“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:3

I love how Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, shocked people with his opening statement. He hit them with the paradoxical statement that the poor will inherit the kingdom of heaven. He knew how to get the crowd’s attention, I think.

Depending on which translation you use, you will find something over 200 times that the Bible mentions the word “poor”. Clearly, dealing properly with poor people is a major theme and concern of the writers. People can argue, who are “the poor”, and it would be a good discussion.

There are many types of poverty. There is financial poverty, with which we are most acquainted. It is somewhat easy to quantify. Indeed, governments have poverty indices which measure degrees of wealth or lack of it.

There is also spiritual poverty, which is much more difficult to define. This is a highly subjective measure. It is also hard to measure because some people are not even aware that they are spiritually poor. Those are the folks with a real problem. If we think we have things figured out, and that we do not need God in our life, such ones are the poorest of people.

Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. He meant that people who recognize their spiritual poverty recognize their need for a savior- that know they cannot save themselves. They are in a position to access the riches of God through their search for God’s grace.

Prayer: Lord, give us wisdom as to how to look at poverty, Amen

Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.                                                                                                                                                      Luke 9:1-2

In the book of Luke, chapter 9, Jesus sent out his disciples to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. He gave them power to “take authority over demons and to heal the sick”. In other words, they were to improve the lives of people around them and to alleviate suffering. That was “preaching the gospel”. At that time in the ministry, the disciples did not know that Jesus was to suffer a terrible death on a cross. They were simply instructed to let people know that the Kingdom of God was here. Jesus was present on earth to give a message of hope, healing, and forgiveness.

I am guessing that when they went out, they did not have the clear picture of the coming death of Jesus. They were told to let people know the good news of God’s love for them- his healing and his delivering power.

Often, we are asked to act in loving ways toward others in order to live the gospel out to people who do not understand it. Indeed, maybe we do not really understand the message we are delivering. We are just called to be obedient to let people know that God loves them and wants them to live healthy lives- healthy in all ways.  We do not always need to understand the full picture. We are just called to be witnesses of God’s love on earth.

Prayer: Lord, help us to just deliver your message simply, Amen

“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?                                                       Matthew 6:25-27

As I write this reflection, I am looking at my bird feeder and my suet cage. The suet gives birds the added calories they need for the cold winter. The birds do not know who feeds them. Birds can certainly fend for themselves, and they do not need me to feed them. Yet I get pleasure out of seeing them line up on my deck to head over to the feeders. Jesus said that the birds don’t have to “sow or reap” or worry about storing up food. The heavenly Father feeds them.

I kind of like the idea that God can use me to feed them too.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for allowing us to be part of caring for all your creatures, Amen

He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love                                 Ephesian 4:16 (New Living)

According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), rates of depression and anxiety in the general population have been steadily increasing over the past 10 years. Especially among teens, depression and suicidal thoughts have been increasing at an alarming rate. The COVID-19 pandemic receives some blame for this, and this seems right.

There is a difference between correlation and causality. In research, just because two variables are rising in a close parallel, that does not necessarily mean causality- that one causes the other. Similarly, just because there are correlations also does not necessarily mean that the data specifically relate to one another.

Given these caveats, I contend that it is possible, that the increasing rates of anxiety and depression, and the lowering rates of both church attendance and expressed faith among the U.S. population may have some relationship. As people lose faith and hope in the future, they have more depression and a sense of loss that they cannot readily explain.  

I would just ask people to consider that a sense of spiritual connection, and belief that there is some meaning in this world beyond just what we see, is important in maintaining good mental health. Indeed, as I have said often, Physical, Spiritual, and Emotional/Mental Health all must be considered together in an assessment of overall healthy functioning.

So, just a thought. Maybe as we lose a spiritual perspective, we may also be losing our mental health.

