making sense of the "1%"

Much has been said in the recent political campaigns about the "1%". The reference is to the portion of the country that is well off, especially financially. While some have disdain for the well off and others believe that its those who are well off that drive our economy, the fact is no one does not really want to ultimately be in the top "1%". The human desire to do well and be happy is basic in all peeps. There's a debate in how that should occur between personal responsibility and entitlement, but everyone wants well being.

The issue debated is not that peeps do not want to be well off, its what is the source of well being. Yet, the debate on where well being originates is not a political one. The carnal mind assumes we get well by extracting from the world around us what it has to offer to meet our needs. Those that are successful at exchanging something for what they want then tend to be deemed well off.

In the parable of the lepers (Luke 17) ten lepers are healed or cleansed of their disease only by responding to Jesus' command. Yet, one leper who was cleansed returned to Jesus in gratitude and thanksgiving for he knew it was Jesus who not only cleansed him of his disease but also made him well. Being well is not just taking care of difficult circumstances, its receiving by faith the well being given only to us in Grace by Jesus.

Martin Luther says it like this, "God receives none but those who are forsaken, restore health to none but those who are sick, gives sight to none but the blind, and life to none but the dead. He does not give saintliness to any but sinners, nor wisdom to any but fools. In short He has mercy on none but the wretched and gives grace to none but those who are in disgrace."

The top "1%" (metaphoric for the well off) are ultimately those who through faith understand that the well being of our soul is solely a gift to us as we look to and receive provisions and privileges of the Heavenlies and not from the world around us.

Just saying ....

What makes a peep Godly?

What makes a man or woman a Godly peep? Some, like legalists and fundamentalists ("fundees" some call them), think that its being moral and ethical, doing the "right" things or at least always trying hard. I don't think so. This may be what other peeps think makes one Godly, but God has other ideas on this.

God redeems all the mess peeps make, we are always guilty of falling below His standard for us. We pick and chose what aspects of our short comings make us "feel" guilty. But we guilty almost all the time in ways we do not trust Him.

A Godly peep is one that believes what God says about Himself and then about the peep themself. A Godly peep trusts that what God put inside them is good and that all He wants is for the peep to play it out with "reckless abandon" (Paul calls it boldly)trusting God for the results.

A Godly man or woman trusts God for their soul's well-being, not what the world provides.

Just saying ......

testosterone and faith: the story of Barak

Now some of you are probably saying now that this old man has finally gone crazy!! Why is he blogging about Obama and what has testosterone got to do with faith? These are certainly good questions and illustrates how our minds are biased to preconceived notions about what someone might say.

First, Barak is a character in the story of Deborah (Judges 4 and 5). He is also mentioned in the Faith Hall of Fame (Hebrews 11). So his story must be a lesson on faith. Lets' see.

Deborah, a Judge in the story of the Israelites, called upon Barak to deliver their peeps from the hand of oppression. What was Barak's response to Deborah. "If you will go with me I will go, if you will not go with me, I will not go." Barak, man up!! Where the testosterone we would expect to see from a man of faith? He needs help, security, more power? He doesn't have the faith it takes to move out on his calling? How come he is recognized by God for his faith??

Well, the answer to these questions are not explicitly provided in this story. But if I read between the lines and apply what I have learned over 60 plus years, I have a perspective. What I have found in my own faith walk is that when God calls me to move out and trust Him, its not about me getting enough testosterone to be brave, fearless, potent, capable, efficacious, etc.

Its knowing that God thru His son Jesus is doing His thing and inviting me to go along with Him. Its not what I have or can do that matters. Its not up to me and my courage to act. I must respond to God's call to move out with the same response as Barak, "God you must go with me!" Further, Deborah adds that if she goes with him, he will not receive the glory for the victory. Another great lesson in faith. Because our faith did not produce some super human capacity in us, but a full dependence on Him, who BTW gets all the Glory!!

maybe a little different perspective on faith that can cause you to ponder!!

"that your joy may be full"

I cant imagine anyone who would not wish for their joy to be full. But how do we make sense of this? How do we get this to happen? Well here are a few thoughts.

First, what is joy? Is it the same as happiness (a word more familiar to most and a topic of discussion for many). Let me first say that joy is not the same as happiness. The root word for happiness is "hap" which is also root for "happenstance". In other words, happiness is the satisfaction one receives when their circumstances supply what one needs or desires. Joy is much different.

