We all need more Joy.

Ecclesiasticus 30

²¹ Do not abandon yourself to sorrow, do not torment yourself with brooding.

²² Gladness of heart is life to anyone; joy is what gives length of days.

²³ Give your cares the slip, console your heart, chase sorrow far away; for sorrow has been the ruin of many, and is no use to anybody.

²⁴ Jealousy and anger shorten your days, and worry brings premature old age.

²⁵ A genial heart makes a good trencherman, someone who enjoys a good meal.

Listen up, all you Goths and Emos, you Greasers and Beatnik poets.  Listen to me all of you nihilists and anarchists.  Let me give you a new vision, Hipsters.  Hear me out Gangsters who listen to rap, or a long time ago listened to what, Opera (I’m talking to the acolytes of Al Capone.)?  I've got a message for the people losing their minds because Obama didn't want to release his birth certificate.  Anybody have an ear to hear a message anybody who wants to impeach Obama or prosecute John Boehner.   If Fox News is a place for a bunch of RINOs, in your opinion, you may want to take heed. 

You NEED to be happy.  It’s here in the Apocrypha written by a Jesus who didn't die for your sins.  It’s actually in the other Bible, too.  Dennis Prager calls it a moral imperative and he’s right.  It’s also a spiritual imperative.  God want Joy.  It’s one of the fruits of the Spirit.  It makes the world a better place.  We’ll all like you more.  Now here are some made up statistics to help you all believe in the importance of being happy:

Happy people bathe more often.  (This is totally true when it comes to Hipsters, am I right?  *High five!  Goths and Emos, too.  You’re ripe, you morose little nincompoops.

Happy people get better jobs.  I know you’d like to be a gangster like 50 cent, but he got shot like a bunch of times and now that he’s insanely rich…well now he’ll happy all the time.

Happy people get better women.  Yes, I admit it.  Marilyn Manson married Evan Rachel Wood and Rose McGown and Dita Von Teese but do you wanna look like this...  

Happy people make others around them happier.  Happy people help others who work around them do better work.  Happy people are more capable with Katana Swords.  Happy people read more books but fewer by Sylvia Plath.  Happy people have more fun in the bedroom because…they’re happy?  Happy people absorb vitamin C better than saddies.  That’s why you should be sad. 

Am I promoting the idea that we should fight terrorism with happiness?  No.  I’m content to let happy people kill terrorists.  Am I saying that you should do anything to achieve momentary joy?  No.  Short term joys; sexual, leisure, culinary, etc. can often lead to more sadness later.  There is also the idea that short term Euphoria and long term satisfaction are different things.  I’m not comfortable classifying them as either happiness OR joy because I want to leave those to rhetorical flourish.  I simply understand as adults should that there is a difference between happiness found in another’s bed or in a candy bar isn't always making you happy, but it is only temporarily making you happy on your way to a sadness crash.    

So watch some of those annoying videos of people redoing their own version of Pharrell’s “Happy” song.  Yes it’s a stupid hat.  Roll with it.  Squeeze the earth and sucks its juices.  Make faces in the mirror.  Go eat a good meal in moderation but joyfulness.

I am not suggesting that there aren't world problems.  I’m not suggesting that we see those problems with rose colored glasses and not pay attention to the suffering in the world.  I'm not telling you to get over some real-world terrible stuff that has happened to you.  I'm saying be more joyful.  It's nigh impossible to argue that you've got enough. Tiger from Winnie the Pooh books has enough Joy.  And joy is contagious.  Joy breeds hope and that’s still, if I remember correctly, one of the three greatest things. Joy would or would help to make sure people do a better job of getting along.  There is of course monumental challenges in the world and America has a very polarized political system for handling those or some of those problems.  Joy may help.  Africa is war torn and disease torn and maybe joy would help and medical supplies and cooler heads.

I want more joy in the lives of the God-believing, God-fearing.  I want to have more joy about his word and his church.  I want my joy to translate into enthusiasm.  The church used to talk about inner joy.  We had songs like, "this little light of mine."  The world could see something different about us and it was joy.  Mormons still got it.  They have a sense of happiness in long-suffering.  I want that.  I want joy about my savior and I think you do to.  Cultivate it and achieve it.  We can compare notes on how and what kind of happiness you've been pursuing.

Jesus beat his kids.

Ugh.  I think I might actually write about something going on in the NFL.  I’m sick about it, but it sort of matched a passage in Ecclesiasticus so I thought if I didn't at least address the topical story that I would be considered tone deaf.  The point of this blog is that world needs more wisdom and so I hope this will be my deposit into the world's shallow conversation about child discipline.

