event for Spirituality Adventures. It was the first time I had spoken in front of an audience in over two years (with the exception of a couple of small groups). I was nervous, but it felt like the right timing. I wanted to do it on Good Friday because the message I had on my heart was thematically tied to Good Friday.

I wasn’t sure if anybody would show up for a ticketed event with me speaking. However, I was overwhelmed by grace-filled people who attended the event to show support for me. The room was filled with love and grace. It was a beautiful experience.

Jessica Harp started off the evening with a thirty minute song set from her previous albums. I was so grateful to have Jessica perform at the event. I had always wanted to do something with her. After Jessica performed, I shared briefly about my vision for Spirituality Adventures, which is to ignite spiritual growth and transformation through blogs, podcasts, teaching series, events, and pastoral care. Derrison Palea performed a spoken word poem before I delivered my message.

In my message, I communicated three things: (1) I shared my story, focusing on my recent struggle with addiction, doubt, shame, and darkness; (2) I shared Jesus’ experience of abandonment, doubt, and darkness as he hung on the cross and quoted from Psalm 22:1, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”; and (3) I shared a message of hope rooted in the deep truth of the resurrection story. I wanted people to know that questions and doubt are part of the faith journey, and that shame can be healed through the love of grace-filled people.

Despite all the darkness and shame that I have gone through, I still have hope—hope that is rooted in the resurrection—hope that a new day will dawn and spring will bring forth new life. I still have hope for healing—hope that our emotional wounds and scars will one day feel no pain. I still have hope for grace—hope that our imperfections will tell a beautifully flawed story. I still have hope for true love—hope that our deepest needs for love and belonging will be fulfilled. I still have hope for new beginnings—hope that our past failures and sufferings will not be our final legacy. I still have hope for redemption—hope that our deepest fears will be swallowed up in faith. I still have hope that in any given moment all that we need is available.

When I was a young pastor, I would listen to sermons from some of my favorite African-American preachers. Sometimes their messages captured me with poetry, rhythm, cadence, and deep truth articulated with power and passion. I ended my message with one of my favorite Good Friday sermons by the preacher S. M. Lockridge entitled “It’s Friday.” Here are his words:

It’s Friday…

Jesus is praying

Peter is sleeping

Judas is betraying

…but Sunday is coming

It’s Friday…

Pilate is struggling

The counsel is conspiring

The crowd is vilifying

…They don’t even know that Sunday is coming

It’s Friday…

The disciples are running like sheep without a shepherd

Mary is crying

Peter is denying

…but they don’t know that Sunday is coming

It’s Friday…

The Romans beat my Jesus

They robe him in scarlet

They crown him with thorns

…but they don’t know that Sunday is coming

It’s Friday…

See Jesus walking to Calvary

His blood dripping

His body stumbling

And his spirit burdened

…but you see, it’s only Friday, Sunday is coming

It’s Friday…

The world is winning

People are sinning

And evil is grinning

It’s Friday…

The soldiers nailed my savior’s hands to the cross

They nailed my savior’s feet to the cross

And then they raised him up next to criminals

It’s Friday, but let me tell you something, Sunday is coming

It’s Friday…

The disciples are questioning what has happened to their king

The pharisees are celebrating

That their scheming has been achieved

…but they don’t know it’s only Friday, Sunday is coming

It’s Friday…

He’s hanging on the cross

Feeling forsaken by his Father

Left alone and dying

Can nobody save him?

…Oh, it’s Friday, but Sunday is coming

It’s Friday…

The earth trembles

The sky grows dark

My king yields his spirit

It’s Friday…

Hope is lost

Death has won

Sin has conquered

And Satan’s just a laughing

It’s Friday…

Jesus is buried

A soldier stands guard

And a rock is rolled into place

But it’s Friday, it’s only Friday…

…Sunday is coming!

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 4/5/21 Spirituality Adventures 4/5/21

It’s Friday, and Sometimes I Doubt

Listen: “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen (Live in London)

I remember when I was a teenager, and I was having doubts about my faith. My mom had given me a Bible that contained short essays for teenagers. One of the essays was entitled, “Sometimes I Doubt.” If my memory serves my well, it was inserted with the story of doubting Thomas in John 20:24-29. The essay talked about how most of the major characters in the Bible wrestled with faith and doubts, even questioning God’s love or existence at times. Even Jesus!

This was comforting to my teenage self. Maybe, I thought, I am not so different or far off course! In 2019, I found myself in a three-quarter life crisis in which I had lost my marriage, my career, my community, and my faith—at least that’s how I felt. I my darkest days I questioned everything I had ever believed. I was tormented with religious doubt and self-doubt, and I cried out against God—challenging God, questioning God, and questioning myself. While I could certainly see how my own bad choices had played a major role in my crisis, it didn’t seem like God had held up his end of the relationship. After all, I had prayed millions of prayers according to His will “to lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil.” I could not have prayed more or harder or with a more sincere heart than I had prayed for over forty years, and He did not answer.

This brings me back to reflecting on the men and women in the Bible. The faith journey is one that includes doubts and questions, even darkness. There are 150 Psalms in the Hebrew Bible and about one third of them are Psalms of Lament. In these Psalms, there is always a crisis which triggers a complaint about God, about enemies, about circumstances, or about self, or all of them together.

