Christmas, The Bishop's Wife, and True Service

Hello there, and Merrrrrrry Christmas!

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In case you were wondering, dear reader (if, in fact, there is any dear reader out there to be wondering), the seemingly unintelligible jumble of symbols above is my patented new Santa Smiley (all rights reserved, of course!). If you're puzzled by this moniker, look at it sideways and everything will make sense. Ho-ho-ho!

Today I just watched the wonderful Christmas film The Bishop's Wife, starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young. It's a wonderful movie that could be best characterized with a single word: charm. The actors are charmingly entertaining—funny when they're supposed to be funny, touching when they're supposed to be touching, and at all times quite convincing in the clever little plot the movie relates.

It is a great film from a great era of film-making, but this is not what puts it over the top. On the contrary, the greatest charm of this movie comes in its superb and enlivening message.

I firmly contend that the best entertainment is the kind that makes us want to be better people. The best book is the book that, upon its finishing, causes the reader to throw it to the ground, jump up in a fit of ecstasy, and embark on some great adventure that will somehow better the world. The best song is that which grants its listeners a supernatural sort of energy upon hearing it or even thinking of it, the kind of song that galvanizes the dazed denizens of the doldrums (we've all been there) and renders them ready for righteous battle on some unknown front in the war of their own life. And the best movie is the kind that gives us a larger view of life—one that, by means of its broadness and great perspective, provides us with creative new solutions to old problems...as well as the hope and inspiration to carry out such ambitious endeavors.

The Bishop's Wife is just such a movie. Its headlining actor, Cary Grant, plays the role of the angel Dudley (what a great name for an angel!) with a paradoxical mix of vivacity and restraint—two typically contrasting traits effectively united by a peaceful air of sheer goodness—showing us a character who has an overwhelmingly positive effect on everyone he encounters. We can't help but be won over by Dudley as we see him in action, spreading faith and honesty with every word he utters and every move he makes. And there's a part of each one of us that longs to be like him—to be connected to God with such a firm bond as to walk each day with supreme confidence as we do good work.

Of course, there is more to this movie than merely an inspiring character (which is easily enough to carry a movie on its own—see Jimmy Stewart's Harvey if you need some convincing). The greatest message of the movie arrives in its final scene, as David Niven's Bishop Henry delivers one of the most poignant, effective, and spot-on Christmas messages Hollywood has ever produced. Here it is, in its entirety:

Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.

Once upon a midnight clear, there was a child's cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men came with birthday gifts. We haven't forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees, with the sound of bells, and with gifts.

But especially with gifts. You give me a book, I give you a tie. Aunt Martha has always wanted an orange squeezer and Uncle Henry can do with a new pipe. We forget nobody, adult or child. All the stockings are filled—all, that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the Child born in a manger. It's His birthday we're celebrating. Don't let us ever forget that.

Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then, let each put in his share: loving kindness, warm hearts, and a stretched-out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.

What we see here is a call to action, in the greatest of spirits. It is a call to service, but not the kind of service we typically think of. The sermon does not explicitly tell us to go to Africa and feed the starving children (although many do, and render the world a great gift in doing so). It does not exhort us to go and build homes for disaster victims (although many do, and can joyfully make an irreplaceable difference in the life of a fellow human being in doing so). It does not command us to spend our every moment engaged in feeding the hungy at soup kitchens (although many do, and help provide a chance at success to countless souls in doing so). No, the sermon does not call us to anything that the world would call "great." It calls us to a different kind of service, a more fundamental one that can begin anywhere and continue into eternity—and, if put into practice, will change the world in a truer way than any work of human hands ever could.

This type of service begins in the heart, and consists of one simple step: Conduct yourself with love. Love for God, love for other people, and love for yourself. Mother Teresa summed it up quite well when she told us to Do small things with great love. If we conduct ourselves with love, then we will always produce good fruit in the world. Love the people you have contact with. Have faith that God made them and put them in your life for you to love them, as He Himself loves them. Love the places you frequent, the vehicle that transports you, the work that sustains your life. Love your church and your God, and don't ever forget to love yourself. If you find yourself looking in the mirror and finding that there isn't much to love, do two things:

1. Realize that as a creation of God, you are fundamentally worthy of love, no matter how bad a person you have been. St. Paul wasn't lying when he said that Nothing can separate us from the love of God. You deserve to be loved by yourself, because you are already loved by God—no matter what! Right the wrongs and move forward in confidence.

2. If there are flaws in your character that seem unlovable, change them! Resolve to change them, out of love for Him Who created you, out of love for those who must deal with your flaws, and out of love for you, who deserve to enjoy a higher, more successful existence. Choose to be dynamic.

"Conduct yourself with love." Of course, this is not a new message. Certainly it appears countless times in the New Testament. But seeing a movie like The Bishop's Wife is a great modern wrapping of this timeless message, a message that seems all too forgotten in the world.

This Christmas, and all the time, I commit myself to doing this kind of service as much as my fractured human awareness permits me—and I hope that you will do the same, dear reader.

I would like to invite you to join me in renewing a little Yuletide tradition that I previously kept in my personal journal, but sadly neglected to continue last year. The tradition, which I'm glad to have you aboard for, is that of writing and reading a prayer at Christmastime. Regardless of whether or not you are "a praying man," to quote George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life (it's a wonderful movie), I invite you to read through this. If you believe in God, then you know that praying this will do good things for the world. If you don't believe, then what's the harm in saying a few words? It would mean a lot to me. Here, let's begin:

Dear Father in Heaven,

On behalf of humanity, thanks for the awesome Christmas present! You came to us as a man, entering this world by the same way that all of us enter, coming as a baby. In the beautiful birth of that baby, You were and are the greatest Christmas present of all. Help us to realize that. Help us to listen deeply to the carols that tell of your birth, and grant us insight into what your coming really means for all of us and for our salvation.

We pray that you will not let us forget the small changes of mind and heart and hand that can make the world's difference for the person next to us—the smiles on our lips, the warmth in our tone of voice, and the fire of love in our hearts. May Your spirit ignite and rekindle that fire in our hearts, and may we be open to this nourishing flow that connects our human hearts with Your sacred heart.

