When the Hurricane Hits

              We are in the midst of an epic storm here in the Northeast.  Monster hurricane 'Sandy' slammed into both the east coast and a Nor'easter storm. On top of those two facts add the full moon which causes exceptionally high tides.  When you put all of those things together you have the makings of massive flooding, trees blowing over, dangerous traffic conditions, power outages and very disrupted lives.  The 'unpredictable' factor adds a high level of anxiety to the mix.  Should we evacuate, board up the house, buy lots of staples to survive for a week or so, buy that generator we were thinking about and many more decisions?  The size and complexity of the decisions and their potential impact makes them exceptionally excruciating.

               On top of all those factors there is the ever looming fear of the 'Monday Morning Quarterbacks' who will second guess every decision that was made.  There is extra focus on the things that were not done or done poorly.  There are those who jump in and take advantage of the situation by price gouging and providing poor service in the process.  Those who are least able to handle these tragedies are the most impacted.  Nobody is exempt from the pain and deprivation of these types of events.  We are all inconvenienced by the disruption and nobody is happy. Tempers are short and giving grace is a rarity.

               Whether it is a natural disaster like 'Sandy', a family crisis of a serious auto accident or cancer diagnosis, or a business situation where some event, competing product or financial crisis has attacked the very core of the company's existence it comes down to where our heart is.  Whatever is in the core of our heart comes out during these times.  If we are prideful, afraid, controlling, arrogant, and vengeful, our reactions will reflect that.  On the other hand if we are filled with God's spirit, dependent upon Him for direction, able to hear His still small voice we will be able to respond in a way that is redemptive even in the midst of the chaos.  This isn't something that you can just turn on when you need it.  It is built over time by responding well to these adversity situations.  Looking to these disasters, big and small, as classrooms for grace, will go a long way to our spiritual growth.  I am reflecting on how I handle this storm in that light.

Politics of the Seven Deadly Sins

The seven deadly sins are also known as Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins.  These are the sins that have been used to identify fallen humanity’s tendency to sin.

They are

1. Wrath

2. Greed

3. Sloth 

4. Pride

5. Lust

6. Envy 

7. Gluttony.  

While these specific sins destroy the life of grace and charity within a person they also lead to other more numerous sins.  Our Catholic brothers have a whole process for dealing with these sins. It’s interesting that the sins that the world seems to focus on are not on this list. The ones that seem ‘top of mind’ and inspire the most spirited debate are abortion, euthanasia, infanticide, homosexuality, and the like.  They are lightning rod items that carry high emotional content and separate one ‘camp’ from another. 

  

As I looked at these lists I thought about my time in the business world.  It is amazing how many of these sins were inherent in many of the activities of the business world. Whether it was the sales promotion that had a great vacation trip or some toy I couldn’t do without like a watch, computer or golf clubs.  In many of those meetings I was enticed to be like someone else who was writing more insurance than I was.  There was always the pride that came with beating everyone else in a contest and taking credit for how amazing I was.  There were the corporate ‘five course’ dinners with incredible food in massive quantities. That amount of food would have sufficed for 3-5 days if I would have eaten them at the levels I truly needed. There was one sin ‘sloth’ that I initially thought was not a problem for me.  When I looked up the definition it read ‘demoting God’s role in our lives and replacing Him enthusiastically with other things’. I was busted on that one as well.   The bottom line is that I am guilty on all counts in all the seven deadly sins.

      So this is another place where the tension of living in a broken and sinful world resides.  While I experience grace and mercy from God in the midst of my sin and brokenness it saddens me when I see the judgment, prejudice, and rage so prevalent around me.  Matthew 7:2-4 comes to mind when I think about judging others.  On what basis can I even do that, especially when I look at the Cardinal Sins?  If I am honest with myself I have to be harsher on my own activity than on those around me who are engaged in those ‘sins’ that have somehow been identified as worse than others.  I think the Bible’s standards for my behavior are much more of a challenge than the ones we focus on and the judgment potentially much more convicting.  God help me to repent from these seven deadly sins and all the others beyond.

Fly Fishing and Spiritual Reflections

      Fly fishing is a refuge for me.  Being out on the water with the sounds of the bubbling stream all around me, hearing the birds, seeing the insects flying around the edges of the stream are all a place of peace.  The essence of fly fishing is casting the fly just upstream of where the fish are and letting the fly drift downstream toward them.  The fish sees the fly floating towards it and before it can fully identify it lurches forward and takes the fly. 

       My mind is much like the fish.   I have some evidence of A.D.D. so my mind is going all the time.  There is seldom that I don’t have multiple thoughts going on at one time.  I bounce from this to that, processing this piece of information and then distracted by something else and off I go on that tangent.  Just like the fish I wait in the stream waiting for a fly to drift by.  I might go after it, I might acknowledge it and then let it go by, I might even engage with it and then let it go but unless I actually take the fly and it hooks me it is gone as quickly as it comes. 