It is fascinating to me that Jesus quotes from one of these Psalms while he is hanging on the cross suffering on Good Friday. Jesus cries out in prayer by quoting Psalm 22:1: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The second verse of Psalm 22 says, “Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief” (NLT). In the depth of his agony, Jesus felt abandoned by God and quotes from a Psalm that questions the love and power of God.

Regardless of your faith tradition or lack of faith, faith and doubt intermingle in the human experience. It’s an amazing aspect of the evolved human brain—this human tendency to question and doubt and believe and reflect and tell stories. Why are we here on this planet? What is our purpose? Leonard Cohen was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist. He poignantly expresses religious doubt, relational doubt, and self-doubt in his most famous song “Hallelujah.”

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it please the Lord

But you don’t really care for music, do you?

It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth

The minor falls, the major lifts

The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to a kitchen chair

She broke your throne, and she cut your hair

And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Well, maybe there’s a God above

As for me all I’ve ever learned from love

Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

But it’s not a crime that you’re hear tonight

It’s not some pilgrim who claims to have seen the light

No, it’s a cold and it’s a very broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know

What’s really going on below

But now you never show it to me, do you?

And I remember when I moved in you

And the holy dove she was moving too

And every single breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Now I’ve done my best, I know it wasn’t much

I couldn’t feel, so I learned to touch

I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come here to London just to fool you

And even thought it all went wrong

I’ll stand right here before the Lord of song

With nothing, nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

There is a spiritual ache and hunger associated with this human experience, but in the words of S. M. Lockridge: “It’s Friday, it’s only Friday…but Sunday is coming!”

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2021

Spirituality Adventures 3/29/21 Spirituality Adventures 3/29/21

The Power of Vulnerability

Listen: “Running Up That Hill” by Meg Myers or Kate Bush

I remember listening to a TED talk in 2012 by a woman of whom I’d never heard. It was entitled “The Power of Vulnerability” by Brené Brown. I was immediately drawn to her content and her vulnerability. I went out and bought her book on the same topic entitled Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. Almost ten years later, it’s still on my top ten favorite nonfiction book list.

Brené starts her book with one of my favorite quotes of all time, a quote I have used in countless sermons for over two decades. The quote comes from one of my favorite American presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt’s speech, “Citizenship in a Republic,” is sometimes called “The Man in the Arena” because of these famous lines:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly….

I always loved this quote because it resonated with me so deeply. When I started Vineyard Church in Kansas City, Missouri in 1990, I was excited about the potential of a grace-based church for people who had rejected church because of legalism or judgmental attitudes. I started a rock-and-role church with a “come as you are” atmosphere. I didn’t wear a coat and tie, and we had drums and electric guitars. It was not typical church behavior in 1990. As the church grew over the decades to several thousand people, it was easy for people to assume that the church grew without a high price tag. But I remember the hundreds and thousands of people who were critical of me and the church. For every one person who stayed and like what we were doing, a dozen left critical of me and the church. I remember one person telling me that God had written “Ichabod” over the church (Christianise for “God’s blessing has departed”).

I remember how numerous and harsh my critics were. I had a fellow pastor in Kansas City preach and entire series against me. So you can see why the Theodore Roosevelt quote meant so much to me. It helped me stay true to my heart for a grace-based church where anyone was welcome. I said many times, “I don’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve done, God loves you and we are glad you are here.”

I also tried to practice appropriate transparency and vulnerability in my messages. Most of the time, when I shared an example from my own life, I shared from a place of failure, embarrassment, or imperfection. I wanted people to know that I didn’t “walk on water” or have a special standing with God. Brené defines vulnerability as a courageous approach to life which involves uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure in regards to our imperfections. I tried to practice this in my speaking and leading at Vineyard Church for decades. One of my mentors said a pastor needs to have the “skin of a rhinoceros and the heart of a child.” So challenging!

Despite my efforts at vulnerability, I didn’t expose all my private struggles publicly, nor am I suggesting that this would have been appropriate. However, there were two private struggles that I never shared with anyone except my personal counselor: (1) my marriage issues; and (2) my personal struggle with Xanax and alcohol in 2017 and 2018. As I think back, I thought I was protecting my marriage, but I was focused on my insomnia more than I was worried about an alcohol and drug problem.

Today, I read the Roosevelt quote and Brené’s book with fresh eyes. I have decided to tackle my personal (but highly public exposure) struggles with openness and honesty through telling my story. I started doing this in October of 2020 through my blogs and podcasts. I have also started a new nonprofit called Spirituality Adventures. My hope is that through my transparency, authenticity, and vulnerability, people will benefit, learn, and grow. My hope is to ignite spiritual curiosity and growth through blogs, podcasts, teaching, and events.

