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Thinking and Listening Before Speaking and Acting

Todays Scripture: Listening and Doing (James 1: 19-21)

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Today I wanted to share something with everyone that has been on my heart as of late. During the last several weeks, there have been some very disturbing incidents created by the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic. Violence against people of Asian descent has been on the rise nationwide. Also, there have been incidents where people wearing scrubs have been victims of violence because someone assumed that they were exposing the general public to COVID-19. During this time, I would like to suggest we review today’s scripture and do a moral inventory of our thoughts (myself included). The first thing we need to do, as I apply the scripture, is to quit assigning blame to racial or ethnic groups as being the fault of the disease. In a bit of irony, the Great Influenza of 1918 was given the pejorative term “Spanish Influenza”. The irony is the fact that it did not originate from Spain. This name was given by other nations because of Spain’s neutral stance during WWI and the assumption that it came from there. As it turns out, this was proven false. Some evidence suggests that a soldier from Haskell County, Kansas brought it to Camp Funston (now Fort Riley) thus starting the worldwide spread. Although this has not been definitively proven, imagine a world where people viewed Kansas as the source of an illness called the “Sunflower State Swine Flu”. I would think that many Americans (Kansans in particular) would be offended if such a name were cemented with the Great Influenza of 1918.

Today’s scripture suggests to us that we should do more listening (and by extension thinking) before we lash out in anger or fear. I know that we live in an unknown time (downright scary to be honest). The best thing that we can do is arm ourselves with the truth, or facts. By doing this, we can speak and respond with rational thought, kindness and love. Instead of looking for something to blame for COVID-19, we need to remember that we are all in this together. To arm ourselves with the truth for COVID-19 (and other public health issues), I suggest non-biased resources such as the following:

https://www.coronavirus.gov/ (Federal Government COVID-19 resource)

https://govstatus.egov.com/coronavirus (Kansas Government (KDHE) COVID-19 resource)

https://www.nortoncountyhealthdept.org/ (Norton County Kansas Health Department Site)

Today’s Prayer:

“Lord,

We come before you today as a concerned, worried group of people living in this uncertain time. Please help us combat our fears of the COVID-19 pandemic with facts and rational thought. Please allow us to respond in kindness to our neighbor. Remind us to think and listen before we speak and act. Help us to remember we are all part of your creation and we’re all in this together. Let us work together the best that we can for the best possible outcome for the world and each other.

In Jesus’ Name We Pray,

Amen.”

Social Contact In the Age of COVID-19

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:11 English Standard Version (ESV)

11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

As we are living in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are indeed living in uncertain times. To help prevent the spread of this virus, we are asked to do things that we are not accustomed to in our modern world, particularly in the United States where we do experience a lot of freedom. We are asked to practice things like social distancing, self-isolation, and self-quarantine if we feel we have any symptom of COVID-19. There is a plethora of information available to us via the internet. One of the difficulties we face, however, is the fact that we are social beings. We naturally desire to be around other people. The scripture verse shared at the beginning suggests that in order to build one another up, we obviously need to be in contact with them. The good news is that social distancing and self-isolation need not be synonymous with “social isolation”. We have a plethora of means to communicate with each other in todays advanced technological age. We can communicate with smart phones, cell phones, computers and landline phones to name a few. We can communicate with one another, share our burdens with each other, and as Christians, we can pray for each other. I would like to challenge everyone to communicate with someone via one of these means. For a person feeling isolated, that phone call might fulfill scripture by encouraging and building them up, just like the bible verse for today suggests.

Prayer: “Dear Lord: Despite the fear and uncertainty we are feeling in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, let’s remember our brothers and sisters in Christ and contact them virtually through technology so that we can encourage and build them up the way you would want us to. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”

How the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book Can Help Non-Alcoholics With Spirituality

Over the past 5 years, I’ve had a series of setbacks, both personal and professional. One of the consequences of these experiences is a cynical outlook on life and, perhaps more alarming, is a distance with my relationship with God. Although I identify myself as a United Methodist, my beliefs are an amalgamation of several beliefs. I identify as a Christian Left Democrat that leans toward the concept of social justice. I also identify as a Christian Universalist with a splash of Christian Deism. The splash of Christian Deism manifests itself as a personal belief that God doesn’t intervene in very much of human affairs. I’ve often believed that God allows the human race to operate under free will and that the future is merely the result of the collective decisions of all of us in the present.

