Foot Rub

Now would be a good time for a foot rub! Ahhhhh….

An assignment: take a family member or friend aside while everyone else naps or watches football, and have them probe your feet strategically according to the above chart. Have them move slowly, in millimeter increments. You will discover certain points are tender.

“It’s all in your head.” For centuries, since the philosopher and scientist René Descartes (1596-1650) said I think, therefore I am, the western world has looked at the body at a mechanical instrument, with the mind operating as its control tower. Modern biology is beginning to upend that idea with the advent of neuroscience and a more sophisticated observation of the body.

How beautiful are the feet. The ancient Chinese viewed every organ in the body as a kind of “brain”: the heart, lungs, liver, hands, feet, and so on, each have their own “computer,” as we might call it today. Each organ is the body in microcosm. The feet are an exact map of the body; the discipline called “reflexology” studies and applies this map to healing.  

If my head is not the control tower I thought it was, are there are new possibilities for helping my body to heal, energize, and resist disease?

Embodied Lord, help me to understand how to heal. Amen. 

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Back to the Body

Twenty years of back pain, and I am finally making progress. It is coming from an unexpected source: Chinese medicine.

To set the context: after this doctor and that specialist and this physical therapist and that umpteenth stretching regimen, my back still hurt. As in, stop everything and lay on the ground hurt. The ibuprofens and acetaminophens and other drugs worked little or not at all. 

The most troubling thing (besides the money spent on all of it) was the utter lack of answers. I saw the best of the best specialists, neurosurgeons, and therapists, and not one of them—over a twenty year period!—could offer me a real explanation for what was causing my problem. 

I finally got brave. I asked my doctor for a recommendation to an acupuncturist. (To his credit, he had one ready at hand!) After just a few visits, the effect was so palpable that I knew I must be on to something. That in turn has led me into further study and work in reflexology, acupressure, and herbal medicine. I am embarking on a whole new world of understanding about the human body.

Glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:20) Chinese medicine, as it turns out, is not so mystical or otherworldly. Rather just the opposite: it is deeply grounded in the body. Ignoring this tradition, have I denied God’s body the health it naturally wants to achieve?

