GUT THINKING

As is obvious to anyone who knows me, my brain often resides in the wrong part of my anatomy. Instead of being in the head where it belongs, it migrates to my stomach and firmly ensconces itself there. I know this to be true. Why else would I eat chocolate and ice cream and all those other goodies my brain-in-my-head would tell me are not good for my physical well-being and that I must avoid? The devil made me do it? I only wish I could blame someone else and not the fact that my brained moved.

If there is any consolation, and there is little, especially when the pants get tighter around the waste, it is the knowledge that no one is immune from such thinking. When we think from the stomach, the gut, we really do not think. We react to stimuli, pleasant or otherwise. If the food looks good, smells wonderful, appeals to me, I will eat it. My gut thinking takes over.

On the other hand, if someone tells me to eat what is placed before me because it is good for me, my gut thinking immediately kicks in. The gut knows, instinctively knows, that the food will taste awful. On the other hand, if my brain resided in my head, I would eat the food no matter how horrible it looked or tasted simply because it would be good for my health.

Gut thinking goes beyond the physical. If it only remained there, we would have a world both of fat people and a world of fatheaded people, for that is what gut thinking creates. In fact gut thinking is an oxymoron. We do not think with our gut; we react. Gut thinking produces prejudice: if it looks horrible, it must be horrible; if it doesn’t feel good to me, it must be bad; if I do not understand it, it must be wrong; if the people I like say it’s the truth, it must be the truth.

We think with our brain and react with our gut. Yet, all too often, we allow gut reactions to control our thoughts, our words and, even worse, our actions. If this tastes good, looks good, it must be good for me; thus, it must be good. If it tastes bad, looks bad, it must be bad for me; thus, it must be bad. Again, we allow our gut reaction to pre-judge the truth to make what is not true into the truth.

History is replete with examples of whole societies prejudging others because they did not like what the other looked like, acted like or spoke like. It was only when they were able to allow their brains to take over and allow themselves to truly get to know the other that they discovered the truth. Would that all those examples are historical and not current. But, sadly, even tragically, they are not.

It is very difficult to admit the truth when we think, or rather react, with our gut. It is even more difficult to admit that our actions and reactions are the result of gut thinking, which, again, is not thinking. What brain-thinkers and gut-reactors both all too often forget about is that part of the body in between: the heart. The heart tempers both the gut and the brain. Can you imagine what a heartless society would look like? It would be so out of whack if ruled by the gut and so dull and boring if ruled by the brain. More later.

PUNCTUATING IT

There’s a story told – a short one --- about an English professor who wrote the words "A woman without her man is nothing" on the blackboard. He then directed the students to punctuate it correctly. The men wrote: "A woman, without her man, is nothing." The women wrote: "A woman: Without her, man is nothing."

It’s all a matter of perspective, is it not? Two people can read the same sentence and understand it in a different manner, often in a completely opposite manner, as the story reflects. Two people can look at the same sight and one can see something the other simply does not, and vice versa. That is normal. That is human. That is expected giving who we are as people: diverse, complex, different. Thank God for that! Life would be so dull and boring if we all thought and acted alike.

But because of our differences, because no two people are alike, there are bound to be disagreements, sometimes very serious disagreements on some very serious issues. Nations have been known to go to war over such differences. Add religious differences into the mix and there can be chaos. One does not have to be a serious student of history to know what havoc has been wreaked over the millennia because one side of an issue believed the other was totally in error and the only way to eradicate the error was to eradicate the perpetrator of the error. Think Crusades.

Fortunately that does not happen very often, even though once is still too often. What happens more frequently is a personal insistence that our way is the right way if not the only way, that we have a lock on the truth, and that those who disagree with us are in error. It is not a matter of perspective, we say; it is a matter of right vs. wrong. That attitude is often even more destructive than war because it is a war that cannot be won: there are only losers who engage is such battles.

There is a lot of debate going on in this country about a multitude of issues, some very serious issues, issues which I will not go into at the moment. But we all know what they are and we know that we are all part of the discussion. Much of the discussions and debates are being punctuated by those who punctuate the same sentence differently, by those who see the same issue from a different perspective. That is fine and that is to be expected and that is even as it should be given who we are: all sorts and conditions of people.

What also should be and must not be forgotten is the realization, by those present and discussing/arguing/debating/voting and those of us who will only hear or read about what goes on, that we are a nation were perspectives vary, where opinions are strong and where punctuation is important, yet, in spite of it all, we remain one however tenuous that oneness seems to be at the moment.

How we punctuate the point of view is not as important as realizing and living with the truth that no one has a lock on the whole truth. There is always another perspective and there indeed can be more than one way to correctly punctuate the same sentence.

