Today is the birthday of Ronald Reagan; he would have been 98. We’re also just barely past the 29th anniversary of his first inaugural address. Some highlights:
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.
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We are a nation that has a government–not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.
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Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it’s not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work–work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.
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On the eve of our struggle for independence a man who might have been one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the Massachusetts Congress, said to his fellow Americans, “Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of . . . On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important questions upon which rests the happiness and the liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves.”
When I told the lads last week that we were going to watch a classic Bill Murray movie that featured a cute, furry animal they were all, “Cool – Caddyshack!”
“Oh yeah,” I replied, “And what positive message could I possibly squeeze out of that besides ‘Be the ball.'”
There were a number of reasons for me to choose “Groundhog Day“: 1) It’s February, 2) The story, and 3) Bill Murray is about the only actor to come out of Saturday Night Live who’s movies I like. As it turns out, the movie was timely for another reason as well, which I’ll get to.
I think most people know the plot of the movie. Murray is an egotistical, selfish jerk of a TV weatherman who literally gets stuck in Puxatawney, PA covering the annual Groundhog Day ceremonies. Not just stuck as in he can’t leave town, but stuck living the same day over and over again although he’s the only one who’s aware of what’s happening — everyone else in the town forgets what happened before when they live the day all over again. Why this particular jerk is singled out for this anomaly is hard to say, but just go with it. Murray soon discovers that no matter what he does — including getting locked in jail, kidnapping Puxatawney Phil or killing himself — will keep him from waking up at 6:00 a.m. the “next” morning to the exact same story.
When he first realizes there are “no consequences” he indulges in any and every thing he can think of to amuse himself, whether it’s stealing money, taking advantage of unsuspecting women, pigging out on fatty food, sweets and smoking…all while it’s clear that he’s coming apart trying to deal with this unique kind of Hell. He eventually sets his sights on seducing his new producer, played by Andie MacDowell, using his endless series of days to learn everything about her, what she likes, what she hopes for, what might impress her and then trying to use this knowledge to deceive her. She has a good heart and he’s very nearly successful again and again but each time her common sense and character undo his schemes. Thwarted in his quest and ultimately bored by his all his indulgences, Murray tries a number of inventive ways to kill himself, but always waking up back in his bed. At his lowest point he spends another day with MacDowell, not trying to scam her but trying to convince her of the absurd thing that is happening to him. She agrees to help him, and in the wee hours of the morning, exhausted, Murray realizes that what attracts him to her is her kindness, fairness and compassion even when dealing with a guy she knows only as a jerk.
At rock bottom, and from that revelation, Murray starts to change, using his unique situation and “omniscience” to help others. Strangely enough, he starts to have fun and begins enjoying himself by helping others, preventing accidents and becoming the most popular guy in town.
I first got the idea to show this movie this month back in November or December, but what makes it especially timely now is that it comes on the heels of the post I wrote earlier this week about the book Born to be Good and the “discovery” that humans have a built-in and measurable warm feeling and reaction to doing good or seeing good things done. Murray’s journey from bewilderment to dissipation, depression and ultimately redemption — though filmed 25 years before the book was written — demonstrates that premise in a funny and touching movie that is as fundamental as any film in this series. (See Sidebar Categories for other films).
You know those times when you see something so good, so right, happen —or read about it, or hear about it — and that warm-feeling comes over you? It could be more than a feeling.
There’s a fascinating piece by Brian “St Paul” Ward of Fraters Libertas as he refers to a couple of other articles that have picked up on the fact that people, well, “pick up” on certain things that are good and true.
Ebert cites a Slate article from December, which cites a book called “Born to Be Good” by psychologist Dacher Keltner, who is studying this emotion, called “elevation.” From the Slate article:
Keltner writes that he believes when we experience transcendence, it stimulates our vagus nerve, causing “a feeling of spreading, liquid warmth in the chest and a lump in the throat.”
