Re-Framing Adversity

Hudson's Bay Company trail and the divide 

There’s a hiking trail north of Hope, British Columbia.  It is an original Hudson’s Bay Company trading route and before that it was an aboriginal trail through the North Cascade Mountains of North America.  In the 1850s, traders would bring furs west and supplies east. 

There’s a divide, and everything west drains into the mighty Fraser River, and everything east drains into the Columbia.  The trail is not steep at the divide. It’s almost flat, actually.  Just a difference of a step or two makes a watershed difference.

Adversity is a watershed.  It’s not what happens to you, it’s which side you come down.  It's what you do with it.  How you respond to adversity makes a watershed difference in your resilience, and maybe, just maybe, how you understand the character of God.

“The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.

Your suffering, re-framed as discipline, is a sign you’re acting like a child of God.

Most of us have experienced a (or been that) well-meaning friend projecting overly simple “meaning” and “reasons” onto someone’s suffering, in a lame attempt to help them feel better.  “She’s in a better place now,” they say.  Thanks a lot. I feel so much better.  Not. 

And we all know people who have rejected God because of suffering and evil.  They blame God.  Go through enough heartache and God becomes hard to see, and often, ironically, a hard-to-see target. 

It isn’t that God is responsible for the evil in the world, and it’s convenient for us to say, “If God exists he would not have allowed X.” 

The first people who received the New Testament book of Hebrews probably lived in Rome.   Roman nobles were players.  They got around.  They often had illegitimate children.  They usually supported the kids financially but they rarely disciplined them. 

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

But they were so strict with their legitimate children that it was almost like slavery. So you can see that the author is using a familiar analogy for his audience. 

Parents who care discipline their kids. 

Whatever you believe about God, you’re going to suffer.  The real question is, what are you going to do with it?  Suffering re-framed as discipline is a sign you’re a child of God.  It’s what you do with it that counts.   

How do we do that?
Keep an open heart.  Rather than to curl up into a self pitying ball, stay open. Stay open to God, stay open to creation.  Stay open to others.  Good will come.
Trust the goodness of God.  Some will say, "Trust the goodness of the universe."  Go ahead, if that works for you.  It helps nothing to become bitter or to despair.  Believe the best and the best will come.
Take positive action.  Keep your eyes open for opportunities to do good.  And step into them. 

Making Sense of Suffering

Last Friday, terrorists attacked innocents in a coordinated attack throughout Paris, killing more than a hundred and injuring hundreds more.  ISIS claimed responsibility.  The international community has united in support of France and against the violent actions of Islamic extremists. 

My wife I immigrated to Canada with our young family eleven years ago.  Sue and I have been married nearly 30 years.  We’ve been tested and challenged in just about every way a family can be.   You don’t go through thirty years without encountering pain and heartache along the way. 

Whether the scale makes headlines or is private and personal, each one of us has known suffering.   A passage in the biblical book of Hebrews, chapter twelve offers perspective on the suffering we will know in this life, and more importantly, how to process it.   

No one knows for sure who wrote the book of Hebrews.  What we do know is that the author knows the roots of the Old Testament in the story of Jesus, and he (probably a male) cares personally about his audience.  Like many across the world even today, he writes to Christians who are experiencing opposition for their faith, even persecution.  They are thinking about giving up. 

The author goes through the first several chapters demonstrating from the Old Testament that Jesus is superior to Moses, and superior even to the angels.  He implores us to persevere.  A greater covenant means greater responsibility. 

He uses Olympic imagery. We’re surrounded by a throng of witnesses, an audience of believers, now dead, who have gone before, cheering us in the arena as we who remain battle by little more than faith and our wits. 

The passage is one exhorting God’s people to hang in there.  Recalling the early Olympic Games, he challenges God’s children to run with endurance; to look to Jesus; to lift up our tired hands; to choose straight paths; and not to give up.

Hebrews12:1-17, and more specifically 3-11, talks about framing the suffering we experience as getting the tender – and often tough – discipline of a loving God, a loving Father.   When we suffer, we often ask why.  We look for answers.  We grope for meaning.  Why did God allow this?

If you’re not a Christian, this passage might help you put suffering into context.  It can help you re-frame the bad into something that makes a little sense.  If you’re Christian, hopefully you can find strength and maybe even some healing.