And may we never forget the sacrifices of those who make us happy at Christmas and throughout the year—sacrifices that imitate the ultimate sacrifice you made for us up on Calvary hill. That was the final act of the life that began on the first Christmas night. Let us not forget that, either.

But most of all let us not forget that the life that began on that first Christmas still continues to this day—and the jolliest Christmas spirit is merely a reflection of that original Gift, the Gift Who changed the world. Let our faith in You nurture a servant's heart in all of us, that we may serve the world each in our own way, and help our fellow humans to have a Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years!

We ask all of this in Your name, Jesus.

AMEN.

Merry Christmas, and here's to the best New Year yet!

With Christmas Love,

Joezilla

Open Happiness

Has your joy ever been stifled by someone else's pain? Have you ever been tempted (or pressured by another) to be less happy than you feel because of the sadness in someone else's life?

Recently I was enjoying a pleasant, snowy December morning working at the church office when I learned of the death of a young parishioner's mother. A college-age person like me, he was far too young, it seemed, to have to deal with the death of a parent.

Before receiving this news, my thoughs had been focused on preparing for a church Christmas concert I was performing in. It had the potential to be a great concert, and I wanted to make my contributions as wholehearted and satisfying as possible. But how, I now wondered, could I think about and enjoy something so frivolous and carefree as a concert while someone else was going through a tragic period of suffering?

My ruminations continued, pushing the issue even further—at any given moment, I realized, millions of people around the world (and right outside my door) are enduring unspeakable pain, suffering, and tragedy. How can someone who is not experiencing such hurt possibly be happy (and try to make others happy) when his very happiness might increase their pain?

Well, read the previous sentence once more. Since when does one person's happiness increase another's pain? The only situation in which this could occur would be if the unhappy person became jealous of the happy one. This is a personal decision on the part of the unhappy person, and has nothing to do with the happy person.

There is no obligation to decrease your spirit because of another's pain.

When the bluebird of happiness chooses to perch on our shoulder, we are given a gift, and it is our mission to use the dynamic energy of happiness to help those around us.

If you are happy, your positive mood will often affect those around you in a discernibly good way—they will be warmed and uplifted by your presence. In fact, you may make more of a difference than you think. Your happiness could actually help prevent an unspeakable sort of tragedy in someone else's life, merely because of the effect you had on them. It has been said that a smile can stop a suicide. I believe those stories when I hear them. You truly never know whose life you might help change.

If someone reacts negatively to your happiness—if they lash out at you, mock you, or by any other method make you feel inferior or wrong for being happy—take heart. You have done nothing but reach out to them. Instead of letting their reaction get you down, you should resolve to stay in a mindset of peacefulness and thanks. And pray for the person as soon as you part ways.

Happily,
Joezilla

P.S.: "It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air." ~W.T. Ellis

You Haven't Got Mail

I'll never forget an experience that my brother once had on an airplane. The flight attendant was passing by, and he realized just after she had passed that he needed something from her. So he lightly tapped her arm in order to get her attention. She turned around and took his request (I think he wanted a drink, or had some garbage to throw away), then punctuated it by saying, in the most withering and gravely serious manner one could imagine:

"Here's a little free advice. Never touch the flight attendants."

Needless to say, her words lived on through oral tradition. To my knowledge, this is the first recorded account of the affair.

But why am I saying any of this? Well, I admit that the reason is a connection both tangential and tenuous, but I'm not ashamed of it: I have some free advice for you, dear reader (assuming you're open to advice, and, of course, that you exist). Here it is:

Stop checking your e-mail.

Allow me to add some context. Have you ever been waiting for an e-mail that just doesn't seem to come? Perhaps it is a social e-mail. Perhaps it is a financial matter. It might even be a CNN News Update (fat chance!).

But whatever it is, it can wait. If something is exerting that much influence over your life that you are unable to sit for ten minutes without checking your e-mail, you need to consider why that is. It's time to take back control over your life. Forget about waiting ten minutes—don't check it for an hour.

Okay, I hear what you're saying. "It's urgent! I need to answer it as soon as I can!" Well, that's understandable. Set a definite time, then, before which you will not check it. I've got some news for you: if it doesn't come in one hour, you're going to be in the same position you are right now. So wait the hour, or the half-hour, or whatever time limit the urgency of the situation demands. But don't stew in impatience. That's building a neurosis.

Destiny is decided in the little times, the "small hours" that Rob Thomas sings about in his wonderful song. You will not realize where your destiny took you until you can see all of the tiny decisions you made along the way, every day, each decision like the granules of sand and rock in poured concrete. There are far too many to fathom, but each is contributing to something larger. Be careful what sort of decisions you're including in your life.

Life is like concrete, fig. 1: Your life if you make bad decisions

Life is like concrete, fig. 2: Your life if you make good decisions (this concrete dome, called the Roman Pantheon, was built in ancient times, and still stands today)

So you see the difference a little consideration can make. What do you want your life to be like? Today is the day you decide that, when you choose how to respond to the events and challenges in your life. Good luck.

And remember: a bad habit is most easily overcome by replacing it with a good habit! So stand up and do some calisthenics instead of checking your e-mail. Now we're talking!

Peace,
Joezilla

"Patience obtains all things."
--St. Teresa of Avila

Guided Drift and the Paradox of Faith

"I am glad that I've been able to do what I've done and not been sidetracked along the way. A teacher of mine calls it guided drift. Isn't that wonderful? You're drifting, and yet you've got a rudder."

As Mr. Rogers so satisfyingly puts it in the quote above, life becomes a positive pleasure when we know where we're going and allow this knowledge of our course to give us peace. In order to live effective lives we need to have a purpose, a continuous thread that unites our individual days into a coherent work. That is why Mr. Rogers talks about having a rudder. We need to guide ourselves, and we need to rely on something to give us that guidance.