Elevation has always existed but has just moved out of the realm of philosophy and religion and been recognized as a distinct emotional state and a subject for psychological study. Psychology has long focused on what goes wrong, but in the past decade there has been an explosion of interest in “positive psychology” — what makes us feel good and why. University of Virginia moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, who coined the term elevation, writes, “Powerful moments of elevation sometimes seem to push a mental ‘reset button,’ wiping out feelings of cynicism and replacing them with feelings of hope, love, and optimism, and a sense of moral inspiration.”
We come to elevation, Haidt writes, through observing others — their strength of character, virtue, or “moral beauty.” Elevation evokes in us “a desire to become a better person, or to lead a better life.”
Of course, Ebert, Keltner and Haight attribute this to something cultural or that has evolved in mankind. As I read that section, however, I immediately recognized it as something very familiar; something that Brain and I both recognized as spiritual:
That strikes me as accurate, except for the focus on its sole origin as the actions of others. On occasion, I have experienced elevation with regard to an individuals’ actions, typically a selfless act of kindness or sacrifice. But more often, it’s been an emotion evoked by a broader idea or concept. And this can come not only words, but also an images or music. Movies, books, recordings, as well have people have caused it for me. As such, I never centered on any person involved. Rather, I’ve come to interpret it as a instance of revealing an essential truth. The truth of how we’re supposed to live our lives. In the video above, for example, “let’s not kill our children,” said in a beautiful and simple manner.
Getting close to truth is another way of saying getting close to God. So, this feeling of elevation has a religious meaning for me. I assumed this interpretation would be universal, irrefutable. Yet, the Ebert and Slate articles never even mention the possibility. Instead, they cite as examples of those bringing elevation the pop culture trinity of Barack Obama, Michael Jordan, and Oprah Winfrey.
Yes, I’ve felt and enjoyed “elevation” in watching certain movies or reading certain books or hearing certain speakers, but I’ve also felt it most profoundly when infused by a Trinity that’s anything but pop. How ironic, it appears to me, that the learned experts can walk right up to the edge of revelation and stop themselves just short, as if it were a cliff they dare not let themselves go over.
Amazon’s editorial synopsis of Keltner’s book includes the following description (emphasis mine): “A new examination of the surprising origins of human goodness. In Born to Be Good, Dacher Keltner demonstrates that humans are not hardwired to lead lives that are ‘nasty, brutish, and short’— we are in fact born to be good. He investigates an old mystery of human evolution: why have we evolved positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and are the fabric of cooperative societies?”
Evolved? Could, perhaps, those emotions have been implanted in us by God? Could they even be the essence of what “being created in the likeness and image of” means? That is, not so much a physical likeness but a spiritual harmonic that resonates in the presence of goodness? I have been suddenly “elevated” while singing praises to God, or in the midst of praying for someone, or when a revelation crystallizes suddenly in my half-alert mind. It doesn’t happen every time I do these things; in fact it usually happens when I’m not expecting it to. In the middle of a song that we’ve sung dozens of times, for example, or in half-way through praying for someone when — whoosh elevation! (Actually, in our circles, we call it “anointing”) It seems to wait for that split-second when I stop thinking about myself to manifest itself and I know that I’ve made a different kind of connection, or been a conduit for one.
It’s not a self-congratulatory wave of emotion from taking pride in my doing something “good”, either; in fact, that kind of thought quenches the feeling immediately. It’s another demonstration of what St. Paul (the apostle, not Brian) wrote when he urged us not to be “conformed” to the world and all of its selfishness, but to be “transformed” by the “renewing of our minds” when we ever-so-briefly touch something larger than ourselves.
I have to confess I’m living a double-life. I’ve been doing this blogging thing for a while now but a couple of weeks ago I finally got into the Facebook thing; mainly just so I could read what my daughters were putting on there. Of course, once the Facebook organism recognizes you it runs all of its tendrils out through your past and present in its proprietary way and starts re-connecting you with people. Which is fun, but leads to more time on-line writing notes and on walls, poking and tagging people and so on.
It’s kind of like getting a new pet. The thing about a new pet, however, is that no matter how cute it is, it’s still got to be fed. And if you’ve got other pets — like a blog, for instance — these want to be fed, too, and it can get kind of hairy trying to run back and forth between them. Then those long-lost friends want to get all caught up on your life, and get you all caught up on theirs, so they tag you with the “25 Things” Meme.
