A distribution of empathy

A credit card company's TV ad consists of nothing but things that look like happy and sad faces:

Two closet knobs and a clothes hanger make a sad face; a car's front grille and fender is a happy face; stitching on a purse connotes a troubled face; a curved row of seating makes a smiley face.

In the background the Prelude from Bach's Suite No. 1 for cello is playing.

The ad is very pleasant to experience; worth more than many concerts I've paid admission for.

We have empathy for things.

This means we assign human emotions and feelings to inanimate objects. When things look like they are smiling, we smile. When things look like they're sad, we're sad.

An overcast day is a sad day. But it's not the day that's sad. We're the ones that are sad. A day -- or even a night -- cannot be sad. It's just a physical condition of a distribution of light or lack of light.

But for us, a physical distribution of light or dark immediately means an emotional distribution.

A distribution of empathy.

When the Greeks built the Parthenon, they made the stone columns bulge ever so slightly at their midsections to suggest the strain of holding up all the weight above. They wanted the stone columns to look like human muscle.

You might think that's sentimental. But if you substituted steel columns instead of the stone columns on the Parthenon -- or even if you substituted stone columns with no bulge in the middle -- it wouldn't be the famous building that it is.

It's very important to us that the stone columns of the Parthenon have been straining for these thousands of years.

Here is one of our major challenges in life: How to distribute our empathy correctly.

Or righteously.

It is one thing to feel good about a car fender that smiles. But there are higher callings for empathy.

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James 1.27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.

Isaiah 55.12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Proverbs 12.10 The godly are concerned for the welfare of their animals, but even the kindness of the wicked is cruel.

On making beds and the sovereignty of God

I'm talking about the sheet with the elastic corners that gets stretched onto the mattress.

This is the sheet that you can never neatly fold -- because of those elastic corners. It usually looks like a crumpled parachute somebody gave up trying to put back in its bag.

When it comes out of the dryer, you first try to be civil: you try folding it. But then you just give up and ram it into the linen closet.

Now of course, a mattress of any size is never square, but rectangular. (For those of us geometrically challenged, this means one side is longer than the other).

So the game is on: The goal is to guess which elastic corner hooks on to which corner of the mattress such that, by the time you traipse over to the opposite diagonal corner -- we have a king sized bed, so this journey takes me to the other side of the room -- the sheet actually fits.

In living memory, I've succeeded just once at this enterprise.

And retirement age is within sight.

All of the other times when I reach the opposite side, I discover I've hooked the wrong corner, so I'm trying to stretch the wrong dimension of the sheet onto the mattress.

Of course this never works, and I look around in my mind's eye to see if anybody's laughing.

It's like putting on underwear 5 sizes too small.

Why don't I ever guess right? This is my question.

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Luke 12.7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Proverbs 3.5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

Psalm 37.23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way ...

Art versus Craft

A work of art is one-of-a-kind. Take the Mona Lisa, for example. She is one-of-a-kind.

Repeatedly painting the same Mona Lisa would be considered forgery. At least it would be considered a mental illness.

Can you imagine any great artist, after creating a great work of art, saying, "Hmm, I think I'll do that same thing over again." What would you think of Beethoven if, after he writes the Fifth Symphony, goes and writes the same symphony again?

That would be, my friends, a mental illness.

Works of craft, on the other hand, are by definition many: pottery, quilts, fine furniture, woven baskets, origami. This time of the year, there is wreath making.

We have several friends who make their own greeting cards rather than buying them at the Rite-Aid. When you get one of their cards, you tend not to throw them away, even weeks later. Ever.

Cooking, for those who love to do it, is a craft. As is gardening. As are many many activities that, for whatever reason, people decide to take up and, over long periods of practice, do well.

If you repeatedly create the same object in craft-making, you would not be forging. You would not be mentally ill.

Instead, it would be a sign of your moral character.

If you devoted yourself to pottery making, to cooking, to tending your garden lovingly, tenderly, repeatedly, you would be well respected -- instead of being sued for forgery.

Our friend Mary W, well on in years now, makes floral arrangements with orchids. She grows the orchids in a small greenhouse in her own home. She then makes the arrangements, again, again, again. The other day she fought her backpain to get back into her beloved greenhouse -- to practice her craft. Again.

Mary is a godly woman, and her children now bless our community with good works.

God is not after one-of-a-kind great artists, famous to everyone.

He is after craftsmen, known to only a privileged few.

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Zechariah 1.18 Then I looked up--and there before me were four horns! I asked the angel who was speaking to me, "What are these?" He answered me, "These are the horns that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem." Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen. I asked, "What are these coming to do?" He answered, "These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head, but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people."

A theology of the Toyota Prius

Some advertisements are also great theology lessons. Take this ad for a Toyota Prius.

The car is not there.

When a company is willing to spend big bucks on an ad that doesn't even show its product, it is confident what customers want are the moral values the product represents.

Don't you want to be part of a clean, sustainable, natural world? A Prius can get you there.

But not only is a Prius not pictured, it is barely mentioned. The word "Prius" appears only once in small print in the lower right, as part of the "credits" contributing to this expansive and beautiful natural world.

