Luther: spite the devil

We must reject the law when it seeks to affright the conscience, and when we feel God's anger against our sins, then we must eat, drink, sleep, and be cheerful to spite the devil.  But human wisdom is more inclined to understand the law of Moses, then the law of the gospel.  Old Adam will not out.

Tabletalk 279

Lessons from the Silence 4

As well as its other effects, silence also helps to reveal one's essential helplessness in life.  Although I still lived in my home, and (once I felt well) saw people in the community, there was a sense in which not speaking prevented lots of things which produce, perhaps normally, unrecognised background noise to life.  You can't just speak for the sake of it and fill up the void with words, you can't talk fast and long during an adrenaline fuelled crisis, you can't just phone someone or stop someone to speak to because you don't want to be alone with your thoughts.

And this, I think, produced a sense of need: a more urgent realisation of the need for the presence and grace of God.  Which leaves another question:  how much of life is noise and activity and maybe superfluous yakking in order to cover up, on the one hand, how not-in-control of life we are, and on the other, our desperate need for the moment by moment conscious life with God?

Lessons from the Silence 3

This is more a sociological observation: roughly 50% of people (that's a guess) on discovering I couldn't speak, would then start whispering or mouthing words and waving their hands about in pidgin sign language.  The logical problem with this - it was me that couldn't speak, and I hadn't lost my hearing - didn't easily present itself to them.

I'm not sure there's a big application to life from this, other than: presumably this is what people with disabilities experience regularly, the assumption that when some faculty doesn't function as usual in a person, whispering/talking loud/waving arms around will help.

Piper: Spiritual Leadership

...I defined spiritual leadership as:
"knowing where God wants people to be and taking the initiative to get them there by God's means in reliance on God's power."

Brothers We Are Not Professionals, p11

Lessons from the Silence 2

Not only do we use a colossal amount of words each day, but because we seldom struggle with our voices nor have a limited reservoir of a permitted word-count, we use them with much less thought that we realise.

I had to write everything down, and the process of writing down a conversation is different from speaking.  It's even different than IM. 

When you are communicating with someone who can speak, but you can't, then one quickly discovers some Notebook-Dynamics:

1) Word economy:  you can't write as many words as you speak because you will end up with aching hands or cramps.  You have to use less words to say the same things.
2) Speed: you can't write as many words as you would speak in response to someone, because by the time you have written three sentences, that person is already mentally moving on.  By the time you finished the third paragraph of your florid creation, they are somewhere else entirely and have started a new conversation.  Then you end up in a Two Ronnies situation, where you are answering two questions previous to this one.  There just isn't time to write as we speak.
3) Clarity: brief precision becomes paramount.  And this requires thinking a good deal more before 'speaking'.  You can't do that thing where you start talking before your thought is fully formed, in the hope that you won't need to take a breath, thus preventing your friend from cutting in, before you finally produce the beautiful sentence you were after.  That just doesn't work when you can't speak: they can cut in whenever they feel like it.

All of which, when you think about it, makes sense.  All of which extends itself into being a critique of the profligate, superfluous and decadent way we treat speech.  But the question is, can these Notepad Dynamics be carried over into daily conversation?  And do we really want to give up being able to leave all the lights on, consuming vast resources, rather than having the single necessary bulb shining in the gloom?  In the verbal storm of modern life, do we really want succinct, elegant clarity?

Stark: comparitve tolerance

Comparative religion textbooks sometimes contrast a tolerant Islam with an intolerant Christianity, stressing that in 1492 Christians expelled Jews from Spain where, it is often asserted, they had lived peacefully and prosperously for centuries under Muslim rule.  These same textbooks ignore the fact that in 1148 Muslims also expelled Jews from Spain under the same terms  as the Christians did later, which surely demonstrates that these comparisons are at least uninformed and often probably disingenuous.

Stark, One True God, p81.

Stark: top-down paganism and bottom-up Christianity

Constantine's lavish support of Christianity came at the expense of paganism.  Unlike Christianity, the pagan temples were top-down rather than bottom-up organisations in that they were constructed and sustained by state funding and by gifts from a few very rich benefactors  Thus while Christianity had done very well without state or aristocratic support, paganism collapsed rapidly without it.

Stark One True God, p63

Luther: law and gospel

I was just going to quote the first two sections of this;  but actually the whole thing is worth reading:

The law is used in two ways; first, for this worldly life, because God has ordained all temporal laws and statutes to prevent and hinder sin. But here some one may object: If the law hinder sin, then also it justifies. I answer: Oh! no, this does not follow; that I do not murder, commit adultery, steal, etc., is not because I love virtue and righteousness, but because I fear the hangman, who threatens me with the gallows, sword, etc. It is the hangman that hinders me from sinning, as chains, ropes, and strong bands hinder bears, lions, and other wild beasts from tearing and rending in pieces all that come in their way.