Have you heard that Adrian Peterson hit his son with a switch?  Not only did he switch him but the man opened up the behind and caused bloody whelps.  Peterson has admitted to losing his temper and going too far.  Society wants to universally denounce the behavior as reprehensible.  The much less hurtful spanking with an open hand and pants on is being equated with Roman treatment of Jesus on national news.  The 40 lashes minus 1 is now the new finger rapping.  This leads me to the simple conclusion:

Society is very bad at seeing shades of gray.

Every time I watch a news report about militant Islam I always have to hear the phrase, “Not all Muslims,” as if that message hadn't been heard a million times.  The idea that you have to keep saying that, in order to not be accused of making overly broad statements is proof that the world wants to see things in black and white and news people are cognizant of it and act accordingly.  Jesus never hedged when he spoke, is that weird?  Paul, too.  Not on just the stuff that was universal.  Of course all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; but Christ doesn't say Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees, SOME of you are open tombs. 

Society is very bad at thinking it's right.

Christ Carter harangued his mother on the news Sunday because she used corporal punishment on him and his six siblings.  He hasn't hit or spanked his kids and his mother was wrong.  That strikes me as arrogant.  I’m not saying that we can’t make assumptions about other peoples’ styles of parenting.  I think Female Genital Mutilation is wrong and that’s happening a lot all over the world.  I’m saying that there is a difference between saying what you think is wrong and saying something is wrong.  I know to be careful when making moral equivalents and Chris Carter doesn't seem to be.  Is Chris Carter such a terrible paragon of how not to raise children?  Well maybe other than the fact that he’s on TV and a millionaire.  It strikes me as so arrogant to say that your parents did a bad job and to also assert that you are doing a good job or are a good person.  The proof, after all, is in the pudding. 

Society cannot fathom disagreement.

Charles Barkley says that this issue is a north-south divide.  But it’s not.  Society spanks.  Some of society I think lies about it.  Media centers are living in a vacuum if they think only some parts of the old south are spankers.  People are spankers.  Rural, urban, suburban:  Large swaths of society are discipline-centric whether or not you are.  All of your black and white statements on the subject alienate your viewers who’d rather you not make simplistic assumptions about how to raise kids when you have none. 

The truth is, in education, in single parent households, in overpopulated prisons; there isn't ENOUGH discipline.  Jesus, the writer of Ecclesiasticus and not our personal Lord and savior, thinks so too.

¹ Whoever loves his son will beat him frequently so that in after years the son may be his comfort.  ² Whoever is strict with his son will reap the benefit, and be able to boast of him to his acquaintances.  ³ Whoever educates his son will be the envy of his enemy, and will be proud of him among his friends.  ⁴ Even when the father dies, he might well not be dead, since he leaves his likeness behind him.  ⁵ In life he has had the joy of his company, dying, he has no anxieties.  ⁶ He leaves an avenger against his enemies and a rewarder of favours for his friends.  ⁷ Whoever coddles his son will bandage his wounds; his heart will turn over at every cry.  ⁸ A badly broken-in horse turns out stubborn; a son left to himself turns out headstrong.  ⁹ Pamper your child and he will terrorize you, play along with him and he will bring you sorrow.  ¹⁰ Do not laugh with him, or one day you will weep with him and end up gnashing your teeth.  ¹¹ While he is young, do not allow him his freedom and do not wink at his mistakes.  ¹² Bend his neck in youth, bruise his ribs while he is a child, or else he will grow stubborn and disobedient, and hurt you very deeply.  ¹³ Be strict with your son, and persevere with him, or you will rue his insolence.

Don’t we know that this is more true than false?  Children need correction.  I know I did.  I have very good anecdotal evidence that corporal punishment works.  You do too; I’m assuming.  The world is filled with such anecdotal evidence.  Strippers with daddy issues, inmates with daddy issues, politicians with daddy issues, serial philanderers with daddy issues are all proof we have huge problems with discipline emaciation.  We are discipline deficient; discipline as a Moral Form in the Platonic vein.    

Now is it the same for hitting your grown wife?  No.  There’s that pesky word, ‘grown,’ along with wife.  Ray Rice is a jerk.  I don’t think he needs to get kicked out of the league, though.  But children are still malleable.  I've heard some say that this is no different from Michael Vick's dog fighting but that was for enjoyment, not discipline.  Dogs can receive discipline too.  In the form of noises, smell, or pain; they learn from it.  So, you may ask, is it appropriate to hit my kid with a belt or an iron because I sincerely want to discipline them?  First, check out the word, ‘sincerely.’  One thing that my parents did when I was going to be spanked was to explain to me why.  It made me crazy when I was young but its power was to make sure they weren't angry and that I understood.  This might calm you down or take away your inclination to use a weapon.  Or it might not.  There are, after all, crazy people.  But crazy people aren't a reason for society to say that corporal punishment doesn't work.  Is Peterson crazy?  I won’t say yes or no.  Courts will assess his history of violence and decide whether the child is in danger.  Maybe someone who loves Peterson needs to explain that when you cut a switch and whittle/prune its branches you might want to use that time to cool down a bit.  Peterson might want to have a conversation with the kid at that time about why he’s getting a whipping.  Heck, part of me is stoked that Peterson lives with his kids.

