Midweek Meditation: "Counsels on Discernment 1" (Meister Eckhart)

One of the most sought-after topics is discernment. What do I do with my life? What is my calling? How do I seek God for my decision making? Starting this week, we will be working through a series of counsels about discernment from the German mystic and spiritual writer, Meister Eckhart.

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Meister Eckhart (1260-1328)

TITLE: Meister Eckhart: Selections from His Essential Writings (HarperCollins Spiritual Classics)
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: Harper-One, 2005, (166 pages).

About True Obedience

True and perfect obedience is a virtue above all virtues, and no work is so great that it can be achieved or done without this virtue; and however little and however humble a work may be, it is done to greater profit in true obedience, be it saying Mass, hearing it, praying, contemplating or whatever else you can think of.  But take as humble a work as you like, whatever it may be, true obedience makes it finer and better for you.  Obedience always produces the best of everything in everything.  Truly, obedience never perturbs, never fails, whatever one is doing, in anything that comes from true obedience, for obedience neglects nothing that is good.  Obedience need never be troubled, for it lacks no good thing.

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In true obedience there should be no trace of ‘I want it so, or so,’ or ‘I want this or that,’ but there should be a pure going out from what is yours.  And therefore in the best of all prayers that a man can pray, there should not be ‘Give me this virtue, or that way of life,’ but ‘Lord, give me nothing but what you will, and do, Lord, whatever and however you will in every way.’  That is superior to the first way of praying as the heavens are above the earth.  And when one has concluded that prayer, one has prayed well, for then one has in true obedience wholly entered into God.  And just as true obedience should have no ‘I want it so,’ so also one should not hear from obedience ‘I do not want,’ because ‘I do not want’ is a sure poison of all obedience.  That is what Saint Augustine says: ‘God’s faithful servant has no desire for people to say or to give to him, or what he likes to hear or see, for his first and his greatest aim is to hear what is most pleasing to God.’ (3)

Midweek Reflection: "Knowing When to Connect/Disconnect"

We live in a new era. While wireless waves free us from cables and hardwired connections, they enslave us to the digital device. What's troubling is not how the technology pulls us away from our human interactions but how much we gravitate toward the technology even without the device asking for us! No longer must we contend with the external prompts and ringing interruptions we get from time to time. There is a more formidable contestant. This contestant is inside, not outside; not externally-driven, but internally propelled; not unwillingly but willingly. That is none other than ourselves.

Check out the following from the book by Catherine Steiner-Adair, Disconnect.

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TITLE: The Big Disconnect: Protecting Childhood and Family Relationships in the Digital Age
AUTHOR: Catherine Steiner-Adair
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2013, (378 pages).

"In my interviews and focus groups with children as young as four years old, kids have told me how disheartening it is to have to vie for their parents' attention and often come in second. They describe feelings of isolation, loneliness, anger, and sadness around the waiting game. Or a parent's routine multitasking through bedtimes, mealtimes, and playtimes that were promised as 'mommy and me' or 'daddy and me.' Now tech makes three, and most of the children couldn't remember a time when it wasn't that way at home.

Alex, the father of a three-year-old and two older children, quit his executive-level job for less pay and less pressure when he realized that the continuous multitasking demands of his job made uninterrupted time with his children impossible."

I could look them in the eye and have a conversation, but I realized that I was not having that conversation with my whole head. It was like 2 percent of it because I was thinking about the next email coming in or the other things I needed to do, and was so addicted . . . I was 0 percent present, really. I could see it in their eyes. They knew I wasn't realy there with them. It was awful, but I got so used to it. I'd say, 'I'm sorry' and I'd take a call or get up midgame to check my email.

(Catherine Steiner-Adair, The Big Disconnect, HarperCollins, 2013, p114-5)

BookPastor >> "Dr Karyn's Guide to the Teen Years" (Karyn Gordon)

TITLE: Dr Karyns Guide To The Teen Years
AUTHOR: Karyn Gordon
PUBLISHER: Toronto, ON: HarperCollins, 2008, (320 pages).

This is a parenting guide for all interested in connecting with teenagers. Based on her experience with talking to over 200 thousand high school students across Canada, Dr Karyn Gordon has summarized her "inside-out" parenting approach to help us along. She lists the six keys to parenting teens as:

1. Keeping the Big Picture in mind at all times
2. Acknowledging and adjusting our parenting attitudes
3. Understanding and communicating emotions
4. Building our child's self-esteem
5. Communicating effectively
6. Establishing boundaries and providing structure.

