Psalm of my Soul

Once I have spoken, twice blundered my words

Yeah thrice I have foolishly uttered my request


Now I say, ‘hold thy tongue, my soul.’

‘Hold thy peace until thy God enlighten thee.’


‘Otherwise thy nonsense shall discover thee’

‘And regret shall be thy home and stay.’


‘Let God be thy light and thy salvation.’

‘Let God order thy steps and establish thy days.’


I say to my soul, ‘Wait patiently for the Lord.’

‘God is thy refuge; with thy words give Him praise.’

Immaturity

when we were wet we went wayward
about an apology arranged around
thought that thinking thumps the theory
hypothesizing hypocrites hitting home

En Passant

En passant is a French term used in chess to describe the most obscure special move in chess.  Castling is the only move in chess in which the king can move 2 squares and is the only time 2 pieces of the same color can move in the same turn.  En passant is the only time a pawn can leave its file without occupying the square of an attacker and is the only move in which the opponent's pawn (or piece) is lost even though it is not actually being threatened.  The particulars of the move are not critical for the purpose of this blog.  It is only important to note that the term, while seemingly innocuous (in passing), is actually a special occasion.

Think of the time you spend in traffic, the time you spend between meetings, the time you spend transitioning from one task or phase to another.  These are examples in your life when you are en passant.  Would you classify these as special?  Probably not.

Recently while I was traveling back from vacation with my family, I was mentally processing the transition back to the work world.  As I was thinking this through, I realized that this transition time is of significant import.  What we do in the waiting, how we behave in the transition, the things we choose to think about in passing, all affect how we will approach the new, upcoming tasks we face next.  It is important to close one chapter of our lives before beginning another.

In general, we as humans do not like to wait.  These in-between moments are uncomfortable or boring to us.  We are accustomed to being entertained or being fully engaged in some interesting or otherwise attention-grabbing event.  I'm convinced, though, that God has called us to be faithful even in the waiting.  David had to be faithful between the time he was anointed as the next king of Israel to the time he moved into the palace as an entertainer to the time he actually became king.

Wherever you are today, realize that God knows the plans He has for you.  He will be faithful to you regardless of the stage or phase your life.  It is your responsibility to be faithful between these stages and phases.

More Information <> Better Informed

My son, Jairus, is 12 years old.  I've spent a lot of time with Jairus and invested my life in him while trying to be a good father.  For certain, there are times that I have failed in that endeavor.

In my opinion, a good father doesn't expect anything in return for the investment he makes in his children.  He's devoted to his children in unconditional, Christ-like love just as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.  Being a parent definitely opens one's eyes to God's love for us.

It may come as no surprise to the seasoned parents, however, that not long ago, my son taught me something.  You have to understand that I am philosophical in nearly if not every aspect of my life.  I have told Jairus many times of my tendency to suppress my history or my childhood because all I remember is my mistakes.  This has nothing to do with my parents, my family, or the way I was raised.  It is strictly a mental habit to focus on my failures.

The other day, Jairus instructed me with something like this:
"You know dad, your suppression of your childhood is really caused by the negativity bias.  The human mind naturally gravitates or focuses on negative events and records them.  Then when you think back on your childhood, those events are over represented in your memory creating this negativity bias."

This revelation was profound to the philosopher in me.  Jairus was teaching me to change the way I think.  'Basically, you just need to learn to filter out the over-represented negative events, Dad.  Duh.'  Wow!

So, I began pondering this question of negativity bias.  In which course, I considered the question about real-time access to news and information.  Today, we have instant access to more information than at any time in history.  But does more information really mean that we are more informed?  When I shared this story with a colleague, he challenged me.  Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "We have more information in the news, but regardless of whether you listen to one side or the other or both, the news is heavily biased toward negativity because negative sells and positive not so much.  We hear how many murders took place in X neighborhood.  Even if we receive positive news, it is the extreme positive news.  We don't hear that no murders took place in Y neighborhood unless that is uncommon.  Besides that, many of the original sources of news are the same, so regardless of hearing more information, it is really just repeated over and over again by the same or different anchors.  It is also interpreted and filtered before reaching us, so I think having more information does not make us more informed."