Some of you are getting better results by sitting your child down and having conversations with her.  Some of your kids would rather get 40 lashes than endure a day without phone or internet.  That’s fine.  I’m not making judgments about your discipline.  Can we all stop making statements about how hitting kids is wrong?  You are using loaded language to exacerbate what could be a valuable conversation.  Or else, you are guilty of religion bashing, cultural ethnocentrism, painting with too broad a brush, arrogance; you name it; you got it.  

And you know what?  I agree that hitting or spanking isn't the best way to discipline.  The best way to discipline is having a child that knows you will punish bad behavior so you don’t have to.  My brother John and his wife Nola, whom I disagree with them on a lot, but they've got two great kids:  JDOC and Toks.  Mom and dad are doing a great job of training them up in the way they should go.  John and or Nola count to three if the boys are doing wrong.   Actually, I've seen them count to two a ton and the boys quit what they’re doing.  The boys have learned what comes from disobedience and there is less need for discipline.  Fear of discipline is the best discipline.  Does that mean I agree with Adrian Peterson?  No.  He doesn't agree with himself.  He admits he did wrong/went too far.

Finally, some of this stuff in Ecclesiasticus 30:1-13 I don’t agree with.  That’s fine, right?  It didn't make it into the Bible cannon, after all.  For example, if I had a son I would want to share his laughter and his tears.  I want my heart to overturn at the sorrows of any little girl I may have.  The passage ends up sounding like a path to sensibility, parenting at arm’s length.  Maybe the aim wasn't a perfect bull’s-eye, but notice that the frequent beatings are about the child’s adulthood not yours.  I happen to read this as a thinly-veiled altruism.

We Need More Wise in our Old

Ecclesiasticus 25

³ If you have gathered nothing in your youth, how can you discover anything in your old age?

⁴ How fine a thing: sound judgment with grey hairs, and for greybeards to know how to advise!

⁵ How fine a thing:  Wisdom in the aged and considered advice coming from people of distinction!

⁶ The crown of the aged is ripe experience, their glory, the fear of the Lord.

When I decided to write a blog it was with some trepidation.  The world seems filled with blogs and I wasn't sure that they were often all that valuable.  They sometimes devolve into vapidity and error.  So I wanted to use someone else’s voice.  Someone that I knew wouldn't devolve.  Someone that I knew has a voice that was needed today.

 

I picked well, I think, with Jesus

(not THE Jesus), the writer of Ecclesiasticus.  I may not be doing it justice, but we need wisdom.  We need old age in a way we haven’t ever needed it. 

Let me give some examples of where youth is elongating and why.  First, adults are playing too many video games.  Yeah, I said it.  I know I sound like an old fuddy duddy.  But it’s a strangulation of life out of those doing it.  Yes, you can argue that you only do it two hours a night which is less than some people watch Real Housewives of Orange County. You may say that you only watch two hours a week which is less than most people spend commuting to work.  You may say that you got a Wii to play with your kids and grand kids.  But this gaming culture is an infestation and any amount is a symptom of immaturity while a great deal is something more dire to the whole of a life.

Have you seen those tramp stamps?  They’re pretty sexy, huh?  There’s some vaguely tribal design on the small of the back of a model.  There’s some dolphin on an ankle.  There are full sleeves that used to never be seen outside of carnivals but now somebody is sporting one at every fast food place you visit.  Every person thinks these drawings really bring out their personality, or look good, or mean something to them.  I’m not saying that every tattoo is silly but my guess is four out of five are.  It is a misjudgment of future consequences.  These days people between the ages of 18-35 are more likely to have tattoos than not.  And as eventually happens to us all we get old and the tattoos sag and look ridiculous but our old people are seemingly less embarrassed than they've ever been. 

Girls are having children without husbands.  Boys are impregnating women before they’re ready to be fathers.  This is the most detrimental societal epidemic in our country.  Out of wedlock birth perpetuates a cycle of meager school performance, low moral behavior, and high poverty.  Poor DOES NOT create crime but with a few other key ingredients like rap culture and no moral compass, you've got a recipe for disaster.  This is also, in many people’s opinion, a failure of our maturity.  We think we don’t need two parents because some of us didn't have two parents or because we didn't like either of our parents.  We’re skipping that section in our lives when we found out our parents were wise through the accident of living.  Maturity is humility towards the knowledge of the world.  It’s a worldwide Socratic prophecy by the oracle of Delphi.  It is that knowledge of one’s own ignorance is further along the spectrum of enlightenment than assurance that one ‘knows it all.’  Knowledge of ignorance beats ignorance any day.

