The Gospel?

Ancient olive trees in Gethsemane's garden ...

Once every hundred years Jesus of Nazareth meets Jesus of the Christian in a garden among the hills of Lebanon. And they talk long; and each time Jesus of Nazareth goes away saying to Jesus of the Christian, "My friend, I fear we shall never, never agree."  ~ Kahlil Gibran, 1926

Why would he say that?

A friend, thinking his way through the question, suggested that perhaps we've been persuaded to a 'cheap gospel'.  One where our purpose is to attend church and do religious things so we can go to heaven. Interestingly, Jesus himself never suggested going to church.  All of his teachings were about choice and love, conscience and service, and caring about others.  Going to church wasn't part of the curriculum.

If it's true that our purpose begins here and now, how shall we then live?

For the literalists among us, take a look at the biblical 'church' (Greek; ekklesia, a calling out from ... and to ..., from kaleo, to call).   

For Jesus, there was this 'calling out' of which he spoke, and just the one; not many callings out, not many churches. And to what purpose did he call them?

Church is those 'called out' people, wherever they are;
at home, at school, at work, or scattered across
the world. It's not a place or a building, it's us.

Just attending church doesn't seem to line up with any biblical teachings.   

Having been called out, on the other hand, perhaps called out and received by him, seems to fit more in the context of citizenship and service and perhaps even family. And purpose for us here and now.

_________________________________________

Sometimes faith turns into religion. Devotion becomes obligation, and suddenly you feel like you’re just going through the motions. Know what I mean?

Six Signs You're an Idiot

Okay, it's a really weird illustration, but unbridled anger works like that; it

feeds on itself and reemerges over and over.

1.  You're angry at least once, pretty much every day.

2.  You argue regularly, and there's emotional content.

3.  You find yourself talking about others in terms of why they did those annoying things.

4.  You get angry when someone cautions you about getting angry.

5.  You're pretty sure you're right, and you don't need to hear any more on the various subjects of contention.

6.  You expect things to improve once all these defective people get their act together and do it right.

Anger isn't the right response to differences of opinion, to differences of priority and preference, or to politics.  Anger isn't the right response to a difficult child or a difficult spouse.  Or a difficult boss or employee.  Or a difficult day or decade.

Want better?  It's available.  Courage, grace, self-control and an open mind, concern for others and for what's right, each of those is a better choice and powerfully so for effecting change.

Anger: it's a trainwreck that continues for years, piling up damage and destruction.  Angry people tend to re-experience the frustration, pain, and resentment each time they're reminded of the offense, whether perceived or real.  They tend to talk without listening and complain a lot about other people's transgressions.  Bitter or better; it's a choice.  It's a choice, and things can change.

Thanks and a hat-tip to Dr. Redford Williams, professor of psychology at Duke University Medical Center, for thought provoking work and discussion. 

I See

What we see vs. what we've not yet seen ...

We've all heard the wise 6th grader lecturing her friend on love or speaking confidently about solving relationship problems. We smile, knowing that such an early summation of things will likely be short of enough, and 'the rest of the story' may change everything.


We understand because now, we know the answers. We're old and wise, so we needn't be open to additional information, to a different point of view...  good grief, we sound like sixth graders.  Especially in Congress.

Public approval has averaged below 20% in each of the last four years, and in five

of the last six. Before this time, only in 1979 and 1992 did congressional approval

average less than 20% annually. Thus, 2013 extends an unprecedented period in

which Americans have given their elected representatives in Congress continually

poor marks for their job performance.

Congress' average approval this year has not only been the worst

 in Gallup history, but it also included the single lowest monthly 

approval rating of 9% in November.

Where does such narrow-minded resistance originate?  Right-wing conservatism?  Left-wing liberalism?  Learning lethargy?  ... but I repeat myself.

It's easy to blame Congress, but the origins of our problems are in the constituency, of course.  That's us.

Is there perhaps a higher goal for our wondrous productivity, our broadly tolerant culture, and our capacity for serving others ... ?

The most difficult of personal tasks, perhaps, is recognizing our own contribution to the problem.  It's easy to blame congress or liberals or conservatives or whatever.  Our own point might benefit from a critical review.  It was the confident, strongly opinionated among us who said the economy would collapse without slavery.

AVATAR

In a virtual reality, our avatar doesn't run out of steam, ...  The avatar plays a role on our behalf.  It exists in a limited world with simple rules, and the storyline runs along an expected path.

That's what avatars do.  It's realistic in a limited sense.

Religion can be like that.  Limited, with 

• a list of rules for the game,
• a short list of answers for the questions,
• a simple explanation for the difficult parts,
• and players who are sure they understand it all.

Then there's real life.

Real life can leave you tired before lunch, disappointed at the end of the meeting, discouraged by not having been heard, depressed after a string of failures and insults and accusations, wounded, worn out, done at the end of the day. Or decade.

I can't send an avatar to live my life.  I have to face it myself, and religion doesn't help; not at all. Real life, real difficulties ...

Jesus wasn't an avatar either.  He faced the real things we face. It was life, and it left him exhausted, discouraged, ... there was no button to pause the game and no do-overs.  Like us, he labored through it; no simple answers, no easy explanations, and in the end, he died.

    There's more, of course, but it seems important to know the life he lived was like ours.

It's all real, as best I can tell.  
Not the religion part, though.  

The Pushmi-pullyu

You can take this one to work with you!

From a flight dynamics perspective, it worked!

