Craving

There is evidence to suggest that we are living in a world that is craving more, fearing much, and feeling greater and greater helplessness. The news blogs and publications; the political polls and debates; and our entertainment and social commentaries would indicate anxious tendencies. Blaise Pascal was a mathematician, physicist, and philosopher of the 17^th century. Even in his era, the seeds of dissatisfaction had already been sown.

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”
- Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425)

Where does one find true happiness? How do we return to sanity and health? Is the answer found in abandoning God or in including God in the solution? Each reader must seek an answer but they need not do it alone. We are all fellow-travelers who need one another. Our mental health and well-being depend upon this.

Tomorrow, You're Always a Day Away

How do we go about living in the present? It seems that we are always either living in the past or looking at the future. How do I stay focused on this moment right here as my fingers dance over the keyboard of my laptop computer?

Wendell Berry speaking of universities said, 

“It was preparing people from the world of the past for the world of the future, and what was missing was the world of the present, where every body was living its small, short, surprising, miserable, wonderful, blessed, damaged, only life.”

 We all too readily race ahead to tomorrow, only to find that the tomorrow to which we raced has become yesterday. Jesus of Nazareth said, 

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Matthew 6:34 New Living Translation.

Those are good words by which to live.

The Harvard Grant Study

In the fall of 2008, journalist and author, Joshua Wolf Shenk was given the rare privilege to spend a month reading the results of a 70 year longitudinal study of mental and physical well-being known as the "Grant Study." Prior to this, the files had been kept locked up to all but a few researchers. The subjects of this study were 268 male students at Harvard. They had been sophomores in 1937 when the study began, so in 2009, those that were still alive, were in their late 80s. The chief curator for the study, the psychiatrist George Vaillant, kept the work going through the years by raising funds, creating the surveys to which the men responded, and publishing books on the findings. Shenk's article, "What Makes Us Happy?," was published in The Atlantic  on June 1, 2009 and can be seen in its online version here. Shenk admits that it is difficult to separate the interpretation of results from the persona of George Vaillant whose own psychological and physical development occurred while he watched 268 lives unfold.

By the time the Grant Study men had entered retirement, Vaillant, who had then been following them for a quarter century, had identified seven major factors that predict healthy aging, both physically and psychologically. Employing mature adaptations was one. The others were education, stable marriage, not smoking, not abusing alcohol, some exercise, and healthy weight. Of the 106 Harvard men who had five or six of these factors in their favor at age 50, half ended up at 80 as what Vaillant called “happy-well” and only 7.5 percent as “sad-sick.” Meanwhile, of the men who had three or fewer of the health factors at age 50, none ended up “happy-well” at 80. Even if they had been in adequate physical shape at 50, the men who had three or fewer protective factors were three times as likely to be dead at 80 as those with four or more factors."1

Vaillant and Shenk say that some factors don't matter very much. For example, cholesterol levels at age 50, and social ease at 20-something. The influence of both diminish over time and have little affect by age 70.  “If you follow lives long enough, the risk factors for healthy life adjustment change. There is an age to watch your cholesterol and an age to ignore it.”2 "Regular exercise in college predicted late-life mental health better than it did physical health. . . . pessimists seemed to suffer physically in comparison with optimists, perhaps because they’re less likely to connect with others or care for themselves."3

Vaillant asserts that “Alcoholism is a disorder of great destructive power”4 and abuse of alcohol was the most likely predictor of unhappiness. We didn't need a longitudinal study of Harvard men to tell us this; everyone has one or two friends or relatives pointing toward this truth.