And why are we dying later but not getting older of character and mind?  I think it’s twofold.  One it’s a cycle of disconnection.  We move to the cities and there is less extended family interaction.  A hundred years ago did you live in the same city as all of your cousins?  Two hundred years ago did you?  We disconnect from out extended families which makes the disconnection from our nuclear families all the more inevitable.  It is our kids needing us to be adults that makes us need to be adults and the less they need that the less we need to grow up.  The less there is an outlet for knowledge of the world in our children, the less we need to doggedly input data into our worldview database.  The less often boys stay with their children, the less often they learn about life and grow up all the more through raising children.  It’s difficult to be a full-grown man without being a father.  Trust me. 

Second reason is that we need less these days.  Life is easier these days with power companies and central air.  There is no fight for survival.  This makes a person mature.  The fight against the elements of the world prepares the heart for almost any simple dealings in the world.  When a person must dig his own latrine he seems to be more even-keeled to the world’s swells.  No, I don’t think we need to go back there to a Laura Ingalls Wilder world where there isn't electricity or showers but we need to teach our children and ourselves to strive.  Video games, premium cable, foodies, and fun runs:  They all blind us to the fact that we’re still locked in a battle to survive.  These lull us to sleep but we have a storm of survival bearing down.  We need leaders who are the oldest most seasoned individuals who AREN'T individuals to tell us stories and help us become great.  We stoop at the edge of world precipice and we need the cooler heads to tell us where the cliff leads.

It used to be our politicians.  We used to elect wisdom, I think.  Wisdom used to find its way to the top pushed by those around it.  Now, it’s simpler to elect people that look certain ways and talk and vote certain ways.  But simple isn't wise.

This time I've got no homework that I think might help you get wise.  Let me remind you that anyone who seeks wisdom finds it.  No this post was a meandering rant against a generation of children with gray hair, Baby-Boomers who never left the ‘baby’ behind.  I used to think I was kind of oddly annoyed by ‘kids these days.’ How much worse that I’m disgusted by old people these days?

God, grant us grandfathers and grandmothers, patriarchs and matriarchs, advisers, and leaders.  Grant our old people ripe experience.  Teach them to fear you, is true glory.

Don't turn the world over

Michael Brown seems to be all the rage these days.  Meaning that the rage of parts of the country are being collected in a small suburb of a big city.  Michael Brown seems to be deceased  because he was doing something that is outside of the realm of good character.  His killer may not be innocent but the large boy isn't innocent either.  He seems to be famous because his friend and accomplice lied about how he was behaving.  Facts and other people's perspectives may turn out to be very stubborn for Michael Brown's side kick.

But alas, I don't care about that.  I don't care that a kid might die.  I don't even worry about innocent kids dying all that much.  And I don't think that those people are who are protesting, looting, and rioting do either.  Because I know several cops.  Most cops are decent people who don't want to shoot ever.  We all know cops.  Or should.  We all know someone who wears a badge in order to serve and protect.  We know that most, 90%, 80%, 95% are good men and women of high character.  We know that the protesting, looting, and rioting are in some way telling the world that they are not most that way.

Granted some cops are evil.  The majority are not but let's at least entertain the ev
il in a handful of cops as a possibility.  Well prosecute those cops one at a time.  But cops are not bad.  A cop may be bad one time.  But people who are looting, rioting, and protesting are telling their children black and white subconsciously that cops are evil. Stop it.  You're turning the world upside down.

Don't believe cops are good?  The instigation of violence that has been done of the streets of MO this week has taken the patience of Job to not respond to.  I submit to you that the only reason you feel safe to riot and loot is because you know that cops are good.  Otherwise you'd try other tactics that might not get you killed for 'peacefully protesting.'  If they do end up shooting at someone because they have a gun, things may get really messy but not because they're bad, it's because the bad are instigating evil and they want the cops to react badly.  That is not their nature even if it's one of their natures.

Don't believe you're teaching your children badly?  Everyone needs to make it clear to their kids if they're heading to Ferguson or if they're watching or blogging or whatever, that cops are good.  Don't teach them that if you're black you have to act meek around cops because of their structural racism.  Don't teach them that it's the cops being racist that started this.  Don't teach them that it's wrong for cops to stop more blacks than whites.  Teach them that cops are supposed to serve and protect and God willing they will.   Teach them that goodness and innocence aren't the enemies of police but that evil and hate are their foes.  Don't teach them they use oppression but they fight oppression.  The more we honor and respect the 90% true the closer we can push it to 100%.  For if you teach that something that almost never happens is the truth then you'll have a world that believes in the upside down world.

