Proposition: there are many paths up the mountain

Many people take the view that all religions are really much the same, so it is simply a matter of taste to pick the one that works for you.  The choice is of minor consequence as they all lead to God; it's just a question of which route you choose to take to get there.  Hence the proposition: there are many paths up the mountain.

Assumption 1: There is one god who shows himself in different forms.  And yet:
a. While Christians, Jews and Moslems say there is only one God, other religions say there are many gods.
b. Other religions say the way to salvation is through successfully following a particular set of lifestyle rules; Jesus alone said salvation is by grace and cannot be earned by any amount of following rules.
Conclusion: The god at the top of this mountain is inconsistent; therefore is not God! Sorry, I can't make the proposition work with this assumption.

Assumption 2: There is one god who shows himself consistently, but people are confused.
a. People are often confused, so that seems entirely possible, even likely.
b. But if god cannot manage to communicate well enough with confused people to get his message through, he's not much of a god.
Conclusion: A promising start, but I'm sorry, I really can't make the proposition work with that assumption either.

Assumption 3: There are actually many gods at the top of the mountain
a. But we already know that the God of the Christians, Moslems and Jews has clearly said 'There is no God but me". As other religions disagree about this, they can't all be right. Either the one God is wrong and so isn't God, or the other religions are wrong.
b. Jesus said "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me", but the Jews and Moslems disagree. They can't all be right.
Conclusion: I'm sorry, we're definitely having problems with this 'many gods' assumption...

Assumption 4: There is actually no god at the top of the mountain, but it's still good to climb for the journey and the view.
a. This would certainly develop our 'muscles' of discipline and persistence.
b. But it's ultimately deceptive, so we would learn disappointment, disillusionment, and distrust. Yet this isn't the experience of the great majority of climbers.
c. Moreover, those who have already climbed the mountain could reasonably be expected to have communicated that they found no god!
Conclusion: I'm sorry, we need a better response than that!

I'm definitely struggling to make this 'all religions are really much the same, so take your pick' proposition work.

Afterthought: Another proposition: people prefer nice cosy ideas to uncomfortable truth...
Conclusion: Umm ... that might work...

Navigating by the stars

We all have some internal way of setting the course of our lives - though we may not think much about it - and this is likely to include having some role models whose lives we aspire to emulate.

Role models are not necessarily people we admire; they may simply be people who have 'gone ahead' of us, such as our parents. But we are also likely to look beyond them to others who are outside our immediate sphere. In our culture, which worships celebrity, we may well look to the rich or famous, to pop stars or Hollywood stars, or to 'celebrities' who have no other role than to be celebrities. These appear to be the successful and beautiful people, when our lives can feel humdrum and plain.

So we emulate their looks, their ideals, their behaviour; we make believe. And why not? Doesn’t this lift our eyes beyond our small horizons and introduce a bit of glamour?

Given that it is impossible to see things with much objectivity (see my last post: 'We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are'), we need some way to maintain a course through life when all else shifts - our moods, our circumstances, and as we move from childhood to adolescence to adulthood and to old age, our perspectives on life change.

Ancient mariners navigating by the stars knew that they needed to find the Pole Star to find true north, for even the stars appear to move round on their axis, with the Pole Star alone giving a reliable course. So, we too need to look much further, much deeper, to a fixed and unfailing point in order to set a true and reliable course over a lifetime.

But Hollywood stars and celebrities come and go; they may be shooting stars, but they certainly do not offer a sure means of navigation for life. Moreover, in emulating them we haven’t fooled anyone, least of all ourselves – our dreams remain only make-believe while our lives continue as humdrum as before.

If they do not offer a reliable means of navigating life, what does?

Many look to the ancient religions, which purport to offer a timeless wisdom, the promise of fulfillment and bliss in the life hereafter. Moreover, these bear witness to having sufficient benefit and wisdom that they have survived over countless generations. There is a selection of such religions to choose from according to taste!

But pause before rushing on, for choosing one's Pole Star is no small matter. In fact therein lies the problem: one cannot choose the Pole Star - there is but one! Choosing any but the true Pole Star will gradually but surely lead us astray.

So what do you navigate by in life, and is it a true and reliable guide when all else is disorientated?

We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are

We cannot help but see the world through our own eyes - what else can we do? Yet our point of view is so familiar that we usually blind to it and so are sometimes taken aback by the difference of another's viewpoint.

At some levels this is easy to accept. Your liking certain foods or fashions that are different to my tastes, and having different interests to my own - that is easy to handle. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" we think when we are aghast that someone else could find that attractive!

But the issue cuts deeper that this. Consider our values, the things we take to be right or wrong. Now we are not talking about our taste in food or style, but our 'taste in truth'. Arghhh! - a contradiction in terms, for truth is truth is truth, surely?

