Month: April 2024

Categories
Religious

God’s Treasures

Dr. Doug Hood’s wife, Grace Cameron Hood, B.C.E, wrote the following meditation.

“…you are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I love you.”

Isaiah 43:4a (Common English Bible)

The Holly House is a ministry of First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach. Women get together each week to change the world. They make incredible crafts, do service projects, socialize, eat together, and enjoy one another. They have formed a support system based on fun, faith, and creativity. Everyone is welcomed and included. They are a microcosm of what the church strives to be.

Each year, Holly House participates in a time-honored and universal ministry of churches everywhere. They sponsor a rummage sale. The proceeds of the sale go to the ministry of the church. This is how it works. If you have something that you do not need or want or can’t use anymore, you donate it to the church. The women sort everything. This is a time-consuming and tedious job. Imagine sorting hundreds of donated shirts according to size and price. When the sale happens, the community comes in droves. Someone might see an item and realize that they want it, they need it, or they have a use for it. They pay for it. This is a wonderful system. What becomes one person’s discard, trash, or burden becomes the next person’s treasure. This is recycling at its very best!

What does this have to do with a book on gratitude? One day, I was looking through a table of delicate china teacups at the Holly House that had been donated. I grew up with those multi-color aluminum tumblers (which are now collector’s items), white mismatched mugs, and ‘unbreakable’ Corelle cups. I love china teacups. As I studied the intricate and colorful tea cups, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude for what I have. I am grateful for many things. I inherited a lovely set of tea cups decorated with beautiful violets from my grandmother. They are gorgeous. What’s more, I have the entire set, which includes plates, serving bowls, miniature salt and pepper shakers, a matching sugar and creamer set, and finally, small ashtrays for the bridge games my grandmother would host.  What I have is more than I wanted. It is more than I thought I needed. 

My gratitude goes beyond what I have. It speaks to who our God is. God wants us to have more than we can imagine. What God gives us might not be riches or things. God offers us a sense of worth that comes from who God says we are.  We are not unwanted, unneeded, or a burden. I am grateful that with God, we are each precious and valued. That is one important thing to remember about God. All of us are wanted and loved. There is no one on earth that God discards, donates, or sells. We are not a burden that is carried around or hidden away in an attic or basement when interest has died.  None of us are chosen as second best. We all have immense value in God’s eyes. We are all precious and a treasure to God. There is more. When we look at people around us, we need to remember that God values them! We need to treat people around us as if they were precious to God. This changes how we look at the world. As we see the world through the eyes of gratitude, our perspective changes and creates the community that God intended. One of love, acceptance, inclusivity, and care. 

Joy,

Categories
Religious

Living in the Present Tense

“Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Matthew 6:34 (Common English Bible)

It is the practice of the Eskimos never to carry the day’s evil experiences, its troubles and its quarrels, over into the next day. Two Eskimo hunters might become engaged in a violent dispute over the division of the game which they had taken, and heated words might even bring them to blows, but once the sun had set and they had retired to sleep, all memory of the quarrel would be erased from their spirits, and the next day they would greet each other as brothers. If you were to exclaim in surprise: “But I thought you were enemies. You were fighting yesterday!” they would answer: “Ah, but that was yesterday and we live only today.”i That is living in the present tense!

Mark Twain, with his characteristic humor, once commented that he has suffered many things most of which never happened. Doctors tell us that much of our anxiety, which often results in physical, emotional, and spiritual unease, is located in tomorrow, a preoccupation with fears of the future. Consequently, our fears of tomorrow rob us of the opportunity to live fully and abundantly today. Naturally, wise and reasonable decisions and personal behavior must shepherd us in the present day. Careless spending today will result in debt tomorrow. A word carelessly spoken or a relationship betrayed may negatively impact all of our tomorrows. Not all of us have been nurtured in the Eskimo culture!

Jesus’ invitation in this teaching is to locate our hearts in God. Worry and anxiety is all about trying to avoid something, about trying to get away from something. The strain of worry is indicative that we don’t trust the future. Jesus asks that we approach life from another perspective. Rather than fleeing what we fear most, Jesus asks that we run toward God. As Augustine once said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”i Jesus asks that we live in the present tense, free from the regrets of yesterday and the fears of tomorrow. That is possible after we have accepted God’s forgiveness for the past and trust in God’s care for the future.