I remember when I read Brené’s book for the first time. She ended one of her chapters (“Understanding and Combating Shame”) with a passage from a 1922 children’s classic The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. It’s a reminder of how much easier it is to be real when we are loved. (While writing this blog, I received a text from a former church member who said my superpower was “loving on people.” He said this was the reason Vineyard grew because I gave people unconditional love. I hope there is some truth in that. It’s certainly something to which I aspire—more now than ever before.) Here’s the passage:

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but really loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real, you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “ or bit by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real, you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

Shalom

Spirituality Adventures 3/22/21 Spirituality Adventures 3/22/21

Human Dignity and Worth

Listen: “Royals” by Lorde

Human beings are capable of so much good and so much evil. (See Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky.) It seems like we humans are masters at dehumanizing other human beings. Some of the more visible forms of dehumanization are racism, classism, xenophobia, ageism, sexism, and elitism, to name a few. We also dehumanize by treating other human beings as objects to be controlled and manipulated for our own ends or purposes. Political, religious, and family systems play this game, abusing and exploiting other human beings. There are more subtle forms of dehumanization like simply not listening to another person’s story, not valuing their dreams or desires or pain. The truth: we are all imperfect people. Our imperfections can connect us through grace and vulnerability, but so can our inherent worth and dignity.

The inestimable worth of a human soul. It’s an idea that runs deep in every faith tradition. I was raised in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and this idea was planted deeply in my view of the world. In my tradition, it starts in the first chapter of sacred literature: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27; NLT).

This is an amazing statement coming from the context of the Ancient Near East (ANE). In the ANE, only sovereign kings who ruled over empires were viewed as the “divine image” of the patron god over a particular city-state. The “image of god” was an elitist term reserved for kings. Equality for all people was a foreign concept.

When I was working on a PhD in the Hebrew Bible, I wrote a deep exegetical paper on this famous text in Genesis. If you explore the use of the “image of God” in the first six chapters of Genesis, you find some interesting ideas about the dignity and worth of human beings, regardless of their race, gender, nationality, economic status, beliefs, or lifestyle.

First of all, every person is equally created in the “image of God.” This is perhaps the first time in ancient literature that the concept of the “image of God” was democratized. This radical concept, while embraced by democracies around the world, has yet to be realized. While giving mental ascent to this concept, we largely segment or discriminate according to our own personal value systems based on any number of factors like beauty, fitness, socio-economic status, color, accent, beliefs, politics, musical tastes, ethics, and the list could go on ad infinitum. We do this, whether we like to admit it or not. Awareness is an important first step to change.

Secondly, the “image of God” involves responsibility. According to Genesis 1:28, we are created to “multiply” and “rule.” Ironically, this command to rule has been misconstrued as a reason to oppress and abuse people and creation. The opposite was intended. In the ANE and in Genesis, the world was viewed as containing a “primordial chaos.” In Genesis 1:2, this primordial chaos is described as “formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters” (tohu va bohu in the Hebrew). Human beings are called to steward the earth, co-create human dignity, and restore justice to the forces of chaos. We are to rule as gracious kings and queens with a heart of love towards all creation (servant leadership).

Thirdly, all of humanity is envisioned as priests and priestesses. In Genesis chapter two the author doubles back on the creation story (a Hebrew grammar style called resumptive repetition) and places humanity in a garden—it’s a temple garden. Humanity is called upon to “tend and watch” the garden. Throughout the rest of the Hebrew Bible, the combination of these two verbs is descriptive of the function of priests in the temple. All of humanity is to serve a priestly function, that is, caring for and guarding the dignity and worth of all creation. In effect, loving all of creation, stewarding all of creation, nurturing all of creation, mending all of creation, and treating every human being with dignity and worth. We are to have God’s heart for all of creation.

Fourthly, the “image of God” involves sonship and daughter-ship (Genesis 5:3). We are sons and daughters of the most high God. We are royal at birth. (Read Psalms 8.) I am reminded of the song “Royals” by Lorde. Her lyrics speak of how common people can be enamored with royalty (thus the media focus on the British royal family), but this ancient sacred text sees every human heart beating with royal blood. Imagine that. (“Imagine all the people…” a nod to John Lennon.)

It’s interesting how quickly in the Hebrew text humanity failed to fulfill her divine calling. By the third chapter of Genesis, humanity is falling away from the original design. Humanity quickly falls into patterns of judgment and abuse and violence—dehumanizing behavior. Primordial chaos is infiltrating the human race and shattering her into a fragmentation of families and tribes and nations. Despite the chaos, the “image of God” is never lost or eliminated—marred perhaps—but never obliterated (Genesis 5:1-2; Psalm 8).

So my heart in sharing all this is to challenge myself and those who might read this blog to rise up and love and forgive and heal this broken world, this fragmented world. We have far more in common than you could ever imagine. We need “grace-filled eyes” to see each person as God intended. When you sit with people and listen to their stories—hear their experiences of shame and abuse, hear their dreams of hope and love—we are not that different. If we love God and love our neighbor, we can be the change that the world needs.

After all, we are royal sons and daughters, called to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), to care and watch over this world with love and generosity and creativity and gratitude. Let’s not forsake our calling. The world needs it; your family needs it; your next door neighbor needs it; the person who is different from you needs it. We all need it. Let’s be it. What we truly are.

Shalom

Spirituality Adventures 3/15/21 Spirituality Adventures 3/15/21

Grace-filled People

Listen: “You Make Beautiful Things” by Gungor

All of the religions of the world have a version of Karma. It’s the law of reaping what you sow (Galatians 6:7). Some would call it reciprocity. If you sow generosity, it will come back to you. If you sow love, it will come back to you. It also works in a negative way. If you sow hate, you will reap hatred. You reap what you sow. If you behave badly and mess up in a big way, the consequences can be harsh. Karma can feel cold, calculated, and cruel.