And you may think that here I am becoming one of those 'woolly liberals' who are apparently prepared to accept anything and everything as equally valid. No, I'm not. But nor am I going to fall into the opposite trap of assuming that my version of the truth is the result of my perfect vision and insight! For I cannot get away from the fact that what I see in front of me is a product of my own (no-doubt-biased, partially-ignorant, completely-sinful) mind.

And I'm afraid that this is true, even when, perhaps particularly when, we come to reading the Bible. We can only see it through our own eyes, and what we see says as much about us as about the Bible.

I was struck a while back in a Bible study group when we were looking at Mark 1 v1-13. When asked what the focus of the passage was, we got the following answers:

• John the Baptist baptising Jesus (which is in v9)
• God confirming Jesus as his Son (v11)
• John telling people that Jesus was coming in order to baptise people with the Holy Spirit (v8)
• That after a time of blessing there comes a time of trial (v13).

So, what have we learned from the passage? That the first speaker notices actions, the second is concerned about identity, the third about the purpose of life, and the last has probably learnt this lesson from painful experience. And each had picked out what was relevant to them.

We can - with some validity - say that God had spoken to each one. We can also say - with some validity - that all saw but a small part and missed a very great deal.

So, what was the passage actually about? What is God telling us through this section of his Word? Which of the above answers is true? Each of the above answers contains truth. We learn not just about God, but the way we see His Word (like everything else) also tells us about ourselves.

[NB. Although there may be many right answers, some answers are wrong! For example, the passage does NOT say the Jesus is one of God's many sons, nor is this said or implied elsewhere in the Bible. So we could confidently challenge such a statement if it were made. Not everything goes!]

But it remains the case that we don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

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Title is a quote from Anais Nin who, though not a heroine of mine, expressed this thought beautifully.

Doing more than half the work

Here are three suggested guidelines related to helping.

They can be applied in just about any setting – practical help, offering guidance, third-world development work, Christian mission…

1. When we do for someone what they can do for themselves, we diminish them and rob them of their dignity.

• How often we demonstrate our ‘helpfulness’ by doing for others what they can do for themselves! But usually we are just demonstrating our pride and our lack of respect.
• And all we are really showing is our own neediness – our need to be ‘top dog’, our need to be needed, our need to be seen as helpful…
• We also show our lack of listening or discernment, our lack of understanding of the other person’s knowledge, skills and capabilities. And so we miss the opportunity to learn from the other and so grow ourselves.

2. Where a task is heavy and some assistance might be appreciated, we may offer to help but we shouldn’t take control; our role is to serve under their leadership; it is their task.

• Where we think we can help, there usually comes an assumption that actually we could do it better than they can. And so we say we are offering to help, but actually are offering to take over!
• But when it comes to knowing what needs to be done, who knows better – the outside ‘expert’ or the person who lives within the situation and brings a lifetime of experience to their situation?
• Just occasionally – though much less frequently that assumed – the outsider may know something that is genuinely useful. But this should be offered very tentatively and humbly, with the decision over whether to take it forward left firmly with the person whose task it is. If it is imposed it will not be adopted or owned, merely tolerated for a while.

3. Even where a person really cannot do something for themselves, don't do more than half the work, as this creates dependence and robs them of learning.

• How much easier it is to do the task for the other, rather than go through the lengthy process of working alongside someone who does not understand!
• But this merely feeds our ego, until we become bored and tire of helping and depart, leaving the other worse off than when we began.
• Rather, work together, offering your skills or understanding, but also listening and learning from the other, so that together you create something which is better than either of you could do alone.

Helping is a difficult task, and not often encountered.

There's a small part of the world...

There is a small* part of the world where:

Too often people have lost hope
because loneliness is endemic and love is not often found
and many choose to be sex objects just in order to find closeness.

Where people worship idols,
and graven images are held in such high esteem that they are to die for,
and the main religion is materialism.

Where words are twisted and honesty is rare,
back-stabbing and character-assassination is rife
and where ‘news’ actually means gossip.

Where justice means those with the biggest bank-balance are right
Where civilisation means having a big arms industry.

Where people think they are rich, and yet they are poor
Where health means no more than the absence of illness
Where experts know everything, except about how to live.

Where people engage more with the virtual world than with reality,
because reality is too painful
and life is so bitter it's better to use alcohol and drugs to numb the mind.

It's called 'the West' or the 'Developed World'.


* ‘The West’ (the North American, European and Australasian continents plus Japan) amounts to about 22% of the world’s population. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

(You may be reading this in ‘The West’ and object to these generalisations if they don’t reflect your personal experience. However, even greater generalisations are used to describe the majority world: ‘poor’, ‘lazy’, ‘corrupt’, etc.)

The future is only what you make it now

We probably tend to assume that we have little control over the future. Almost by definition, we don't know what the future holds.