You see through the Prius to the moral beauty it ushers in.

You see through the product to the moral beauty it ushers in.

Two caveats:

1. This only works for products already well known, with reputations that are beyond reproach. In other words, don't try this ad strategy with a Yugo.

2. The moral values promoted should be ones that appeal to the heart and a sense of eternity, not ones that appeal to what some might call our baser instincts. In other words, if you want to promote values associated with six-packs and bikini-clad women, you probably need to show a six-pack with bikini-clad women. Good luck.

But if what you have in mind is the proclamation of uplifting and eternal truths, then try getting out of the way; become transparent so that people see through you to the Beauty beyond ...

... even though it is the Beauty you represent -- so long as you get out of the way.

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2 Corinthians 4.15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Don't walk away too soon

Many of us know the story of the rich man who asked Jesus how he could inherit eternal life. In reply, Jesus listed a number of things: know the commandments, don't commit adultery, don't murder, don't lie, honor your parents -- to which the man said, "I've done all that."

A real over-achiever here.

Then Jesus said, "Go, sell all you have and give to the poor so you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me." To this, the rich man became very sad because he clearly was not willing to do so. His riches meant too much to him.

At this point, the story differs depending on whether you read Matthew or Luke. Both say the young man became very sad.

Matthew says he was so sad that he walked away.

But Luke does not say the rich man walked away. So in Luke's account, the rich man may have stuck around for the rest of the story.

The rest of the story is as follows.

The disciples were so aghast at the high standard of works Jesus set for inheriting eternal life that they wondered if anybody could pass muster. To this, Jesus said that it is indeed impossible; that it is only possible with God.

The gift of eternal life is only possible if God grants it to an individual. And of course, God does grant it through precisely the Person speaking, Jesus.

But was the rich man there to hear this?

Matthew recalls that he wasn't.

Luke recalls that he was. At least Luke doesn't say that he wasn't.

Let's hope that he was. Let's hope that the rich man didn't walk away too soon, sad.

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Luke 18.23 ... When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.

Matthew 19.22 ... When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

What the locusts meant to Joel

The prophet Joel spoke gloom and doom like most Biblical prophets.

But the difference is this: the gloom Joel lived through was not brought about by the moral sins of people. The problem was a natural disaster:

Locusts had invaded the land and wiped everything out: the grapevines and figs were ruined; all the grain was gone; the fields were ruined; the wheat and barley destroyed; there was no food in the cupboards; and all the barns were empty.

What a bleak time!

What is striking about Joel's approach is that a natural disaster -- in other words, a bleak event that cannot be attributed to any person's moral failings -- was nevertheless used by Joel as a reason to call for moral repentance:

"Turn to me now while there is still time; give me your hearts; come with fasting, weeping, and mourning ... rend your hearts not your clothes ..."

Like Joel's day, we live in a fallen nature in which many undesirable things happen that are not specifically due to any one person's moral failures. Hurricanes come; earthquakes come; old age comes; Alzheimer's comes; death comes.

Winter is coming to where I live: what the cold leaves, the snow takes away; what the snow leaves the ice will take away ... It is a bleak time, a time of "seasonal affective disorder."

But Joel would see this bleak time as a time to re-examine hearts. And he then says that with repentance will come blessing:

"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten ... you will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you..."

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Joel 1.4 What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten...

Joel 2.12-13 Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with faasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love ...

Joel 2.25-26 I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten -- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm -- my greate army that I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you ...

What does "a work in progress" mean?

He's a work in progress ...

When we say this about someone, it can mean a whole lot of things.

It can be pejorative: The guy is basically a loser.

Or it can be encouraging: Don't give up on him; there's a lot of good qualities waiting to bust out!

Often it is neither of the above. When we say "he's a work in progress," it simply means we need to put up with the way he is; he's always going to be that way.

This is particularly true when "he's a work in progress" is used in reference to adults. Valerie used it the other day to describe a friend in his 50s, someone well-established in society, with a great job, a great family, respected in his neighborhood, a man of good works, a church-going man. He even loves his pets as far as I can tell.

But ... his quirkiness and idiosyncrasies led Valerie to say: "Oh ... he's a work in progress."

I'm thinking: what do we want him to progress to? Do we really want him to lose his idiosyncrasies? Would that be progress? But would he even be the same person we love -- and roll our eyeballs over when he's not looking?

Wouldn't he be less spice in our lives if he was denuded of his quirks?

What did she mean that he's "a work in progress?"

Can it be that there's some things about him that just don't strike our fancy? Can that be all "he's a work in progress" means?

But what makes our fancy a measure of other people's need for "progress?"

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Blaise Pascal, Pensees #196: Some fancy makes me dislike people who croak or who puff while eating. Fancy carries a lot of weight. What good will that do us? That we indulge it (fancy) because it is natural? No, rather that we resist it. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensees, translated by A.J. Krailsheimer (London and New York: Penguin, 1995), 58

Colossians 3.13 You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Galatians 5.15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Ephesians 4.12-13 ... prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith...