Chaplain’s Corner: CXXIII

/in /by

“Getting Down to Business with Prayer”

Say a prayer and do your job.  Those were the two things on Captain David Cronin’s mind as he tried to steer a seriously damaged Boeing 747 toward an emergency landing.

On February 24, 1989, United Airlines Flight 811 departed Honolulu on its way to New Zealand.  When the jumbo jet had reached an altitude of approximately 22,000 feet, the forward cargo door suddenly blew open.  Tragically, nine passengers were immediately sucked out of the gaping hole that was torn into the starboard side of the plane.

The two right engines were disabled by flying debris.  Flight 811 was now at least 100 miles from land and in deep trouble.  One of my friends was the navigator on that flight and when he walked down and saw the damage he was doubtful they would make it back to Honolulu.

Journalist William Diehl describes what Captain Cronin did next:  “To compensate for the lack of thrust from the right two engines, he struggled to hold the control column steady with his hands while using his feet to put pressure on the control floor rudder to stabilize the plane.  His stickiest problem, however, was deciding how fast to fly.  He slowed the plane as close to the stall speed as possible to keep the air rushing over the plane from further widening the hole in the fuselage.  Because the hole had changed the aerodynamics of the huge craft, the usual data regarding stall speed was no longer relevant.  The pilot had to use his best judgment.

Furthermore, since the plane had just taken off with 300,000 pounds of fuel for the long flight, it was too heavy to land without collapsing the landing gear.

That’s when he encountered a new problem.  The wing flaps that are essential to decelerating a large jet were not working properly.  Instead of landing at a normal speed of 170 mph, he was going to hit the runway at around 195mph.  At that moment the jet would weigh 610,000 pounds, well above Boeing’s recommended maximum stress load of 564,000 pounds.

Nevertheless, Captain Cronin made one of the smoothest landings the rest of the crew could remember, amid the cheers of the passengers.  Airline experts called the landing miraculous.

At the time of the flight, the captain was 50 years old.  Industry authorities had been clinging to the notion that older pilots would probably perform poorly in a crisis.  Instead, Cronin essentially wrote the book on how to handle a jumbo jet decompression-and he did so while experiencing one.

A few days after the incident, an interviewer asked Captain Cronin what thoughts went through his mind when disaster struck.  He answered, “I said a prayer for my passengers….and then got back to business.

SAY A PRAYER AND DO YOUR JOB.

Many of us feel anxious about the mystery of discerning God’s will for our lives.  What are we supposed to be doing today?

Diehl suggests that the greatest gift Captain Cronin gave his passengers was “his experience and good judgement…the critical issue was this:  Was he competent enough as a pilot to bring a damaged plane in safely?  He was trained to do a job.  Now he needed to do that job well.

Do you yearn to serve God today by serving those he has placed in your life?  Then pray for those in your life.  Entrust to God’s care the residents and staff here at Westminster Village you encounter daily.

mAnd be Competent.  Excel at loving your neighbor.  Calm the person who is having a bad day.  Say a prayer and do your job as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Say a prayer and do your job.  The odds are very high you’ll end up doing exactly what God is calling you to do today.

 

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

 

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXII

/in /by

“Hope for a Culture of Contempt”

Noted marriage therapist John Gottman, who has observed thousands of couples in his Love Lab at the University of Washington claims he can predict with 94% accuracy which relationships are headed for divorce.

What is the number one predictor?  Gottman votes for contempt.

Contempt is anger mingled with disgust-the settled conviction of someone else’s worthlessness.  The telltale signs are sarcasm, sneering, hostile humor and the ultimate giveaway, eye-rolling.  When Gottman sees partners react to each other by rolling their eyes, he has come to have a high degree of confidence that apart from powerful course corrections, disintegration is on the way.

In his book Forgive Your Enemies, columnist Arthur Brooks suggests that our nation’s greatest challenge is navigating through a “culture of contempt.”  According to a 2017 Reuters poll, one in six Americans stopped talking to a friend or family member because of politics.  Contempt springs from the assumption that there is no possibility of finding common ground.  “My motives are based in love.  Your motives are based in hate.  Only a selfish and immoral person could believe what you believe.  And don’t throw your facts in my face.  Your news is fake news.”

