Getting things in persepctive

Sometimes we need to get a health checkup, sometimes I just need to get things into perspective. Somehow we need good friends around us, sometimes I need someone I trust to challenge my thinking just to make sure I'm still on the straight and narrow.

Yesterday I had a long session reading over and helping a student working on a paper about cognitive-behavioural therapy and pain management. It's strange how much you can pick up. I realized during our session a certain amount of my teaching involves the cognitive aspects of the psychotherapy inducting the student into a different way of thinking or learning to think differently so editing becomes possible and also working with the behavioural reducing stress.

So many of my telephone calls to me are from people trying to get things into right perspective, and sometimes I have to challenge but most of the time its simply encouraging them to recognize what they already know. One aspect of cognitive therapy is an action plan, seeking confirm that actions will be taken to prevent, modify or change things. When it comes to faith and spirituality action is required but its not about action, rather active passivity. What do I mean by this? I think it is a active seeking after God, in being open to the activity of God rather than a self-centred crying out.

One of the articles I found in the paper we worked on this afternoon examined different pain management interventions and compared them. Somehow there was little difference between the different techniques and methodologies and even compared with the control group. But significantly there were wide variations between individuals in each group. It seems to suggest that methods are not important rather the individual themselves determined a receptivity to a method.

I suspect that for whether a church or an individual, spiritual growth is determinant on the attitude and willingness of the individual or church to grow rather than any specific methods. I recall the Hawthorne experiement in the early days of time and motion studies on production lines. They noticed that productivity inevitably dropped, but always went up when there was a change in patterns before dropping again. Do you want to change?

feeling trapped

I've been trying to catch up with my Google reader account and the feeds to which I subscribe.

There was an item from Deep Church a group that continues to fascinate me for their relevance to my own thinking. (you can read the whole post here)

What catches me is are how much of the list of what Deep Church is and to which I simply say amen ...

... in dealing with "our ‘pathological ecclesiologies’ is the western tendency to describe the church in idealist terms – creating a vast gulf of disappointment between the reality we experience and the ideal that we hold ... Deep Church calls us to be more concerned with phronesis (practical wisdom), than theoria (abstract theological reasoning). ... For too long descriptions of church have been idealized, blueprinted, separated out theory and practice, and as a result, we have been more confident in using sociological descriptions, rather than bible, church tradition or theology based ones. ... Deep church is about being missional and outward, whilst being confessional and communal. This pattern of gathering and dispersal, like blood being pumping in and out, is the heart beat of ecclesial life, rather than alternative models of collapsing church into competing activities of post church social justice, or self indulgent aesthetic worship spaces.

My trouble is, I look at Deep church and feel hope, and I look at the world around me and see more blueprint and solutions rather than "the possibility of the church and the christian faith built around the declaration of a God who is close and knowable, whilst mysterious and unfathomable." Go and read the posting... if you dare

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:31-32

What does growing up mean?

Errol sometime ago referred me to anime-style teenager Peanuts characters and these are an example.(see others here)

I have been a fan for many years collecting books and reading and even writing papers for courses in my academic studies about Peanuts. Here I ask How much have they changed in their teens?

Lucy the superbly self-confident and at the centre of her universe remains so. Linus always in the shadow of his big sister but maintains a mystical mysterious edge to him. Rerun the younger brother got lost in the mists of time. Charlie Brown, older brother to Sally remains the misfit and not so much at home in this world character, continues to wish the world were a better place and lives in the tensions of hope and reality. Hey am I describing facets of myself?

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better. Col 1:9-10

companionship

Today was a better day weatherwise. The sun shone and I felt a lot better so much that I rode my bike again. I had lunch in Chinatown, visited the rehab hospital, bought a metropass for January, then went on to tutor in English and do some conversation on campus.

The last few days have forced me to question Do I live for myself, for others, or for God? I've had to do some serious thinking. I think if I hadn't heard Carny's voice yesterday I would have simply got on the bike despite the bad weather, despite the close shave with the SUV coming home. We sometimes use the words Where is your heart? To avoid jargon I think this actually means What is the goal of your life? What is your purpose in life?

Charles Shultz creator of the Peanuts cartoon and comic strips had many good insights. In one strip Charlie Brown explained that he thought the purpose of life is to make others happy. But Lucy reacted by saying she didn't think she was making anyone happy, and more importantly no-one was making her happy, so someone wasn't doing their job.

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me. The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands. Ps 138:7-8

right attitude, right position

Notice the two different playing positions of these cellists from the Nodame Cantabile orchestra. Sat on the front edge and sat right back in the chair.

Yesterday in conversation with a student I realized that having a sense of justice and injustice is important. Examining a situation where one person in an organization was having trouble with her manager. Colleagues became involved because they saw it as a way of dealing with all their frustrations with management. The problem was the staff saw it as revenge against management rather than seeking justice against the injustice of the manager and staff member. When revenge happens this staff member becomes victim twice, of the manager and of the staff.

What does good management look like? In our Thursday night studies we've been looking at the two facets of God, love and justice. I think good management contains both. Years ago I had the honor to mentor the manager of a senior daycare unit. She was having problems with her staff and we started talking. We dealt with justice which was making her staff aware of the criteria she assessed their performance on and teaching them to assess themselves. We dealt with love treating them equally but not the same. She treated them as individuals with different strengths and weaknesses, she gave them opportunity to train and become more effective, she taught them to work together and support each others weaknesses. A year after her unit moved she told me that she finally had to let a staff member go, but it was the easiest it could be because he knew why he had to go and knew he had been cared for.

Attitude is so important, are people things to be used and abused or are they gifts to us, a grace for a time. Justice and love have meaning only when they have transcendental value and only when they are embodied in relationship. In life we can sit backwards or lean forwards!

juggling too many things

This time of year is crazy for everyone. But the problem is some people are just plain dangerous. Somehow the Christmas stresses have blurred people's ability to see properly.

Last night biking home around 5 pm I decided to take a back street route as the drivers on the main road were crazy! But they weren't any better. On this one way street I got in the correct position for a left turn but an SUV driver overtook me and cut right across the front of me. I still have no idea why I wasn't hit! I have a feeling my guardian angel was extra vigilant. The strangest thing was my heart wasn't beating fast and the adrenaline wasn't flowing. What ever happened to Peace on Earth? There is something very wrong.

Today I was fully prepared to ride downtown and got as far as the front door with my bike bag, when I heard my young friend Carny say be careful. Except I was going downtown to meet and have lunch with her, but that is what she has said almost every Monday evening after English class. Today the snow was falling, and we were due perhaps for freezing rain and later rain. Still Carny's words had exceptional meaning for me and I went back in, packed a backpack and walked to the subway station.

The angel of the LORD asked him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come here to oppose you because your path is a reckless one before me. Num 22:32