First off is the big picture understanding. Key to all of these is the awareness of "inside-out" versus "outside-in" parenting. The latter basically focuses on what is developing inside the teens rather than what they teens are doing outside. This includes observing the reasons why they are doing what they are doing; the motivation; the sensitivity to their feelings; and the readiness to talk. Character development is more important than mere achievements. This means learning to identify positive traits and helping their self-esteem. Communications are important but right communications are even more important. Between authority and influence, teens respect the latter. Learn about the importance of their peers and friends. Choose to connect more than to control. Check to see which of the three kinds of learning they do best. Are they visual or are they more kinesthetic (learning by doing)? Or are they more auditory? Learn to focus more on learning styles and understanding their relationships.

BookPastor >> "Footprints" (Margaret Fishback Powers)

TITLE: Footprints: The True Story Behind the Poem That Inspired Millions
AUTHOR: Margaret Fishback Powers
PUBLISHER: Toronto: CAD: Harper Collins, 1993, (106 pages).

Many people have read the poem and have been inspired by it. In an age of the Internet, people have searched for it on Google, and many do not even know where it originated from. Who wrote it? What is the story behind it? The answer to it all is in this book. The story begins at the hospital bed where an excited nurse was sharing about the popular "Footprints" poem to a recovering patient in an intensive care ward. She wanted to encourage Paul and after reading it, she admitted that she don't know who the author was. Paul said he did. It was his wife. Paul was recovering from a heart attack and his daughter had just survived a drowning situation. The same poem that had been read to him had also blessed millions of people around the world. The problem is, not many people knew who was the author, including the same nurse.

Written in 1964, twenty years ago before this book was published, the former school teacher gives readers a flashback to her earlier years on how she had survived an electrical storm while in the classroom. She reflected on moments with her soon to be husband, how God had inexplicably been carrying them through their tough times. While the author survived the lightning, one of her students did not. The going was tough but she found assurance that the Bible declares death does not have the final say. God does. That begins her initial thoughts on writing the first few sentences of the world famous poem.

The Ingredients That Helped Form the Poem

Fishback-Powers's poem was one soaked in reflections over her life and her loved one, especially her husband, Paul who himself had a traumatic childhood. From Paul's life, she learns about the deep grace of God who rescued Paul from his doldrums, his unhappy childhood, and the loss of his mother. She remembers her near-death experience, avoiding an oncoming truck; a stinging punishment in school, and her encounter with a threatening bumblebee. Gradually she learns from her husband the meaning of: "Memories and mistakes should be guideposts, not hitching posts." Through the hard times, she hears the soft voice of God speaking to her. Then on an ordinary beachwalk with her husband, the words from Paul accelerates the writing of the poem.

"Margie, when the most troublesome times come, that neither one of us can handle, that's when the Lord will carry us both, as long as we maintain our faith and trust in Him." (42)

Absorbed in the thought of that one set of footprints, she allows her mind to dream and her writing to flow. In between her wedding plans and the hope of a beautiful marriage, she has an increasing awareness of the peace and comfort of God in the midst of tragedy and suffering. Yet, that one thought remains consistently clear. God had carried them in the past. God is carrying them in the present. God will be carrying them through the future.

Challenges in life may be different. The way to survive them all is to know that one is carried by God all through the day, all the way. The author also shares her struggle with copyright matters, establishing her authorship, especially when the poem had become famous. Even when she had won the right to have her book published by a prominent book publisher, she realized that enforcing it will be difficult. She ends the book with a poem of trust again: "Leave It There" with the Lord.

That is what faith is about. Not making big money or profits, but helping others to walk the way of life with Jesus carrying us. If you want to read about the controversy over Footprints' authorship, you can check out the article here.

conrade

Midweek Meditation: "Inspiring Others" + "Opportunity"

Here is a gem from the late Stephen Covey.

"I have always taught that the first imperative of a leader is to inspire others. When you realize that 'inspire' means to breathe life into another's dreams, and that the opposite, 'expire' means to cease to breathe, those words come to life. By learning to use words that inspire, you enable others to achieve their dreams. Conversely, by using words that expire, you disable others' hopes and aspirations.

