David Michael Bruno

Don't Pass Up Grief

I am fond of M. Scott Peck's two books The Road Less Traveled and People of the Lie. One thing Peck says in The Road Less Traveled that seems true is that all of our neuroses are the result of us trying to avoid legitimate suffering. When we flee from the trials and pains that are a normal (and necessary) part of life, we run ourselves into anxiety and obsession.

Today I came across a similar message while reading Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce. Hawken is quoting from the text of a commencement address:

Gordon Sherman, the founder of Midas Muffler, once wrote: 'There is a teasing irony: we spend our lives evading our own redemption. And this is naturally so because something in us knows that to be fully human we must experience pain and loss. Therefore, we are at ceaseless effort to elude this high cost, whatever the price, until at last it overtakes us. And then in spite of ourselves we do realize our humanity. We are put in worthier possession of our souls. Then we look back and know that even our grief contained our blessing.

We so often pass up grief. We skip right over it, as if it were only a oily puddle on some dingy urban street. All we've really done is jump further into the grime, deeper into a run-down neighborhood of our own making. We need to get our shoes wet and slimy, grab a mop and clean things up. There's no denying it will be ugly work.

The sadness of this truth is seen in this: so many people "agree" to it with smiles on their faces. "My father was a dud," they'll say with a smile. "Sure I've made poor choices in the past," they'll say with a smile. "There was nothing I could do," they'll say with a smile. "I hold out hope for him," they'll say with a smile. Skip. Jump. Skip. Jump.

But call out to those people, "Hey, what the hell are you doing going into that shady neighborhood?!" And they'll shout back with smiles on their faces, "We're moving on!"

I appreciate Gordon Sherman's optimism that grief will finally overtake us. I do believe that is true, though in my short life I have watched many people skip and jump at great speed deeper into the neighborhood of pain and suffering, futher away from their pursuer, grief. And for some of them grief is no longer in sight. Of course at any time they could stop, turn around, and hunt their pursuer. But I don't know many who will risk that course.

Comfort and Technology

[Warning: Late night kind of rambling post. I like to actually post these from time-time as an exercise in humility and curiosity.]

Something I've been mulling over for a while is the use of technologies to produce comfort. There is a lot here to consider. And this is going to be one of those hopelessly fragmented and shallow blog posts that does not do justice to the topic. But sometimes casual conversations about deep topics are valuable.

Random thoughts from the Bible about comfort and technology. Remember the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus? In the parable a poor man named Lazarus lives by the gate of a rich man's house. Both Lazarus and the rich man die. Lazarus "was carried by the angels to Abraham's side," and the rich man goes to "Hades" where he is in torment. The rich man looks up and sees Lazarus next to Abraham and pleads, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame." Abraham replies, "Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish."

I find two things curious about this passage.

While the rich man's torment is explained ("I am in anguish in this flame"), Lazarus's comfort is not. The rich man wants some relief for his body ("dip his finger in water and cool my tongue"). But there is no indication that Lazarus's comfort is primarily a sensual (as in the senses) comfort.

Why is the rich man concerned about comforting his body? He is in Hades. In biblical terms, not making it to heaven is a matter of an unrepentant heart. Is it possible that the rich man, having been sent to Hades, still does not understand? He still is concerned with his sensual comfort and unaware of his unrepentant heart?

Maybe. He does after all plead for the sake of his brothers, thinking that they will "repent" if Lazarus returns from the dead and warns them of the torment in Hades. But the focus is still on avoiding sensual discomfort.

Does consumer culture offer us a drop of water on our tongues? I wonder. I wonder if the prioritization of consumer products is on comforting our senses. And I wonder if the "comfort" that products offer is about as useful as a finger full of water in Hades.

I've been trying to think of products that are not made to offer us some kind of sensual comfort. And so that is my question. What products  available to buy focus primarily on comforting our spirits and not out bodies?

