Tag: learn to be wise

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Forward Look Journal Wisdom

A New Name for my Blog

Today we have lots of knowledge and many experiences but little wisdom. That is a poverty!
Today we have lots of knowledge and many experiences but little wisdom. That is a poverty!

Sometimes when I see one of those big flashing arrow signs on the highway pointing to a lane closure or a detour, I reflect on how we might wish that life came with flashing directional signals that we could not miss.  I know I have needed such a thing more than once.   But life does not, and so many people lose their way amid the maze of decisions, circumstances and pressures that face people every day.  I remember when I first felt called to become a pastor, one who helps others along life’s road, one of the objectives in my mind was to be used of God in helping to teach people how to live wisely.  I hoped to help folks learn to make wise choices.  It’s a dangerous and slightly presumptuous undertaking because no matter how old or educated one is, one must undertake the task while very much a learner along the road.

 

The Good News is that one of the purposes of the Bible is to provide the principles to teach us how to live wisely.   Consider, for example, the stated purpose from the prologue of the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament.

For gaining wisdom and instruction;
for understanding words of insight;
For receiving instruction in prudent behavior,
doing what is right and just and fair;
For giving prudence to those who are simple,
knowledge and discretion to the young—
Let the wise listen and add to their learning,
and let the discerning get guidance— Prov 1:2-5  NIV 2011

In addition, God’s Holy Spirit has promised to guide Christ-followers in their journey.   So there is hope!

The Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.  Prov 2:6  NIV 2011

Recently, this focus on helping others live wisely has been impressed upon me again.   Accordingly, I have decided to change the title of my blog to: Learn to be Wise.  I hope that the change will accomplish several purposes.

  • It will help my blog focus more on wisdom for daily living. I want to write more in the wisdom category on my blog.
  • It will enlarge the blog’s appeal beyond those who normally look at the writings of pastors. This is an important factor in New England where fewer people have a relationship to a church that in upstate New York.
  • It aligns the title with the web address, an address chosen two years ago because we could not get one that looked like the old blog title. Could it be that God was already at work pointing in this direction?  I think so.

Of course, there will still be some family posts; that keeps the blog personal.   And there will still be some church-related posts; church gives me a great deal of context.   But overall, I trust the percentage of posts will shift toward practical comments on daily life and reflections that help us find wisdom for our daily choices.

Categories
Journal Joy Notes Who Am I Wisdom

Finding Joy As You Go

Yellow beach daisy and hardy rugged green foliage contrasts nicely with the white sand
Beach Walk Serendipity

Written June 1, 2015

Looking for unexpected beauty

As you know, I like to walk.  When I walk, I look for beauty and joy.  Today, on vacation, I walked out toward the beach, there was a wild yellow daisy flower in bloom in the sand dunes.  It was beautiful!   I learned by online research that its name is beach dune daisy (Helianthus debilis).  Finding beauty in unexpected places is a habit I try to cultivate.  When such a serendipity happens, it always makes me philosophical too because I think the experience confirms one of my maxims for life.

“Always be looking for and appreciate unexpected sparks of joy!”

One’s approach to a walk is a clue to how you live

I’ve observed in this regard that one can learn much about a person’s approach to life from the way they approach a trail walk.

  • I meet some people who are always walking with friends. That tells me that they are people-persons who are energized as much by the conversation as by the walk.   I bet they appreciate connectedness in other areas of life too.
  • Other walkers and runners are always alone. There might be many reasons but at the very least they don’t mind being alone.   More probably, like me, they relish it as a time for thinking or just drinking in from nature or perhaps praying, as I sometimes do.   These kind of people find joy in times of quiet.
  • Some people out on the trails are out more to “get the job done,” the task of getting in their exercise, that is. They usually have earbuds and don’t want to even give you the time of day lest you delay them.  I imagine they are very task oriented people in other phases of life as well.  I always pity them in a way as they miss so much by seldom stopping to look or listen.   I’ve observed that it is hard for very task-oriented people to find a rhythm in life that includes time for contemplation.   But they might reply to me that they enjoy the physical high that comes from aerobic exercise.

Have you noticed that people view the conditions for walking differently too.

  • I comment to some about the day and they will always be enthusiastic about what a great day it is to walk, even on winter days. These have learned to enjoy the moment.
  • Other people find something wrong on the best of days; they may note the bugs or the heat or the cold or the rough trail or too many bicyclers or doggy dodo or whatever. Though, frankly, those kind are usually not consistent walkers.

