The Poor are Despised Even by Their Neighbors

Why would the Bible be so callous? The couplet is from Proverbs and actually reads, "the poor are despised even by their neighbors, while the rich have many friends" (Proverbs 14:20). Far from being callous, there is great contemporary wisdom in this saying. It could have been coined today.

Our society is based on this sentiment. We live in a culture of power where the powerful are idolized. Study images pouring out of any of our image producing outlets. You will see youth, beauty, performance, vitality, accomplishment and health. This curious situation is a clue that something is wrong with the place we call home. All of the people the Lord God mentioned by name and those held dear by Him are missing among these images. Rarely do you see images of the poor, oppressed, homeless, orphans, widows and prisoners unless you happen to pick up a donation appeal from a relief organization.

Politics and the media, its handmaiden, are other dead giveaways that all is not right in the world. Addiction to anything tends to distort reality. An addict only sees whatever supports the addiction. Politics is an addiction and news reporting is the fix. Keller might say that politics is an idol that serves as a substitute for God.

I have bowed down to the idol of politics and I have jonesed daily for the news, but for the past few years I have tried to live a life without news and politics. My wife began the intervention by asking, "why do you watch the news before you go to bed?" I could not believe she would ask such an inane question. The answer is plainly obvious: to keep up with all of the new things happening in the world. After all, that is why they call it "news". She then asked, "what did you learn that was new in that last broadcast, for example?"

Easy question. I learned that one political party was completely unwilling to compromise with another political party. OK, that was not really news. I heard about an elected official who was not totally honest with the electorate. Another bad choice. How about war in Europe? Africa? Asia? South America? There were storms that caused damage? Traffic was bad this afternoon? Hmmm. I see your point.

I went cold turkey that night. I do not avoid the news. Who can? It is insidious. I walked into an elevator and once the doors closed I kept hearing a familiar theme song. Before I got to my floor, I realized it was the music to CNN Headline News. A television set was mounted on the elevator wall behind me blaring out information.

I simply no longer seek out the news.

As for Caesar, I am ready to render unto him what is his. Since the days of the Moral Majority, there has been continuing sturm and angst over the proper political agenda for a Christian. I am not sure if there is a proper role. It seems that anyone who professes an accelerated sense of spirituality might instead follow Micah 6:8 and act justly; love mercy and walk humbly with God. With this prescription in hand, it might serve one well to stay away from political activity. When I was addicted to news, I saw very little justice, mercy and humility in political circles.

Instead, why not support humble ministries of mercy and justice that are concerned with the personae of Jesus. He came to us as a baby. He grew up persecuted, oppressed and homeless. He died a prisoner and a victim of torture. All political questions can be resolved in view of the impact on such as these.

If you believe in a higher power, get clean and sober. No news. No politics. See the world with fresh eyes. The poor make the best neighbors and friends.

Gospel In Life

I will get back to Becker later. I have been temporarily sidetracked by a study group reading Gospel in Life by Timothy J. Keller. Early in the book, Mr. Keller discusses our proclivity to put other things in our life ahead of God. He calls this a violation of the first two commandments. 

His chapter on idolatry guides the reader to conclude as John Calvin that the human heart is a "perpetual factory of idols." Keller does yeoman's work to first get the reader to identify and confront all personal idols, including the idols of religion, irreligion, power, approval, family, comfort, control, work, politics, dependence, independence and a host of others.

Keller then helps the reader displace idols by first critiquing two typical styles of repentance. The "moralizing approach" which says, "Your problem is that you are doing wrong. Repent!" The "psychologizing approach" says "Your problem is that you don't see that God loves you as you are. Rejoice!"

Keller says that the moralizing approach is insufficient because I still hold the belief that even if high moral standards are achieved the particular idol that was treasured (comfort, power, approval, etc) is still treasured and I am therefore a failure. The psychologizing approach is also insufficient because even when I tell myself that God loves me, I do not have the treasured thing, and I am still a failure.

Keller suggests the "Gospel approach" which says, "Your problem is that you are looking to something besides Christ for your happiness. You have been worshiping an idol and rejecting the true God. Repent and rejoice!" Keller then makes a dramatic statement.