Don't turn the world over.  It's impossible to walk.  Don't turn the world over.  It's impossible to walk.  The world becomes less navigable when it’s upside down.  The truth looks wrong when your worldview is upside down.  When you see an unarmed man shot in an upside down world you might leap to the conclusion that the cop was racist or that the protesters are protesting the military tactics of the police.  Pretty soon there is no justice and no peace BECAUSE hundreds or thousands are traveling to the city to say there isn't.

Prospero meets Jesus

This last month I've been preparing to present a lesson plan for teaching the Tempest by William Shakespeare.  The Tempest was his last solo written play and sort of his second tear of critical acclaim.  No one dies at the end so it leaves the audience a little bored.  It's about finding the power to forgive thine enemies so Hollywood hates it.  It is my favorite Shakespeare play because I didn't feel compelled to read it. 

Oh...Enlightenment Burn!!!  Ouch.  

Truth be told I've never been all together thrilled with any of the Bard's plays although I'd like to improve my working knowledge of them so that I can do better on Jeopardy.  I know the language is beautiful and life-affirming.  I know that the plays are a way to connect to our ancient past but so is reading the King James Bible.  The plots are just so tedious.  There is never any arc in any characters.  Take A Comedy of Errors; the play is about mistaken identity and the climax is telling everyone there are two different twins!!!  It's stupid. Or let's make Much Ado About Nothing, Hero is accused of an affair without proof and exonerated without any either.  Is it any wonder that in almost every play the bad guy is the only one with depth.  In the tragedies everyone dies and nobody cares.

But alas, allow me to talk about Prospero.  The Duke of Milan removed from power by his brother and king, sentenced to be banished and thought to have died at sea.  He was even sacrificed with his daughter Miranda.  He survives to become the plucky dictator of a beautiful sandy paradise ruling over the lives of spirits and slaves with an iron fist.  Why was Prospero banished?  Can you believe he spent too much time reading?  He read too many books so the king and his brother usurped his throne because of an overabundance of learning.  The play is the situation of the chance for Prospero to take revenge.  Hang on a tick.  You're telling me that he got sent afloat in the sea because he read too much?  That seems excessive.  Did anyone try to tell him to cut back.  I thought reading made a man smarter and a better ruler.  Doesn't it?  I would think reading made him wise.  Didn't it.

    

Ah but you see Jesus in the book of Ecclesiasticus has an explanation that might explain what got Prospero kicked to the curb.    

Look at this passage from Ecclesiasticus 19
²⁰ The fear of the Lord is all wisdom; and in all wisdom is the performance of the law, and the knowledge of his omnipotency. ²¹ If a servant say to his master, I will not do as it pleaseth thee; though afterward he do it, he angereth him that nourisheth him. ²² The knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom, neither at any time the counsel of sinners prudence. ²³ There is a wickedness, and the same an abomination; and there is a fool wanting in wisdom. ²⁴ He that hath small understanding, and feareth God, is better than one that hath much wisdom, and transgresseth the law of the most High. ²⁵ There is an exquisite subtlety, and the same is unjust; and there is one that turneth aside to make judgment appear; and there is a wise man that justifieth in judgment. ²⁶ There is a wicked man that hangeth down his head sadly; but inwardly he is full of deceit, ²⁷ casting down his countenance, and making as if he heard not: where he is not known, he will do thee a mischief before thou be aware. ²⁸ And if for want of power he be hindered from sinning, yet when he findeth opportunity he will do evil. ²⁹ A man may be known by his look, and one that hath understanding by his countenance, when thou meetest him. ³⁰ A man's attire, and excessive laughter, and gait, show what he is.

From Prospero's learning the occult we got a fantastical play that allows for some amazing costumes an makeup.  Metaphysics run throughout the play whether purposefully or accidentally.  The play has strong images for post colonialism because Prospero really is a dictator to his single simple-minded slave and a terrible spirit that maybe the sequel's star.  The Duke of Milan is knowledgeable in the occult.  However the law of the Lord brings wisdom.  Prospero is in prison, imprisoning the world around him, even unto his own daughter who thankfully the rowboat cast into the sea.  Prospero wreaks vengeance with his hand of power over the world unable to see the hand of God on his. 

But like all Shakespeare characters he might have a little redemption.  He might choose life and be set free.  He may get the key to his own prison of hate and fear right after he lets everyone else out.

Prospero knows all there is to know about potions and magic.  But he doesn't know God.  The West is having trouble knowing God these days.  We've been to the moon but it's been a while since we've been to the interiors of our hearts and found wisdom.  We can put all the libraries in the world on a computer the size of a...filing cabinet.  Only now we put much more than just books on those memory holders so a filing cabinet may not do.  But the big-ness, some might say the glory of God fits not a thumb drive the size of the universe.  The world we know more about than we ever have but less about who made it.  