Contempt goes beyond anger.  Anger says, “I care enough about these issues to get emotionally involved.”  Contempt says, “You aren’t even worth caring about.”  In anger, I may want to hurt someone.  In contempt, I don’t care if you get hurt or not.

The good news is that we don’t have to act this way.  There is hope for our culture-especially when we come to grips with the good reasons for leaving contempt behind.  Contempt isn’t just bad for those we are rejecting.  It’s seriously bad for US.  Contempt makes us unhappy, unhealthy, and unattractive even to those who agree with us.

Jesus doesn’t hesitate to address anger and contempt in his Sermon on the Mount.  He says, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “You shall not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgement.  Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister,”Raca”. Is answerable to the court.  And anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell”.  (Matthew 5:21-22)

Words are serious things.  Words can wound and kill.  “Raca” is one of about 20 Aramaic words that appear in the New Testament.  Many of them have come into common English usage without being translated.  Think of “amen,” “hosanna,” and “abba.”

“Raca,” however, is a singularly fierce word.  It is an expression of contempt and is stronger than the “you idiot” that some translations prefer.  It is meant to represent the gathering of spit at the back of the throat-spit that I intend to hurt someone I consider worthless.

Jesus makes it clear that there will be serious consequences for people who unrepentantly set out to hurt other people.  Bible scholar Dale Brunner comments, “Anger carried and vented, according to Jesus’ astonishing assessment, is Last-Judgment-and-hell-deserving crime.”

Nobody ever said that loving real people would be easy.  And it may be that God intends to deploy us on the front lines of his efforts to transform our culture of contempt into a culture of his grace.

 

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXI

/in /by

“Jackpot”

For the price of a $2 ticket, you can indulge in the ultimate fantasy.  Last week’s Mega Millions jackpot drawing was over 1.3 billion dollars.  This was the second largest prize ever and with  taxes, the winner will have to figure out how to spend $708 million.

The lucky winner was in the state of Maine.  Imagine– that person can pay off all their debts.  They can resolve all of their transportation and lodging needs.  They can order anything they want off the menu or buy a fast food franchise of their own.  With hundreds of millions of dollars they can bless countless other people and share the love with everyone they meet.

Does that sound like the best thing that could ever happen to you?  It’s not.

In fact winning the Mega Millions jackpot might turn out to be the ultimate Anti-blessing.

Let’s start with the opinions of actual billionaires.  Mark Cuban says, “If you weren’t happy yesterday, you won’t be happy tomorrow.  It’s money.  It’s not happiness.”  Warren Buffett says, “If you were a jerk before, you’ll become a bigger jerk with a billion dollars.”  Money, in other words, is powerless to produce either joy or character.  John D. Rockefeller:  “I have millions, but they have brought me no happiness.”  Henry Ford:  “I was happier when doing a mechanic’s job.”  John Jacob Astor:  “I am the most miserable man on earth.”

Since it takes more than a few Debbie Downer comments from some depressed rich guys to quell Mega Millions fever, consider the studies that have compared people who have won the lottery with people who have become quadriplegics.  For the first few months the lottery winners seem to be on happiness steroids.  People who are unable to move any of their limbs often yearn for death.  But within a few years there’s a radical reversal of fortune.  The degree of satisfaction with life becomes virtually identical for those with gobs of money and those with no mobility.  That’s because the experience of being blessed is, in the end, fundamentally independent of our circumstances.

Think about it:  Everything that belongs to you, and everything that IS you, is going to slip right through your fingers someday.  You’re going to end up losing it all:  Your favorite stuff.  Your car.  Your marketable job skills.  Your most precious friends and family members.  Your health.  Your beauty.  Your capacity to care for yourself.  Ultimately even your ability to take your next breath.

You can’t hold on to any of it.  So what does it really mean to be blessed?

The Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments suggest that we are blessed when we grasp that even though everything is slipping through our fingers, we can never lose the blessing of being held by God.  Picking the winning numbers may actually prevent us from being blessed.  The curse of money is that it tempts us to believe we can be happy on our own terms.  But universal human experience has demonstrated that it never turns out that way.

We don’t need a billion dollars to bless others.  It doesn’t cost a thing to smile, offer encouragement, listen carefully and act compassionately.  We can do all those things a dozen times today.  For free.

There is nothing that can ever snatch us out of our heavenly father’s hand.  (John 10:29). That’s a blessing worth a whole lot more than $1.35 billion dollars.

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXX

/in /by

“The Case for Kindness”

When most people think of Mary Poppins they smile.  They picture the warm-hearted and charming Julie Andrews starring in the Disney adaption of P.L Travers’ famous children’s book.  The English nanny, who is “practically perfect in every way”, is blessed with a magic compass, bottomless bag, and an umbrella that allows her to float effortlessly above London’s crowded streets.

If you read Tavers’ original volume, however, or any of its eight sequels, you can be forgiven for thinking that Walt Disney made a movie about someone else entirely.

The literary Mary Poppins is, to put it bluntly, not a very pleasant human being.  She is stern.  And cross.  And vain–never passing up an opportunity to admire her reflection in a mirror.  At the end of the original book, she doesn’t bother to say goodbye to Jane and Michael Banks, the two children who yearn for her attention and approval.  When she passes along her special compass to Michael, he is floored.  “There must be something wrong!  She has never given me anything before.”

Jane counters, “Perhaps she was only being nice.  But in her heart she felt as disturbed as Michael was.  She knew very well that Mary Poppins never wasted time being nice.”

She never wasted time being nice.

Truth be told, Travers’ portrait was entirely consistent with the behavior of parents and caregivers in Edwardian England, roughly the period from 1900 to 1930.  Edwardian parents (especially fathers) had a formal relationship with their children.  Love and affection were considered unacceptable and even dangerous.  Many Baby Boomers will remember that their grandparents grew up in low-touch, low-affirmation environments, and often reproduced that emotional chill in their relationships with their own children.

It is no surprise that many children who came into the English-speaking world during the three decades of the 20th century grew up famished for love.

Affluent parents in the Edwardian era customarily handed over parenting responsibilities to nannies.  Mary Poppins arrives as a welcome change from stuffy older women who have always shepherded Jane and Michael.  Still she is not exactly a warm pillow.  It took Walt Disney’s charm to talk Travers into letting him produce Mary Poppins as a feature film, complete with music, dancing and animated penguins–not to mention a little character who was  occasionally warm.  Travers was not amused.  When she saw the final product she refused to let Disney have the movie rights to the sequels.

We know for certain that sternness rarely wins human hearts.  But niceness often does.

Sociological studies reveal that nice people enjoy longer and stronger relationships.  They live longer.  Author Malcom Gladwell cites a study that correlates the niceness of physicians with a lowered likelihood of being sued.  Doctors who have never been sued turn out to be those who spend an average of three minutes with each patient.

The Apostle Paul writes:  “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”  (Colossians 4:6)

In other words, choose to be kind.  Choose to be gracious.  A great way to live our lives here at Westminster Village!

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

 

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXIX

/in /by

“The Greatest Moment of Your Life”

The month of January is named for the Roman God Janus. Janus was one weird looking dude. He was customarily portrayed with two faces. One face was looking toward the past, while the other was pointed toward the future. Janus became the Roman God of doors, transitions, time passages, and change itself. He has been associated with New Year’s Eve.

The word “janitor” is derived from Janus, since the bearer of that title is usually responsible, among other things, for watching over building doors.

The first week of January invites a kind of two-directional fixation. We look back on the major news events of the year. We sigh and say, “Isn’t it a relief that 2022 is finally behind us?” We simultaneously look ahead into the fog of the future, wondering what the next twelve months
are going to bring.

