Traveling the right course?

I learned several years ago that there are influences on our belief systems far beyond our awareness. Although each of these influences may be weak, the sum total does affect our lives in major ways.

This was learned as I was studying how to improve my personal goal setting. It was explained that if we do not have goals that we set, we still have goals that are created for us. The goals that we purposely define for ourselves must override the goals set for us by the people and events we encounter along our life’s journey.

Goals are suggested and formed by our parents, our teachers, television programs we watch, the music we hear, and the many books and articles we read. In fact, everything we experience “programs” us as to who we are and where we are headed. Our environment and our experiences influence and shape our expectations and what we believe is achievable for ourselves. Our personal “world” helps us to form our opinions, our prejudices, and our desires. Everything we see, hear, read, and experience provides data that our minds accept as true or reject as false. Regardless if the new data is accurate and true, it is too often accepted or rejected based upon what we have previously accepted as real.

With that being said, consider in contrast the cruise missile. These super high-tech missiles are precisely programmed to reach their targets. They must fly very low to evade radar and fly very fast. They are piloted by programs which include three dimensional terrain and urban maps, sensors, gyroscopes, and global position system transceivers. They have the ability to fly between hills and buildings just a few hundred feet above the ground. Climbing and dipping and turning, they close in on their target near the speed of sound.  They are guided by objects they “see” and identify in route and data they receive by satellite. They too have a “brain” and are constantly taking in data and comparing it to the programmed course, and instantly making adjustments all the way to the target.

Our brains are somewhat similar. We too, are constantly making adjustments attempting to stay on course until we reach our targets. However, our brains are not so precisely programmed; everything we see, hear, and experience gets evaluated against a foundation of what we believe. Unlike the cruise missile which only deals with factual information, our brains have to deal with perceptions real and unreal.

Joliet, IL Park District - A hiking trail near Bird Haven Greenhouse.

The potential for problems are enormous and with great frequency come to fruition.

The first cause of problems for many of us is that our goals are poorly defined, so we make irrational adjustments in our course toward unclear objectives. We never come close to our potential to live happy and abundant lives.

Even with clear objectives, the second cause of our problems is our realities are skewed, if not horribly warped. Even when we receive very good and accurate data, we may dismiss it because it does not agree with our “reality” or belief system. We reject it, and continue to making wrong turns up blind canyons frustrating ourselves and wasting days, years, or our entire lives.

The third cause of problems is that much of what we receive is bad information coming from unreliable sources, perverting our belief systems even more and directing us to places we do not want to be.

So, how can we fix it?

First, let’s define our destination. 

In the Seven Laws of Success, a booklet I read over thirty years ago by Herbert W. Armstrong, he proposes that to be a true success we must first fix the right goal. In Proverbs and other scriptures we find that our personal goals are in vain.  In order for our goals to have lasting substance they must be aligned with God’s plan – and His objectives must become ours, if we are to be a true success.

Therefore, we need God to re-write our program. We need to rely on Him to map our course and guide us along the way. We need Him to be the Lamp at our feet as we travel some otherwise very dark and scary paths. We need to study His Word daily and look to the examples He set before us and follow a path already forged by His Son, Jesus Christ.

We need input to be true and accurate, and only He can provide that. We must realize that most of what we think to be true is not true, and that it is at least incomplete and/or insufficient. We should not trust and heavily rely on so much inaccurate data – we must seek His truth and make wise decisions accordingly. We must be careful to reject information corrupted by those who have ideas contrary to the true gospel.

With the right goal fixed, and the course set before us by our Heavenly Father, we cannot miss.  Just as a cruise missile accurately finds its target, we too shall reach our God-given target if we do these things.  However, as a missile reaches its target, it unleashes death; when we reach our Creator’s target, it produces life eternal.

Truth is Important

In the late 19^th and into the first three years of the 20^th centuries, controlled and powered flight was a concept soon to be realized.  It had some of the best scientific minds working on the development of aviation technologies. Lilienthal, Langley, and Edison were all competing to build the first successful flying machine.

Why, then, is it that a couple of high school dropouts who built and repaired bicycles for a living were the first to achieve controlled and powered flight?