Colleague: "No, having more information even if it is from the same original source or repeated over and over again, does in fact make you more informed because by definition, the information you have now is more than what you had before.  The question you are really asking is whether or not the more information you have received will lead you to make better decisions.  So, while you are absolutely more informed, you are not better informed."

After hearing this superior argument, I have to say I agree.  Perhaps it's a distinction without a difference, but my colleague's choice of words and descriptions are spot on.  And, I am now thinking more freely about my childhood as I wade through my own failures and mistakes.  All of this thanks to my son, Jairus.  The student has become the teacher and the teacher the student.

Simple Inquiry

The following is the text of a real chat I recently was engaged in.  Person is a non-US individual who honestly inquires as to the nature and philosophical basis of our government and value system.  How would you have answered these questions?

Person:

Why so many people against the idea of starship troopers in America ? I'm reading the book, it's really good.
For example, people are not born as a citizen. They have to earn their citizenship if they want to vote or go to elect. I think that's more advance than the democracy nowadays. I mean, everyone have same power on voting, professor and scientists are same with housewives and gangsters, not really make sense.

Me:
Interesting.  The reason we Americans are opposed to this idea is actually rooted in the foundation of the country.  The Declaration is Independence laid the groundwork, although it took another 150 years for the concept to extend to African Americans and women.
We were being ruled by England in the 1700s.  We didn’t like the fact that a monarch and legislative body had so much power over our everyday-lives.  Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Even then, we had various political schemes wherein the rich or powerful would manipulate the system to keep the poor down.  Such as a poll tax (requires ppl to pay a tax in order to vote), a voting only by land/property owners, only white males could vote...
With these restrictions, the poor and lowly of our society had no voice in government policies and could never influence institutions.  Furthermore this led to corruption bc the politicians only wanted to meet the requests of those who could re-elect them (poor and lowly had no rights and no votes therefore were ignored).  This conflict of interest also contradicts the very Declaration of Independence on which we were founded.

Person:
Actually that's not poor people have no chance, that gives poor people a better chance. Like no matter rich or poor, everyone born as non-citizen, but poor people can join army to get citizenship. Join army or do other great contribution to the society is better than being homeless people on street. How many rich people want to join army?
I think poor people are using equality as their excuse to be dick and demand free welfare from society nowadays
Not only poor, everyone want to do less but get more, things going like this is not good

Me:
Interesting thoughts, however, this perspective equates human value to societal function in a very utilitarian way.  Just today in a blog I regularly read, the author notes that in the Declaration of Independence just after stating the above manifesto, Thomas Jefferson wrote that governments “are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”  In other words no government can truly govern without the consent of its subjects.
The primary issue is that humans have intrinsic, they “are endowed by their Creator with ...”. You are valuable because God created you in His image and ultimately He chose to die for you personally (Jesus Christ on the cross).  Your value does not come from your position, job title, service, grades, shoes, car, family, nationality, etc.  It comes from Christ as the Creator.
When we navigate philosophically down the path described in the utilitarian plan you have presented, everyone only values him/herself.

Person:
So it's based on Christianity. I guess religion is still a big part of people's life. I thought people don't believe anymore,  most of the young men I met here in Canada don't believe, although a lot of them come from Christian family, they still have different thought with their family. Hope I don't offense anyone, just say

Me:
Don’t worry about offending me.  Honest, open dialog, empty of personal attack, is necessary to understand, communicate, and grow.
Yes, originally the US constitution and government were founded on Christian principles, and for me I will behave based on these convictions because I have described they are the root foundation of the philosophical establishment.  Today, as we have come further away from belief in the Almighty, we have lost this foundation and more people are leaning toward what you have described as wanting something for nothing.  I see that; however, my behavior should not and necessarily must not depend on the behavior of another.  Nor should a government deconvolve by its own design into something the people being governed have not initiated.  There are many ivory-tower thinkers who would rewrite our laws without regard to human life or wellbeing. This must be avoided at all cost.

Person:

Well, respect the tradition and foundation is important. I'm a retro person, but probably I'm not born and raised in North America, I think government must always apply some new policy correspond to the changing of the world. I respect human life, but treat the people who caring the society same as treat the selfish and careless people is not fair to my understanding, although this was defiantly come from good will at the first place.
Let the caring people decide more things of the country, and let the careless people stand aside of politics really that bad?

