Ethic of Reverence for Live

On my drive to work this morning I heard a news story about 2 teenage girls who murdered their teenage friend as an experiment. Here are some of the things they said:

"We just did it because we felt like it, it is hard to explain."

"I knew we had wanted to kill someone before."

"We knew it was wrong, but it didn't feel wrong at all, it just felt right."

"She started not being able to get her breath, and we just kept going."

The prosecuting attorney, Simon Stone, said one of the girls had prepared for homicide by killing two kittens.

I'm usually suspicious of slippery slope arguments, but in the area of respect for all living things I would encourage you to always take a firm stand in favor of life. Lack of respect for life leads to all types of unkindnesses and immoralities. The current consensus might be that economics is the measure of all things, but much more moral decisions result when an ethic of reverence for life comes before the measure of dollars and cents.

Albert Schweitzer was a Nobel prize winner, medical missionary, and philosopher who died at the age of 90 in 1965. Dr. Schweitzer, when considering the deep and conflicting questions of life, was given an epiphany that he considered his more important contribution to humankind: the ethic of Reverence for Life.

Here are a couple of quotes from Dr. Schweitzer that are worth contemplating:

We are ethical if we abandon our stubbornness, if we surrender our strangeness toward other creatures and share in the life and the suffering that surround us. Only this quality makes us truly human. (Sermon, February 23, 1919; quoted in Albert Schweitzer: Essential Writings)

The presupposition of morality is to share everything that goes on around us, not only in human life but in the life of all creatures. This awareness forces us to do all within our power for the preservation and advancement of life. The great enemy of morality has always been indifference. As children…we had an elementary capacity for compassion. But our capacity did not develop over the years…To remain good means to remain wide awake…So I tell you, don’t let your hearts grow numb. Stay alert. It is your soul which matters. (Sermon, February 23, 1919; quoted in Albert Schweitzer: Essential Writings.)

Cadillac Pickup?

Ok. I said "mostly spiritual", so here goes...

The other day I was driving up I-65 North and I saw something that was so inconsistent that I had to write about it. You know there must be something wrong in the universe when you have to combine the two words "Cadillac" and "pickup". It's just not suppose to be. Now "Chevy Pickup", "Ford Pickup", and even "Toyota Pickup"; those flow off the tongue. They are a natural part of the order of things. But can you imagine putting a gun rack in the back window of a Cadi---- I just can't say it. How about a load of dirt in the bed of a Caddy?

What type of person buys a Cadillac Pickup? I just can't imagine the personality. If you are a Cadillac Pickup owner, please introduce yourself. I, for one, would like to know what makes you tick.

What's Efficiency Got to Do With It?

Efficiency is technically defined as the ratio of the energy used to the work accomplished, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the commonly accepted idea that efficiency is "skillfulness in avoiding wasted time and effort".

I have lived most of my life bowing down before the efficiency idol. In fact I've spent so much time planning and even pondering efficiency that I've very seldom been efficient at all. Have you ever found yourself frozen by fear of inefficiency? I have.

Then... an epiphany came: If the gift of immortality has brought us into the realm of the eternal (i.e. timelessness) then what does a measure of output over time have to do with it? My immediate answer was "nothing". Efficiency and productivity have no meaning when viewed from an eternal perspective. So what if I waste an hour in eternity? I have wasted nothing because hours are an infinitely renewable resource in eternity.

If I view eternity as happening right now, then only direction and movement toward the Center are important. Speed and time are irrelevant?

I think we could use more people with an eternal perspective. What about you?

I'll meet you further on up the road.

Jim Hill

Gnothi Seauton and Know Love

The Ancient Greeks said "gnothi seauton", translated "know thyself", and sometimes expanded to:

"Know thyself - and thou shall know all the mysteries of the gods and of the universe."

Well, I don't know about that but what I do know is that knowing one's self comes before learning to love others. When I see myself as I am, with all my good and all my brokenness and inadequacies and I learn to love myself in spite of myself; then, and only then, can I begin to love others as the Unbroken Father loves me.

But if I will not see myself as the broken man that I am then I will continue to only love others for what they can offer me. I will find that I have wasted my life looking for another and another and another who is worthy of love as I think I am.

Jesus, the Master Teacher, put it this way, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22

Manual for Success or Survival Guide?

In a recent study of 1 Peter 3 that I was in, we were discussing the verses about wives submitting to husbands and husbands loving their wives. I got the distinct impression that the verses were being taken as a formula for a successful marriage. Is that really the context of the statements in 1 Peter? Does a successful marriage really need a formula? Does a "good" marriage need these instructions at all?

If you read carefully the first verses of 1 Peter 3, you will see that they refer us back to 1 Peter 2 which talks about the suffering of Jesus. Though he suffered, he loved to the end.

Since the "wives and husbands" discussion in chapter 3 refers back to the suffering of Jesus at the hands of others, isn't chapter 3 teaching how a wife should live with a husband who doesn't love as she loves him? Isn't Peter teaching a husband how to love his wife even though she doesn't submit to him as he submits to her?

I'll admit that a marriage is a lot more pleasant if both parties are submitting to and loving one another, but I doubt that it offers anywhere near the opportunities for growth that a marriage with suffering has to offer.

To suffer and still submit, to be persecuted and still love, this is the way of Jesus. Although this is a hard way to walk, we walk it with Jesus and we count it all joy just to be with him.

City Reborn?

Is it possible for a city to be reborn? Recreated? Changed at its core? Fundamental characteristics transformed?

In 1990 I visited New York City for the first of 2 times. My most outstanding memory is of the subway ride to the Yankees game. As we approached the stadium the hard external shells that people carried began to crack, break, and fall away. It was as if everyone was drunk on the wine with the Steinbrenner label (or in 1990 was it the Winfield wine? - "Steinbrenner" on Wikipedia). People began to talk and even smile as they shared their passion for their beloved Yankees. Unfortunately, after the game the tone of the city quickly returned to its harsh exterior: living souls with no spark, no spirit.

In 2007 I returned to the city and found it totally different. People were full of life. I heard conversations and saw smiles everywhere: people exchanging life and love. The city had been reborn.

My friends and I visited Ground Zero and I found the spot where, perhaps, the rebirth began. Today its a hole in the ground; a construction sight. But it's more: it's a sanctuary, a hallowed place, a sight where one's life becomes calm and contemplative.

I know a modern city can be reborn; I've seen it, and after all it has happened at least once before. Read the story here.

Pssst! Hey You Behind the Fig Leaf

Why is it that we hide behind our "fig leaves"? I'd say it's in our nature. We've been hiding since Father and Mother Busted began the game in the garden.

I think most of us have told ourselves that hiding is equivalent to healing, but deep down we know it's not true. Others hide because of fear. Because most everyone hides, we think we're the only one who needs to hide. We don't realize that what we're seeing in others is just a thin layer of fig leaves strategically placed to spruce things up a bit.

Dare I say that what we need is a healthy dose of sunlight. We need to come out into the light. We're each and every one busted, so we'll all have lots of company and maybe, just maybe, we'll find healing.

"Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed."
James 5:16

I'll see you further on up the road.

Jim Hill