I have a heard a lot of trash talking lately about professors.  What I am hearing isn’t critic of material or teaching style or even the usefulness of the class, I have heard people say some pretty nasty things about the teachers themselves.  These judgements leveed are based on classrooms interactions, methods of grading, and hearsay.  What is most startling is that students are gleaning from these interactions the professors motivation.

Read this next line very slowly and carefully.

The one thing we cannot do is judge others motivations.

Read the above line again.

The only way we can truly know other peoples motivation is if they tell us.

The Bible has something to tell us about this.

Leviticus 19:15 reads, “You shall not render an unjust judgment.”  Do you get it people? Basically, a six thousand year old commandment is telling us today to give people the benefit of the doubt.

This is a good life rule to live by, when we are interacting with others we should ALWAYS give them the benefit of the doubt.  We do this because we don’t have all of the information at hand.  When we render a judgment without all of the information it is unjust.

With professors and others if you are unsure why they are acting a certain way……ASK THEM!  Most of the time it’s not about you.

Give them the benefit of the doubt.

This means:

We don’t call other people heretics until we know all of the information about their position (if they’re…. let’s say…. Pelagian then call them Pelagian, but that is more than a 5 min conversation).  And never do it in front of others, it is in poor taste and only makes you look like a fool.

When we are given a bad grade we don’t take it as a personal attack but receive it with grace.  The self-entitlement of thinking that 2 hours of work on a 10 page papers warrants an A is just wrong.

When you walk up to two people and they stop talking it’s probably becuase it was a private conversation, their silence may not actually be the commentary you think it is.

We are to think the best about others and assume their motivations are good.

If we wave to somebody and they don’t wave back, they didn’t see us, even if they were looking in our general direction.  I see so many people offended by this because they don’t give other the Benefit of the Doubt.

I have heard so much lately a critic of the school administration and its modeling practices of the Christian life, but I wonder if we shouldn’t be looking at ourselves and how we model it first.

How else should we give people the benefit of the doubt?

-jpserrano

I find that my life is a series of restarts. I have again begun something that I really enjoy –Brazillian Jiu Jitsu.

I started my BJJ training a little over three years ago in Montrose California at a place called The Fight Forum (it is now called M3).  The very first person to show me any official BJJ techniques was Rudy Fischman.  As he went through explaining each position and giving me a basic primer I fell in love with the art and knew it was for me.

For many years as an adolescent I was a student of Kenpo, but I got tired of being punched in the face so I decided to go another route.  BJJ isn’t a striking art.  The whole point is to try to submit your opponent on the ground by bending, torquing, and choking various areas of the body with a repertoire of techniques.  So after a stint at the Fight Forum, I trained with Alexandre Novaes.  It was under his mentorship that I received a Blue Belt and a good deal of education on what works best for my body type.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is an art that allows me to use my body in an extreme way.  There is nothing like going full contact with someone while rolling trying to submit them and avoiding being submitted.  It’s kind of hard to think of anything else when the person across from you has one goal in mind–to tap you out.  That is why I find it cathartic, it allows me to live in the moment in a way that I seek to live off the mats.

It has been about a year since I’ve trained, but I have started again.

Newton’s first law of motion is basically,  ”An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon.”  Well, my body has not been in motion for a long time.  And because I have been so sedentary, it is very difficult to get momentum going.  I have felt petrified with concrete boots weighing me down.

In this case I am my own worst enemy.

I come up with excuses.

I talk myself out of getting off the couch.

I tell myself that I need to physically prepare myself before I go back.

I am the only one stopping me.

BJJ and I have a rocky relationship.  I take bits of time off, but I am back again.  The first couple times back are always the worst.  My body is pain, I can barely walk, and afterwards even simple tasks are a chore.  But it is worth it.

My mind is right; I feel like I can think clearer.

My soul is right; The discipline of training transfers to my spiritual well being.

My body is right; I have more energy.

So i’ve started again.

-jpserrano

This is an inspired TED Talk.

Within Christianity I have learned that there are three realms to spirituality.

1. Our connection to God.
2. Our connection to others.
3. Our connection to ourselves.

If we only have one or two of the three, our spirituality is missing something.  This article is primarily about the first realm.

Recently, I have come across several people who identify themselves as “spiritual.”  However, when prompted further, they couldn’t identity what makes them so.  I understand that within various religions and traditions spirituality looks different. However, in no tradition, including Christianity,  is spirituality actionless.