And then there is grace. I’ve always been a grace guy. Grace interrupts the cycle of retribution. We get what we don’t deserve. We get forgiveness, kindness, and a fresh start. I think we all need grace. Our world needs more grace. We need more grace-filled people.

Over the last couple of years in my life, I have needed an abundance of grace. I wanted to believe that what I had preached for years was true for me: Grace is freely available from God. However, I was having a hard time giving myself grace.

Grace-filled people made the difference. Some people kept loving me and showing me grace, regardless of my behavior. Sometimes we come to know God’s grace through grace-filled people.

One of my favorite authors said that we all need to have “grace-filled eyes” to see the potential in others, even when they are at their worst. “To love a person,” said Dostoevsky, “means to see him as God intended him to be.” It’s being able to see the inherent dignity and worth of every human person because they are created in the image of God.

Some people are the opposite. They want to isolate, punish, or cancel people with whom they disagree intellectually or with whom they disagree morally. They judge harshly, focus on people’s worst moments, and rarely, if ever, let up on the punishment.

Jesus didn’t behave this way. In Jesus’ day, the world was divided into people who were clean and unclean. People were considered unclean if they were diseased (like lepers), disabled (birth defects), foreigners (Gentiles), or sinful. If you touched or socialized with any of these people, you would be unclean by virtue of proximity. People were focused on avoiding contagious people.

Jesus touched the sick. He ate with sinners. He radically included those who were on the margins. In effect, he healed people through including them into a new kind of community—a community of grace.

My favorite book on grace is written by Philip Yancey entitled What’s So Amazing About Grace. If you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend it. Yancey is an excellent writer, and his vision for grace is contagious. He writes: “Rung by rung, Jesus dismantled the ladder of hierarchy that had marked the approach to God. He invited defectives, sinners, aliens, and Gentiles—the unclean!—to God’s banquet table.”

To follow Jesus means to be an agent of grace instead of an avoider of contagion. Jesus taught that we all need grace, even the angry, self-righteous, “morally superior” crowd needs grace though they can’t see it. Those who receive grace are called to give grace, and deep down, we all need it and long for it.

In one of Martin Luther King’s most famous sermons, “Loving You Enemies,” he challenged people to practice non-violent grace. MLK famously reflects on Jesus’ teaching and said, “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

I love what Bono from U2 said about grace:

You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; or in physics, in physical laws every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you sow, so will you reap” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff. (The Poached Egg, Bono Interview, “Grace Over Karma”).

I second that!

Shalom

Spirituality Adventures 3/8/21 Spirituality Adventures 3/8/21

Is Self-Love Narcissistic?

Listen: “Narcissus” by Alanis Morissette

Narcissus was a hunter from Thespiae in Greek mythology who was known for his beauty. He rejected all romantic advances and eventually fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. The character of Narcissus is the origin of the term narcissism, and the quality which defines narcissistic personality disorder.

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention, and a lack of empathy for others. People with the disorder, according to Mayo Clinic, can:

· Have an exaggerated sense of self-importance

· Have a sense of entitlement and require constant, excessive admiration

· Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements that warrant it

· Exaggerate achievements and talents

· Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty, or the perfect mate

· Believe they are superior and can only associate with equally special people

· Monopolize conversations and belittle or look down on people they perceive as inferior

· Take advantage of others to get what they want

· Have an inability to recognize the needs of others

· Be envious of others and believe others envy them

· Suffer from an inability to handle criticism

· Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, vulnerability, and humiliation

Maybe this list brings someone to mind. It’s not an uncommon personality disorder. So with such a disorder in mind, what does it mean to love yourself in a healthy way? Is that even possible?

One of the ways I have thought about this issue in the past is through a biblical/Jesus worldview. In the Rabbinic tradition, the Torah (first five books of the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament) contains 613 commands. One of the discussion questions among Rabbis in the ancient world was: Which commandments are the most important? Jesus was asked this question by some Rabbis, and his response was not uncommon. Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment [Deuteronomy 6:5]. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself [Leviticus 19:18]. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commands” (Matthew 22:37-40; NLT). I have always loved Jesus’ answer.

It’s interesting. The Bible never commands us to love ourselves. We are commanded to love God and love our neighbor. Healthy self-love is assumed (that is, the assumption of self-love is the basis for the command to love your neighbor). Jesus put it another way in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and prophets” (Matthew 7:12; NLT).

Most of my life I focused on loving God and loving others. I had enough self-respect to understand and attempt to live by the Golden rule without excessive focus on myself. However, when I went through my public shame and humiliation at the end of 2018, I found myself feeling incredibly hateful towards myself. My inner-critic was on steroids, and I felt shame like I had never felt before. I felt an intense amount of anger towards myself. I felt small. I had an unwanted story, and I felt that I had failed miserably as a husband and a pastor.

So I started thinking about the importance of healthy self-love. Why was I being so harsh on myself when I have always practiced love and grace towards others who have made a mess of their lives? If I gave myself the same amount of love and grace that I always gave others, I would have a great deal of self-compassion for my own self and my own circumstances. I needed to practice the Golden Rule in reverse. I needed to be kind and loving to myself.