Another example is 'opportunity.' I believe that effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity-minded. The root of opportunity is port, meaning the entryway by water into a city or place of business. In earlier days, when the tide and winds were right and the port opened, it allowed entry to do commerce, to visit, or to invade and conquer. But only those who recognized the opening could take advantage of the open port, or opportunity." (Stephen Covey writing in Foreword of the book by Kevin Hall, Aspire, New York, NY: William Morrow, 2010, xii)


conrade

BookPastor >> "Intimacy" (Henri Nouwen)

TITLE: Intimacy
AUTHOR: Henri Nouwen
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1969, (160 pages).

What is the deepest need for a human being? What are most people struggling with? Is there a unifying theme in the questions posed to him from students, teachers, ministers, priests, or fellow believers in general? For Nouwen, this is summed up in one basic question: "How can I find a creative and fulfilling intimacy in my relationship with God and my fellow human beings?"

It is interesting how Nouwen describes the problem first and then connects the need for intimacy with sexuality, prayer, community, and the ministry. Key to the understanding of intimacy is to locate our phases of life in what Nouwen calls, "From Magic to Faith." For the first five years of life, one learns the frustration that life is more than just the subjective self, that we can never have everything we want. Fantasy and illusions are often seen as reality. Going to school between ages 5-12 is a starting point toward a more scientific mindset instead of a religious mindset. At adolescence (12-18), one wonders how the conflicts in life can be explained by religion. The young adult years expose one to the highs and lows of life, with pain and frustration accompanying the lows and joy and ecstasy following the highs. It is hoped that at the adult years, faith will be formed not with creating new realities, but adding new perspectives to the realities we cannot change. In other words, what Nouwen is saying is that intimacy is more about faith rather than magic. For love is about faith, about trusting not manipulating, about forgiving not forsaking, about redemption not revenge. For the essence of intimacy is bathing in a warm pool of safety and security. Nouwen writes:

"It is safe to embrace in vulnerability because we both find ourselves in loving hands. It is safe to be available because someone told us that we stand on solid ground. It is safe to surrender because we will not fall into a dark pit but enter a welcoming home. It is safe to be weak because we are surrounded by a creative strength. To say and live this is a new way of knowing. We are not surrounded by darkness but by light..... If there is a need for a new morality it is the morality which teaches us the fellowship of the weak as a human possibility." (36)

I like the way Nouwen puts it as the "fellowship of the weak." This will facilitate one's entry into intimacy and prayer. Intimacy with God allows one to escape the prison of self-doubt and explore the freedom of God's grace. Nouwen shows us prayers that look to God as:

• "The clarifying God"
• "The banned God"
• "The big buddy God"
• "The compassionate God"
• "The beautiful God"
• "The giving God"
• "The coming God."

There is a movement of one's perception of who God is as one's faith takes shape. Nouwen also looks at the Pentecostal movement, charting its historical formation, evaluating it from a psychological perspective, and measuring it theologically. While cautious about the link between Pentecostal experiences with true spiritual movements, he urges readers to remain open about the possibility that God can work through religious experiences to bring us to a deeper level of intimacy. Intimacy also requires community. Without community, it is hard to establish dialogue to help deal with any depression. It is hard to share one's life and to carry one another's burdens. With fatigue and discouragement, one plunges into identity crisis. This has special implications for seminarians or people entering into the ministry. Nouwen looks at healthy timing, healthy spacing, and healthy self-understanding as ways in which one can sustain a constructive ministry of faith.

Intimacy is more needed that we think. It is that one chance to establish love with God and with fellow people. Without it, we are left to fend for ourselves as we spiral out of control. The world around us is a dangerous place to be in and we will find it hard to survive on our own. We need God. We need one another. We need spiritual guidance. This book is one more resource to help us gather the importance of prayer, community, faith, and love so that we can enter into intimacy with people who care and to develop in ourselves a capacity to care for others as well. Toward the end of the book, it seems like Nouwen is increasingly disturbed by depression in a seminary setting as well as the declining trust in church and institutions as sources of human support and spiritual guidance. Perhaps, we ought to give the Church more leeway and ourselves more opportunities to be open to God and to the church that God loves. Let me close with the following:

"The churches, in many ways entangled in their own structural problems, often seem hardly ready to respond to this growing need to live a spiritual life. The tragedy is that many find the church more in the way to God than the way to God, and are looking for religious experiences far away from the ecclesiastical institutions. But if we read the signs well, we are on the threshold of a new area of spiritual life, the nature and ramifications of which we can hardly foresee. Hopefully, we will not be distracted by the trivia of churchy family quarrels and overlook the great questions which really matter. Hopefully, we will be sensitive enough to feel the gentle breeze by which God makes his presence known. (1 Kings 19:13)." (150)

Great reminder.

conrade

BookPastor >> "When the Heart Waits" (Sue Monk Kidd)

This review was first published on July 11th, 2010 at this blog. It has been slightly revised.

conrade
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TITLE: When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions (Plus)
AUTHOR: Sue Monk Kidd
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990, (240 pages).

