Oh the fun to come

This week I'm going so far beyond my comfort zone that you may hear me screaming from the north end (if you don't hear me snoring as things drift beyond my comprehension zone.)

My husband loves technology. Anyone who knows him or has sat in on his university courses gets to see the latest Apple products, the best little gadgets, and the most practical apps. Why? He researches hours a day in his Reader feeds - and can cut to the chase for what works and what doesn't.

I've never learned to do much beyond typing and editing. I use social media to connect with friends. But I'm not one to sit on the phone, to explore computer programs, or install new apps on my IPhone. (I wouldn't even have a smart phone without W.)

I'm going to class, a technology class taught to masters and doctoral students at NU. By my husband. Those of you who know us both recognize the disparity in tech gifting, right? Should be interesting.

 So how can you find "fun to come" in the challenges that don't align with anything you know or have done before?

1. Decide on benefits. This class will introduce many ideas that I may need for the future. I'm hoping it opens my eyes to consider new ways of thinking and possibilities.
2. Define your investment. I promised I'd sit in at least today and maybe tomorrow. If I'm totally lost, I won't invest the whole week.
3. Align with your values. I'm a learner, always eager to know. Mom found my elementary report cards with teacher comments: "Rosemarie could spend more time to perfect assignments. She just wants to finish and go to the library." (Doesn't everyone?)
4. Invest yourself using your best methodology. I'm going to try my best. I have my computer, IPad, AND pen/paper ready. I'll scribble notes as we go because I never remember the little steps of processes that look so simple in class. (I know this from past experience.)
5. Take time to review and make the experience your own. I'll blog about it - and you'll get the scoop later, ok?

Read more:
*Get the truth and never sell it; also get wisdom, discipline, and good judgment." Proverbs 23:23 NLT

*Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Jeremiah 4:3

*No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke 9:62

Moravian Prayer: Everlasting Father, open our hearts to receive your word today. Remind us that your grace is sufficient in spite of life’s challenges. Guide us through your Holy Spirit and as we journey may we sow seeds of light and truth. Amen.

Black Friday of the heart

The sign of Thanksgiving is a turkey, a reminder of gratitude for the food that helped American pilgrims survive a harsh winter nearly 400 years ago. I doubt that the survivors would recognize their simple feast in our gluttony of food and deserts. Thanksgiving gives cultural permission to eat too much among the comfort of family and friends. I'm glad we have the abundance here to enjoy the feast!

After Thanksgiving, the country goes mad. The sign of post-thanksgiving is "Retail = $X; BUT SALE = $x" on what we call Black Friday. I joined the fray a few years ago to see what the "fuss and fun" was about. The jostling, anxious faces, and greed appalled me. I've never had the stomach to participate again.

Some families or girlfriend groups make a sporting tradition of the occasion, taking the day to compete for bargains and shop together. That's cool -- sort-of. Great that it gets families together. Great that it helps the economy shake off a lethargic fall sales. But ...

I'm going to issue an unwelcome challenge today, based on this question: "Are our traditions and celebrations built more around American values than God's pleasure?"

Every tradition celebrates a core value. Thanksgiving demonstrates our gratitude for God's provisions and human relationships. In the Church, the Eucharist (or Communion) celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus and our ensuing salvation. Baptism showcases the commitment of believers to live for God within the community of faith for the rest of his/her life. We have valuable family traditions, community traditions, and national traditions.

But what does Black Friday memorialize, with its rituals of spending precious life/time marking out deals and routes to stores? Of lining up in the early morning hours for the best bargain? Of spending beyond our budgets to buy things we want but don't need? Of pushing others aside for our "right" in a competition to snatch up temporal goods?

How much time have we (myself included) spent mapping out how to reach our neighbors for Christ? Have we arrived early to church to volunteer for set-up or to welcome those coming to our community of faith? Have we spend beyond our budgets to meet missionary appeals or support church projects? Have we pushed other volunteers and attendees to the forefront for recognition that they are serving and worthy of notice, regardless of our part in serving (or do we snatch the glory "due us" as volunteers or coworkers)?

SOME of you have! And kudos to you. God recognizes the honor due you and will reward every deed done in secret, every effort done for his Glory. He has said he will not share his glory with any others, gods or human. So when we glorify ourselves and stuff, how will God respond to us?

Confession time: I've overspent on things I want, just like you have. When my husband has noted our credit card entries, I have given him "good reasons" for expenditures. But God has been speaking to me about the values of time spend earning that money, time invested in maintaining the goods acquired, and the clutter in our lives because I've focused on acquisition of goods rather than on "treasures in heaven," things that matter to God.

At SBL last week (a conference of Bible scholars), presenters commented on the rituals of societies. Like us, the peoples of scripture celebrated passages of time, rites of birth, puberty, marriage, and death, and other significant times of life. The Canaanites of biblical times ritually sacrificed humans, as did later Aztecs, to appease their gods and ensure prosperity.

