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Archive for April, 2009

Proverbs 15:14: “A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash.”

In a lot of teaching about “The Law of Attraction,” as in THE SECRET, the writers use the phrase “The Universe.” But I’ve never seen it defined clearly: it’s just an allusion or an assumption that the reader will know what is meant, or at least get a warm, reassuring feeling. The exception is when they use “universe” in the way we normally understand it, which is all creation and not some esoteric power.

By “the Universe” do they mean the totality of created or existing things? Then is the Creator outside or inside this Universe? Do they mean God? Do they mean the spiritual world? I have no idea.

Many use “the Universe” in the same way we’d use “the Thing.” It can mean anything…or nothing. So in a selection of “universe” sentences in THE SECRET, I’m going to use “the thing” and see if we can get a clear grasp of what these writers mean. After all, if there’s no definition of a word, it can easily be THE THING.

“You are in that moment summoning what you want with the mightiest power in THE THING” (p. 14).

“As you think thoughts, they are sent out into THE THING, and they magnetically attract all like things that are on the same frequency” (p. 25).

“What if your feelings are actually communication from THE THING to let you know what you’re thinking?” (p. 33).

“So when you think a sustained thought it is immediately sent out into THE THING” (p. 33).

“So when you are feeling bad it is communication from THE THING” (p. 33).

“Some great teachers created stories to demonstrate how THE THING works” (p. 45).

“You are the Master of THE THING, and the Genie is there to serve you” (p. 46).

“When you are acting to receive from THE THING, you will feel as if you are flowing with the current of the river” (p. 55).

‘It’s like having THE THING as your catalogue….It is You placing your order with THE THING. It’s really that easy” (p. 48).

“THE THING will start to rearrange itself to make it happen for you” (p. 51).

“It takes no time for THE THING to manifest what you want” (p. 68).

“Size is nothing to THE THING” (p. 63).

“THE THING is bringing all good things to me. THE THING is conspiring for me in all things. THE THING is supporting me in everything I do. THE THING meets all my needs immediately” (page 40).

So, “Trust THE THING” (p. 57). It’s even more powerful than THE FORCE.

“The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.” Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 1882).

“The worst moment for a law-of-attraction teacher is when he is really thankful and has only THE THING to thank.” Paraphrase by Robert Natiuk.

Proverbs 1:10-11: “My child, if sinners entice you, turn your back on them! They may say, ‘Come and join us. Let’s hide and kill someone! Just for fun let‘s ambush the innocent!’”

The book and DVD titled THE SECRET makes much of the so-called Law of Attraction. Do I believe in the power of attraction? Yes—when certain principles are met. Do I believe that it’s some powerful magnet of the Universe, as the people in this book and DVD maintain?

Let’s see. “Through this most powerful law, your thoughts become the things in your life” (p. 9). Dr. Joe Vitale says: “Thoughts are sending out that magnetic signal that is drawing the parallel back to you” (p. 10). These thoughts have a frequency, they maintain—and which is likely true. But how strong is that frequency? Strong enough to reach “the Universe?” Strong enough to attract “all things that are on the same frequency?” (p. 10).

I think about the experience I spoke about in my last post, my visit to Options 360 Pregnancy Clinic, right next door to an abortion clinic. And I ask myself: “Were those babies, some in their last trimester, attracting death to themselves by the frequency that their well-formed brains sent out? How about those babies going through partial-birth abortions? Or even those few who survived the abortion procedure yet were neglected to death by order of the doctor?

When does the “law of attraction” go into effect? How old do you have to be? How free do you have to be?

Joe Vitale maintains: “Everything that surrounds you right now in your life including the things you’re complaining about, you’ve attracted” (page 27). The book’s author, Rhonda Byrne, addresses the problem of events in history when masses of lives were lost. “By the law of attraction, they had to be on the same frequency as the event…those thoughts…can attract them to being in the wrong place at the wrong time” (p. 28).

So, if we carry to conclusion that type of teaching, then we have to reach other conclusions, as repulsive and untenable as they may be. Unborn or partially born babies, because of their thoughts, can be “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Slaves weren’t slaves because of others, but because of their thoughts. Victims of concentration camps…refugees and war victims of Darfur…car accident victims because of drunk and reckless drivers—all because of the victims’ thoughts.

THE SECRET unknowingly teaches: It’s not that we live in a world permeated with centuries of evil, but what we call evil is a negative force somehow in the thoughts of the victim. Thus the victim is the perpetrator.