There’s a difference in what is appreciated on the walk too.

  • Some are always observing whatever nature has to offer that day.
  • Others are not observant of nature at all.
  • Some may be only looking for deer and so most days they are disappointed as one only very occasionally sees one while on the trail.

Appreciate the joys the moment brings

It’s the same in life.  Some are constantly discovering new blessings in different areas of their lives.    Other people seem only to be able to focus on troubles; the bugs and poison ivy patches of life seem to be everywhere for them.    Still others are looking only for one or two kinds of rewards in life so they are frequently disappointed as usually the kinds of things they look for are infrequent occurrences.

Michael Cannon Loehrer put it this way, “If people only allow their hearts to enjoy what delights them, they will soon become bored most of the time.  If we train our hearts to find joy in drudgery, we will rest content with whatever comes our way and our lives will remain on an even keel.  Complainers bounce between ever increasing extremes of delight and despair” (From the book “Porch Talk with Gramps on Parenting: A Framework for a Functional Family”).

For example, I love to observe birds.  And thankfully spring days like we have been having in May are the peak of the season for that.    But not every day or every walk is ideal for bird watching.  For example, one day, I forgot the binoculars.  Don’t ask me how, but it happened.   So I watched for what I could see with the naked eye.  I peeked over the bridge over Salmon Creek and thought I saw movement.  So I moved to the other side and had the privilege of watching a young mink forage along the edge of the stream for five or ten minutes, a once in a lifetime event.  If I had remembered the binoculars I probably would not have looked in the streambed.  I chose to enjoy what was available and was rewarded.

Another day it was windy and my walk happened midday, neither of which is best for birding.   But the sun was out and so were the reptiles.  That day a tree frog hopped across my path and I saw a black snake sunning himself on the edge of the road.   I took pictures of both.  I chose to watch what was moving and enjoyed the walk more for it.  Choosing to look for the joys a moment offers is a great habit to cultivate.  As I say:

“Always be looking for and appreciate unexpected sparks of joy!”

I’m posting a few pictures of things I’ve seen on walks, especially flowers found in unlikely places or trees growing in unusual forms.   I call this gallery “Serendipities.”

White violets in moss at Carpenter Falls
Where are this tree's roots?
Lady Slipper near the rail trail
Flowering Quince only 3 inches high
rock garden plant
White and purple violet
Talk about making the best of a bad situation
A lawn of purple violets

[Show as slideshow]
Categories
Journal Meditations News Commentary Wisdom

Pray for Wise Peacemakers

A Word for the wise
A Word for the wise

My heart is filled with grief at the picture of Muslims affiliated with IS lining up Christian Copts for martyrdom. My mind reels. In addition, religiously motivated shootings in Denmark and France are shocking as the specter of anti-Semitism appears. The potential in humans for barbarity is surfacing in several places.   On another front, I am saddened also at the losses and broken promises in the war in Ukraine. One country invading another to take over more territory – sounds like greed in action, lightly covered under the pretext of a rebel cause. There is so much fanaticism and aggression!

Is there a word of wisdom for our warring world today? This morning I was reading James 3:13-18 and was impressed by it.   It is a rebuke to the spirits both of fanatics who kill and to aggressors fulfilling their selfish ambitions.  A popular paraphrase brings it down to a more personal level and warns, “Whenever you’re trying to look better than others or get the better of others, things fall apart and everyone ends up at the others’ throats” (James 3:16 The Message).

In New Testament times the fanatics were the Zealots.   The word translated envy in this passage is the word for zeal that they used. The Apostle James warns that in contrast to hearts filled with bitterness and selfish ambition and behavior marked by evil, “true wisdom is the wisdom of peace not of violence” (IVP Bible Background Commentary on the NT). A person who is truly wise shows gentleness and consideration for others. They are merciful, impartial, reliable and straightforward in their dealings. Those who sow bitterness and violence reap bitterness and violence.   But the harvest of peacemakers is joyful. I pray for wise peacemakers in our world.

 

 

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Journal News Commentary Wisdom

College should build character

Houghton Logo I have been reflecting today on two completely independent items that I read.  The first was an article about the problem of officers being ejected from the Army in alarming numbers for character issues of various kinds. Here is the quote. 

