Are You Still Carrying Her?

SOURCE:  

• https://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/03/zen-parable-are-you-still-carrying-her-jordan-myska-allen/
• https://x.com/JosiahHawthorne/status/1839736634713014647
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hara_Tanzan

KEYWORDS:  Attachments, Grace, Sin, Holiness, Compromise, Spirit, Law, Serenity, Legalism, Temptation, Grudge, Peace

A parable is told about the Buddhist monk Hara Tanzan.

Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. Heavy rain was falling. As they came around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross at an intersection.

"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he could no longer restrain himself. 

"We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

Who is Hara Tanzan?

Hara Tanzan (原坦山, December 5, 1819 – July 27, 1892) was a Japanese philosopher and Sōtō Buddhist monk. He served as abbot of Saijoji temple in Odawara and as professor at the University of Tokyo during the Bakumatsu and Meiji era. He was a forerunner of the modernization of Japanese Buddhism and the first (in Japan) to attempt to incorporate concepts from the natural sciences into Zen Buddhism

Moral Relativism and Einstein

SOURCE:  Saturday Evening Post, Nov/Dec 2015, p.98. "In Other Words," March 2021.

KEYWORDS:  Relativism, Right, Wrong, True, False, Truth, Einstein, Science, Scientist

Moral “relativity” is commonly accepted, but the concept is completely out of context.  Albert Einstein used “relativity” to explain advances in scientific understanding, but chaffed at the way his term was applied to philosophy and life.  

In a 1929 interview, 14 years after advancing his theory of relativity, Einstein said, “The meaning of relativity has been widely misunderstood.  Philosophers play with the word, like a child with a doll.”  He then talked about its specific application to the sphere of physics and mechanics and then declared, “It does not mean that everything in life is relative and that we have the right to turn the whole world mischievously topsy-turvy.”  

Living Woman Declared Dead. Fights for 3 Years.

SOURCE:  The Week, 2/5/21, p.12. "In Other Words," March 2021.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jeanne-pouchain-declared-dead-but-alive_n_60062279c5b697df1a083c3d

KEYWORDS: Dead, Alive, Resurrection, Proof, Evidence, Faith, Living

Jeanne Pouchain is a 58-year-old French woman who can’t convince her government that she’s alive.  She was mistakenly declared dead by a judge in 2017 and has been trying to prove her viability ever since.  The declaration of her death has canceled her ability to work, get insurance, drive, or use a bank.  She’s even appeared before numerous judges with a certificate from her doctor stating that she is in fact alive, but to no avail.  Pouchain explained she can’t do anything because, “I no longer exist.”  Her lawyer is trying to get the ruling reversed but noted the challenges: “When an error is so enormous, it’s hard to admit.”  Similarly, the evidence of Jesus being alive is all around us, yet some simply find it “hard to admit.” 

Lost and Found Lottery

SOURCE:  Beaumont Enterprise, 3/24/21, p.A2. "In Other Words," March 2021

https://people.com/human-interest/tenn-man-tracks-down-1m-winning-lottery-ticket-he-accidentally-left-in-store-parking-lot/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tennessee-man-loses-1-million-lottery-ticket-finds-it-again-n1261690

KEYWORDS: Lost, Found, parable, sheep, coin, son, treasure in a field, 

On March 11, 2021, Nick Slatten experienced the kind of panic few of us will ever encounter.  He’d just won a million dollars in the Tennessee lottery, but he lost his ticket purchased the day before.  He frantically began retracing his steps, and eventually ended up at the auto parts store in Sparta where he’d taken his brother to buy a car part.  On that windy March day, he spotted the lottery ticket lying in the parking lot and quickly grabbed it.  The lottery commission explained that anyone can claim an unsigned winning ticket, so who knows how many people stepped over a ticket worth $1,178,746 thinking it was nothing more than discarded trash.  Although I’ve never bought a lottery ticket and consider my odds of winning virtually the same as those who do buy them, this piece of recent history paints a picture of what so many do with Christ.  An opportunity of infinitely greater value than a lottery ticket lies before us and we step over it in pursuit of lesser things.  Nick Slatten reminds us of Jesus’ words about a woman desperately searching for her lost treasure until it was found (Luke 15:8-10). 

Stronger in the Broken Places

SOURCE:  "thanK you aIMee" by Taylor Swift.  https://parade.com/entertainment/thank-you-aimee-lyrics-taylor-swift

https://dailystoic.com/its-how-it-makes-you-heal/

KEYWORDS: Resilience, Healing, Strength, Genesis 50:20-21, Joseph

"Ernest Hemingway wrote about how we can become stronger in the broken places. Taylor Swift, who we wrote about recently, sings in a song thanking someone who bullied her, “I can't forget the way you made me heal.” If we choose to learn from what happened, if we choose to grow from what happened, if we choose not to be made bitter and awful (choose “not be like our enemies,” as Marcus Aurelius wrote), then maybe someday we can be grateful for this experience. Someday we can understand that we wouldn’t have all of this without any of that. We can understand that they gave us something when they took from us, that they healed us when they hurt us."