Embodied Christ, open me to what my body is really saying. Amen. 

~~~~~~~~~~

http://acupressureonline.org/

Headache? Take a look at Aaron Stein's Acupressure Guide at the above link or Amazon. 

Using acupuncture and Chinese medicine, I am working on my asthma, healing from the immense dose of antibiotics I had to take because of Lyme, and a number of other issues in addition to my back. It is a very comprehensive system and can address depression, anxiety, sleep disorder, and a host of other chronic symptoms and diseases.

The simplest explanation for how acupuncture (and acupressure) works is that it sends a signal through the body's nervous system to increase blood flow to a certain area (such as the lungs or back). Blood flow is the only way the body has to heal itself, so increasing its flow will bring down inflammation, pain, and other symptomatic signs.

I will discuss more about acupuncture, the body's meridians, the mind-body connection, and other related concepts such as how foot reflexology works, in coming Minutes.

Open Door

Exploring a church recently, I came across a welcome poster with children’s drawings illustrating four quotes: “Open Door, Open Road, Open Table, Open Spirit.” I cannot think of a better way to present a church’s mission. And from the mouths of babes!

The repetition of the word “open” reinforces something quite easily lost upon churches: in my experience they are usually anything but. This is nothing new: Jesus’ chief confrontation is always with closed religious minds that say, “We understand doctrine. We control values. We will set the agenda for our religious culture.”

Unless you receive like a child….The best thing we can do is become like children again, open to the various diverse and other ways in which God works, ways wholly foreign to us, outside our understanding and control. Only then can the transcendent cosmic Christ be seen.

And he opened their minds. Jesus spoke to the people to open them up to another reality: see this water, it is now wine! See these loaves, they are enough for everyone! The mind-opening and truly mind-bending part of it is that Jesus is at the center of this reality, but not in a closed way. The cosmic Christ contains all things, all roads, all spirits, and is therefore not exclusive to any one of them. Everyone is invited to the wedding.

Open my mind, open my heart, open my spirit, open my path. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Recommended: New Album by Yo Yo Ma and Chris Thile!

The Goat Rodeo Sessions

These musicians had to be remarkably open to a diversity of sound, style, and instrumentation: a good metaphor for humanity's need for more openness!  

Goat Rodeo video teaser

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Not being open to the (dangerous) reality of spirit, and instead trying to control it through the camera, causes huge problems for the characters in the delightfully scary Paranormal Activity films: 

Read more about this strange and ironic combination of denial and control at my film review blog: 

Deeper Film

Moving Parts

+Lowell E. Thomas+

July 10, 1919 - October 14, 2011

“You must be someone special,” said my uncle. “He doesn’t let the rest of us touch this stuff.” So went the last time I saw my grandfather, “Papa.” I got to drive the electric train set he had so lovingly assembled on multiple tracks in the rear bedroom. 

The moving parts of anything motorized or electric were child’s play to him, both in the sense of being easy, and a source of joy. Ham radios were his specialty, and his knowledge of the inner guts of a car was encyclopedic. He could fix anything, thinking in a spatial-technical way that the rest of us could only marvel at.

Though they are many, they are one body. (I Corinthians 12:12) Our bodies have many moving parts; yet we don’t view them as so many items in an assembly line, but rather as a unity, as one whole. Late in his life, Papa connected more deeply to the Christian church. He became a moving part of the mystical body of Jesus. Whole in another sense.

Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes. (Matthew 20:34) When Jesus moves, he moves us with him. He opens our eyes to see all the moving parts. Can I see myself as part of a larger, spiritual whole?

Move me, open my eyes to the living body that Papa joined. Amen. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are packing our bags for a place none of us has been.

A place that has to be believed to be seen.

-U2, "Walk On"

Christianity is not a theory or speculation, but a life; not a philosophy of life, but a life and a living process.

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Resurrection Fern - to Papa.

Thousand Faces

Love sometimes comes in disguise. A very successful and recently retired business-owner friend of mine, convinced of the “just business” way of doing things, explained why he chose to sell the company’s shares to his long-standing employees, rather than to an outsider: “Sell the company to a stranger? How could I do that to them?”

He calls that business, I would call it love. His action betrays his deep sense of humanity. That’s love in one of its many faces. Any decision that takes into account the general welfare of others, no matter how coldly logical or financially savvy it might be, comes from a moral imperative we all have built inside of us: the imperative to love.

Because she loved much, she will be forgiven much. (Luke 7:47) A prostitute showed Jesus her very erotic expression of love and was forgiven precisely for it! The disciples could not accept this form of love, because they feared it. It came with a face they did not recognize. 

We call love by other names, like “ethics” or “morals”; we marginalize it in favor of being “practical”; we limit its range by inventing rules and taboos; we stamp it out by ignoring its diversity. Why do we fear love?

Help me see that Your Love has a thousand faces. Amen.

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Go to YouTube or Itunes and listen to a further thought by Randy Montana on Love's Thousand Faces. We recognize diversity of love but we also need to know that we are seen, individually. The song could be heard as talking to God, or even as God talking to you: "Love has a thousand faces, but I see you." 

I owe the expressions, "love has a thousand faces" and last week's idea, "many shores, one ocean" to  Tariq Ramadan. In Quest For Meaning he argues that religious diversity signals a unity, and that unity implies a shared diversity. He wrestles very eloquently with the problem of the multiplicity of religious ways and beliefs, and how they might be seen as illuminating a universal meaning. Much more to come from this rich resource, as I continue to learn much from it!  

Sailing Paths

Head up and into the wind, I enjoy the sunlight on my face as I see the skyline of Boston recede. The ferry makes its way out of the harbor. From it, the city seems to rise straight out of the Atlantic. It must have seemed so even to those who sailed here in pre-revolution days.

In Sailing to Philadelphia, songwriter Mark Knopfler captures the feeling of journeying: “Now hold your head up, Mason, see America lies there. The morning tides have raised the capes of Delaware. Come up and feel the sun, a new morning is begun. Another day will make it clear why your stars should guide us here.” 

The song is a poignant expression of the courage and steadfastness of two men, surveyor Jeremiah Dixon and astronomer Charles Mason, called upon to go to a new land and draw what would become the Mason-Dixon line. 

Why did the stars guide me here? And now why are they taking me elsewhere? Certainly because I choose this way and not that. And yet, we cannot escape the sense that we are also chosen, guided, called. 

We saw His star. (Matthew 2:2) When we sail to a foreign shore, we learn that all paths indicate a Path, that all shores touch one Ocean.

Out on the water, away from shore, I hold my head up and see Your star. Amen. 

~~~~~~~~~~

I am Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I'll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth...

He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky
They'd cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker's boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society...

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you'll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty
How can America be free
A Geordie and a baker's boy
In the forest of the Iroquois...

Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning is begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here...

We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line

Sailing to Philadelphia on Itunes

See Live Performance by Mark Knopfler

Veritas

Occasionally we find ourselves in places that resonate deeply within us, almost as if they are saying, “You belong here.” For me this has happened in recent days, dwelling in and around Harvard University. (OK, smarty!)   

What comes to mind at the mention of Harvard? Good Will Hunting? Bostonians in scarves? Pontificating professors’ glasses sliding down their noses? I have heard it described as both “liberal” and “conservative.” So going to the Memorial Church for the first time, I was not sure what to expect.

What I found stunned me: neither a bunch of lefties parading causes, nor dry, lofty, academic speeches (I have witnessed both at other academic institutions’ worship.) Instead I found a heartening thing: genuine faith. A real congregation of all ages was engaged in traditional liturgy of artistic and beautiful quality. It was not showy. The sermon was a straightforward explication of a biblical passage in Mark, about intimacy with Jesus’ death and “the price of all love.”

What is truth? (John 18:38) “Veritas” means truth. It is the “sign” of Harvard, reminding me that Pilate’s question is our own. When Jesus remains silent, he draws us forth into this most difficult of questions, this most difficult struggle of life: asking after the truth.   