Of course, happiness scientists have come up with all kinds of straightforward, and actionable, findings: that money does little to make us happier once our basic needs are met; that marriage and faith lead to happiness (or it could be that happy people are more likely to be married and spiritual) . . . . "You can say a lot of general things from these data that you could never say before . . . . But many of them are relatively shallow. People who go to church report more joy. But if you ask why, we don’t know."5

Vaillant admitted to Shenk that even with the benefit of the study, he is not a model of adult development. Perhaps the key to a good life is

not rules to follow, nor problems to avoid, but an engaged humility, an earnest acceptance of life’s pains and promises. In his efforts to manifest this spirit, George Vaillant is, if not a model, then certainly a practiced guide. For all his love of science and its conclusions, he returns to stories and their questions.6

Happiness is notoriously hard to quantify, and "a good life" is a subjective term. We should not be surprised that even George Vaillant cannot be the source for a Facebook status or inspirational poster that will forever state the secret of the good life.

More recently, another article entitled, "What Makes Us Happy, Revisited: A new look at the famous Harvard study of what makes people thrive" written by Scott Stossel was published in The Atlantic (April 24, 2013 and available here [you can also see a similar article in the Huffington Post; many people have been linking to this article on Facebook pages]). This latest article, a quick sound-bite suitable for sharing on social media, does not tell the stories of any of the men in the study, and instead offers short quotes from Vaillant and Shenk outside of the broader context of their wrestle with the reams of data. It attempts to sum up the 70 year study in five memorable words: "Happiness is love. Full stop.”7

But, is that a fair summary? Even if we could determine action points from these words, would this explain the majority of scenarios? A few of the stories from the Grant Study would suggest  more complex systems.

Most of the subjects of the Grant Study remain anonymous. A few have willingly identified themselves and it is now known that John F. Kennedy was a Grant Study man.8

Kennedy—the heir to ruthless, ambitious privilege; the philanderer of “Camelot”; the paragon of casual wit and physical vigor who, backstage, suffered from debilitating illness—is no one’s idea of “normal.” And that’s the point. The study began in the spirit of laying lives out on a microscope slide. But it turned out that the lives were too big, too weird, too full of subtleties and contradictions to fit any easy conception of “successful living.” [They] had gone looking for binary conclusions—yeses and nos, dos and don’ts. But the enduring lessons would be paradoxical, not only on the substance of the men’s lives . . . but also with respect to method: if it was to come to life, this cleaver-sharp science project would need the rounding influence of storytelling.9

In our social media age, we often look for binary conclusions; or at least a clever line that we can use as a status update on Facebook. Perhaps we should be looking at the stories of people's lives rather than snippets of data. Perhaps we need a biographical approach. What story does each life tell? What story will each of our lives tell? To whom will our story point? Will it be an example of one who lived a "happy life," or a story of sacrifice and love for others?


1 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true
2 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true
3 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true
4 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true
5 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true
6 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true
7 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/thanks-mom/309287/
8 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true
9 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/?single_page=true

Works cited:
Gregoire, Carolyn. "The 75 Year Study That Found The Secrets To A Fulfilling Life." The Huffington Post. August 11, 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/11/how-this-harvard-psycholo_n_3727229.html (accessed July 4, 2014).
Shenk, Joshua Wolf. "What Makes Us Happy?" The Atlantic. June 1, 2009. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/ (accessed July 4, 2014).
Stossell, Scott. "What Makes Us Happy Revisited: A new look at the famous Harvard study of what makes people thrive." The Atlantic. April 24, 2013. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/thanks-mom/309287/ (accessed July 4, 2014).

Life is This Simple

“Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. This is not just a nice story or a fable, it is true.”
- Thomas Merton, Spiritual Master: The Essential Writings;  Orbis Books, 2001.

Laws of the Flesh and the Physical

In 1955, Flannery O'Conner1 said, "Right now the whole world seems to be going through a dark night of the soul."2 I wonder what she would say about the whole world today. 2014 is a time in which we are "post-everything." Many have given up on the Catholic Church, given up on Evangelicalism, given up on the Emergent Church, given up on logic, given up on science, given up on truth, given up on God. We go through the motions, looking like we are alive but the distinction between life and non-life is blurred. Consciousness is seen as a by-product of chemical and electrical processes. Is it any wonder the concept of zombies is enjoying a resurgence?

