Book Review - Mort by Terry Pratchett

When this world gets a little too heavy for me, I love to travel to Disc World. Terry Pratchett has created a place of humor and perspective that always lightens my heart and reorients my thinking.

In this most delightful story yet, young Mort is taken by his father to the market in search of an apprenticeship.

Reminiscent of those youthful days when two captains choose up sides for a ball game, Mort is picked last. He is apprenticed to DEATH. That's right, the grim reaper.

Mort has quite a time learning the ins and outs of his new job. And we get an inside look at the meaning of life, the burden of history and the power of choice.

Pratchett's writing and thinking are always off the wall. But don't assume you have to sweep it under the rug. You're reading along having the time of your life, laughing, shaking your head, wondering what antics he's going to come up with next and suddenly you realize, hey, this guy really has something to say! It's kind of hard to get your mind around, sort of like worshiping on a roller coaster, or meditating at the arcade.

Here are a couple of my favorite quotes: "Poets have tried to describe Ankh-Morpork. They have failed. Perhaps it's the sheer zestful vitality of the place, or maybe it's just that a city with a million inhabitants and no sewers is rather robust for poets, who prefer daffodils and no wonder. So lets just say that Ankh-Morpork is as full of life as an old cheese on a hot day, as loud as a curse in a cathedral, as bright as an oil slick, as colorful as a bruise and as full of activity, industry, bustle and sheer exuberant busyness as a dead dog on a termite mound."

"Death gave Mort the look he was becoming familiar with. It started off as blank surprise, flickered briefly towards annoyance, called in for a drink at recognition and settled finally on vague forbearance."

"One of them had drawn a knife, which he waved in little circles in the air. He advanced slowly towards Mort, while the other two hung back to provide immoral support."

Don't miss this delightful read you're sure to have the time of your life, er, DEATH.

Halting Between Two Opinions

Here is a bit I wrote a little over a year ago. I just returned from an LDS Addiction Recovery Program Conference and what I wrote back then seemed pertinent to what we discussed today. I decided I'd post it again here. It all still applies.

As you know, my life has had it's ups and downs this Summer. While I have not fallen off the wagon, I have wandered some distance down the wrong road. My blood pressure has been up and my anxiety levels high.

You need to understand that addiction is not what it seems. The outward manifestation, be it drugs, alcohol, gambling, porn, Twinkies, is just that, the symptom, but not the problem. The problem is something deeper and painful and quite possibly unidentified. I’ve been writing and pondering madly for days trying to identify the fork in the road that took me in the wrong direction.

Today, I was given my answer. I was writing, something I always do, to sort things out. I was expressing the dismay I’ve felt of late about my new job and my uncertain future. I’ve taken a job as a salesman. I have a lot of uncertainly as to the frequency and size of my paychecks. The economy troubles me. The price of fuel dismays me. My own inadequacy frightens me. I don’t know what the future brings and it gives me a great deal of anxiety. Then, a phrase of scripture came into my mind, “How long halt ye between two opinions..?” I had no idea where to find it, so I looked it up in the concordance. I found it in 1 Kings 18:21.

It was the story of Elijah’s famous contest with the priests of Baal during which God consumed Elijah’s offering with fire, while that of the false God did nothing. Elijah was calling upon Israel to make up their minds. Unlike Joshua who had earlier declared, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15) The verse was inspirational and encouraging but I couldn’t see the answer that was before me. I was still stuck on the decision regarding my choice of employment. I couldn’t see how that could be a choice between God and Baal. Surely, I was choosing the Lord, wasn’t I?

Then another phrase of scripture passed through my mind, “Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” I found that in Matthew 14:31. Here is the story of Peter walking on the water. I'm not being facetious. I've never understood why we typically call it the story of Jesus walking on the water. That was no big deal. The big deal was that Peter walked on the water. The phrase was the Saviour’s mild rebuke of Peter who, fearing the waves began to sink beneath them. I wasn’t too sure what this story meant for me, but I determined to find out.

At my new job I have made a new friend. He is Pastor of a local Landmark Baptist congregation. His specialty at Divinty School was Coyne Greek. My good friend has taught me, that much can be gained from understanding the original Greek meanings of the words found in the New Testament. I just recently acquired Bullinger’s Lexicon of New Testament Greek.

I decided to look up the original meaning of the words in Matthew 14:31. Two words were most informative. I looked up faith and found that in this case the Greek word chosen had only been used four times in the New Testament and all by the Master himself. It has been translated into English as

'of little faith’ and means: to rebuke four states of mind, viz., anxiety, fear, doubt and forgetfulness. I felt my searching was on the right track. I was full of fear, doubt and great anxiety. I didn’t yet comprehend forgetfulness. Then I looked up the word doubt. The definition of the original Greek word translated as doubt was this: to stand in two ways, being uncertain as to which to take. I was shocked, for it lead me right back to my first prompting, “How long halt ye between to opinions….?”