So which of Janus’s faces is more important-the one that looks back (which helps us learn, but also may burden us with regret) or the one that looks ahead (the direction that compels us to plan, but often afflicts us with worry)?

The Bible answer is straightforward: Neither.

Neither the past nor the future is as important as a particular moment: this moment.

The most important moment of your life is not something that has already happened. And it is not something that is still to come. The greatest moment of your life is NOW-because frankly, this is the only moment you’ve got.

This moment it turns out, is the only one you can connect with God. It’s not that God is bound
by time. The Bible suggests that God is eternally present in every moment-past, present, and future-simultaneously. But while our finite mind can reflect on the past and ponder the future, the only place where we can directly encounter God is the present.

People may talk about grabbing hold of each passing moment: Carpe Diem! Seize the day.
But none of us is actually equipped to hold on to a moment. We’re meant to hold on to
something else: the God who at every moment is holding on to us. The good news is that God
is not somewhere else, in another place or time, waiting to be found. God is available right
here and right now.

Which means that this moment, and the next one, and the one after that, all the way through 2023, will genuinely count. And they will count forever.

Faithfully,
Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXVIII

/in /by

“White Christmas”

Four centuries ago, a Swiss medical student noticed that soldiers fighting far away from home often experienced deep feelings of melancholy.  Since he couldn’t find a word that appropriately described the experience he coined one of his own:  nostalgia.  It was the combination of two Greek words:  nostos (homecoming) and algos (pain or ache).  Nostalgia is an almost physical ache to go home, or to go back to a happier past, or perhaps to go forward to reclaim something priceless that has somehow been lost.

White Christmas, hands down, is a nostalgic movie that makes my point about this time of year.  Listening to and watching this movie reminds us all of times past and feelings of good times of Christmas in years ago with snow and family.  What binds the movie White Christmas together is Irving Berlin’s famous song “White Christmas.”  Bing Crosby sang the song in public for the first time shortly before Christmas 1941, only weeks before Pearl Harbor.  Throughout the war, wherever he traveled to entertain American troops, “White Christmas” was the soldiers number one request.

They were stabbed by nostalgia–a deep longing to stay safe and alive and the longing to return to homes that would be more secure because of their sacrifices on the front lines.

For Irving Berlin, the author of “White Christmas” the date December 25 was a complicated day.  His infant son Irving Berlin Jr.–not even a month old, and the only son they would ever have during their 62 years of marriage died on December 25, 1928.  For Berlin, “White Christmas” evoked a yearning to somehow redeem and reclaim what was for him the most painful time of the year.

We yearn for a world in which everything broken can finally be healed or repaired.  Is the hope of heaven just a means of escape from the disappointment of the present world?

The Apostle Paul had a different take:  “All around us we observe a pregnant creation.  The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs.  But it’s not only around us; it’s within us.  We’re also feeling the birth pangs.  These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for the full deliverance.”  (Romans 8:22-23, The Message)

Our nostalgia for childhood, for the joys of past Christmases, for the former days of health and hope, is, at root, a nostalgia for our true spiritual home–the new creation that God is now preparing.

It’s a new world that by God’s grace, we ourselves can help bring about.  And tomorrow will bring us one day closer to its reality.

 

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXVII

/in /by

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”

When Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first aired on NBC on December 6, 1964, it seemed to check all the right boxes.  The hour long show featured Arthur Rankin Jr.’s “Animagic” process-stop motion animation that produces the jerky, seemingly three-dimensional movements of the cartoon characters.  It was based on a wildly popular song Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, had debuted back in 1949.  The movie provided a back story to Rudolph’s life, addressing such burning questions as, “How did Rudolph get his shining red nose?” and “Why did all the other reindeer use to laugh and call him names?”

 

The movie had a compelling message:  Even if you’re different, you still have a place.  Rudolph who was a social outcast flees the North Pole in search of a friendlier place to live.  His travels take him to the Island of Misfit Toys, where a winged lion named King Moonracer gathers unwanted, not-quite-right toys who dream of belonging one day to a child who will love them.

