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Happiness vs joy
Happiness is what we experience as we celebrate the achievements of the self — winning a prize. Joy is what we feel when we are encompassed by a presence that transcends the self. We create happiness but are seized by joy — in my case by the sensation that I had just been overwhelmed by a set of values of intoxicating spiritual beauty.
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Covenant Prayer for a New Year
John Wesley prayed this at a new year, and encouraged other churches in his network to pray it, too.
I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
(john wesley covenant prayer - 1755)
[modernized:… Gracious God, I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by you or laid aside for you, Exalted for you or brought low for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are mine, and I am yours. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, Let it be ratified in heaven.
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Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Lessons from Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Inspired by Mark Larson’s yearly New Year’s re-read, I re-read Meditations yesterday. Here’s what I said last time I read it, and here are my top ten highlights from the first read:
Uncomplicate yourself.
At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: “I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?”
The things you think about determine the quality of your thoughts.
Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what’s left and live it properly.
It’s quite possible to be a good man without anyone realizing it. Remember that.
People out for posthumous fame forget that the Generations To Come will be the same annoying people they know now.
Get a move on—if you have it in you—and don’t worry about whether anyone will give you credit for it. And don’t go expecting Plato’s Republic; be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it as unimportant.
To stop talking about what the good man is like, and just be one.
As you kiss your son good night, says Epictetus, whisper to yourself, “He may be dead in the morning.”
Everything’s destiny is to change, to be transformed, to perish. So that new things can be born.
This time around, I was most struck by his thoughts on fame and legacy — how fleeting praise and applause, etc. — and the importance of going inwards, finding intrinsic value in your work, doing your job. Good reminders for our “please follow back” and “Like Me On Facebook!” age.
Ten more highlights from my second read: 1. “Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see.” (3.10)
- “Keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment—” (3.12)
3. “People try to get away from it all—to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you want. By going within. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions—than your own soul.” (4.3)
“Is it your reputation that’s bothering you? But look at how soon we’re all forgotten. The abyss of endless time that swallows it all. The emptiness of all those applauding hands. The people who praise us—how capricious they are, how arbitrary. And the tiny region in which it all takes place. The whole earth a point in space—and most of it uninhabited.” (4.3)
“To pass through this brief life… Like an olive that ripens and falls… thanking the tree it grew on.” (4.48)
“The things we want in life are empty, stale, and trivial…. Fame in a world like this is worthless.” (5.33)
“What is it in ourselves that we should prize? […] An audience clapping? No. No more than the clacking of their tongues… So we throw out other people’s recognition. What’s left for us to prize? I think it’s this: to do (and not do) what we were designed for. That’s the goal of all the trades, all arts, and what each of them aims at: that the thing they create should do what it was designed to do… And if you can’t stop prizing a lot of other things? Then you’ll never be free—free independent, imperturbable. Because you’ll always be envious and jealous, afraid that people might come and take it all away from you.” (6.16)
“The way people behave. They refuse to admire their contemporaries, the people whose lives they share. No, but to be admired by Posterity—people they’ve never met and never will—that’s what they set their hearts on. You might as well be upset at not being a hero to your great-grandfather.” (6.18)
“Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do. Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you. Sanity means tying it to your own actions.” (6.51)
“Kindness is invincible, provided it’s sincere.” (11.18)
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"I am grateful for what I am and have."
“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite - only a sense of existence… My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.” Henry David Thoreau
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“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” —G.K. Chesterton
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“Who taught me?” as a community exercise. Something to do wit ha family…or a team.
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The power of “I Remember”
THis is worthy of doing as an activity or prompt. What do you remember? Be specific. Take us there.
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Molly Worthen on Machen + more
Great history of Machen – and then ties to exploring and pushing back and believing and being skeptical of worldviews.
