Obvious folklore qualities aside, 1 Kings 19 expresses a captivating spiritual idea: that truth and guidance appear in stillness more easily than in bombastic activity. The surrounding material also has a few other worthwhile points to consider.
Elijah is on the run (after he committed, or at least oversaw, the mass murder of 850 people), and long-term survival seems unlikely to him. He wants to give up. He wants to just die, but he's not really out of options. Even when things seem desperate in the moment, Elijah has choices. We will rarely be on the run after killing hundreds of people for believing something different from us, and yet there are times when we want to give up. We aren't likely to have angels come to us and provide food and encouragement, though. If we are fortunate, we may have friends stand in for Elijah's angel, but the decision to keep going is always ours to make. Elijah accomplishes quite a bit after this episode of despair. In this sense, our lives are no different. On the other side of despair, more satisfying options always await us. Even amid our desperation, our presence can still do some good in the world, even if we aren't in a position to see it.
The portion of this chapter just after Elijah senses the gentle whisper obviously "foretells" historical events in a way that affirms for the Jewish audience Yahweh's control over all things, including leadership of other peoples. Elijah's detached attitude during the calling of his successor Elisha is also notable; his confidence that he doesn't need to exert control over Elisha reflects an admirable quality of leadership. Before expounding on the still, small voice, it also bears pointing out the similarities between the angel coming to feed Elijah and the temptation stories of Jesus. Likewise, Elisha's call is reflected in a brief gospel story of would-be disciples who want to return home before joining Jesus. Unlike Elijah's calm detachment, Jesus proclaims, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Perhaps Elijah was able to tell that Elisha just needed to take care of a couple of things so he wouldn't be tempted to "look back." Or maybe it's just a story.
Regarding this business about stillness, though, there have been volumes written from an abundance of different perspectives. It is a very necessary and important topic that stands in stark contrast to the way many of us go about our lives. There are those who want to see God at work in every mudslide, hurricane, and tsunami, punishing humanity for one thing or another. There are also those who, even in the twenty-first century, expect divine guidance to come in some blatant, over-the-top, undeniable package like a lightning bolt or an earthquake. Some people alive today, misinterpreting Carl Jung, encourage looking for synchronicity at work around us -- "coincidences" that are linked meaningfully to reveal some deeper truth to us if we are willing to see it. This could presumably be somewhat quieter than an earthquake or a fire, but it still amounts to looking for signs outside of ourselves for guidance.
While we might receive guidance from other people, and while some situations might offer opportunities for us to do something meaningful, there is nothing outside of ourselves guiding us into anything -- not God, not the Universe, not "Life," not our ancestors, not fairies, not aliens. The meaning that we find in circumstances comes from within ourselves. We read the meanings into the "synchronicities" of our lives. That isn't a bad thing at all; it helps us take notice of what's important to us in lives that are increasingly busy with surface-level activity. But it comes from within ourselves, not someone trying to send us secret messages. If it seems like our ideas are coming from outside of our own brains, it is possibly because we spend so little time actually listening to ourselves -- considering what makes sense to us, what we really value, who we most want to be, what we yearn for in life. This is why stillness is so important.
There are many earthquake-sized voices in our society. Everywhere we turn, we can find someone screaming about what we must do in order to protect ourselves against all sorts of things. Everywhere we turn, it seems that someone is trying to convince us of something. It's a wonder we can ever think for ourselves with all the racket we have grown to tolerate. As loud and passionate as those voices may be, however, there is often very little meaning or value in all of the noise. It is very difficult to find truth in the throes of anxiety, and our culture does not inherently promote thoughtful response that comes from an inner stillness. Instead, we are told to act quickly, to fear being left out or left behind, to be impulsive, to defend our rights (which are always somehow under direct attack by something). If we are to be thoughtful individuals who know themselves and live with integrity, we must be responsible for our own stillness.
In stillness, we can find which threads to pull to unravel our anxieties -- the lies and assumptions that hold together our irrational fears about ourselves, other people, and the world around us. In stillness, we can dig beneath our surface level activities and recognize what matters most to us. In stillness, we can acknowledge what we are doing that we absolutely hate, just because we have convinced ourselves that we must. When we realize that there has been some perceived synchronicity or message from Life or God, we can look into ourselves and discern what our subconscious is trying to bring into focus. The meaning we place on coincidences has value -- profound value, since that meaning is coming from within our own psyches. If we are perceiving something as divine guidance, some part of ourselves is trying to make that "message" important. In stillness, we can ask ourselves why.
Without stillness, we ignore the things that matter most to us in order to do the things that seem most urgent. Without stillness, we act in ways that are incongruous with the people we claim to be, and we may not even notice it. Without stillness, we react impulsively to people and situations that challenge us, with no regard for the long-term consequences. In thoughtful stillness, we can tap into ourselves and discover who we are and what we believe apart from the anxiety around us. Through making time for a bit of stillness in our lives, we can be our own best representatives in the world. We can come closer to living like our authentic selves. Stillness brings us closer to integrity, if we allow it.
So, this snippet of Jewish folklore is revealing. If we want to search for something to call divine, we won't find it in the flashy, loud, anxiety-producing racket of the world; we will find it in stillness. It's not always easy to see in other people (or in ourselves) the beauty and creativity and value and dignity that defines us as human beings. It's not always easy to see that there are things in our lives more valuable than money, more important than convincing people to think like us, more compelling and awe-inspiring than our fears. Stillness helps us see ourselves more clearly, so that we can see other people and the world around us more clearly.
Showing posts with label spiritual guidance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spiritual guidance. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Numbers 16-17: The Endless Pursuit of Preserving Power and the Art of Interpreting Divinations
Moses didn't grow up in a democracy. He also didn't grow up in expansive, politically unaffiliated pastureland. Moses grew up in Egypt, where powerful families passed localized absolute political power down from one generation to the next. His example of governing or leading people was rather one-sided, unless one counts the example of his father-in-law, about which we know almost nothing. The nice thing about absolute rulership is that one never needs to learn conflict management or communication skills. Everyone else is simply expected to fall in line behind your orders. If they don't, bad things will happen to them. We see the frustration that brings about time and time again in the story of Moses' leadership, not least in Numbers 16, which records two back-to-back challenges to Moses' authority over the Israelites with a combined death toll close to 15,000 people.
One could draw a few different messages from this. Assuming that we accept the suggestion that God killed all those people because they challenged his chosen leader, we can interpolate a great many things about how believers should engage in the political spectrum. It would appear that God is in favor of granting absolute political power to a single individual, and it would appear that challenging the person God places in charge is sinful to the point of being deadly. We can assume that people who happen to be in the position of dictator were placed there because God wanted them to be, so revolution is an ungodly endeavor, even if the person in charge is doing a less than admirable job.
This actually fits with the biblical depiction of the "Pharaoh" character as well. God never suggests that the Israelites should overthrow him, or effect regime change through an assassination attempt. Pharaoh’s role as ruler of his little patch of Egypt was never contested or portrayed as unjust. And it is with that example in mind that the governance of the Israelites emerges as an unassailable dictatorship. As every gangster film ever made has taught us, it's difficult to hang on to that kind of power. When the Bible tells us that 14,700 people died from a plague because they complained that Moses had just killed 250 people for complaining, God is the one who is clearly responsible for the deaths. According to the story, Moses didn't really kill anyone. But placing that sort of behavior on God has some other dangerous implications.
Why are some people so convinced that God is in favor of democracy? He supposedly had the chance to tell Moses exactly how to do things, and he apparently didn't mention democracy once. Even so, how can some Christians in the United States rail against the president and cry for impeachment when they know that God kills people for that sort of thing? If a divine power appoints leaders that are not to be criticized, why are some believers so convinced that God wants them to be involved in politics at all? And if God punishes people with death for complaining against the behavior of their leader, why do some Christians get so up in arms when a dictator abuses his power somewhere in the world?
There is something within us that recognizes that we are all connected as human beings. We call it human rights, and we refer to human dignity and such, but whatever terminology we use, there is something within us that is offended by a politically powerful person hurting less politically powerful people. We know that there is something wrong with genocide. We know that there is something wrong with testing weapons on innocents. We have started to become a bit jaded by this point, but a part of us knows that there is something wrong with using violence to solve our problems. Even people who vehemently defend preemptive aggression know in some part of themselves that there's something wrong with that course of action.