I’m not a psychologist, but I think that I can safely say that the art of self-love, self-care, and self-compassion are an important part of emotional, spiritual, and mental health. We can’t love others well if we hate or mistreat ourselves. Healthy love for others flows best from a healthy self-esteem. Many people need to focus on loving themselves in order to love others well. The two work together synergistically.

I like the term self-compassion. According to Allison Abrams (LCSW-R), psychologist Kristin Neff was the first person to measure and define “self-compassion.” Neff describes self-compassion as being kind toward the self, which entails being gentle, supportive, and understanding as opposed to harshly judging oneself for personal shortcomings. Unconditional acceptance of self and our own story, the good and bad parts, is a component of self-compassion (Psychology Today, “How to Cultivate More Self-Compassion,” by Allison Abrams; March 3, 2017).

Research over the last couple of decades has shown that people who have self-compassion also have greater social connectedness, emotional intelligence, happiness, and overall life satisfaction. So how can we practice healthy self-compassion while avoiding the pitfalls of narcissism? Here are a few ideas from Allison Abrams:

1. Treat yourself as you would a small child, a good friend, or a beloved pet.

2. Practice mindfulness or what some would call a state of non-judgmental awareness. Be curious about your own thoughts and feelings with kindness.

3. Remember that you are not alone. Welcome to humanity. (This pastor found out he couldn’t walk on water and that’s okay.)

4. Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Own your story with flaws included. Be brave.

5. Work with a supportive therapist, coach, or sponsor. It’s hard to learn self-compassion on our own. We need to be brutally honest with someone who will practice compassion and kindness towards us. After a while, we can practice it on ourselves.

The art of self-care, self-respect, self-worth, self-acceptance, self-love, and self-compassion is a journey. It’s a spiritual adventure. Thanks for connecting.

Shalom

Spirituality Adventures 3/1/21 Spirituality Adventures 3/1/21

Can Laughter Heal?

Listen: “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash

I grew up in a family in which teasing and laughing were our sixth love language (a reference to Gary Chapman’s book The Five Love Languages). My dad enjoys teasing the people he loves, and he believes if you can’t laugh at yourself—well you’re just taking yourself too damn seriously!

I remember learning this lesson from my dad at a very young age. When I was about seven or eight years old, my dad started taking me on fishing trips to Grand Lake, Oklahoma. We fished for white bass during spawning season in the spring on Lake Hudson, which is below the Grand Lake Dam. My dad would meet his fishing buddies at the lake, and he would drag me along. His friends loved to tease me. They would tease me about losing a fish, losing a lure, tangling up their line, scaring the fish away, peeing out the boat, taking a nap, breaking a reel, letting the big one go, failing to plant the hook, setting the hook too hard, cussing when I lost a fish, driving the boat poorly, eating too much, or—you get the picture. You name it; they teased me about it. And I had to put up with their snoring at night!!

I recall one of the early trips I went on with the guys, and I got teased particularly hard about something. The guys were having a big laugh at my expense. My dad could tell I got bent out of shape and my feelings were hurt. He didn’t tell the guys to stop teasing me. He pulled me aside and taught me a lesson that stuck with me. He said, “Son, you need to stop taking yourself so seriously. All of the guys tease each other. We are just having fun. You just need to tease them back. We all laugh at each other.”

Well, needless to say, I learned the art of teasing. It has played well in the world of athletic competition, some construction work I did years ago, my own family, my friends, and adventure sports. I did have to learn its limits in some settings. Not everyone learned this lesson from their dad. I’ve had to apologize on a few occasions.

I also learned the art of laughing at myself. This is vitally important in life and in leadership. In fact, humor is an important ingredient of EQ. (See Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman.) I think I learned the art form of self-deprecating humor from my British friends. Some of the best messages I have ever heard fall into this category. Check out Adrian Plass as an example (The Sacred Diary of Adrain Plass).

Susan Sparks wrote a book that was featured in “O, The Oprah Magazine” entitled Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor. At the heart of the book is this statement: “If you can laugh at yourself, you can forgive yourself. If you can forgive yourself, your can forgive others.” This reminds me of a famous Proverb which speaks about the healing power of laughter—“A cheerful heart is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22).

I must confess, 2019 was so dark for me that I almost lost my way, lost myself, lost my sense of self-deprecating humor. Everything just hurt too badly. As I started to heal, I started to laugh again. In some of my darkest moments, I found myself surrounded by people who loved me and helped me laugh again. There’s usually some humor in our brokenness, if we can step back from it for a moment. And people will laugh with us because they are laughing at themselves as well. The best of people, the most gracious kind, see grace in brokenness. I was reading some AA literature a while ago and ran across a short reflection on laughter (Alcoholics Anonymous: Daily Reflection, “The Gift of Laughter,” February 20). “When my AA sponsor began to laugh and point out my self-pity and ego-feeding deceptions, I was annoyed and hurt, but it taught me to lighten up and focus on my recovery. I soon learned to laugh at myself and eventually I taught those I sponsor to laugh also. Every day I ask God to help me stop taking myself too seriously.”

While I was studying religion at Baylor University, it finally dawned on me that the Hebrew Prophets and Jesus used story telling and humor in their teaching styles. This never occurred to me when I was growing up in church. Granted, they used ancient forms of humor that sometimes escape our detection like hyperbole and graphic slang (in Hebrew and Greek, but Bible translators don’t do it justice). Consider the humor in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, “How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of the speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:4; NLT). This is some funny crap, and Jesus was trying to get us to smell our own! (Check out The Humor of Christ by Elton Trueblood.