“Richard Burnett has persuaded me to assign, alongside Christianity and Liberalism, one or two of the letters from Machen’s student days, when he argued that “‘safe’ and ‘dangerous’ are words that must be banished absolutely from the vocabulary of the student. He must seek simply for the truth.” One of the most important lessons today’s undergraduates can learn is that no person, no matter how easily we might caricature him, is born with a mature set of beliefs. Even for Machen, faith was a struggle. We have the obligation to struggle, too.” www.firstthings.com/article/2…
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Obama -- good word on moderating good/bad camps
“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically woke and all that stuff — you should get over that quickly,” Obama told young activists after leaving office. “The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws.”
www.nytimes.com/2019/10/3…®i_id=65067095&segment_id=184159&user_id=f072b8cd33fd7a4bada76d1ea460dee7
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No choice, CHOSEN.
Lord, ‘tis not that I did choose you; that, I know, could never be, for this heart would still refuse you had your grace not chosen me.
You removed the sin that stained me, cleansing me to be your own; for this purpose you ordained me, that I live for you alone.
It was grace in Christ that called me, taught my darkened heart and mind; else the world had yet enthralled me, to your heav’nly glories blind. Now I worship none above you; for your grace alone I thirst, knowing well that, if I love you, you, O Father, loved me first.
Praise the God of all creation, praise the Father’s boundless love. Praise the Lamb, our expiation, Priest and King enthroned above.
Praise the Spirit of salvation, him by whom our spirits live. Undivided adoration to the great Jehovah give.
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How Tech and Loneliness are Interlinked
The Lonely Technology Trap
Our constant connection to technology may be fostering a culture of isolation, as studies reveal the complex links between tech use and loneliness. Recent research has uncovered striking correlations between technology use and loneliness, particularly among younger generations. Social media apps like Instagram can fuel unhealthy comparisons and feelings of inadequacy, while an overreliance on text messaging may hinder authentic connection. Binge-watching streaming content has also been linked to depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Experts suggest that these behaviors—making judgmental comparisons online, lacking rich communication, and using tech as a coping mechanism—create a “recipe for loneliness.” To combat this, individuals can take steps like hiding like counts, favoring video calls over texts, and setting screen-time limits. However, as technology evolves and new trends emerge, such as the use of AI chatbots for companionship, the relationship between tech and loneliness remains a moving target that demands ongoing research and awareness.
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Writing: "Making the place where the thought is possible."
I love this piece on writing as a means of “place making.” Creating a place – both with engineering and architecture – that invites people into a feeling and presence where they might FEEL and BELIEVE something. This very much captures how I think about storytelling and creative acts of art + copy. >>> “An essay is a place for ideas; it has to feel like a place. It has to give one the feeling of entering a room.
The architect Christopher Alexander has written that “the experience of entering a building influences the way you feel inside the building.” “If the transition is too abrupt there is no feeling of arrival.” He cites a report called “Fairs, Exhibits, Pavilions, and their Audiences,” in which the authors describe observing people drift in and out of various exhibits, impassive and unengaged. There was one exhibit, however, where visitors had to cross a “huge, deep-pile, bright orange carpet on the way in.” The exhibit itself was no better than the others, they said, but people lingered there because they’d made a journey of sorts to enter. They’d crossed a kind of Willy Wonka or Wizard of Oz threshold, into a different realm. They felt changed.” …
Engineering is a function, but architecture is aesthetic. You’re not just designing for function—you want people to feel a certain way. Churches have high ceilings because they make one feel exalted, smaller and in awe. A visible roof makes a house feel cozier—the roof is a sign of shelter. My new living room, somewhat oddly, is the smallest room in the house, but the closeness of the furniture makes it cozy, almost like a pillow fort; if the floor was lava you could jump from the sofa to the armchair. Alcoves and reading nooks make one feel safely conspiratorial, like you have permission to keep some secrets. Trees are crucial to architecture, in Alexander’s view, because they create places; they can become the roof of an outdoor room, or form an arch or a gateway we can pass through as a spell to change our mood. Windows too create places, sub-realms in rooms where the light pools, where people are drawn to sit and read, or look out at the storm. And then there’s the realm of the fireplace. I love the word fireplace—the place where we put our fire.