       I tried for a number of years to work on my spiritual formation process but it was so much like the stream, way too many flies going by and I was so distracted by the next fly which was more interesting.  Someone suggested the concept of journaling.  It has transformed my spiritual formation process.  I went from jumping from one thing to the next to focusing more intentionally and intently on specific topics and letting them grow and develop within me.  The very act of slowing my brain down enough to get my thoughts out the end of a pen has made all the difference for me.  It keeps me more directed, less distracted, more aware, less arbitrary, more focused, less fractured.  

 
       Blank books and journals are so prevalent now and the old black Composition books are inexpensive and work very well.  Why not go out and get one and see if this discipline might be the ticket to slowing down and finding some good flies.

"Fallingwater"

My wife Joanne and I try to visit as many local attractions as we can and although this site is over 200 miles away, I consider that local.  We took an overnight trip to western Pennsylvania to visit 'Fallingwater' the home that was built in the 1930's by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.  Although not a student of Wrights' I have been intrigued by him after visiting a number of structures designed by him.  It started with a church in Redding, California and the Marin County Civic Center building. We were able to visit his famed west coast school Taliesin West near Scottsdale, Arizona this past March which was my first real introduction to Wright the architect.

               There is so much about this complex man that is worthy of note.  He did his most impressive work after age 65 which includes 'Fallingwater' and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.  Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. 'Fallingwater' is a wonderful example of this philosophy.  It is a home that is built over a 30 foot waterfall.  Everything about it points to the outside environment.  When you enter a room your eyes go to the windows and outside.  The boulders are built into the house and protrude into rooms.  The furniture was designed and built by Wright into the rooms.  It uses a 'cantilever style' construction so the rooms are open with limited obstructions.  The house is a showplace of planning, forethought, and intentionality.  Every detail was thought through from the location of the windows, so they accentuate the outside, to the radiant heaters that are hid inside furniture.  He had very definite ideas about everything in the house, nothing was left to chance but was calculated and intentional.

               As I reflected more about Frank Lloyd Wright I thought of other amazing creative souls like Victor Hugo, Johann Sebastian Bach, Michelangelo, William Shakespeare and a host of others who were exceptional in their fields.  A common thread that I see through all these people is that they have what Dallas Willard calls VIM: Vision, Intentionality and Means.  They had a laser focus on what they felt needed to be produced and they did the work with great results because there were so good.  If have heard that it takes 10.000 hours to be an expert at anything.  I have found that number to be conservative.  To be an expert takes many more hours that most of us are willing to invest.  How about your spiritual life? Are you just doing that as a hobby, as an avocation, as something to do when you are not busy?  That is not going to work if you are looking for transformation or excellence.  Consider the cost and the benefit that comes from such an effort.  What is God saying to you about that?  What is He inviting you to?

The Rapid Pace of Change

             I was recently talking to a group of insurance agents with a wide mix of ages from their early 30’s to people like me in their 60’s.  I was talking about the process of change and how when I started in the insurance business it was all paper.  Around the mid 70’s the microfiche came on the scene.  It was the most amazing piece of technology where you could see all of your accounts on one piece of equipment, didn’t have to walk to the file cabinet which was often misfiled and search for what you were looking for.  The younger members of the group had this puzzled look on their faces, ‘what is a microfiche?’ was the question.  It hit me that I was talking about the past in terms that those who were younger could not even relate to.

             I was also thinking of my great grandmother Granny who passed away when I was in my early 20’s.  She was a great sage, born in September 1884, moved from Iowa to Wyoming in a covered wagon. In her lifetime she saw the introduction of electricity, the automobile, two "wars to end all wars", the great depression and a man landing on the moon.  Can you conceive of that level of change? 

            The level of change is exponential. It seems like each week in my insurance agency there is another change or addition to the software that we are using.  A new feature, a whole new program, something moved to a new location from where I was used to it being.

            The hardest part for me to process is that I have always prided myself on being able to figure things out. Trouble shooting was a foundational part of my training as an Air Force pilot.  You had to know how to determine what was wrong and then fix it.  I learned solve problems with airplanes, cars were simple enough for me to do most of the repairs, almost everything could be repaired and we had paper manuals to do that.  Now our world is mostly 'throw away' and it is more expensive to fix than it is to just replace it.  Most technology is designed for obsolescence, it is only going to be good for a couple of years so it requires another outlay. 

            The bottom line is that I am increasingly frustrated that I can’t fix it and since I often can’t talk to a person to help me work through the problem I am even more stressed when I can’t get my work done.  The blessing of this process is that it is focusing my thoughts on the fact that me being able to 'fix things' was really an illusion anyway.  I find that fixing things assumes that you are in control and that you have the answers.  Spiritually I clearly don't have the answers.  This frustration with technology has led me to understand and acknowledge that I have tried to fix and control things most of my life. God is inviting me to hear His 'still, small voice' and to allow Him to direct my decisions and choices.