IS GOD THE MASTER OF IMPROVISATION? (Uncertainty continued)

Thoughts about the uncertainty of life have led me to new questions about the traditional ideas about God (such as if God is God, then God must be omniscent, omnipresent, omnipotent, etc.)

But if I think outside the box, I can ask:
What if the "Creator" does not have a "master plan" and is making things up as "He" goes along?
What if God is simply improvising?

Is that the real issue behind "creationists" arguments about evolution?

It occurs to me that the Biblical story of Noah points to improvisation.

According to the account in Genesis, the Lord comes to regret having created mankind (Genesis 6:6) and decides to destroy 'His' creation. But Noah finds grace and is given instructions to build the ark and take just enough to start over. 

An unbiased reading of the story would seem to indicate that God made a mistake in creating mankind and had to improvise to correct the situation... So is God making this up as "He" goes along? This question may seem blasphemous to my former Sunday School teahers (or even some seminary professors) but it is a legitimate question. And perhaps a possible answer is that God is blindsided by the future as much as we are. 

At any rate, being blind-sided by the uncertainties of life forces us to improvise.

Maybe that's not so bad...it makes life quite an adventure!

When I was growing up, I heard in Sunday School that I was a sinner and would go to hell unless I accepted Jesus as my personal Savior, which I did (I wasn't stupid...I knew I didn't want to burn forever!) But at some point I got to thinking about heaven -- a place where we would live God forever and every day would be like Sunday. Actually I hated Sunday: because of all the "Sabbath" rules. it was the most boring day of the week! So thoughts of heaven made me cry!!

I don't want hell, but boredom can be its own hell.

The bumper sticker says: "WE PLAN. GOD LAUGHS!"

Maybe we should laugh at our plans too!

[PS: I'm making this up as I go along.]

HOW THEN SHALL WE LIVE?

According to Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, people are motivated to fulfill basic needs before moving on to fulfill more 'advanced' needs. These are usually pictured in a pyramid, with basic physiological needs (food water, sleep) at the bottom, followed by safety and security needs. Then come social and friendship needs, followed by self-esteem and success needs, with "self-actualization" at the top.

In practical terms, our desire to live and survive is paramount.

But if that is so, why do people commit suicide?

In my opinion, once our basic survival needs are met, we arrive at the questions of meaning and purpose.

My search for meaning began during my second year in college. I had transferred from a small college in my hometown to a large state university in another state. The loss of familiarity, and feeling overwhelmed and insignificant by the size of the student body, made me quite vulnerable. And the intellectual challenges of the academic world soon saw my old Sunday School answers and beliefs evaporate as my new questions expanded. What if there is no God? What if death means the end of my existence? Why live if it all comes to nothing? Why not end it now?

My own suicidal thoughts and search for meaning led me to realize that the love and friendships in my life had mattered to me, whether or not  I ceased to exist at death. So I made a choice and decided that life was worth living...I chose life.

A few years ago, I was watching a TV program where a priest made the following comment:
"We don't find meaning in life...we make meaning."

We can study the world's great philosophers, adopt various spiritual disciplines of the world's great religious traditions, and/or find our personal guru. But in the end, we must decide for our self and choose our own path.  No one can live our life for us.

How then shall we live?

No one's answers really matter but our own, and it is only through working out our own spirituality that we

make our way.

Rabbi Rami Shapiro

Do not miss Rami Shapiro's blogs, "Happy Sukkot" (9/19/2013) and "The New Covenant" (10/20/2103) at www.rabbirami.blogspot.com

UNCERTAINTY IS PART OF THE HUMAN CONDITION

"Life is what happens while you are making other plans."

My birthday is on January 10. My brother's is on December 1.

This is why I remember the following experience.

Back when I was a pastor, one of my church members with cancer was dying in the hospital. Her daughter called me on December 1 and requested that I come to the hospital ASAP -- the Oncologist had just told the family that their mother could not last through the day. After standing vigil with the family for some time,

I told the daughter that I needed to leave, and explained that in my experience, it might be some time before death would occur.

Long story short, the daughter called me while I was having my birthday breakfast to inform me that her mother had died...40 days after the doctor's prediction!

My life's companion Janice and I were married in 1972, and decided to start a family in 1974. Instead of getting pregnant, in 1975,she was informed that she had myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disorder she has coped with since. Another long story short, she discovered she was pregnant in 1994--22 years later!

Our son Quincy was born that year on November 3--a joy unspeakable. And yet, his life almost ended at age 2, and he was diagnosed with Asperger's in 2009. Uncertainty is now an unavoidable daily companion, but his story is for another time.

UNCERTAINTY IS PART OF THE HUMAN CONDITION.