One of my favorite British authors was G. K. Chesterton. In his book Othodoxy, he makes some profound insights which illustrate the point of this blog. “Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly. Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. Satan fell by the force of gravity.” Pride weights us down; humility lifts us up.

Let’s fly together. (For some good laughs, check out my weekly stories with my dad every Sunday on my social media platforms and my website: realfredherron.com.)

Shalom

Spirituality Adventures 2/22/21 Spirituality Adventures 2/22/21

Can We Dance with Fear?

Listen: “Crawling” by Linkin Park and “Landslide” by Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac

(I attended a Linkin Park concert on November 27, 2001 at Hale Arena in Kansas City. Chester Bennington gave an amazing performance. God’s rest and peace upon him.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about fear the last couple of years. Primarily because I have felt an abundance of it every day. I actually don’t like admitting this out loud. I’d rather be brave all the time, but seriously, there are moments in every day when I feel more like the Cowardly Lion in the Wizard of Oz.

People who study the neuroscience of the brain tell us that fear is one of primal emotions seated in the oldest parts of our brain—the brain stem and the amygdala. When your brain senses danger, your amygdala signals your fight, flight, freeze responses. Our amygdala was designed to protect archaic humans from danger, but in our modern world the ancient amygdala seems to constantly overreact. Fear becomes a constant traveling companion. When I think about the way I experience fear and anxiety, I wonder if I have an overactive amygdala. (It’s an actual possibility.)

When I think back on my whole history with fear, I don’t think I have lived out of fear, I haven’t made most of my decisions in life based on fear, and I haven’t even necessarily tried to avoid fear. In many situations, I have pressed into fear, faced it, and quelled it (like rock climbing, mountain biking, mission work, and church planting). But fear has always been present to some degree.

In the last couple of years, fear has been present daily. Some days it feels insurmountable. So I have look it in the face and asked myself the difficult question: What am I afraid of? I have sat in silence and listened with curiosity to my fear. (I don’t like the feeling of fear so this is not my favorite thing to do.) In the aftermath of my private failures and public shame, I was facing losses on every front—my marriage, my career, my community, my faith, my finances, my home, my self-worth, my confidence. You name it, and I probably lost it. These losses weren’t imaginary; they were my new reality and my amygdala was hijacking me daily. The losses inflicted fear.

I also tried to listen to my deepest fears. Every day I have felt fear of financial insecurity, but is that my deepest fear? Several therapists and psychologists have suggested to me that our deepest fears are abandonment and emotional overwhelm. I have certainly pondered those fears and listened intently. Abandonment by God, by friends, by love ones? Overwhelmed with the consequences of my behavior? Listening with curiosity to my fears is a work in progress.

Despite my daily fears, I have desired to face my fears and move forward in faith most everyday. One thing I have learned through my decades of walking in faith is that faith and fear dance together. This is how it has worked in my life, and how it has worked in the lives of men and women of faith in the Bible.

Faith and fear go together. I know. Some of you may say, “Faith is the opposite of fear.” There may be some truth in that, but faith is definitely not the absence of fear. Faith can give us the courage to take action in the face of fear. That’s why faith and fear dance together. “Without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6), but great faith is always exercised in the presence of great fear. Courage is an outworking of faith. Nelson Mandela said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

Several years ago I stood on Mount Nebo in Jordan overlooking Israel. I remembered back to when Moses stood on the same spot with Joshua. Joshua would lead the people into the Promised Land. In the first few verses of the book of Joshua, God encouraged Joshua: “Be strong and courageous (vs. 6). Be strong and very courageous (vs. 7). Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged (vs. 9).” In a few verses, Joshua is challenged to be courageous three times. Why the repetition? Is Joshua deaf? No, but certainly Joshua was afraid. He had just wandered through wilderness for forty years and Moses had died. Faith and fear dance together.

Faith is really a relational word for trust. Do we have enough self-compassion to believe in ourselves? Do we have enough interdependence to believe in others? Do we have enough sense of mystery to believe in a power greater than ourselves? Basil King, a Canadian clergyman, is often quoted in the recovery community, “Go at it boldly, and you’ll find unexpected forces closing round you and coming to your aid.” Faith comforts me. Calms my fears.

When the Cowardly Lion finally talks to the Wizard of Oz, the Wizard tells him he is “a victim of disorganized thinking.” Fear will do that to us. That frantic, ruminating, OCD mind is fueled by fear—the hamster-wheel brain is what I call it. Damn amygdala. But truthfully, our amygdala is doing its job. We can face it, listen to it, dance with it.

One of my mentors in faith (John Wimber) was fond of saying, “ Faith is spelled R-I-S-K.” There is typically a fear-filled risk to take in any worthwhile adventure. So here I am, feeling like I am back at square one at the age of sixty. A crazy time to start over, a fear-filled time. Spirituality Adventures is a new risk. A new fear-filled, faith-filled adventure. Thanks for joining me. Let’s dance together.

Shalom

Spirituality Adventures 2/15/21 Spirituality Adventures 2/15/21

Why Honesty?

