Pride is a catchy topic, and gets a lot more attention than it's antonym Humility. But humility is the sweet release of a constant need to be better than other people. To be more right, or more rich, or more powerful, or have a nicer place. Humility takes away the drive to ignore the means in favor of the ends. Humility gives us compassion for people, and lets us build strong, deep, and truthful relationships. It's a trait a leading business publication believes to be one of the important characteristics of a successful leader. "Humility is a core quality of leaders who inspire close teamwork, rapid learning and high performance in their teams, according to several studies in the past three years." Sue Shellenbarger ,The Wall Street Journal It's a trait Jesus said would give people the kingdom of heaven as a reward and the earth as an inheritance. It's a trait that makes genuine love possible because it is not competitive, it is authentic. It's a trait that makes compassion second to being right and mercy more important than animal sacrifice. It is a trait that makes Christianity attractive and sweet and wholesome. Because there is recognition of how absolutely necessary the Holy Spirit is for change to occur and how invaluably relevant the cross and empty tomb are to our practical everyday living. Because humility lets go of all the things that are clouding the mirror and keeping us from reflecting Jesus in that bold way that says "I'm part of something lovely, and you can be part of it too." I'm going to close with a C.S. Lewis quote from one of my favorite books. "Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good - above all, that we are better than someone else - I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the Devil...The point is, He [God] wants you to know Him: wants to give you Himself. And He and you are two things of such a kind that if you really get into touch with Him you will, in fact, be humble - delightedly humble, feeling infinite relief of having for once got rid of all the silly nonsense about your own dignity which has made you restless and unhappy all your life."
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Nature is not exclusive or targeted. It's for everyone. Since Earth Day is right around the corner it seems like a great time for a mass appeal post with fun, personal ways to love nature at a grassroots level. Adopt the peace of nature: her secret is patience ~Emerson 1. Go Outside Fall in love with nature and desire to see her beauty persist unspoiled. Fresh air every day, even just 15 minutes of it, improves mood, focus, and physical and mental health. This is one of those things that can be hard to make a daily priority. But, blocking out a specific time to go outside every day, rain or shine, is a medical guarantee for good things in life. I come into the peace of the wild things. . . and am free ~ Wendell Berry 2. Find reliable things During my minimalism shift last summer I came into the realization I had been using at least one Styrofoam cup and one plastic cup every day at work. This didn't fit into my minimalism mindset so I brought a mug to work and eliminated the Styrofoam cup. Then I started washing the mug and using it for water. Then I started using it for oatmeal. Now my mug is a reliable and consistent rhythm of my day. As an added bonus I'd estimate I've saved about 300 cups over the last 8 months, which makes me feel happy. When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world. ~ John Muir 3. Know your place Each of us, whether expressly stated or not, has a set of values that shape our lives. This includes our relation to the environment. Nature has this curious ability to make people feel very small and very important all at once. Earth day is a great time to feel that smallness in relation to the size of everything and that importance as a contributing factor to the overall well-being of everything and then use this perspective to write some environmental values. Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ~ Jesus 4. Take Action If you've got a desire and a value and some perspective you are poised to make a difference and show your gratitude. There are so many options it can get overwhelming. Don't join in the noise. Pick one or two small areas where you want to make a change in your lifestyle. Oftentimes you will see your change having benefits outside helping the environment. But whatever the change you decide to make, make it sustainable and attainable. You will love the results. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are ~ Theodore Roosevelt 5. Give grace I've always loved nature but felt a little excluded from most environmental groups by a lack of knowledge or because I didn't hit the criteria on every level. I didn't wear the clothes and drive the car and speak the language. But I've realized environmentalists range from Teddy Roosevelt to Ghandi and in authentic environmental discussions there is an understanding that methods are not uniform but intentions and values are uniform. "Sustainable use of natural resources to promote quality of life for the population of the earth" sounds inclusive, yes? That puts farmers, and businesses, and wildlife viewers, and hunters, and carnivores and vegetarians and pretty much everyone on the same side of the line. This idea made environmentalism personal for me. It's universal, not something for specific groups and types. And when it is personal it is much easier to maintain than when it is something I do so I belong to a group or because I feel like I need to appease someone else. So, my encouragement to you is to give yourself grace for shortcomings and make earth day personal. It is for you. It is for your children and your friends and your neighbors. It is for your earth. In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks ~ John Muir The Holy Spirit is an Everyday Kind of friend Standing Right outside Ready for you To make some space And open the door "My review of the success literature brought me in contact with hundreds of books on the subject. Although some made extravagant claims and relied on anecdotal rather than scientific evidence, I think that most of the material is fundamentally sound. The Majority of it appears to have originally come out of the study of the Bible by many individuals." ~Stephen R. Covey, Author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (over 25 million copies sold). "Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline." ~Jim Collins, author of bestselling book Good to Great "As water reflects the face so a man's life reflects the heart." ~King Solomon "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.You will know them by their fruits." ~Jesus "What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so I cannot hear what you say to the contrary." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson. "Esse Quam Videri. To be, rather than to seem." ~Cicero "He had moved from thoughts to words, and now from words to actions." ~George Orwell Dear Reader, The bottom line, in a data driven, results-oriented, fast-paced world, is that there are not shortcuts to sustainable joy and success. It comes only from the simple truths we have known and tried to refute for centuries. To be authentically fruitful we must examine daily behaviors, and practice consistent action. Even when it sucks. Some days it means going to battle for a friend when you are tired. Some days it means being nice when people are rude. Some days it means looking crappy circumstances in the face and smiling through it. Some days it means shutting up and some days it means talking it out. Some days it means pursuing action. Most days it means hard work. I'm talking to myself right now, because this week has been rough and I've been looking to blame others and wallow. But, the Holy Spirit is an every day kind of friend. And I know that he is waiting for me to take a reprieve and open the door. And it will not be enjoyable right now, because I will have to admit I need help with my weaknesses and that I have not overcome my shortcomings. And I will have to put in work. But this is a story on being and becoming and not a story about arriving. So, here is your encouragement for the week. Sometimes life is hard. And it's hard to know why. But we don't always need to know why, we just need to know how we react. This gives us autonomy to pursue action. And opening the door to that everyday friend the Holy Spirit means we get the results of His influence. And the fruit of the spirit is unnatural love, and unrelenting joy, and uncommon peace, and unlimited patience and kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. And that sounds like party business to me. This is the close of my foundations and my frameworks. I've been working on emptying out to get to the roots and then building up a framework of intentional values. I'm going to stop talking about myself for a little while. I don't have a good plug for next week, but I hope it turns out alright. Subscribe
I believe in Pi and e even though they are irrational and transcendental. You may call me crazy, but a lot of things are built on these concepts. And my belief in these transcendental concepts is exactly the sort of irrational ideology I’m going to spew for a minute. Because transcendence is an essential part of human understanding, and it’s important to me to know why. For the artist, the poet, the mathematician, the musician, the author, the dreamer, the innovator, the everyday imaginative soul, the curious heart, and those possessing a small sense of wonderment and childlike faith (did I miss anyone?)—I think you’ll know what I mean. Let’s jump. Until recently I had a fairly sanitized understanding of darkness and loneliness, and I still have not reached the depths of it. But, a few weeks ago I went camping by myself for the first time. I picked a spot on a loop in Morgan-Monroe state forest, and, surprisingly, no one else had the idea to pitch a tent on muddy thawing ground, build a fire with frozen wood, and sleep in 34 degree weather. The whole place was mine. Cold and fear were whispering frantically to me as I started to hurry up the fire. If you've tried to hurry up a fire before you know it almost never works that way unless there is gasoline involved. Once darkness set in completely, and I realized speed and anxiety would not produce results I gave up trying to hurry and started methodically building the flame a bit at a time. Starting small with plenty of oxygen. Once the fire flamed up and my mind turned from my task to awareness of my surroundings I started to feel very alone. Heavy cloud cover eliminated light from moon or stars and the dark forest held all the wild horrors my mind could concoct. So much space, and so much blackness. I turned away and focused on my fire. The results of my methodical patience flamed up beautifully and cast strong light in a 10 foot radius. A small space of warmth and light in a wilderness. My thoughts turned with my vision, and I began searching my mind for the warmth and light. I found it in solid memories and transcendent words. The solid memories I referenced last week. The transcendent words are the things I chase as a writer. Words that speak to me in moments surreal and tangible, like nostalgia but immediate and without the rose-colored, unreliable tint of memory. These moments are the reason I know life is better than the movies. It can’t be forcibly replicated, or critically observed. It can only be present and real. And its realness is not in its goodness, but the virtue, character and vulnerability rising out of the realness. I’ve felt broken, and joyful, and nervous, and fulfilled, and courageous, and terrified, and peaceful and full of turmoil. And so have you. These moments when we are in them give us a sense their impact is more than we realize. We may speak a word or promise and not grasp what it is or where it comes from, but acknowledge the truth inside of it. It is not magic, because it is still vulnerable and human, but it is transcendent because it goes past human knowledge in experience and taps into that which we know but we can’t quite say why. The staring into the stars feeling. The too close to touch feeling. And the words that implant that feeling without being there push the boundary of our understanding but sit small, still and tangible on the page. These