Well, my short answer to that is “Read My Blog!” because basically everything that’s gone on, or is going on, in my life shows up there in one way or another. But doing it that way is the War and Peace version (on DVD, with Director’s commentary). So I decided to do the Reader’s Digest version (albeit annotated), while simultaneously “feeding” both my Facebook page and my blog. Here then, is my “25 Things” thing, many with links to past blog-posts that provide the back-story to that “thing”.
4. And sometimes I can be a fair (or, perhaps, unfair) poet.
5. A movie that I always have to stop and watch if I come across it while channel-surfing: Zulu.
6. I teach a monthly “Fundamentals in Film” class to a group of teenage boys, using popular films to illustrate timeless truths of character and honorable behavior (as opposed to the images of Homer Simpson and professional wrestlers they’re most often exposed to).
20. But a lot of people think I have some funny ideas about how to go about getting married:
21. I worked for a while part-time as a scoreboard operator at the Metrodome for Twins, Vikings and Minnesota Gophers games, and the odd rock concert, Wrestlemania and tractor pull – some odder than others:
22. My life frequently resembles something out of Monty Python:
24. My wife and daughters go out for coffee together every Friday morning and often “live-blog” the experience. I sometimes wonder just what has been poured into their stream of consciousness.
With Valentine’s Day coming up I thought I’d give you less romantic guys out there a good suggestion for a Valentine’s Day gift for your significant other. (I know, I know, you look at me and then you look at the Reverend Mother and you think, “Da-yum, that guy has just got to have some romantic secrets!”) Anyway, here’s what I did for my wife for last Valentine’s Day (take notes, kids): I recorded a CD for her!
No, not me singing. She may put up with a lot, but me singing goes way beyond “till death do you part” for her. Instead I used my iTunes account to hunt down and burn a CD of special songs that all described her (or the two of us together in some way). To give you a flavor of how this works, here are the songs I recorded (don’t try these at home, you’ve got to come up with your own songlist).
The title of the CD was Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress by The Hollies. In this particular case there isn’t much about the song that describes my wife except the title: she’s long, she’s cool and she wears black. A lot.
The first song is Oh, Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison. An easy and obvious intro that’s “pretty” fitting, but the particular lyric in this song that best describes my feelings is when Roy goes, Growwwwl. Mercy!
Another song is Dream Weaver by Gary Wright. You see, my wife gets prophetic dreams a lot. Not really the “see the future” type dreams, but dreams God gives her that tell what is going on in someone else’s life (so she can pray or know how to minister) or a sign in her own life. Unlike regular dreams that she forgets immediately, when she has a “God Dream” it’s very detailed and sticks with her until she writes it down.
Pretty women out walking with gorillas down my street…Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Joe Jackson. Yeah, she is. What of it? (I told you earlier, big secrets of romance).
I also put Travelin’ Prayer by Billy Joel on there. This one is included because of all the times she’s traveled abroad on missions trips, whether the Philippines (twice), China or Romania while I’m back at home thinking, Hey Lord, take a look all around tonight and find where my baby’s gonna be; Hey Lord, would ya look out for her tonight ‘Cause she is far across the sea; Hey Lord, would ya look out for her tonight; And make sure that she’s gonna be alright; And things are gonna be alright with me. There’s even a line in there about making sure all her dreams are sweet!
Another song that has great personal significance is Seven Bridges Road by the Eagles. One day when we’d been dating for about three months we took an autumn day trip up to Duluth, MN and the North Shore. There’s a road that leads up away from Duluth and Lake Superior known by my wife as “The Road to Seven Bridges.” It cuts through the forest and over streams (and seven bridges) and you see a lot of beautiful scenery and finally you can look down on the city and the lake like a panorama. It was a great day and that night when we got back to town I asked her to marry me — and she said yes and did so about a year later!
