Lessons From Mountain Hikes 1 - The Mountains Inside Us

Mountain hiking presents many opportunities to overcome challenges.  On this steep, rock faced section of the ascent to Big Slide Mountain in the Adirondacks, a ladder has been bolted into the mountain.  In other locations one must scale a rock face or get over a high ledge.  Ledges and scary looking descents are also to be found.  Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first man to lead a successful expedition to the top of Mount Everest, said "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." His words are a truthful reminder that the greatest obstacles we face are the many obstacles inside ourselves, that hold us back from facing the challenges before us.  These obstacles are often in tension with each other.  We can be too full of doubt or fear but we can also be the opposite of that - overconfident, both of which are dangerous to our well-being and to meeting our goals.  

At one point on the climb to Mt. Marshall, I realized that my mind was filled with a number of worries that didn't have anything to do with successfully getting to the top of Mt. Marshall.  I was thinking about the descent, the hike out to the trailhead and the long drive home.  None of those thoughts were doing me any good during the climb.  On top of that, we had wisely abandoned our effort to scale Mt. Marshall two days earlier due to increasingly hazardous flowing water conditions on the stream that the trail crossed six or more times, so I also had the previous thoughts of failure to overcome.  I had to decide at one point that I would have but one thought in my mind - hiking to the top of Mt. Marshall.

We together succeeded this time in our climb and were rewarded with beautiful views of Iroquois and other mountains and our own happy faces.

In life, as in mountain hiking, its healthy and helpful for us to identify the mountains inside us that do as much or more to obstruct and hold us back than the mountains we regularly face.      

Life on the Golf Course and The Shot Before Us

Phil Mickelson at Oak Hill East Course, 11th Hole, during 2013 PGA Practice Round

The game of golf can be a useful life teacher.  My son-in-law and I attended a practice round of the 2013 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club's East Course.  On the par 3 11th hole we watched as Phil Mickelson gave the other golfers in his practice round foursome (his students) a lesson in hitting out of the thick rough that surrounds this expansive green and engulfed the ball which is not visible in this view.  I remember him explaining in great detail, then demonstrating the need for the golfer to sweep the club through the thick grass to loft the ball onto the green.  Technique is essential for success in the game of golf.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, the combination of reduced business related travel, including the daily one hour round trip to the office, has opened up more time to enjoy friends, the outdoors, and the challenges of golf.  As all golfers know, it is a game where being able to consistently execute the proper technique is the key to a more enjoyable round.  The reality of golf, for me, is quite different.  Other than the tee box, where all golfers begin a hole with equal opportunity, our second, third and so on shots are often made from many degrees of challenging locations on the course.  But the shot we have from those locations is the shot before us, the shot that we need a strategy for and the shot we need to execute.

Golf is a mentally challenging game, where I find myself constantly needing to forget about the last shot and the last hole to focus on the shot before me.  In yesterday's golf round I found myself in many locations on the course that I didn't want to be, but my ball was in the field of play and if I was going to follow the rules of the game I needed to hit my next shot from that spot.  I couldn't change the tee shot that drifted left on a dogleg par 4 hole, so I took the suggestion of one of my golf partners and played down the left side.  Playing the hole in that manner required that I hit my second shot over some trees, so I played my second shot with the 5 wood, instead of the 3 wood, to gain loft at the expense of distance.  On a couple of other holes I needed to hit a low shot to avoid tree branches, so I played a long iron, addressed the ball with my front foot behind the ball, and did not follow through with a full swing, all to keep the ball low.  In another spot where there was too much trouble around to do too much of anything, I hit a wedge to position me for a makeable approach shot to the green.

Navigating life with the choices we now have in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is a little bit different for each one of us, but greatly different than it was prior to the pandemic.  Just like life on the golf course, it does no good to live in the "what might have been" but rather in the "what can be".  So dispite not having the choices before us in life that we would prefer to have, with sincere prayer and with the Holy Spirit's guiding, believers can still have a path forward for whatever shot we have before us.

Where Was George Floyd's Good Samaritan?

This painting, Le Bon Samaritain, by Aime Morot touched me in a deep way when we saw it in a Paris, France art gallery in 2018.  I've written about it here: https://restorationprofiles.blogspot.com/2019/11/lord-who-is-my-neighbor.html .  This passage, from Luke 10:25-37, is a story Jesus told to teach the principle "Who is my neighbor?" 