“The number of U.S. soldiers forced out of the Army because of crimes or misconduct has soared in the past several years as the military emerges from a decade of war that put a greater focus on battle competence than on character.  Data obtained by The Associated Press shows that the number of officers who left the Army due to misconduct more than tripled in the past three years.”   http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-misconduct-forces-more-soldiers-145434065.html

Having been in the military myself for a few years, I am aware that young officers are college graduates.  I reflected that this is not the only place where college educated people seem to be showing disappointing levels of moral character.   The halls of Congress and the governors’ offices of several eastern states in recent years have provided too many high profile examples of moral failures.  One would hope that higher levels of education would lead to higher maturity of character too. 

The other item that I read was in a letter from Dr. Shirley Mullen of Houghton College.   It alluded to one of the fundamental causes of this observed counterintuitive and disturbing decline in character.

“Earlier this month, New York Times Columnist David Brooks addressed more than 300 presidents of America’s private universities and colleges at the Presidents’ Institute of the Council of Independent Colleges.   At a time when much of the dialogue about higher education in America is about cost, graduation rates, job training, and student loans, Brooks pleaded with the presidents not to forget what society needs most from college graduates: character and wisdom. He then proceeded to assert that the only sector of American higher education that has an explicit strategy for the development of character and wisdom is the Christian college. It is not often that Christian colleges are called out for praise within the larger world of American higher education!”  

It does not take a genius to see the relationship between these two quotes. Christian colleges represent only a very small slice of American higher education. That means most of American college graduates spend their college years in institutions where character and wisdom are not part of the agenda.  When these are not part of the agenda, students often use their formative years as something of an unholy “moral holiday,” a time when they throw off restraint.   With no one even attempting to guide this time of experimentation, the results are frequently predictably disastrous.

As a longtime advocate of Christian colleges in general and of Houghton College in particular, I have said for years that parents need to invest their college dollars in colleges were character matters and where good character is formed, not destroyed; colleges like Houghton.   For this reason, when our daughter was choosing a college my wife and I said to her, “We are going to be investing a lot of money in this; you pick the college, but it has to be a Christian college.”   We knew she liked new places, so it was a surprise when she picked her mother’s alma mater, Houghton College.  Houghton did not disappoint!     

Categories
Church Leadership Journal

Investigating the Principle of the Path

I have just finished outlining our Sunday morning message series for April.  It actually takes off from the Easter Celebration service message.  It draws some topics and resources from Andy Stanley’s book The Principle of the Path. 

The Principle of the Path
Date Sermon title Text Speaker Suggested Hymn
Mar 31 (10 AM) Celebration Power for the Path John 20:19-31 Pastor Kelvin Christ the Lord is Risen Today  (231)
Apr 7 The Principle of the Path Proverbs 7:6-27; 27:12 Pastor Kelvin Trust and Obey (320)
Apr 14 Grace and Truth for Our Path Jer. 17:9; John 1:17; 8:32 Pastor Kelvin How Deep the Father’s Love for Us  (Stuart Townend)
Apr 21 The Harmful Path Prov. 3:5,6; Col. 3:5-17 Pastor Kelvin Cleanse Me (317)
Apr 28 Staying on the Wholesome Path Prov. 1:1-9; 12:15 Pastor Kelvin Go, Make of All Disciples  (571 UMH)
Categories
Forward Look Journal Who Am I

A new place in cyberspace for my blog

 

A new domain name

In preparation for my retirement from Community Wesleyan Church in a few months, Steven Sgroi, my web technical guru, and I are working to untangle my internet presence from the church’s internet site.   As a part of that process, my blog will have a new location in the future.  For now, if you try to access it from the old address it will redirect you to the new one just fine, but eventually, you will want to find me at the new address site—learntobewise.com.

Living wisely is the focus

I am excited about the possibilities of this name too.   Just think about the fact that one whole section of the Old Testament is devoted to wisdom.   I think also about the last words of Psalm 107 which might just be good mission statement for my blog at learntobewise.com.   I should be writing in such a way that my reader would want to take the Psalm writer’s advice.   “Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord” (Ps 107:43 NIV).   I have always felt that one of the jobs of a pastor is to live wisely and help others live wisely also.  So I think this new domain name will be a great fit.   I also like the idea in the name that we are not wise all at once.  Rather, we are always learning and becoming wiser.