The Next Right Thing

This post is not quite a sermon response in the same way that my post on Sept. 9 was a sermon response. But it does mention one thing that I thought was great from the sermon yesterday.

Our pastor mentioned that when people feel overwhelmed with the troubles of life and they ask him, "What should I do?" he often replies:

"The next right thing."

That's a great answer. The "next right" thing is not the perfect thing to do. Don't get bogged down in not doing anything because you are waiting for the perfect thing.  Just do the next right thing you have the opportunity to do.

I've thought about this in relation to all sorts of things this week. If I had that phrase in my mind during my two decades of consuming too many things, I think my life would be better off.

What if our financial markets and government had lived by that principle? We are moving very fast toward a deep deep recession and I even heard a few analysts throwing out the "depression" word today. How did we get here? Obviously not a lot of people lived day to day doing the "next right thing."

The world is confronted with so many challenges like poverty and human trafficking and climate change. How do we respond to these overwhelming problems? Well, I think two ways. We work very hard on the very complex solutions to these difficult issues. But we do that while always trying to pursue the next right thing.

Sermon Response - Take a Stand... The Culture Wars

[At my church our pastor is starting a new preaching series on the life of Elijah, a prophet you can read about in 1 Kings 17 and following. I've decided to write a few blog posts in response. Perhaps I will write regularly on this series, maybe not. Your comments are much appreciated. If you, however, prefer consumerism-talk to prophetic-talk then feel free to skip these posts.]

This week at church my pastor began preaching a series on the life of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. He titled the first sermon Taking a Stand in an Anything Goes World (you can find audio or video here if you want to check it out). As always, it was a good sermon. Simply put, my pastor is an excellent communicator. And he is an incredibly devoted Christian, wise in his understanding of Scripture and gracious in his treatment of people.

The sermon was rousing. The idea behind it was that, just like at other times in history, we are living in a time of special moral depravity, and the times we live in need prophetic intervention. He compared our times with times such as the African slave trade, when William Wilberforce stood up and helped end that horror in Britain. And, of course, he compared the moral depravity of our day and age with that of Elijah's time, which was the time of the wicked rule of King Ahab and his nasty wife Queen Jezebel. Elijah stood up. And so should Christians stand up today. Christians should prophetically stand up for what is right in the morally backwards culture of the United States.

Well, yes and no. Let me start with the no.

(there is more to this long post)

James Dobson: A Rose Should Smell Fragrant Away From A Bush

The AP reported and MSNBC quickly featured James Dobson's harsh criticism of Barack Obama today.  It's not the first time that Dobson has produced the perfect soundbite for a cynical media suspicious of evangelicalism.  This time he accused Obama of having a "fruitcake interpretation" of the United States Constitution.  And Dobson suggested that Obama uses the lowest common moral denominator in making legislative decisions, particularly on abortion.  Something about Dobson's accusations smells sour.  I'm trying to sniff it out.

Last night I started to write about opportunity.  I'll finish that post some day, in which I talk about two paradigms for opportunity: using opportunity to get something or using opportunity to give something. That post about opportunity is going to use Galatians 6:10 as a springboard, "So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith." Sniff.  Sniff.

I could point out Dobson's rotten misrepresentation of Obama's words. As if like a trained Washington chef, Dobson stirred some political spin and cooked up a distortion of Obama's speech.  But that's not the stench I'm smelling.

In his harsh and skewed rebuke of Obama's speech Dobson used unchristian pejorative language that neither hurts Obama's campaign nor bulsters public sentiment for Christianity.

Look, James Dobson is an earnest Christian.  He's outraged by much of the shallow morality of the culture of the United States.  As a leader with a large constituency and as a public figure in a democracy he has earned the right to speak up and share his opinions.  But he's a Christian.  He's been exhorted by King Solomon and Saint James and even Jesus that he should watch his tongue.  Christians should mind their tongues because the tongue is the only body part with the power of two of our five senses.  Our tongues can speak false, uncharitable words. And that stinks.