This is a book to help us cultivate the posture of waiting. Throughout the book, the author uses the cocoon/butterfly metaphor to help readers understand the importance of waiting. In a society that tends to want quick results, fluttering butterflies are overwhelmingly preferred, and boring static coccoons are shunned. Her book covers four phases which parallels the stages of growth of a butterfly.

Phase 1 - Waiting and Transformation
Phase 2 - Passage to Separation
Phase 3 - Passage of Transformation
Phase 4 - Passage of Emergence

Essentially, this book is Kidd's way of getting in touch with our inner lives, to understand the 'deep and beautiful work of soulmaking' (ix).

Filled with personal stories as well as insightful lessons from children's tales like Rapunzel, Little Red Hen, and Chicken Little.  Her essence of waiting can be understood from her description about the three stages of waiting.

"Egypt, wilderness, and promised land are comparable to interior states of being: larva, cocoon, and butterfly. In both journeys - inward and outward - there's first a movement of separation, then a holding environment where transformation happens, and finally an emergence into a new existence." (78)

Another profound insight I find helpful is about how waiting and prayer are linked. She describes the observations of Eugene Peterson as follows:

"The assumption of spirituality is that always God is doing something before I know it. So the task is not to get God to do something I think needs to be done, but to become aware of what God is doing so that I can respond to it and participate and take delight in it." (Eugene Peterson, 129)

This is followed by a powerful learning point. Kidd writes:

"This is the motivation behind waiting prayer. We place ourselves in postures of the heart, in the stillness that enables us to become aware of what God is doing so that we can gradually say yes to it with our whole being." (129)

My Comments

Readers ought to take note of the 'When' in the title of the book. In contrast to the tendency to use 'why' like philosophy, or to use 'how' for practicality, the author truly embraces the essence of waiting through timing. Waiting is about timing and Kidd is spot on. Written from a personal perspective, Kidd combines a keen observation of the natural world, with a heightened awareness of the supernatural. The result is a powerful book that provides readers with help about spiritual direction, personal guidance and useful tips on how to cultivate a heart that waits. While Kidd may not have the philosophical brilliance like Simone Weil, or the classical insights of the Medieval writers like Julian of Norwich, her book fits in the genre of contemporary spirituality that the modern world so deeply needs. In this sense, Kidd's writings are a lot easier to read and comprehend, compared to the spiritual masters of the Medieval world. Having said that, Kidd incorporates a couple of references to these ancient masters of spirituality like Meister Eckhart, Catherine of Siena, and the desert fathers.

My favourite part of the book is "Quickaholic Spirituality." The biblical waiting portion is really good. She writes:

"If you want to be impressed, note how often God's people seem to be waiting. Noah waits for the flood waters to recede; Daniel waits through the night in a den of lions; Sarah waits in her barrenness for a child; Jacob waits for Rebecca's hand. The Israelites wait in Egypt, then wait forty more years in the desert. Later they wait seventy years in Babylonian captivity. Jonah waits in a fish's belly; Mary waits; Simeon waits to see the Messiah; the apostles wait for Pentecost; Paul waits in prison." (28-29)

If I have a critique of the book, it will be her almost uncritical way of taking in material from all sources. For instance, we see her soaking in Carl Jung's "Stages of Life" like a sponge. She does not explain the pros and cons, or the limits of applying Jung's theory. Anyway, I do not feel this is a major problem. The book has more positives that makes this book a worthy purchase. All in all, this book is a great resource to help us learn to wait and develop patience. The study guide at the end of the book is an excellent way for small groups to discuss the book's contents.

Rating: 4 stars of 5.

conrade

Book - "How Soccer Explains the World"

Title: How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization
Author: Franklin Foer
Publisher: San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2004, (288 pages).