 

The misfits include a train whose caboose has square wheels, a water pistol that shoots jelly, and an elephant with spots.  Rudolph promises to tell Santa about their plight so they can be delivered to deserving homes on Christmas and of course there is the feel good ending when fog threatens to scrub Santa’s annual global flight and Rudolph with his nose so bright saves Christmas.

 

The movie was a smash hit.  It did indeed checked all the boxes.  Except for one.

 

In the final scene, Santa shouts, “Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!” and the sleigh flies off into the night.  The credits roll.  But wait.  Did Santa somehow forget to visit the Island of Misfit Toys?  Isn’t there any hope for the beleaguered characters the audience met just 30 minutes earlier?

 

NBC was inundated with thousands of letters, many from children.  Couldn’t the ending be changed?  Rankin and his team did just that.  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer now closes with Santa stopping at the island and welcoming the misfits into the sleigh.

 

What about the not-quite-right people in our own families that we will encounter once again during the holidays?  If they ever establish an Island of Misfit Relatives, most of us would need only a few minutes to nominate some candidates for residency.

 

But let’s face it.  That’s where all of us live.

 

For years I tended to label some of the high-maintenance people in my life as EGRs.  They are Extra Grace Required people.  Then it began to dawn on me that those very same people were labeling me as Extra Grace Required.  And so I am.  As one of Jesus’ misfit disciples, I need all the grace he can possibly provide.

 

How can we genuinely love the EGRs with whom we will be spending time in the days ahead?

If such love has to originate in our own hearts, we’re all sunk.  But God generously supplies

love to those who ask him for a fresh supply.  “God, I need your help to love, really love, those whom I find difficult to be around.”  God answers that prayer by putting his own love into our hearts.

 

And as a special bonus he will remind us of his truth:  We’re all EGRs.  But we’re God’s EGRs.  And he will never leave us stranded on an island without a chance to experience firsthand the wonders of his own grace and love.

 

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXVI

/in /by

“It’s A Wonderful Life”

The most urgent question facing every human being lies at the heart of what is arguably the most beloved Christmas movie of all time–Frank Capra’s masterpiece: “It’s A Wonderful Life”.

Is life worth living?

The central character in the movie, George Bailey is a decent man who is overcome by disillusionment. Crushed by memories of “roads not taken” and weighed down by suspicion
that the world would have been a better place without him, he decides to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. With the help of Clarence, his guardian angel, George receives a rare gift–the opportunity to see how his hometown of Bedford Falls would actually have fared without him.

He awakens to the fact that his life matters and matters immensely. For years afterward,
Capra received letters of gratitude from people thanking him for crafting a film that helped
them face their depression. The director later reflected that he wanted to tell a story to the disillusioned, the wino, the junkie, the prostitute, those behind prison walls, that no one is a failure. All of our lives touch so many other lives and if each of us were not around there would be an awful hole. No person is poor who has a friend.

The movie was a box office disappointment. But then came the miracle of cable TV. Because of the generous amount of playtime it quickly won the hearts of a new generation.

The Apostle Paul likewise addresses, again and again, the question of life’s meaning. If God’s story is leading toward a new heaven and a new earth, do our activities in this world really matter all that much? He writes: “Therefore, my beloved dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (I Corinthians 15:58)

In other words, nothing that is ever done for the Lord–whatever things that truly resonate with God’s purposes–will be wasted. What you do in the present-by painting, preaching, singing, sewing. Praying, building hospitals, campaigning for justice, writing poems, loving your neighbor as yourself-will last into God’s future. The smallest choices we make about the ways that we treat other people and the ways we steward what God has entrusted us are going to find their way, through the power of God who raises the dead, into the new creation that God is making.

That message-without the Christian specifics-is what breaks like a wave over George Bailey.
He begins to grasp that life has not been in vain. All his little acts of kindness and compassion which seemed so unimpressive at the time, have been woven together by Clarence the Angel’s Boss to bless everyone in Bedford Falls.