There have been many push-me-pull-you attempts with varying degrees of success.

Counter-canoeing was a bust.
Doolittleisms did OK.
Cartoon characters were well received.
International program management, not so well, and not surprisingly, small scale projects had similar experience and results.

For example, if it costs $1500/year to treat one AIDS patient and $20/year to prevent one AIDS case, where should resources be focused?  The number of lives saved points one way and the current need points to another.  Then a third issue arises as we learn we can prevent the transmission from mother to unborn child ...  The overwhelming majority of top-down programs are focused on cure when prevention would be an order of magnitude more effective.  New on the scene, addressing both treatment and prevention in the same program.

We're learning, at least in some fields.  Commonly, there's only a tenuous connection between (1) the top-down management issues and (2) the bottom-up perspective on what is needed and what works here and now. Expecting the two perspectives to rigidly agree is a bit fanciful; they don't even exist in the same timeline.

One of the best organizational examples of getting it right is World Vision.  Organizationally, they support in-country and in-community teams that settle in and work locally for decades.  Importantly, they measure and adjust based on results over time, a rarity in international efforts that are commonly 'fire-and-forget' programs.

It's not uncommon for a government-sponsored international aid effort to be a 1 or 2-year project, transferring some technology or capability. Without life-cycle support, maintenance training, or transition planning, it gets delivered and dies within a few years. The African coastline is littered with externally provided ocean-surveillance systems, delivered and abandoned.  Success is rare for such short-scoped efforts, and the damage from the practice is troubling.  A receiving nation will reallocate personnel and resources to accommodate the change, and after years, discover that their scant resources have been wasted on another badly conceived assistance effort.

Effective organizations implement continual evaluation of target and effect.  A one-time-through by management is nonsense; continuing, insightful leadership determines success or failure.

It's an annoyance having to regularly verify that you're on target, but the alternative is major failure, wasted money, and harm done to the folks you're trying to help.

Worth remembering?  Absolutely!  Take it to work with you as a reminder that leadership stays well informed and sensitive to the goals.  Management, by definition, may not.

Note to the over-30, over-40, and over-50 folks; just because you're sure you know doesn't mean you couldn't modernize your thinking a bit (understatement of the decade).  A typical recent-graduate can show you how to streamline work by as much as a third without significantly affecting the risks involved; you can actually hit your targets. How are you with change and new and different?

Examples?

• One-off reports that take 20-60+ labor hours to produce but are of little benefit ... standardize and automate the report/deliverable.  
• Large meetings to review what a few could resolve quickly ... insert asynchronous team tasks in process instead of the 'death by meeting' gatherings of all.  
• Refine process to be exclusively goal focused.
• Isolate programmatics from the work process. 
• Protect the work effort from interruption and unnecessary redirection by well intentioned players.  The boss can walk the factory floor, but if he's smart, he'll keep his hands off the tools and won't presume to direct the machinists.  
• If meetings are the norm, preload with agenda, action items, and decisions expected/required; if unable, cancel the meeting.  Etc., (and there are dozens more; like conducting meetings standing up, no chairs.)

Ever wondered ...

Ever wondered why religion engenders such disrespect?  It's perhaps a study worth pursuing; there's enough variance to suggest some useful lessons.  That's religions in general, you might note.  Western Christianity does have its share of detractors, of course.

Interestingly, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of history, is widely known and his teachings are generally well received.

What might it be about the practice of Christianity then, that causes such disaffection, even from within its own ranks?

• Anything worth noticing in the criticisms from outside?  
• Anything from insiders worth considering seriously?
• Or worth doing differently?  Is there a missing piece?

We might perhaps learn most from those who agree with us least.

惡人當離棄自己的道路，
不義的人當除掉自己的意念。    
歸向耶和華，耶和華就必憐恤他；         
當歸向我們的神，因為神必廣行赦免。          
耶和華說：「我的意念非同你們的意念，        
我的道路非同你們的道路。                          
天怎樣高過地，照樣，                              
我的道路高過你們的道路，                   
我的意念高過你們的意念。
以賽亞書 55           

宗教有一点说值得一听。
Religion has few answers for us, as the more experienced
will attest.  There is that which is beyond religion and
blindingly real, for which we're deeply grateful.

Subsidy

McDonald’s has closed its McResource website.
It had been a well-intended attempt to serve their employees, but it revealed a bit too much about corporate ethics.   There were a couple of problem areas.

• How to make ends meet:  The site offered financial advice for employees including how to tip an au pair or a pool cleaner, for example.  Not really helpful for McDonald’s workers.  For their low and minimum wage employees, they suggested that workers consider returning unopened Christmas gifts to get out of debt.  Workers who called the McResource help line was told to look into food stamps, Medicaid, and local pantries for the needy.

• How to eat healthy:  The site cautioned employees about the health effects of fast food, calling a cheeseburger and French fries an “unhealthy choice.”  To illustrate the difference between ‘unhealthy choice’ and the ‘healthier choice’, the website of the food chain that employs some 700,000 people worldwide, for some reason showed a typical McDonald’s meal and one very much resembling a meal at the company’s major competitor, Subway -- a sandwich with salad and a glass of water.

Most fast-food employees work less than 30 hours per week and are flex-scheduled; it saves the employer having to provide benefits, and they can be sent home occasionally when business slows. Half of fast-food workers in the US rely on public assistance to supplement their paychecks, costing American taxpayers an estimated $7 billion every year. The government effectively subsidizes the industry by providing benefits to their underpaid employees.