words surpass rational understanding and bring us into a confused reverie. And it is the peaceful unknowing driving our curious thought, and it is comfortable uncertainty guiding our wild heart. Yes, I believe firmly in science and nature and matter and reason, but there is a piece of me that knows my mind has an edge. And by this limitation knows wonder, peace and beauty travel deeper than I can fathom. These are moments where faith is deepened, inspiration awakens, and experiences are shared. These are moments that set my heart on fire and change my desires to align with that which is morally good. This is where the grind of moral discipline meets up with the senses and the soul and there is rhythm and connection. I call this leaning into the Holy Spirit. You may call it what you want. What I really mean when I say I believe in transcendental words is that I believe prayer matters. I believe in meditation as practical neuroscience and spiritually relevant. I believe in inspired speech and inspired writing. I believe in a limit to knowledge. And I believe all of these things make a practical and tangible difference because they sometimes culminate in a purity of space I internalize as memory and feeling. They hold steady when I turn inward to find a place of warmth in my circumstances. I was pulled from my thoughts by the snap of a twig, and immediately found myself thrust back into the wilderness and an intense fear of the unknown. I spent the night shifting back and forth between fear of the cold and darkness and wrapping myself deeply in warm thoughts. I think, unfortunately, the former took the lion's share of the time. But maybe future trips will go differently. In my research on the word transcendental I came across Kantian theory, and it looked remarkably similar to C.S. Lewis reasoning as he explains his first step towards believing there is a God (see chapter 1 of Mere Christianity). Kant theorizes morality is metaphysical and exists a priori or before experience. These things, he claims, exist outside of pure practical reason, they do not defy them, they just extend past them. And if freewill and autonomy is to exist at all then some things must not be entirely composed of ration and reason. Jesus said something similar about Mosaic teachings, “I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.” To take up Christianity, to believe in the transcendental, is not to negate laws or moral systems put in place to teach us practical discipline. The goal is to take these practices from surface level devotion to heart level intention. To make them true desire and true love not constant dissonance and frustration. All the practical application of biblical teaching does nothing if there is not a reliance on the transcendent to alter the will. If our autonomy is not surrendered we shortchange the purity designed for us. And this is where bad religion must be left behind. Because bad religion is a game, and I can play the game and I can score the points and I can live legally with practical self-control. But I need those moments and those transcendental words so my wild streaks are not a pursuit of desire but a pursuit of Jesus. I need this unique coding that vibrates the cords of my being in such a way that I am overwhelmed with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit lives in me, and that is special. Good religion keeps turning and turning coming nearer and nearer all the time. It is in the wilderness (and in the world), make no mistake. But it is that bit of hidden warmth and memory. It is real and honest, and better than the movies. Because transcendental words supersede boundaries, they bypass words like secular and unbound our understanding of God. They are wild and cannot be captured and tamed, only held in the mind for a minute and emptied onto a page to be reread for a lifetime. This does not eliminate practice or doctrine or theology or philosophy. Because practice is scientific and researched and important. Like an author practicing writing. It keeps him aware of the words and when the moment of inspiration strikes he is ready to fly further and with more clarity than the one who was ill-prepared. No, holding on to the transcendent does not eliminate. It encompasses. It is the extension of our boundary into that which we can comprehend exists but cannot comprehend it's edge or it's entirety. And it opens up to a world of joy. Because wherever we go we are hidden and the light goes with us. The goal of Christianity, as I believe it, is not to tear down all moral systems, nor is it to abolish our free will, or restrain us through guilt from all aesthetics and enjoyments. No, the goal of Christianity is much, much different. It is a freedom of the will that pursues harmony as logical and rational and virtuous and pleasing. The goal of Christianity is to find transcendental words, to hold belief in our own limitations, and chase God with a curious and wild heart, discovering consistently that there is more of Him we never knew and more we will never know. So, dear reader, if you have made it way down here. Thank you so much. This is an outpouring of my heart and my mind. It's something I hope to turn to and learn from as I live my life. I hope you got something out of it. This week I want to encourage you to go to the edge of your thought, open your arms and embrace what exists beyond your imagination. Look for a long time at art and beauty and let it soak in. Listen to music and let it go farther than your ears or your lips, take it all the way to your soul. Write honestly and bravely for the sake of writing. Do something that makes you afraid. Stare at the stars. Be ok with the unknown. It's beautiful. Next week I will come back down to earth and post about the bottom line. For now I am enjoying the clouds. If you want weekly emails when I post here then click subscribe below. Subscribe
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I'm a Hoosier. I like the outdoors. Taxes are my job. I write for a living. This Blog
Writing my way to an adult life of minimalism, sustainability, and joy rooted in Truth. I'm learning, unlearning, and relearning.
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