It was then that I realized what Heavenly Father has been trying to tell me. I am like Peter. I am figuratively walking on water. My struggles of late have come because I have taken my eye off my Master and have allowed myself to look at the boisterous waves of economic and political commotion that surround me. No wonder I have been sinking in despair!

This is not a new concept for me. I have long considered my ability to proceed through life entirely free of my addiction to be no less a miracle than walking on water. To the flesh, they are equally impossible. Yet day after day, I go forth, temptation free, to live a life of joy as though I had never been an addict. I was foundering and in need of rebuke for my forgetfulness. I had forgotten to whom I must look for my safety and salvation.

My struggles came because I had taken my eyes off of the Redeemer, who sustains me in recovery and had looked in fear at the turbulent chaos around me. They were prolonged because I supposed the fork in the road that was troubling me was whether or not to change employment. Instead, however, I discovered that the real decision was, is and always will be, whether or not to trust God and keep my attention focussed on Him.

My heart is led to these words given of Jehovah to Joshua, and all of Israel, including us: “Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” (Joshua 1:9) Whithersoever – no matter where I go or what paths in life I choose, if I can but ignore the turmoil around me and trust in God, I will be sustained above the stream.

Like Peter, I called out to my Lord saying, “Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught” me. I felt the anxiety, fear and doubt drain out of me. I had been so stressed that I felt ill, but now I was renewed and refreshed.

The Measure of a Man

I remember a few years ago, an older man joined the church and became active in our Ward. His enthusiasm for the gospel and his participation in the activity of our Ward were a wonder to behold. He wanted to drink fully from the fountain of church membership. He attended his meetings. He went to all the socials. He jumped at the chance to serve. When the kids went to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead, being not yet endowed, he sought the chance to do baptisms. He was always there, smiling, enthusiastic, eager to learn.

Somewhere in this process I heard someone comment that, "he's trying to catch up for lost time." The observer had supposed that our friend, due to his late discovery of the church, was way behind in his progress. I beg to differ. I think he was keeping pace, if not just a little ahead of the rest of us.

The supposition that Billy, for that is his name, was somehow behind, presupposes that life long members of the church are somehow ahead. Ahead of what? Ahead of who? Hopefully, we're ahead of where we, personally, once were; but I'd be loathe to suppose I was ahead of anyone else.

Such a supposition also seems to exclude Billy's former (pre-membership) life as null and void. As if we only get credit for the way we live if we're members of the church. As if our progress begins only after baptism. Billy always lived a good life. He was faithful to his wife. He responsibly raised responsible children. He worked hard for his employer. He was generous with those in need. He was honest and forthright in his dealings with others. He was happy, gregarious, enthusiastic, kind, thoughtful and good - even then. In fact, if I were to take Billy's measurement, I'd say 95% of Billy's goodness, in deed and character, preceeded his baptism. He certainly lacked the ordinances and with the covenants those ordinances represent, Billy became perfected in Christ - then - on the day of his baptism. He had no catching up to do. He was as caught up as any member of the church anywhere. His accounts were paid in full because he'd humbly entered a covenant with the only one who could settle Billy's account, or mine, or yours.

Was Billy perfect? Am I? Are you? Billy came to mortality for the experience to be had in a body. He had that in full. He experienced what a body has to offer; pleasure and pain, sickness and health, vigor and exhaustion. He came to earth to learn, serve and grow. He also came to mortality to reaffirm his faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of the Father's Plan to bring us home to receive all that He has to give us. Billy did all of those things and in my view, he did them right on time. Billy wasn't catching up, he was drinking in. Absorbing every ounce of mortal experience he could soak up.

Good on ya Billy!

Boycott The Biggest Loser

Update: 9/29/2009 - I was persuaded to watch again this evening. Much has changed. The language is much much improved. NBC, may I personally say thank you, for making the much needed change.

I watched the opening of The Biggest Loser, until in disgust I had to shut it off. It isn't new to this season that Bob and Jillian have filthy mouths that have to be bleeped during every workout. But last night was over the top! Folks, that behavior is not necessary and need not be tolerated by the viewing audience. It's time to boycott the program and it's sponsors and see if we can't get it back on track.

Bob and Jillian are not the fall guys here. The editors can bleep their language. They can also edit such behavior completely out of what we see. Clearly, they choose not to and I can only imagine they're after ratings. Let's give them some - some lousy ones.