We don't just intuitively know that there's something wrong with using violence to preserve or challenge power. We also have piles of historical evidence to support that belief. From the aforementioned gangster movies to gang violence in urban America to drug cartels south of the border to Middle Eastern warlords that have been at each other’s throats for millennia, violence begets violence. This is not a new idea. This is nothing original. And yet, we are often quick to promote the easy and reactive solution to the world's problems.
It's interesting to note that the people who were challenging Moses' authority in Numbers 16 weren't out for blood. They wanted to be given equal consideration, and they wanted leadership that would benefit the Israelites beyond just scraping up unidentifiable "dew flakes" from the desert generation after generation. And when the first complainers got killed, the mob that rose up in their defense wasn't trying to knock Moses completely down off his pharonic pedestal. They were just saying, "We don't approve of you causing those people's deaths." I guess the example of divine violence in response to those complaints is what gives many believers today the impression that violence is a holy ideal. It isn't.
People don't always want to do what they know is right, though. Even when we recognize the endless and futile vendetta cycles that violence provokes, we still want to be violent. Even when we realize that some complaints about our leadership have merit, we still want to defend ourselves rather than admit that we've made a mistake. Sometimes we want permission to make decisions that go against the deepest truths that we know. Sometimes we just want permission to be thoughtless – to make a choice and then not be held responsible for the consequences. And so we perform little acts of divination.
For Moses and Aaron, it was a matter of whose incense would be lit or whose staff would blossom. For us today, we may interpret divine approval from getting a particular piece of mail just after a significant phone conversation, turning on the radio just in time to hear something important, or running into someone at a neighborhood supermarket. I know some Christians who literally believe that God will provide answers to their personal problems if they just let their Bible fall open randomly. Hitting all green lights on your way across town does not mean that some supernatural overseer approves of your destination. When the man in your television set looks out into your eyes and points, he's not literally speaking to you personally. And if he is, it's a clever trick.
Whether someone is dealing out tarot cards, casting bones, reading tea leaves, or treating scripture like a fortune cookie, divinations work because of what we already know. We already know what we believe is right in a given circumstance, and we already know what we actually want. We use divinations of various kinds to give us permission not to think too hard about it when a conflict arises between what we believe and what we want in the moment. When we actually take the time to consider what we believe and what we want, we stand a pretty good chance of learning something about ourselves. We might reconsider our beliefs, or they might be refined a bit. We might realize that what we want is superficial or petty compared to beliefs that are very important to us. Either way, we grow a bit when we actually work out those conflicts instead of relying on some kind of divination to give us an easy answer.
These chapters of the book of Numbers reveal some prevalent tendencies we slip into very easily. We want to save face. When someone challenges us, our impulse is to defend ourselves. And when we experience self-doubt or internal conflict, we often want easy third-party permission instead of in-depth self examination. We know that these things don't ultimately serve us, but they are starting point behaviors from which we can grow. Imagine a leader who could handle the criticism of 250 people without resorting to having the earth swallow them up. Imagine a leader who could admit that he exercised poor judgment in a particular instance instead of letting thousands of people die to keep his position of power intact. That would be an impressive leader. And imagine what life would be like if more people took a moment or two to think about their actions instead of letting random meaningless symbols determine things on their behalf. It wouldn't mean that people always made wise choices, but it would certainly encourage personal responsibility for those choices.
As with all change, it starts with you.
Keep growing.
One could draw a few different messages from this. Assuming that we accept the suggestion that God killed all those people because they challenged his chosen leader, we can interpolate a great many things about how believers should engage in the political spectrum. It would appear that God is in favor of granting absolute political power to a single individual, and it would appear that challenging the person God places in charge is sinful to the point of being deadly. We can assume that people who happen to be in the position of dictator were placed there because God wanted them to be, so revolution is an ungodly endeavor, even if the person in charge is doing a less than admirable job.
