The Power of [Or] in the Search for Truth

As I mentioned in my last post, my alma mater has embarked on an ad campaign about “The Power of [And].” However, I have found the little word or gets me much further in my search for truth.

In our pluralistic culture, we are nervous about saying one thing is right and another is wrong. Be tolerant. Keep an open mind. Relativism is good. Absolutism is bad.

But in The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom suggested relativism itself closed our minds. People always knew different cultures had different opinions about good and bad. The historian Herodotus considered this a challenge to study nations and their cultures to learn what was good and bad in each. Relativists say we must not judge. We must respect them all.

That leads to a problem. If all cultures are equally good, why should I invest time and energy to study all of them? I can learn about a couple. Enjoy their music. Eat their food. And go on with life. My life is fine the way it is.

But if absolute truth exists, if there is an ultimate good, it is worth searching for it. I will sell all I have for that priceless pearl. Education becomes a quest. My mind is open because I want to know.

What direction do we want to take? We can approach our studies with both/and logic. Diverse cultures are equally good. Let’s have an international festival and then go on our merry way.

Otherwise, we can take the either/or approach. Deep understanding of cultures reveals conflicting value systems. One or the other is right. They cannot both be. Am I courageous enough to dig this deep? Will I admit that my culture isn’t always right? Will I change the way I live when I find a better way? Am I brave enough to state graciously when an aspect of my culture is better? This is the only way to grow in truth.

I choose “The Power of [Or].”

The Power of [Or]

My alma mater, UW Eau Claire, began an ad campaign last spring. It’s all about their new branding, “The Power of [And].” There is some truth in the ads. Students at UWEC aren’t pigeonholed into one discipline. They can be a “business woman and bicyclist” or “entrepreneur and entertainer.” Reaching beyond our primary field, putting an and in our lives, takes us out of our comfort zone and stretches us as human beings. But we do our students and community a disservice if we forget “The Power of [Or].”

As a private music teacher, I watch my students reach the maturing stage of or. When they are young, they can do this and that and the other thing. In middle school and high school, they must make choices. Their time is limited. Will they do another sport or practice violin? Will they be in the school play or join the youth symphony? Will they pursue dance or choir or forensics?

We mature as we face the or decisions in our lives. These decisions force us to define our purpose and refine our goals. We confront tough questions. What is most valuable? What matters in life?

Every or question has an element of tension, maybe even conflict. It is in that tension where we grow. Do I have the courage to live in the or?

When God Says No – Part 2

In my last post I wrote about a time when Jesus said no to His own hunger. “Big deal,” we think. Our troubles go much deeper than an empty stomach. Broken relationships. Evil. Pain. What does God say about these?

There is a sense in which God denied His own desires long before Jesus came to earth. His first great act of self-sacrifice was when He gave us free will. God could have created humans who would do all the right things. We could have been His puppets, and the world would have been perfect. But a puppet cannot love. It cannot have a relationship.

God willingly subjected Himself to the pain of rejection so that a relationship with us would be possible. He gave us the right to say no to Him.

I still don’t have an answer to unanswered prayer. I know one thing. The pain in my life drives me closer to God. I know a second thing. God chose to experience pain Himself to be close to me. That is enough. 

When God Says No – Part 1

I think unanswered prayer troubles all of us. After listening to a sermon this morning, I realized the beauty of the fact that God first said no to Himself.

Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights. Then Satan tempted Him, saying, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Jesus said, “No.” Why? 

Ravi Zacharias explained:

 “The marvelous thing about Him was He did not want to draw people by feeding some earthly appetite of theirs. Every leader sooner or later finds out that self-centered appetites are insatiable.  You can never satisfy the one who wants more and more and more bread and the things of this world.”

Jesus knew if He displayed His miraculous ability to create food, people would follow Him for the food and not for the Word of God. So He chose not to make bread, even for Himself.

He made a different choice in John 6:1-13. Jesus had compassion on the people who were hungry and fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fish. Sure enough, they immediately wanted to make Him king.

The next day they searched for Him. They wanted more food.

“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him’” (John 6:26-27 NKJV).

If God always gives me what I want, He becomes a cosmic vending machine. Insert prayer; get candy, chips, or trail mix. Sometimes a hunger that causes me to seek God is better than a full stomach that enables me to go my own way.

Jesus refused to turn stones into bread to satisfy His own hunger because He knew it would get in the way of God the Father’s greater purpose. Can I complain when He says no to me?

How My Metronome Got Its Name

My poor metronome went many years without a name. But one day my teacher wrote JIM on my music. “Join In Motion.” You cannot start a solo successfully until you feel the music going already. Listen to the music of the spheres. Join in motion. You will succeed.

I realized this is also the answer to my students’ metronome problems. They turn on the metronome, jump in with their solo and wonder why they can’t stay with that nasty ticking device.

Listen to it. Think the beat. When you have internalized the tempo, you may join in motion.

This is also true in life. We cannot change our actions until we change the way we think. When my thoughts correspond to reality, my life becomes beautiful music.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Romans 12:2

Eat Your Metronome

A wise teacher once told me, “Eat your metronome.” This almost sounds like cannibalism because I like my metronome a lot. I’ve named him Jim, but I call him Mr. Metronome most of the time out of respect.

For the sake of my non-musician friends, a metronome is a device that goes tick-tick-tick. It never speeds up. It never slows down. It’s the law, and it forces me to keep a steady beat.

But there’s one problem with my metronome. It’s outside of me. When I turn it off, my fingers do whatever they want, and sometimes that’s not pretty.

I need the beat in my gut. It needs to possess me. Only then can my fingers and my audience enjoy the music between the beats.

In this way, my metronome reminds me of God. As long as He is outside of me, He is like the law, keeping me from doing what I want to do. But when He possesses me, when I have God in my gut, I have freedom to move between the beats, and the melodies of life are enchanting.

Burning Bridges, Boiling Oxen

What do bridges and oxen have to do with each other? They seem almost as incongruous as the two Bible stories I have been contemplating.

And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61-61 NKJV)

My Bible cross references this to a story in the Old Testament about Elijah and Elisha. Elisha was plowing in the field. Elijah threw his mantle on Elisha.

And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” (I Kings 19:20 NKJV)

Why did Jesus tell the man he could not go back to say good-bye? Elijah let Elisha go back. The difference is in the heart. Jesus knew the man was clinging to his past. Elisha was letting go. Notice what Elisha did next,

So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant. (1 Kings 19-21 NKJV)

How often would a farmer use his plowing equipment to start a fire and boil his oxen? Elisha cut ties to his past. He burned the bridges. No going back.

Too often I hang on to my past. I let feelings of past failure control my present. No more. Today I am boiling my oxen. I will not let my past hold me back from the amazing future God has planned for me.