Dear Friends and Family,
Spring has flown by like a migrating bird. School is out and we have a graduating senior, Zach, pictured on my blog. Like most parents, we are very proud of him and have high expectations for his future. He will be attending my alma mater, DePauw University, to study media and journalism.
We have all experienced the impact of leaving home and the various expectations associated with that big transition. I can remember leaving for college quite a few years ago and the excitement mixed with apprehension that accompanied the move. I am sure Zach is ready to move on, but at the same time wondering what lies around the corner. Godspeed to all those graduates. May they improve on the foundation their forebears have laid.
My parents are also in the midst of transition as they leave their home of thirty-one years in southern Indiana to move to Indianapolis. We are glad to have them moving closer to us and have positive expectations of what their proximity will bring. Leaving "home" is challenging for them because of so many memories stored up in a particular place. My dad is glad to be "downsizing" bringing fewer outdoor duties. While my mom's indoor duties will likely not diminish, there will be a few more good restaurants to sample here in Indy.
I have been reading and thinking quite a bit about expectations in the medical realm - the placebo effect, the power of the mind and attitude in healing. I hope to blog on this area soon. In that vein, please offer up a prayer for my father as he has recently been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and will require surgery. Having seen God's hand in very tangible ways in my life over the past year, we are confident in his plans for my dad - for healing, for restored health, for a vibrant and meaningful life.
I'll close with a quote from the great 19th century preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon from "Morning and Evening" (May 31 selection):
"What a great comfort to know that we have a great Physician who is both able and willing to heal us! Let us think of Him awhile tonight. His cures are very speedy - there is life in a look at Him; His cures are radical - He strikes at the centre of the disease; and hence, His cures are sure and certain. He never fails, and the disease never returns. There is no relapse where Christ heals; no fear that His patients should be merely patched up for a season, He makes new men of them; a new heart also does He give them, and a right spirit does He put within them."
In Christ alone,
Newt
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
The Power of Expectations (3) Of Others
Dear Friends and Family,
This week marked my one year anniversary of going into the hospital. What a year! I and my family remain deeply grateful for the prayers and faithful friendship of so many people. God's goodness has been on tangible display through the actions of his family here on earth.
I have continued to reflect quite a lot on the power of expectations in our lives. As I share some thoughts on expectations of others, I recognize it will only scratch the surface, but I hope it will begin to frame the topic at a basic level.
My thesis is that our expectations of others are often mis-guided because they are self-oriented, not other-centered.
I believe we should rightly have expectations of others: spouses, children, parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, subordinates, bosses, teammates, coaches, etc. As we all know, expectations play a pivotal role in the development of children; they impact the way a team or a business performs; they set the cadence for how relationships work. . .for good and for bad.
Having said that, our expectations are often passive, not deliberate or intentional. They often have a subtle, if not overt, self-orientation to them because we expect others to meet our needs, make our lives easier, do it our way. . .in short, meet OUR expectations. To be sure, when we are in positions of authority or responsibility, we have the right and even the obligation to set clear expectations for those in our charge. However, parents should not set expectations for their children for their own good, but for the sake of the children. We should set expectations of our students or players for their good, not for the teacher's or coach's. Business expectations should be for the good of the business and it's customers, not solely to make the boss look good. You get the basic point.
I think the corner stone in setting expectations for others is the golden rule: "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this sums up the law and the prophets." Matthew 7:12
I don't believe that Jesus was stating that we should assume everyone else has our needs or our preferences, our dreams or our aspirations. No, he is asking us to do the hard work of finding out what their needs, preferences, dreams and goals are and then having expectations of them which are consistent with who they are and who they wish to become. How many counselors' offices are filled weekly with adults whose neuroses are the result of never living up to their parents' mis-guided and overwhelming expectations of their becoming a professional tennis player or a Harvard law school graduate or (fill in the blank)? How many of our inner-city poor continue to be trapped in poverty because no one believes they can do any better, and therefore persistently set low expectations for them or have no expectations of a different or a better life?
I think the apostle Paul re-stated Jesus' golden rule in his letter to the church he planted at Philippi: "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3,4
How often are our expectations of others driven by rivalry? The "comparison game" has a large and unhealthy influence on our expecatations of others and ourselves. How often are our expectations born out of conceit? We believe our way is the best way, so we project that on to others.
