Cross Eyed Christianity
Recently I was reminded of this little story from Zen Buddhism:
A young, but earnest Zen student approached his teacher, and asked the Master, “If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, “Ten years . .”
The student then said, “But what if I work very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast — How long then?”
Replied the Master, “Well, twenty years.”
“But, if I really, really work at it, how long then?” asked the student.
“Thirty years,” replied the Master.
“But, I do not understand,” said the disappointed student. “At each time that I say I will work harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say that?”
Replied the Master, “When you have one eye on the goal, you only have one eye on the path.”
Christians have had an unfortunate recent history of being people with one eye on the goal. Meaning that many people have encountered Christianity as a religion that teaches "how to get to heaven". We even have it down to a formula - you are sinner + God cannot be in the presence of sin - repent of your sin + accept Jesus = heaven.
Frankly it is kinda messed up. Perhaps one of the reasons that many Christians think the world is headed in the wrong direction is because we do not have both out eyes on the world at hand. We have one eye on heaven and one eye on earth. We are cross eyed.
If we hold to what Jesus says in John 14:6*, "I am the Way..." then we have to keep both eyes on the Way.
I have had a few conversations with marathon runners over the past several months. Mostly to figure out why anyone would want to run a marathon, but in the conversations I heard several runners tell me a trick to running a marathon. Since the marathon is so long and you cannot see the finish line, the best way to keep your spirit up while you run that distance is to look 5-8 feet in front of you.
You see, runners get it. They keep both eyes on the Way they are going. They do not keep one eye out looking for the finish line. They trust the path that has been laid out for them will take them to the destination - even if they cannot see the destination.
We say Jesus is the forerunner of the faith. Jesus says he is the Way. As followers of the Way of Jesus, let us trust in the Way that is before us. Let us keep both eyes on the Christ and trust he will lead us to the destination.
*If you are thinking, Jason, aren't you taking that text out of context? Probably, but this text is always taken out of context. If it can be taken out of context to condemn others, then I don't have a problem taking it out of context to critique my own religious tradition.
My generation's "Obamacare"
It has been said that Obamacare (The Affordable Healthcare Act) is the defining legislation. It is, for right or wrong, the bill that will define his legacy as President and perhaps even the entire decade in American politics.
It seems that the history makers of the world have an issue that defines them for a period of time. Obama and health care, Red Sox and the "curse of the Bambino", Romo and "choking", Pollock and abstract expressionism, or Steve Urkel and his line.
Beyond the history-making people, even the common person has their "defining issue". The reason they are called "Hot Button issues" is because these are issues that a number of people have made into their "defining issue".
And so, it is my prayer that the "defining issue" of my generation would be income inequality.
Here are a few TED Talks that approach this subject in different ways:
Nutritional Guidelines and the Bible
One of the characteristics of modernity is the idea of rationalization (that reason alone can help us discover truth). In order to be "rational" it is important to have all the facts, or evidence. Being obsessed with evidence is another imprint of modernity on our culture. The pursuit of evidence in order to make a "rational" decision is also the underlying assumption of traditional economic thought. That is to say that there is an economic theory that states that people are rational and given enough information then people will make the best possible choices.
This sort of thought is underlying the way we talk about eating. Specifically, we have been told that we need to look at nutritional labels before we buy our foodstuff. Putting calories on the menu at Starbucks or Applebee's, the theory goes, will help people make healthier choices because we can see more evidence and information.
This just is not the case.
Studies have come out and articles have expressed that begin to show that nutritional labels do not result in behavior change. Some say we need more information such as information for take out food or salt levels. Some say the information displayed is due for a makeover. Others say that we need different information, such as fullness factor.
All this information seems like a great idea, but it could also lead to paralysis by analysis (the paradox of choice).
The idea that information acquisition leads to behavioral change has always been a way to learn new things, but it is not the only way. Modernity has pushed out other ways to learn and this is where religion steps into the frame.
Religion understands that information acquisition can only affect someone so much. Religion, at its best, knows what social psychologists have just discovered and named attitude polarization and confirmation bias. Religion, at its best, encourages a number of different ""practices" in order to form people and shape behavior. Here are the spiritual practices of Christianity as laid out in the Christian classic by Richard Foster. I have italicized the ones that focus on information acquisition:
- meditation
- prayer
- fasting
- study
- simplicity
- solitude
- submission
- service
- confession
- worship
- guidance
- celebration
One. The majority of disciplines force behavior change.
And yet, the majority of us Christians think that the primary way we are "transformed" or changed is through the following practices. I have italicized the ones that focus on information acquisition:
- listening to sermons
- bible studies
- reading a daily devotion
- highlighting our bibles
- worship
- service
- reading pastors blog *wink*
Christian spiritual formation, at it's best, focuses on the practices and less about the acquisition of information. However, we as a Church have been teaching the way to changed behavior (repentance) is through gathering more information.
That is like reading nutritional guidelines and expecting a behavioral change. This is the promise of modernity, not the promise of Christian spiritual formation.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.