Introspection: Don't Look Up, and Don't Look Back

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Don't Look Up, and Don't Look Back

I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made.  But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me.  Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward - to Jesus.  I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back.

Philippians 3:12-14 (The Message)

I never got anywhere by running away
I never learned anything without a mistake
I never loved anyone by playing it safe
It's a long way down, but I'm here right now

From "Here Goes" by Bebo Norman

During May, June, and July of last year, when the college for which I work was closed to the public on Fridays, I was given the option to either work from home on Fridays or to work four ten-hour days per week and take Fridays off.  I chose the latter option.  My new work arrangement was definitely a tradeoff.  Though I did not especially like the long workdays, I did enjoy having extra day on the weekend.  Last year was stressful for me for various reasons, so, on some of my Fridays off, I retreated to state parks in my area in order to get away from my normal life for a few hours.

I'm lucky enough to live about fifteen minutes away from Paris Mountain State Park.¹  Though I have lived in the same area my entire life, I have only visited this state park a handful of times.  On my first visit last year, I just explored the park and relaxed by the lake for a while.  On subsequent visits, I hiked some of the trails.  I'm not an experienced hiker, and I'm not the most physically fit person in the world, but I was still able to hike the park's most strenuous trails with little difficulty.

Since February, my work schedule has allowed me to take every other Friday off, so I've been waiting for another opportunity to go hiking, but the weather has been somewhat less than accommodating.  A couple of days ago, my opportunity finally came, so, on Friday morning, I picked up some breakfast and headed to the state park.

I decided to hike the park's most strenuous trail, the Sulphur Springs Trail, which I first tackled back in June of last year.  This trail is a roughly three-and-a-half-mile loop which takes me a little less than two hours to hike.  From the normal starting point, the first half of the hike will be uphill, regardless of the direction one decides to walk.  The first time I decided to hike this trail, I noticed that, according to the trail map, there is one section of the trail that is closed to bicyclists.²  Figuring that this section would be the most difficult part of the hike, I made it a point to start walking in the direction that put it in the first, uphill half.

The hike is easy at the beginning, but the relatively level path inevitably gives way to a rather steep uphill climb.  I quickly figured out why this part of the trail is closed to bicyclists.  At some points, I had to climb over rocks and hold onto trees to keep my balance.  At other points, I had to step from rock to rock to cross streams.  At a couple of points, I had to stop and catch my breath.  If hiking this trail is a microcosm of life, then I consider this particular section of the trail the most important, because it has taught me the most.

Perhaps you've seen a television show in which a character who is not especially fond of heights finds himself in a precarious situation in a very high place.  Invariably someone says, "Don't look down!" so that the acrophobic character doesn't panic and fall.  Having hiked the Sulphur Springs Trail twice, I have learned that there are a couple of other directions one might do well not to look - on the trail and in life in general.

The first time I hiked the steep part of the trail, there was at least one time when I looked up at the climb ahead of me and questioned my decision to hike the trail in the first place.  That said, I knew that I didn't want to turn around and head back the way I came.  As tired as I was, I figured that a downhill climb would be riskier than an uphill climb.  I had already gone too far to turn back, so the only way to go was forward.  When I hiked this part of the trail again a couple of days ago, there were times when I looked up at the climb ahead of me and started feeling discouraged.  When I started to focus on the steps immediately ahead of me, just putting one foot ahead of the other, I made it up the hill just fine.

Sometimes in life, it is best not to look up, and often it is pointless to look back.

There are things I would like to accomplish in my life, but, when I consider everything that would be required of me, I find myself hesitant to even get started.  If I want to accomplish something big, there are times when I will have to stop thinking about the process as a whole and to instead focus on the step immediately ahead of me.  As I complete each step, I will have to keep moving on to the next, until I have finally reached my goal.

At one point on the trail, there is a sharp turn.  Once I make this turn, I know that the steep uphill climb is behind me and that I will be walking steadily downhill for the rest of the hike.  At this point, I know that I can just enjoy my walk and take in the scenery.  Having been through a few difficult years, I hope that someday in the not too distant future I will start feeling this way about my life in general.