How would humility influence our expectations of others? By counting others more significant than ourselves, we will be characterized by believing the best about others, giving them the benefit of the doubt in difficult circumstances and always looking out for their good.
Another person's highest good could entail having tough and high expectations for them, like Jesus did of the rich, young man who thought he done everything required of him, but was possessed by his power, position and wealth. Jesus told him the one thing he lacked was to sell everything and give it to the poor. Wow! That's raising the bar . . . but with an eternal perspective, because Jesus knew these worldly things stood in the way of this rich "master of the universe" becoming the person God intended him to be. (see Matthew 19:16-30)
Maybe we need to ask more of others around us for their eternal sake and for the sake of Christ's kingdom here on earth.
Or maybe our expectations of others should change so that we move from demanding justice to showing mercy, or from letting something slide, to holding someone accountable. Jesus did this in John's account of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Jesus called her self-righteous accusers to account by saying "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." This question, and some kind of drawing Jesus made in the ground, made the woman's would-be executioners disperse. To her, he said"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She answered "no one, Lord." And Jesus then said "neither do I condemn you; go and from now on sin no more." In a different context, my pastor recently referred to this type of action as "afflicting the comfortable" and "comforting the afflicted". . .in both cases for their good.
A quick diagnostic test we might all do at the end of the day would be to check our areas of disapointment with others and determine the root cause of that disappointment. Is it because of missed expectations? Were those expectations self-focused or other-focused? Were they for our good or the other person's good? God may use this exercise to expose the cold, hard fact that many of our expectations of others are focused on our comfort, our convenience, our needs, our wants, not the other person's highest good, not to mention the furthering of Christ's kingdom here on earth.
I don't know about you, but at times when I take a deep look at my own motives and expectations of others, I am counting on a strong measure of the same mercy Jesus showed the woman caught in sin as told in John 8.
In Christ alone,
Newt
This week marked my one year anniversary of going into the hospital. What a year! I and my family remain deeply grateful for the prayers and faithful friendship of so many people. God's goodness has been on tangible display through the actions of his family here on earth.
I have continued to reflect quite a lot on the power of expectations in our lives. As I share some thoughts on expectations of others, I recognize it will only scratch the surface, but I hope it will begin to frame the topic at a basic level.
My thesis is that our expectations of others are often mis-guided because they are self-oriented, not other-centered.
I believe we should rightly have expectations of others: spouses, children, parents, siblings, friends, co-workers, subordinates, bosses, teammates, coaches, etc. As we all know, expectations play a pivotal role in the development of children; they impact the way a team or a business performs; they set the cadence for how relationships work. . .for good and for bad.
Having said that, our expectations are often passive, not deliberate or intentional. They often have a subtle, if not overt, self-orientation to them because we expect others to meet our needs, make our lives easier, do it our way. . .in short, meet OUR expectations. To be sure, when we are in positions of authority or responsibility, we have the right and even the obligation to set clear expectations for those in our charge. However, parents should not set expectations for their children for their own good, but for the sake of the children. We should set expectations of our students or players for their good, not for the teacher's or coach's. Business expectations should be for the good of the business and it's customers, not solely to make the boss look good. You get the basic point.
I think the corner stone in setting expectations for others is the golden rule: "So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this sums up the law and the prophets." Matthew 7:12
I don't believe that Jesus was stating that we should assume everyone else has our needs or our preferences, our dreams or our aspirations. No, he is asking us to do the hard work of finding out what their needs, preferences, dreams and goals are and then having expectations of them which are consistent with who they are and who they wish to become. How many counselors' offices are filled weekly with adults whose neuroses are the result of never living up to their parents' mis-guided and overwhelming expectations of their becoming a professional tennis player or a Harvard law school graduate or (fill in the blank)? How many of our inner-city poor continue to be trapped in poverty because no one believes they can do any better, and therefore persistently set low expectations for them or have no expectations of a different or a better life?
I think the apostle Paul re-stated Jesus' golden rule in his letter to the church he planted at Philippi: "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." Philippians 2:3,4
How often are our expectations of others driven by rivalry? The "comparison game" has a large and unhealthy influence on our expecatations of others and ourselves. How often are our expectations born out of conceit? We believe our way is the best way, so we project that on to others.
