The Caucus Approacheth

We’re in an election cycle here in the U.S., and this Saturday is the Washington State Republican caucus.  Election cycles make me truly appreciate no having TV, as I get to avoid all of the sound bites ripped out of context and vicious, manipulative attack ads.  But, I do feel that I have a civic duty to be an informed voter.  Add to that my desire to have some idea of what’s going on in the world, and you get my reasoning for listening to my public radio station on my drive to work in the morning. 

At the end of January, it struck me that I heard something about Evangelical voters four out of five drives to work.  Oh, and did I mention how long my commute is? FIFTEEN MINUTES!  Yes, I drive four miles to work*.  And four out of five days, I hear something about the Evangelical voting bloc.  This is NPR Morning Edition, and broadcast across the U.S.  The Pacific Northwest is on the liberal side, and I often can’t help thinking how liberal people who aren’t Christian hear news stories about the Evangelical political agenda.  Am I glad that my fellow Christians are taking their faith seriously and acting on what they believe? Yes.  But the thing is, we’re voting for the President of the United States, not the Pastor of the United States.  By fighting politically to overturn Roe V Wade and put defense of marriage acts on the ballot, I think we go wrong in two ways.  First, that’s trying to legislate morality.  Laws point out crimes or sin, they don’t create righteousness.  It’s a heart change that is required, and no law is going to do that.  (Check out Romans and Galatians.)

Second, how does that song go? “They’ll know we are Christians by our Super PACs, by our Super PACS”?  No, we’re to be known for our love.  What I hear on NPR does not paint Evangelicals as loving.  You may claim that NPR has a slant against Christians.  I think, whether or not that’s true, it’s besides the point, since Christians seem to be giving NPR plenty of fodder for that supposed slant!  What if, instead of giving campaign contributions to the candidate that could shibboleth the best, saying what he knows a block of voters what to hear—we instead individually looked for ways to live out our beliefs with that money. 

Example:  You believe that abortion is horribly wrong.  Instead of giving money to a ballot measure restricting access to abortions, which is one step in the political game of getting it before the Supreme Court again, volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center.  Be involved with your kids, be those parents that other kids will seek out and talk to.  If there is a teen mom-to-be in your kids’ high school, and her parents kick her out, take her in.  Pay her medical bills.  Maybe you should adopt.  Or fund someone else’s adoption process.  Maybe if we each lived intentionally, acting on our beliefs in ways that cost us personally, maybe the news would have a 125% increase in the adoption rate to report on, instead of another protest at an abortion clinic. 

As Saturday approaches, consider, “To caucus or not to caucus?  Whether ‘tis nobler to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous political pundits, or to take arms against the sea of political apathy.”  But also consider how you personally should put your beliefs into practice. 

[If you do want to caucus, it’s this Saturday from 10am, to about noon, and they recommend you get there at 9:30am to register, with your voter registration card.  You have to go to your caucus precinct, which you can look up here:  http://wsrpcaucus.tumblr.com/caucuslocator  .  I’m still undecided if I’m going.]

*[I know, that’s a silly distance to drive. But I’m not hard core enough to bike in the rainy winters here in the Pacific Northwest.]

Encouragement for Fasting

A word of encouragement to my Christian sisters and brothers, especially my CHC family.

When you start a running program, you feel like you're going to die and you wonder why you ever thought it would be a good idea to start running. Your heart feels like it will beat its way out of your chest, your lungs would scream at you if they could get enough air, and your joints creak their protest with every bone jarring pound from your feet meeting the pavement. BUT! But, but, but--if you push through, if you endure the pain, if you psych yourself up each morning to wake up and get running, then you reach a point where it is fun! You reach a point where once you push past that first mile of each run, you feel exhilarated and you think you could run that 10k no problem! You're still exerting yourself, you're still dog tired when you get home, but you're grinning ear to ear from the joy of it.

Fasting is like running. When you start, you feel like you're going to die. When normally you might forget to eat breakfast, on the day you start fasting you're somehow hungry before you wake up. Your stomach tells your brain there is no food and your brain protests by squeezing your head with a monster head ache. You're cold, tired, and cranky. BUT! But, but, but--if you push through, if you endure the pain, if you pray yourself up each morning and night, I promise you that you reach a point where it is fun! It is still hard, like running. It still requires effort. But, like running, once you push through that wall, there is nothing like it!

So, when you are called to a fast, be encouraged! I won't say, "You can do it!" because YOU can't. But that's the point of fasting, isn't it? Realizing our dependence on Jesus. It's a fun place it be! Honest! You'll be grinning ear to ear. :o)

(As always, I welcome questions or comments. Feel free to post below or send me a message!)