Thomas Long writes that there is a kind of worry about the coming day that is normal, even healthy. “Tomorrow’s chemistry test or job interview is bound to provide concern, and this command ‘stop worrying about tomorrow’ is not an invitation to finesse the exam or to waltz into the interview unprepared. Rather, it speaks to the deeper, more basic fear that something is out there in the future that can destroy our basic worth as a human being, something finally stronger than God’s care, some silent killer shark swimming toward us from the future.”iii Jesus asks that we cling to God in such a manner that we can affirm that whatever tomorrow brings, it also brings God.

Joy,

_____________________

i Clayton E. Williams, “Living Today Forever,” Best Sermons: 1955 Edition, edited by G. Paul Butler (New York, London & Toronto: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1955) 106.

ii Thomas G. Long, Matthew (Louisville & London: Westminster John Know Press, 1997) 76.

iii Long, 76.

Categories
Religious

The Christian Way of Life

“Rejoice always. Pray continually. Give thanks in every situation because this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (Common English Bible)

CliffsNotes is a series of study guides in pamphlet form. Great works of literature and other works are redacted—or condensed—to present a larger work in a more accessible form for a quick perusal of the material. Some use CliffsNotes to determine if a large work is something they want to invest the time in for savoring the entire volume. Others, usually students preparing for an exam, simply want the facts. In these three brief verses from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, Paul provides the CliffsNotes to the Christian way of life.  In three rapid movements, God’s will for us is presented: we are to be a people who rejoice always, who pray continually, and who give thanks in every situation. Paul met with this young congregation only a few times before writing this letter, yet he has developed a deep affection for them—“like a nursing mother caring for her own children (1 Thessalonians 2:7)”—and longs that they grow strong in these three common shared experiences.

What does it mean to “rejoice always?” When my son, Nathanael, turned five years old, his mother and I threw him a birthday party. Half a dozen of his friends were invited and, as traditional birthdays go, birthday presents were presented and opened before cutting the birthday cake. Opening one gift, Nathanael’s eyes grew wide with joy, and, looking intently at the toy, exclaimed with delight, “It’s what I have always wanted! What is it?” Knowing what the gift is or the function of the gift was not important. Something greater was going on. Nathanael was surrounded by people who loved him, who cared to show up for his birthday, and even now were celebrating him. There was a party going on, and Nathanael was at the center of it all! Paul’s entire ministry is an announcement that God has shown up for us and is active in all things. Though there will be much in life we don’t understand, God stands with us in all life’s circumstances. That is an occasion for rejoicing always!

To pray continually is not every moment but constantly, repeatedly, as an acknowledgment that God is standing right with us. Richard Rohr tells us that St. Francis used to spend whole nights praying the same prayer: “Who are you, O God, and who am I?” Rohr asks that we notice that St. Francis is not stating anything, is not sure of anything, but is just asking open-ended questions.[i] This is the prayer that Paul speaks of when he instructs us to pray continually. The continual notice that God is God, whatever that may mean, and that we are not, is humbling. Such prayer—a constant awareness of a God of infinite mystery—diminishes any notion that we are large enough or strong enough to face life on our own. There is tremendous freedom in that! We are not alone in this journey we call life. Whatever may come in our future is not solely dependent upon us. The great object of prayer is to get home to God even when we fail to receive from God compliance for what we ask.

Paul concludes his summary of the Christian life asking that we give thanks in every situation. The careful eye will distinguish between “give thanks in every situation” and “give thanks for every situation.” Even the smallest child has experienced enough to realize that life throws some things at us that one cannot reasonably be thankful for. What Paul is asking us is that a life that has mastered rejoicing always and praying continually is a life that knows there is more to come—that any hardship, any loss, or any suffering fails to have the last word. God is present in each moment of our life and continually seeks our good. God has determined in the resurrection of Jesus Christ to have the last word for us. It is a word of life abundant with God for eternity. William James writes, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that people can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”[ii] Paul asks that we alter our lives simply by relinquishing control over our outcomes in life and approach all situations with a grateful heart that God moves us forward—even through the darkest shadows. Here, writes Paul, is the sum of the Christian life.