The next song really ties in with the previous one, but I didn’t realize it until just now. It’s Unbelievable by Diamond Rio, which, as just occurred to me, has the lyric: She’s so elegant, intelligent, heaven sent, all my money spent; I put a big down payment on that itty bitty diamond ring. The part I like best is that She’s so kissable, huggable, lovable, unbelievable!
Despite what you might think of a guy who proposes after just three months, I tend to over-think and over-analyze things. Think Too Much by Paul Simon was on the cassette we listened to driving back from Duluth as faith and reason tumbled over and over in my head as Paul sang “Maybe I think too much for my own good; Some people say so; Other people say no no; The fact is You don’t think as much as you could,” and Paul and I both said, “Hmmmm.”
Back when we first fell in love I would have walked 500 miles and then walked 500 more just so I could be the man who walked 1000 miles fell down at her door. Yes, The Proclaimers and I’m Gonna Be (500 miles), assuring her that When I’m lonely, well I know I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be the man who’s lonely without you; And when I’m dreaming, well I know I’m gonna dream; I’m gonna Dream about the time when I’m with you. More dreams! I’d still walk that far, but it would take so long these days that I’m not sure she’d wait for me.
The next song on the CD is You Sexy Thing by Hot Chocolate, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. Except…I believe in miracles!
If you love a woman, you’ll do anything for her. Climb the highest mountain, swim the deepest sea, fight a grizzly bear, let her have the last doughnut, etc. You’ll even, when you know she’s a Barry Manilow fan, download Barry’s version of Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You, even though you know it’s going to go on your permanent record somewhere.
My favorite song on the CD is She by Elvis Costello, from the Notting Hill soundtrack. It’s a love song not burdened or blinded by sentimentality but all the truer for the deep realization that this is it for you: Me, I’ll take her laughter and her tears; And make them all my souvenirs; For where she goes I’ve got to be; The meaning of my life is…She.
What better way to wrap things up but with Joe Cocker singing You Are So Beautiful:
You are so beautiful to me
You are so beautiful to me
Can’t you see
Your everything I hoped for
Your everything I need
You are so beautiful to me
Such joy and happiness you bring
Such joy and happiness you bring
Like a dream
A guiding light that shines in the night
Heavens gift to me
You are so beautiful to me
My hand-writing is atrocious and I admit that with more shame than pride. I dutifully learned my printing and cursive writing styles in school, but my thoughts have always been faster than my hand. Trying to get them down in longhand is like trying to rein in a team of stampeding horses — when the horses are behind you. In their haste to keep up my fingers have often cut corners around the edges of some letters, or lapped over the lines meant to keep the letters inside, or sketched the first few letters of a word while giving the rest of the word a lick and a promise.
Never better than mediocre at it’s best when I was younger and using it regularly, my hand-writing has deteriorated as I’ve gotten older, even though I still use it quite a bit. My generation still had to write most of our reports and essays in longhand while in school, and I didn’t take a typing class until my junior year in high school. I typed my college papers, except for my semester in England when I didn’t have access to a typewriter and had to turn in four large bluebooks of laborious cursive. You’d think I’d be able to keep my “hand” in these days since I take copious notes at work and fill roughly one notebook a year in scrawled highlights of sermons from church. My wife, however, looks at my notes and says that I write in tongues, and it is getting to the point now where even I can’t read the scratchings if it’s been a week or two since they were put down on paper.
My struggles are not unusual and, in fact, the generations behind me may be even worse off according to a recent article in the Boston Globe noting the decline in handwriting in the U.S., most likely due to a decline in teaching it as students and teachers conform to the ubiquity of the keyboard, even in the elementary grades.
To previous generations, clear and speedy handwriting was essential to everything from public documents to personal letters to generals’ orders in battle. As literacy became more widespread, various handwriting methods arose. There was italic, starting in the 15th century, and then in the 17th century came roundhand – called copperplate in the United States – seen in the Declaration of Independence and the script of Benjamin Franklin. In the 1820s, Platt Rogers Spencer developed the Spencerian script, which became the American standard in schools (it survives in the Coca-Cola logo).