As I mentioned, this has created a personal pessimistic worldview based on my microcosm of life. As mentioned in M Scott Beck’s book “The Road Less Traveled”, our differing world views are often caused by an incongruence of our microcosm of the world compared to the macrocosm of the world in its totality. Although I would never discount one’s life experiences over mine, I now recognize that my worldview is just that; my worldview. It is like a metaphorical drop of water in the world ocean know as the macrocosm or total world view composed of all human experiences.

This recognition has been an important part of drawing closer to God. The other problem I had was that I had a narrow view of God based on a wide variety of views including those of Evangelicals and Christian Fundamentalists. Although well meaning, these people created a view of God that he had favorites and was willing to punish those he was displeased with based on the slightest infraction of their view of holiness. This too made it hard for me to deal with some of the challenges of the last 5 years. I needed to get a new view of God, and I needed it fast.

Part of the cynical attitude that I had was that God was not going to help me and that I would have to overcome these obstacles on my own. As I said, I needed a new view of God so that I could reconcile with him and draw closer to him. I just didn’t have any idea how to do it. Fortunately, a friendship has been developing between me and a retired minister and counselor. In an act of grace, this individual recognized that my distance between God and myself bordered on agnosticism. To help perhaps reflect on my views of God and perhaps to challenge them, I was given a gift. I was given a copy of the Alcoholics Annonymous Big Book (4th edition) that was marked with specific passages to focus on. Of course, I was curious. I am a bibliophile and am a sucker for books, especially when one is given to me as an act of kindness and a gift. Of course, I wondered how this book would be of help to me since I was not an alcoholic and this book was intended to help alcoholics in their recovery and to achieve sobriety (as well as helping other alcoholics). I soon discovered that I had a lot in common with the members of Alcoholics Annonymous (AA). I realized that my problem is that I thought that God didn’t care about my problems and that he wasn’t perhaps big enough or powerful enough to help me accept the effects of human freewill or to help me cope with these problems.

The two chapters that were perhaps the best catalyst to help me were the chapters entitled (if my memory serves me correctly) “We Agnostics” and “How it Works”. Theses chapters were wonderful in that I wasn’t stuck with a hardcore Evangelical/Christian Fundamentalist definition of a monster god that was ready to severely punish me whenever I consciously or inadvertently deviated from holiness. I could define a Higher Power that I could relate to. I could think of my vision of a loving God that wouldn’t necessarily spare me of life’s difficulties but would be there with me and help me overcome them. Theses are the same principles that AA uses to overcome the desire to drink and maintain sobriety.

The best part is that I’m drawing closer to God after a 5 year distant relationship with him. It hasn’t made life any easier. I’m still trying to transition out of a 27 year career where I had some expertise into an entirely new career path where my skills are at the novice level at best. I believe my future will be challenging as I try to redefine and reinvent myself. So what is my point of all of this stream of consciousness writing (perhaps blather)? I realized that the possibility of drawing closer to God can sometimes come from an unlikely source. All it took was a gift from a caring friend and the people of Alcoholics Anonymous. They have shared their vision of a Higher Power that is not only for them but for everyone. And I am truly grateful.

Making a transition

Over the past 11 months, I have been making a career transition out of pharmacy. Maybe not completely….maybe a hybrid of pharmacy and a new career path. I’ve been spending the last several months learning coding. I’ve also had the privilege of going to a coding school and taking several courses as well as receiving a certificate as a full stack web developer. I’ve learned the following languages: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, React, SQL, Ruby and Ruby on Rails (Rails). So, I’m looking at a future of perhaps a career in pharmacy, computer coding/programming or a hybrid of both. I would be pleased with anything. At 53 years of age, I realize I’m competing in a world of younger people. The one thing I’ve proven to myself is that age will not be a barrier to life long learning, professional development and personal growth.