How would humility influence our expectations of others? By counting others more significant than ourselves, we will be characterized by believing the best about others, giving them the benefit of the doubt in difficult circumstances and always looking out for their good.
Another person's highest good could entail having tough and high expectations for them, like Jesus did of the rich, young man who thought he done everything required of him, but was possessed by his power, position and wealth. Jesus told him the one thing he lacked was to sell everything and give it to the poor. Wow! That's raising the bar . . . but with an eternal perspective, because Jesus knew these worldly things stood in the way of this rich "master of the universe" becoming the person God intended him to be. (see Matthew 19:16-30)
Maybe we need to ask more of others around us for their eternal sake and for the sake of Christ's kingdom here on earth.
Or maybe our expectations of others should change so that we move from demanding justice to showing mercy, or from letting something slide, to holding someone accountable. Jesus did this in John's account of the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Jesus called her self-righteous accusers to account by saying "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." This question, and some kind of drawing Jesus made in the ground, made the woman's would-be executioners disperse. To her, he said"Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She answered "no one, Lord." And Jesus then said "neither do I condemn you; go and from now on sin no more." In a different context, my pastor recently referred to this type of action as "afflicting the comfortable" and "comforting the afflicted". . .in both cases for their good.
A quick diagnostic test we might all do at the end of the day would be to check our areas of disapointment with others and determine the root cause of that disappointment. Is it because of missed expectations? Were those expectations self-focused or other-focused? Were they for our good or the other person's good? God may use this exercise to expose the cold, hard fact that many of our expectations of others are focused on our comfort, our convenience, our needs, our wants, not the other person's highest good, not to mention the furthering of Christ's kingdom here on earth.
I don't know about you, but at times when I take a deep look at my own motives and expectations of others, I am counting on a strong measure of the same mercy Jesus showed the woman caught in sin as told in John 8.
In Christ alone,
Newt
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Power of Expectations (2) "Of Self"
Dear Friends and Family,
I apologize for being delinquent in my postings. . . it has been a busy time getting back into the swing of things in this new year. I want to stay with the subject of "the power of expectations", focusing first on the expectations we have of our selves.
I am not going to turn to secular or academic sources initially, but wish to frame the discussion with two parables Jesus Christ told to his followers over 2000 years ago.
The first comes from the gospel of Luke, chapter 14:7-11. It is a parable of a wedding feast and sets an important boundary for us as we think about our own expectations. Here it is:
". . . When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give your place to this person,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.' Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Jesus provides the main lesson at the end, so we don't need to strain to find it: "For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Said in a few other ways: don't honor yourself; don't self-promote; think and act in a way that is rightly connected to your position; have realistic, fact-based expectations.
The second parable is found in both Luke and Matthew's gospels in slightly different forms. I will quote from Matthew's version since it is more familiar. It is found in chapter 25:14-30 and is referred to often as the Parable of the Talents. Here is a selection:
"For it (the kingdom of heaven) will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. . . Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more. His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master'. . . He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ' Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant!. . . You ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."
Again, Jesus provides the principle at the end of the parable: "to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away". What can we derive from this parable in regard to expectations about self?
Here are a few interpretations that I believe are true to the text: be faithful with what has been given to you; recognize the "talents" you have been given and put them to good use; don't over-reach - deliver in a way commensurate with your resources; don't under-estimate what is expected of you or what you are capable of; don't "hide your talent".
As I think about establishing expectations for myself, I find these stories from Jesus provide some helpful boundaries. On one hand, we should not seek a place of honor or fame and should not be characterized by self-promotion. In other words, we should think rightly (humbly) about ourselves and our position.
On the other hand, we should be willing and ready to recognize what has been given to us when we are called on by the master to put our resources to use. We should rightly appraise our talents and resources, and be willing to act and deliver in a way commensurate with those skills and gifts.
In contrast to what much of modern culture teaches and holds up as the norm when dealing with expectations of self, Jesus seems to be teaching that we should be people who don't seek to be exalted, or to be promoting oneself to an ever-higher position. At the same time, we should be people who rightly appraise the talents and the resources we have been given and to put them to good use for our master.