O'Conner shared her theological perspective on the laws of the flesh and the physical in a letter to her friend Betty Hester:

For you it may be a matter of not being able to accept what you call a suspension of the laws of the flesh and the physical, but for my part I think that when I know what the laws of the flesh and the physical really are, then I will know what God is. We know them as we see them, not as God sees them. For me it is the virgin birth, the Incarnation, the resurrection which are the true laws of the flesh and the physical. Death, decay, destruction are the suspension of these laws.3

Starting in July of 1955, O'Conner wrote a number of letters to Hester, a woman to whom she became a spiritual mentor. O'Conner was Hester's confirmation sponsor in the Catholic Church, continued to engage her in theological dialogue, and tried to sustain her friend's faith. When Hester later left the church in 1961, professing agnosticism, O'Conner is said to have been deeply disappointed.4



1 Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American writer and essayist. An important voice in American literature, O'Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. Her pen name was Flannery O'Conner.
2 Flannery O'Conner in a letter to Betty Hester, September 6, 1955. http://theamericanreader.com/6-september-1955-flannery-oconnor/
3 Ibid.
4 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Hester

Making the Best of It

I have a friend who works in criminal law in downtown Vancouver. Daily, he faces the "real world" of robbery, domestic abuse, drunk driving, murder, and many other indications of the brokenness of this world. My own experience with the real world comes from previous work in the ethics of a molecular genetics lab, years of experience as a leader in the church, and volunteer hours with an organization called Circles of Support and Accountability. He and I often discuss how to live in a world in which so much seems to be broken. That is one reason why we are presently reading  Making the Best of It: Following Christ In The Real World by John G. Stackhouse, Jr. We read a chapter or two and get together to discuss the concepts we are learning from the book. (I would suggest that this is a great way to increase your learning from any particular book.)

The chapter we just discussed is about the theology and pragmatism of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is an excellent chapter from which I learned a great deal about this remarkable man. He very much lived out his faith in the real world. He believed that his faith was to be lived for eternity but that it began in the here and now. Living in Germany during World War II as a Nazi resister, he knew that he lived in a fallen and broken world. Yet, he did not retreat from the problems of the world into some sort of, actual or virtual, church cloister. Nor did he set out to change society into a completely Christian world. Instead he chose to get his hands dirty and make the best of working in a world of light and darkness. Such thinking led Bonhoeffer to be part of the resistance against the Nazis and he even conspired with others to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Stackhouse suggests that "He did so, to be sure, only with the strongly conflicted sense that this was the thing God wanted him to do and yet he was doing something evil for which he needed - and hoped for - forgiveness."1

Stackhouse also sees this type of thinking in other theologians such as C.S. Lewis and Reinhold Niebuhr and suggests that

We must press on, then, to conscientious and considered action. We seek forgiveness for the impurity of our motives and the evil results of our actions, but we must press on regardless to do what we can to increase justice and love. We must not be fastidious in a broken, heaving world and seek to keep our hands clean. We join with our God, who himself has dirt and blood on his hands as he does what good he can within this complicated system he has made and maintains - for the ultimate good of the world.2

On the other hand, Stackhouse, Lewis, Niebuhr, and Bonhoeffer are not kill-joys who see only the evil and brokenness of our world. Bonhoeffer was a man who loved life and wrote books, poetry, and music. He was incredibly balanced and was not prone to extremes. These words of his show a man who loved life and knew how to appreciate good gifts from the hand of God and embrace the joy of this world.