Now trust me I know how difficult it can be to say that wisdom belongs to the creationist than to Stephen Hawking.  But Jesus says it's true.  Guess what Prospero and Shakespeare make the claim as well.  All the knowledge one can attain may not be a way out but a way into a prison of the mind.

Ramen Noodles and Occupy Wall Street

Remember Occupy Wall Street?  That group of capitalist-hating hippies that thought they’d be allowed to take down the system by camping next to it.  Those smelly, intimidating trespassers resembled a ten-year-old’s club rather than a serious group of people trying to affect change. 

The problem with them isn't their message that the rich are too rich.  The rich are too rich.  There are people who own more than they’ll ever need.  They are destructively rich.  They are Kardashian rich.  That’s my new word for ostentatious, arrogance, and tacky with a little fear of contraction aftertaste:  Kardashian.  

They’re too rich.  Dad has a plane company so the family gets a television show that has been going on forever and has never had any reality in it.

Too much money has been destructive to so many.  Country clubs have turned into yacht clubs, have turned into living in a building you own club.  Silver has turned into gold, into platinum.  Rubies were traded in on diamonds and now diamonds are so passay that they’re becoming bigger and bigger and now they’re coming in different colors.  The well-adjusted super-rich is the one with a good PR team.

The problem with the message is that it went to the wrong people.  The message was some people have too much money and we should take it from them.  The message should have been some people have too much money and they should try giving some of it away. 

Now wait one second you think you’re free.  You say I've never owned a building and I've never checked my bank to see if I could afford a trip to space.  You think you’re off the hook because you didn't have to build a bigger garage for your huge collection of cars.  Think again.

You semi-rich person, you may be too rich.  You may have too much stuff.  You may have eaten Spaghettios twice last week and still have been too rich.  Your paycheck may want to argue but I’ll win because I’m a human and can talk and so the pay check won’t be able to argue.

You may be late paying the power man.  You may be late paying the water bill.  You may be just on the verge and yet you, I, we all might have too much stuff and be too rich.  I’m not talking about how we’re the first world and our poorest people are richer than 95% of the rest of the world give or take a percent.  I’m talking about the possibility that you may be living a satisfied life.

Ecclesiasticus 18:30-19:3

³⁰ Do not be governed by your passions, restrain your desires.

³¹ If you allow yourself to satisfy your desires, this will make you the laughing-stock of your enemies.

³² Do not indulge in luxurious living; do not get involved in such society.

³³ Do not beggar yourself by banqueting on credit when there is nothing in your pocket.

19¹ A drunken workman will never grow rich, and one who makes light of small matters will gradually sink.

² Wine and women corrupt intelligent men, the customer of whores loses all sense of shame.

³ Grubs and worms will have him as their legacy, and the man who knows no shame will lose his life.

This is how Ramen noodles and a can of veggies and maybe a little bit of spam all mixed together can be too much.  He’s right, this Jesus, that opulence has a great psychological price that has to be paid.  He doesn’t seem to go far enough though.  It is the fulfillment of desires that makes you weak.  You got a special place you go to in the park every Thursday and eat a homemade bologna sandwich?  Take a few weeks off.  Do you let yourself get whatever you want at the dollar store thinking that here is where you can splurge?  Go in with a hard limit on four things, or three, or one.  Do you watch soaps and thinks it’s your guilty pleasure but it’s okay because you’re on the treadmill while you watch?  Take a week off.  Read a little on the treadmill.  Are you addicted to the treadmill?  Take a week off. 

Whatever you’re addicted to, take a week off.  It is your desires that trap you and ensnare you.  It is your routine that makes you less free.

In the interest of full disclosure, this one’s tough for me.  I like a lot of little habits.  And I love cheap stuff.  I like getting my money’s worth.  I like watching too much TV.  I think I earn a break from life after working a couple of 14-hour days.  I bargain with myself saying (Thinking them, not saying them out loud; I’m not a crazy person.) things like, “I can afford it.  I have earned it.  I’m worth it.  Why not?”  But are those the questions one should ask? 

Try asking your friends and family what you’re addicted to if you dare and take some time off.  It’s scary.  It may even be something good for you.  Take a break from your desires.

If you don’t want to do that then at least ask some different questions than the ones listed above.  Ask yourself if you need it or just want it, not CAN you use it.  Don’t ask if you’re worth it but ask what you could be worth without it.  Ask yourself what you've wanted to do all your life that you never got around to doing, this desire might be in the way.  Don’t go sit under a lotus tree and wait for desire to die inside you.  Become a detective get the facts quick and then attack your desires.