Those familiar with George Floyd's work in Houston's Third Ward, would say that he lived the gospel, and that he was a Good Samaritan in his neighborhood.  Christianity Today has written a touching article describing his work here:  https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/may/george-floyd-ministry-houston-third-ward-church.html 

Sadly, when George Floyd needed a Good Samaritan there was none for him.  There was a policeman-murderer, three policeman-murderer-enablers, somebody there to video tape his murder, and someone there who cried out to the police to stop.  But nobody rescued George Floyd.  Nobody disadvantaged themselves or risked their own well being to help him.  We hoped that the Minneapolis Police Department, if they suspected that he was using a counterfeit $20 bill and possibly on drugs, would at least have taken him into custody in a gentle manner that would have spared his life.  We have a right to expect more of the policemen who murdered him.   

Since no one can now be a neighbor to George Floyd, who is the neighbor who I can help and will I have the heart and eyes to see them?  Will that opportunity to be a neighbor to someone in need come overtly with only a moment's notice?  Will that opportunity be simmering under my nose and will I wake up and do something about it?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

In the Grip of Corona Virus: Choosing Fear or Faith

(I welcome guest blogger, a dear friend and brother in the faith, Mike Mazzochetti who shares the following blog post.)

We are all mindful of the Coronavirus pandemic.

As I probe my mind I wonder what is happening. What fills our minds?

Information from many sources bombards us... Internet, news, TV, radio, articles, constant talk. How do we manage it?  What filters do we employ, if any?

We seek some level of normalcy by a modified adaptation of our jobs, online schooling, reading, home projects, hobbies, prayer, and devotions. As social beings how do we interact even in limited ways? Are Zoom sessions enough?

How are we coping? We can fill our minds, right? But with what and how? 

It is our experience that negativity creeps and seeps in, almost by osmosis, potentially flooding our minds.

What is it about bad news? Not only a tragedy, but a negative review at a restaurant is also disturbing! Marketing studies have traditionally shown that a poor grade travels faster and farther with more frequency than a good report, actually quite skewed. Why is that? Because it feeds our insecurities, renders our doubts, and instills deep fear. We become so preoccupied and overwhelmed!

A strategy of positives that outweigh the negatives can be beneficial. However, a positive position requires a proactive approach to counter the passive intrusion of negativity.

Find what can bolster us. Exercise, rest, and eating right are obvious, of course. A walk in the neighborhood, a hike in the woods, or a bike ride during warmer weather can alleviate our stress.

That is a start but not enough though to rejuvenate! Left unchecked fear grips us, so we have to keep our guard up and push forward. Our minds need positive thoughts as an antidote to gain optimism over our fears.

We are intelligent beings and can be properly informed. We can prepare and be safe by protecting ourselves. But as social beings we also need to protect others too. We can help others by simply being present to them. Attending to others takes our mind off ourselves. Doubt and fear then dissipate when we are with others, freeing us from these torments.

Prayer is best! Why? Because it submits ourselves to a higher being, our God, who is in control. We begin by telling God our concerns and fears. As we ease into resting in the arms of our Lord, we know in whom we can trust.  We can then believe with a faith that transcends all else - our fears included!

In reality we have to live this out. We are in the midst of a pandemic with sickness and death, job loss and earnings gone. We suffer in mind, body, and livelihood. What can we do then that enlivens us?

• Be smart when seeing others, shopping, or working - employing social distancing, wearing suitable masks, and washing your hands before entering new places or returning home.
  

•  If elderly or of compromised health do your best to avoid physical presence with others, especially as you arrange for those who can help you. Stay-at-home  orders are especially stifling for these most vulnerable as being home bound is boring and depressing, but despite this, be cheerful.
  

• Turn off the TV and hear the news every other day. Especially keep from dwelling on isolated sensational news reports that steal your attention.
  

• Put information in perspective - yes, people get sick and die. Not all news is grim if projections are as expected across many categories of living and dying.
  

• Change the headlines in your minds to positive outlooks: '94% of all people survive Covid-19, most with little or no symptoms". Anyone hear that one on a broadcast?!
  

• We are all trying to figure this out. We are in uncharted waters. Let leadership ideas unfold as we resist early judgement and criticism.
  