Each Beattitude starts with the little phrase "O the joy of being" not "happy are" (contrary to some translations). The word for joy here is "makarios" which means that satisfying the person's well being is completely self contained, not dependent on anything from one's environment. The statement in the topic of this post is found in scripture, most notably in John 16:24. The word for joy here is "chara", meaning an inner delight. So first we find that joy is an inner sense of well-being or delight.

Full is an interesting word. When I make a coke float I first fill the glass with ice cream until it is full. However, I then pour diet coke in so the glass must not have been full. It was just full of ice cream. Now as I pour in the DC the foam gets to the top but I can still pour in more DC. Eventually, the foam overflows and runs down the glass. At this point the glass is FULL, overflowing. This is the meaning of the word "full" in this passage, completely replete until it overflows. This is the degree in which our inner delight is full!!

Now that we understand the outcome, what is the source. Looking close at this passage we notice that Jesus did not say, "GIVE and your joy will  full" or "SERVE and your joy will be full." Now there is nothing wrong with these actions but that is not what is at the heart of Jesus' call on our lives. He said "ask and you shall receive". There are two words that translate "ask". One focuses on trying to get a person to give us something. That is not this word. The word here for "ask" focuses on the thing we wish to be given. What is this thing? Earlier Jesus says "in that day you will not have to ask." That is, when He returns in His fullest, we will clearly see all that He is and Grace will reign and thus the thing we desire will be there and we don't have to request it.

So the source of full joy is receiving what He has for us by asking Him for it!! Now Steve, didn't Jesus tell the rich young ruler to give away all he has and didn't Jesus tell his disciples to go serve ("wash feet"). Yes, He did, but understand what He was really saying. To the rich young ruler He was saying that to receive eternal life, you must "let go" of what you depend on in this world for your well being. The emphasis here is not "giving" but "letting go." To His disciples He said "unless you receive me washing your feet, you can have no part of me." Once you have me living my life through you, you will naturally go and serve (wash others feet).

What makes one a "child of God", adopted into his Kingdom, available to all the provisions and privileges of the Heavenlies? Not giving, not serving but receiving the Grace that is set before us. Jesus says in John 1, "as many as received Him He gave them the authority to be children of God!!"

The source of inner delight, a soul of well being is receiving from God His Son who transforms us and our minds from carnal to Kingdom and redeems all that robs our joy!!!

something to ponder ......

there's sex and then there's SEX

You probably asking "where the crazy old man going with this?" Good question!

The most common standard for whether sexual behavior is appropriate is marriage. If two peeps are married to each other, then sex is right. If not, sex is wrong. The problem with this is two fold. One is that there is no criteria for the appropriateness of sex inside marriage and the other is that sex outside marriage has become one of those "mega sins" that ruins lives through heaps of condemnation and guilt.

I think there's a criteria that at least can inform the first issue and provide more perspective on the second. Suppose we use the criteria of carnal mind and Kingdom mind to make sense of sexual behavior. Now this is really not my idea, I just borrowed it from Jesus :-)

This notion of two minds seems to be what He is getting at in The Sermon of the Mount. The 3 chapters in Matthew are focusing on the Kingdom of God and the provision Jesus has made for us to be in harmony with it.

Regarding sex, Jesus says that lust is adultery. Notice he did not say cheating on one's spouse is adultery. What is He saying? Lust is the desire for self gratification, particularly sensual pleasure. He doesn't give marriage as a qualifier for lust.  Even in marriage, sex which is for self gratification is adulterous or unfaithfulness. Husbands who use their wife for personal pleasure and wives who use their husbands to get what they want are carnal minded. Jesus is saying when we use another person to satisfy self, we are unfaithful, but to whom? GOD!!!

God sent His Son to die for us so we could receive all of our well being from Him. When we use anything, especially another peep to meet our needs then we are not trusting that God is and will. This doesn't mean God does not wish for us to enjoy each other, but that should flow from a deep desire to know one another, not use each other. Knowing another deeply is the greatest joy of life. Jesus says that "real life," the one God designed for us, is knowing Him in deep intimacy. same with peeps!!

The context of these verses in Matt is this. No one can reach or maintain harmony with God's Kingdom (be righteous) by fulfilling the Law. Jesus went ahead and did that for us. Continuing to rely on law following for our well being is carnal minded. Jesus then goes through a series of ways we seek self (righteousness, gratification, exaltation, power, rights, etc.) while obeying Law. We are called to a different mind, the Kingdom mind. Here we make sense of ourself and our actions based on the Grace that has redeemed us. Self has been crucified with Christ and He wishes to live His life through us.