Today, on Black Friday in the USA, I'm examining the expenditures, the full house, and time spent on things that don't last. We've set up the tree and hauled the decoration boxes into the living room. A friend comes Monday to celebrate the beginning of the season by helping me decorate it. However, I will take time today for soul-relief, quietly reflecting on scripture, searching my heart to consider the month ahead in light of my spiritual formation. I'm asking:

1. What is important? - to God - and to His Church - and to us / me? Do these values align?
2. How am we demonstrating our core values? Has the world pressed us into its mold?
3. How can we glorify God and bless others in the coming Christmas season by living by true and eternal values?
4. Once the shopping season and Christmas celebrations are over, what will remain? Trash and wrapping paper? Excess stuff jammed into closets and cupboards? Fights over who got the best gift? Disappointment that we didn't get the present we hoped for? 

Will you and I waken to the New Year with a sense of satisfaction, brimming with soul treasures and memories of God-among-us in His Presence and Glory? That's my desire! What's your deepest wish for Christmas this year?

Read more:
*God said, “I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” Genesis 9:13

*Show me your glory, I pray. Exodus 33:18

*Then Jesus took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to the disciples, and all of them drank from it. He said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.” Mark 14:23-24

*Jesus revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. John 2:11

Moravian Prayer: Lord, we admit that it is often personal glory that we seek. Today let us seek your glory; for when we see it fully we will be blessed. That blessing is far greater reward than any personal achievement. Together we look both outward and inward to see your presence.

Father, you give us signs of your promises each day. Help us to be aware of the signs you show us today. Amen.

Lent Day 2: Christ and followers as scholars

I wonder if Jesus would have come to this conference. So far, I've heard a few papers that seem to have little to do with Jesus' mission. When I think about the hours spent preparing our papers, I wonder how Christ has been formed in us through the process.

The role of the scholar is important in scripture. Without the writing of historians, poets, and prophets, we would know little about God. The act of writing and copying has preserved God's revelation of himself to humanity. Jesus studied scripture well enough to be fluent in both scripture and tradition. He taught competently enough to be called rabbi. Considering his upbringing in an ordinary peasant household, he took advantage of opportunities for education.

In contrast to some of today's scholars, Jesus never lost sight of his life purpose. He used what he had learned to expand the kingdom of God. I'll be listening for that kind of intentionality as I sit in the theological sessions.

Some of the words go right over my head. Others capture my mind and imagination. What i'm longing for is a word to stir my heart and move me to greater surrender and service.

Tendency-itis

Tendonitis happens when an injured tendon does not receive enough blood and therefore, not enough oxygen, to heal. Repeated abuse of the tendon without complete healing creates a joint that is swollen, sore, and weak. Pianists and typists get it. So do tennis players who hurt their elbows. Time, ice, and rest help overcome the injury.

I seem to be in a "word warp" with synonyms, homonyms, and adjectives tumbling around my head. Take tendency-itis, which is not a real word but bears some of the symptoms of tendonitis, which is real. Tendency-itis: repeated patterns of behavior in small and large decisions determines the warp of a character and personality. "She tends to look on the bright side." "He tends to think only in accounting terms." Tendencies.

Some tendancy-itis is brought on by physical, mental, or soul defects. For instance, syndromes of attention deficit disorders include loss of focus, impulsive behavior, widespread interests (with ambitious projects rarely brought to completion), and misplacing things.

"You always lose things," grumps my husband when I'm looking for keys, books, or other items.

Well, that's true. I've always lost things and getting older hasn't helped. Over the years, I've put organizational systems in place. It still depends on scatter-brained me to make the organizing tweaks work. Too bad. Usually I drop my keys in the same place. But sometimes I don't. Usually I bring library books into the bedroom and put them down where they belong. But sometimes I don't. And that's where any perfect system breaks down into chaos.

"AAAAh, I've got to find my keys (or books, or...whatever)!" I wail as I dash around from kitchen counter to rummaging through purses and pockets of jackets I've worn in the last week.

Here's another tendency. Impulsiveness is promoted in society rather than corrected. For those with ADD or ADHD, we'll never wish it away or completely overcome our impulses so we learn to live with them and try not to act them out. "Oh, looks good. Let's try that!"

No, no, no. "Stop right now and think it through."

However, American capitalism advertises to seduce even the most careful consumers to buy things they don't need, want, or have storage for. Giving in creates a monster that "needs" to buy, acquire, and squirrel away. Undoing the flawed worldview of depending on stuff to bring happiness is a long process because it bucks every trend and promotion that our economy is built on.

Christ calls us to form tendencies that heal, not hurt. To bless, not curse. To be wise stewards of time, talent, and money. We are to ask him for things that benefit others, not just ourselves. Like with tendonitis, we need rest, to put things away or "on ice," and give ourselves time as we heal from unsound habits.

Our warped tendency-itis needs sound input into the value system and continual replacement of bad ideas with good. Only then can we leave behind sinful reflexes that war against the soul. Thinking on things that are good, pure, noble, or good report, and thanking God for his loving kindness? Now those are tendencies we could happily live with.

Read more:
*My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding,

and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.

For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.

Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—every good path. Proverbs 2:1-9 NIV