For a long time I looked at life believing that we all have some inspired moments, and we also have a great many uninspired moments. We must live (so I thought) on those inspirations to get us through the uninspired periods of life, which are far more common. There is a grain of truth in this. We do have peak experiences of happiness, hope, promise, joy, and love—followed by the proverbial descent back to planet Earth, in which we remember our troubles (and perhaps feel a little gloomy that we aren't so inspired anymore).

That said, I now realize that it is not enough merely to live on the inspired moments, like rations on a trip through the desert. No, I believe that God calls us to something greater than that. You see, people living solely on previous inspirations—and waiting for future ones—are not focusing on the day-to-day business of life. They are attaching themselves to that song that used to empower them so much, or they are voraciously rereading that one quote that used to give them such confidence, or talking to that one friend who always cheers them up...the list goes on and on. The point is, they are chasing that feeling rather than living it out. They could be cheering someone else up. Instead, they're focusing on how much they themselves need cheering up.

One of the greatest pieces of advice my Mom has ever given me is: "The best solution for depression is to do something for someone else—to get out of yourself." It is so true, and will doubtless lead to better spirits if we are feeling depressed.

But what about all the moments inbetween the highs and lows? What about the average days, when we drift through our daily grind with no sense of inspiration or mission? We need some thread of constancy to call us back to living our best.

The answer, as is often the case, lies in a common word with a life-changing meaning:

FAITH.

Faith is the answer. Now when I say "faith," I don't just mean "religious belief." I am talking about a lifestyle—a worldview that we can call up with an act of the will, and should work to maintain in every waking (and sleeping) moment. If we can manage to make it part of our modus operandi, it will change our lives—I'll place a 100% guarantee on that.

This worldview has two big components.

The first is the consciousness of God and His plan. The person of faith believes, deep inside, that there is a God Who loves us all and Who has a plan for every individual—a plan that, if followed, will bring them to the self-fulfillment of their highest dreams and deepest longings. I say "self-fulfillment" because we play a role in this plan. We create our own reality, at least in terms of how we respond to the outside world.

But the person of faith can take all of this in stride and proceed peacefully because he knows that if he follows God's commands, then things will go rightly for him. Life will be good. Unexpected events may happen (look at the story of Job!), but God has a plan. We can move forward in peace and happiness, because it all turns out okay in the end. It's pretty amazing, actually. Imagine being able to walk through life in perfect peace. In theory, we can do just that—because God has told us that He loves us and wants the best for us.

That's one part of faith. The other is prayer. God loves us, and wants the best for us. He also wants us to grow closer to Him. One way of describing Heaven, in fact, is a perfect relationship with God. Nothing gets in the way. We remain ourselves, but we are united with Him in some unimaginable and infinitely wonderful way.

But that comes later. Right now, stuff gets in the way. Lots of stuff. Problems, people, things, emotions, sins...the list once again goes on and on! But God has given us ways around these impediments. One of the foremost of these—one of the most foundational practices for a Christian—is prayer. Praying is communing with the Creator. It's a way of accepting His constant, daily calls and saying, "I love you too, God. Now what do you want to tell me today?"

For years, I have vastly underestimated the transformative potential of prayer in the individual life. But now I see that prayer is that thread of constancy. It is what keeps us close to God, even in the midst of struggles. Saying the Rosary or part of the Rosary (a decade or two) every day is such a great way to do this. It will have a lovely effect on your life. Fulton J. Sheen once described saying the Rosary as "saying 'I love You' to our Father." I believe he was right. If you've never prayed the Rosary before, feel free to check out this link for all the instructions and prayers: http://www.rosary-center.org/howto.htm.

Now, I know what you're thinking (if indeed there is anyone out there to be thinking anything): "Great. You've pontificated on faith, but you haven't answered the question of how we stop the roller coaster ride of ecstatic highs, gloomy lows, and wishy-washy times inbetween. I don't think that talking about faith means I'll never feel down again."

Ah, but therein lies the paradox of faith! Faith is not about inspiration or emotion. Faith is believing that your spiritual life is significant, that what you pray makes a difference. Faith is believing that when you pray—whether you feel inspired or not—you are doing something of unfathomable significance. Faith is a lifeline that carries us through whether we are experiencing a high, a low, or a "sideways." It does not guarantee us a life of constant inspiration, but it allows us to avoid that need altogether—because it gives us a higher perspective on life. When we lift our concerns up to God, He lifts us up too.

It's all about that guided drift Mr. Rogers talked about. Faith is our rudder, our guide, but it also gives enough peace to let us drift.

Here's to an hour, day, week, month, year, and life of guided drift,

Joezilla

The Coward, or the Tiger?

I stepped into the darkened room, and I knew something wasn’t right. “The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end,” as they say. Nothing in the room had changed, as far as I could tell in the nearly pitch-black, split-second survey I’d given it as I entered. That was not the problem.

There was someone else in there. Someone tall, well-hidden, and very close. Hiding next to the doorway! I instinctively tried to dash forward, out of his grasp, but it was too late—I felt an iron grip fasten itself around my neck.

Actually, I didn’t. Yeah, now that I think about it, nothing actually happened. There was no one in there. Come on—it was my bedroom! The worst thing that could be in there is one of my brothers trying to startle me—and, thank God, that hasn’t happened since 1996.

Yep, it was my imagination. And, so that you don’t take me for a delusion-prone lunatic, let me point out that I didn’t actually experience this as vividly as I described. It was more a little thought that popped into my head before I turned the light on: “Hey, what if there was somebody in here waiting for me, who wanted to kill me? Whew! Creepy! OK, turn on the light now.” An odd hypothetical question, to be sure. I’ll grant you that. But I wasn’t on the floor convulsing in a schizophrenic frenzy. Just to make that clear. Now where the heck was I?

Oh yeah. This little thought that popped into my head, it got me thinking. It got me thinking about how important a mindset can be. What if there was a hitman waiting for me inside my bedroom? In the mindset I had at that moment, I would have been scared to death—and guess where that would’ve led me? I’ll give you a hint: it’s what I was scared to.