So, a few questions for reflection: Are you and I characterized by taking a lower position and not seeking the place of honor? Are you and I known for being "faithful over a little"?
If the answer to both is "yes", then Jesus suggests we will be recognized, rewarded by being "set over much", and then "enter into the joy of our master." Just for contrast, I suggest you read the entire parables, because the alternatives are not so attractive. Then again, Jesus was never accused of mincing words. . .
In Christ alone,
Newt
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Power of Expectations
Dear Friends and Family,
Happy New Year and New Decade! Many of you may be glad to turn the page on 2009. I know last year will be one that I will not soon forget. The impact of last year on me and my family will certainly endure for many years to come.
For some time I have been wanting to begin a series of posts on the "power of expectations". A number of experiences I have had over the past several years have caused me to think about the impact expectations have had on my own life and in the lives of others. Expectations impact so many areas of our daily lives:
-professional success or failure
-parenting/childhood development
-medicine and health
-performance in sports
-marriage and relationships
-faith and prayer
-stock market performance/economic indicators
-etc.
Consider how expectations impact our views of ourselves, others, our circumstances, our past and our future. Our level of contentment is directly related to our expectations. On that note I am reminded of a simple equation that a mentor of mine in business once showed me:
S = P - E
or, Satisfaction = Performance - Expectations
You could easily substitute "Reality" for "Performance". In other words, our expectations, when compared against our reality- our circumstances - our performance, determines to a great extent whether we are satisfied or dissatisfied, content or discontent.
So, should we have high expectations and risk being disappointed? Or, should we set low expectations and attempt to ensure a sense of satisfaction? Maybe we should have different perspectives depending upon whether we are talking about your task list for home improvement on a Saturday verses your business forecast for the year, or your child's academic performance, or your expectations of healing from a terminal disease, or whether your favorite professional sports team will win this weekend.
What about our expectations of people who are different than us? There has been much talk recently in the U.S. about profiling certain individuals at airport security because of the Christmas Day bomb attempt on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Should a person's race or ethnicity or religion impact our expectations? If so, how far should we take such expectations?
How about the poverty cycle? What impact do expectations have on those who feel trapped by their economic circumstances? What impact do certain types of governmental programs have on poor peoples' expectations of breaking that cycle?
Many of us have heard of the Pygmalion Effect that was popularized by the classic movie "My Fair Lady" or more recently "Trading Places", where the power of high or low expectations significantly impacts a person's performance and progress. How far should we go in applying this powerful principle in human behavior?
How about marriage? (This is a touchy one.) How do our expectations of our spouse impact our attitudes on a daily basis? What is the impact over time of fulfilled or unfulfilled expectations on this most intimate of relationships? How can changing our expectations assist in breaking a bad cycle?
How about the expectation of economic and technological progress that has been with us since the Age of Enlightenment in the 1700's? How has this promise of progress been fulfilled, or not? How has its lack of fulfillment led to attitudes of despair and indifference?
My working hypothesis is, expectations:
-have an over-sized impact on our daily lives.
-can be dangerous when they are too far from reality.
-are largely within our control.
I look forward to exploring some of these questions . . .
In Christ alone,
Newt
-
Happy New Year and New Decade! Many of you may be glad to turn the page on 2009. I know last year will be one that I will not soon forget. The impact of last year on me and my family will certainly endure for many years to come.
For some time I have been wanting to begin a series of posts on the "power of expectations". A number of experiences I have had over the past several years have caused me to think about the impact expectations have had on my own life and in the lives of others. Expectations impact so many areas of our daily lives:
-professional success or failure
-parenting/childhood development
-medicine and health
-performance in sports
-marriage and relationships
-faith and prayer
-stock market performance/economic indicators
-etc.
Consider how expectations impact our views of ourselves, others, our circumstances, our past and our future. Our level of contentment is directly related to our expectations. On that note I am reminded of a simple equation that a mentor of mine in business once showed me:
S = P - E
or, Satisfaction = Performance - Expectations
You could easily substitute "Reality" for "Performance". In other words, our expectations, when compared against our reality- our circumstances - our performance, determines to a great extent whether we are satisfied or dissatisfied, content or discontent.