Prayer: Lord, help us to seek health in ALL dimensions of our being, Amen

Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”                                                                               John 8:32 (The Message)

I recently spoke with a client about her anxiety. It had been exacerbated over the past few years by a domestic violence scenario whereby she had to be in a heightened state of alertness to protect herself and her young children. She has been out of that marriage for a couple of years, but she still states that she “overthinks things” and cannot sleep well. Little things are blown out of proportion, and she has a hard time not seeing herself as “damaged goods”.

I pointed out to her that her anxiety, at one time, served a somewhat protective service for her. She was hyperalert and vigilant in the past because she had to be for herself and her children. It was protective. Now that state of vigilance and hyper-alertness was causing problems. It was affecting other areas of her life.

After some discussion, she was able to see that she tended to project her own feelings onto others, believing that she was not accepted or acceptable. She had trouble accepting positive feedback, because her anxiety always “whispered to her” that she was inadequate and somehow broken.

The truth is that she is amazingly resilient, courageous, and very successful in her career. She is gradually being able to hear the truth about herself, and that is a wonderful thing to behold.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see things in us that others do- that you do-

 Amen

 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.                                               II Corinthains 5:17

Change is inevitable- except from a vending machine…                                                   Robert C. Gallagher

Who likes change, raise your hand? Well, a few hands went up, but mostly, people do not like change. We get set in our routines and we get comfortable. Then, something happens, and we need to respond in a different way than we are accustomed. New responses challenge us. We may need to learn new things, or we may need to change our habits or behaviors in order to restore or maintain our health, be it physical, spiritual or mental.

Change can be good- even very good- but we often resist it because it causes disruption in our lives. A new job, a new relationship, a new diet, a new residence, or any major changes causes stress. Even positive changes cause us stress as we adjust to new patterns in our life.

Change is inevitable, but somehow we are often surprised by it. So, if you are facing some changes in your life, allow yourself some time to accommodate. Change takes time for us to adjust. Indeed, history is not recollections of past events, history is the story of change.  We are embracing a new year, one that will bring changes into our lives. As we rely upon God’s provision, we need not fear those changes.

Prayer: Lord, lead us into this new year with the assurance of your provision, Amen

Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served—and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.                                 Mark 10:44-45 (The Message)

I have always been a student of leadership principles. I love the work of people like Adam Grant, Malcolm Gladwell, Rev. Michael Slaughter, Brenee Brown and Jim Collins among others. One of the wise quotes of Jim Collins is “True leadership only exists if people follow when they have the freedom not to.”  If someone is coerced into doing the things you would want them to do, you have not exercised leadership, you have exerted power.

He goes on to say that (what he calls) a “Level 5” executive has the attributes of “Building enduring greatness in an organization through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.”

His concept on the paradox of the humility of leadership is a powerful principle that I have always seen as a key element in excellent organizations. This humility sets a powerful culture from the very top of any organization. If a leader is willing to hear and implement better ideas than his/her own, is willing to own mistakes, is not driven by the need for adulation and praise, and can set a collegial tone, that leader is one worthy of a loyal following in any organization.

Jesus, as servant leader, is a great example of humble leadership. He is worthy to follow!  

Prayer: Lord, impress upon us the paradox of being a good servant in order to be a great leader, Amen

Going to the “wayback machine” today in thinking about how television influenced the culture when I was a kid growing up. Most of us kids watched the same shows, because there were only three networks, and at any given time, there was probably a good chance that the shows we liked would be viewed by many of us.

So, for example, at school the day after a particularly adventurous show of Zorro the night before, the vast majority of kids were abuzz about how cool it was when Zorro stabbed that guy with his sword. You know, boy stuff…

Or the day after the Alamo episode on Disney’s Davy Crockett series. Wow, we were mesmerized. Come on, admit it, you just sang the ballad of Davy Crockett – I know, it’s OK!