Except that this is largely not true. Do you want know what you'll be like as an old man or woman? Then read on...

More than anything else, we are creatures of habit. Neuroscience shows us that as we repeat certain thought patterns and behaviours we build up neural pathways in our brains to match, so that these thoughts and behaviours become more and more familiar and automatic, even to the extent that doing something different becomes difficult. This is just to say, that as we practice certain ways of thinking and behaving they become entrenched; they become our character.

So what we'll be like in the future is in fact very predictable - we will very likely be much the same as today, only more so!

A handful of simple examples:

• If I would like to be respected and have a large circle of friends in my old age, but in the present I am well practiced at telling lies and annoying people, then my dream future will probably only be that - a dream. It is much more likely that I face a lonely old age, distrusted by others...
• If I want to feel at peace and contented, but spend the present worrying and being anxious, then I'm getting better and better at worrying, but getting no practice at being content! Why do I think I'll suddenly become good at it later?
• If I want my children to be close to me as I grow older, but I only talk to them to criticise or make demands, then ... well, you can see where this is going ....

So, take a look at your life. What are you practising in the present:

• being self-centred, independent, or distant?
• taking things easy and sleeping?
• being anxious, controlling or snappy?
• working and driving yourself and others hard?
• keeping your word and being truthful?
• trusting in God and knowing his faithfulness?

This applies in the Christian faith as much as in anything else. For example: what do you do when you face a difficulty - worry or pray? Which are you practicing and getting better at? Of course, there will be unexpected events in the future, and God isn't above intervening in surprising ways. And it is possible to call on Jesus to turn you around completely - which he will if you'll let him.

If you look at yourself and where you are headed and don't like what you see, then it is not too late to change track. But the more practice you have had on your current path, the more difficult it will be to 'do different'. So, when we think 'I'll get round to it later' - as is so easy - we need to bear in mind that it will only become harder as time goes by.

So if you want to become a certain kind of person, it's high time you begin to get in some practice... The future is only what you make it now.

On saying "no"

Do you remember all those times you said "yes" to some request for help, without really stopping and thinking about it much? And then later got annoyed that you were committed to doing this thing, or found yourself ending up being much too busy?

It is said that 'If you want something done, ask a busy person'. You know how there are some people who seem to be involved in lots of things, and others who don't seem to get involved at all? Well, if you are the former, this post is for you. Let's take a closer look at the thinking and motives that may be going on here.

As a Christian I should say 'yes'

Maybe you feel that as a Christian you should be helping out, even when you don't really feel like it? After all, this is about putting others' needs before our own, isn't it?

Well, God certainly calls us to work for him, and this may well include ways that aren't high on our personal list of preferences, or that involve real sacrificial service.  But this also means that there are things he does not call us to do.  This isn't simply to say that God calls us to do good and not evil (though that is true), but that there are good things he is not calling me to do - for he has different, individually tailored, work for each person who will follow him.

There are only 24 hours in a day, and they need to be used fully in the ways God has commanded - which includes his command to rest and to take time with him... We certainly can't do everything, and God doesn't call us to do so! So what is he calling us to do, and what is he calling others to do?

Somebody's got to do it

But if God has not called you to such work, why are you doing it?  It might be because you've got hooked by the notion that someone's got to do this thing, and if no-one else is, then it better be you.

But actually, it might be that God actually doesn't need that particular thing done, and so no-one doing it really is the best outcome. Alternatively, it may be that someone else should be getting off their backside to do what God has called them to.

So, it may also be that while you are doing these things that God hasn't called you to do, you are robbing someone else of that role which is theirs!  Perhaps they remain one of the people in the background because you are always there in front, getting in the way?

Moreover, if you are busy doing something you are not called to, then you are not getting on with what he has called you to ...

It would look bad if I said no / it would look good if I said yes

Umm. I thought that pride would turn up somewhere in this topic.

There's a real need

Does a need constitute a call? I think not. There are so many needs and we cannot possibly respond to them all. Some are easy to say 'no' to, as we clearly don't have the required skills or resources; but when we could do something, does that mean we are called?

So when we helpfully, or out of a sense of Christian duty, always say 'yes', then we are spending time not doing what God has called us to do. The devil is very keen to keep us busy doing all sorts of good things, just so long as they are not what God has called us to do.

Our thinking and motives for saying 'yes' or 'no' are always complex and mixed; pride and fear are bound to be in there somewhere. So perhaps, rather than simply saying "yes", or by starting from the point of considering whether the task needs to be done, we would do better to start by asking God, "Are you calling me to do this?"

Of course, the question arises: "How do I know what God is calling me to do?". The answer lies in a close and personal walk with Jesus - which will almost certainly be squeezed out if you are always saying 'yes' to everything else...