Five Rules for Life

If I were not a follower of Jesus Christ, I would be glad to have Jonathan Sacks as my rabbi!  Once again, I find myself nodding in agreement, this time with his ‘Five Rules for Life’ as published in the Times (5/1/13). 

Here are the five rules, in speech marks with my own brief comments added.

1.     ‘The first thing to do is dream…. Dreams are where we visit the many lands and landscapes of human possibility and discover the one where we feel at home. The great religious leaders were all dreamers.’

I am currently encouraging my church to dream dreams for ‘Vision 20/21’, based upon John 20:21 (‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you’).  We are asking what are our dreams for the year 2021?  Why 2021?  Well, it’s not so close that we feel those dreams unattainable, nor so far away that they mean nothing for our generation.  If we aim low, we are likely to hit the mark.  If we dream large, we may not attain it but we are likely to achieve so much more for Jesus!

2.     ‘The second rule is, follow your passion. People who follow their passion tend to lead blessed lives. Happy in what they do, they tend to spread happiness to those whose lives they touch. That is a life worth living.’

Sixteen years as a Baptist minister have taught me that I am a ‘big picture’ person rather than a ‘details’ person.  Where it is possible I am happy to delegate the latter.  Some people may be passionate about the detail, but I am not!  Sixteen years has also taught me to say ‘No’ to things that do not appeal to me.  For example, I had a passion to see the Street Pastors’ Scheme set up in my former city of Peterborough, so I took steps to help it happen.  I turned down the opportunity of store chaplaincy because it did not excite me, important though it may be.

3.     ‘The third rule I learnt from the psychotherapist who survived Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl, whose Man’s Search for Meaning is one of the most widely read books of our time. Frankl used to say: Don’t ask what you want from life. Ask what life wants from you.’

Before I trained as a Baptist minister, I had a career in the building society world.  For a long time, I found great fulfillment in it.  I moved to another building society for a substantial pay increase and a company car, only to find that the job satisfaction vanished.  I had had a sense of calling to pastoral ministry for some time; now was the time to pursue it.  This was what life – or God – wanted from me.  I believe He still does!

4.     ‘The fourth rule is: make space in your life for the things that matter, for family and friends, love and generosity, fun and joy.’

Early in my time as a Baptist minister, I became a bit of a workaholic.  This was what I had been called to and I was enjoying it so much that my working week was closer to 80 hours than the 35-40 that is the norm in other walks of life.  I tended to wait until the end of the week to see what time was left for leisure.

I came to realize that overwork is not a virtue.  It is a denial of the Sabbath rest that God has built into his plan for us. I now try to build leisure into my week, irrespective of how much there is to do.  I work from rest, rather than the other way around.  I feel much better for it and, strangely, the ministry is usually still done and is probably more effective.  Oh, and I still enjoy the ministry – most of the time!

5.     ‘The fifth rule is work hard, the way an athlete or concert pianist or cutting-edge scientist works hard. The American psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, calls this the principle of “flow”. By this he means the peak experience you have when you are working so hard at a task that you are unaware of the passing of time.’

Whilst overwork is not a virtue, hard work is!  It is quite possible for clergy to ‘underwork’, since a lot of the time no one knows what we do!  Sacks reminds that the Hebrew word for serving God – ‘avodah’ – also means hard work.  Whilst ministry can be a slog, I often find that there is fulfillment in working hard especially when following a passion.

Sacks concludes:

There are many other rules but these are some of the most important. Try them and you will be surprised by joy.’

Long live the Book!

Once again, Jonathan Sacks has given me pause for thought (see Jonathan Sacks and the Bible). This time, it is through quoting Caitlin Moran in today's Times. In a Times Magazine article dated 13 August 2011, she wrote about libraries:

'Libraries are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination.'

I must confess that I missed Moran's original article, but what a beautiful turn of phrase. My thoughts turn to that most mobile of libraries, apart from the Kindle: the Bible. Sixty-six books of history, law, prophecy, poetry, wisdom, biography, story, letter-writing and gospel. Does Moran's quote work if you substitute 'bibles' for 'cathedrals of the mind'? I think it does!

• The Bible is a cathedral of the mind. As we read it, it expands our horizons. We can be lifted in praise and worship through its pages, 'to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple' (Psalm 27:4). We can be challenged to examine our own preconceptions and to ask whether God is saying something else?
• The Bible is a hospital of the soul. Many are the times when the reading of it has reassured believers in their doubt, and soothed the hearts of seekers. The Bible reveals the living God who brings forgiveness and healing to those that seek.
• The Bible is a theme park of the imagination. I love this idea! So often, Christians use the Bible as a book of rules, and drily quote chapter and verse from its pages. That seems to reduce it to the level of mere printed text. Surely, a book such as Revelation was given not so much as predictive prophecy, but more to stimulate the imagination as to how the world (and the new heaven and new earth) might be when lived in the knowledge of the presence of the Risen Christ?

I can see this blog entry becoming a sermon, or even a series, in my own church. For now, I'll close with another quote, this time from Isaac Bashevis Singer, also used today by Sacks:

'God is a writer and we are his co-authors.'

May God write us all into his book, and may we write with him!

Jonathan Sacks and the Bible

Jonathan Sacks is that rare thing: a man who seems to transcend religious divides and who speaks with a wisdom to which all will listen. He writes with a poetry and clarity to which I can only aspire.

This morning’s article in the Times is no exception, and is well worth reading. Unfortunately, the online version is available only to subscribers so I will summarise and quote here. Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, anticipates the 400^th anniversary of the King James Bible in 2011. ‘It is a supreme monument of the English language’ which more than any other book shaped the birth of the modern. He writes of the post-Reformation age into which this authorised version was born, also the golden age of English literature with Shakespeare, Marlowe and Ben Johnson having just written their masterpieces. ‘There was no better time or place for the Bible to be reborn as the key text of a new age.’ Sacks goes on to remind that the KJV is ‘only a translation, the word of God at one remove. You need to listen to the original Hebrew (and Greek, the Christian theologian might add) to understand its texture and tonality, nuances and inflections. But the King James remains English literature at its most stately and serene.’

There is a suggestion in the article, that in our post-modern society, people have largely lost touch with the text of the Bible. ‘At the height of one of the greatest speeches of the 20^th century, Martin Luther King moved seamlessly into a two-verse quotation from the King James translation of Isaiah 40: “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.” It was a moment of history-changing power, and it would have been impossible had his audience not known the Bible.’

As Sacks hints, I’m not sure that such a speech would work today. Are people familiar enough with the Bible to appreciate the reference? Do people who hear Luther King’s speech today even realise that he draws from its pages? A few years ago, a new Christian convert said to me of the Bible, ‘This is dynamite!’ Certainly, the Bible contains powerful stuff, which I would say, has the ability to transform lives. Surely, part of our evangelistic effort must be aimed at making the Bible more widely known, and encouraging that it be more widely read?

Sacks concludes, ‘The texts a culture teaches its children shape their landscape of literacy, their horizons of aspiration. People who can quote the Bible walk tall. They carry with them a treasure no one can take away from them. They sing with tongues of poets, walk with the wisdom of Solomon, find solace in the soul music of the Psalms, and hope in the blazing visions of the prophets. In an age of blogs and tweets, the King James translation remains the Beethoven of the soul, the imperishable music of spiritual grandeur.’

I might even return to the King James in my own reading!