. . . within natural life, the joys of the body are a sign of the eternal joy that is promised human beings in the presence of God. . . . Unlike an animal shelter, a human dwelling is not intended to be only a protection against bad weather and the night, as well as a place to raise offspring. It is the space in which human beings may enjoy the pleasures of personal life in the security of their loved ones and their possessions. Eating and drinking serve not only the purpose of keeping the body healthy, but also the natural joy of bodily life. Clothing is not merely a necessary covering for the body, but is at the same time an adornment of the body. Relaxation not only serves the purpose of increasing the capacity for work, but also provides the body with the measure of rest and joy that is due to it. In its essential distance from all purposefulness, play is the clearest expression that bodily life is an end in itself. Sexuality is not only a means of procreation, but, independent of this purpose, embodies joy within marriage in the love of two people for each other.3

Stackhouse provides a new analysis of the traditional "categories of Christian involvement with society" presented in H. Richard Niebuhr's book, Christ and Culture. The later chapters of Stackhouse's book will provide a strategy for how we might live out a life of faith in a broken world that is still filled with joy and good gifts from God. I look forward to the rest of the book.



Stackhouse, John G., Jr. Making the Best of It: Following Christ In The Real World. New York: Oxford University Press , Inc., 2008.

1 (Stackhouse 2008, 157)
2 (Stackhouse 2008, 106, 107)
3 Dietrich Bonhoeffer as quoted in (Stackhouse 2008, 134, 135)

Steve Jobs

Walter Isaacson is a writer of biographies whose previous works include the life story of Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, and Albert Einstein. I find biographies to be interesting insights into public personalities and have read Isaacson's Einstein: His Life and Universe. Recently, Isaacson completed what will likely be his biggest selling book, the authorised biography of Steve Jobs. The publisher is rushing the book to the market to capitalize on the peak in interest following Jobs' death on October 5th. In a teaser to the book Isaacson has told of Jobs' motivation for having his biography written.

"I wanted my kids to know me," Isaacson quoted Jobs as saying in their final interview at Jobs' home in Palo Alto, California. "I wasn't always there for them and I wanted them to know why and to understand what I did." *

Steve Jobs' words don't sound so much like regret but rather an explanation. He wants his kids to know him through this book. He wants them to have an explanation for why they did not know him and why he was not "there for them." There is much we can learn from Steve Jobs. Even these words from his final interview are instructional. They can lead us to think about what we will leave behind when we pass from this life. They can lead us to ask questions about our own lives. "How well do people know me?" "Do I care whether or not people know me?" "Who are the people in my life for whom I want to 'be there'?"

I will likely read this biography of one of the most interesting men of our time. And as I read it I will ponder the important questions of my own life.

*© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/07/steve-jobs-biography-official-release

Exotheology

Although I have thought about the subject for years, I learned a new term today: "exotheology." It is defined as the examination of theological issues related to extraterrestrial intelligence. Now lest you think I have completely lost my mind, let me point out that many gifted and creative writers have written on this topic. C.S. Lewis wrote a trilogy^ of books that grappled with the questions of what it might look like if humans travelled to other planets and found intelligent life. Mary Doriah Russell wrote The Sparrow and Children of God as a means of wrestling with complex questions of evil and suffering in the world. In these two books intelligent life is discovered on a distant planet and Jesuit priests organize a scientific expedition to investigate.

In addition to such fictional references, the Catholic Church has theologians dedicated to thinking about the implications of life on other planets. José Gabriel Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory, has said that "Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can't put limits on God's creative freedom."*

One of the first places I came upon the concept of exotheology was in the lyrics of a song written by Larry Norman and released on his In Another Land album in 1976. In the song "UFO" he writes,

And if there's life on other planets, then I'm sure that He must know. And He's been there once already, and has died to save their souls.

Norman's approach to exotheology is one valid perspective but is not the only perspective. Lewis, in the Cosmic Trilogy suggests that life on other planets may have taken a different path. He writes about other worlds where intelligent life had not yet fallen from grace with God; rather, they continued to walk in harmony with their Creator. Mary Doriah Russell is much more interested in the theme of how we reconcile a benevolent God with suffering in the world but her books allow exploration of other ways God might work with persons on other planets.