When I’m writing, I’m trying to be an architect. I’m trying to get the reader to feel the way I do; even when I don’t intend to convince them of something, and most of the time I don’t, writing is a subtly coercive act. The coercion is cooperative, like any performance. More precisely, I want a reader to arrive at my thought and feel close to the way I felt when I thought it. This may be authorial fantasy, delusions of grandeur, impossible dream, but it is what I want. I’m making the place where the thought is possible. I’m building a house to showcase the tree.
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On Capacity to Listen vs. Capacity to Produce...and where I fit in.
From Gary Nebeker, who coached me during sabbatical. I deeply resonate with this article – both in terms of the gift I experienced of being listened to by him, and in terms of how I see/understand myself and my gifts and interests. … Particularly this: “I was created to be a lover of beauty and mystery, an emotion artist, a devotee to the observation and description of emotions—mine and others. I flourish with a pace and rhythm of life that leaves ample room for reflection and prayer. But this reflection and prayer is geared toward a specific end: To be a listening presence to others.” … I think I truly am happiest when I am NOT in a “task-oriented leader” mode. And yet so much of my work does involve that.
Something to keep wrestling with …
Confessions of A “High Capacity” Wannabe
Would you consider yourself a high capacity person? If we are not high-capacity people, then where are we on “the capacity index”? Low? Low to Medium? Medium to occasionally high?
Consistent high quality output is said to be the distinguishing feature of the high capacity person. Maximizing every minute of the day, high capacity people are solutions-oriented, quick and efficient in what they do. Not only do they get things done, they consistently get great results.
They arrived at this place of amazing productivity because they have gained skill in time management, delegation, networking, and they know when to take appropriate rest.
The best high capacity people I know showcase these qualities. But more importantly, their relationship with the Lord is intimate. They serve by drastically depending upon the power of the Holy Spirit. They are emotionally healthy, self-aware, and, as such, relationally inviting. Above all, they are notably humble and have given up the need to maintain an image of success.
Do you know many people like this?
I grew up in a high-capacity family. My parents both had task-oriented careers. My dad was a weapons repair specialist in the U.S. Army and my mom was a branch manager in the military post exchange system. From early on they imparted a strong work ethic in me.
But in my growing-up years, then working as a blue-collar craftsman, then as a university professor, there was a part of me that just wanted to spend time thinking about things deeply, feeling things deeply, and having deep conversations with others.
There didn’t’ seem to be too many arenas in life where I could live out these longings vocationally. Counseling came close, but it wasn’t exactly the best use of my gifts and passions. Then in my mid-forties, I discovered a centuries-old practice called “spiritual direction.” I was intrigued!
I also became aware that training in spiritual direction was available. After much thought and prayer, I pursued that training. Several years later, with the completion of my certification in spiritual direction, I joyfully entered my new calling as a spiritual director and leadership coach.
It took fifty years to discover that a “high capacity” career was beyond my reach. I tried my best, but I eventually realized that I was better suited for a slower-paced, lower-capacity, and relationally-focused ministry to others.
When I told you last month that I was not a high capacity person, let me clarify what that doesn’t mean.
It doesn’t mean that old age has robbed me of vigor and initiative. It doesn’t mean I lack passion or focus. It doesn’t mean that I am living a life of carefree idleness down here in the Sonoran Desert.
But what it does mean is this: The Lord created me for a calling that is distinctly different from that of being a highly productive, task-oriented leader.
I was created to be a lover of beauty and mystery, an emotion artist, a devotee to the observation and description of emotions—mine and others. I flourish with a pace and rhythm of life that leaves ample room for reflection and prayer.
But this reflection and prayer is geared toward a specific end: To be a listening presence to others.
Whether it’s pastors, church leaders, missionaries, CEOs, military personnel, doctors, lawyers, moms, or other Christian counselors, I am honored that I get to listen to the stories of others. As a “soul friend” and “fellow traveler,” I journey with others attempting to discern what the Holy Spirit might be up to regarding God’s transformative agendas.
I guess the best way, then, to describe my calling would be to say that it involves “capacity of a different kind.”