From "thanK you aIMee" by Taylor Swift

And it was always the same searing pain

But I prayed that one day, I could say

All that time you were throwin' punches, I was buildin' somethin'

And I couldn't wait to show you it was real

Screamed "F—k you, Aimee" to the night sky, as the blood was gushin'

But I can't forget the way you made me heal

Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman

But she used to say she wished that you were dead

I pushed each boulder up the hill

Your words are still just ringing in my head, ringing in my head

Playing Both Sides

SOURCE:  Wall Street Journal, 8/26/24, p.A14; Beaumont Enterprise, 8/27/24, p.B2; "In Other Words," September 2024

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2024/08/24/danny-jansen-to-play-for-two-mlb-teams-in-same-game/74935744007/

KEYWORDS: double mind, doubt, decisions, team, 

On August 27, 2024, Danny Jansen became the first Major League Baseball player to play for both teams at once…and play against himself.  He was at bat as a Toronto Blue Jay on June 26th when the game was called at Fenway Park due to rain.  Jansen was traded to the Red Sox on July 27th, and the rain-delayed makeup game was played on August 26th.  When play resumed, Jansen was the Red Sox’ catcher, while Toronto’s Dalton Varsho pinch-hit for Jansen.  So, Jansen caught the rest of an at-bat that he began in the batter’s box two months earlier.  

Danny Jansen didn’t have control of that unique history from which the Baseball Hall of Fame collected memorabilia, but we often do have control of decisions and actions that lead us to rivaling commitments. 

Fields Are Ready for Harvest

SOURCE:  The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis & Michael Graham, 2023, p.5

KEYWORDS: Evangelism, Love, Neighbor, Witness, Loss, Challenge, Discouragement, Mission

"Since the turn of this century, 40 million Americans have stopped attending church.  That means more people have left the church in the past 25 years than the sum total of everyone who came to Christ in the First & Second Great Awakenings and all Billy Graham crusades.  Such numbers can seem daunting and do indeed reflect a winnowing effect of many who embraced a form of Christianity more than Christ Himself…but we can’t lose sight of Jesus’ affirmation that the fields are ready for harvest." 

Don't Count Yourself Out

SOURCE:  TheChristianHeart.com, 8/19/24; NBCOlympics.com, 9/7/24; The Week, 7/19/24, p.5; "In Other Words," September 2024. 

KEYWORDS:  Adversity, faith, tragedy, difficulty, challenges, faithfulness, 

On May 24, 2023, Ali Truwit lost her left foot in a shark attack.  A week later, on May 31st, Ali’s leg was amputated just below the knee…it was her 23rd birthday.  

On September 5, 2024, she won the first of her two silver medals at the Paralympic Games in Paris.  It all started when Truwit was snorkeling with a friend in Turks and Caicos to celebrate her graduation from Yale.  The beautiful day and gorgeous water instantly darkened when a shark attacked, leaving them frantically swimming 75 yards to their boat.  Sophie Pilkinton had recently graduated from medical school. She quickly applied a tourniquet to her friend’s leg and managed the stressful emergency until Truwit was airlifted to a hospital in Miami, Florida.  

Six weeks after the attack, Ali mustered the courage to get in a backyard pool.  She gradually regained her love for the water, and within four months of the attack, she sought a chance to try out for the Paralympics.  Her experience on the Yale swim team served her well as she trained 4 to 6 hours per day, six days a week.  She not only made the USA team and won two silver medals in Paris, but she also set American records in both races.  She even swam faster than she ever had before the amputation.  

Truwit said, “My Christian faith played a role in helping me get through the shock and pain of my trauma from the earliest moments of the shark attack and hospitalizations, and even continues today.”  Ali grew up hearing her mom regularly repeat Philippians 4:13, and she repeated it to herself thousands of times during the 14 months from the shark attack to the medalists’ platform. That’s why she’s said of her ordeal, “Don’t count yourself out.  Have faith in the fact that you can turn trauma and tragedy into hope.”