Of course, we do not know if there is such a thing as intelligent extraterrestrial life and we do not know if we will ever discover such if indeed it exists. Yet, the thought experiments related to such speculation are helpful as we think through our "endotheology" (my own word for the opposite of exotheology) and how we understand our own relationship with a Creator God. As is often the case, C.S. Lewis has some appropriate final words on the topic.

I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism. I can’t bear to think of it. But if we on Earth were to get right with God, of course, all would be changed. Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take the good things with us. That is quite a different matter.#

^The trilogy of books sometimes called the Cosmic Trilogy consists of Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength.

*"Vatican scientist says belief in God and aliens is OK," Reuters, May 14, 2008, and "Pope's astronomer insists alien life 'would be part of God's creation,'" The Independent, 15th May 2008.

#A 1963 interview with C.S. Lewis http://www.cbn.com/special/Narnia/articles/ans_LewisLastInterviewB.aspx.

Unlived Things

No one lives his life.
Disguised since childhood,
haphazardly assembled
from voices and fears and little pleasures,
we come of age as masks.
Our true face never speaks
Somewhere there must be storehouses
Where all these lives are laid away
like suits of armor or old carriages
or clothes hanging limply on the walls.
All paths lead there,
to the repository of unlived things.

–Rainer Maria Rilke*


*As quoted at Empire Remixed

Role Models

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12 (New International Version)

One of my favourite parts of the Bible has always been 1 Timothy chapter four. When I was a young man I incorporated verse twelve into a valedictory speech and challenged my class-mates to be role models for others despite their youth. At this point in life I am no longer considered young but I have the same desire to see people who will model a life that is an example for others. More than ever our world needs people, young and old, who will be good role models in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in integrity.

Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don't let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use. 1 Timothy 4:11-14 (The Message)

Feelings

Feelings are, with a few exceptions, good servants. But they are disastrous masters.*

It is easy to be controlled by our feelings. We get up in the morning, look in the mirror to ensure that our face is still in the right place and then we check our feelings. We might also look out the window and see what the weather is like before determining how we feel. For many of us, this mood check becomes a guiding factor for the rest of the day. People ask us, "How are you?" We answer with some variant of the feelings we detected while staring at our face in the bathroom mirror. But allowing ourselves to be mastered by our feelings is unhealthy and unnecessary.

Dallas Willard notes that

Addiction is a feeling phenomenon. The addict is one who, in one way or another, has given in to feeling of one kind or another and has placed it in the position of ultimate value in his or her life.#

By contrast, the person who happily lets God be God does have a place to stand in dealing with feelings - even in extreme cases such as despair over loved ones or excruciating pain or voluptuous pleasure. They have the resources to do what they don't want to do and to not do what they want. They know and deeply accept the fact that their feelings, of whatever kind, do not have to be fulfilled. They spend little time grieving over non-fulfillment. And with respect to feelings that are inherently injurious and wrong, their strategy is not one of resisting them in the moment of choice but of living in such a way that they do not have such feelings at all, or at least do not have them in a degree that makes it hard to decide against them when appropriate.^

We dare not deny our feelings and we dare not be ruled by them. If we identify the underlying condition that gives rise to the feeling we can assign feelings their appropriate place. Then our actions will be guided by "insight, understanding, and conviction of truth" rather than the feelings of the moment. For further understanding of these principles I highly recommend Renovation of the Heart.

*Willard, Dallas. Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2002, p. 122.
#Willard, 2002, p. 125.
^Willard, 2002, p. 119.

More

Tomorrow I thirst again

What kind of crazy drink is this? I lift
This strange bottomless cup. You fill it up.
You fill me to overflowing and I
Am satisfied. I thirst no more. And yet
Still I will thirst for more…and more…and more.

I look to those who are thirsty. You fill
Their empty cups. You supply their need and
They are satisfied. They will thirst no more.
Tomorrow they will be back for some more.

I take all I need for this day. You fill
My worthless cup. You supply my need and
I am satisfied. I thirst no more. But
Tomorrow I will be back for some more.

Tomorrow I thirst again.