There are different kinds of fear. I fear a nuclear war. I fear the results of our culture’s immorality. I fear several things in that way. But that fear is more of a thought process, more of a conclusion based on our principles. But there’s another type of fear, a visceral, instinctive one, like what I described in the opening paragraphs, that can be our downfall in perilous situations.

Put yourself in the hitman-bedroom scenario. Now replace yourself with a tiger. How would the hitman feel about grabbing a tiger by the neck? Not so eager, you see. Why is that? Well, the tiger would respond in a, shall we say, resentful way. The hitman has no right to grab that tiger by the neck, and the tiger has claws and teeth that will put forth that contention in quite a convincing fashion.

Here’s the fact, Jack: we all can choose to be the instinctive coward, or the tiger. There’s one of each inside all of us. Perhaps we’re not all tigers inside. Some of us might be gigantic Kodiak bears, or poisonous coral snakes. Heck, some of us are probably more like rabid chimps, or charging llamas. But the point is, we all have the potential inside of us—the sleeping beast, so to speak—who’s completely capable of unloading a potential can of Whoop-*** on anyone who threatens us.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be enough. The hitman might be able to choke the tiger, or shoot it. And another disclaimer—I’m not saying “never run—always fight! Hulk smash! Aargh!” No. I’m merely talking about that rare set of situations in which there is nothing to do but fight—and most of us haven’t ever been, and perchance won’t ever be, in those kinds of spots. But if we are, we need to be ready. Because destiny is decided in the instants, not the aeons. It’s the split-second decisions that make the most difference; they truly are the building blocks of life.

All I’m saying has been paraphrased by two great thinkers of yore, and they shall close this humble treatise:

I prithee, take thy fingers from my throat;
For, though I am not splenitive and rash,
Yet have I something in me dangerous,
Which let thy wiseness fear: hold off thy hand.

—Hamlet, from Shakespeare’s play, Act V, Scene 1

Don't hit at all if you can help it; don't hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep.
—Theodore Roosevelt (yep, that's him in the picture!)

Jeremiah 23:32

Jeremiah 23:32

Yes, I am against the prophets who prophesy lying dreams, says the LORD, and who lead my people astray by recounting their lies and by their empty boasting. From me they have no mission or command, and they do this people no good at all, says the LORD.

God has no kind words for the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day. Instead of role modeling for the people with genuine lives and honest proclamations, they lived according to their own inclinations and provided sugarcoated prophecies to the people. It may have made everyone feel warm and fuzzy inside, but it was, in fact, the worst of times to pull such a shenanigan.

In fact, “the worst of times,” if we may borrow from Charles Dickens, would be a great way to describe the situation of Jerusalem at the time. Babylon’s growing power threatened to wipe Jerusalem off the map; the 590s B.C. would see a siege of the city, as well as the humiliating deportation of its king, at the forceful hands of Nebuchadnezzar II. It seemed as if things just couldn’t get any worse.

This problem could have been avoided. Jeremiah’s messages from God reveal that all of this misfortune was the direct result of the people’s infidelity to the covenant with God. Had they remained faithful in the power of Yahweh to deliver them from the evil nations that threatened them (instead of resorting to treaties with other evil nations for extra security), had they retained the purity and devotion of their religious life (instead of copying the disgusting practices of child sacrifice and ritual prostitution practiced by other nations), had they broken out of selfish mindsets and lived according to a rigid moral compass (instead of bending to their own self-interest and oppressing the lowliest of their people), God would have delivered them.

The historical facts may make us scratch our heads and wonder if this deliverance could really have happened, even if the Israelites had been faithful to the max—but stop scratching your head for a moment and consider that this is the exact feeling that the Israelites had at the time. A lack of faith. This lack of faith is what led to Jerusalem’s destruction at the hands of Babylon.

Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

So this is the situation of Jerusalem around the time that God (through Jeremiah) rails against the false prophets. Right when the people need to straighten up and fly right, the poser prophets have to come in and pat them on the back for doing a nice job. Hence, we can understand His position. But this is not merely an outburst of almighty frustration; God is telling us something that resonates truly in any age, in any place, and for any person.

Look at what Jeremiah says about the false prophets:

From me they have no mission or command, and they do this people no good at all, says the LORD.

Have you ever felt a keen sense of mission? Perhaps you’ve been working on a project or leading a seminar or retreat. Perhaps your work was more long-term, like starting an organization or raising a child. Whatever the case, you have felt it—a sort of pull from the future, a vision of success that calls to you and gives you the inspiration to keep working, as hard as you can, to achieve your goal. Without a mission, we could accomplish nothing. D-Day was a success because level-headed officers and soldiers, in the midst of unspeakable chaos, were able to look past it all and figure out a way to achieve their mission objectives.

God gives each of us a mission, too, but we can only discern this mission—feel it, resonating in our bones like a song—when we are doing His will. If we drift away from the covenant that Jesus made with mankind when he shed his blood for us, we forget our mission; we go off-road; we may even crash and burn, like the Israelites of yore.

What is your mission? Have you listened for it lately? Have you felt it lately? Renew your commitment to God; purify your mind and heart, and you will be able to hear your mission.

God always makes it clear that He wants to work with us. Jeremiah tells us today that when we remain faithful to God, He gives our lives mission, meaning, purpose. It is up to us to choose to accept it.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. (James 1:22-24)

Christianity and Islam: Not the Same God

I’ve grown pretty tired of hearing a certain adage that has unfortunately become par for the course in any discussion about Islam and Christianity. I refer to the idea that “Christians and Muslims worship the same God.” Or, in its more stylish (though technically more confusing) form, “God and Allah are the same.” This notion is corrosive to an honest and critical understanding of religious differences, leading to a false sense of interreligious agreement, which usually requires one or both faiths to deny their true identity. And that is the biggest problem with the “Allah = God” idea—it denies important aspects of both religions.