The passage gives us three clues:

1.      .   Suffering can have a purpose, and properly understood, it’s a sign you’re a child of God.
2.      .   There are two ways you can go off the rails when suffering.  We’ll look at both and see how to avoid them.
3.      .   Two signs of a well-loved (and by that I mean, well-disciplined) child of God. 

      Suffering is necessary, but it doesn’t have the last word. So in the next few posts, let’s think about how we think about suffering.

Uncharted Territory (part 2 of 2)

Last time we looked at the feedback loop that is climate change and species extinction.  We considered that this may be the Holocene Extinction, we may be included in it, and that at least one scientist believes human extinction is both inevitable and immanent. 

It is at this point that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports start to look hopeful.  From the 2014 Summary for Policy Makers: 

·         Without additional mitigation efforts beyond those in place today, and even with adaptation, warming by the end of the 21st century will lead to high to very high risk of severe, widespread and irreversible impacts globally (high confidence).

·         Surface temperature is projected to rise over the 21st century under all assessed emission scenarios. It is very likely that heat waves will occur more often and last longer, and that extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent in many regions.

·         The ocean will continue to warm and acidify, and global mean sea level to rise.  Earth System Models project a global increase in ocean acidification for all scenarios by the end of the 21st century. There is high confidence that ocean acidification will increase for centuries if CO2 emissions continue, and will strongly affect marine ecosystems. 

·         Climate change will amplify existing risks and create new risks for natural and human systems. Risks are unevenly distributed and are generally greater for disadvantaged people and communities in countries at all levels of development.

·         Many aspects of climate change and associated impacts will continue for centuries, even if anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are stopped.

·         A large fraction of anthropogenic climate change resulting from CO2 emissions is irreversible on a multi-century to millennial timescale, except in the case of a large net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere over a sustained period.

It’s a grim picture, especially when you consider the consequences of ocean acidification and a warmed planet.  No wonder some people don't like the UN. 

Alberta Tar Sands, also know as Oil Sands, mine.

Now here's some “good” news from the same Summary:

·         Adaptation and mitigation are complementary strategies for reducing and managing the risks of climate change. Substantial emissions reductions over the next few decades can reduce climate risks in the 21st century and beyond, increase prospects for effective adaptation, reduce the costs and challenges of mitigation in the longer term and contribute to climate-resilient pathways for sustainable development. 

·         We can reduce the risk, and it requires immediate drastic action:  There are multiple mitigation pathways that are likely to limit warming to below 2°C relative to pre-industrial levels. These pathways will require substantial emissions reductions over the next few decades and near zero emissions of CO2 and other long-lived greenhouse gases by the end of the century. Implementing such reductions poses substantial technological, economic, social and institutional challenges, which increase with delays in additional mitigation and if key technologies are not available. Limiting warming to lower or higher levels involves similar challenges but on different timescales.

Maligne Lake, Alberta

In other (good) news…

          Just this week, groupof Canadian oil sands companies along with U.S.-based NRG Energy is funding an XPrize competition designed to solve one of the world's most elusive problems: how to reduce CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. There is $20 million U.S. up for grabs.  It seems these oil sands companies (at least) are not climate denialists.  

         Also this week, Shell abandoned oil exploration plans in the Arctic.  This has been widely reported in the news. 

Maybe we can figure this out, but it will take all of us, on every level, immediately. 

To start at the beginning of this seven part series, you might start with my journey, or Global Warming 101.  

Uncharted Territory (part 1 of 2)

We're in uncharted territory.  No one knows for sure how bad will be the effects of climate change or what exactly will happen. 

Speaking of positive feedback loops, inter-related are the current rate of species extinction and global warming.  The Holocene, or Sixth Extinction refers to the current period of mass species extinction that we’ve all been hearing about since we were kids, except we didn’t think it was that bad.  What we learned as kids, with pleas to save the whales, has snowballed into an avalanche of extinctions that has become an event in itself.  Elizabeth Kolbert has described it in detail in her Pulitzer Prize winning aptly named book, The Sixth Extinction.  Here is a succinct summary of the present-day mass extinction, in which we may be included. 

It Gets Worse

Guy McPherson is Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona. McPherson is gaining attention as a scientist who believes we humans will be extinct – yes, extinct – in as little as fifteen years.  You can find McPherson's website Nature Bats Last and blog here. 

