Bees see the world differently. They will go to hell...

As you know, bats rely on ultrasonic waves in order to understand the world.  In fact is is all they can use to understand the world.  If you were to ask a bat about what they "see" they would describe it rather differently than the way you and I would "see" something as we use a small bit of ultraviolet light to "see".  

Bees on the other hand use ultraviolet light, but they see differently than humans do.

What humans see and what bees see.

Snakes use infrared light.

 

A tick picks up on butyric acid and temperature, while ghost fish picks up on electrical fields. 

We have this assumption that if human beings were given the "proper" information then they will "see" the correct and most logical conclusion.  So people on different sides try to lay out arguments so that others can "see" where they are coming from in order to come to the same "logical" conclusion.  When the other person does not come to the same conclusion, they are idiots, or wrong, or going to hell (the punishment is related to your level of religiosity it seems).  

But no one thinks bees and bats and snakes are going to hell because they do not see the world like we do.

So just two things: 1) who is to say that there is more out there to be seen and we just cannot observe it yet (we did not even know that these animals "see" the world differently until very recently and with the use of technology) and 2) bees, bats, and snakes see the world differently - that does not mean they are idiots, wrong or going to hell.  

Have yourself a prophetic Christmas

There is a drawer in our home that houses plastic and paper bags we get from the store when we forget to bring our own.  This drawer is opened and bags are placed into it and then we close it, with intentions of using those bags one day.  Classic "junk drawer" behavior.

The other day I put a bag into that drawer only to discover that the drawer is very full.  Not wanting to deal with this at all, but identifying I must, I pulled the drawer out and saw there were not only bags housed in the drawer but also a good number of carpenter ants.  So, after seeing this, and not wanting the ants to eat out parts of my home like termites, I had to act.

This is what the light does.  It exposes things that we may not see even when we look at something with regularity.

Christmas is that time in which the Light of God comes into the world.  And much like the drawer in my home, the Light of Christmas exposes things that we might not want to see or deal with at that time (war, rape, LGBT, etc.)

Macy's is great at redirecting light in order to show you only what they want you to see.  Sales, Santa, Smiles.  The Church's mission is to work with the Light to expel darkness.  This is the role of the prophet.

The great thing about Christmas is there is an opportunity to see things that we have not seen before.  That is, thanks to the Light, we are able to see more than just bags, we can see the ants.  This is why when Jesus begins his ministry he begins with calling people to repent.  That is to say, that when the Light shines it is easy to see where we have failed and since we can now see our failings we have an opportunity to do something about it.

I wish you the very best Christmas.  I hope that we are all moved not only to deal with cleaning out the 'baggage' in our personal drawers, but also have the courage to deal with the other issues of the world that have been in the dark.

Are we doing the wrong work out?

Recently I learned from a physical trainer that many people work out hard and feel like they are getting closer to their goals of physical fitness but in reality are not.  He shared this autobiographical story of when he was younger he would participate in professional fighting (karate and the like, not like Fight Club or MMA).

In the short rounds he would fight he would grow tired.  So after the fights he would train by running long distances in order to build endurance.  After several of these long runs, he would discover that the next fight he would be just as winded.  So more running.  What he later discovered after he studied and science exposed, is that in order to build stamina for the fights, he should not have been running long distances but rather many sprints.  His distance runs would build his aerobic system but not his anaerobic system.  

Bottom line, all that long distance runs were hard workout and he felt like he was getting closer to his goal (lasting the fights without becoming winded) but in reality he was not.  

So too in the world of spiritual formation, we are working hard and feel like we are moving toward our goal however we really are not.  

Ironically to the metaphor above, many people run spiritual sprints and think they are moving toward a strong spiritual life, when in reality we need to be running long distances.  

We attend worship one time a week.  Maybe we pray at dinner.  Perhaps we fast from eating food on Ash Wednesday.  We read the Bible one time a week.  We pass out soup at Thanksgiving and adopt a child at Christmas.  They are hard work and they make us feel like we are growing toward our goal of faithfulness.  The thing is, while good, these things are sprints. Taken alone they contribute to a faith that is a mile wide and an inch deep.   

This is why for many people the practice of giving up something for the season of Lent is such a difficult task.  Lent really is more of a marathon than a sprint.  For 40 days Christians engage in some combination of spiritual disciplines.  Doing something everyday for more than a week is something that is contrary to the instant culture we live in.  We live in a culture where 140 characters is the limit of our willingness to engage an issue.  When you hear of someone doing P90X, we tend to think those people are 'intense'.  Only the really hardcore people can go three months working out!  

The tricky thing is that running spiritual sprints feels like we are working out and growing spiritually.  It is difficult to realize that by only working on sprints we are not going to make it through the marathon of life.  

If you find you are regularly stressed out, worried, anxious, nervous about the future, seeking to control all things, fearful, angry about things you later realize were silly, or think that everyone else is an idiot then all while trying to fit in ways to better yourself - then perhaps you are sprinting when you ought to be considering distance running.