Now before getting into this, let’s take care of the obvious objections. Yes, Allah means “God” in Arabic. And yes, Arab Christians use the term Allah to signify the God of Christianity. And yes once more, many or most Muslims are happy to translate the word Allah as “God.” But to hook onto mere names and words is to misjudge the depth of the argument here. We are examining not the name that each faith gives to God, but the words, actions, and attributes of God in each faith. In Islam and Christianity, these are quite different, even if they are both called “God.”

REVELATION: THE WAY TO UNDERSTANDING

How do we, as faithful people, learn about God? The answer, of course, is revelation. Revelation, in the traditional sense, is the transmission of God’s Truth into the world through various means. In Christian and Muslim contexts, revelation was memorized, transmitted orally, and later written down, or written down from the start. Revelation is important because it is our foundation for any claims about God; without it, the tools of reason and practical experience can only help us speculate about God. Add revelation to the mix, though, and the human mind and memory have something to work with. This phenomenon could be expressed as a simple equation:

Revelation + Reason + Experience = Knowledge of God

But the important fact to remember is that revelation is the most important component of the equation above. If the Qur’an states about God that “He created all things and He is All Knowing of all things” (6.101), then we don’t need to do much logical reasoning to understand this. It’s a pretty clear statement about God. And we certainly could not employ reason or experience to contest a claim of revelation. The point is, revelation is the first and foremost factor in understanding God from a Christian or Muslim perspective, and so we must give it higher priority than anything else when comparing the two religions.

So let’s do that, and see if Christians and Muslims really worship the same God.

“THE GOSPEL TRUTH”

In the 4th Sura (the Qur’anic equivalent of a chapter in the Bible), it is written:

O People of the Book! Do not commit excesses in your religion: Nor say anything except the truth about God. Messiah Isa (Christ Jesus), the son of Maryam (Mary) was a messenger of God, and His Word, which He sent down to Maryam, and a Spirit created by Him: So believe in God and His messengers. Do not say “Trinity”: Stop: It will be better for you: Because God is One God: Glory be to Him…. (4.171)

This passage is an answer to the Christian claim that Jesus, as the second person of the Holy Trinity, is the Son of God. For the sake of historical context, note that the Christian claim about Jesus predates the Muslim one by about 550 years! But I digress. The point here is simply that the Qur’an clearly speaks against the idea of a Triune God, divesting Jesus of his divinity and emphasizing the oneness of God.

Christians, on the other hand, beg to differ about Jesus, and consequently about God. As Jesus testifies in the Gospel of John,

The Father and I are one. (10:30)

And lest anyone point out that John’s Gospel pushes the divinity of Jesus harder than the other Gospels, let’s throw in the final verses of Matthew’s Gospel, for both good measure and a solid demonstration of the Trinitarian formula:

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. (28:19-20)

The point here, plain and simple, is that Muslims worship a God of total, inviolable unity. This principle of God’s oneness is in fact the first part of the shahadah, the concise profession of faith that one must make in order to become a Muslim. This principle is, by any Muslim’s admission, the core of Islamic belief about God.

Contrast this image of God with that of Christianity. God is one unity expressed in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Christians accept the admittedly confusing mystery of the Trinity as essential to their faith because it was handed down to them from revelation and through tradition, but they do not see themselves as worshipping more than one God.

But is this one God the same as the one God worshipped by the Muslims? Unless Muslims consider Jesus to be God (they don’t), or Christians consider God to be a Unity rather than a Trinity (they don’t), we are dealing with two very different images of God here.

CONCLUSION

When Christians say that they worship “the same God” as their Muslim brothers and sisters, they are allying themselves with a God who denies the divinity of Jesus. Do Christians really want to make such a claim? The same is true for Muslims. When they identify their own God as “the same” as the God of Christianity, they are adopting God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as objects of their veneration. If they do not agree to do this, then they are not worshipping the God of Christianity.

We are entering an age in which religious understanding will become perhaps more important than ever before; as such, religious self-understanding takes on an even more breathtaking urgency. It will not help to claim erroneous similarities between religions in the hopes of breaking down barriers, when those barriers are foundational and essential assertions of each faith. There are differences; we must learn and embrace these differences if we want our faith to retain its astounding power in the world, the blazing power of Truth, unadulterated. If all faith was actually the same, there would be only one faith.

Pearls Before Swine

Gay marriage is a hot political issue today. This means that across the country (and the world), conversations are happening between Catholics and non-Catholics, and among Catholics themselves, regarding this issue. If you consider yourself an orthodox Christian, you must face the fact that you will likely be given the opportunity to speak about this issue with someone who disagrees, Catholic or otherwise.

How will you respond when that time comes? Will you murmur an assent and nod slowly? Will you wishy-washily answer "I don't know..." and trail off in mock-indecision? Or perhaps you will respond with that time-honored tagline of truth-skirting talk—"Hmm."

The question you have to ask yourself is this: are you willing to sacrifice an institution in order to avoid an awkward conversation? The fact is, society is changed from the ground up. No matter what the media says, no matter what TV and radio pump into our ears, the unassailable fact remains that "We the People" decide society's direction, and word of mouth is still the strongest form of media there is. If we remain silent while ideas we disagree with are assumed and accepted, while ramps to Hell are exalted as stairways to Heaven, then we will be spectators to the continued downward trudge of society—with only our timidity to blame.

It is our challenge to never remain silent in the face of what is wrong. And free speech will be the freedom that delivers us from moral turmoil, if only we are willing to use it. Speak up, everybody! Don't budge!

Face to Face With Life

Face to face with life. That's what it said. Face to face with life. Just a little advertising motto written on the travel agency's pen. But those words carried a lot of power in that moment.

Face to face with life. What does that mean? What is it like to be face to face with life? I'll tell you--it's to look at things squarely. It's to experience life directly and vividly, the way we were designed to experience it. How many days have you finished and wondered--wow, did I really just let this day pass me by? How many days have you been too out-of-it to even ask the question?

It's also to be honest with yourself about what's going on in your world, and what other people are doing and feeling, too. We see enough to understand all we need to understand. Other people's words and actions, on the whole, reflect what they are feeling. But we often don't go deep enough when we're thinking about other people; we often jump to one conclusion and cling to it like a rubber band. When you're face to face with life, you realize that you don't know a whole lot. You can't accurately diagnose why people are acting or feeling the way they are--but if you are attentive to them, you are aware of what they're feeling. And if you're committed to becoming the best person you can be, what does this awareness make you want to do?