I learned about McPherson while commuting to work and listening to an interview with him on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Radio One.  The strength of the following video, Guy McPherson, Full Presentation, York, UK, is the breadth of his overview of sources.  It’s heavily referenced. 

I wish McPherson’s comments were as measured as his monotone is flat.  I’d prefer if he did not inject dark humour and political asides into the lecture.  That said, there is a solid overview of his position and a goldmine of reference material in this short half hour or so lecture. 

Plus, for McPherson, the upshot of it all is refreshingly measured: pursue love and live a life of excellence.  He’s not asking anybody to join him in a commune and drink the purple Kool-Aid.  One could quibble, asking why a scientist is moralizing at all.  But given his conclusions, it’s helpful to see how moderate his “so what?” is.  Pursue love and live a life of excellence.  In fact, it sounds familiar: 

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly...

1 Peter 4:7-8

Next time:  Near Term Extinction (Part 2), or why the IPCC reports sound optimistic.  

When Positive Feedback is a Bad Thing

Climate change is being accelerated by its own effects.  These are referred to as positive feedback loops.  Here's why: 

In climate change, a feedback loop is the equivalent of a vicious – or virtuous – circle. It's something that accelerates or decelerates a warming trend. A positive feedback accelerates a temperature rise, and a negative feedback decelerates it.

From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center:  

A positive feedback is a process in which an initial change will bring about an additional change in the same direction... There are also negative feedbacks, processes in which an initial change will bring about an additional change in the opposite direction.

It is positive, rather than negative feedbacks that contribute to abrupt climate changes. In positive feedbacks, a small initial perturbation can yield a large change. Negative feedbacks, on the other hand, stabilize the system by bringing it back to its original state.

A simple and obvious example of a positive feedback loop is melting polar ice.  Polar ice is white(-ish) and it reflects back into space lots of sunlight.  Polar ice has been melting as you know, and uncovering darker water or land underneath.  Solar energy is then absorbed, instead of reflected, and so warming occurs, driving more polar ice melt.  

It's a vicious circle, a feedback loop.  It's positive (in scientific terms) because it is consisting in or characterized by the presence of something (increased temperature) rather than its absence (absence would be negative, i.e., cooling).  

In general terms, there are three kinds of feedback loops

1. ice-related feedback loops, 
2. vegetation-related feedback loops and 
3. feedback loops created by these that include larger influences, like ocean currents (the thermohaline circulation, e.g., the Gulf Stream) and air currents like the jet stream and events like El Ninos and El Ninas 

Here are seventeen, count 'em, seventeen positive feedback loops. Please note that the article I cite lists nineteen and organizes it differently.  I have removed their #11 (their citation has been dropped and I could not confirm the assertion independently) and their #19 is covered by others in my humble opinion.

Ice-related 

• Methane hydrates – methane is a super-powerful greenhouse gas surfacing from the Arctic Ocean 
• Siberian methane 
• Darkening ice in Greenland 
• Cracking glaciers release CO2 
• Release of methane in the Antarctic  
• Greatly accelerated Antarctic ice melt 
• Darkening of ice caused by surface meltwater 

Vegetation-related 

• Amazon drought triggered the release of more methane than the US in 2010 
• Decomposing peat in boreal forests 
• Invasive growth warming soil and thus destabilizing permafrost 
• Forest and bog fires burning at a rate greater than the last 10,000 years 
• Thawing permafrost exposed to sunlight increases bacteria, leading to accelerated thawing 
• Microbes as a contributor within thawing permafrost 

Current-related 

• Warm seawater from the Atlantic ocean further warming the Arctic 
• Canadian floodwater runoff 
• Breakdown of ocean currents like the Gulf Stream 
• Jet stream impacted by reduced temperature range between the poles and the equator 

We’ve got a problem.  Humanity’s modification of the atmosphere through the use of fossil fuels has caused staggering effects that are so far reaching that it may already be too late.  We didn’t realize how bad it is until (quite possibly) it is already too late.  We’re all in this together.  Since negative feedbacks can stabilize the system by bringing it back to its original state, we’ve got to do what we can, or risk losing it all.

Next time:  How bad might it get?  

What, Me Worry? (Part 2 of 2)

We’re all puppets controlled by the winds of social conformity.

~ Dr. Joe Hanson, host, It’s Okay to be Smart

Last time we looked at equality bias and its role in climate change denial.  Here are two more reasons that rational arguments alone won’t convince people.    