Then came A.N. Palmer. While working as a clerk in Iowa in the 1880s, Palmer devised a way of writing that eliminated Spencer’s fancy curlicues and purportedly minimized fatigue, too. He promoted his method in a book, “Palmer’s Guide to Muscular Movement Writing,” and by 1912 his method was dominant in American schools. Palmer and its offshoots featured the odd large number 2 for the capital Q, the capital D with the little forelock, and the M and N that start with a loop.
However much you studied your Palmer, though, your “hand” was distinctive – as personal as your voice or laugh. But as typewriters proliferated after World War II, handwriting gradually became less important. Authors typed their manuscripts and students typed their school papers. As telephones became universal, letter-writing virtually disappeared. In the e-mail age, most people seldom need to write more than a grocery list or a short note, or sign a check. It’s not only kids; many who formerly wrote fluently and neatly have forgotten how.
“It’s a very disturbing problem,” said Kate Gladstone of Albany, N.Y., who has a website specializing in handwriting improvement. “I see people in their 20s and 30s who cannot read cursive. If you cannot read all types of handwriting, you might find your grandma’s diary or something from 100 years ago, and not be able to read it.” There are practical concerns as well. Sometimes we don’t have a computer, or the professor won’t let us bring it to class to take notes. Or sometimes, as happened in New Orleans hospitals during Hurricane Katrina, computers lose power and medical orders and records have to be written out by hand.
In a way, it’s as if hand-writing has become another “dead” language like Greek or Latin. All three were once thought to be the foundations of a good education and now are the arcane province of “Men of Letters” (and Women).
While typing — whether on a typewriter, computer or hand-held device — is the most efficient and functional way to put words (or electrons) on paper these days, and despite my own struggles with the craft of penmanship, a part of me feels sadness at the decline of one of the “Three R’s”. There’s an elegance and classiness in being able to master a graceful note to a loved one or even a list of chores on the whiteboard stuck to the refrigerator door. Perhaps that’s why so many important documents today still affect a hand-written look. How ironic that a student today might not be able to read his or her diploma!
Nancy features the word “zombie” in her Word for the Week on Fritinancy, and offers an entertaining history of the origin and uses of the word as well, of course, as its place in our entertainment and culture. Included in this is the following punditry she’s come across recently:
But it’s the ongoing global financial crisis that has truly reanimated “zombie.” References to zombie banks and zombie companies have proliferated over the last 12 months. “The threat of zombies here and now is real,” wrote Alyce Lomax in the Motley Fool blog last week:
That is, the zombie banks and zombie corporations that are artificially kept alive even though in any rational, natural world they should be dead. And if these reanimated corpses are still stumbling around, growing greater and greater in number, well, I’m pretty sure we all know what appears to be causing the dead to rise.
In a Jan. 18 column titled “Wall Street Voodoo,” New York Times op-ed columnist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman wrote about a hypothetical bank, “Gothamgroup”:
On paper, Gotham has $2 trillion in assets and $1.9 trillion in liabilities, so that it has a net worth of $100 billion. But a substantial fraction of its assets — say, $400 billion worth — are mortgage-backed securities and other toxic waste. If the bank tried to sell these assets, it would get no more than $200 billion.
So Gotham is a zombie bank: it’s still operating, but the reality is that it has already gone bust. Its stock isn’t totally worthless — it still has a market capitalization of $20 billion — but that value is entirely based on the hope that shareholders will be rescued by a government bailout.
I think in these cases the zombies are roaming the streets moaning for “Brains!” not because they want to eat them but because they seem to have misplaced them. This does give me an excuse to link to a classic from Tiger Lilly, however:
(Finally, the Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader-level trivia question: What movie did the headline of this post come from? Hint: it wasn’t a zombie film.)
Update:
To find out what the zombies don’t want you to know (i.e., who you’re really borrowing from) go here. (HT: Through the Illusion).
We’re not in Kansas any more. Actually, I’ve never lived in Kansas but I thought about Kansas today during praise & worship at church. Well, what I was thinking about was “the rock” of my foundation and how important it is to build my house on the rock instead of shifting sand. So how does Kansas enter into this? Bear with me a moment.
