Better Than Hope

This post is a contribution to the January synchroblog which is being done in partnership with Provoketive Magazine.  The theme is Hope.  You can go to Provoketive Magazine and read all of the synchroblog posts and I’ll also put links to each person’s individual blog post at the end of this post as they become available. No matter where you read these posts I strongly suggest you check out Provoketive Magazine! It’s a very cool online space that features pieces on faith, life, justice and culture.  I love the look and content!

I grew up hearing how great and necessary hope is, which is why I was so shocked when I first heard about the notion to ”abandon hope.”

Last year I participated in the tradition of choosing one word as a sort of theme for the year.  My word for 2011 was Awaken.  I chose Awaken because I wanted to pursue the practice of being fully present in the moment. In my efforts to learn more about being fully present I ran across the Buddhist idea of “abandoning hope.”

Pema Chodron, a Tibetan Buddhist nun, wrote, “One of our deepest habitual patterns is to feel that now is not good enough.”  Chodron encourages us to abandon hope and put our energy into being where we are. She informs us that as long as we are putting our energy into the desire for something or someone to be different (which is what hope leads to) the present moment will be lost.  When the present moment is lost we lose opportunities that can only be found by staying in the moment that hope wants to sweep us away from. When we are swept away from the present reality to a vision of an imagined future we lose answers and solutions and healing that we can only know when we stay and face our pain and our fears.  If we are caught up in hoping for a future result we cannot embrace the present moment.

A famous Buddhist saying is “Hope and fear chase each other’s tails.” In other words, hope and fear are intrinsically connected – you hope because you are afraid of what is happening or not happening – without fear hope would not be needed.  The present – which is demanding your attention here and now – may not look appealing and yet it may have something deeper to offer you than a hoped for future. The idea is that this method of befriending our present concern affords us a clarity of action that we can never gain while trying to avoid or rid ourselves of our pain and fears.

None of this is to say that you shouldn’t have a positive attitude. And there are certainly times when hope allows people to take that next step and behave “as if,” despite all evidence to the contrary.  But abandoning hope isn’t really about being negative.  Abandoning hope is more about detaching ones self from success or failure.  It isn’t about giving up in a way that would make you stop working or striving.  It is a kind of positive giving up that not only has the potential to reveal to you what it is that makes you more fully alive but at the same time affords you the ability to put even more effort and energy into whatever that is.

Thomas Merton, the late Christian mystic, advised a friend: “Do not depend on the hope of results … you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect.  As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself…”

We typically have a purpose for everything that we do.  We want to succeed at accomplishing our goal and not fail.  That is fine.  However, what happens so much of the time is our thoughts of success or failure begin to become more important than what we are doing and how we are doing it.  The fear of failure causes us to become more rigid, less compassionate, more impatient, less creative, more cautious, less willing to take risks – all because we cling so desperately to a successful outcome.

WOW!  This new way of thinking about hope was making sense to me.  At least enough sense that I wanted to try to put some of this stuff into practice, so over the past year I have tried to merge what I was learning about hope with my pursuit to be more present in the moment.

Where did all of this new thinking about hope lead me?

Well, I still find myself hoping as a reaction to fear or worry.  But at least I am usually aware of that happening and can stop and focus on remaining in the moment – letting myself experience the feelings more fully – being more aware of myself in the present moment (Buddhists call that being mindful or waking up).

And I still find myself performing a task or doing work with a goal in mind but at least I am getting better about the goal not overshadowing the action.  As a result I feel less attached to outcomes and more interested in the value of what I am doing and how I am doing it.  I don’t know if I am accomplishing as much but I think what I do is a higher quality, more enjoyable and unique.

My problems have not all disappeared because none of this stops life from happening.  The hope and fear continue to return because the practice of letting go of hope and fear is hard to embrace. But I keep training and practicing and the more I train and practice the more I am able to lessen unnecessary suffering and worry.  I believe that I am more present in the moment and that the more I wake up the more compassion I have towards myself and others, the more creative I feel, the more risks I am willing to take, the more discernment I seem to have about what I should spend my time and energy pursuing.  It’s a process and honestly I feel like I could let all the progress slip away without much notice if I don’t remain vigilant but all in all I think I am discovering something better than hope.  I think I am discovering now.

