I was asked to post these hints for living that I quoted in a meditation. The author of these is William Arthur Ward, and I do not reacall where I found these. They are extracted from a list called "Twelve Guideposts for Living." I did not quote them all, just these;

I will do more than belong....I will participate;

I will do more than believe... I will practice;

I will do more than care... I will help;

I will do more than be fair... I will be kind;

I will do more than forgive... I will forget;

I will do more than dream... I will work;

I will do more than teach.. I will inspire;

I will do more than give... I will serve;

"And the survey says...." That line from Family Feud sticks in my mind. We are swamped by surveys, especially in this presidential election season. Do we vote by what the surveys say or by what our heart says? This week in the financial crisis we have seen the power of surveys. Republicans and Democrats in Congress listened to what the surveys said, and since "Main Street" was against a bail-out plan they voted that way against the advice of people in the know.

That was just an example, my entry is not about politics, but about me. Do I live my life by what the survey says, and whose survey has the most authority in the decisions that I make?

Which poll do I play to? For a lot of my life I have played to the public opinion polls. I defined my self-worth by what the polls were saying about me. When the polls were bad, I felt worthless and incompetent. But I have discovered that my thinking was not wise or helpful. My biggest discovery is about which poll really counts.

The poll that really counts is God's poll, God's opinion. My real concern should be what God thinks about things. What is God's opinion about me? What is God's opinion about things? That changes everything.

Do you remember when the television network national news in the evening was only fifteen minutes long? That really dates me, because I was a kid in the 50's. I think the network national news broadcasts became 30 minutes sometime in the late 50's or early 60's. I have decided it might be better if network news braodcasts were limited to 15 minutes.

I am tired of the way news is no longer news, but commentary. When did newscasters get the credentials to analyize and interpret everything for the viewers? Even in the newspaper there is a difference between the Editorial Page or Opinion Pages, and the Front Page. News is supposed to report the Who, What, Where, and When's of things, not the Why's. The reader has the responsibility for deciding the Why's, or the newspaper can put their opinions on the editorial page. In television news, all these things have been blended together without a clear distinction between what is what. Thus the media today is not reporting the news, but making the news. The news media has become the shaper of public opinion, and the media will even elect the next president.

When the news was fifteen minutes, there was a check on this tendency to abuse the power of influence that is present in a powerful medium. The newspapers did that before, but in a much more limited way. It is the "Brave New World" of Adolus Huxley that we are living in, and the bottom line is that things are not getting better, but the negatives in life get stronger and stronger. Everyone seems to be unaware of the psycho-social dynamics of the culture and environment that shapes the way people think and what they believe and what they do. Violence begets violence, ethical misconduct breeds eythical misconduct, and spinning the truth gives birth opinionated white lies.

Wow, wondering about what happened to the fifteen minute network evening news has really got me going. Anyway I have given up on watching the news, I'll stick to what I can read and make my own judgements about.

I made a typo mistake the other day that nade me think. I was writing something in which I mentioned  the Olympics and how much Gold Medals are coveted by the athletes. Instead of writing gold medal I typed God Medal. The spelling and grammar checker would have never caught that mistake. But my error stirred up a few thoughts.

Certainly all we receive from God is a gift of grace. We don't compete for gold, silver, or bronze medals in the kingdom of God. We don't earn our salvation, so I have never had the attitude that a "Gold Medal" from God was coming at any time. In a parable that he told Jesus implied that we can expect a, "Well done good and faithful servant... enter into the joy of your master." (Matt.25:21). Christians also look forward to a promised crown of life for faithfulness (Rev. 2:10). But it does not seem that medals from God are a thing that we can expect in the here and now.

But, what would it take to get a God Medal, in the games of life. I wonder?   

I was visiting my family physician. He is an unusally talkive fellow and takes extra time with a lot of his patients. Since I am a retired pastor he was sharing with me a dilema that he had at the church where he belongs. Since he is a professional person he was being invited to serve on the church board. He was struggling with that decision. He was not sure if he should, because he was wary of the politics involved, i.e., people trying to exercise power and control in the church. His question to me was how do I know if I should do this.

My answer was, what might your motivation be? If your motivation is to serve, then this may be indeed a call for you to serve. If your motivation is to influence and control things, or to gain power, or exercises an agenda, then you really need to look at why you want to serve. I said the key is having a humble heart.

By way of example I pointed out that the greatest leaders have not sought the power of the office. I thought of George Washington. As I recollect he did not want to be President. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not seeking power, he was helping an oppressed people find justice. Gandi in India was like that in his non-violent approach to things. Mother Teresa was the most contemporary example that I recall mentioning. There are numerous other examples, but the prime example is Jesus himself who came, "not to be served, but to serve and give his life for many."

It seems to me the key for picking a good leader is the quality of humility. Does a person have a humble heart? In the political arena these days  we hear too much "I" and too little "We."

I lost it the other day. My "Cool" that is. The Apostle Paul said (Romans 7) that sometimes we don't do what we want to do and what we don't want to do is what we end up doing. That happened to me.

In my neighborhood a young person likes to run (hot rod) up and down the street on a golf cart. The dogs in the neighborhood (including mine) go crazy. I have tried to be patient and understanding. I try to ignore the whole thing and settle my dog down so that it is not disturbing my neighbors. Well, after chasing my dog,  to get her out of sight of the commotion, while I was taking her by the collar to the garage, I shouted something (not offensive) to the purpetrator while they were making a pit stop on one their laps. It was simply a question, "Why do you have to terrorize all the dogs in the neighborhood with that thing?"