Tell that to a parent who has lost a child to a predator. Tell it to bombing victims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Tell it to starving children all over the war. For people in North Korea: “You’re starving because of your thoughts, not because of Kim Jung Ill.”

So what is the truth behind THE SECRET? Mostly, there is very little true wisdom in it.

Yet, the little truth it may have I’ll examine in coming posts. In the meantime, let the good Lord attract you.

“I never cease being dumbfounded by the unbelievable things people believe.” – Treasury of Jewish Quotations, Leo Rosten (1908 – 1997).

Proverbs 21:2: “People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their heart.”

Friday morning with a small group of friends I spent two hours at the Options 360 Pregnancy Clinic in Orchards, Washington. Located both in Battle Ground and Orchards, these clinic gives pregnant women an option to abortion.

They are also involved with education and continuing support for mothers-to-be and new mothers. They worked with over 1600 clients last yer alone. Hundreds of babies had the chance to be born healthfully rather than being aborted.

The clinic in Orchards chose to be right next door to the much bigger Planned Parenthood facility.

The parking lot was filling up, mostly with clients for the Planned Parenthood center; it was the day set aside for abortions. At the end of our visit, my friends and I prayed by the wall separating us and them.

We prayed for the girls struggling with a tough decision, for the workers there, and for us to be ready to lend a caring hand where we could. There were no judgmental prayers–just hearts filled with love for the unborn and the born.

I remembered a poem I had written some years ago. The form is called a villanelle. May I share it with you now?

LIFE, UNLIVED

Life, unlived, feel that frightful day
When you’re suctioned into separated pieces
Thought by some as lifeless blightful clay.

”But you’re not you,” that’s their rightful say,
An unbeing that, by intervention, deceases
Life, unlived, feel that frightful day.

There won’t be any light-full ray
Before your eyes drain dry the vitreous,
Thought by some as lifeless blightful clay.

With just a blink, your sight falls away
Just when your thumb-sized brain teases
Life, unlived, feel that frightful day.

The voided mother bent to the mightful sway
Of present necessity. A beating heart, ceases–
Thought by some as lifeless blightful clay.

Flesh and serum–upon a quite full tray,
”Waste not, want not,” harvest the fetus.
Life, unlived, feel that frightful day,
Thought by some as lifeless blightful clay.

# # # # #

“There’s no question the fetus feels pain…when we would put the needle into the uterus to withdraw the amniotic fluid and insert the corrosive saline, invariably the unborn child would be seen to move. It was not always in response to being directly struck by the needle. It seemed to have some inchoate sense of invasion of its territory, an unwelcome intrusion to its environment.” — Former abortionist Dr. Bernard Nathanson

Ref.: Nathanson, Bernard, M.D. Borowski v. The Attorney General of Canada, Transcript of Evidence and Proceedings at Trial, Page 339. Regina, Saskatchewan, May 1983. Also quoted in “Abortion: A Briefing for Canadian Legislators”

Proverbs 7:1-3: “Follow my advice, my son; always treasure my commands. Obey my commands and live! Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes. Tie them on your fingers as a reminder. Write them deep within your heart.”

“This is not a chain letter. As seen on Oprah and 20/20. Totally legal.”

You’ve likely seen letters like that, promising you tens of thousands of dollars for mailing out 50, 100 or more letters. These appeal to our need to grow rich without long-term effort.

People who participate in this kind of plan do so with a dream—they send out their thoughts of riches to “the Universe.” Does “The Law of Attraction” work for them? Why…or why not?

For many of us the present economy is really hurting. When we have financial pressures, other cracks in our life seem to get wider. Family members might become tenser, less understanding, more self-centered. We might feel growing unworthiness as we have to cut back on providing well for our families, or by cutting back on our donations to causes we love. And we can become desperate—buy more lotto tickets, get in on more schemes. Of course, things get worse.

So, where do we find strength to keep doing the right thing? There are teachers and writers who will tell you to have faith and confidence in yourself. You try to do that—and you find more brokenness.

Today’s big deal in seeking success is called “The Law of Attraction.” The book and DVD, THE SECRET, have been a worldwide bestseller for several years now.

Does THE SECRET basically agree with the Wisdom of Solomon and the rest of the Bible? That’s a big topic that I’ll explore in the coming days.

So many people seek the kind of “secrets to success” that avoid hard work, daily discipline, long-term plans, and setbacks. Also, many people want “secrets” that skirt God’s principles of total success.

The Proverbs tell us over and over again that “good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5).