2.    The way our brains are wired

The American Public Broadcasting System (PBS) Digital Studios has a nifty channel on YouTube called It’s Okay to be Smart.  I featured their segment, Climate Change: What you need to know, in my Global Warming 101 post. 

In his short video (below), host Joe Hanson talks about our wiring, among other things.  He talks about PAIN, the role of uncertainty, and how a need to belong shapes our beliefs:

So you can see that a number of subtle influences disrupt our objectivity.  Still, after equality bias and our wiring, a third contributor to climate change denial is our posse.  I have a great pun to insert here, but out of respect for Jay Heinrichs and my denialist friends, I shall restrain myself. 

3.    Our Tribe

Who’s your tribe?  Who are your homeys?  This is big. 

Climate change denial isn’t not knowing, or refusing to know. It’s about choosing not to notice or talk about it, so they don’t rock the in-group boat. 

~ Stanley Cohen, sociologist

Jay Heinrichs has written a ground-breaking, masterful, and entertaining book on rhetoric that is being used widely in universities like Harvard and elsewhere.  Thank You for Arguing will teach you the art of persuasion and make you laugh while you learn.  Jay has consulted with NASA, the US Department of Defense, Harvard, Walmart (don't hold that against him), Southwest Airlines, and more. 

Jay, who is the big brother of my childhood friend, has launched a video channel on YouTube called ArgueLab.  ArgueLab is a video forum in which “rhetorician Jay Heinrichs, and YouTube star Christina Fox, reveal the secrets of rhetoric, the art of persuasion.”  Its short videos offer entertaining tools for talking. 

In a recent segment, Jay talks about tribal identity using the anti-vaccination movement as a backdrop.  The parallel to climate science is exact. 

Equality bias, our brain’s wiring and tribal identity all work to muddle the facts.  You can't blame it on your brain though, because now you know.  In future posts we'll look at positive feedback loops, and how bad will be it anyway?  

Next time:  When Positive Feedback is a Bad Thing 

  

Denialists: What, Me Worry? (Part 1 of 2)

Here are three reasons why facts alone aren’t enough. 

We can look at science all day, but many folks – a LOT of folks, especially Americans, continue to deny climate science.  We might look at the disproportionate way in which big American money is funding the climate denial movement, much the way the tobacco industry resisted health warnings on cigarette boxes, and sought to raise doubt about health risks. 

The politics of denial is a topic for another time.  Right now, we’re just looking at the individual as part of a group, and the psychology, sociology and biology of it if you will.  So in the next two posts we’ll look at three contributing factors to denialism. 

1.      Equality Bias

I once worked with someone who was (still is) the nicest guy in the world.  He really is.  Brilliant too.  The problem was that whenever we leaders sat around our table solving the problems of the universe (or of the organization, at least), he’d always take a middle ground position, no matter how hair-brained someone on one side of the issue was being.  He is a gentle man and probably did this to protect feelings.  It seems reasonable.  It appears fair.  Even when someone is a crackpot. 

Chris Mooney, in his Washington Post column, The science of protecting people’s feelings: why we pretend all opinions are equal, details this very phenomenon.  Apparently it is a thing, it has a name, and it’s called equality bias.

 [Psychologists have] shown that people have an “equality bias” when it comes to competence or expertise, such that even when it’s very clear that one person in a group is more skilled, expert, or competent (and the other less), they are nonetheless inclined to seek out a middle ground in determining how correct different viewpoints are.

Chris Mooney

The study is recent, multi-national, and shows similar results across cultures.  You can read the study here.

Mooney describes in accessible terms how the study was conducted.  The bottom line is this:

[H]uman groups (especially in the United States) err much more in the direction of giving everybody a say than in the direction of deferring too much to experts. And that’s quite obviously harmful on any number of issues, especially in science, where what experts know really matters and lives or the world depend on it — like vaccinations or climate change. 

It’s only “fair,” right?  We see it in interviews, where one climate change believer (often Bill Nye the Science Guy), is juxtaposed with a single denier, when the reality is that 97% of scientists agree human-caused climate change is real and an immediate threat.  John Oliver illustrated this humourously in a video I featured last time. 

Next time: The other two reasons why facts are not enough: 2) our wiring and 3) our tribe 

Global Warming 101

The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.

