Vital Signs

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we're all experiencing an extreme disruption. In case I'm misinterpreted in what I'm about to write, let me be crystal clear at the beginning: that disruption is bad. A lot of people are going to be hurt by the disease and by the societal problems cascading from it. Everyone, please take care of yourselves and your community by honoring the physical distancing steps recommended by public health experts.

But disruption also creates opportunity. Sometimes, by forcing us to reconsider "normal" and all that comes with what we usually call normal.

One way I'm using this time of disruption is to check on some vital signs for my life. Not just the pulse, BP, temp, and other signs that my body is functioning well, but the vital signs of my spirit.

This pandemic, with its forced isolation and the disruption of activity, creates the opportunity for us to really consider our inner lives. It invites us to reconsider the quiet places of our hearts, the parts that are usually drowned out by the bustle of the lives we sustain. As we withdraw into private spaces, we also have the opportunity to experience quiet. And in the quiet, we confront the vital signs of the spirit.

Capacity for stillness. When I am still, do I easily become restless? Can I remain still for a moment without becoming anxious?

Patience. Can I endure inconveniences with an appropriate emotional reaction? In other words, do I fly off the handle because a child is being louder than I like, or become enraged when I'm forced to wait for moment?

Clarity of Concern. It's okay to have concerns. A healthy spirit is not simply without any sort of desire for things to be different in the world! Indeed, we easily become too comfortable with injustices or the presence of broken systems! But a healthy spirit can discern what it is actually anxious about. It understands what is making it uncomfortable, precisely, without remaining anxious in a general, diffused way.

Joy and Gratitude When I am healthy in my spirit, I have joy! I may have struggle and pain right along side of it, but I can also consider the things which bring me life, facets of my life that I can name with thankful joy. The lack of elements of joy in my life is a sign that my spirit has been distorted.

Healthy Detachment A person with a healthy spirit is engaged with the issues of her community, but can also recognize that what is happening around her is not the same thing as what is happening in her. there is a way of engaging without becoming passively entailed with the emotional currents around me.

Can't Win ‘Em All

My team went down hard tonight as Clemson plowed Bama in the championship game.The ups and downs of sport fandom is a crazy ride, and while this stretch with Bama has been fun, it still stabs me between the ribs sometimes...that's part of the spirituality of sports. They challenge you to invest, toy with you, then ask why it really matters, waiting to see if you can, at the end of the day, hold it lightly.They ask, “You don’t care too much, now do you?”Then they patiently wait for an answer.Then they put you through the cycle again.

Choices

Diana Butler Bass tells a story of a conversation with an executive from a popular coffee chain and asking, after the various combinations, how many different choices were possible from the menu. The answer: eighty-two thousand! (You can see why the person in line in front of you may stumble a minute figuring out what they want.) She writes, “Americans , even those of modest means , exercise more choices in a single day than some of our ancestors did in a month or perhaps even a year.”Think for a moment about the wide array of choices you’ll face in the next year, from how you want your coffee to how you’ll handle obstacles and challenges. Some of those choices will be life-changing, and others may seem trivial—though it may be that the sum of a lot of seemingly trivial choices shifts our lives as well. I want to suggest two factors to consider as we dive into the next year and its staggering menu of choices.First, our skill in navigating those choices depends on our capacity for wisdom. Wisdom helps us perceive what’s at stake in our choices, helps us sort out the information we need to consider in order to make good decisions, and helps us think more broadly about the impact of our decisions. Wisdom is an important virtue, as it helps guide us so that our good intentions are converted into reality. Our desires to love our neighbors or to live truthfully are impotent without the wisdom to discern between what is or isn’t really true, or the wisdom to understand the impact our actions really will have on our neighbors. It’s one thing to have the desire to be good—but we also need to cultivate wisdom so that we may indeed enact actual goodness in the world.Second, before we dive back into the world of choices, let us remember that every other choices we make is subordinate to the first choice—our commitment to following Jesus. For those who have given our lives to the Lord, we have an orienting compass for the choices we face—we meet them with the commitment to see the Lord’s will be done. When it comes to some of those more challenging questions, that commitment may be just the key that helps us see clearly what must be done.

Defining Wisdom

Wisdom is a tricky concept to define, in part because of the meaning field it shares with words like intelligence, or understanding. Teasing what distinguishes Wisdom from those words requires careful consideration.For my part, I've been thinking about Wisdom over the past few years as the quality of knowing how to live in the present because of an understanding of both the past and the future.In other words, wise people understand that their actions today shape the future...and that helps them live well. Furthermore, they often gain that understanding because they have reflected upon the past. They understand the trajectories that led yesterday to become today, and that will carry today into tomorrow and beyond.