Notes:

1. https://southcarolinaparks.com/paris-mountain
2. https://southcarolinaparks.com/files/State%20Parks%20Files/Paris%20Mtn/PM-Trail%20Map3-9-2012.pdf

The photographs featured in this introspection were taken by me at Paris Mountain State Park in Greenville, South Carolina.

Lenten Perspective: Whom Are We Following?

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The following perspective contains spoilers for the television mini series Devil in Ohio.

Whom Are We Following?

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5:1-2 (NRSV)

Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

From "Gotta Serve Somebody" by Bob Dylan

As I noted previously, Lent is the time of the year when Christians figuratively follow Christ into the wilderness in order to draw closer to God.  This roughly forty-day season of self-denial, penitence, and looking inward is based on Jesus' time in the wilderness.  In three of the Gospels, we read that, before Jesus begins His public ministry, He spends forty days fasting in the wilderness, where He is tempted by Satan.¹

In two of the Gospels, we read that, in the wilderness, Jesus has the opportunity to make a deal with the devil.  At one point, Satan shows Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world, and, according to the Gospel of Matthew, he says, "I'll give you all these if you bow down and worship me."²

It has been suggested that what Jesus is being tempted to do is to take up the sword and conquer the kingdoms of the world.³  Looking back over the history of this world, we can see a repeating cycle of violence.  Nations are established through violent revolutions, and they are defended with violent force, until they violently fall in the same way that they were founded.  Perhaps, for Jesus, bowing to Satan would mean playing the devil's game and becoming the latest in a long line of violent conquerors.

Perhaps, more generally speaking, serving Satan means sacrificing other people in order to achieve one's own goals.

I recently watched the mini series Devil in Ohio,⁴ which tells the story of a teenage girl named Mae.  Mae was born and raised in a Satanic cult, but she flees when she discovers that she has been chosen by the cult to be sacrificed to the one they worship.  Her community has fallen on hard times, and the cult believes that if she is sacrificed, they will be rewarded with prosperity.  Over the course of the series, as the cult tries to get Mae to return to them, she proves that she is no innocent lamb.  Like the cult that raised her, she is willing to sacrifice other people figuratively or even literally in order to get what she wants.

Jesus rejects the devil's bargain, saying, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"⁵  The path Jesus has chosen will involve taking up a cross as opposed to a sword.

Later on, when it becomes clear to Jesus that His disciples are starting to believe that He is their people's long-awaited liberator, He begins to warn them that, upon reaching their destination, He will be rejected, killed, and resurrected.  One disciple, who undoubtedly expects Jesus to be a militant conqueror, takes Him aside and attempts to set Him straight.  Remembering the devil's bargain in the wilderness, Jesus says to him, "Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."⁶

Jesus then announces to His disciples,
If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?  Or what will they give in return for their life?⁷

When it comes to serving Satan, things like grimoires and upside-down crosses and pentagrams are nothing but a bunch of creepy nonsense.  What is truly Satanic is doing whatever it takes to get what one wants, no matter how much one has to hurt other people in the process.

Christ came to give of Himself for the sake of others, but, in the wilderness, Satan tried to get Him to do the opposite.  Perhaps the season of Lent, when we follow Christ into the wilderness, is the perfect time for us to consider whose way we are following.  Are we following Christ's example and taking up our own crosses, or are we laying crosses on other people's shoulders?  Are we giving of ourselves to make the lives of other people better, or are we taking from other people to make our own lives better?

The way of Christ is the way of sacrificial love.  The way of Satan is a trail of corpses.


Notes:

1. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13
2. Matthew 4:8-9 (NRSV)
3. Brian Zahnd.  "The Third Temptation."  Word of Life Church, 02/26/2023.
4. IMDB: Devil in Ohio
5. Matthew 4:10 (NRSV)
6. Matthew 16:13-23 (NRSV)
7. Matthew 16:24-26 (NRSV)

The Temptation of Christ by the Devil was painted by Félix Joseph Barrias in 1860.