In my last post I referenced Jesus’ parable of the man who builds his house on the solid rock vs. the man who builds on shifting sand and how these homes fare when the rains, floods and winds come along. As an analogy I described the rain as being the economy (dampening everything), the floods as what washes away our job or business and the winds as the stresses that come along in the storm that and batter us (perhaps in our relationships, or health), adding to the destruction. Jesus suggested we “build” our homes — or lives — on something that can’t be shaken and I’ve tried to renew my thinking over the years in order to do that. And that’s when I thought of Kansas.
You see, in “The Wizard of Oz”, when the twister appears on the Kansas horizon, Auntie Em and the others don’t have a basement in the farmhouse to run to. Instead they have a detached root or storm cellar for emergencies. When that picture appeared in my mind it made me realize that there are probably areas in my life where I’ve built near my foundation but not actually upon it; things that look solid and even Biblical and may even be good, but are not built on that key foundation. “Doctrines of man” might be an example of this. Meanwhile, we take for granted the thing with the solid foundation, perhaps using it for storage or our convenience, almost forgetting what it’s there for.
The thing is, when the storms and the wind come, the things I’ve built near the foundation — good, bad or indifferent — will blow away. The question I have to answer, then, is whether or not I’ll chase after those things that are blowing down the road (after all, I’ve likely put a lot of time and effort into these) or if I’ll look for people still out in the storm and try to wave them over into shelter.
One of the characteristics of the dearly remembered housing boom was the sprouting of “McMansions” in former cornfields or alongside golf courses. These were very cool looking homes and we enjoyed touring these during the Parade of Homes, especially those listed at $1 million or more.
It made for an afternoon’s diversion and fantasy, but you had to wonder at some of the value represented. A salesperson was showing us around one $750k model townhome and as we were admiring the well-appointed family room the resident in the home that shared a common wall flushed the toilet. We knew this because we could clearly hear the water running through the pipes and the tank refilling. This is not an unusual experience when you live in an apartment or a townhouse, but not a big selling feature if you’re going to spend $750k. Other times we’d tour a million dollar home with Ben, who is an experienced carpenter, and watch as he pointed out subtle mistakes in fit and finish. In one case there was painted over evidence of a load-bearing wall not doing it’s duty, likely as a result of a problem with the foundation.
I think of these things, and foundations, in the burst residue of the housing and mortgage bubble as the entire economy sags like the wings of a great house falling toward the basement because the center-beam wasn’t set as well as you might think. It’s the latest demonstration of the Biblical exhortation to build your home on solid rock and not on shifting sand. Of course, the Bible is using the house as a metaphor, as am I. Let’s review Matthew 7:24-27:
“Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”
Doesn’t that sound familiar, and in more ways than one? Allow me to extend the metaphor into an analogy: today’s economy is the rain, and the effects of it in our lives are the floods, and the wind is the additional adversities that come to challenge our faith and make us doubt what we are standing upon, or whether the rock is enough to save us.
We have to build with storms in mind, an outlook almost completely lacking in the latest run-up as people seemed to assume that storms had become extinct and that those sets of conditions would continue in perpetuity (just as some now assume the current situation is forever). What is the housing bubble, or any bubble, all about but value driven by high expectations rather than intrinsic worth, or the greater fool theory? In those conditions you’re not building a foundation on a rock; you’re not even building it on sand which can at least be heavy — you’re building it on something as flimsy and as easily popped as a bubble. And great is the fall.
The Bible has a lot of useful advice about finances and there are a lot of “foundational” things I could discuss that would likely be helpful in these days, but I want to focus on one foundational revelation that has been very effective in my family’s life, especially because it’s the one that appears to be the most counter-intuitive: being a giver.
I’m not talking about “giving your way into prosperity” (if I was I’d probably try and sell it to you in a book) but a way of looking at life and how we interact with others, especially when times are challenging. Sure it’s easy to be generous when times are good, but in tough economic times don’t you want to hold on to what you’ve got? Yes, that sounds logical — but so did buying houses “knowing” that the prices would only keep going up and you’d be able to re-sell the home in a short time for a nice profit, or using the equity in your home to finance vacations or goods that don’t hold their value.