“The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance—and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.” – Oprah, O Magazine, Sept. 2002.

Ecclesiastes 12:1: “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, ‘Life is not pleasant anymore.’”

Under the springtime sun, today I played in the dirt with my just-turned-three grandson Kristian. I was supposed to be working, digging up the garden, ridding the lawn of weeds. And perhaps to the casual observer, it looked like work.

To me it was play. No better companion in play than a child who can’t yet distinguish between work and play. If he pulled up a weed or two, was it work to him? When he moved some clods of dirt from point A to point B where I wanted it, he was playing with his dump truck. Perish the thought that he was working!

David McCullough said that “real success is finding your lifework in the work that you love.” Now, let’s be realistic. Many of us work at something that is just work—the earnings pay for what we love—family, home, food, travel, cars, sports. Yet, we also can derive a lot of satisfaction if we do it with the best we have to offer, as “unto the Lord.”

Children’s author James M. Barrie said: “Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.” Now, if I have to wash a lot of dishes, as I did in my teens in a restaurant, that is work, and no amount of “right attitude” would change that for me. I would’ve rather been reading or joining my friends. But now—occasionally at least—I do the dishes at home, and I enjoy it. It’s almost play, especially after one of my wife’s great meals.

Whatever is set before us, if it is work that serves people, we can do it with at least some joy. We can play; we can laugh as we get dirt under our fingernails. Now, to try to eat some earth, as my grandson did, is another matter!

A servant-attitude keeps us playing and youthful! David the Psalmist espressed it: “He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:5).

“In my house I have put together a collection of small and large toys I can’t live without. The child who doesn’t play is not a child, but the man who doesn’t play has lost forever the child who lived in him and he will certainly miss him. I have also built my house like a toyhouse and I play in it from morning till night.” — Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973).

Proverbs 19:20: “Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life”

“Don’t cry over spilt milk.” Easy enough to say. But when hot coffee visits your lap—that’s a different story!

Yesterday I joined my wife at Trinity Lutheran Church where she’s the organist and pianist. Before the service, we sat down at the table for their annual Easter breakfast. Pancakes, orange juice, fruit and coffee. Plastic spoons and paper plates. Dry cow for the coffee (creamer powder.) But the fellowship was what I went for, and that was wonderful. Because Easter is all about fellowship with fellow worshippers and with the God who redeems us.

An older couple sat across from us. And the fellow promptly spilled his coffee over—not just over, but with a flourish toward me. I jumped up in time to avoid much of the coffee—but a good amount still sprayed my lap. What’s that about “there’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight?”

I’m exaggerating. It wasn’t that bad. Just embarrassing for the poor fellow across from me. Martha and I joked about it, tried to ease their discomfort.

After church, when we told a friend there about it, she said: “Well, that’s the way it is in the Lutheran Church. We baptize with coffee.”

That made our day! David the Psalmist spoke of the Good Shepherd providing the beverage for us—“My cup runneth over” (Psalm 23:5, KJV).

When it comes to hot coffee, you don’t want a “cup running over,” although you might want free refills. When you’re a part of a loving group, though, you might want a cup running over with love and affirmation.

I know, even in all his wisdom, Solomon says nothing about coffee. He had big bucks, but he missed out because he was pre-Starbucks. Yet, he said: “The glory of the young is their strength; the gray hair of experience is the splendor of the old” (Proverbs 20:29).

So, by following Wisdom, in old age we’ll have splendor. Even if, at times, we spill our coffee. Small price to pay.

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.” — Frank Lloyd Wright (1869-1959)

Ecclesiastes 5:10: “How meaningless to think that wealth brings true happiness! The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers!”

“Spring has sprung,

The grass is riz

I wonder where

The flowers is.”

Just a cute saying about spring. But I remember we used to make up different last lines, like: “I wonder where the ladies is.”

Today, as I mowed the lawn and watched people planting flowers, my mind twisted that ditty a little:

Spring has sprung,

The grass is riz,

I wonder where

My retirement is!

It’s not only me, is it? Many of us thought we’d retire in our 60s. Perhaps that didn’t mean we’d quit working, especially if we love our life’s work. I never wanted to quit writing. I just didn’t want to have to make a living at it.

Spring is a time for preparing the soil, for planting. Summer is the time for patience and growth. And then comes the harvest! IF—since I was raised on a farm, I know IF—most things work out right. Like enough rain, no bad storms or hordes of grasshoppers and other chewers. And the price of grain and livestock stays profitable.