Chocolate Conflict Resolution

If you're looking for something fun to read, Alexander McCall Smith is the perfect author to turn to.  I've devoured the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency series and the 44 Scotland Street series.  His books are sweet, you care about the characters, and there are satisfying story arcs. And there are gems of wisdom or fresh perspective liberally scattered about.  Below is one of the gems I ran across recently in The Importance of Being Seven, page 220.  For context, Bertie is a six year old boy with a controlling mother, to put it mildly.  Stuart is his dad, who is taking on his first fishing trip.  They are at a gas station, filling up with gas and provisions for the day.

'A good choice, Bertie,' said Stuart, as he came in to pay for the petrol. 'And how about some chocolate?'

Nobody had ever said that to Bertie before.  How about some chocolate? It was not a complex phrase, but its power, its sheer, overwhelming sense of gift and possibility filled Bertie with awe. Well might more of us say these words to others, and more frequently--how healing would that prove to be. 'Look, we've had our differences, but how about some chocolate?' Or: 'I'm so very sorry, how about some chocolate?' Or simply: 'Great to see you! How about some chocolate?'

 Now, I am a great lover of chocolate (65-70% cacao, with dried cherries or hazelnuts please), but I don't think that I truly realized its potential for greatness.  That chocolate carries with it a power, an "overwhelming sense of gift and possibility" that fills one with awe--beautiful! 

I say we start a movement.  Before the opening of the UN General Assembly, we place a chocolate bar at every seat.  We airlift chocolate to North Korea and Iran.  We urge Hershey's to make corporate donations of chocolate in equal proportions to Republicans and Democrats!  It's not just Charlie's rare golden ticket in the wrapping that fills us with a "sheer, overwhelming sense of gift and possibility"--it's the chocolate in every one!  I, for one, will be working on future conflict resolution with my new found tool, chocolate. 

Underneath

Since I wrote about axioms, I’ve been trying to reduce my world view down to its barest parts.  What are the foundational axioms upon which everything I believe rests?  How can I succinctly state the beginning from which I start to view and interact with the world?  It’s difficult.  

Which leads me to an interesting side thought—that we can’t live our lives like a geometry class.  (Which some people rejoice about!)  We don’t come out of the womb and are instantly handed our set of axioms.  Imagine the picture—baby comes out, doctor whacks your butt to make sure you’re breathing, cut the umbilical cord, and says, "Here are your four to six foundational principles, start figuring out the world outside the womb. Have a nice day!"  We don’t live a dry, clear cut, systematic theology.  You can’t.  Life is  messy.   We even come out messy, covered in blood.  You have to start in medias res, in the middle of things, and work out your world view from there. 

But, what if we are handed our axioms from the moment we exit the womb?  Do our surroundings and how we are brought up stamp our world view on us, like a plastic play dough mold?  I think so.  At least, our initial world view.  Hopefully we reach a point where we think about what we think about—come to the point of living an examined life.  At which point we choose to accept or reject the axioms of our parents, friends, teachers, media, leaders. 

So, tracing my way back from that rabbit trail—when I first started to try to encapsulate my axioms, I thought of an exercise to help boil down what you truly believed. 

• First, take out a blank piece of paper (or blank spreadsheet) and write out your schedule, every single thing you do in a day, adding what you do weekly, monthly, yearly.  Nothing is too mundane (really), just get it all down. 
• Second, next to each item, write why you do it.  Write the first thing that comes to you mind, don’t think too hard about it.  You can go back later and philosophize.  :o)
• Third, re-list the items on your list in the order of the time you spend on each one. 
• Finally, evaluate if the order in step three matches what you think your priorities should be. 

My idea behind this is that we will spend our time on what is important to us.  And what is important to us reveals what we truly believe.  With some reflection, we should be able to get to the axioms underneath.  What this exercise also shows is the difference between what we think we believe, and what our actions show that we believe. 

So what say you? Care to join me in this exercise?  For a lot of us this is Thanksgiving week, so in between turkey comas and crazed pre-dawn deal hunting, see if you can find some time to try the exercise out.  Let me know if you’re going to give it a go, and we’ll see what we find out!

Dogs and Fences

I didn't finish the blog post I was planning for today.  Here's why:

Meet my dog Stewie.  I got him from the pound, and they told me he was a black lab mix.  I'm guessing he's mixed with kangaroo, because he jumped my SIX FOOT HIGH fence a record four times this week!  (He also jumped the fence at the dog park twice, but he came back on his own in under two minutes each time.)  So this week I've spent a lot more time than I planned with my dog, the farm store, and my fence. 

I'm thinking about putting up an electric fence, but they are a.) costly and b.) complicated.  So while I weigh the pros and cons and feasibility, I'm putting about 18 inches of chicken wire on the top of my fence, all the way around (oh boy, won't my neighbors love me!).  I've been playing the proverbial whack-a-mole, putting chicken wire up in places where he has succeeded or tried jumping.  So I'm cutting to the chase and putting it up everywhere--and praying he doesn't figure out how to dig under the fence!

While I'm finishing the full implementation of the Stewie Containment System©, Stewie is always on the leash or tie out.  He's really pathetic on the tie out, just sitting at the end of it, looking at me pleadingly, with those big brown eyes.  I have to say, "No! You can't pull the cute card on me! This is for your own health and safety!"

While I was wrestling with the bamboo, chicken wire, and staple gun, thinking I should have grabbed my safety goggles so my eyes don't get poked out, it is interesting what verse popped in my head.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
   I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
   which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
   or it will not stay near you.
Psalm 32:8-9

In response to this verse, I think, "Exactly! If only Stewie would stay put, or learn to come when called, we could be out walking and playing, instead of me bleeding from bamboo splinters and chicken wire pokes.  Hmm, when was my last tetanus shot, anyway?"  Then I remember this is a psalm of David, not Dr. Doolittle, and it's addressed to me, not Stewie.  And I think, "Ouch," and not (only) because of splinters.  The horse and mule is without understanding, but it is implied that I am to have understanding.  What fences, what heavy handed hemming in of circumstance, do I try to escape?  How much more fun could God and I have if I yielded sooner?  Hmm.  I'll let you know how Stewie does with his fences, as I ponder how I'm doing with mine.

Crappy Mercy

A friend recommended a book, God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist, and Racist? by David T. Lamb.  In it, the author answers the seeming contradictions in God’s character between the Old Testament and the New.  (A great book so far, by the way.)  In the chapter I’m on, Lamb is answering the question of God being angry or loving.  And he’s talking about my favorite Hebrew word, hesed, which can be translated as steadfast love or mercy.  It’s my very favorite word, so Lamb’s walking close to my heart when I read this:

“Yahweh also waited to punish the Canaanites because, even though they were guilty already, their sin was not yet finished (Genesis 15:16).  So God waited four hundred years to punish the Egyptians and the Canaanites, and during this period his own people paid the price.  Because Yahweh is slow to anger, his people were not only homeless but also slaves and victims of oppression.  Eventually, Yahweh got angry at the crimes of Egypt and Canaan, and he finally delivered Israel from enslavement and provided them with a homeland.  However, for four hundred years in Egypt, they paid the price for Yahweh’s slowness to anger.”  (p41)

The thought flashes across my mind that some of the crap I endure might be because God is showing mercy—hesed—to other people.  

Well that sucks.

 – is my first, not so saintly reaction.  I always try to figure out why or where the crap in my life came from, in order to get rid of it as quickly as possible.  None this four hundred year stuff, thanks.  So I ask, “What did I do wrong? What lesson is God trying to teach me?”  Because if I can identify the wrong, then I can correct it.  If I can identify the lesson, then I can learn it.  And then the crap leaves.  Or that’s how I’d run things.  But the crap in my life might be God showing mercy to someone else.  In which case there is nothing I can do to get rid of it any faster! 

While these thoughts are hitting home, I remember that God tells us to be like Him—“be holy as I am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2; 1 Peter 1:14-16) We’re to imitate Christ.  The word Christian even means "little Christ".  Some parts of God’s character are that He is long suffering, slow to anger, and merciful.  Which means that I am suppose to be long suffering, slow to anger, and merciful.  And I think, "I just want to not have to deal with crap.  I don't want to be long suffering."

So I wonder, well, how can my crap be related to another’s mercy, anyway?  And I decide that I don’t know.  In the midst of it, the Israelites didn’t know that their period of four hundred years of slavery was actually God showing mercy to the Egyptians.  On the flip side, neither did they know that at the end of it they’d have their own country.  Which is amazing, since before ending up in slavery, the Israelites were nomadic foreigners, with no land they could call their own.  Next I remember the verse that tells us to trust in the Lord and not rely on our own understanding of things.  With this new take on God's mercy, trusting is a bit more difficult.  In the The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, one of the girls asks if Aslan is safe.  She’s told, “'Course he isn't safe. But he's good.” Trusting God isn’t safe, but He is good.  Trusting God doesn’t mean that I get to be comfortable. 

After Jesus said something particularly difficult for people to swallow, He asked Peter and the disciples if they were going to leave him like the crowd did.  Peter said, “Where could we go?  You have the words of life.”   

I just figured out that God thinks showing mercy to people is more important than my comfort—to the point where His “chosen people” are subjected to four hundred years of harsh slavery so that He could extend mercy!  So I could choose not to follow this God who sacrifices my comfort, my happiness even, so that He can show mercy to others.  He may even have me endure crap so that he can show mercy to people who won’t respond to that mercy!  But where else could I go? I am convinced that this God has the words of life.  It’s not worth it to go elsewhere.  And, on a practical level, there is no guarantee that I wouldn’t suffer if I didn’t follow Him.  At least here I have the assurance that the crap will have meaning. 

So if you’re dealing with crap in your life, there could be many reasons for it.  I know that I’ve had a hand in creating a lot of the crap I’ve had to deal with.  But one reason I had never considered was that the crap in my life and yours, may just be because God wants to show mercy to someone. 

What do you think?  Does ring true to you?  Am I full of crap?  :o)  Leave a comment and let’s dialogue. 

Of Hair Dryers and Geometry, Part 3

“Ok, Sarah, “ I hear you saying, “so it’s pointless.  Atheists and theists can’t talk to each other.  Awesome.  Thanks for the despair.  Now what?”  So, is dialogue between people holding different axiomatic systems/world views impossible?  No, I don’t think so.  But we first have to acknowledge the difference is deeper than the level at which we usually discuss, and examine our own axiomatic systems.  Otherwise, you’ll just end up preaching to your choir.   

Here’s an example, which a friend of mine thought of.  It was my experience that I didn’t really learn English grammar until I started to study a different language, in my case, Latin.  English is my native language, so I think in English.  In order to understand how Latin worked, I first had to understand how English works.  I had to go beyond the intuitive understanding of English that I absorbed through growing up speaking English, and really learn the rules and mechanics.  Once I understood how English worked, I could understand and appreciate the difference in how Latin works.  And, most importantly, this native English speaker could begin to understand things written in Latin. 

Saying listening to God is the intellectual equivalent of listening to a hair dryer will be thought clever by atheists and dismissed out of hand by religious people.  Quoting the Bible to prove why God is not like a hair dryer would be respected by Christian religious people but dismissed out of hand by atheist.  In spite of their validity within their own circles, there will be no dialogue using these methods. 

The importance of understanding axiomatic systems/world views is similar to the importance of learning grammar.  First, you need to understand your own axiomatic system, so you know how you view the world.  Examine what you accept as authority.  You may need or want to change things.  Do what you think you believe—what you accept as axioms—line up with how you live your life?  Second, you need to understand other people’s axiomatic systems.  Understand how they think and reason, and what they accept as authority.  Understand how someone who accepted those axioms would live their life if they applied them.

I am not equating dialogue with winning or losing, but a useful analogy is video games.  The rules and game play of Super Mario Brothers is different from Zelda, and is even more different from Words with Friends.  You won’t find a fire flower in Zelda, and a sword is only useful in Words with Friends because a W is worth four points.  You have to know the rules of the game you’re playing.  Just because you can beat Super Mario Brothers in an hour doesn’t mean you’re awesome at Words with Friends.  If you know and understand the rules of how you think and believe, and put the effort into knowing and understanding the rules of how others think and believe, then and only then can you start true dialogue. 

The goal of dialogue is understanding, not winning.  The goal of understanding is to reveal and know more Truth.  I personally hold that objective, capital T, Truth exists.  Dialogue is one tool to discover and learn more of it. 

Some closing thoughts. 

Knowing your world view is like stating your bias when you are reporting or researching.  It is much more honest—and useful—to state that bias, than to assume erroneously that you do not have one.  Because that’s silly, if you breathe, you have a bias. 

People, myself included, need to be prepared to discard or change their axioms, their givens, if they discover that they don’t work.  Just like with Euclidean geometry and planes flying over the poles.

Lastly, I don’t believe that all axiomatic systems are created equal.  Some reflect reality and Truth better than others.  Nor do I believe that Truth is unknowable.  Can we know Truth exhaustively?  Remember that chick at the end of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull?  If we had exhaustive Truth downloaded into our heads, I think they'd explode.  But can we know part of Truth truly?  Yes, absolutely.  I invite you to interact with me and others on this blog as we search for what Truth we may find.  Please do leave comments! 

The Truth is out there.  –Fox Mulder, X-Files

Seek, and you will find.  –Jesus Christ, Book of Matthew