Political, economic, and medical leaders differ in approach: some are optimistic about the outcomes trying to encourage; others restrict movement and warn of caution. Either way they are interpreting most of the same facts, so both have merit and balance each other. 

• Pray for those who suffer physically and financially; calm and encourage those who worry.
  

• Always praise God for he is worthy and thank him in all things.

• Have Faith, not fear. Hope in the God who promises to protect us and the Son of God who died to redeem us.
  

• Most importantly, Love God and others as yourself. Scripture says: "Perfect love casts out all fear!"
  

There is a hopeful message we see around us: "We will get through this together!" Let us believe that. And as Christians, we ask God for the grace to respond to others with help for their physical and material needs while promoting peace for their souls.

One more thing to help us: God blesses us with the friendship of the Holy Spirit that binds us together.

by Michael Mazzochetti

God Provides For Those Who Cry Out for Help

            4 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, 

                  “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. 

                   But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.”

                         ² Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in

                   your house?” “Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a 

                   small jar of olive oil.”

                       ³ Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t 

                   ask for just a few. ⁴ Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your

                   sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”

                       ⁵ She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought 

                  the jars to her and she kept pouring. ⁶ When all the jars were full, she 

                  said to her son, “Bring me another one.”  But he replied, “There is not a 

                  jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.

                       ⁷ She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and 

                 pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

New International Version (NIV)

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The miracle performed by the prophet Elisha in 2 Kings 4:1-7 involved meeting the financial needs of a widow who's husband had formerly worked as a prophet with Elisha.  I was reminded of this passage, during the COVID-19 pandemic, by a friend of ours who wrote her own devotional about this.  Summarizing the passage:

• She realized she was in a desperate situation.  The creditors were on their way to seize her sons and to make them slaves because with her husband's passing she had no income.
• She reached out for help from a godly man, a man she trusted.
• The prophet Elisha asks her two questions that sound a lot like the questions Jesus asked of people who came to him, requesting help:
• "How can I help you?"
• "Tell me what do you have in your house?" 
• The widow offers what she has, a small jar of oil.
• She obeys the prophet when he says to go around to your neighbors and ask them for empty jars, and don't ask for just a few.
• He also instructs her to then close the door of her house and pour the oil she have into the empty jars.
• The empty jars are all filled, there is enough oil to sell to pay all the debts owed and to provide income for her and her children to live on. 

The circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic are creating all sorts of hardships: economic; physical; emotional; and spiritual health.  This passage provides a model for us to follow, as we feel the world closing in on us, like it was for the widow.  Express our needs to God and to the godly people we trust.  Listen to the questions God is asking of us.  He invites us to ask for His help, and He asks us what we have available for Him to use.  Even what we think is not much can be used by God and multiplied.  Those who are close to us can be a part of the miracle God will perform.  Elisha commands the widow to close the door to her house, thus only those committed to obeying Elisha's instructions get to observe the miracle.  Lastly, God's provision is anything but meager.  He fills every jar the widow and her children can find.  

So if we cry out to God during these times, and remember the times in the past when God has met our needs and reflect on stories like this from the Bible, we'll find that God can abundantly provide for us.

Earth Day and Environmental Ethics

The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, when I was a high school sophomore.  I remember little about that school day.  What I've not forgotten is the impact Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) https://genius.com/Marvin-gaye-mercy-mercy-me-the-ecology-lyrics which came out in the fall of 1971, had on me.  It caused me to question how did we end up making such poor decisions on the environment, when we were supposed to be the stewards of our world?  Over the years, many pop-music groups from the Beachboys to REM have spoken to environmental issues.  My immature thinking was refined to some extent during my college years through the environmental courses I took at Clarkson University, but what's been most formational in refining and maturing a deeper and more realistic environmental ethic has been my career as a water resources and environmental engineer and my Christian faith. Through the many projects and programs I've worked on and led, I've learned to seek engineering solutions that result in the least environmental harm. Finding engineering solutions that meet more than bare minimal environmental standards takes a fine degree of thoughtfulness.The place where engineering meets the natural environment is complex and quite interconnected.  Through my Christian faith and reading of the Bible, the context for my learned environmental ethic is one that's consistent with the deeper reality of my relationship with the Creator and creation. My environmental ethic has also been nurtured through the writings of Holmes Rolston III in Philosophy Gone Wild and other books, and to some extent by other thoughtful writers. 