It is quite simple. The Wrights were outside the respected circle of scientist and were not afraid to question their findings. They figured there must be something wrong fundamentally because flight was possible in theory but all tests resulted in failure. They question the accuracy of Otto Lilienthal’s formula for calculating lift and drag in wing design, a formula that they and everyone else used. In 1901 the Wright's tests failed.  In 1902 they adjusted the formula and redesigned with the wings and the tests were successful.  In 1903, they installed an engine on their workable glider and successfully flew their machine three times on December 17, before returning to Dayton, Ohio. On Christmas day the image was developed and the photograph printed, evidence that they were first in flight. 

A public domain image of the first flight in Kitty Hawk, NC on December 17, 1903.

What are we to learn from this? When our data is wrong, we may make decisions and take action that lead to failure – no matter how many times we try. Just as the Wright’s searched and found, then applied truth, we must also in order for right thinking and right action to contribute to our personal happiness and success.

It is vital that we have the truth as our foundation or we must lower our expectations and settle for mediocre if not failure.

Truth or Consequences

Because of a back injury, I missed several weeks of football practice during my junior year. My doctor’s warning was that I would not fully recover from the badly bruised muscles in my back unless I sat out the rest of the season.  I chose to practice and play whenever I was not hurting.  

At the end of my junior year there was a job opening at an S. S. Kresge store as a stock boy. (S. S. Kresge was a five and dime chain and predecessor to the large box K-mart store.) I took the job but the lifting and carrying aggravated the deep aches in the center of my back.  When it came time for football practice in August, I chose to not play, but rather took a different job at the Metropolitan, an upscale clothing store – not to work in the stock room but to be an assistant manager of the “Stag Room” – a young man’s clothing department.  I got the job and learned a lot just in the few short weeks of the back-to-school season.  I liked how busy we were – but I found out later, after Thanksgiving, that there is such a thing as being too busy.

The dunes along Lake Michigan in Indiana.

The Christmas shopping season arrived and we were we in an almost constant rush. The shoppers, those who had cash or credit, and those who had more crafty means of acquiring goods, all competed with one another hurriedly going through the store, sifting through an abundance of stock. When we were not servicing the customers, we were busy cleaning up the messes they made.  (Back then, servicing the customers came first, straightening the stock was secondary.)  

Once, during a break in the action, I leaned back against the curvature of my cash register keys to help relax the muscles in my back. As I did, I said this to a young woman who worked in the adjacent department. “It is hard to believe the way people act that Christmas has anything to do with Christ.”

“I've got news for you. It doesn't” she responded.  I queried her comment and she explained some things to me. I was taken by surprise – and after I thought for a moment, and reminded her that she was Jewish, and may not be a good authority on the subject, she said, “Yes, but I am also a Christian.”  That, if I would have given it much thought at the time, would have been a double paradigm shift. But I didn't give it much thought and therefore that bit of information had little influence on my belief system at that particular time.

Just as for most people, most of the time, the true facts had little impact on my beliefs, on my traditions, things that I have been taught, practiced, and experienced so far in my life. I continued on for a few years, and all that her comment did was give me a jolt and perhaps sparked something that said, “things are not as they seem” and intrigued me to know more about what I had always believed but was not true. What was kindled caught fire a few years later.

Here is the point.  When we learn the truth, and if we stand corrected, if it changes us, we will be given more truth. If we reject what is true or resist being changed by it, we are in danger of setting a precedent and becoming incapable of processing it and benefiting from it.

There are several scriptures that support this principle – and I will leave it to anyone who would like to find an appropriate scripture or two, and post it in the comments section.

Arrogance

I like to amuse myself. Sometimes I just think funny things and laugh.

For example, the other day I was driving down State Route 41 in Troy, Ohio with my wife in the car and there was very little traffic. There was only one other car within a few hundred yards, and I thought, and said to my wife, with absolutely no reason, “Look at that guy! He thinks he’s all that. Driving like he owns this town.”  Of course my wife looked at me as if I was crazy. There was nothing different about the way the man was driving – and I was actually making a joke about how sometimes we judge others with little or no reason.

So, why am I telling you? No reason except it came to mind as I wrote the title at the top of the page.