The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. A third of the living creatures in the sea died...

Revelation 8

When I cite sources, wherever possible I will cite diverse, original, scholarly, independent sources. You get what you pay for, and here at There’s More in You, everything’s free (charges by your internet services provider may vary), so how much time do you have? 

Have 6 minutes?  Watch this clever video by the US-based Public Broadcasting System published in December 2014: 

Have half an hour?  The following twenty-six minute video, Climate Change: Lines of Evidence, produced in 2012 by the Board of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate of the National Research Council and the Academy of Natural Sciences gives a succinct overview. 

Overwhelmed by despair?  Needing a smile?  I give you four and a half minutes of John Oliver.  NOTE:  F Bomb warning.  

Next time: The Psychology of Denial  

A Journey

Swath of forest destroyed by the pine beetle 

I grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s.  I always liked fishing, and after my parents split up I became interested in wilderness survival.  Maybe emotionally, I was surviving.  I backpacked, studied ecology, and even got a college degree in forestry.  I became a Christian, and embraced a positive, environmentally friendly, stewardship view of humanity’s role in creation.  

As an adult, I became a faithful, card carrying member of the religious right, an ordained minister in fact.  I had the theological and political pedigree.  And like many of my evangelical friends, I was reading Fox News because I trusted it. 

It was the early 2000s, and reports about a warming planet were becoming more frequent.  I’d hear something, and was always relieved to find something in Fox News obfuscating, casting doubt on the climate science.  But the reports continued, and I started checking sources.  Time and again, Fox’s reporting would cite sources from unelected think tank interest groups like the Koch brothers’ Cato Institute, or the (ironically named) Heartland Institute, with its ties to the oil industry. 

We moved to Canada in 2004.  Here, I saw firsthand proof of the devastation of British Columbia lodgepole pine forests because of pine beetle infestation.  A university professor attending my church, as well as a naturalist friend, explained to me that winters used to be colder, and would kill off pine beetle larvae.  But winters are no longer as cold, pine beetles spread north, and BC’s pine forests were being devastated.[1]   

A scientist (who also attended my church and) who worked at a Canadian research facility contributed to work included with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.  He affirmed his belief in global warming.  I reviewed the IPCC reports.  I watched An Inconvenient Truth.  Another individual (connected to the Alberta oil industry) scoffed at climate change and challenged me to watch The Great Global Warming Swindle.  I already had, eager as I was to find contrary views. I challenged him to read the wiki article exposing Swindle as a fraud. 

In western Canada, I have seen receding glaciers firsthand.  I read NASA data about declining sea ice.  My convictions on climate change have only grown deeper.  Barring some outside the box, human, planetary intervention – or a miracle – it may already be too late.  And so,

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly...

1 Peter 4:7-8

Next time: Global Warming 101

---

[1] In western North America, the current outbreak of the mountain pine beetle and its microbial associates has destroyed wide areas of lodgepole pine forest, including more than 16 million of the 55 million hectares of forest in British Columbia... It may be the largest forest insect blight ever seen in North America. Climate change has contributed to the size and severity of the outbreak, and the outbreak itself may, with similar infestations, have significant effects on the capability of northern forests to remove greenhouse gas (CO2) from the atmosphere. (Wiki) 

The Shift

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly...

1 Peter 4:7-8

I’ve never been much of a “last days” fan.  Ever since Hal Lindsay’s 1970 book, The Late Great Planet Earth, I’ve been skeptical of too-certain predictions about the End Times and the return of Jesus. 

There’s a rabbinic saying that it is not wise to look too closely either at the beginning (origins) or the end.  Anytime anyone has said, “These are the last days!  Just look at the headlines!” I’ve suggested to them that these have been the “last days” since the first Pentecost, right after Jesus, when the disciple Peter explained in the book of Acts about the gospel miraculously being preached in the languages of visitors from all over the Roman world. 

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “This is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Acts 2:14-21

I’ve redirected people to the upshot of it all – present day living – and Peter’s admonition following his apocalyptic predictions of a fiery end to things. 

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…

~ 2 Peter 3:11-13

Over the last fifteen years or so I have slowly and reluctantly grown to be convinced about anthropogenic global warming.  It is the most politically incorrect thing I’ve ever done in my church denomination, and I [correctly] expect it to contribute to my early retirement from gospel ministry. 

