Thoughts from Christmas Morning

If saying "Merry Christmas" is offensive to you, then you need thicker skin.

First, be happy for other people without taking offense (on behalf of others). Chances are that someone celebrating a holiday and exchanging gifts is not against your religion (if you’re not expressly Christian).

Life is tough, so get a helmet:

(By the way: if you exchange gifts on December 25, you're celebrating Christmas.)

Second, saying something as simple (and religious) as “Merry Christmas” would land you in seriously hot water in communist Russia.

To quote Pavel Tsatsouline, a former trainer of the Russian military police:

Merry Christmas! 

If you are not a Christian and you took offense I respectfully ask you to reconsider. I grew up in the Soviet Union where you could get expelled from school, dishonorably discharged from the army officer’s corps, or put an end to your career for wishing someone a merry Christmas. Christmas celebrations were supplanted with "New Year" celebrations to keep God out of our lives.

We are currently living in a country where every-day citizens -- not the government -- are policing people for saying things that others find offensive.

Who needs secret police when we do this to each other?

We will never achieve world peace until each person becomes at peace with themselves.

If you are not at peace with yourself, then you’re part of the problem. For the sake of yourself and the rest of the human race, please pursue peace.

I would encourage you to check out the movie Peaceful Warrior (or Way of the Peaceful Warrior if you're more of a reader):

To quote Socrates, the philosophical mentor in the movie:

"I call myself a Peaceful Warrior because the battles we fight are on the inside."

In Closing

So, Good Morning & Merry Christmas!

“Oh, and in case I don’t see you: good afternoon, good evening, and (to all a) good night!” (h/t Truman Burbank & Saint Nicholas)

Humanistic Psychology and Spiritual Elitism

"And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment." ~ ! Chronicles 12:32

I used to have a man who mentored me spiritually. I had asked him to because I thought he would be a good fit for me.

Unfortunately, he was (and probably still is) part of the camp whose typical advice can be clichéd into "just pray and read your Bible."

In a sense, I get where that line of thinking comes from. It is, after all, the Spirit that dwells within us that guides us into all truth (1 John 1:27).

But God, in his incredible humility, also allows us to need each other:

• "God" is actually a Trinity of persons and thus a circle of relationship (1 John 5:7)
• God brings all the animals before Adam and, lacking true companionship, makes him a wife, Eve (Genesis 2:18-22)
• Most of the Ten Commandments (6/10) deal with horizontal (human) relationships (Exodus 20:1-17)
• We are called to love one another (Mark 12:31)

Although we could get everything from God, He allows us to be fed from others.

This is where my mentor comes back in.

He strongly emphasized, on several occasions, how useless modern psychology is to the spiritual life. And rightly so (1 Corinthians 2:14).

But my profession is that of a teacher. There are restrictions on how I am allowed to share my faith when interacting with students.

And so I must avail myself of the best psychological science available when attempting to help them with their struggles (in addition to praying for them).

It's for this reason that I must dip my toes into the "terrible" (for him) waters of psychology (similar to the way, as a Protestant I've dipped my toes into some Catholic schools of thought).

It is also a passion of mine, something that lights my inner fires.

And the world needs more people who are alive.

So while that advice is good for me, it also has its limits.

Just as all human advice does.

"Over the line!"

* title of the blog from The Big Lebowski re: breaking the rules

I live in the city and commute about 45-50 minutes to work every day. I spend a lot of time on the interstate, most of it in the right lane doing the speed limit and minding my own business.

Every now and then someone will come up behind me and drive on my bumper for no reason whatsoever other than they apparently don't have the situational awareness to go around someone driving slower than them. It's really annoying.

What I also find annoying is people who cut over in front of me when it's not necessary. Like, stay in your lane, bro! (Ladies to this too, I'm sure.)

I found myself thinking that it's unfortunate that being rude, being an a--h---, is not against the law. I would much prefer for everyone to treat each other with civility. When I'm at my best self, I'm very gracious and am able to live this out pretty well (I'm not perfect by any means).

I came across 2 identical situations in the last week that also exemplify rudeness:

• Many of my eighth graders are reading a novel in English class. As one of them was leaving class the other day, he turned to his classmates and said, "____ and _____ die." (He hasn't been reading the novel with them in class, he looked up a summary on the internet.)
• My friend's ex-husband -- whom she has to interact with because of visitation rights & child support for their kids -- texted her Thursday after the premier of Avengers: Infinity War and spoiled the ending.

My unedited, heart-level response is some serious channeling of Treebeard from Two Towers:

"There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery."

Like, there is no punishment for the level of jerk one has to be to betray their fellow man in that regard. Nothing that I can come up with, anyway, apart from a serious beating.

(Part of me also feels like Obi Wan pleading with Anakin about turning to the Dark Side.)

While lamenting about this, I realized something: being rude to each other is against the Law.

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

     And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"
     And Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.
     "And the second is like it, namely this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is none other commandment greater than these." ~ Mark 12:28-31

No one will be punished for their crimes in this life -- besides, I would rather people show lovingkindness toward each other than for them to be punished.

It does bring some comfort to know that there is, in the end, accountability for all the unloving things a person has done.

But What About the Sacred Romance?

Anyone who's spent time with me discussing religion is likely aware that I'm a fan of a view of Christianity known as the Sacred Romance. It is a poetic/romantic look at the world and seems to be a version of Christianity that is, as for Dorothy, as colorful as Oz is to Kansas.

With all the "God is love" stuff, how does punishment for sin fit in? As Kanye West recently tweeted:

I don't subscribe the term and concept of God fearing. That's a dated mentality that was used to control people. We are in the future. If God is love and love it's the opposite of fear then... to fear God makes no sense

I'll be honest, that made me scratch my head when I read it because I'd never thought about it that way before:

     I understand what the phrase means, but dang if this ain't a whole other perspective on the phrase "God-fearing."
     Makes me appreciate the romantic & poetic nature of the Sacred Romance.
     Be define by love, not by fear.

But then I had an additional thought:

We also mustn't discount the place of fear in bringing people to God, for "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" and "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb 9:27 & 10:31).

God loves us enough to have offered us forgiveness through Jesus' sacrifice, and He loves others enough to punish those who wrong them (Matthew 25:31-46).