Listen: “Brave” by Sara Bareilles

In the opening pages of William Manchester’s masterful biography of Winston Churchill, The Last Lion, Manchester reports a legendary exchange between Churchill and Lady Astor. Lady Astor criticized the former Prime Minister for being intoxicated while he was working: “Winston, you are disgustingly drunk!” To which Churchill replied: “And my dear, you are ugly. And in the morning, I will be sober.”

Honesty, it seems, is more nuanced than we might think. Do we share our true thoughts with someone, even though it might hurt them? Is it appropriate to keep a secret? Do you want to do business or relationships with someone that is consistently dishonest? Is it possible to be dishonest with yourself? How can we live authentically brave and vulnerable lives with others?

When I was attending elementary school in Prairie Village, Kansas, I would walk to Prairie Elementary School. Lunches were 45 cents and my mom would usually give me the exact change. One morning my mom gave me two quarters for lunch and specifically told me not to spend the nickel on my way home from school. My mom knew that there was a Ben Franklin store (like a CVS) on the way home, and it was full of candy. This was the 1960’s when you could get a bunch of candy and a good sugar rush for five cents. Well, sure enough, on the way home my friend decided he wanted to go to the Ben Franklin store. I decided to go into the store with him and just look at the candy. As soon as I saw the candy, I spent the nickel. I ate all the candy on the way home and hoped my mom wouldn’t remember the nickel.

Upon arriving home, my mom remembered to ask me for the nickel. I told her I lost the nickel. That evening, when my dad was tucking me in for bed and saying some evening prayers, he asked me if I spent the nickel. “No, dad, I didn’t spend the nickel. I lost it.” Dad said okay and left the room. I laid there with my own conscience beating me up for lying. I finally cried out for dad to return, and in a tearful confession, I admitted to spending the nickel.

In my teenage years, I can’t say that I was always honest. Sometimes I just worked hard at not getting caught. I did plenty of things for which I didn’t want to get caught. In fact, not getting caught was even a part of the thrill.

However, when I came to follow Jesus at sixteen, honesty became an important trait. I strove to be appropriately honest in all my dealings with people—in work, in relationships, and in fun. Honesty became a way of life. I even practiced honesty with myself by creating personal accountability with counselors and close friends.

Unfortunately, there came a time in my life when prescription Xanax and alcohol began to erode my honesty with myself and those closest to me. I wasn’t straight up lying, just conveniently not telling the truth. This gradual slip into hiding my true self ultimately cost me dearly. I am still living with the consequences and losses from those ill-fated decisions. (See my blogs and videos from 2020.)

So how do we practice honesty in a healthy way? Here are a few thoughts for consideration:

Under promise and over deliver. This is a practice that works well in business and relationships. It revolves around honesty and integrity. You do what you say. Your word is good. If you say you will do it, you do everything in your power to do it, even if it hurts (Psalm 15:4). No one will ever be able to keep all their promises, but even when we can’t deliver we let people know. We always try to be mindful of what we actually can and can’t do. Too many false promises add up over time to an untrustworthy character. It’s easier to build trust than to rebuild broken trust.

Speak the truth in love. This is straight out of the Bible (Ephesians 4:15). Love must be our guide. Sometimes people are just cruel and unkind with their speech. Under the banner of truth, we speak with sarcasm and hostility and resentment and cruelty. Instead of speaking words of life, we speak words that bring death by a thousands cuts. According to Proverbs, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Workplaces and families can be the breeding ground for grace-filled words of affirmation or death-filled words of insult.

Secrets are generally unhealthy. If you have experienced abuse or trauma as a child, you need to confide in a therapist or counselor for the process of healing. If you are wrestling with an addictive behavior or substance, you need to share with a doctor, therapists, or trusted friend. Honesty is the first step towards healing. The fear is that people would reject us if they truly knew us. On the other side, if someone comes to you with a confession, you need to maintain their confidence except for rare exceptions (like the abuse of a child or life threatening suicidal/homicidal ideation, to name a few). All forms of gossip, slander, and half-truths are forms of testifying falsely against your neighbor (as in the Ninth Commandment; Exodus 20:16) and constitute lying and dishonesty. Even listening to gossip can be a form of dishonest behavior: “Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip; liars pay close attention to slander” (Proverbs 17:4; NLT).

Make a personal moral inventory and share it with a trusted friend, sponsor, or counselor. This is one of the best ways to maintain honesty with yourself. The human brain is so crafty at telling itself stories full of excuses and rationalizations for bad behavior. This is where brutal honesty comes into play. The AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) book states that people who are “constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves” are the people who fail at sobriety. This could be said of most human endeavors. Personal accountability is also a key to emotional and spiritual health and healing. The New Testament says: “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed” (James 5:16; NAS). Confession is good for the soul and good for the virtue of honesty.

Honesty is crucial to spirituality. It forms the foundation through which we connect with ourselves, others, and our higher power in loving and authentic ways. Without it, we feel lost—disconnected from ourselves, others, and God. Honesty breeds appropriate vulnerability, which is truly—brave!

Shalom

Spirituality Adventures 2/8/21 Spirituality Adventures 2/8/21

Does God Take Delight in the Kansas City Chiefs?