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Below is a list of all the posts and participants in this month’s synchroblog.  There are two links for each contribution listed.  The link on the title of the post will take you to the Provoketive Magazine site where all the pieces are posted and the link on the author’s name will take you to their personal blog.  I encourage you to not only read these wonderful pieces about “Hope” but to also check out the contributors personal blogs.  

The Trouble With Hope: John Ptacek

Hope = Possibility x Imagination: Wayne Rumsby

Little Reminders: Mike Victorino

Where Is My Hope: Jonathan Brink

Hope for Hypocrites: Jeremy Myers

Now These Three Remain: Sonny Lemmons

Perplexed, But Still Hopeful: Carol Kuniholm

A Hope that Lives: Amy Mitchell

Generations Come and Generations Go: Adam Gonnerman

Demystifying Hope: Glenn Hager

God in the Dark: On Hope: Renee Ronika Klug

Keeping Hope Alive: Maurice Broaddus

Are We Afraid to Hope?: Christine Sine

On Wobbly Wheels, Split Churches and Fear: Laura Droege

Adopting Hope: Travis Klassen

Hope is Held Between Us: Ellen Haroutunian

Hope: In the Hands of the Creatively Maladjusted: Mihee Kim-Kort

Paradox, Hope and Revival: City Safari

Good Theology Saves: Reverend Robyn

Linear: Never Was, Never Will Be: Kathy Escobar

Better Than Hope: Liz Dyer

Caroline for Congress: Hope for the Future: Wendy McCaig

Fumbling the Ball on Hope: KW Leslie

Content to Hope: Alise Wright

Hope: Oh, the Humanity!: Deanna Ogle

What’s Your Relationship Status With Jesus and Religion?

First let me say that I thought some people were too harsh in their criticism of Jeff Bethke’s viral video “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus”.  At the same time, I don’t have a problem with people stating and discussing what they don’t like or disagree with in the video/poem. (I think artists should expect the public to analyze and critique their work)

To be honest I didn’t like the video from the beginning.  In fact, the first time I saw it I only watched for about a minute before I shut it down.  My first impression was that it had been done before and better (I still think that to be the case although I can’t point to an example) but as more and more people began to criticize it I listened to it again (all the way through this time) and realized that I also had a problem with some of the theological statements Bethke was making.  My biggest complaint was that he was promoting the penal substitution atonement theory.  I believe that theory to be wrong and very damaging.  However, that doesn’t mean that I want to spend a lot of time or energy dumping on Bethke – that would be a waste of time and not something that would line up with my idea of what it means to be a Christ follower. But, I am interested in some of the conversations that are coming out of this. For instance this post, Jesus and Religion’s Relationship Status: It’s Complicated, from my friend Michael William Morrell has some excellent “stuff” for us to ponder and discuss. What about you? What’s your relationship status with Jesus and religion?

Epiphany: Blessing of the home.

 

Tomorrow is officially Epiphany (although some will celebrate on Sunday). Do you celebrate Epiphany? If so, how? If not, you may want to consider starting the tradition “Blessing of the home”. There is more than one way to perform the tradition.  Here is one way that I like:

Have some incense burning, a sprig from a bush, some water, and divide a cake into as many pieces as you have participants. Hide a coin or dry bean in one piece and distribute them at random. Whoever gets the special piece of cake with the bean/coin in it is crowned (paper crown or party hat), robed (bathrobe), saluted (noisemakers left over from New Year’s), and toasted (hot apple cider or whatever…)! The new royalty now writes with chalk over the front door of your home the following:

20+ C + M + B + 12

The numbers represent the new year. The four crosses are the four seasons. C-M-B are the initials of the legendary names of the magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. Or another explanation that I actually like better is that C-M-B stands for the Latin phrase “Christus mansionem benedicat” which means “May Christ bless this dwelling place”.

Now, say a simple blessing such as:

Dear God,
we thank you for this past year
and for the year to come.

Be with us as we fill our home with kindness,
hospitality, and caring for others.

Help us to dream the dream of a better world
and to work towards that dream daily.

Hold us close to each other.
Keep us close in spirit with those who have died or who are far away.

May all who come to our home this year
rejoice to find Christ living among us;
and may we seek and serve,
in everyone we meet,
Jesus who is Lord for ever and ever.

Bless us as we burn this incense.
Bless us as we use this chalk to mark our door.
Bless us as we sprinkle our home with this water.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Now, everyone moves from room to room sprinkling the home with water, a sign of Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan.