So, should we have high expectations and risk being disappointed? Or, should we set low expectations and attempt to ensure a sense of satisfaction? Maybe we should have different perspectives depending upon whether we are talking about your task list for home improvement on a Saturday verses your business forecast for the year, or your child's academic performance, or your expectations of healing from a terminal disease, or whether your favorite professional sports team will win this weekend.
What about our expectations of people who are different than us? There has been much talk recently in the U.S. about profiling certain individuals at airport security because of the Christmas Day bomb attempt on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Should a person's race or ethnicity or religion impact our expectations? If so, how far should we take such expectations?
How about the poverty cycle? What impact do expectations have on those who feel trapped by their economic circumstances? What impact do certain types of governmental programs have on poor peoples' expectations of breaking that cycle?
Many of us have heard of the Pygmalion Effect that was popularized by the classic movie "My Fair Lady" or more recently "Trading Places", where the power of high or low expectations significantly impacts a person's performance and progress. How far should we go in applying this powerful principle in human behavior?
How about marriage? (This is a touchy one.) How do our expectations of our spouse impact our attitudes on a daily basis? What is the impact over time of fulfilled or unfulfilled expectations on this most intimate of relationships? How can changing our expectations assist in breaking a bad cycle?
How about the expectation of economic and technological progress that has been with us since the Age of Enlightenment in the 1700's? How has this promise of progress been fulfilled, or not? How has its lack of fulfillment led to attitudes of despair and indifference?
My working hypothesis is, expectations:
-have an over-sized impact on our daily lives.
-can be dangerous when they are too far from reality.
-are largely within our control.
I look forward to exploring some of these questions . . .
In Christ alone,
Newt
-
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Christmas Post from Susan
"In Christ alone, who took on flesh, fullness of God in helpless babe. This gift of love and righteousness…"
Merry Christmas!
We are so grateful to be celebrating Christmas this year with health and wholeness, and after the events of 2009, we have a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the gifts of health and life.
Our children are doing well and this year is one of firsts for all of them. Luke started high school and driving this year. Drew spent a semester abroad at the University of Edinburgh studying chemical engineering, playing basketball for the university, and traveling in Europe on long weekends. Newt and I visited him for a week together in Paris and Scotland. Zach is a senior this year and applying and receiving acceptances to attend college. He wants to study broadcast journalism/communications. Jensen started middle school this year as a fifth grader and began competing in equestrian and jumping events this summer. She will be baptized this Sunday.
Eight months after Newt was first misdiagnosed with pancreatic cancer and four months after his last chemo treatment and more prayers for us than we know, Newt’s lymphoma is gone and his chest and pancreas are clear. This month his doctor has officially pronounced him in remission and Lord willing, the lymphoma will not return. As you can imagine, we are overflowing with thankfulness for God’s mercy and deliverance.
In the months since Newt has had cancer, we have heard and experienced other stories of God’s hand of mercy, deliverance, and rescue. The Bible is replete with them as well and none so compelling as the Christ-mas story of God coming to earth wrapped in flesh. God sent us His Son so that in His mercy each of us could be rescued from death as we trust Him to be our Savior. This is the ultimate story of hope and healing and salvation and the reality that is a certainty for all eternity. It is for this deliverance, this rescue, that we praise God most. Our joy in Newt’s physical healing is great, but our joy in God’s gift of salvation is immeasurable!
We pray that you too find joy in the good gifts that God has given this Christmas and in those He has for you in 2010. May your hope, like ours, be in Christ alone.
With much love to you all~
Newt, Susan, Drew, Zach, Luke and Jensen Crenshaw
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Latest Health Upate
Dear Friends and Family,
About two weeks ago I had a PET scan which was scheduled three months after my last treatment in late August. The results were completely clear, continuing to reveal that the cancer remains gone.
My oncologist indicated during a visit the following week that I was officially "in remission".
This was the news we have all been praying for, and I want to thank you for your continued prayers on my behalf. I certainly have felt God's hand upon me during the past weeks and months and am confident that he has healed me. The process of recovery happens one step at a time, and this latest step of a clean PET scan three months post treatment is an important one.