That is what is most amazing, what I discovered when I made the commitment; then and there seeing that wonderful pen, I realized that getting face to face with life causes compassion.

Suppose this: someday, someone is acting lukewarm toward you, and it makes you wonder if you've done something to anger or offend them. This is the ego coming in (the ego always comes in when problems arise), because you actually have no grounds to assume this.

But oftentimes we do assume things like this, and it leads to so much unnecessary strife. Think about that person a little more. Something is certainly bothering them, that much is clear. But look at life squarely! You don't know the real answer--and instead of wondering how you might have caused his low spirits, why don't you try to make him feel better? A kind word, if it's real and from the heart, goes a long, long way. Think about it.

Face to face with life! How cool is that? Think deeply, then act deeply. Face to face with life. You know, I've never been one to have a motto, but this simple yet startling phrase is sorely tempting me to adopt it as one.

The Solution

Sometimes it's the most obvious advice that we need to hear most often and most repeatedly. So let's sustain that custom with today's brief post.

No matter what problems you are facing, prayer is solace, solution, and the way forward. Whatever is not right in your life, whether you know what that is or not, begins to be solved when you sit in silence and set yourself to commune with your Creator. All will be well. As Boyd Bailey says, "Be still, listen, and let Him love you and revive you."

It is no wonder that prayer is one of the most common characteristics of the saints. Prayer is an immediate way of getting closer to God. We are called as Christians to live our lives so as to bring ourselves closer to God. So why do we waste so much time thinking about the grass of the field, which is thrown into the oven tomorrow, when God is right there waiting for us?

It is quite literally true to assert that God has all the time in the world; He can wait.

But can we?

Random Thoughts

Once again borrowing a page from the book of Thomas Sowell, I present several "Random Thoughts." These are neither as political or as entertaining as his, but they are certainly random; their status as thoughts may be justifiably contested by the reader:

1. I was taught to examine life and learn from it, that daily experiences are not isolated events that fade into the past, but connected lessons in the School of Human Experience—which will teach us volumes if we are willing to pay attention. This perspective comes with a price. It's quite a bit like exercise: it demonstrates our limits every time. The daily challenges of life have a way of highlighting our weakness in bright colors, of pointing out what we did wrong and showing us what would have been the best action to take (hindsight is 20/20, after all). But the practice of examining life's challenges for lessons also is like exercise in this simple and striking fact: provided we don't place undue stress on ourselves, each struggle makes us stronger. And knowing that makes us thankful for trials.

2. The only man more formidable than him with nothing to lose is him with something to fight for.

3. Of all ebriosity, who does not prefer to be intoxicated by the air he breathes? (Henry David Thoreau)

That is all.

Good day!

Joezilla

Clarity

Hello,

A question to throw out over the cyber-waves (or whatever they're called) today: what could you do to make your life more honest and open? Clarity is something we're called to strive for, but none of us achieves it perfectly. Nonetheless, the whole point of striving is to work toward that elusive perfection, in hopes that one day--with a lot of help from our Father--we will achieve it.

So what can be done? Today, my life taught me something simple yet beautiful about clarity:

Be ready to face anyone, at any moment. If you find yourself purposely avoiding someone, you need to stop and fix things.

The fact is, if we are living a genuine and righteous life, we should be able to face anyone, anytime, about anything. So if you're running from someone or something, stop in your tracks, figure out what's wrong, and be prepared to face them about it. If you don't, you're only running from the truth--and that never ends well.

Keep fighting the good fight!
Respectfully,
Joezilla

The Highest Form of Thought

How soon we forget…

Isn’t it amazing how quickly we can lose sight of the good things people have said or done to us in the past? How easy is it for us to snap at someone who, a mere span of days or hours ago, brought us immense joy with a funny joke, or brought us to our senses with an honest comment, shot straight from hip and heart? We like to speak of overlooking someone’s faults and giving the benefit of the doubt. But how much more often it is that we overlook the gifts and graces of others, and assume the worst about them! Perhaps it is only I who do this, but I suspect that most are alike in this bad way. What are we to do? The only answer is, commit. Commit ourselves to gratefulness, to wonder—in short, to love.

Special shout-out to TobyMac, whose great song “Hold On” reminded me of this stuff today. Have a listen—it may change the course of your day as it did mine!

http://play.napster.com/track/31568383

Wake up to the morning sun,

Thank the Lord for the things He’s done

Lift your eyes to the Hope that's ever True...

With the love of a stalwart friend, and thankfully!

Joezilla

A Biting Truth

"YEOWCH!"
I winced as I felt my teeth sink hard upon the inside of my cheek, showering my head with burning pain—I had just witnessed, all-too-firsthand, the dangers of eating a bagel too quickly. I immediately adjusted my manner of eating. A moment ago, my highest priority had been chewing the bagel before all the delectable cinnamon-sugar melted away; now I shifted to the more practical goal of not chewing up the inside of my mouth.

As the pain and my reactive wince subsided, I began contemplating what had just happened. I had not bitten myself of my own accord; for whatever reason, God willed that seemingly unfortunate event. I began to gaze warily at my surroundings. What else could God will at this moment? Might the roof come tumbling down upon my unsuspecting head? Or, perhaps, would the lake outside the window, in roaring tsunamic rampage, surge forward and wipe away the building in which I dined? Pondering such potential pains (all of which outweighed my bitten mouth by serious degrees), I finally began to understand what "fear of the Lord" means.

My rather macabre reveries revealed an underlying assumption which I'd never truly faced before: God has the power to do whatever He wants to us. Truly, the concept of an all-powerful deity, taken alone, contains some frightful implications. If God so chose, He could fly us up to the stratosphere, spin us around 18 times, then drop us like skydivers without parachutes. He could cause a rainstorm of rocks to thunder upon us—indoors. Dare I mention it, He could even cause the song "Thriller" to play, in a sort of eternal repeat mode, unceasingly through the maddened corridors of our own minds.