If you have a group that likes to sing try singing some Epiphany songs such as “We Three Kings” or “O Come All Ye Faithful”.

When done with all the rooms, say the Lord’s Prayer, and finish with exchanging the sign of peace.

The Human Potential

My youngest son is a high school senior this year and has spent a lot of time in the last several months applying to colleges.  Of course that means that he had to write several essays.  I have really enjoyed reading his essays and have learned some things about him that I didn’t know.  Here is one of my favorites that he wrote (this is the shorter of two versions of this essay as he reworked it for one university that requested less than 500 words).

The Human Potential by Joey Dyer

 

There I was, in McAllen,TX, kneeling down in front of a 40-something-year-old Hispanic woman washing her bare feet, having the most important revelation of my life.

I’ve gone on annual summer mission trips with my church youth group every year for the past six years, and I’ve grown to learn more about myself and society as a whole in the process. My trip to McAllen, however, was the first trip that caused me to reexamine and fundamentally change the way I live my life.

It was the summer after my freshman year in high school. I had developed a strong bond over the years with my youth group, a bond that inspired deep-seated trust and admiration among each other. I was the first of my timid group that summer day to walk up to a complete stranger and begin cleaning the dirt and sweat off their feet, but it was what followed that changed my outlook on life. As prevalent as their trepidation was just moments ago, my example allowed the other members of my group to step over the boundary of fear and release their inhibitions. One by one everyone followed my lead and began cleansing the feet of others.

I’m not boasting about my fearlessness or some special ability to lead those around me. My actions could have been performed by any other person within my youth group had I not been the first to volunteer. The sheer chance nature of the situation – just happening to be the first to step forward – helped me realize the innate ability to lead we all possess, and how often this gift is squandered.

Ever since that mission trip, I’ve tried to live my life taking into account not only how my actions affect others, but what I might be encouraging others to do. This is one of the core reasons why I became a Link Leader at my school the following year and why I want to work with other high school senior men in my church youth group to implement a mentoring program. I believe the most effective way to impact a community positively comes not through passing laws or voting for certain candidates, but by interacting with others on a personal level.

The revelation that I had that summer day while kneeling at the feet of another inspired me not only to believe in my own potential but to also believe in the potential of others as well.  Since that day I have continued to be passionate about starting a wave of responsibility in every community I am a part of.

After washing his disciples’ feet, Jesus tells them “you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” The act of helping others is good in its own right, but others learning to follow in these actions is the birthplace of compassion.

Peace On Earth

Quotes Worth Repeating: I would like to ask God

“Sometimes I would like to ask God why s/he allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when s/he could do something about it. But I’m afraid God would ask me the same question.” – Author Unknown

Expect the Unexpected

This post is a contribution to the Advent Synchroblog “Jesus Is Coming: What Do You Expect?”  I’ll put links to other’s contribution at the end of this post as they become available.

I have expectations!  I definitely have expectations!

They consist of me expecting a bunch of stuff to happen that will make life better. Not just for me – but for the world as a whole. And I think that is a good thing. These kind of expectations keep me getting up in the morning. These kind of expectations keep me looking for the good in people. These kind of expectations keep me believing that it will get better. These kind of expectations keep me hopeful. But expectations are only the beginning. It’s the unexpected things of life that have the potential to change us and the world we live in.

The Christmas story has a lot of unexpected things going on.  A pregnant virgin, a baby who is God, a star that guides, angels making announcements to shepherds.  Yes, Jesus burst onto the scene in an unexpected way, at an unexpected time, in an unexpected place, amid unexpected events – but that was only the beginning.  Throughout his life we continue to see a pattern of the unexpected taking place.

His family was bewildered.

Religious leaders were perplexed.

His own followers were baffled.

He wasn’t supposed to wash his disciples feet!

Why wouldn’t he allow the sword to be taken up against those who were trying to have him killed?

Who would have thought he would spend time with a Samaritan woman or help an adulteress?

And then there was his death, 

and his resurrection, 

and his ascension. 

You have to admit that if you hung out with Jesus you should be accustomed to the unexpected.

At Christmas I am reminded not only of the unexpected things that Jesus did but also that as a follower of Jesus I should be accustomed to doing unexpected stuff.

Loving my enemy.

Putting other’s interests before my own.

Sharing my resources generously.

Feeding the hungry.

Standing up for the oppressed.