In the Parable of the Talents we observe that Jesus entrusts His servants with various kingdom responsibilities based upon their abilities (Matt. 25:15). As D.A. Carson observes, “the talents are distributed according to the master’s evaluation of his servants’ capacities” (“Matthew,” EBC, 516).
Two of the productive servants were commended because they were faithful stewards of that which they had been given. The third servant does not do anything with what he was given. Instead, he blames the master for being harsh and unjust.
In view of this parable and other life observations, we might surmise that the Lord’s people are on a continuum when it comes to “capacity” or task output.
Some people are physically and temperamentally created to produce. Others may have less physical capacity and, as a result, produce less; but their contributions lie elsewhere (cf. 1 Cor. 12:22). Other temperaments may place more value on relationships than on getting stuff done.
Seasons of life also have a bearing on how much we can produce. Young parents can attest to this as can senior adults. Isn’t it also annoyingly true that health reversals have a way of diminishing our productivity
The expectations of our cultures and sub-cultures certainly have a huge say-so in all this as well.
Regardless of our age, personality, or bodily vigor, we are to put our “whole heart and soul” into our service for the Lord, “with the strength that God supplies” (Col. 3:23; 1 Pet. 4:11).
Consider this. A day is coming when what we have produced in this life will come under Divine scrutiny. Whether we are “low,” “medium,” or “high capacity” people, “the fire will test what sort of work each one has done” (1 Cor. 3:13).
In your circles, are high-capacity people often thought of as the most deeply committed to Christ? To what was Jesus referring when He told His disciples to “bear much fruit” (John 15:8)? To what was Jesus referring when he told Martha, “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42)?
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What is this Micro Blog? It's my Commonplace Book
From Dwight Garner: “Like Montaigne, I quote others only “in order to better express myself.” Montaigne compared quoting well to arranging other people’s flowers. Sometimes, I sense, I quote too often in the reviews I write for The New York Times, swinging on quotations as if from vine to vine. It’s one of the curses of spending a lifetime as a word-eater, and of retaining a reliable memory. www.nytimes.com/2020/11/0…
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“In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.” -Edith Wharton in her autobiography
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Tim Keller: Faith & Politics
“First, we should recognize that politics is “downstream” from culture. During this election, both sides claimed to be “battling for the soul of the culture.” But politics can only respond to major cultural trends, not create them. For example, in 1905, no politician, no matter how powerful, could have passed sexual harassment legislation. The culture had to change before such laws could be formulated and enforced. Interestingly, even the Civil Rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s is now being seen as more of a religious movement than a political one (see David L. Chappell’s book, A Stone of Hope, 2004).
Culture changes when a society’s mind, heart, and imagination is captured by new ideas that are developed by thinkers, expounded in both scholarly and popular forms, depicted in innumerable works of art, and then lived out attractively by communities of people who are committed to them. Politics only comes along later and responds to what is happening. It may resist or support cultural changes, but it can’t generate them.
The current obsession with politics misses this. A particular group cannot “change the culture” by taking power. Any group that simply goes after power without aiming to serve the common good will not win the hearts of society; the basic narratives animating such a group will not capture society’s imagination. This is not to say that Christians should be less involved in politics than they are, for example, in scholarship, art, journalism, education, film-making, literature, and business. But we should not think that politics is any more central to the forging of culture than these other pursuits. It may, in the final analysis, be less so.”
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“What greater gift than the love of a cat?” -Charles Dickens.
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"Yes"
“Yes,” by former Poet Laureate William E. Stafford:
It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.
It could, you know. That’s why we wake
and look out—no guarantees
in this life.
But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.
(The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems, Graywolf Press, 1999)
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On the Primacy of PEOPLE over ideas.
Why People + Relationships are more important than IDEAS in a creative culture
Classic article from Ed Catcall at Pixar on their culture and what sets it apart.
“If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they’ll screw it up. But if you give a mediocre idea to a great team, they’ll make it work.”