Maybe “logic” itself isn’t the key, or at least a certain type of logic. Proverbs 11:24 says, “One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.”
We have seen this demonstrated over and over in our lives. Over the years my wife and I have trained ourselves to keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to the needs in the lives of people we come in contact with, and our daughters have followed our example. I’m not being boastful, and I won’t go down through a laundry list of things we’ve done, but we know we have been blessed many times over as a result of what we’ve given to others, especially when it didn’t look like a good time to give. Some of the most amazing things have happened when I’ve given the last few dollars in my pocket to someone with a greater need than I. (Another important key is that I gave because I wanted to, not because I “ought” to or because someone made me or took my money so they could give it to someone else.) And it’s not just money; we frequently give time and goods, or make room in our lives and even our home for others as the need arises. We’ve given in many different ways, and likewise “received” in many different ways. (Okay, one story: we once took a couple of bags of groceries over to a young man we had just met who really needed some food. Somehow or another that young man will now soon be marrying my daughter!)
We’ve learned and experienced a lot in this area and I could expound for quite awhile about it but all I want to do right now is simply remind you of this principle and exhort you that — whether you have a little or a lot — these days are not the time to hunker down and try to get by, but a terrific time for reaching out to others. It’s important to have faith and to wish others well and to pray, but it’s also as James says:
“Suppose you see a brother or sister who needs food or clothing, and you say, ‘Well, good-bye and God bless you; stay warm and eat well’–but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?” (James 2:15, 16 NLT)
Something we’ve long included in the grace we say before our meals is that God is able to give us everything we need to live life in abundance and to give into every good work. The point is not just to have the abundance, but knowing what to do with that abundance. That scripture is part of a little bit longer passage in 2 Corinthians:
Remember this–a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop. But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give. Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves the person who gives cheerfully. And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. As the Scriptures say, “Godly people give generously to the poor. Their good deeds will never be forgotten.” For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you. (2 Corinthians 9:6-10 NLT)
What this has helped us to do is to see that everything we receive is either bread for food (something to meet immediate needs we have) or seed (something that can be sown for a future return). In December I taught a message on giving to our Inside Outfitters men’s group. In particular I emphasized learning how to identify whether something is bread or seed when it comes into your life. The group included about 75 men from the Minnesota Teen Challenge Program, a faith-based residency program for overcoming drug and alcohol addictions. It’s a very effective program, but the guys don’t often get a lot of treats to eat. They also don’t have a lot of money while they’re in the program. In fact, they’ve basically got nothing (which is basically what many of them had before they entered the program).
I had asked the women of our church, however, if they would bake Christmas cookies for the guys coming to the meeting, and the ladies responded with 100 dozen which we bagged up. When the meeting was over each Teen Challenge guy received a dozen cookies to take back to their dorms. When the group got back together last weekend for our January meeting I heard a couple of interesting stories. Many of the guys had eaten their cookies before they even got back to Teen Challenge. One man, however, saved his because those unexpected cookies were the only thing he had to give his wife for Christmas. He gave them to her that afternoon and she was flabbergasted at his thoughtfulness and his self-control to hold onto the cookies for her. She said it was the nicest present he could have given her.
Another man, in the van going back to the program, asked the fellow sitting next to him if he could have one of his cookies. The second guy said, “Why don’t you eat your own?” The first man replied, “Because I want to give them to my son for Christmas.” Another man in the back of the van heard this and said to the first man, “But I know you have two sons. Here, you can give the other one my cookies.” Now that got me misty just hearing about that, but what’s really neat is that the two sons are living with two younger half-siblings. When they received the cookies from their father they, in turn, gave the cookies to the little ones!
At least three of the men who heard the message that day looked at the cookies they had unexpectedly received and asked themselves if those cookies were bread or seed, and when they got their answer these little cookies made a big difference and became a story that will live on in these families for some time. Similarly, the opportunities are all around us if we are alert and willing to take advantage of them when they come. Even the seemingly smallest things can make a difference. Don’t let tough times blind you to the opportunities that are around you.