In a process of identifying idols; recognizing the emotional symptoms of idolatry (fear, guilt, anger and worry to name a few); and praying and meditating on Gospel truths, one must replace the treasured thing with the one true God. Keller states, "If you really want to change, Jesus Christ must become your over-mastering positive passion."

I am so far into these statements right up to this last one which means whenever I feel anxiety, guilt and anger; I have an underlying passion that is not God. Replace the habit/idol with the over-mastering positive passion that is God. OK, but I'm not sure I'm up to the task.

I look around me for others who may have mastered this and I see many who, like me, profess a faith and who yet are worried, afraid, mad and guilty. Not many exhibit an over-mastering positive passion for God. From my contemporaries, I turn to history and I hear the same expressions of doubt and worry. I am hoping that the rest of the five chapters in the book will move our study group to finding this replacement over-mastering passion.

What are your thoughts? Leave comments. All comments are welcomed but I am most interested in stories about replacing idols with an over-mastering positive passion for God.

Which Produces Anxiety

The second thought: constant terrifying reminders produce unrelenting anxiety in each of us.
On our own, we can do nothing to stop the onslaught of death, disease and destruction that surrounds us and the ones we love. Becker says,

This is the terror: to have emerged from nothing, to have a name, consciousness of self, deep inner feelings, an excruciating inner yearning for life and self-expression - and with all this yet to die.

Paul may have experienced this anxiety when he prayed for deliverance from "the thorn in his side"  (2 Corinthians 12:1-10). You can feel his anxiety. Here is the former Saul, favorite student of one of the greatest teachers of Israel; persecutor of churches; restored to his true calling and the one now driving the explosion of churches across Asia Minor. He has been a party to miracles and other heightened experiential phenomena. Yet he suffers something so terrifying he cannot even name it.

Jesus certainly experienced this anxiety at Gethsemane facing the hour of His greatest glory and His greatest trial. The coming trial was so terrifying He begged God to be delivered from it. His anxiety level in the garden was extreme. He either sweated so profusely it looked like He had opened a vein, or He actually sweated drops of blood (Luke 22:39-44).

Anxiety over the constant terrifying reminders is not limited to the Son of Man and the saints of the early church. We all are limited from time to time by the "thorn in the side" and we face situations involving death that are so difficult we feel that we cannot go further. I have heard it likened to being on the edge of a cliff and knowing that you have to step off but not being able to move.

Life Is Terrifying

According to Sam Keen, there are four interlacing thoughts to Becker that form the basis of what some call the science of evil. The first thought: life is terrifying.

We know this to be true. With eyes wide open, it does not take too long to witness overwhelmingly terrifying events. Horrific acts are so much a part of the news media, we either become inured to the amount of pain and suffering that is inflicted upon us or we avoid the media.

Daily life outside of the news media is also filled with pain and suffering for all of us. I commute 60 miles a day at highway speeds and I have witnessed the slowing down of time as great calamities unfolded before my eyes. Pets die. Family members die. Jobs are lost. Death stalks us all.

The Psalms speak volumes on this too. The first two psalms declare God's righteousness but by the third psalm, a "woe is me" tone is set. In the first line King David laments, "Lord, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! (Psalm 3:1). The psychology of the Psalms is the fundamental psychology of the human condition. We are magnificent creatures. Our minds are organic engines capable of glimpsing the fullness of God's creative prowess. Yet, we bleed. There is a vast distance between the being that is me imagining the edge of the known universe and the being that is me with a viral infection and vomiting every hour.

No Token, Still A Jerk

I haven't posted in a long time because I've been trying my hand at personal goal obtainment.

After a couple of months of concentrated effort, I have had it with goals. While strategic planning has been ever present in my business and personal lives, I wonder if there was a time when it was actually relevant. It is an underlying assumption of the planning process that the planning agent possesses some form of command and control to act upon or implement the plan. Small wonder that conquering goals is so difficult when basic assumptions are not valid. I may wish and desire certain outcomes and I may even act with purpose, but I cannot actually command life to behave.

I am not the captain of my ship.

In keeping with the theme of Jerks Anonymous, I intended to write this post only after I could say I got my token for being clean and sober for a whole week. That post never came because, despite my best intentions, I never had a week in the ensuing months when I was not a jerk. I even had a couple of roll-around-in-the-gutter bouts of being a jerk. Too many in fact.