This actually fits with the biblical depiction of the "Pharaoh" character as well. God never suggests that the Israelites should overthrow him, or effect regime change through an assassination attempt. Pharaoh’s role as ruler of his little patch of Egypt was never contested or portrayed as unjust. And it is with that example in mind that the governance of the Israelites emerges as an unassailable dictatorship. As every gangster film ever made has taught us, it's difficult to hang on to that kind of power. When the Bible tells us that 14,700 people died from a plague because they complained that Moses had just killed 250 people for complaining, God is the one who is clearly responsible for the deaths. According to the story, Moses didn't really kill anyone. But placing that sort of behavior on God has some other dangerous implications.
Why are some people so convinced that God is in favor of democracy? He supposedly had the chance to tell Moses exactly how to do things, and he apparently didn't mention democracy once. Even so, how can some Christians in the United States rail against the president and cry for impeachment when they know that God kills people for that sort of thing? If a divine power appoints leaders that are not to be criticized, why are some believers so convinced that God wants them to be involved in politics at all? And if God punishes people with death for complaining against the behavior of their leader, why do some Christians get so up in arms when a dictator abuses his power somewhere in the world?
There is something within us that recognizes that we are all connected as human beings. We call it human rights, and we refer to human dignity and such, but whatever terminology we use, there is something within us that is offended by a politically powerful person hurting less politically powerful people. We know that there is something wrong with genocide. We know that there is something wrong with testing weapons on innocents. We have started to become a bit jaded by this point, but a part of us knows that there is something wrong with using violence to solve our problems. Even people who vehemently defend preemptive aggression know in some part of themselves that there's something wrong with that course of action.
We don't just intuitively know that there's something wrong with using violence to preserve or challenge power. We also have piles of historical evidence to support that belief. From the aforementioned gangster movies to gang violence in urban America to drug cartels south of the border to Middle Eastern warlords that have been at each other’s throats for millennia, violence begets violence. This is not a new idea. This is nothing original. And yet, we are often quick to promote the easy and reactive solution to the world's problems.
It's interesting to note that the people who were challenging Moses' authority in Numbers 16 weren't out for blood. They wanted to be given equal consideration, and they wanted leadership that would benefit the Israelites beyond just scraping up unidentifiable "dew flakes" from the desert generation after generation. And when the first complainers got killed, the mob that rose up in their defense wasn't trying to knock Moses completely down off his pharonic pedestal. They were just saying, "We don't approve of you causing those people's deaths." I guess the example of divine violence in response to those complaints is what gives many believers today the impression that violence is a holy ideal. It isn't.
People don't always want to do what they know is right, though. Even when we recognize the endless and futile vendetta cycles that violence provokes, we still want to be violent. Even when we realize that some complaints about our leadership have merit, we still want to defend ourselves rather than admit that we've made a mistake. Sometimes we want permission to make decisions that go against the deepest truths that we know. Sometimes we just want permission to be thoughtless – to make a choice and then not be held responsible for the consequences. And so we perform little acts of divination.
For Moses and Aaron, it was a matter of whose incense would be lit or whose staff would blossom. For us today, we may interpret divine approval from getting a particular piece of mail just after a significant phone conversation, turning on the radio just in time to hear something important, or running into someone at a neighborhood supermarket. I know some Christians who literally believe that God will provide answers to their personal problems if they just let their Bible fall open randomly. Hitting all green lights on your way across town does not mean that some supernatural overseer approves of your destination. When the man in your television set looks out into your eyes and points, he's not literally speaking to you personally. And if he is, it's a clever trick.
Whether someone is dealing out tarot cards, casting bones, reading tea leaves, or treating scripture like a fortune cookie, divinations work because of what we already know. We already know what we believe is right in a given circumstance, and we already know what we actually want. We use divinations of various kinds to give us permission not to think too hard about it when a conflict arises between what we believe and what we want in the moment. When we actually take the time to consider what we believe and what we want, we stand a pretty good chance of learning something about ourselves. We might reconsider our beliefs, or they might be refined a bit. We might realize that what we want is superficial or petty compared to beliefs that are very important to us. Either way, we grow a bit when we actually work out those conflicts instead of relying on some kind of divination to give us an easy answer.