Hence we may understand, That the same can be no righteousness that is performed out of fear of the curse, but sin and unrighteousness; for the law binds mankind, who by nature are prone to wickedness, that they do not sin, as willingly they would.

Therefore this is the first point concerning the law, that it must be used to deter the ungodly from their wicked and mischievous intentions. For the devil, who is an abbot and prince of this world, allures people to work all manner of sin and wickedness; wherefore God has ordained magistrates, elders, schoolmasters, laws and statutes, to the end, if they can do no more, that at least they may bind the claws of the devil, and hinder him from raging and swelling so powerfully in those who are his, according to his will and pleasure.

Secondly, we use the law spiritually, as thus: To make transgressions seem greater, as St Paul says, or to reveal and discover to people their sins, blindness, and ungodly doings, wherein they were conceived and born; namely, that they are ignorant of God, and are his enemies, and therefore have justly deserved death, hell, God’s judgments, his everlasting wrath and indignation. But the hypocritical sophists in universities know nothing thereof, neither do those who are of opinion that they are justified by the law and their own works.

But to the end that God might put to silence, smother, suppress and beat down to the ground these mischievous and furious beats, he has appointed and ordained a particular Hercules with a club, powerfully to lay hold on such beasts, take them captive, strike them down, and so dispatch them out of the way; that is, he gave the law upon the hill of Sinai, with such fearful thundering and lightning, that all people thereat were amazed and affrighted.

It is exceeding necessary for us to know this use of the law. For he that is not an open and a public murderer, an adulterer, or a thief, holds himself to be an upright and godly man; as did the Pharisee, so blinded and possessed spiritually of the devil, that he could neither see nor feel his sins, nor his miserable case, but exalted himself touching his good works and deserts. Such hypocrites and haughty saints can God by no better means humble and soften, than by and through the law; for that is the right club or hammer, the thunderclap from heaven, the axe of God’s wrath, that strikes through, beats down, and batters such stock-blind, hardened hypocrites. For this cause, it is no small matter that we should rightly understand what the law is, whereto it serves, and what is its proper work and office. We do not reject the law and the works thereof, but on the contrary, confirm them, and teach that we ought to do good works, and that the law is very good and profitable, if we merely give it its right, and keep it to its own proper work and office.

The law opens not nor makes visible God’s grace and mercy, or the righteousness whereby we obtain everlasting life and salvation; but our sins, our weakness, death, God’s wrath and judgment.

The light of the gospel is a far different manner of light, enlightening affrighted, broken, sorrowful, and contrite hearts, and reviving, comforting, and refreshing them. For it declares that God is merciful to unworthy, condemned sinners, for the sake of Christ, and that a blessing thereby is presented unto them who believe; that is, grace, remission of sins, righteousness, and everlasting life.

When in this way we distinguish the law and the gospel, then we attribute and give to each its right work and office. Therefore, I pray and admonish all lovers of godliness and pure religion, especially those who in time are to be teachers of others, that with highest diligence they study this matter, which I much fear, after our time, will be darkened again, if not altogether extinguished.

Martin Luther, Table Talk 274

Cottrell: leadership with stillness and composure

[the author, at scout camp, saw a friend fall 20 feet and lie still]

Seized with panic and shock we ran towards the scene of the accident, but we didn't know what to do...someone raced to get the scoutmaster, who made his way towards the scene.  But he didn't run, he didn't seem to realise it was an emergency.  And this made us cross.  His whole attitude appeared casual, undramatic.  He just walked purposefully towards the fallen boy.  Afterwards he told us why - it was a first lesson in a different sort of leadership.  He told us that he needed a few moments to think;  he'd needed time to weigh up the situation because his first action had to be the right one.  If the fall turned out to be as bad as he feared, there might be no opportunity for a second action. He also walked so he wouldn't be out of breath if he needed to give the boy mouth to mouth resuscitation.  Actually, this was precisely what was needed.  The boy was saved.

You see, it is not always best to be in a hurry.

Sometimes the best leadership requires stillness and composure.  Then the right decisions are taken.  Then the difficult decisions are faced.
----
I want to dream a different way of leading, and my first point is this:  creativity is usually cultivated in the soil of contemplation.

Hit the Ground Kneeling, Stephen Cottrell, p1-4

Lessons from the Silence 1

After two weeks of enforced silence (during most of which, sadly, I was quite ill) what did I realise?

Humans are creatures made to communicate and relate.  On the first day I probably only managed a 70% reduction in speech - and that was HUGE.  It wasn't just a few conversations knocked out, it was vast amounts of talking.  So I quickly realised that most people spend most of their time talking (and I'm not taking into account the pseudo-talking involved in digital media and social networking). 

Lesson 1: I reckon the activity most often performed by most people, is talking.

Alzheimer care

Fascinating articles on a home in America, with a Christian foundation, taking the approach that residents are still complete humans, and trying some unorthodox alternatives to drugs and control:

CT

NY Times