GETTING TO GIVE

In one of his sermons the late Harry Emerson Fosdick made the following observation: "The Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are made of the same water. It flows down, clean and cool, from the heights of Hermon and the roots of the cedars of Lebanon. The Sea of Galilee makes beauty of it for the Sea of Galilee has an outlet. It gets to give. It gathers in its riches that it may pour them out again to fertilize the Jordan Plain. But the Dead Sea with the same water makes horror, for the Dead Sea has no outlet. It gets to keep."

Both giving and keeping are in our hands. We get to give and we get to keep. No one can make us do either. The choice is always ours. And it is always a free-will choice: to freely give and to freely keep. There is nothing and no one that can force us to do either. We in the preaching profession love to quote Scripture where it says that we should give, that we should tithe, even, because it is better to give than to receive.

That is all true. But no one has to listen to Scripture or even believe what is there to know the truth about something. I have always believed that if I have to quote a Scripture passage to prove my point, my point isn't worth trying to prove. It has to stand on its own, make sense on its own, convince on its own.

And so it is with giving. Giving to others of what we have must make sense all on its own. We must be convinced not only that it is better to give than to receive, but it is even better still to give than to keep.

They only way that we can come to that conclusion is by experiencing it for ourselves. Fosdick's analogy is wonderful and makes wonderful sense. But the analogy must become real in our own lives. In fact, it has become real, too. Think about it. We all know the joy there is in giving. It always feels good all over to give of ourselves, to give something of ourselves, to give of our possessions. Giving always gives us pleasure.

And it feels even better to give when we do not want nor expect something to be given to us in return. It's the grandparent in us. Grandmas and Grandpas love to give to the grandkids. It is pure and total joy. They expect nothing in return. What they receive in return is the love of the grandchild which is beyond even joy. I certainly know this from experience. The joy cannot be described. It can only be enjoyed.

On the other hand, we all know the sadness there is in keeping. When we hoard our possessions, when we pile one thing upon another, we never find happiness and joy. Momentary joy and happiness perhaps. But it is only momentary. Why? Because when joy only comes from the piling up of possessions, we have to acquire another something to add to the pile. And it is never enough. The joy comes when we can take from that pile and give it away. Even greater joy comes when we take the money we would spend on ourselves and use it to give joy to someone else even if that someone else is anonymous.

We all have with us the potential to be like the Sea of Galilee or the Dead Sea. When we get to give, we live. When we keep, we’re, well dead.

IMAGINE

It’s been almost fifty years since John Lennon asked us to imagine a world with no countries and thus “nothing to live or die for”, a world with “all the people living in peace.” Yes, imagine that! I did. And I imagine millions of others did to, maybe billions. But the sad truth is that is probably all we did: we imagined such a world and then quickly convinced ourselves that such a world could never exist.

Several weeks ago Bishop Michael Curry, preaching at the Royal Wedding, asked us to imagine a world “where love is the way”. For when love is the way of this world, truly the way of this world, “no child will go to bed hungry…justice will roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook…poverty will become history…the earth will be a sanctuary.” Again, imagine that!

And, once again as we did all those years ago, for one brief moment we actually did imagine such a world. And, once again, I suspect we have all moved on because we still do not believe such a world is possible especially given the divisiveness that is so very, very – and tragically and sadly – rampant in this country of ours.

But we cannot and must not give up or give in. For what we imagine to become real, we have to actually do something to make those imaginary dreams become realities. Dreams do not come to fruition on their own. We have to do what needs to be done to make them come true. Otherwise they will simply remain wonderful dreams that momentarily give us pause and be uplifted. But that is all.

We need to be reminded of what we can be, can become, should be and should become as John Lennon and Michael Curry have done. Now it is up to us both individually and together to actually make what we imagine to become real. That will not be easy. It will never be easy given our proclivity to look out for ourselves first and foremost to the detriment of everyone and everything else.

I mean, how do we think we got into this mess in the first place, got to the point where we need to be reminded to open our minds and hearts to imagine what should be but what isn’t? And we’ve wallowed in this mess both because we have convinced ourselves that nothing can really be done about it and, worse, because we have been unwilling to do much on our part – except hope and wish and dream and imagine.

The sad – and tragic – part for me is that those who can do the most and do it most quickly to begin to bring about the world Lennon and Curry ask us to imagine are our politicians. But they really do not care. They say they do, but they do not. Actions speak louder than words. Their only real care is getting re-elected. Even so, that is no excuse for me, for any of us, for not doing our small part, whatever that is, to do what we can to make this country, this world, what we imagine it can and should be.