Joy,

[i] Richard Rohr, Yes, And…Daily Meditations (Cincinnati, Ohio: Franciscan Media, 1997) 102.

[ii] Earl Nightingale, Successful Living in a Changing World (Sound Wisdom: Shippensburg, PA., 2021) 174.

Categories
Religious

Jealousy, the Enemy of Gratitude

The following meditation was written by Dr. Hood’s son, Nathanael Hood, MA, New York University; MDiv, Princeton Theological Seminary

“After David came back from killing the Philistine, and as the troops returned home, women from all of Israel’s towns came out to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with tambourines, rejoicing, and musical instruments. The women sang in celebration:

‘Saul has killed his thousands,

but David has killed his tens of thousands!’

Saul burned with anger. This song annoyed him. ‘They’ve credited David with tens of thousands,’ he said, ‘but only credit me with thousands. What’s next for him—the kingdom itself?’ So Saul kept a close eye on David from that point on.” 

(1 Samuel 18:6-9, Common English Bible)

For almost a decade now, I’ve kept a personal practice of reading through the entire Bible once per calendar year. I do this with the help of an online guide that divides the entire book into 365 bite-sized chunks, each taking 10-15 minutes to read. This practice has deepened my relationship with God in ways I can scarcely describe, but it’s also had the odd side effect of permanently associating certain parts of the Bible in my mind with certain parts of the year. For example, for me, January is synonymous with stories of God’s creation of the world, of Noah and the ark, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Joseph’s bondage in Egypt. Likewise, the coming of summer in June and July means the Psalms; the arrival of cold weather in October, the Gospels; and the month of April—the time I am currently writing this meditation—the epic saga of the Kings of Israel.

The stories of these kings and the rise and fall of their kingdoms are some of the most dynamic in the entire Bible, full of battles won, and wars lost, of secret prophecies and even more secret magics, of doomed families and lost lineages. Put simply, I’ve come to associate the month of April with stories that would make the greatest fantasy authors, from J. R. R. Tolkien to George R. R. Martin, green with envy. The crown jewel of these April stories—for me, at least—involves King David, the most famous and revered of the biblical kings of Israel. David, shepherd son, and Goliath-slayer, father of Solomon and author of the Psalms, has one of the richest, most extensive narratives of any single character in the entire Bible. And, perhaps unexpectedly for such a towering figure, he spends much of his youth powerless and fleeing for his life.

I’ll not summarize the whole story here—these meditations do have a word count limit—but suffice it to say that soon after entering the biblical narrative, David finds himself at odds with King Saul, the first king of Israel, the man whose throne he would one day usurp. The Bible portrays King Saul as a tragic figure, a once-righteous man whose flaws—many of which could be interpreted by modern readers as mental illnesses—lead to his downfall and death. At first, he loves David like a son, welcoming him into his court and enlisting him as a warrior in his armies. But David’s divinely-guided success on the battlefield quickly curdles Saul’s affections. In the eighteenth chapter of 1 Samuel, the situation comes to a head when fresh from a military success, Saul’s subjects sing a song comparing his and David’s exploits on the battlefield, lauding the latter over the former. As noted biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann points out, “The triumph belongs to both of them…there is enough joy for both to share fully.”1 But instead of sharing in this joy, instead of feeling gratitude for the excellent service of his subject, Saul becomes consumed with jealousy. From that point on, Saul never trusts David again. From that point on, Saul’s days as king are numbered.

Saul Attacking David by GUERCINO (b. 1591, Cento, d. 1666, Bologna);1646. Oil on canvas, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome.

There are two powerful lessons here for those with ears to listen. First, jealousy cannot coexist with gratitude. It poisons our minds and short-sights our outlooks. Saul could have accepted David’s success with gratitude—his victories strengthened his kingdom and humbled his enemies! But his jealousy warped an ally into a foe, one he would eventually hound into exile and lose his throne pursuing. Second, true gratitude isn’t selfish; it’s selfless. Gratitude that comes from a loving heart rejoices in the successes of others and doesn’t wallow in self-pity. Self-pity leads to jealousy, which, as my April readings prove year after year, leads to self-destruction.

Joy,

1Walter Brueggemann, First and Second Samuel: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1990), 136