Lenten Perspective: A Different Kind of Fasting

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

A Different Kind of Fasting

Is this the kind of fast I choose,
a day of self-affliction,
of bending one's head like a reed
and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?
Is this what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?

Isaiah 58:5 (CEB)

What if there's a bigger picture
What if I'm missing out
What if there's a greater purpose
I could be living right now
Outside my own little world

From "My Own Little World" by Matthew West

In the Gospels we read that, before Jesus began His public ministry, He spent forty days in the wilderness, fasting and facing temptation.¹  Jesus' time in the wilderness is the basis for Lent, a roughly forty-day season of self-denial, introspection, and penitence observed in the Church.  During this season, Christians all around the world figuratively follow Jesus into the wilderness in order to draw closer to God in preparation for high holy time of Easter.

One practice commonly associated with the Lenten season is fasting.  A vast majority of the people who fast during Lent do not give up food entirely, as Jesus did while He was in the wilderness.  Typically they give up one particular kind of food or drink, like chocolate, meat, or alcohol.  Some might give up something else that keeps them preoccupied, like social media.  By abstaining from such things, people seek to grow closer to God.  By putting aside things that distract them, they are free to turn their focus to God, and, by putting aside the things they use as crutches, they become more reliant on God.

Fasting was practiced long before the time of Jesus.  Evidently, it was never known to be a pleasant experience, for Jesus once found it necessary to say to His followers, "And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces as to show others that they are fasting."²

In the Book of Isaiah, we read that, at one point, people wondered why God didn't seem to notice their fasting.  They were reportedly asking God,

Why do we fast and you don't see;
why afflict ourselves and you don't notice?³

It seems to me that, for some reason, people have always tried to make twisted bargains with God, thinking that they can get God's attention or cooperation by making themselves miserable.  So many times people have promised to stop doing things they enjoy or to do things they really don't want to do if God would do something for them.

In response to the people's question, God asked,

Is this the kind of fast I choose,
a day of self-affliction,
of bending one's head like a reed
and of lying down in mourning clothing and ashes?
Is this what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?⁴

This rhetorical question suggests that God has never been interested in watching people make themselves miserable.

What God did not like about the people's fasting was that it was not resulting in any substantial changes in the people's lives.  People made seemingly humble outward gestures, but they went on living selfishly and contentiously with each other.⁵  God urged the people choose a different kind of fasting.  God said,

Isn't this the fast I choose:
releasing wicked restraints, untying the ropes of a yoke,
setting free the mistreated,
and breaking every yoke?
Isn't it sharing your bread with the hungry
and bringing the homeless poor into your house,
covering the naked when you see them,
and not hiding from your own family?⁶

In other words, God wants to see people fast from things like injustice and indifference.  God does not want to see people inflict suffering upon themselves.  God wants to see people alleviate the suffering of other people.

John Wesley, the founder of my particular branch of Christianity, urged people to live according to three rules: to do no harm, to do good, and to take on spiritual disciplines that help them to draw close to God.⁷  Though we tend to focus on the third of these rules during the season of Lent, maybe Lent is also a good time to consider how we can make life better for other people and how we can lessen the harm that is done in the world around us, which, truth be told, can be a lot more subtle than we realize.

If we want to give something up for Lent, maybe we should focus less on abstaining from things we enjoy and start considering how we can work to eliminate things that are actually harmful to ourselves and to others.  God want to see us make life better for each other and not to see us just make life harder for ourselves.


Notes:

1. Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 4:1-13
2. Matthew 5:16 (NRSV)
3. Isaiah 58:3a (CEB)
4. Isaiah 58:5 (CEB)
5. Isaiah 58:2-4
6. Isaiah 58:6-7 (CEB)
7. https://www.umc.org/en/content/the-general-rules-of-the-methodist-church

The photograph of the empty plate is used courtesy of freepik.com user jcomp.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.