I'm sure they'll try to justify the language as a "boot camp" approach. I went to boot camp. In six weeks I never heard the kind of abusive language I witnessed last night. Things may have changed in the nearly 40 years since I enlisted, but I'll bet it has changed for the better.

Our society has such a sickening double standard. If Nancy Pelosi told some junior congressman, she was trying to school, that he was going to be her "bitch" for the season, she'd be out of a job. They didn't bleep that one last night, when Jillian was shown making such a declaration to one of the contestants. Call it reality if you like. I call it debauchery and disgusting beyond the pale.

I've felt for years now that this program was a helpful, inspiring force for good. I've changed my mind. Count me out, until such time as The Biggest Loser can lose the trash talk.

Here is a partial list of sponsors to include in the boycott. Leave a comment if you're on board and pass the word. We want NBC to get the message soon and emphatically!

Sponsors:

• Britta
• 24 Fitness
• Shinealight
• American Express
• QVC
• Subway
  

Book Review - Freedom From Addiction

I'm pretty well steeped in addiction recovery methodology. I'm in recovery. I've worked the 12 Steps. I've taught the 12 Steps. I facilitate three 12 Step groups. I picked up Freedom From Addiction by David Simon, MD and Deepak Chopra, MD, to expand my understanding of addictive behavior and disease. Simon and Chopra have some pretty good theraputic methods to consider and certainly some wisdom to impart.

I liked this quote from early in the book: "Addictions serve a purpose. When people seek a shift in their emotional state and do not know how to create the change from within, they reach for something outside." I fully agree with that assessment. I agree with much of what they've concluded. Still, I struggle to recommend the book.

You have to understand how I feel about new wave philosophy, and Deepak Chopra's brand in particular. Who can know what motivates individuals within the movement. It appears, though, that in general the movement has seen holes in the world's religions. While they favor eastern thinking, they have drawn from all religious and scientific thinking. They've stepped up to the philosophical smorgasbord, so to speak, and selected what works for them. In one way this is good. I'll be the first to admit that most religions have clung to tradition and philosophy that glaringly contradict one another and because of rigid loyalty to their history are slow to correct obvious errors. Smorgasbord thinking makes the error correction possible, even attractive. In many ways, because of this, new wave thinking has the potential to step ahead of religions mired in archaic and apostate muck.

I struggle with new wave thinking, mostly because, I'd characterize it as me-theology. They have adopted the Nirvana view of me being god and god being me. I don't buy it. Like all modern day reformers, they, while shopping for truths to glean from the various sources out there, they have clearly neglected to look at LDS teaching and philosophy. They've allowed themselves to lump us in with main stream Christianity and thus overlooked revealed doctrine that has corrected the error so obvious to thinking seekers. Should they honestly investigate what we teach they'd discover they (and we) agree on many truths.

Now, the original 12 Steps as developed by Alcoholic Anonymous, is inspired of God, in my view. It so correctly mirrors LDS Doctrine that the Church has adopted the steps with only one clarification. Where AA refers to God in generic terms palatable to people of all walks of life, the LDS version refers to Jesus Christ. This is in no way a criticism of AA. Their target audience is broad and intended to encompass everyone. It is clear that Heavenly Father is cool with that. Legion are the AA stories of atheists and agnostics who, swallowing the possibility of some vague, inexplicable "higher power" have begun to find recovery and who consequently discover God in more and more detail and clarity. We in the church program are primarily focused on people who already have a pretty clear understanding of God, have been taught about the Atonement and have already clarified details about God that the population at large has not. We try to start from there.

Simon and Chopra have done the same thing; they've adapted the 12 Steps to match their paradigm. They make no mention of having consulted with AA (which the LDS church has done) and I doubt if AA would be pleased with their result. They remodeled the 12 Steps in their book beyond recognition. Now I'll allow them that privilege if they like. But I reject the result.

For me the 12 Steps only work because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. New wave philosophy rejects any need of The Savior's redemptive sacrifice on our behalf. They have some neat, practical and probably even useful psychologial therapy and some useful meditative technique that could be beneficial to folks with addiction problems. But, they have rejected "the power of God unto salvation." They think we can evolve into recovered creatures. I'm convinced that we must learn to repent and to rely upon the merits and mercy of He who is mighty to save. They think the power is in us. I'm convinced the power is in God and can only be in us by His grace.

For me, their approach to addition recovery seems hollow and while it may have resulted in recovery for some, cannot possibly provide the relief and healing the Redeemer has to offer. That said, I know the Master is kind and will grant grace to all who are sincere and there are certain to be Chopra followers who are experiencing a portion of His grace and goodness despite their lack of clarity as to it's source. The fact that any of us is breathing is rudimentary evidence of this. He came to redeem all of us. All of us. And He is about that business, even now, in all of our lives.