Defining Wisdom

Wisdom is a tricky concept to define, in part because of the meaning field it shares with words like intelligence, or understanding. Teasing what distinguishes Wisdom from those words requires careful consideration.For my part, I've been thinking about Wisdom over the past few years as the quality of knowing how to live in the present because of an understanding of both the past and the future.In other words, wise people understand that their actions today shape the future...and that helps them live well. Furthermore, they often gain that understanding because they have reflected upon the past. They understand the trajectories that led yesterday to become today, and that will carry today into tomorrow and beyond.

Choices

I’ve been thinking lately about the evolving spiritual and religious landscape, and more and more come back to the presence of choice. Choice strips us of illusions that are easily carried in days where religion has the cultural power to impose the facades of faith on the crowd. Instead, in the face of genuine choice, whether or not we believe/trust in Jesus becomes something that matters as much externally as it does internally.

"Of course, some people do not like choices; it makes their head hurt. Coffee, black. They always order the same thing. But when presented with new or different choices, many people take the chance and pick—in amazingly creative and innovative ways, which usually threaten those still following the old paths. In religious circles, choice is often viewed negatively as a violation of tradition, a break with custom, rebellion against God or the church, heresy: “We’ve never done it that way before.” Critics assail religious choice as selfish, individualistic, consumerist, narcissistic, navel-gazing, disloyal, thoughtless. But, if for a moment, you strip away all the judgmental religious language, it is just choice. The economic, social, and political world in which we live has opened up the possibility for eighty-two thousand choices at the coffee shop and probably about ten times that many when it comes to worshipping God and loving your neighbor. Some will choose well, others badly. Some will choose thoughtfully, others not so much. Some choose something new, others choose what they have always known. In the end, however, everybody chooses. Contemporary spirituality is a little like that line at the coffee shop. Everybody makes a selection. Even if you only want black coffee."― from Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening by Diana Butler Bass

Psalm 9: The Refuge of the Ruling God

Psalm 9, part of today’s group of psalms in my prayer cycle, contains plenty of difficult images of the Lord. There, the Lord erases the names of the wicked for all time (vs 5). Verse 6 contains an absolute version of vengeance:

”Every enemy is wiped out,
like something ruined forever.
You’ve torn down their cities—
even the memory of them is dead.”
(Psalms 9:6 CEB)

But it’s important to note that this vengeance isn’t capricious or random. It is in service of justice, particularly God’s desire to take up for the oppressed:

“But the Lord rules forever!
He assumes his throne for the sake of justice.
He will establish justice in the world rightly;
he will judge all people fairly.
The Lord is a safe place for the oppressed— a safe place in difficult times. Those who know your name trust you
because you have not abandoned
any who seek you, Lord.”
(Psalms 9:7–10 CEB)

My squeamishness (and that of many of us in the wealthy west) for the vengeance described in the text ignores the very real nature of God’s desire for justice in the world. Injustice cannot be tolerated, and God’s action is not just action against, but action for…specifically, for the poor and oppressed people who suffer at the hands of unjust power. Despite the sensitivities of comfortable, wealthy people, God will not simply turn a blind eye to those who have suffered, nor those who have caused it.

Who knows, maybe God will indeed have some sort of way of dealing with those who acutely perpetuate violence and oppression so that they too may repent and be reformed. But my hope for them can’t be allowed to trump the cries of those who really have suffered and cry out for vindication. Today, my prayers are for them…even if they are against myself, and this psalm calls out for me to align myself with those who suffer, and thus with the Lord,

“Because the poor won’t be forgotten forever,the hope of those who suffer won’t be lost for all time.”
(Psalms 9:18 CEB)

Amen!

Steven’s Reading List from 2017

Finally released from my doctoral studies, and the required reading, this year allowed me the opportunity to read more freely and broadly, and I’m appreciative of that. I’ve been pleased with much of what has come my way this year, and want to share some of the texts that have played their part in my intellectual life over the past year. I don’t think this is quite a complete list, but it’s close to the sorts of things that caught my attention over the past year.

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Poetry

Counting Descent by Clint SmithApplication for Release from the Dream: Poems by Tony HoaglandThe Works of George HerbertI really enjoy reading poetry, when I can get my mind in the right frame for reading it. Tony Hoagland has been a favorite for a few years, and this little time didn’t disappoint, though its a shade darker than his earlier work. The poems by Clint Smith are often fantastic, and I look forward to seeing what comes from him later. Herbert’s verses take a little more work for me, but I was daily struck by the way he used poetry as a pastoral tool. In 2018, I’m starting off with some work by Mary Oliver, but hope to greatly increase my intake of good poetry this year. Suggestions are solicited!

Biblical Studies and Theology

Psalms Old and New: Exegesis, Intertextuality, and Hermeneutics by Ben Witherington IIIBinding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus by Ched MyersChrist Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene PetersonDesiring the Kingdom by James K.A. SmithFaithful Presence: Seven Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission by David FitchReaching Out by Henri NouwenAmong these, the book by Nouwen was a reread—it’s a top 3 book for me, ever, and I could read it annually. The books by Peterson, Fitch, and Smith are each striking and useful, and I think many people would benefit from hearing each author. The Peterson book is a particular masterpiece, and I hope will someday be seen as a true classic.