Me:

Unfortunately, that is to predetermine who some one is and what someone could become.  The message of Jesus is that ALL are welcomed to receive Him regardless of what they have done in the past.

In establishing government based on your biases, you predetermine what will be valued in the society rather than allowing people to determine what they want to be.  That’s not the way society functions and it’s certainly not the way God functions. Prescriptive Invitation versus oppressive obligation.

Person:
Now I get it. It contradict to Christian.

Collision Course

Recently I was seated in a restaurant for breakfast while CNN was airing on a nearby TV.  The anchors were soliciting Facebook feedback to the question they were posing to various audiences.  The question was: "How can we finally eradicate slavery from the modern world?"

A man in Nigeria responded that the only way to eradicate slavery was to take all the wealth from rich people and redistribute it to the poor people.

A college-aged female responded that in order to eradicate slavery, we must provide jobs for everyone so that they have a purpose.

While these are interesting responses and we could discuss the positives and negatives of these potential solutions, each of these is based on a supposition of the cause of slavery.  More interesting to me, however, is the supposition behind the initial question, "How can we finally eradicate slavery from the modern world?"  The underlying, unstated assumption is that slavery is bad; this leads me to ask, "Why is slavery bad?"

Fundamentally, I agree that slavery is bad, however, that is because I have a Christian worldview in which humans have inherent value and purpose which is given them by the Creator.  Ignoring this and reasoning from the point of view to which our society has in general subscribed, namely atheism, and that we are the products of cosmic accidents, I am unable to substantiate that claim.  We are hard pressed to find any intrinsic value in human life which leads us to the relative morality that allows us to abort babies and perhaps take the lives of those who do not have what we esteem to be a 'good' quality of life. 

But following this same path of reasoning, it becomes more obvious that if our origins were not ordered, then our lives are the result of billions of cosmic accidents every day and over the past 4.0+ billion years.  In fact, the atoms and molecules that comprise me are unique from those that form you and may cause me to act in a way that you perceive 'bad'.  In reality, my decisions are nothing more than cosmic accidents waiting to happen.  Each individual is independent even though we may all share some general notion of the same moral code.

Without some universal guiding force, though, why does a ruling majority decide what is acceptable and what is not?  We have no inalienable rights endowed to us by the cosmos, we are nothing more than animated objects; we have no value and no purpose other than what we elect by the collision course of particles in our bodies and minds.  So, I ask again, "Why is slavery bad?"  The answer from this perspective is the most hated response from all generations of children, "Because I said so," except in this case, these aren't your mother's words, they are society's words.

Psychological Entropy - Spiritual Remedy

When we face challenges, they hardly ever arise alone.  We live multi-faceted lives with stress on all sides.  How we handle one challenge, always affects how prepared we are for another. 

Consider the chess game, if I block a bishop check with my knight, it becomes pinned to my king and is therefore not able to defend itself from an additional attack, nor is it available to ward off additional attacks or effect an attack of its own.  Once another check is delivered and another, a barrage of attacks leaves many of my pieces unprotected, and the game has spiraled out of control.

In the same way, if I respond to a coworker in anger concerning a situation, my emotional well-being will be affected, and how I respond to my wife later will likely be adversely affected. On the chess board, a strong player can foresee the opponent's attacks.  In life, we can't always be prepared for them.

There is a term for this in thermodynamics; it's called entropy.  In a closed system, entropy is always increasing, order is decaying, the system tends toward chaos.  I'm not certain the principle has been directly correlated to the study of psychology, but it is a simple observation in my own life.  I wake up after a good night's rest rejuvenated, but an argument with my wife or perhaps a breakfast accident soils my pants,  begins my day's progress to complete inner turmoil and chaos. 

In a closed system, entropy only decreases when an outside force acts on the system.  In my life, that may be a good night's rest, perhaps it's meditation on God's word, or a calming conversation with someone who helps me gain perspective. 

When you find yourself growing agitated and increasingly so as the day goes by, remember that Christ is the rest you seek, and He will reset your entropy level.