Draw me, Lord, into places where I can ask after the Truth. Amen.

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Recommend for further reading:

The Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology

Edited by Charles Taliaferro and Chad Meister (Cambridge University, 2010)  

 

I came across this volume quite by accident (or not) as I randomly selected a spot in the Harvard Coop (rhymes with soup) bookstore on Harvard Square, one of my favorite places to hang out and study. Charles Taliaferro, as it happens, was my philosophy professor at St. Olaf (and a fan of the Good Minute!) Let me publicly say congratulations to Charles, for a fine volume that represents the best tradition of reason energetically participating with faith.

The compilation covers topics such as the existence of God, prayer, salvation, and host of other central issues for Christian thought and practice. These are subjects that often do not receive attention in philosophical circles. Sadly enough, neither do they find much traction in church and theology circles as philosophical topics. That is to say, these topics need serious rational reflection by Christians as to their foundation and their logical structure, and their possible refutation. Speaking as a pastor, I know first hand the way that we can too easily pan off easy formulas and quick slogans rather than really investigating our positions or encouraging people to ask energetically after the truth. Such serious inquiry is difficult, and this volume is indeed demanding on the reader. However, Taliaferro's essay on liturgy in particular is an example of something truly accessible by most readers and a concise, helpful contribution to something that matters practically to most Christians.

One of my utmost personal commitments is this: active intellectual reflection is vitally important to the experience of one's faith. As I was just reminded of at Harvard Memorial Church, the quest for truth is rigorous in more than one sense: it is intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual, and involves one in living out the questions rather than just "agreeing" with a doctrine. It does not have to be showy, but it is never boring because it resonates at the inner level of what it means to be human.

Achievement

"Achievement" is like a man
Old, bent, carrying a broomstick under his arm,
Shuffling through the kitchen late at night,
A shadow passing
In front of the one pinpoint of light in the house
Under the kitchen cabinet. Eclipsing the silver drawer,
As if on some great errand, his ambling purpose takes him beyond
The refrigerator, to the dark alcove of the next room.

He slinks onward, muttering his plans
For How It Will Be! Meanwhile we sit
On a stool, watching the room empty him out
—And fill again with his hulking shape, mad, fitful.
Back to where he came, he crosses back in front
Of the light, the one way we can see him.

As he retreats, his wide round ghost melts
Into darkness. Yet his midnight shade lingers
As we stare down white tiles, black under the stool,
And we know, yes we know, that he, in his stooped
Agitation
Will ruffle forth again, musty slippers scraping
Our attention, saying, "Yes, it's me—
I have come for a bit of bread, cheese, meat!"
And we cannot, no we cannot, do anything
In the dark except help him to eat.

Disorder

The most amazing fact about Jesus, unlike almost any other religious founder, is that he found God in disorder and imperfection.   –Richard Rohr

“Wait, wait, wait!” I called weakly from the hospital bed, as the doctor whisked through the curtain and out of the room. He left mid-sentence, without even letting me ask a question.

That scene rather encapsulates the last few months of my life: disorder. I cannot possibly comprehend or control the things that have swirled around my boat like crashing waves. To top it off, a mystifying infection landed me in the ER, where the formula [5 hours = 5 min w/Dr] seems ever to hold, thus no time for silly questions. 

Were the internal microscopic invaders mirroring the external chaos of my life? Or were they just a random occurrence, part of a brute, unaware mechanism of nature? Either way, sitting alone in the bland inhumane and sterile room, I was the one who had to assign meaning to the event.

This sickness is not unto death. (John 11:4) Jesus teaches his followers to assign a different meaning to disorder. What can come from sickness, pain, evil? Merely this: creation, life, forgiveness, love, redemption, hope, and glory for “the Son of God.” 

As a Son of God, I will fill empty sick rooms with meaning, belief, and love. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~

Everything Fits

The nine goes here, the three goes there. Now what? I am stuck. I set the puzzle down and come back to it the next day. Eureka! There it is. The solution presents itself, and soon all the boxes are filled.

Sudoku? A waste of time, I used to say. Now I have become a devotee. I am told that we get a boost of positive feeling upon solving a puzzle (thus the popularity of crosswords). It is also good clean escapism from the storms and stresses of life.

Sudoku focuses the mind in a very interesting way. To solve it, you must simultaneously see narrow and wide, relate parts to wholes, and use both logic and spatial awareness. You cannot guess, as there is only one solution ( a good tonic for the unhelpful relativism that says anything is a solution). This process makes creative, lateral thinking work together with strict logical thinking. It marries the right and left brain.

If you can be trusted with little, you can be trusted with much. (Luke 16:10) Doing an activity that is low-stakes and “little,” we prepare ourselves for the higher-stakes “much.” By allowing ourselves a puzzle, can we see the possibility that every number has a place, that everything belongs, and that everything will fit? Could I train myself not to worry in this way? 

Help me to trust that everything in life will fit into Your one solution. Amen.