Arrogance: an insulting way of thinking or behaving that comes from believing that you are better, smarter, or more important than other people.  _{Merriam Webster}

“We don’t know a millionth of one percent of anything”, said Thomas Edison. If Edison is right, why do the formally educated think holding a minuscule amount data in their heads gives them superiority as a human being? In the process of learning we gain confidence, but an attitude seems to develop instantly for many young folk when they get a degree. Do they think that a degree is a testament to having greater value by knowing something that someone else may not?

When my kids were still young children, they had a play friend who was about three or four years old. For some time this little girl had a standard response whenever she lost in a game, or when she was corrected, or when she was envious of someone for what they had.  It was quite funny, and my adult kids still to this day recall it when someone brags about something – and they mockingly say what she said.  “So, I got more Teddy Bears than you!”

We are not arrogant for what we think we know and we can be arrogant by thinking our possessions add value to our worth.  

A canal tow path along the Miami Erie Canal near New Bremen, Ohio.

Rank also has its privilege but does give us the right to be arrogant and treat others unfairly or with disrespect who are at a lower pay grade?

Of course, our physical self can be a source of arrogance.  If we are healthier than someone, better looking with a more attractive physique, we can feel that we are better than someone that is overweight, homely, and/or has chronic health conditions.

Age should bring wisdom, and the more we know, the more we should realize we don’t know. Regardless, some of us feel that because we are older and wiser, we can be less considerate of others’ feelings and just say what is on our minds. “How did I become an arrogant old man?  I was an arrogant young man; I just had other things to be arrogant about (when I was younger, better looking, and had better health).”

The reality is, no matter how smart or wise or how wealthy we are, or how beautiful we may be, arrogance makes us ugly. If I were to go to the mirror and instead of seeing the way I appear physically, I saw the reflection of my humility (beauty) or my arrogance (ugliness); I think I would see that there are changes to be made. I can only hope that I wouldn't faint from the shock.

Can we be arrogant and truly be following the example of Jesus Christ?

Here is what He says. But Jesus called for them, saying, "Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷"Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child (with humility) will not enter it at all." _{Luke 18: 16-17}

Preparedness and Priorities

“To what do you attribute the most to your success?”

Ten years ago or so, I heard an interview with a highly successful businessman who had used some of his wealth to finance his candidacy for president of the United States.  I cannot find a transcript of that interview, but nevertheless, I do recall enough of it to share the simple but powerful point he made when he was ask, “To what do you attribute the most to your success?”

He answered that by recalling the Scout Motto, “Be Prepared” and paired it with priorities.

He said, and this is to the best of my recollection, “If a person would simply prepare themselves to fill the most important needs that they anticipate, they will become more effective – and their level of success will rise.

If a person would just ask themselves, ‘what’s the most important thing for me to do tomorrow?’ and then prepare for it today, they will be more effective.  If a person would ask themselves, ‘what’s the most important thing for me to do next week?’ and then prepare for it this week; and ‘what’s the most important thing to do next month?’ and prepare for it this month; and what’s the most important thing for me to accomplish next year?’ and prepare for it this year, then the outcome will be a series of success, both short term and long term. It’s a principal that when followed pays huge dividends.” _Paraphrased

I had forgotten about this interview until yesterday morning while having a discussion with my oldest son who had things to say about preparedness.  It is not something that I have purposely practiced myself.  The reason I am writing about it here is to bring it to my attention so that I can make a decision on it.  Is this a principle that I want to practice on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis?  Am I going to do it?  Am I going to focus more on preparedness?  When I am not busy with a high priority task at hand, will I busy myself with preparing for the next priority "to do"?

In order to do so, I have to put my priorities together.   I have familial priorities, community priorities, career priorities, and spiritual priorities.  These are the fore aspects of my relationships with humanity and with my God. 

Yeshua the Anointed (Jesus Christ), our Guide on this journey, after addressing our worries over fulfilling the basic needs in our lives, instructs us with these words: "Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' ³²"For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you….  _{Matthew 6:31-33}

Promises in the Attic

One hundred years ago this past spring, Ohioans saw flooding statewide. Every river and every major stream in Ohio rose over their banks. The Maumee, the Sandusky, and the Cuyahoga all flooded before they could empty into Lake Erie in the north. The Muskingum River, the Scioto, and the Great Miami and their tributaries, and even the Ohio overflow their levies to the south.  Towns from the near highest elevations in Central Ohio to the low lying cities along Lake Erie and the banks of the Ohio all saw devastation, but the hardest hit were the small towns and cities along the Great Miami River in Southwestern Ohio.