“Pixar is a community in the true sense of the word. We think that lasting relationships matter, and we share some basic beliefs: Talent is rare. Management’s job is not to prevent risk but to build the capability to recover when failures occur. It must be safe to tell the truth. We must constantly challenge all of our assumptions and search for the flaws that could destroy our culture.”
“What we can do is construct an environment that nurtures trusting and respectful relationships and unleashes everyone’s creativity. If we get that right, the result is a vibrant community where talented people are loyal to one another and their collective work, everyone feels that they are part of something extraordinary, and their passion and accomplishments make the community a magnet for talented people coming out of schools or working at other places. I know what I’m describing is the antithesis of the free-agency practices that prevail in the movie industry, but that’s the point: I believe that community matters.”
https://hbr.org/2008/09/how-pixar-fosters-collective-creativity?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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Collaboration.
“The point of any real collaboration is to go somewhere neither of you could go alone.“ - Austin Kleon
As I’ve written over and over again, when you think about creativity as a collaborative effort, it frees you up from the pressures and perils of being some kind of solitary genius. You can not only find or make the scenius you want to be part of, you can figure out what you can make out of the scenius you already have. You can open yourself up to influence and change and improvisation. You can learn the biggest lesson: The point of any real collaboration is to go somewhere neither of you could go alone.
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Get out, get outside.
“GET OUT NOW. Not just outside, but beyond the trap of the programmed electronic age so gently closing around so many people…. Go outside, move deliberately, then relax, slow down, look around. Do not jog. Do not run…. Instead pay attention to everything that abuts the rural road, the city street, the suburban boulevard. Walk. Stroll. Saunter. Ride a bike, and coast along a lot. Explore…. Abandon, even momentarily, the sleek modern technology that consumes so much time and money now…. Go outside and walk a bit, long enough to forget programming, long enough to take in and record new surroundings…. Flex the mind, a little at first, then a lot. Savor something special. Enjoy the best-kept secret around—the ordinary, everyday landscape that rewards any explorer, that touches any explorer with magic…all of it is free for the taking, for the taking in. Take it. take it in, take in more every weekend, every day, and quickly it becomes the theater that intrigues, relaxes, fascinates, seduces, and above all expands any mind focused on it. Outside lies utterly ordinary space open to any casual explorer willing to find the extraordinary. Outside lies unprogrammed awareness that at times becomes directed serendipity. Outside lies magic.” —John Stilgoe, Outside Lies Magic
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“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.” - Thoreau
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Thought leader vs. WRITER
“Being a thought leader is a good gig if you can get it. The problem is that once you become one, you may be trapped by your self-image and thought-leader presentation in a way that requires you be truer to your thought leader self than your actual thoughts.”
-“Don’t get me wrong, I’m very fond of my own ideas. I have great belief in them, and I want as many people as possible to read my book (preorder!), but I want the audience to read my book not so they can adopt my thoughts, but so they can be spurred to have interesting thoughts of their own. I want my book to do for others what the books of others have done for me, to give them access to fodder that will help them create their own minds, help them shape their unique intelligences.”
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Prayer as a buried treasure.
Imagine for a moment that you’ve been given the location of a buried treasure. You’ve been told where it is and given everything you need to dig it up. This treasure is vast: not only would it change your life, but with it you could do a great deal of good in the world. And yet, you leave it buried in the ground-of no value to you or anyone else.
John Calvin, the 16th century pastor, said that’s what Christians do if they neglect the practice of prayer: “To know God as the master and bestower of all good things, who invites us to request them of him, and still not to go to him-this would be as of little profit as a man to neglect a treasure, buried and hidden in the earth, after it had been pointed out to him… It is, therefore, by the benefit of prayer that we reach those riches which are laid up for us with the Heavenly Father.”
Communing with God in prayer is a privilege of the Christian life. We can run to him in prayer, not only to ask things of him, but just to get him. After all, he himself is our “exceedingly great reward” (Genesis 15:1).
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“Our world is an ecosystem in which our only real chance at survival as a species is cooperation, community, and care, but it’s being lead by people who believe in an egosystem, run on competition, power, and self-interest.”
Austin Kleon
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