It has taken me a few days to process this last bit of news. I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude and peace that comes from knowing I am in good Hands. As I approach the Christmas holidays, I am reflecting in a new way on the meaning of the incarnation, that God became man in the form of a baby. I am also reflecting on how God wants to use this experience of cancer in my life. Please pray for eyes to see, ears to hear and the courage to follow. I am confident that God does not waste these experiences on his children.
I hope and pray your holidays are blessed, and that you are moved to be a blessing in others' lives, as you have been to me through your prayers and kind thoughts.
In Christ alone,
Newt
Sunday, December 13, 2009
. . . all this talk of PEACE
Dear Friends and Family,
Recently in the media, we have been served up an interesting discussion about peace: President Obama's acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize, the continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the military's plan for victory and withdrawal, speculation about the next steps in the war on terrorism, strife and tribal warfare in Africa, and of course early talk of Christmas peace, or mostly the lack thereof due to busy schedules, joblessness, and poor consumer spending.
All this talk of peace seems to be hardwired into the human condition because of the constant presence of war and strife. I just finished an informative biography of Sir Winston Churchill by Roy Jenkins where he chronicled Churchill's decisive role in WWII as the wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain. One his most telling observations was the birth of the next war (i.e. the cold war) which came even before the Allied Powers were declaring victory and bringing peace in their current struggle with Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers. Churchill rightly saw this next bipolar struggle coming which would dominate the latter half of the 20th century.
Peace was a big theme at the first Christmas, and also before Jesus' death. Luke indicates it was part of the angel's chorus to the lowly shepherds - "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased" (Luke 2:14) . Some thirty-three years later, peace was the topic of discussion between Jesus and his inner-circle of followers - "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid." (John 14:27)
This desire for peace clearly has more than one aspect to it. On a grand human scale it is the elusive pursuit of the absence of war. On an interpersonal level it is the absence of strife and conflict in our relationships. On a spiritual level, the angels indicated it had something to do with God being pleased with us. Jesus also seemed to indicate that peace was other-worldly and a gift from Him, bringing calm, not fear, to our souls.
To me, these various aspects of peace seem to be deeply connected. Just as the scientific and philosophic rule called Occam's Razor, when applied to medicine, calls for the simplest diagnosis and assumes that various symptoms of disease may somehow be connected, so too we should assume our lack of peace, our dis-ease if you will, has a common root cause.
While it may be tempting to focus our treatment on political solutions between nations - and we should - or psychological strategies for interpersonal harmony - and we should - those solutions and strategies would likely only be temporary "pain killers" or "band-aids" treating the symptoms, not the cause.
No, our dis-ease and lack of peace requires more basic and targeted medicine, because the root cause is imbedded in our human genetic make-up. We have faulty hearts. They are faulty not in the physical sense of muscle contractions, electrical impulses or valve operation, but in the sense of our deepest life-directing impulses, motivations and affections.
We need more than a list of rules, more than a contrived state of detachment from our physical existence, more than an evolutionary prescription for overcoming our self-focused survival -of-the-fittest instincts, more than psycho-analysis to reconcile our id and superego, more than a new Porsche at 1.9% interest rate or a new iPod Nano or the latest in designer clothes. We need more than weekly counseling sessions or self-help recommendations from Oprah or Dr. Phil. We need more than a Nobel Peace Prize, a new majority in congress, or a peace accord with the Taliban and a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, or even Osama Bin Laden brought to justice.
(I must admit all those things would be nice - especially the Porsche and Bin Laden - but they would still fall woefully short.)
We need new hearts. We need a heart surgeon of the other-worldly kind. Maybe He's the One the angels were singing about all those years ago. Maybe that's what Jesus meant when he said:
"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms. . . And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. . . He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." John 14:1,2,16,17,26.
Maybe that's what all the Christmas celebration is supposed to be about.
The prophet Isaiah had it right several hundred years before the angels sang it out:
"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of PEACE. Of the increase of his government and of PEACE there will be no end. . ." Isaiah 9:6,7
May that "increase" start in our hearts this season and re-make and re-direct our impulses, motivations and affections, bringing us peace with God and our fellow man.
In Christ (the other-worldly heart surgeon) alone,
Newt
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