Non-Fiction

Just Mercy by Bryan StevensonWriting Tools by Roy Peter ClarkThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanH3 Leadership by Brad LomenickMastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results by Robert Anderson and William AdamsPeak Erik Anders and Robert PoolGood to Great by Jim CollinsThe Ideal Team Player: How to recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues by Patrick LencioniStart with Why Simon SinekDrive by Daniel PinkThe Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry PosnerA stack of leadership books was in the cards for this year, too. Of those, the Sinek book and Mastering Leadership were probably the most useful. However, Just Mercy might have been the best book I read in 2017, period. It’s just an amazing piece, full of story and meaning and mission. Can’t recommend it highly enough. I also found the Kinnamen book eye-opening, as a reflection of the way we humans think and the kinds of biases we are prone to in our decision-making.

Fiction

Ready Player One by Ernest ClineA Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’EngleI need to read more fiction, too. Here I come, 2018!

Youth Outreach and Missional Ecclesiology

This last week, the Missio Dei journal published a conference paper I presented last summer reflecting a piece of my doctoral research, which was mostly written in 2016 ahead of finishing off my program and graduating in May of 2017. Cleaning up that article represents the last bit of publishing (at least in this direct form) I intend to do for this particular research project, but I intend to leave it in digital form here on my site, in case somebody might find it useful. Really, the value of a DMin project like this is mostly in the learning process of for the researcher, something which was of great value to me, and I hope will continue to yield fruit as I work in the church.The finished versions are available here.I really appreciate all the people that helped me work through that process. I had a great village.

The Last Jedi, the Prophet Joel, and Pentecost

Nota Bene: The following contains mild spoilers for Star Wars Episode VIII, The Last Jedi. Read at your own peril.

My fellow fans of Star Wars and all that its universe has offered us over the past forty years have been a bit divided over the latest offering, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Director Rian Johnson carved out his own path for the series here, to the delight and/or scorn of many. For the record, I liked the film, mostly because of the wonder it set alight in my oldest daughters. This was the first live-action film I’ve ever taken them to see in the theater, and they were delighted and swept away into this universe which has delighted me throughout my life. My most significant feeling for the movie was the profound gratitude of a Dad who got to sit and share something fun and moving with his kids.There is an aspect of the film I thought deserved a little bit of extra thought. We’ll see if it persists in the last film, but Johnson’s contribution to the canon has a distinct effect on how we think of the force—something Spencer Kornhaber’s article on the film in the Atlantic noticed, too. Kornhaber writes:

And the long-troubling notion that a person’s significance is simply a product of heredity is vaporized with the reveal about Rey’s junktrading parents, cemented by a coda that sees a force-wielding slave-kid dreaming of a rebellion.

Of course, the child Anakin Skywalker’s journey to becoming Darth Vader began with him born into slavery as well. However, the difference here is that the Anakin was discovered as someone special, as a one-in-a-universe boy whose connection to the force was a part of his unique destiny. The short clip witht he slave child at the end of The Last Jedi feels different to me—as though maybe, just maybe we are entering an era when the force works through anybody open to its power.There are other pieces to this egalitarian vision of the force in the film as well. For instance, Luke rebukes Rey’s imagination of him as a lone hero who would swoop in to save the galaxy. It also seemed like a moment of Force action/intervention when Paige Tico (Rose’s sister), has her moment of sacrificial heroism in the film’s opening battle. (I’m going to have to see that scene again.) See, part of the film’s vision of “heroism” is that the hero’s journey is now open to everybody, from once upon a time storm troopers to mechanics. The resistance is open to everyone, and any who wish may play a part, and find the force helping their journey.In our own universe, the prophet Joel has a vision like this

“Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,your old men shall dream dreams,and your young men shall see visions.Even on the male and female slaves,in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”(Joel 2:28–29 NRSV)

This is the text Peter cites on the day of Pentecost, a moment in which God’s spirit would be active not simply in a few special people, but on the whole community of God’s people. For what it’s worth, if your vision of Penetecost was that only the twelve apostles were gifted by the spirit, note that Acts 1:15 speaks about the whole company of disciples being about 120 people, and 2:1-4 certainly reads as though the fire event rested on each of that whole company. Verse 4 reads “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. “Pentecost was an inclusive event—the spirit given wasn’t just for a few, but for all the disciples of Jesus.Christianity isn’t a way simply for a few spiritual heroes—the spirit is given to all, and each is given the grace of participating in God’s work. As much as we have masked that fact, it remains true—God’s spirit will not be contained to only a precious few, but is always broadening God’s reach, and draws the most unlikely characters—indeed, wishes to call everyone—in to join God’s mission and community.