I have written the above to preface my reaction to a report I just read in the quarterly newsletter of Hospice of Virginia (my last employer) concerning an article entitled "Uncertainty -- The Other Side of Prognosis" from the New England Journal of Medicine (6/27/2013.)

The article was quoted as follows: "In many respects, the primary communication task of clinicians is the management of uncertainty...By normalizing uncertainty and attending to the affective response to living in the face of an uncertain future, we may help our patients and their families enjoy the time they have now."

I love academic jargon!! (For those with Asperger's, that is sarcasm.)

That quote reminds me of an old beer commercial:

"You only go around once in life, so grab all the gusto you can."

As humans, there is only one certainty we all face: some day we will die.

How then do we live? That is a question that only our own spirituality can answer.

(To be continued...)

LET IT BE ?

     I just finished reading a friend's sermon entitled, "Let It Be."  His introduction recounts the story of how Paul McCartney came to write this famous Beatle's song. I had assumed the song's reference to Mother Mary was to the mother of Jesus, but this Mary was Paul's mother. She had appeared to him in a dream during a time in his life when he was very distraught, and had told him, "Let it be." Paul felt she gave him this message: 

     "Be gentle, don't fight things, just try to go with the flow and it will all work out."

     A part of me resonates with this message, yet another part of me resists it. 

     It reminds me of the "Serenity" prayer:

Lord, help me to change what I can; accept what I can't; and give me the wisdom to know the difference.

     Rather than feel serenity when I hear this prayer, I often feel somewhat distressed, as the wisdom to know the difference is exactly what I often don't have.

     My first full-time ministerial assignment in 1971 was to a church that had a racial policy in writing that stated: "No member of the Negroe (sic) race shall be admitted for attendance or membership." I openly opposed that policy and worked to encourage those who wanted to change it. (It was abolished in 1975.) I'm glad I did not just "let it be." 

     Unfortunately, there have been many other occasions when I should have looked at a situation and said "Let it be" but did not...to my chagrin!

     Back in the 80's when I first began working as a professional counselor, I did a lot of research about the various 'schools' of psychotherapy (over 500 back then) and what seemed to work. The concensus was that the relationship between the therapist and the client was the essential therapeutic ingredient. So much for all the theories if that relationship of trust could not be established! 

     At any rate, in my work with clients, I found I was often able to build the relationship, but my difficulty came at a critical tipping point: how long do I "let it be" and continue to listen, nurture and support the client--and when do I confront their faulty thinking and behavior? The answer is far more art (intuitive) than science.

     Actually, this dilemma pervades most issues in our life. As Kenny Rogers sang in The Gambler:

     "You've got to know when to hold'em;

          know when to fold'em;

               know when to walk away,

                    and know when to run."

SELF-NURTURING SPIRITUALITY

"What is self-nurturing spirituality?" Alice D.Domar asks this question and gives the following answer:

It is "One in which our search for meaning and purpose is consciously woven into our daily lives..."

The quote is from her book with Henry Dreher, which is entitled:
SELF NURTURE: Learning to Care for Yourself as Effectively as You Care for Everyone Else.

Their concept of self-nurturing spirituality is "one in which we come to terms with our religious backgrounds, ferreting out, as best we can, our own core beliefs about God or spirit." And then, most significantly, they observe that self-nurturing spirituality is "One in which we are, finally, beholden only to ourselves when it comes to our ultimate decisions about faith and how we practice it it." (Quotes from pages 261-262.)

This points to a pivotal difference between religion and spirituality: religion is based upon external and communal authority; spirituality is existential and rooted in one's own experience.

And that is why I like the concept of "Patchwork Quilt Spirituality." I pick and choose what to believe according to what has meaning and substance for me--the "truth" that resonates within me. I know that some systematic theologians and scientifically-minded academic types will object and and protest that we can't cherry-pick what we believe. But in my experience, ultimately we all do...we just don't admit it.

LOVE IS REAL

I came across a note to myself  that back in 2003, I had written the following to a friend whose husband was dying with cancer;

The older I get, the less I understand. But one thing I know:

LOVE IS REAL
                and
OUR RELATIONSHIPS ARE WHAT REALLY MATTER.

I have found a story that echoes the same truth.

After finally beating his grandmother at Monopoly, she used the game to teach her grandson a lesson about life.

At the end of the game, she reminded him that everything he had won and accumulated...all the "cash" and properties...went back in the box at the end of the game.

Whatever we achieve and accumulate in life does not go with us when we die.

The 4th Secret of the One Minute Manager   (by Ken Blanchard and Margret McBride) ends the story with this thought:
"...when life is over, everything goes back in the box. The only thing you get to keep is your soul. That's where you store who you loved and who loved you." (p. 93)

A final thought:  HE WHO DIES WITH THE MOST TOYS...STILL DIES!