There is quite literally nothing that He could not do to us, if He so chose. Now thankfully, our religion tells us that He will most likely not do any of this. God loves us, and His actions in Scripture make that resoundingly clear. But the fact remains, and the story of Job stands out as an unsettling reminder of this, that God has the power to do whatsoever He wants.

Now a moment's reflection on this fact ought not result in fearful frenzy or dead-eyed depression. Quite the contrary, in fact—because such a solid conviction of God's power results in an equally-solid conviction of our own powerlessness.

At any moment, we could be rendered deaf and dumb for the rest of our days. Why should that scare us? It should just shock us into the realization that we aren't here for our own fulfillment. We are so powerless that we can't possibly fulfill ourselves, no matter how hard we try. Everything temporal that we've worked for and continue to work for—it could all be wiped away in a second. If that were to happen, what would remain? Self-fulfillment is not our job.

It comes as a surprise to remember this, every now and then. We are not here to fulfill our own desires, but to obey the Will of He Who made us. It's a simple but foundational change in perspective, a true inversion of our priorities. And it helps a lot. Of course, the greatest paradox arrives when we learn that God's Will is to fulfill us, but that fulfillment will only come when we submit ourselves to Him, cutting every string, surrendering every cheap battle, and embracing every human spirit with an open heart and a thankful soul.

Who knew that biting yourself could be so great?

Fearing the Lord (in a good way),
Joezilla

Momentous Mania

I recently discovered that some people had fallen prey to a monster. Those people are friends whom I have known and respected for several years; the monster is an attitude that has existed since, oh, before you were born. It has been called many names, but rarely has it been mocked in alliterative irony, so here goes—I hereby dub it the Mania of the Moment.

Maniacs of the Moment are usually referred to as “experts.” I’m sure you’ve heard of them before (if, in fact, there is a “you” out there reading this to whom I may refer). In addition to answering phone calls from desperate journalists who need a molehill to make a mountain out of, experts also teach classes at universities. Generally their goal in teaching lies not in imparting bales of information, but in teaching a mindset to their students. That mindset is: “Check your preconceived notions at the door, young people. You were raised with certain assumptions and prejudices, but in college we will nurture in you an open mind; and to accomplish this we will tell you the way we think the world is, and teach you not to question our assumptions and prejudices.” And thus, the world is remade in the image of the experts. Or as I like to call them, the Maniacs of the Moment.

The victims of the Maniacs who I referred to above was describing to me an almost absurdly unreasonable modern theory that tried to explain the phenomenon of “transgendered” individuals on a genetic basis:

Pared down to the essentials, it says that a boy as young as nine months old will display an affinity for women’s accessories, be they her shoes, her coat, her perfume…despite parental objections, these children may sometimes grow up to identify as the opposite gender. The cause of this is likely a blend of genetic predisposition and prenatal hormones.

Yes. I wish I had made that up, but no—that happens to be material apparently taught in a Psychology class at a world-class university in the Midwest. I call it absurdly unreasonable because it contends that a nine month old boy, who is just getting used to walking and talking, somehow recognizes the cultural and sociological significance of physical objects like shoes and purses. Cultural and sociological information is not innate; it is taught. Any fool, scientific or not, can comprehend and state this simple fact (one just did).
But the saddest fact was not that they considered this doctrine credible. No, the saddest fact was that they proved themselves unwilling to “take what they teach you with a grain of salt,” as I suggested (and I’d say that a grain of salt is not much to ask against the previous poppycock I just described)!

Is critical thinking really out of vogue? The answer is a resounding YES, and it has always been out of vogue. Centuries ago, the leading experts of the day propounded that the entire universe revolved around our planet earth…our flat planet earth. Now I know that my history is a bit fuzzy, the Greeks knew the earth was round for centuries, and yada-yada-yada. That’s not important. And I’m being completely serious here. It’s not important, because the principle is true, namely that most people cannot see past their own generation’s myopic line of sight.

That’s a sad thing, and it hurt to see my friends falling for this cheap and passing parlor trick based on spin and false authority. They are intelligent people, good-hearted, far more intelligent than I, in terms of scientific and mathematic smarts. But there is more to intelligence than being able to comprehend abstract concepts or being able to store data.

The key to true intelligence, I say, is common sense and critical thinking. Anyone who wants to be smart needs only these tools, along with a workable and willing intellect, in order to excel. I honestly believe that. Albert Einstein himself said that “imagination is more important than knowledge.” Being able to fairly evaluate the concepts one is taught—rather than just accepting them as unassailable fact—and proposing creative solutions to the problems that indubitably arise, is a prerequisite for any truly intelligent person, not least any scientist.

I desperately hope that critical thinking makes a comeback, because until it does little boys will retain their genetic affinity for women’s high-heels, just as the earth remained flat for so many long and ignorant centuries.

To close: Why, you may query perturbedly, have I concluded with this picture? Because it's hilarious. Enjoy.

Stay strong (I mean it),

Joezilla

Today is Tomorrow

“It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be gray, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.” So testifies Phil Conners, world-class meteriologist and full-time jerk, in one of his lowest moments in the wonderful movie Groundhog Day. Whether or not we agree with Phil’s prediction tells us a lot about how we are currently seeing the world.

Phil’s is a unique tale; he goes to wintry Punxatawney, Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities, dutifully does his drudgery, then goes to sleep. He wakes up the next morning to a cold Punxatawney morning…a cold and familiar Punxatawney morning. Yes, as you probably already know (unless you have not seen the film, in which case you are seriously missing out), Phil is forced by the powers-that-be (in this case, it’s writer-director Harold Ramis) to relive the same day, over, and over, and over again.

