Intellectual Senility:
I read the quote below from author Alan Hirsch Facebook posting. It’s another one of those, “I’m not sure I want to hear that” statements. None of us want to admit that we “…would rather be faithful to outworn views than to undergo the strain of re-examination and revision.” Doing so is a strain. I can testify to that.
We certainly do not want to realize that we would .. and so most of us won’t. But if you do pause – you can see it. My guess is that most cannot even go there. Excuses and denial will abound. Even if you think you are an intellectual and academic learner ..your thinking gets stuck in old paradigms that may have little or nothing to do with core truths believed. Perhaps more so if you are an intellectual and academic. We are even prone to drive change in such a way that we can assure we preserve ‘the good status quo’ rather than ever questioning the status quo – or seeking divine guidance on what we should be doing instead of preserving the status quo. Leaving a legacy can become an idol. I’m guessing most will not agree with me on that.
And yes I am talking of ‘the church’ but also of life ..faith accoutrements (not truths) ..home.. work… living in general.
“Most people think only once in their lives, usually when they are at college. After that, their minds are made up, and their decisions, utterances are endless repetition of views that have in the meantime become obsolete, outworn, unsound. This applies to politics, scholarship, the arts as well as social service. Views, just as leaves, are bound to whither, because the world is in flux. But so …many of us would rather be faithful to outworn views that to undergo the strain of re-examination and revision. Indeed, intellectual senility sets in long before physical infirmity. A human being must be valued by how many times he is able to see the world from a new perspective. ” -Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, 20 (quoted by Ted ..from Alan Hirsch Facebook posting).
Disturbed in an intense and extended fashion & Chaos Theory
I recently read an Alan Hirsch book, the Forgotten Ways. It was a slow deep read for me. After chapter two I skipped to the back to read the addendum on “chaos theory” which includes an elementary Alan retranslated view on living systems theory , cybernetics and my personal favorite – the theory of requisite variety:
The survival of any organism depends on its capacity to cultivate (not just tolerate) variety in its internal structure. Failure to do so results in an inability to cope successfully with ‘variety’ when it is introduced from an external source”. ….and the kicker I really love… “if adaptive intention and capacity are required, the organization must be disturbed in an intense and extended fashion if leaders are to break the stifling equilibrium that has overwhelmed it.”
“Disturbed in an intense and extended fashion”. I resemble that remark. Honestly this really grabbed me. It makes sense. I think it’s true. But it leaves me asking what this means for my personal and community life on all venues. In some ways my life reeks of equilibrium. On the other hand it makes me appreciate (kind of) the chaos of my current work, church … and life situation. Did I really just write that?
I doubt that anyone can read Alan’s stuff and agree with it all but I also don’t think you can read it and not have some foundational thinking shaken up. It is a healthy read in that sense alone. Here is the part that drove it home:
“…what Western Christianity desperately needs at the moment is adaptive leadership – people who can help us transition to a different, more agile, mode of church. Such leaders don’t necessarily have to be highly creative innovators themselves, but rather people who can move the church into adaptive modes—people who can disturb the stifling equilibrium and create the conditions for change and innovation. By and large, many leaders in church organizations, particularly those with strong caring and teaching gifts, can exhibit a tendency to avoid conflict and too easily soothe tensions. Left unchecked, this can be lethal, because it caters to equilibrium and therefore ultimately to death” AND “…. That is the task of leadership to create the conditions that foster imagination, initiative, and creativity. … If we wish to activate genuine innovation in the organizations we serve we need to descend into the unknown, disregard the proven cause-and-effect formulas, and defy the odds…”
“…God never intended his leaders to be people with all the answers and all the vision. Rather, our role is to help God’s people discover the answers for themselves through the activity of leaders who awaken their imagination and stimulate a search. Our task is not to control, but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit try to both harness and effect the flow. We move from being managers to being servants or, even more specifically, cultivators of fields or environments wherein certain behaviors or activities take place.” [emphasis is all mine!]
Psalm 107_ Lovingkindness
I’ve been reading Psalm 107 over and over again. I am writing it out word for word in my journal with intent to memorize it. It brings some of this discussion into harsh but good reality.
Dealing with my fathers rapidly declining life is bringing an element of new perspective. My family is gathering in Seattle even as I write this. I leave in a few days. I am not close to my father. I never have been.
It is a strange thing. Things take on a different look in these situations. The words I hear from my father are clearly sincere. I hesitantly admit that for the first time I see Christ in him. The words from my dad have been there for as long as I can remember but – in my mind – the life said otherwise. I fear this is as wrongfully judgemental as it sounds. I do not now realize I have been mistaken about my questioning of His life lived. Rather, I now realize a different perspective from my own viewpoint of 51 years lived – most of it as a professing Christian. I see Christ in what is I hear in way the words are now said. There is a yearning to give that I now recognize. It is a yearning expressed from awareness of Jesus against the backdrop of a life …that has not been all we each as believers know it should have been. I know that voice. I hear it in my own heart everyday.
I find myself looking differently on things. I have over the years been angry at my dad. But at this point in my life with my own increasing awareness of my own short comings as father, son, son-in-law, husband, brother, friend, brother-in-law, stranger, worker, citizen – I slowly begin to want to be less judgemental of others.
It is a strange thing. Dealing with the thoughts that churn when faced with loosing a loved one … where love was not well exchanged… but is now wanting to be sincere and mutual. I cannot explain that. It frustrates me as I think of it. Back to Psalm 107.
Yet in this journey I now find as I look beyond my father that there is a part of me that is also less willing to let what is not right prevail in me and in those I am living life amongst. These seem to be opposed. I think they are not. Conflict is required. More specifically, loving conflict is required. It takes a broader perspective and new willingness to let go of my own desires but also a commitment to persevere. It requires that I sincerely hear others from their perspective without demand or judgement. It requires that I risk the potential outcome of speaking out. I risk that demand and judgement will be reciprocated back on me. And yes – I risk being wrong … and everything in between.
The fear now is less about the response (of loving conflict) than realizing the potential of my own demand, accusation and judgement – when conflict is engaged. I am not speaking of my father here. There is a time when loving conflict is mute and only love is left. But I think relationships would be better to the end – if we could learn loving conflict sooner.
I want to love people in the midst of my weakness and theirs. Theres the rub – isn’t it? This is really what it requires. I currently suck at it. ..but it is why at my very core I believe in the divine value of every living soul. He is not willing that any should perish. He was not willing that I should perish.
LIfe has come up short. Sometimes the shortness really ticks me off. There is grace of course…but sometimes I just want to be a better person – right now. I want to have accomplished more, done better with what I was given and be doing more now. I want to want to love others well.
It is a work in process. Hope is lost in the moments I cannot embrace that. I know what it is to perpetually fight a shroud of hopelessness. Born of flesh, self-centered and untrue it may be but it is a heavy enveloping burden. It is a terror. I hate it so. It must be confronted and not soothed. It must be churned. It must be felt to be destroyed.
..the links in this discourse may not be clear to any unlikely reader. But they are there.
Psalm 107. Consider the lovingkindness of the Lord….over and over again. Never give up.
Disturbed in an intense and extended fashion. I am so glad for it.
Ted
Desperate Pursuit 