Regarding sex, this would mean that we can be the most exposed, the most vulnerable when we know our well being has been taken care of by Jesus. We do not need to use the world around us for us to be OK. Men use sex to get physical pleasure, women to get love and secure their relationship. James Dobson puts it this way, "women give sex to get love, men give love to get sex." By being free we are able to be intimate, to deeply know and be known. This is the source of our greatest joy. Marriage is not a license to use each other for self gain (in way that is a form of prostitution) but our calling to deeply love another God has chosen for us to love.

So, there's sex (carnal minded), which is based on social exchange where one gives another their sexual self in exchange for self gratification, and there's SEX (Kingdom minded) where two peeps trust God enough for their well being that they can share their deepest, most vulnerable aspects of their self with another whom God called them to love.

Just saying ....

"attitudes" - one of the most most ill conceived concepts

Yesterday I was driving back from a round of golf at Keeowee Vineyards with a friend who had been and still is somewhat successful at turning around failed nuclear power plants. He's a very smart Purdue engineer that has made lots of money over his life time. He asked me about my teaching and what strategy I used. He has been involved over his career teaching "root cause" to nuclear engineers. After a few minutes of discussion, he said, "I just focus simply on their "attitude" in order to get results I want.

This statement is very common among executives as their view of managing human behavior is like "finger nails on the chalkboard" to me. So the prof in me kicked in and I began to explain (probably more like lecture) the error ("stinking thinking") of this perspective. 

My response was that "attitude" by itself has no real meaning, it must have a target such as an object (ice cream) or a behavior (eating ice cream). Then in order to be motivational, the outcome of the desired behavior not only has to be favorable but also has to be salient to the worker.

It dawned on me that he had two totally different rounds of golf at Vineyards thurs (85) and sat (77). So I said, "You had expressed earlier and often that your attitude toward playing Vineyards was negative. But I know your attitude towards playing competitive golf is positive. So, first of all, no one can just say, "John, you have a bad attitude" without attaching a target of your attitude to the statement. Second, how come you played differently on different days. Maybe, your attitude toward Vineyards was more salient (dominant) on thurs and not so much on Sat relative to your desire to play well?"

This is what we have to deal with in the work place when we deal with employee attitudes. When we think or say, "the problem is your attitude" what we really mean is their attitude needs to be more positive toward the behaviors and associated outcomes that WE believe are important for success. So as a leader we are trying to shape the targets of their attitudes so they become more positive towards the behaviors we want and then we have to make the outcome salient to them for the attitude to have behavioral (motivational) effect.

I couldn't remember if I had blogged on this subject but its my lesson for class tomorrow, so John gave me a blog and some lecture material for class - just is!!!

So, what is it you do?

One of the first questions others ask when we meet someone is "what do you do?" There are at least two issues with the way our culture deals with this question. One issue has to do with identity and value. Too often we associate who we are with what we do. This creates esteem problems as this perspective places a performance based emphasis on how we value our self. There is a lot more to this and I have blogged about this issue before.

The second issue is that "what we do" is not our job. Our job focuses on tasks that need to be accomplished in a positional role one holds inside a specific organization. So, although we hold jobs as salesman, lawyer, teacher, accountant, nurse, and such, that is not what we really do. Confused?

One day my son decided he was going to learn how to describe what he really does. While he is a financial actuary and is more recently a risk management executive, that does not describe what he does. He determined that he was a problem solver and an implementer of change. He figures out how someone or an organization could improve things and helps them put the change in place. So, the specific job and company in which he works simply provides the context for what he really does.

I did the same self assessment around my early 40's. Although I had made a career in managing information technology, I too was mainly a change agent. The major gift I had was to help other peeps understand complex things that in doing so, could make their life work better. This became very apparent to me as I changed venues and went from the business world to academia. I found that I was still helping peeps understand complex concepts that would make their life work better. Only this time it is students and not business peeps. Regardless of the job and its context, I was doing the same things.

Thus, I believe it is useful for peeps to reflect on what it is they really do, not the job they hold. A fulfilled life is one in which we play out what has been put in us. That is what we really do and the better we understand that, the less pressure we will feel about what specific job we have or what company we work for or what title we hold or money we make AND the more we will enjoy being who we are because we are doing what we were designed to do.

something to ponder ......