The point here is that with the limited amount of TV shows back then, a large percentage of people watched the same things. News was consumed by watching Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley, or maybe John Cameron Swayze. Mostly, the three networks were how people consumed news in those days, and there was a certain uniformity of reporting the news. If there was a political slant, it was pretty slight and very subtle.

There was a unifying effect when choices were limited. For example, in 1983 viewership of the M.A.S.H. final show was 106 million people or 45.5% of the viewing audience. By 2019, the final episode of the wildly popular Big Bang Theory reached just 18 million people or about 5.4% of the viewing audience. By 2019 there were hundreds of choices on TV and myriad streaming options.  

The things in media that tended to unify the American culture are now fragmented to the point that people now live in media silos – narrow places where there is unity only among a smaller and smaller group.

I will talk more about this phenomenon in future blogs. Meanwhile, enjoy the Davy Crockett theme song. You’re welcome!  

With things back to normal, Paul called the disciples together and encouraged them to keep up the good work in Ephesus. Then, saying his good-byes, he left for Macedonia. Traveling through the country, passing from one gathering to another, he gave constant encouragement, lifting their spirits and charging them with fresh hope.                                                           Acts 20:1-2 (Living Bible)

One of the techniques I use in Solution Focused Therapy is scaling. This is a simple idea- one that people use all the time. You know, I ask you to give a rating to something, a movie, a book, a performance. “One to ten, where do you rate that?”

I will ask people to rate their symptoms in that way, such as “On a scale of one to ten, how is your anxiety, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.” This causes the client to really consider the severity of the symptoms, and it gives them a way to report them. More importantly, it gives us a baseline of where we are and where we can go.

So, when we discuss results of homework the next session, we can have a somewhat clearer idea of symptom reduction.  Did that homework help? If so, we may be going in a good direction. This also shows the client that there is progress, even if it is a move of one point, or maybe even .5 point. Yes, we can use half-points too!

Solution focused therapy uses practical and simple techniques to achieve basic goals that are small, attainable and measurable. If something works, we keep doing it. If it does not work well, we try something else. The point here is that there is a solution to every problem and we just need to keep trying until we find something that helps.

Giving hope and practical solutions helps the client feel some control over what may have seemed hopeless or unattainable.  Our job as counselor is to be that one who comes alongside to give that direction and feedback, as well as giving encouragement to continue when things are hard.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see that there is a solution to every problem if we can see it in proper perspective, Amen

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts                                                                                         Isaiah 55:8-9

Our family had a dog years ago, a delightful little rescue dog named Maggie. As most pet owners, we had a lot of great “Maggie stories”. Such as her propensity to know when garbage day arrived so that she could run off and scope out the neighborhood trash. One memorable evening, she came home with a pizza crust hanging from her mouth. She looked like the gangster who had a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he interrogated some poor victim. Maggie was a joy!

She lived to be 17 years old. I think that was because she was well loved and cared for by us. Mostly, I think, it was because she was a “mixed breed” dog. Yes, she was a mutt. Mutts, you see, tend to live longer than pure breed dogs. Why? Because genetic diversity protects animals from certain illnesses and conditions that more “monoculture” animals may succumb to.  

In nature, the more genetic diversity you possess, the better protected you are from inbreeding problems that lower resistance to disease. It also eliminates inbred hereditary problems. For example, the classic “royals diseases” porphyria and hemophilia, were caused by the inbreeding marriage practices that royal families in the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th century used to make political alliances. The so-called “pure royal blood lines” were actually tickets to poor health and early deaths.

So, as we consider God’s creation and his love of diversity, we once again see the paradox of man’s wisdom versus God’s plans. So called pure blood lines are deceptions, and lead to evil practices such as eugenics- a philosophical and political rage of late 19^th and early 20^th century. Indeed, in the 1930’s the culmination of such thinking was the rise of the racist regime of Adolf Hitler.

God made a diverse creation for us to enjoy. So, let’s celebrate God’s diversity.  

Prayer: Lord, thank you for your plans, Amen