You know Jesus, the one who was the son of God, not the one who wrote this book.  Well Jesus asked some people to give all they have to the poor and follow him.  He wasn't saying that’s a universal prescription but he was recommending it to so with dire prognoses.  Are you one that he wants all of?  Yes.  Are you one that gives him all that you desire?  Probably not.  Don’t worry, you’re in good company.

And for that .0001 percent out there, I’m not going to take your stuff but an accounting of what you did with it is going to be taken from you and Woe to you on that day if your desires have run amok.  To you who can do great things like buy yourself a helipad, please consider that what you have doesn't have to belong to you.  Please believe that ‘tis better to give than to receive.’

Words are a Balm

Once upon a time someone said something to you and you felt glorious. 

One time my grandmother said I was more well-read than her.  This is more amazing when you meet the woman.  She was a Librarian at a school and now she volunteers at a library annex.  Once a week she takes her cloth book bag that in a simpler time would be called a nap sack and she fills it up with pulp fiction.  Mysteries and cop dramas all, and I mean all make it into her bag.  She’s read everybody who’s anybody.  She could put away the history of the Oprah book club in a couple months.  She reads and reads and reads and because my tastes are little more eclectic she laid that whopper on me.  It made me feel like the word compliment was all of a sudden out of style.

One time a man who is known as God Jr. because of his encyclopedic knowledge of the scriptures read my book.  He said, according to his wife, mid-read, “Drew is a better writer than me.”  This man who had written a thousand theological treatises found my literature not-wanting.  He had written a book and had alongside of a healthy sense of arrogance and hubris made the judgment that I was good at writing.  He said that I had a message, a voice.  The word compliment just doesn’t do it. 

Someone has told me I looked handsome.  Someone has told me that I’m smart.  Someone has tried to explain that the crazy stuff I say really makes them feel less crazy.  Someone has complimented my shoes and hat and pen-in-my-hat.  I’ve been told I look like Tom Cruise and Matt LeBlanc because I guess to Asians WE all look the same.  Compliments can be ho hum.  Compliments can make you think that people are messing with you.  Telling the whale that gray makes them look slim; they know is just a veiled insult.  Telling the squirrel that a lot of chicks like them because they’re little is wrong because it’s just so condescending.  Telling the rat that it’s industrious for getting in the trash isn’t a mercy it’s fake sincerity and that’s just insulting.

¹⁵ My child, do not temper your favours with blame nor any of your gifts with words that hurt.

¹⁶ Does not dew relieve the heat? In the same way a word is worth more than a gift.

¹⁷ Why surely, a word is better than a good present, but a generous person is ready with both.

¹⁸ A fool will offer nothing but insult, and a grudging gift makes the eyes smart.

Here’s a special passage you don’t have to think too hard about to KNOW it’s true.  Like these two compliments I’ve mentioned I’m sure there are some hum-dingers that you’ve tucked away into your good things about you bank.  I know that there is something that you remember so that when Peter demands a reckoning at the pearly gates, you’ll be ready.  So-and-So said I was blah blah blah.  It won’t work, but you’re cataloging the good stuff anyway for fear of the Bad and the Ugly.

This blog started because I wanted to spend a little extra time paying attention to wisdom.  I haven’t been doing a good job posting because, I guess, I haven’t been paying attention to wisdom.  I’ll try to remedy that situation soon.  For now, why don’t you think of 10 really good compliments to pay someone? 

Rules for Compliments:

1      - Pick your significant other.  Duh.

2      - Try to pick very few or your closets and most loved.  (Add them to the completed list of ten if you feel you should complement them more.)

3      - Do not decide on nice things to say and pigeon hole your list into those compliments.  (Design a perfectly tailored compliment for each person on your list.)

4      - Choose something based on their character or their God-given ability.  (Don’t tell someone they always know what to wear.)

5      - Give it to someone who needs it.  (I don’t want you to tweet how Lebron James is good at basketball.  He knows.   Trust me; he knows. 

Remember this is about making you wiser not making the world a better place.  While this has the opportunity to improve your relationships with friends, acquaintances, and family its purpose is to help you grow in wisdom.  And how does this do that, you ask?  I’m not sure that I’m not fully invested in the first benefit.  If you however, wanted another reason to believe that this is good for you rather than just other people, nay even the rest of the whole world.  If the term, ‘pay it forward’ is no longer enough, maybe this will help.

Wisdom is knowledge that is used to an end.  And watching for the really valuable stuff in the lives of others is going to teach you about them.  Learn what a woman wants to hear and say it for crying out loud.  Christ is a great example of wisdom coming from watching people.  Christ is a great example of telling people what they needed to hear not what they wanted to hear.  Christ is an example of omni-everything made flesh and you’ll find him among the people giving them great compliments like, ‘You can follow me.’  ‘You can be reborn.’  ‘You can meet God.’  ‘You are perfectly crafted, the handiwork of the creator of the heavens and earth.’  ‘I love you so much that I’d lay down my life for you.’