This is surprise find! Especially with the 2010 World Cup Soccer going on in South Africa right now, it could not have been a better time for me to read this book. Written by a football fan, Foer navigates the world through the eyes of soccer, and asserts that the culture of soccer transcends many places and people groups. He uses soccer to explain the gangster behavior, the pornography of sects, Jewish, Hooliganism, survival of the upper echelons of society, black carpathians, new oligarchs, Islam and ends with what I believe is the author's main interest: "American culture wars."

A) MAIN IDEA
Foer aims to look at globalization from the eye of the sport he loves, soccer. Soccer has more to do with a way of life rather than a type of sport. Through soccer, we learn to understand more of the cultures around the world, that gives the global sport a new identity of cultural analyst. The book is broadly divided into three parts. The first part talks about the failure of globalization to unite the world. The second part deals with economics from the perspective of soccer influencing understanding of cultures behind the economics. The third part is a way of defending 'old-fashioned nationalism' versus the 'return of tribalism.'

B) MYTHS DEBUNKED
Contrary to what the Left predicted, that globalization will destroy local cultures, soccer has helped strengthened loyalties. Instead of capitalism providing positive results, it has entrenched corruption.

C) HOW SOCCER EXPLAINS

• GANGSTERISM: "Deprived of traditional work and knocked off patriachal pedestals, these men desperately wanted to reassert their masculinity. Soccer violence gave them a rare opportunity to actually exert control." (in Serbia, 13-14)
• RELIGIOSITY & TRADITION: "It's easy to link support for a soccer club with religiosity. But in an important way, Rangers has actually replaced the Church of Scotland. It allows men like Findlay to join the tradition and institutions of their forefathers, to allay fears about abandoning history without having to embrace their forefathers' eschatology." (in Scotland, 56)
• JEWISH QUESTION: "Jewish teams cloak themselves in Jewish, not Hungarian or Austrian or German, nationalism, literally wearing their zionism on their sleeves and shirts. . . An entire movement of Jews believed that soccer, and sport more generally, would liberate them from the violence and tyranny of anti-Semitism." (in Europe, 68-9)
• SENTIMENTAL HOOLIGAN: as a reaction ". . against globalization. . , the McDonald's-smashing French farmer Jose Bove, and countless others: multinational capitalism strips local institutions of their localness, it homogenizes, destroys traditions, and deprives indigenous proletariats and peasants of the things they love most." (in England, 96)
• TOP HATS SURVIVAL: How soccer legends like Pele help revive falling political careers among the power mongers; "Despite the persistence of corruption, Brazil's mania for soccer has hardly abated; its natural soccer resources don't seem close to exhausted. It's too essentially a part of the national character." (in Brazil, 140)
• BLACK CARPATHIANS: "To many Ukrainians, their country still felt like a colony of Russia. . This despair played out in soccer too. Ukrainians imagined that they were once a great soccer natin. Now they needed to import Nigerians to become great again." (in Ukraine, 157)
• NEW OLIGARCHS: "There was also a populist brilliance to his use of soccer as a metaphor for society. It gave him a vocabulary that resonated with the lower middle class, the group that he wanted to cultivate as a political base." (in Italy, 185-6)
• BOURGEOIS NATIONALISM: Instead of soccer violence, "Barca redeems the game from these criticisms, by showing that fans can love a club and a country with passion and without turning into a thug or terrorist. . . . Put it more strongly, Barca doesn't just redeem the game from is critics; it redeems the concept of nationalism." (in Spain, 197-8)
• ISLAM's HOPE: "Iranians crave international soccer because the game links them to the advanced, capitalist, un-Islamic West. . . . The burgeoning youth population of Iran looked West and toward soccer for inspiration." (in Iran, 230, 232)
• AMERICAN CULTURE WARS: "Soccer's appeal lay in its opposition to the other popular sports. Soccer is the province of the working class." (USA, 237-8)

My Comments
In trying to show globalization from the eyes of soccer, I feel that the author may have become overly skewed about the role of soccer in interpreting the impact of globalization in the world. No doubt, soccer is a major influence in many parts of the world. Having said that, soccer only explains some, at least according to the selected interviews of various personalities in the countries represented. That provides a somewhat slant perspective. While Foer makes some good observations of certain impact, I feel that the content of the book fails to adequately answer the title of the book. At best, I tend to say the effects are peripheral, meaning that Foer's thesis fail to address core questions like the extent of influence, real statistics of soccer, and other variables.

That said, it is still a fresh way of thinking that will perhaps be improved with more examples from other countries mentined. What about Asia?

Rating: 2.5 stars of 5.

conrade