These last few years we’ve discovered that there are IFs in all kinds of retirement plans. According to an AARP poll of 50-plus folks, 8% lost 50% or more of their retirement funds; 28% lost 30-50%, and 17% lost 10-20%.

Then some people who, like me, lost over 100%—because we used borrowed money in order to recoup or increase our retirement funds. I know—not too smart. But true.

For too long I trusted my own judgment and that of investment and business “experts.” Not that we shouldn’t consider insights and research from various sources. But ultimately, we should seek the Lord’s direction: “Those who trust their own insight are foolish, but anyone who walks in wisdom is safe” (Proverbs 28:26).

So in the next few days I’ll plant my favorite vegetable in our little garden. Peas. Definitely not squash. In my financial area, I’m also planting for a second chance at a retirement harvest. I trust that crop won’t be squash either!

Some marketing. A lot of writing again. I thank God that, at least, I’m not out on the freeways at six or seven a.m. in the morning. Just at my desk and computer until eleven p.m. or midnight. I only work half-days—makes no different which 12 hours that is!

“Save a little money each month, and at the end of the year you’ll be surprised at how little you have.” – Ernest Haskins

Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”

It’s very difficult for fools to become wise because one needs the right tools to repair a problem. And fools are tool-less and clueless.

A couple of days ago a 53-year-old woman, a grandmother with her 10-year-old grandson beside her, sped her car at 103 mph in a 45 mph zone. When stopped by the police, she explained: “I wanted to teach my grandson the dangers of speeding. I told him never to drive like this!”

Or drink like this. Or take drugs like this. Or play Russian roulette like this.

The Proverbs describes the problem. Excerpts from various verses: “Fools hate knowledge… foolish speech leads to imminent danger…spreads slander…wicked schemes enjoyable…right in his own opinion…annoyance at little things…makes folly public…fools of deception…makes fun of guilt…throws off restraint and is over-confident…quick temper…rejects discipline…despises father and mother…excessive speech…takes no pleasure in understanding but loves to “shares” his ignorance…trusts in his own heart.

And that’s just the beginning! A fool tries to convince his brother: “Hey, would you shoot me in the leg? I want to see how it feels.” At first the brother refuses, but then pulls the trigger. Then both cry, one from pain, the other from confusion and sympathy. Yes, something like that was on the news yesterday. Two fools! And now they can go to their buddies and say, “Hey, I know how it feels like to be shot in the leg.” And other says, “I know how it feels like to shoot my brother in the leg.” They both have experience in gunshot wounds. But experience is not the best teacher; Wisdom is.

The good news is that even fools can gain wisdom. The Lord can change hearts through his powerful Word: “For the Lord grants wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest” (Proverbs 2:6-7).

You do need to be humble enough to ask, honest enough to receive.

“When you’re arguing with a fool, make sure the other person isn’t doing the same thing.” Anonymous.

Proverbs 1:7: “Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

Does higher education turn fools into wise people? Does learning to chug-a-lug beer and party through the night lead to true knowledge? Not all college students are like that, of course. Many are.

According to Lady Wisdom (Solomon), the fear of the Lord is the only cure for foolishness.

I write this on April Fool’s Day. That leads me to think of the times I’ve been a fool, and hopefully avoid being foolish in the future. But no confessions right now. It’s the wrong day to be so serious.

Many writers and philosophers have chimed in on foolishness.

• It’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and leave no doubt. –Mark Twain
• Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything. – Frank Dane.
• However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him. — Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
• [Politicians] never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge. — Thomas Reed . (This is not true of all politicians. I know of at least two who are rather wise.)
• Strange as it seems, no amount of learning can cure stupidity, and higher education positively fortifies it. –Stephen Vizinczey, An Innocent Millionaire.
• Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom. — Elizabeth Gaskell
• Fools rush in where fools have been before. – Unknown. (Experience doesn’t always cure foolishness.)
• Looking foolish does the spirit good. — John Updike . (Of course—some people consider their foolishness to be wisdom.)
• Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. — Mark Twain
• A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. — William Blake
• A fool must now and then be right by chance. — Cowper
• Lord, what fools these mortals be! – William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
• The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. — Mark Twain

Lady Wisdom–the Proverbs–urge us to be wise by following God. Why not follow the Highest Source of wisdom and let it rub off on you? Why be a fool 365.25 days of the year? Start seeking wisdom today, even if it’s Fool’s Day. Much more important, it’s also “the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:21).

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” Romans 11:33, RSV Bible.