Of course I know the making the world a better place would be good enough reason to compliment others but to actually follow in the footsteps of Christ Jesus while he follows the advice of this Jesus in Chapter 18.

An Emaciated Mercy

I've been going to a small church for a couple of weeks.  I wanted to go to a church nearby my house.  I feel like it's a negative thing to travel far and wide to get to a church that’s just right for me.  It's not a sin or anything but I felt that if I was looking for a church that was just right for me then I was looking for a church for the wrong reason.  There is faith and hope needed in every corner of the world after all.  I wanted to be useful where I went to church, so a smallish church.  I wanted to be able to go there anytime so nearby.  I like communion every Sunday and I choose accordingly. 

The church that I choose will remain unnamed.  They are driving me off.  I want to be an instrument (St. Francis) but can God use me in this place so bereft of grace to work hope back into dry bones?

There I sit in the pews and I hope someone will engage me in conversation so I can give them a piece of my mind, but that may not help.  How will a bunch of crusty old fuddy duddies listen to what I have to say?  If I have the boldness that God commands and exhorts in Joshua will they have ears to hear what the spirit says to the churches?

What is their soul crushing, joy sucking message?  You can’t sin.  This church seems like a relic in this era.  Most churches are too far on the other end of the pendulum.  They are too grace filled???  Nothing matters, but your faith and love.  I have a message for them too but this church, flying in the face of humanity and history expects true perfection after Christ’s forgiveness. 

What arrogant rubes?  It brings to mind this passage from the 17^th chapter of Ecclesiasticus.  Yes, there is a chance to leave sin behind every day, but there is power in our weakness.  Praise God for his mercy he lavishes it on all who turn towards him.   

25 Return to the LORD and renounce your sins, plead before his face, stop offending him.

26 Come back to the Most High, turn away from iniquity and hold all that is foul in abhorrence.

27 Who is going to praise the Most High in Sheol if we do not glorify him while we are alive?

28 The dead can praise no more than those who do not exist, only those with life and health can praise the Lord.

29 How great is the mercy of the Lord, his pardon for those who turn to him!

30 For we cannot have everything, human beings are not immortal.

31 What is brighter than the sun? And yet it fades. Flesh and blood think of nothing but evil.

32 He surveys the armies of the lofty sky, and all of us are only dust and ashes.

I think that modern Jews sort of believe that their good and bad deeds are going to be weighed at the end of the world.  They believe that God has mercy and will give mercy to those who seek it, those who were close to even.  That’s probably a little obtuse version of it.  We Christians sort of believe that too; just that Christ Jesus is the tool by which we receive grace.

So too, back in the times of this Jesus after the return from Babylon and Persia that they believed that there is power in being sorry.  There may be more power in being sorry than having nothing to be sorry about.  After all, how boring would creation have been if there were nothing but greatness?  If Earth was populated by giants of intellect and morality Jesus, son of David would have been a blip in history and no one would have put up with your awful B.S.  If everyone was good enough there’d be no beautiful choice, no reaching up from the bottom that society and humans hit.  There’s no greatness if there’s nothing but greatness.

This little church believes that you’re going to give an account for what you believe and do.  This church’s preacher starts every sermon with the specific albeit frightening assertion that we will all be on the hook for what we’ve done.  This is, basically, a gospel-less gospel.  This is a Church of Christ where Christ doesn’t make sense.  This is a salvation without a savior. 

But we believe that God looks down on you, with your foibles and quirks, and loves you.  Sometimes he loves you in spite of your faithlessness.  Sometimes because of your broken spiritual wings.  He loves the lame, the frightened, the meek, the week, the sad, and the lonely.  “Man cannot have everything.  Flesh and blood think of nothing but evil.” But God… 

I don’t know where you are on the pendulum of God’s grace.  Somewhere all the way over towards God’s demand for works.  Faith without works is dead of course.  Maybe you’re a figurative member of this church and are hoping to get a ticket into heaven without using Christ as your only ticket in.  Maybe you’re in a church or in a place in your life where you think God is so grace-filled, he really doesn’t care how you behave.  You may think hippie faith is the answer to the world’s problems.  Wherever you are on the spectrum; spend a day on the other side. 

For the fans of James spend a day contemplating and meditating that, “It is the gift of God so that no man may boast.”

For the Pauline lovers maybe you should spend a couple of hours a day or a whole week trying to turn towards God again.  Let’s strive for faithful observance because if you don’t have proofs of faith then your faith is shallow and even the demons have faith in God.