Again, from Tom Bourke

Tom and Ann Bourke, US Navigators Staff

Mark 14:31 - “Peter insisted emphatically, ‘Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.’ And all the others said the same.” Good morning, Anne. I made it home very late last night. I’m bleary eyed, but glad to be here. Did you ever notice how Peter so often is used as an example of what not to do in books & sermons? Whether it’s an object lesson from his looking down at the water & sinking instead of keeping his focus on Jesus so that he could dance on the waves — or this whole thing with his denying Jesus after boasting he would never do such, or many other things. Here’s the thing: The others aren’t criticized because they don’t stick their necks out. Peter is the only one to say, “Can I walk on the water with You?” The other 11 guys were peeing their pants in the boat. He was the first to say he would never deny Jesus, but check out the last sentence in that verse above… they ALL said that & they all DID deny Him. In fact, Peter stayed dangerously close, where he gave into the temptation to lie about knowing Jesus. The others didn’t do that because they were miles away & still running in the other direction! The best part? Jesus chose Peter to lead. I think He liked Peter’s initiative, even though early on it was often impulsive & misguided. Jesus knew He could refine that in Peter. What part of you & me seems raw & wrong sometimes — but may actually be unrefined giftedness, Anne? Father, help us bring who we are & allow You to refine & use us. We don’t need to eliminate risk of failure or pretend to be someone other than who You made us to be.

Thanks, Tom

Just a thought: How do I know what I think I know?

The late Frederick Buechner in his little book, Wishful Thinking, said this:

There are two different ways of describing how you came to know something. One way is to say you found it out. The other way is to say it occurred to you. Reason is involved in both. To say you found out that So-and-So was the best friend you had suggests that you reasoned your way to such a conclusion. To say it occurred to you suggests that although the conclusion was not reached by reason, it was not incompatible with it.

It occurred to you as distinct from you found out suggests knowledge given as distance from knowledge earned. It suggests inner meaning as distinct from outer semblance. For example, I found out that Francis of Assisi gave all his money to the poor, called the sun his brother, and preached sermons to birds. But it occured to me that he must be a saint. Or an idiot.

Revelation means knowledge as grace. Nobody has ever managed to find out much of anything about God.

Classic Buddhism is reasonable, found out, and doesn’t claim to be otherwise. In the Four Noble Truths, Buddha puts it in a nutshell. Like the family doctor, he diagnoses our ailment and prescribed a cure. He says (1) that the name of our ailment is Life, which causes great pain because we know that it always falls to pieces in the end. He says (2) that if we didn’t like Life so much, we wouldn’t mind having it fall to pieces in the end. Therefore, he says (3) the way to get cured of the ailment is to stop clinging to Life as though it were a prize instead of a pain in the neck. Finally, (4) he outlines eight steps for getting out of Life and into Nirvana.

Classic Christianity, on the other hand, is not primarily reasonable or something we have found out or worked out for ourselves. Christ came. He healed people. He forgave people their sins and said to love everybody including your enemy. He dies in a peculiarly unpleasant way, forgiving his executioners. Christianity was born when it occurred to some of the ones who had known him that his kind of life was the only kind worth living, and in some invisible way Christ was still around to help them live it.

Nobody figured Christianity out. It happened. That is what it means to call it a revealed religion— not incompatible with reason maybe, if you give it some thought, but not arrived at primarily by reason either.

Wishful Thinking, by Frederick Buechner, Harper Collins Publishing, 1973, p.97

They way he puts it makes it so much easier to understand. Anne

From my wise and thoughtful colleague, Tom Bourke -

1 Tim 2:5-6 - “There is one God & one Mediator between God & men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a Ransom for all…” Good morning, Anne. We live in a curious time. A time when many sincerely believe they can determine what’s true by what they choose to believe. Folks may refer to it as “my truth” & it is supposedly impervious to reality & previously undeniable facts. How did we get here? Well, I don’t know for sure, but I wonder if video games & 2 Thess 2:11 may have something to do with it. Video games, because most young men — with the age slowly increasing — are more invested in & engaged with virtual reality than they are with reality itself. We can’t invest more in one thing without decreasing our engagement with other things. The verse, because it is the stark summary of the principle expounded on in the second half of Romans Chapter One. The idea that God will “give us over” to what we want, should we stubbornly persist in our pursuit of it. In the face of all these illusions & delusions, the above verse says there is ONE God & ONE Mediator between Him & us. You & I are free to look for another way, if we insist on that. Good luck. Strangely, this Mediator also became a Ransom. You don’t see that every day… or actually, ever. John 14:6 sounds arrogant, until we combine it with this fact of His chosen humiliation & sacrifice. Lord, please help Anne & me to face Reality today, rather than trying to make up our own. Colossians 2:17

God Doesn't Care About Your Day Job -- and Other Myths that Hobble Your Work

Bill Wichterman was with the Bush White House and today he serves as a Senior Advisor at Covington & Burling LLP (you can see his bio here). He’s widely loved and respected -- a reliable and wise spiritual advisor on complicated and loaded issues that a career in politics in DC carries.

Bill dove deep into the particulars of God’s view of our work, whatever it might be. We started to record it, but when we opened the floor up for more dialogue with the people in the room, it became too personal to post. Sorry, not sorry. It was a great conversation. If you’d like access to my personal notes, go here.

Bill Wichterman

My Job. Firing Myself...

Yeah, maybe I need to. Fire my old self, that is.

At our October brunch, Betsy Barrows gave us a major re-frame on our current work, almost regardless of what it is. It was like pulling back a curtain on my attitudes about what I do, how I do it, people I interact with on a day-to-day basis.

She dove into what she’s learned from The Arbinger Institute, Nancy the Jedi Coach and her own introspection leading to healthy action. That’s a sentence!