Just as we work on our self-understanding, relationships with our spouse, children, friends, our relationship with God takes work as well (most Lutherans I know have a stuttering “b b b-but” in their head right now. Put that aside. Keep reading).

A person who is “spiritual” with no practices has good intentions, but they are not “spiritual.”

My main point is this–spirituality takes work  (If you are uncomfortable with the word “work” think “cultivation” ).

As Lutherans, or Christians in general, the way we work on our spirituality is not through some practices we created.  The practices we participate in are created by God and in them God comes to us. Some people think “if” “then” here, but I don’t like that vending machine imagery, instead I think in these terms–God promises to come to us in specific ways.

God promises to come to us in our baptism.
God promises to come to us in communion.
God promises to come to us in worship.
God promises to come to us in the rightly preached Word.

If one is Lutheran and “spiritual” these are the absolute bare minimums of participation (Goodness, I hate putting it in those terms).

Moreover, we who do these practices recognize that the “work” we are doing isn’t actually our work but God’s.

In addition to the list above there is a host of ways that God comes to us (Lutheran Christians tend to neglect these).

1. Daily devotional Bible reading.
2. Private Prayer (fixed hour prayer, Jesus prayer, etc.)
3. Journaling
4. Lectio Divina
5. Meditation

I often find that my  spiritual compass goes eschew and needs to be made true.  When I am involved in regular Bible reading, prayer etc. I am able to identify earlier that my spiritual compass is off and am able to connect again to Jesus who rights it again (not a perfect metaphor, but you get the idea).

Regular practice of the spiritual disciples is how we work on (cultivate) our spiritual life.  They are the means that God uses to come to us and should not be neglected.  When I hear Lutherans ask how to be more spiritual, I often wonder if they are regularly practicing the ancient practices of the faith.

Working on my spirituality through the spiritual disciplines has lead me to understand that it really isn’t me working.  I am responding to the gentle whisper of the Holy Spirit.  I am doing the “work” that I am called to do by slowing down enough to connect to God.  The work in the disciplines is all God’s.

Last tangetial thought: I find that the disciplines are a burden only when I am not practicing them.  They haunt me, calling me back to connection again.

So, how do you practice your spirituality?

-jpserrano

When times are tough it’s difficult for me to remember the blessings I’ve received.  Sometimes I get so caught up in the here and now that I simply get tunnel vision.   With stress, I tend to get focused in on what is causing that stress ignoring the bigger picture of my life.  It could be finances, school, work, any of a hundred different causes.

I’m sure that I’m not the only one guilty of this…right?

My wife and I have built into the rhythm of our year a time to remember how good our lives actually are.  We have a tradition with our Christmas tree.  Every year we get at least one tree ornament to remember what we did that year.  These ornaments memorialize our children’s births, family vacations, memorable moments etc.  My wife keeps a list in our ornament box that tells a brief history of each of one including the year, location of purchase, and event.

Here is part of our list with the ornament and what we remember.

60 Watt Light Bulb- Our first year dating.
Flowers- Our wedding.
Sandals- Hawaii Vacation.
Bottle Opener- Visit to Wittenberg.
Pinocchio- Visit to Rome .
Boat- Baltimore trip.
Cornhusk Angel- Guatemala trip
Girl Pregnant- Jess was pregnant with our first child.
Denver Mint- Colorado Vacation.

When Christmas rolls around and we decorate our tree, we pull out our trusty box of ornaments and begin to remember.

We remember our very first Christmas together when I pull out the 60watt light bulb with “Our first Christmas” written on it.
We remember our trips around the world.
We remember the births of our children.
We remember the year we couldn’t take a vacation because I was doing Clinical Pastoral Education at Children’s Hospital.

But most of all we remember how the incarnate God, born in a manger, has blessed us with more than we need even when times are tough.

So, how do you remember?

-jpserrano

Tim Ghali at Black Coffee reflections  has some questions on how we act as consumers. I have these same questions.

And so I find myself wondering …
Can one blog about poverty on a Macbook while sitting in the suburbs?
Can one wear an Invisible Children bracelet with a Swiss Army watch?
Can one wear $100 jeans with TOMS Shoes?
What should we wear? What should we drive? Where should we live? What should we consume? What shouldn’t we …? Yesterday’s post was concerned with “mercy/mission wear” which raised the question, “Are we bragging about our good works when we wear these things?” and “Would Jesus wear these types of shirts?”

To read the whole blog check it out here Black Coffee Reflections —.

What say you?

-jpserrano