At the confluence of the Great Miami and three of its major tributaries in Dayton, there was tremendous devastation with deep flood waters flowing through the downtown area. Many Daytonians lost their lives. One man and his family was seen riding on the roof of their house as it washed off its foundation, the swift current exploding it into splinters as it crashed into the Main Street Bridge. Survivors elsewhere heard the cries of others who were trapped by fires that had broken out and the only way to escape was to jump into the swirling currents of icy cold muddy waters.

The Old National Road was diverted to cross over the newly built Englewood Dam in 1921. The dam was built along with five others by the Miami Conservancy District which was organized to provide flood protection in the Miami Valley in southwestern, Ohio. Residence continue to enjoy the protection it provides - and it is the results of "promises made in the attic".  

As the flood water rose, men and women had to take refuge on higher floors, eventually climbing into their cold attics where in the dark solemn spaces they could hear the rushing waters outside smashing debris against their houses and the floating furniture below banging into their walls. Dark and alone with their children they contemplated their fate and their only hope of rescue is that God would save them.

When the clean-up began, the civic leaders adopted a motto – “Remember the promises you made in the attic” as their promise to rebuild Dayton.  I can only imagine what some of the promises may have been – “If you would just save us, Dear Lord, we promise that…”

We make promises to God – either in times of great distress or perhaps just being excited about a golden opportunity. “Save me” or “give me” followed by a promise is something that we do, oftentimes unwisely.  Or, even our wedding vows, or when we are baptized, we make a promise before God. 

At the time we are serious and sincere, but sometimes our sincerity fades in our memories and we choose to think “but that was then and this is now”. We believe that with time God forgets, or He understands that the situation has changed – so we no longer need to fulfill our promises. 

The scriptures read differently.  “When you make a vow to God, do not delay in fulfilling it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow now.”  _{Ecclesiastes 5:4}

Follow the LEADER

There are over a billion people professing to be Christians to one degree or another and everyone has a different idea of what it takes to get it right. It appears the only common denominator of what qualifies one as being “Christian” is the person of Jesus at the center of their religion, traditions, and beliefs – of which there are countless variations.

In the process of looking into this, I wondered what the facts were.  What defines a Christian and am I one – or do I even want to be one?

An ancient highway created by migrating animals, used by the first human inhabitants
and then used by white explorers and settlers in North America - The Natchez Trace.
Once considered a highway - it is too narrow and too difficult to handle modern traffic. 

The next question - what is the Biblical meaning of the term “Christian”?   Some would think that is a very broad meaning but actually it is much like going through a very narrow gate that gives us access to a very difficult path – not nearly as wide and easy as I had thought it would be.

The actual meaning is “a follower of Christ”.  It was first used by non-believers in Antioch as they referred to the disciples as “followers of Christ” – hence the word, “Christian”.  The first disciples were originally of the Jewish faith but were drawn into a new dynamic when they accepted their Leader as their long awaited Messiah and the Son of God. With a little research I found that “followers of Christ” is exactly what they were. I counted twenty six times in the Gospels where Jesus Christ told certain individuals to follow him. Those that did became His disciples. Then I recalled how Israel followed the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night through the wilderness. I also remembered reading that the resurrected saints shall follow Jesus Christ to Jerusalem, where He will establish His kingdom and replace Satan as the governor of the world. 

What it means to follow Him is that one must learn from Him what He taught, do the things that He did, and be the type of person that He was.

Christian does not mean just a “believer in Christ” – for even the demons know He exists, but they certainly do not follow Him.   It does not mean “worshiper of Christ” because we can give Him all glory, and all honor, and still not learn what He taught, do what He said, or be as He was. 

Here are three questions; both are answered in one scripture passage. (1.) Can I do wonderful and religious things but still not be following Christ?  (2.) Will my good deeds be credited to me if I am not following Christ? And (3.), is obedience to His commandments required to be counted as one of His followers?

I find this to be a sobering answer… “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ^And  then I (Jesus) will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”   _{Matthew 7:22-23}