Helping those who are sick or weak.

So let’s blow everyone’s mind this holiday season and do some unexpected stuff.

Like admitting that we Christians haven’t done a very good job at loving people who believe differently than us, much less loving our enemies.

Like being less concerned with structuring everything around what we believe to be right and wrong; and being more respectful of the rights of those who believe differently than we do.

Like being willing to give up some of our comforts, resources and rights so there will be less people who are poor, hungry, homeless and without healthcare.

Like being more humble about our knowledge of God.

Like loving and caring for others the way we love and care for ourself.

What unexpected things can you think of to do?

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Be sure and check out these other Advent Reflections:

• Ron Cole at the weary pilgrim – advent: reimagining everything
• Liz Dyer at grace rules – expect the unexpected
• Sarah Styles bessey at emerging mummy – in which i’m expecting something from advent
• Miz Melly at perchance to dream – parousia
• Kathy Escobar at the carnival in my head – present, humble, vulnerable
• David Perry at Visual Theology – Advent As A Mirror of Possibility
• Christine Sine at Godspace – Jesus Is Coming What Do We Expect?
• Liz VerHage at Living Theology
• Sally Coleman at Sally’s Journey – Come Spirit of Advent
• Jeremy Myers at Till He Comes – Jesus Is Returning Today
• Glenn Hager – Antithetical Advent
• Tammy Carter at Blessing The Beloved – His Gift … the way of escape!
• Ellen Haroutunian – Remember Our Story
• Carol Kuniholm at Words Half Heard – What I’m Waiting For
• Mihee Kim-Kort  - Advent Expectations: Keep Awake
• Wendy McCaig – We’re Expecting A Baby
• John Reid at Blog One Another – Undiscovered Advent: The Second Coming of Christ
• Dave Wainscott – For Advent I’m Expecting What I Desire and What I Deserve
• David Henson – Reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent

Listen

This post is a contribution to the November synchroblog “Calling us out of numbness”  I will post links to the other contributions at the end of this post as they become available.

There is immense silent agony in the world, and the task of man is to be a voice for the plundered poor, to prevent the desecration of the soul and the violation of our dream of honesty. The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.  - Abraham Joshua Heschel

I can’t get behind the idea of a modern day prophet that can tell you what is going to happen in the future or even the idea of someone who “received a word” from God that was intended for another.  I guess I would say that I believe that kind of prophesying has ceased.  However, I do believe that there are modern day prophets who are inspired and used by God – sometimes unknowingly.

I believe there are men and women today who speak with prophetic voices, who not only speak for God but for those who are weak and oppressed.  These prophetic voices often speak against those who allow power, wealth, position and even self-righteousness to blind them to doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God.  These men and women appear to be empowered by a vision of how things should be and could be. They won’t settle for the status quo for the sake of conserving tradition, they won’t be silent in order to avoid offending someone, they won’t turn a blind eye to oppression or injustice, they won’t be quiet. And yet, not everyone who speaks out against injustice can be considered a prophet.  A true prophetic voice is one that is not arrogant and takes no joy in being harsh.  They are more likely to feel sad, or even afraid, rather than angry as they stand firm against those who are obstacles to justice and mercy.  Their role as a prophet has no connection to ambition or power.

When we think about prophetic voices, people who have upset the status quo, who have been willing to accept the dangers that come with stirring up the world, we might think of names like John the Baptist, Jesus, Ghandi, Jeremiah and Martin Luther King; but sometimes prophets are found in unlikely places – sometimes a prophetic voice comes from an unlikely person.

I believe that I have heard a prophetic voice from my friend who has a ministry that focuses on building relationships with homeless people, from my son who is a gay Christian, from a participant in the Occupy Wall Street protest, from an atheist and from a whistle blower … and all of that happened fairly recently.

Let the person who has ears listen!