---

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13)

The Smile of Children and the Elderly

SOURCE:    "Papal Audience with members of the Italian Financial Police," September 21, 2024

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/09/21/240921a.html

KEYWORDS: politics, love, neighbor, society, community, justice, generosity, sharing, grace

From Pope Francis:

Matthew, in a certain sense, moved from the logic of profit to that of equity. But, in the school of Jesus, he also went beyond equity and justice and came to know gratuitousness, the gift of self that generates solidarity, sharing, inclusion. Gratuitousness is not just a financial dimension, it is a human dimension. Entering into the service of others, freely, without seeking profit for oneself. Because while justice is necessary, justice is not enough to fill those gaps that only gratuitousness, charity and love can heal.

You experience this, for example, when you organize the reception and rescue of migrants in danger in the Mediterranean: thank you for this, thank you. Or in your courageous interventions in the event of natural disasters, in Italy and elsewhere. But think of the fight against the scourge of drug trafficking, the merchants of death. Your service does not end with protection of the victims, but includes the attempt to help the rebirth of those who do wrong: indeed, by acting with respect and moral integrity you can touch consciences, showing the possibility of a different life.

In this way to one can and must construct an alternative to the globalization of indifference – the globalization of indifference: provide an alternative to this – this globalization of indifference, which not only destroys with violence and war, but also neglects social care and the environment. In effect, the wealth of a nation is not solely in its GDP; it resides in its natural, artistic, cultural and religious heritage – and in the smile of its inhabitants, its children. Once, a head of State said to me: “I have a special measurement: the smile of children and the elderly. When both of them smile, things are not going too badly in a society”. It is curious, this … and this favours creativity, openness to the world. You yourselves are citizens who safeguard this “wealth” of Italy, but are ready to go on international missions. There is a need for this impetus to solidarity towards the other as a way to peace and as a hope for a better future!

Rembrandt's Good Samaritan

SOURCE:  https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/hope-and-despair-rembrandts-good-samaritan

KEYWORDS:  Rembrandt, Samaritan, Inn, Least, Love, Compassion, Care

In 1633, Rembrandt produced an etching of the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The artist depicts the moment the Samaritan brings the beaten and battered man to the inn.  The scene is surprising.  The inn is cracked and worn.  A man casually looks out the window.  A woman draws water from a well, and a dog defecates in the foreground.  

Life is messy.  There is ugliness, poverty, apathy, and distraction.  However, we are called in the midst of ugliness to show compassion and mercy.  Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus declares what you do for the least you do for me (Matthew 25:40).  In that parable, Jesus commends simple acts of kindness--giving food, drink, clothing, or a visit.  

Rembrandt may be reminding us that the beauty we bring into the world will never change the ugliness that still exists.  Nonetheless, what we do matters.  Our acts of love will make a difference for the man on the side of the road.  In our small way, we point to Christ as the one who redeems the world.  

One Political Maxim: "The Lord Reigns"

SOURCE: Letter by John Newton. https://gracegems.org/Newton/96.htm

KEYWORDS:  Politics, nations, elections, prayer, 

I hope the godly people are praying for our sinful, troubled land, in this dark day. The Lord is angry, the sword is drawn, and I am afraid nothing but the spirit of wrestling prayer can prevail for the returning it into the scabbard. Could things have proceeded to these extremities, except the Lord had withdrawn his beneficial blessing? It is a time of prayer. We see the beginning of trouble—but who can foresee the possible consequences? The fire is kindled—but how far it may spread, those who are above may perhaps know better than we.

I do not meddle with the disputes of party, nor concern myself with any political quarrels—but such as are laid down in Scripture. There I read that righteousness exalts a nation, and that sin is the reproach, and, if persisted in, the ruin of any people. Some people are startled at the enormous sum of our national debt. Those who understand spiritual arithmetic may be well startled if they sit down and compute the debt of national sin. Item, The profligacy of manners. Item, Perjury. Item, The cry of blood, the blood of thousands, perhaps millions, from the East Indies. It would take sheets, yes quires of paper, to draw out the particulars under each of these heads—and even then, much would remain untold. What can we answer, when the Lord says, "Shall not I visit you for these things? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

Since we received the news of the first hostilities in America, we have had an additional prayer-meeting. Could I hear that professors in general, instead of wasting their breath in censuring men and political measures, were plying the Throne of Grace, I would still hope for a respite. Poor New England! once the glory of the earth, now likely to be visited with fire and sword. They have left their first love, and the Lord is sorely contending with them. Yet surely their sins as a people are not to be compared with ours. I am just so much affected with these things as to know, that I am not affected enough. Oh! my spirit is sadly cold and insensible, or I would lay them to heart in a different manner. Yet I endeavor to give the alarm as far as I can. There is one political maxim which comforts me. "The Lord reigns!" His hand guides the storm; and he knows those who are his—how to protect, support, and deliver them. He will take care of his own cause; yes, he will extend his kingdom, even by these formidable methods. Men have one thing in view; He has another—and his counsel shall stand!