How long is Phil trapped in this temporal wasteland? Months, maybe. Probably years. He’s there long enough to learn the quirky backgrounds of almost every citizen in Punxatawney, long enough to become a semi-pro piano-player, and long enough to become a trilingual aficionado of classic literature. And oh yeah, long enough to devote himself to a noble purpose—in fact, the noblest purpose anyone can dedicate himself to: self-improvement for the sake of others. But before he does any of that, he first attempts to wring out every inch of “fun” that he can from Punxatawney. It feels great at first, but soon the superabundance of, well, pretty much anything he wants, reveals the true emptiness of temporal pleasures.

The turning point comes when Phil talks to his pretty (and practically perfect in every way) producer, Rita. Convinced of his predicament, Rita offers this bit of advice: “Perhaps it’s not a curse. Maybe it just depends on how you look at it.” Phil promptly wakes up the next day and brings his co-workers coffee and pastries to enjoy amidst the bustle of their morning labor. In doing so, he begins the long and determined climb out of the hole he’s dug for himself, and at this point demonstrates a fundamental and potentially life-changing truth: kindness is a universal language. People worry too much about social niceties and clever turns of phrase, but Phil shows that an action fashioned from consideration and performed with kindness needs no fancy social wrapping. Be good, and everything else falls into place.

“As time goes by,” as they say, Phil builds himself into a true man—good-hearted, disciplined, and well-rounded (though, importantly, he remains as funny as ever). He takes up piano. He reads. He devotes himself, wholeheartedly it would seem, to serving others. Not a bad idea, Phil! It culminates in an epic day that seems to contain everything—music, dancing, snow-sculptures, a couple of saved lives…

Phil wakes up the next morning, and things are different. Can you imagine what it might feel like to live the same day over and over again for years, and then to wake up to a new one? Phil definitely shares the epithet of Dr. Manette in A Tale of Two Cities: RECALLED TO LIFE!

It should give us pause to realize that the universe, blessedly, doesn’t actually play tricks like that. We will go to sleep tonight, and we will wake up tomorrow, never to set foot on this date again. Perhaps that makes us want to seize this day, and that’s great. But more than that, I think it should make us appreciate the fact of tomorrow.

Think about it. You will wake up tomorrow, and there will be a whole new day ahead of you. What’s best, you will be able to act in that day, knowing that your good actions will have lasting consequences. Do you realize what a difference you can make in this world? Such great potential streams out of your every step; so be happy, wherever you are! As Phil says, incredulous, in the movie’s cheery final moments, “Today is tomorrow. It happened.” We all might benefit from saying that when we wake up to bright skies, gray or otherwise, in the tomorrow that never forgets to come. Today is tomorrow! Remember that!

And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Happy Groundhog Day!

Peacefully,
Joezilla

Grace of Gratefulness

Thank You God,

For the days when the bright sky’s light shines clarity into our senses, when the tangled tips of the trees cut bold outlines against the luminous dome, massaging our eyes with deep royal hues.

Thank You God,

For the days when the rustling of a coat, the keyboard’s clickety-clack, and the unseen footsteps of a fellow traveler soothe our ears like the sweetest music.

Thank You God,

For the days when creation brightens, happiness meets us—or perhaps we are given the freshness to recognize the abundance You offer us, day, after day, after day, after day, after day, after day, after day.

Love,

Joe

Thoughts from January

If you've ever seen a dream
Move from mind to real thing,
You know the great illusion, then,
That empty dreams can bring.

If you focus on your own,
Then the show gets dull, and fast.
But sing a chorus role for once—
By God, your peace will last.

Wicked Winter's dreary heart
Threatens cold and icy days;
But humble acts and gratitude
Will summon warmer rays.

Free Will and Confidence

I can't speak for you, dear reader, (assuming there is a reader to describe as dear), but I know that the happiest moments of my life have been characterized by more than just happiness; they are always accompanied by a deep-seated sense of confidence, akin to rushing water. Happiness doesn't seem to last, but why should confidence ever leave us? Happiness is an emotion, but confidence is a choice. Happiness is fickle like the weather, but confidence is as freely chosen as the coat we put on in the morning.

Unfortunately, confidence is not an easy choice. Confidence demands effort, and occasionally means butting heads with genuine opponents or facing up to over-inflated masks of ego. Either way, it means we have to step out of the comfort zone.

Human instinct tends toward safety and comfort. It's just what we prefer. This is not a curse, but it does force us to put some effort into how we live our lives.

Confidence is a choice, but a choice that our nature pushes us away from. And here is where the trump card comes in, that wonderful aspect of humanity that always comes in to save us when we've worked ourselves into a self-reflective quandary about our nature. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, FREE WILL. Yes, we are endowed with free will, which implies that, at least in theory, we are capable of complete self-control.

Although we do not take advantage of this fact nearly as much as we could/should, the fact remains that in every moment, we are presented with a choice—the choice of what kind of person we want to be. We can be heroes or heels, champions or chick-a-dees, mavericks or mice. Who do you choose to be? Every moment demands a response to this question. If we ever feel a lack of confidence (and as was said, our nature tends toward that), all we need to do is visualize the person we want to be, and realize that a conscious choice on our part will transform us into that person.

One final word of warning: confidence does not come from within ourselves. The choice to change, the free will that gives us the chance to change ourselves, is a gift from above. And once we do choose the road less travelled, the strength to walk it does not come from our own metaphorical muscles. Confidence comes from God alone! The Spirit is the rushing water that fills our hearts and minds, leading us to our destination. Without a firm foundation in the One Who laid the earth's foundations, our towers will topple pretty fast. It all starts with a firm trust and wonder at the power and love of our unfailing, superactive Father in Heaven. I'd say more, but I'd prefer to share the words of Jesus. No, not the Christ, not this time. (Not that guy who works at Toys R Us, either.) I'm talking about Jesus, son of Eleazar, son of Sirach--a.k.a. author of the Book of Sirach:

"Lively is the courage of those who fear the LORD, for they put their hope in their savior; He who fears the LORD is never alarmed, never afraid; for the LORD is his hope...."

And here's where the happiness comes in:

"He buoys up the spirits, brings a sparkle to the eyes, gives health and life and blessing. "

--Sirach 34:14-15, 17--

Stay strong!

Confidently,
Joezilla