Listen: “Learn to Fly” by Foo Fighters

I’m writing this blog a few days before the Chiefs play in their back-to-back Super Bowl appearance. I’m thinking about how much fun my family and I have had watching this Chiefs team play football. And I’m asking a question: Does God take delight in the way Patrick Mahomes can throw a football? Or the way Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill can run routes and make catches? The bigger question is: In what does God take delight?

It’s actually an important question that can inform and enhance our spirituality, if we answer it correctly. Let me give some context. I grew up in a conservative, evangelical faith tradition. As a young teen, I got involved in the recreational drug scene for a brief time, but then came to experience a life-changing encounter with Jesus and felt called to be a pastor. As I grew in my faith in high school and college, I remember a movement among church youth groups which tried to encourage young evangelical students to separate themselves from the evil world around them. I remember passionate messages from youth leaders who challenged us to get rid of all secular influences like rock and roll music and television. One youth leader even talked about the dangers of backmasking (messages on a record when played backwards) on rock and roll records. In essence, to be really spiritual and holy you had to basically go to church, read the Bible, hang out with Christians only, and separate yourself from mainstream American culture; otherwise, you would be corrupted. I got rid of my entire rock and roll collection (crapola).

Is this true spirituality, even from a biblical perspective? Does God take delight in the study of psychology, philosophy, astronomy, anthropology, science, geology, literature, or history, even if you don’t put “Christian” in front of all these academic disciplines? Does God take delight in a couple that falls in love? Does God take delight in the birth of a child born into the Hindu faith and culture in India? Does God take delight in a good brew of coffee, the preparation of a gourmet meal, a beautiful painting, a modern sculpture, or a well written piece of literature? Does God take delight in a rock and roll concert like U2, a Netflix series like The Queen’s Gambit, or a movie like Shawshank Redemption?

Certainly we need to be mindful of negative influences on our mental health and behavior, but shouldn’t we take delight in the same things in which God delights? In Christian theology (a discipline in which I have studied a great deal), theologians typically speak of two realms of revelation or truth: natural theology and revealed theology. Natural theology is the study of wisdom and knowledge that comes from the original goodness of creation, or what we can learn from nature and reason. Revealed theology in the Christian tradition is the study of the Bible and Jesus (most faith traditions have sacred texts or sacred stories which have been transmitted through written and oral traditions). One Christian tradition describes this distinction as common grace (natural theology or God’s grace bestowed on all people) and saving grace (revealed theology or God’s grace bestowed upon believers). One of my favorite books on common grace was written by Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary where I earned a doctoral degree, entitled He Shines in All That’s Fair.

Another way to talk about natural theology is to embrace the idea that “all truth is God’s truth” no matter who says it or where you find it. Or another way to say it is that “all goodness is God’s goodness.” In the creation story of Genesis, God takes delight in all that he creates and says: “it’s good.” When he creates humanity, he says: “it’s very good!” All of creation and all knowledge and all wisdom and all gifts are good. They can be misused, but their source is good. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…” (James 1:17; NIV).

All things in this world can be aglow with the presence and numinous of God and can be experienced with awe and wonder and delight. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). All faith traditions throughout human history contain a story of the pursuit of meaning and purpose and ultimate reality. We can learn from all people and cultures created in the image of God. As Shakespeare wrote: “The world is mine oyster.” Judaism and some Christian traditions have always assessed the world in this fashion. (Read a brilliant study by Matthew Fox entitled Original Blessing.) In a certain sense, this is what Spirituality Adventures is exploring.

There are social injustices and hurtful behaviors that need to be courageously confronted and restored to wholeness in our world. However, this needs to be balanced with original goodness and the irradicable image of God. It seems that the largely negative assessment of the world taught to me in my conservative, evangelical upbringing is adrift from its own sacred scriptures. Listen to Richard Rohr’s accurate reflection:

Ironically enough, our own Scripture contains ample examples of appreciative appraisal of elements of neighboring faiths, whether it’s Eastern pagan astrologers accurately divining the birth of the Christ child and worshipping him (Matthew 2:1-12), syncretistic-heterodox Samaritans being the heroes of parable and encounter (Luke 10:25-37; John 4:4-41), Greek philosophy offering us its concept of logos (John 1:1-5), or approving citations of neo-Platonic poetry as pointing to the all-in-all nature of the one true God (Acts 17:16-34)!

So, in what does God take delight? I’m guessing that he takes great delight in the way Patrick Mahomes throws a football. I can hear God saying over Patrick Mahomes and over you: “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs” (Zephaniah 3:17; NLT). Go Chiefs!

Shalom

Lifelong Learning & Jesus’ Commission

What Is Radical Inclusion?

Was Job a Buddhist?

Avoid Temptation by Celebrating Creation

Is Penny Dreadful a Christian Gothic Horror Tale?

Abusive Authority or True Leadership?

Can You Trust Your Heart?

Where Are the Peacemakers?

Faith is Spelled R-I-S-K

Is Unconditional Love Possible?

It’s Friday, but Sunday is Coming

It’s Friday, and Sometimes I Doubt

The Power of Vulnerability

Human Dignity and Worth

Grace-filled People

Is Self-Love Narcissistic?

Can Laughter Heal?

Can We Dance with Fear?

Why Honesty?

Does God Take Delight in the Kansas City Chiefs?

Follow

Spirituality adventures ©