I've spent my 40 year career working at the intersection of engineering and the environment. I am perplexed to see the environment focused on in a way that's out of sync with deeper realities of the environment and ourselves.  Some of my favorite quotes from Holmes Rolston III get to the core of what I feel is a realistic and sensible Christian environmental ethic.  These include:

• Nature is intrinsically valuable, but nature is not a moral sphere.
• I am more convinced than ever that nature is grace, that nature is value-laden. This life-abundant Earth is a wonderland.
• No sooner did I discover that nature is grace, than I found we were treating it disgracefully.
• It is not simply what a society does to its slaves, women, blacks, handicapped children, or future generations, but what it does to its flora, fauna, species and landscapes that reveals the character of that society.

So while a Christian environmental ethic explains that it's wrong to have a utilitarian view of the environment, it's also wrong to make an idol of it.  I cannot have a utilitarian view of the environment if I understand it to be value-laden, grace filled, and life-abundant.  These characteristics are consistent with both God's nature, the Gospels and the New Testament.   But it misses the mark to elevate the environment to a place where it becomes a moral sphere, or a religion.  And if we're going to hold to a high view of the environment, it's hypocritical to hold to a disgraceful view of any person or group, who are also created by God and in His image.  In 21st century America, our culture's environmental thinking and ethics have come sadly off the rails.  

Stories for Troubling Times

I've had the occasion of reading several short stories from Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories.  Many of these stories have a theme that involves people who are dealing with having their world rocked by one or more circumstances.  As the stories unfold we learn of the characters' struggles.  As they struggle with their circumstances we gain insights about what anchors them, that is what they put their faith and hopes in.  As we enter into their lives, we begin to ask ourselves the question "What do we put our faith and hopes in?"  This past week, since we were going to Florida on a vacation, I again checked out this book of short stories, which I had not finished, not knowing whether I would have occasion to read any more of them on the trip.  I ended up reading The Displaced Person while returning on a choppy, 2-1/2 hour boat ride from Dry Tortugas to Key West, FL, figuring that reading would keep my mind off the uncomfortable journey.  So while I was being physically jostled, with some feelings of uncertainty and displacement, I entered the fictional lives of Mr. Guizac; Mr. and Mrs. Shortly, Mrs. McIntyre; and Father Flynn, the principal characters in the story.

Cliff Notes https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/oconnors-short-stories/summary-and-analysis/the-displaced-person provides a detailed character analysis of the short story.

Dove Foundation Movie Review (https://dove.org/review/10940-the-displaced-person/ provides an excellent family film summary and recommendation of the 2007 release of the movie on DVD.

The story is set in Georgia during the late 1940's where a Polish refugee (Mr. Guizac) is relocated by Father Flynn to work on Mrs. McIntyre's farm.  The industrious and clever Mr. Guizac, who is the obvious displaced person, becomes a threat to the other farm workers who begin to plot his downfall, until fate unexpectedly takes over.  The Displaced Person speaks to the fear of the unknown and how people react to things they don't understand.  By the time we come to the end of the story we find that all the main characters, save Father Flynn, either become displaced from this world or from their comfort zones.   

Within less than a week (March 6 - 13, 2020), we in the United States have seen our personal worlds rocked in one way or another either by COVID-19 or by the responses of our government leaders, businesses, and institutions.  Our stocks and 401(k)'s have plummeted in value, our businesses have needed to implement immediate and significant measures to help reduce the spread of the virus and to protect the company's financial health, our planned large group events have been shuddered, and we are all updating our calendars.  Today was Friday and after a particularly long and stressful week my work colleagues were reacting all over the place: 

• One was upset because they were "ordered to go home" because they had been showing signs of some virus and it would be healthful for them and us;
•  A group of them left work early and invited me to join them as they headed downstairs to the bar for drinks to try and put a happy spin on the week;
• Another magnified a tiny issue into a huge deal; and
• A client spoke of a colleague of theirs who was in misery due to MLBs suspending of Spring Training.

In all this we who venture to walk by faith in Christ can hang onto Romans 14:7-9 (So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.), Romans 8:37 ( No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.), and the many other promises of the God who provides.