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Here are the links to the other contribution to this month’s synchroblog:

• Joy Wilson at Solacetree- The Blessing of Losing Your Faith
• Jeremy Myers at Till He Comes – I Have a Dream
• Glenn Hager at Breathe – Uncomfortably Numb
• Linda at Kingdom Grace – On Earth as it is in Heaven
• Sally at Eternal Echoes – Where are the True Prophets?
• Tammy Carter at Blessing the Beloved – No Compromise
• Alan Knox at The Assembling of Church – My Word of Prophecy:  Quit Listening to Prophetic Voices
• Liz at Gracerules – Listen
• Christine Sine at Godspace – Surrounded by Prophetic Voices: Clouds of Witnesses That Call Us Out of Numbness
• Amy Martin – The Window of Suffering, the Beginning of Hope 
• Kathy Escobar at The Carnival in My Head- Rising Up From Below 
• K.W. Leslie at More Christ – What is God Challenging You to Do? (link not up yet)
• Katherine Gunn at A Voice in the Desert – Where is Your Heart? 
• Steve Hayes at Khanya – Murder of the Cathedral
• Leah Chang at desertsspiritsfire – Wall Street, Our Street
• Bobby Aunder at Deconstructing Neverland – Shift 
• Minnow at Minnowspeaks – Day of Dialogue

A Beautiful Mess

This post is part of the October Synchroblog “Down We Go”.  This month’s theme explores the idea of Jesus calling us to go down into the low and messy places of life–intersecting with the lepers, the lonely, the outcasts, the marginalized – to live a life of humility, love, and interdependence.

There is a lot of talk these days about Christians getting their hands dirty – about how followers of Christ need to be willing to get down into the mess of life.  This kind of talk scares off some people as they begin to try and imagine what that means and what it would require.

Surprisingly, it doesn’t require that people take the drastic measures they usually imagine.

If you want to join in the mess of life just become a part of a community.

Yes, you heard me right.

I know a lot of people think that being involved in a community is one of the easier things that a follower of Christ has to do.

But the reality is that community is hard – community is messy.

Community is messy because people are messy.

Different opinions, different perspectives of right and wrong, different understandings of scripture, different ideas about how to do things, different backgrounds, different histories, different strengths and weaknesses, different personalities, different desires, different passions, different talents, different interests … I could go on but you get the idea.

All of our differences are what makes community so hard and messy.

But it is among the messiness and the challenges and the difficulties that we learn how to be like Christ.

The way to learn how to become like Jesus is to love. The only way we can learn how to love is to practice it in close relationship, and have our lives rub up against each other, including doing so with people who are different from us. Loving people just like us is not that difficult. Loving people who never change, who bug the hell out of us, who aren’t kind or thankful, who don’t pass on grace even though they’ve received heaps of it—that requires much more work. In other words, love is best practiced in the spaces that require it. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus challenges us to—to live into the spaces that only come through a path of descent?”    -Kathy Escobar from “Down We Go: Living Into the Wild Ways of Jesus”-

Someone might wonder why in the world anyone would ever want to be a part of something so horrible as community.

Maybe it is because the sharing of life – the accomplishments, the milestones, the aha moments, the discoveries, the ideas, the experiences are all so much more meaningful and exhilarating and worthwhile when they are shared within a community.  The failures, the difficulties, the losses, the set-backs, the disappointments, the losses, the injustices, the wrongs of life are all so much more bearable when endured within a community.

The thing about community is that it is like washing down a bitter pill with a very sweet and delectable nectar … even though community is hard and messy, it is a beautiful mess.

For more on this idea pick up Kathy Escobar’s book “Down We Go: Living Into the Wild Ways of Jesus” and check out the other posts for this month’s synchroblog by following the links listed here:

• Alan Knox – How Low Can You Go
• Jeremy Myers – Seeking The Next Demotion
• Glenn Hager – Pretty People
• David Derbershire – Reaching The Inner City
• Tammy Carter – Flight Plan
• Leah Randall – Jacked Up
• Leah Randall (her other voice) – How Low Can We Go
• Liz Dyer – A Beautiful Mess
• Maria Anderson – Down
• Christine Sine – There Is No Failure In The Kingdom of God
• Leah Sophia – Down We Go
• Hugh Hollowell – Downward
• Kathy Escobar – We May Look Like Losers – Redux
• Anthony Ehrhardt – Slumming It For Jesus
• Sonja Andrews – Diversion and Distraction
• Marta Layton – Down The Up Staircase
• Wendy McCaig – A Material Girl
  

Quotes Worth Repeating – Walk To The Edge

Live with intention.

Walk to the edge.

Listen hard.

Practice wellness.

Play with abandon.

Laugh.

Choose with no regret.

Appreciate your friends.

Continue to learn.

Do what you love.

Live as if this is all there is.

-Mary Anne Radmacher-

(Photo from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neurokinetikz/36414867/ )