I was out of control. Normally I am an easy-going person who like to live and let live. But I could not stop myself from shouting what I shouted. Talk about feeling yucky. In the end I was probably more upset with myself than I was with my young neighbor. Can anyone identify with that? Do you ever "lose it?"

Seven is an important number in the Bible. Not only did God create the world in six days and rested on the seventh, defining a week, but seven occurs over and over in Revelation. People have tried to understand the significance of that number. Numerology was big in the ancient Greek culture and there was apparently a Biblical numeralogy as well. I believe the number seven stood for God, the all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere present, creator God; the God above all gods

Why seven though? Somewhere I think I encountered this explination (anyway- I did not make it up). In the ancient world science believed that there were only four elements; earth, air, fire, and water. These came into existence because the Triune-Creator God (who is one) but was understood to be expressed in three ways or persons, made everything. So the four elements that make up everything plus the Triune-Unity of God equals seven, the perfect, holy number.

An alternative explanation goes a different way. There are four directions on the compass, north, south, east, and west. Everything exists in one of those directions. So you take the four directions on the compass plus God in God's Triune-unity and you get seven. When the God-head is combined with the created order (described either by the elements of the directions of the compass) you have what God saw was "very good," a perfect universe, a holistic, holy thing. It remains so, only as long as the "four" (the creation) and the "three" (the creator) are in harmony with each other.

I have recently thought about another dimension to the "Holy Seven." I have been reading about the "Four Cardinal Virtues." The cardinal virtues originated in Greek thought with Aristotle. The Christian  theologian Thomas Aquinas wrote about them as well. The four cardinal virtues are; Prudence (wisdom), Justice (rightness and fairness), Fortitude (courage), and Temperance (self-control). Presumeably, according to Aristotle and Aquinas if a person possesed and kept these qualities they would have a happy and fulfilling life that would not be offensive to anyone.

So when it comes to the human being, the one created in the image of God, these are equal to the four elements of the universe (according to ancient science) or the four directions of the compass. When these are combined with theThree Theological Virtues, Faith, Hope, and Love which are gifts of the Triune Creator God, again you get the "Holy Seven." As in the physical universe, when the God-head is combined with the creature created in God's own image,  you have what God saw was "very good," a perfect person, a holistic, holy thing. It remains so, only as long as the "four" (the cardinal virtues) and the "three" (the creator) are in harmony with each other. And people remain so only as long as the four virtues and faith, hope and love, are in harmony with one another.

Sorry this got so wordy, but I thought I was on to something that was worth sharing. How it works out in life is the challenge and a lot can be said about that, but not now..     

I saw this quote today; "You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more that the word which the Lord...preaches to you."So wrote Martin Luther.

Who do we believe? The mantra today is "Be true to yourself." or trust you own feelings. Those perspectives always bothered me. Where might my feelings be coming from? My own selfish wishes? My own egotistical beliefs? Some public opinion poll?

An honest, humble appraisal of each person is the admission that feelings are fickle, and very subjective. I'm not ever as smart as I think I am. What news analyist, politician, writer, or public leader would ever make that admission. They won't because it would cost them too much in the public eye. So we are left with "spin" as truth and we believe anything we hear that sounds right to us based on our feelings. We don't see the Caution Flag flying.

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Yesterday our grandchildren were coming home from Georgia with their father and their car was broadsided in an intersection by a drunk driver who had run the red light. Thanks be to God no one was injured seriously, that we are aware of yet.

Sometimes I get broadsided when I am doing my spiritual reading. I read Psalm 82 last night as I shared Evening Prayer. Things are going badly it seems. Confidence is low. Everyone is trying to figure out what to do. This Psalm talks about it all. There is little justice. The wrong people get favors, the weak and the poor are at the mercy of the powerful and little help reaches them. As for the leaders the Psalm says they don't know up from down, nor do they understand reality. The psalm says, "They go about in darkness." Then comes the verse that is like a broadside, "Rise up, O God, judge the earth." (NIV)  or,  as another translation says, "rule the earth."

The kind of rule is not one of power and control, it is one of loving others and doing the right thing as the spirit of God directs us. There was someone at the scene of the accident mentioned above who saw it happen and hung around. When the police arrived it was apparently a case of; "They said, I said,"  for the officer. The drunk said they had the green light, my ex-son-in-law said he had the green light. The witness who stayed was the "Good Samaritan" who brought out the truth. So it is that we get broadsided with the truth, like the driver in error was broadsided with the truth, and went to jail.

In my morning and evening daily prayer I read/pray several Psalms each day. These Psalms/Prayers grew out of the culture, experience, and times of the people. The words are timeless no matter which translation or paraphrase of  them you read. Eugene Peterson's treatment of them in "The Message" paraphrase brings them more into our time and place. However, whenever I encounter culturally specific terms like "king" or "throne" it would seem that the substitution of other terms that resonate with our twenty-first century world would deepen the impact of the Psalm/Prayer on our life today.

For example, this morning in Psalm 5:2 I read, "Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray." (NIV)  I don't know what it is to live under the authority of a king who exercises absolute control over the life of his/her subjects. I do know what it is like to live under the authority of a "Supervisor" or a "Boss." Substituting terms like that in the text where applicable seems to drive the point home to me in a deeper way. "Listen to my cry for help, for you are my supervisor  and my God, for to you I pray." I have toyed with using "President" for "King" but an obvious danger emerges in each case. In the example I gave it is dangerous to equate one's servervisor or boss as "God." But never-the-less how many people really see God as their supervisor or boss to whom they are accountable every step on the journey of life?