And then, the real captain of my ship spoke out.

Over the Christmas break, we started watching Netflix streaming videos when we discovered Flight From Death. I really was not that interested in the topic, but others wanted to watch and it was narrated by Gabriel Bryne, one of the stars of The Usual Suspects, a great movie. I did not realize it at the time, but here was the still, small voice calling me to a different plan beyond my own intentions. My feet had been put on a path by the commander of my soul.

The documentary had nothing to do with grief over the death of another as I imagined. Flight from Death examines the work of Ernest Becker, a cultural anthropologist. Becker's essential premise is that all anxiety and anger stems from a repressed fear of death.

Since anxiety and anger keeps me boxed as a jerk, I have been reading Becker's The Denial of Death and examining his premise applied to my life to see if it has validity. I am finding that as I understand Becker, I am also experiencing less fear and hostility. The diminution of turmoil is not due merely to a reading of Becker. I am also hearing the Scriptures more fully within the context of a fear of death.

As I am whipped by life, my defensive responses rear up. Fear and anger rise to a fever pitch as defenses are overwhelmed and I become beat by living. It is at the moment of being overwhelmed that I hear Jesus say, "Don't worry."  Instead of listening to my Lord, I dismiss the injunction as being a remnant of a popular song echoing through the grey matter and I ride out the rising tide fully juiced on fear and anger. At the point of being overwhelmed, I am a jerk. It is a defense against the position that life is out of control: a mini-death.

It is often said that you cannot heal what you do not acknowledge. I acknowledge that my life is not my own. I acknowledge that I do not listen to those who care for me. Paul Tillich said, "The first duty of love is to listen." I am learning to love.

Twelve Steps

Hi. My name is Mike and I'm a jerk. That's what someone close to me called me recently (actually reference was made to the human anatomy, but I'm cleaning it up a bit here). As I sputtered a series of refutations, I realized she was right and I haven't been the same since.

I begin this with a style of declaration that starts any 12-Step testimonial because being a jerk is like an addiction. While I'm not a jerk all the time, conditions can conspire to put me right in the middle of a good long bout of jerkiness. Under these conditions, when I am a jerk, I'm not proud of the way I act, react and think. I just can't seem to control myself. I become overwhelmed and I say things I later regret and I act like a, well, like a jerk.

Fear is my drug of choice. Precisely, it is the fear of making a mistake or the fear of being discovered as a fraud that leads to the transformation to jerk. I'm capable of compassion and empathy except when I feel like I'm being criticized. When I'm under attack, the meanness comes out under the cover of defensiveness.

My hope is in the belief that I am a recovering jerk. I admit that I have no power over my addiction and my life is presently unmanageable. I believe that only God can restore my  sanity and I turn this addiction over to God for care. The third step of the program has far reaching implications. The step calls for a decision to turn our will and lives to the care of God as we understand God.

It is the last part of this step that I'll be considering over the next series of posts. What do I understand about God? In addition to guidance from the 12 steps, I'll also use Alexander Shaia's The Hidden Power of the Gospels.

Living, Working and Serving in Two Worlds

Christ speaks of two worlds, both real, but with only one worthy of our consciousness. In one world, consciousness is centered on oneself. Folks living in this world seek more of what they already have: security, comfort, prestige, power and control. The highly valued folks in this world are rich in things, well-fed, happy and respected members of the community.

In the other world, consciousness is centered on what is to come. This is a transformative world where the most respected, or blessed, people are not very well adjusted to present conditions. They are not rich in things. They are often hungry. Since they are downtrodden, they are often perceived as unhappy. They are reviled, pitied or ignored.

Nonprofit organizations are the center of this more meaningful world. High performance then is in healing, lifting up, empowering and rendering justice. More than this, high performance means delivering the messages and teachings of the poor, widows, orphans and prisoners to the people still living, working and serving in the unreal world.

I believe Jesus urges us to do just that in a mysterious parable that appears only in Luke. It is a curious tale of management styles of the two worlds. Knowing that he will soon be fired, a dishonest steward ingratiates himself with his master's debtors by reducing their accounts. Upon realizing what had been done, the master commends the steward for acting shrewdly. Jesus ends the parable by saying, "For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than the people of the light."