I’m less interested in convincing anyone of my views than in equipping everyone to live courageously in the time remaining.  It comes down to present day living: how shall we live today?  Savor each day, love each other deeply, and use your gifts.  So whether I’m right or wrong about global warming – and I hope to God I’m wrong – the upshot’s the same. 

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.  Above all, keep loving one another earnestly...

1 Peter 4:7-8

On Mental Illness

The other day I Facebook-posted this article, and the positive benefits that being in nature has on brain chemistry.  I know firsthand that my trail running not only gets my cardio going and releases endorphins, but the simple act of being in the deep green rain forests of British Columbia itself helps mental and emotional health. 

From the article, How Walking in Nature Changes the Brain: 

"Brooding, which is known among cognitive scientists as morbid rumination, is a mental state familiar to most of us, in which we can’t seem to stop chewing over the ways in which things are wrong with ourselves and our lives. This broken-record fretting is not healthy or helpful..."

Many of my (often Christian) friends who live with depression, bipolar disorder, or are just prone to introspection get stuck in exactly this place and struggle to change their way of thinking. 

A couple of my Christian Facebook friends just wanted to throw a little Jesus at the problem thinking it will all go away.  “That's what Jesus came to set us free from! In a nut shell he has come to set us free from ourselves!”  True dat. 

But it’s not that simple. 

Ray Dillard used to say that to every difficult question, there is a simple, wrong answer. 

It’s not as simple as adding Jesus, taking the Jesus pill, just having more faith, finding a deeper repentance. 

We’re “fearfully and wonderfully made,” alright.  God appointed the means as well as the ends. And there are times when depression, bipolar disorder and other forms of mental illness require treatment that may include hospitalization and medication, sometimes for life. 

Personally, I hate meds.  I am prescription medication averse.  I am a MayoClinic junkie, and I will always seek natural and alternative treatments before trying pharmaceuticals.  The average 50 year old American male is on four medications.  I’m well into my fifties and am medication free, despite my doctor suggesting a couple of non-essential prescriptions for minor matters.  No thanks.  I eat right, exercise a bunch, I practice (secular) yoga, use acupuncture, massage therapy and recycle. 

But don’t tell the person living with mental illness who is praying their heart out for a sound mind they just need more Jesus.  There’s a time and a place for pharmaceuticals, for psych unit hospitalization, and for patience, love and acceptance by the Christian community. 

The Inner Life

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person,

but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.

                                                           ~ Matthew 15:11 

The public face of religion flows out of what’s inside us.

Most of us know people who reject Christianity because of hypocrites and churches that dishonor God through their actions.  But you’re only as good as your last time alone with God.  We’re only as strong as our inner life.

This holy week, as we lead toward Good Friday and Easter, retreat into the presence of God for some time alone, some reflection, some cultivation by the Spirit to plow up the hard soil of your heart.

Light a candle, literally, if it helps.  Keep a journal.  Take as little as ten minutes a day, and read a passage per day, through the accounts of the passion of Christ in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  And leave room for the resurrection.

We’re part of a whole, we Christians.  We need each other. But we’re only as good as our solitude.

Looking Fine

And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him.

Mark 12:13–17

This is the standard passage cited about why we should pay taxes.  And so we should.  But that is not primarily what this passage is about. 

There is another implication: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

Most commentators just throw that line away, but it is the core of the passage.  Render to God the things that are God’s. 

You see, just like the Pharisees and Herodians in the passage, each of us is filled with treachery.  We want to trap God in his talk.  We want the loophole.  We want to be smarter than God.  We want an excuse to reject him, just as these religious leaders were looking for an excuse to reject Jesus. 

Jesus' reply to the Pharisees nails them at the core of their being: in the heart.  Whose image and inscription is on the coin?  Caesar’s of course.  Well, whose image and inscription is on you? 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,

    in the image of God he created him;

    male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

Implicit in their theology is the creation account, and humanity having been created in the image and likeness of God.  We are in fact – believe it or not – the pinnacle of creation, for exactly that reason.  Each of us is, male and female.  Before Adam and Eve, creation was good.  Now with the man and the woman, it is very good.  Each of us is of immense worth, with the divine spark; our lives are sacred.  Self worth need never be an issue.  The Pharisees were busted.  And that's why they marveled.  

So, my friend, in whose likeness and inscription are you?