It’s a wonderful life to realize your life isn’t over and that God isn’t done with us yet. It’s a realization that can break over us too even before this day is over.

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

 

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXIV

/in /by

“Sunday Smiles”

 

Author Martha Grace Reece once interviewed a woman who had sat in the front row of her church choir every Sunday for 30 years.   Why do you go to church?  What do you get out of it?

 

Her husband of 35 years had just died slowly and painfully.  Horror stories pocked her memories of marriage and raising her children.  She answered, “Church has always meant a lot to me because I knew that if things got really bad, I could tell someone about it.”

 

Reese asked if she had talked with anyone about anything bad.  “No,” she answered.

“But I always knew that I could have.”

 

It’s ironic that so many of us think of a relationship with God is equivalent to keeping a generator in the storage closet in case the power goes out.  At church we put on our Sunday smiles-lying to ourselves and to each other that life isn’t really a struggle much

of the time.  We pretend that we’re doing just fine, thank you.  We’re keeping our acts together.  We don’t even need God’s blessing.

 

Who are we kidding?

 

The simplest way to describe our standing before God is that we are a flashlight without batteries.  Apart from the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we’re not going to make it through the challenges before us.  Let alone draw out our next breath.

 

Becoming aware of that stark dependence is the first and most important step in experiencing spiritual vitality. And that means we don’t have to fake it with each other.  After all, in the most important way possible, we’re all equal.  We stand in equal need of God’s grace.

 

The fact that God is so able and willing to share it is the world’s best reason to smile.

 

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain

 

Chaplain’s Corner: CXXIII

/in /by

“Finding Happiness”

 

What do you hope to do before you die?  The movie, “The Bucket List” starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson was a movie that generated new and interesting answers to that question.  The movie highlighted what millions of people hope to fulfill in the time they have left before they “kick the bucket.”

 

If you Google “bucket list,” you’ll get almost 100 million hits.  Entire websites are devoted to providing before-the-end-of-your-life guidance.  Many people hope to travel.  They’d like to visit all 50 states or every country in the world.  Some are targeting trips to the Great Wall of China, the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids, or other spectacular human creations.

 

Others dream of experiencing wonders of nature.  They hope to peer over the edge of the Grand Canyon or watch Old Faithful erupt.  Perhaps they can visit all 63 of America’s national parks.  Bird watchers would like to catch sight of all 11,000 plus avian species on the planet.  Still others hope to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef, scale Mt. Everest, or see the Northern Lights.

 

Some bucket listers yearn for things pretty much beyond their control.  Before they die they hope to experience true love, become a grandparent, win the next $2 billion Powerball jackpot, receive a Pulitzer Prize, or watch their favorite sports team win a championship.  In 2016 my bucket list was sure partially fulfilled when the Chicago Cubs won a World Series.  Now we Cub fans don’t know what to do with the rest of our lives.

 

What do all these bucket lists have in common?  They are ADDITIONS.

 

One of the assumptions of Western culture-and America in particular-is that happiness comes by doing more and getting more.  If we just accumulate enough money, or visit enough interesting places, or bring home enough trophies, we will finally win the Happiness Prize.  But there is no evidence this strategy actually works.

 

Happiness is not an achievement.  Enough is never enough.  Accomplishment-oriented people will always yearn for another cruise or that one stamp missing from the collection.  He who dies with the most toys…dies.

 

Instead of wondering how to add more, we can endeavor to be less busy, less hurried, and less overwhelmed by self-imposed obligations.  What if we committed an entire year just to getting better at living out a single verse of scripture?  That verse might be Psalm 46:10:  “Be still and know that I am God.”  Or perhaps Matthew 6:25:  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you eat or drink, or about your body what you wear.”

 

In the process, we may discover that joy was always nearby.  It was just covered up by everything on our To Do List.

 

British author and theologian, C.S. Lewis once observed, “He who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only.”  Which means our buckets have always been full.  We just didn’t know it.

 

Faithfully,

Ron Naylor, Chaplain