These chapters of the book of Numbers reveal some prevalent tendencies we slip into very easily. We want to save face. When someone challenges us, our impulse is to defend ourselves. And when we experience self-doubt or internal conflict, we often want easy third-party permission instead of in-depth self examination. We know that these things don't ultimately serve us, but they are starting point behaviors from which we can grow. Imagine a leader who could handle the criticism of 250 people without resorting to having the earth swallow them up. Imagine a leader who could admit that he exercised poor judgment in a particular instance instead of letting thousands of people die to keep his position of power intact. That would be an impressive leader. And imagine what life would be like if more people took a moment or two to think about their actions instead of letting random meaningless symbols determine things on their behalf. It wouldn't mean that people always made wise choices, but it would certainly encourage personal responsibility for those choices.
As with all change, it starts with you.
Keep growing.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Numbers 11: Replacing the Lesson that Complaining Will Get You Killed with Something More Useful
Chapters 7-10 of the book of Numbers recount more of the details of sacred paraphernalia, offerings made by different bloodlines, and the roles of different tribes within the Israelite community. It may be useful to organize a society by predetermining what duties each person will have according to heredity. All of the necessary tasks are covered and everyone knows what is expected of them. This isn't how most civilizations work in the twenty-first century. We've given up the idea that a deity has prescribed what our contributions to society will be based on our parentage. Some people still believe that God has a plan for their lives. People are just more free to individually interpret what that plan is in a well-established society which holds personal freedom as an ideal.
People still like to complain, however. Even though our lot in life is not nearly as restrictively defined as the Israelites', we still find things to complain about. One of the advantages of belief in an all-knowing deity who has a plan for your life is that you have someone to complain to when you don't enjoy the direction your life is taking. In Numbers 11, when people complained to God, he took umbrage to the extent that he doled out poisonous food. Nowadays, not many people seem to think that complaining to God will get them killed, but maybe the God in the story also had a valid point.
First, let's look at what the people were complaining about. If we just assume the truth of the biblical story and leave archaeological research out of it, the Israelites had left what appeared to be a fairly cushy existence in slavery, with all the fish and cucumbers they could eat. Life had been stable, even if they weren't as respected as the native Egyptians. The human race still hasn't outgrown its propensity for looking down on foreigners, so before we think too ill of the Egyptians we might take a hard look at our modern sensibilities. Once they left Egypt, the Israelites were not living the high life, but they also didn't take much personal responsibility for their predicament. They blamed Moses for convincing them to leave, and since Moses was God's spokesman, they blamed God too. Never mind that they proudly looted the Egyptians as they willingly crossed the border into a barren wasteland which turned out to have no reliable food source and little water.
They discovered a substance that was edible. It was there on the ground every morning, and they could grind it up and make little cakes out of it. Since they didn't know what it was, they called it "what is it?", and since they didn't know where it came from, they quickly determined that it came from their god. People trying to identify manna today have theorized various possibilities, from plant lice (what plants?) to hallucinogenic fungus. The Israelites knew it as bread from heaven. Their god was taking care of them. But that's all there was. Eating the same thing day after day, living as tent-dwelling nomads, not knowing where there would be another source of potable water -- it understandably wore on people who were used to a stable life and a stable diet. Personal responsibility wasn't on their minds, though. According to the biblical narrative, they didn't put their heads together and come up with viable solutions. They complained. Moses was the one in charge, so they complained to Moses. God was the one responsible for guiding Moses, so they complained to God.
Moses complains to God, too. In a mirror of an earlier passage from Exodus, Moses complains that God has made him the nurse maid of the Israelite multitude and asks how he is supposed to feed them. Perhaps it was his way of goading God into action. God's first response was to have Moses appoint elders to assist him. Now, Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, had given this advice back in Exodus, and elders got appointed, so it's likely that this is simply a different version of the story about how the first elders got appointed. God gets all the credit for the idea in this one. Sorry, Jethro -- your part's been cut.
God's other reactions to the Israelites are quite hostile, though. When he first hears them complaining, he gets angry. So angry that he burns part of their community. Then, a "wind from the Lord" brings flocks of quail to the Israelites, and "while the meat was still in their teeth" he sends a plague among them and kills off a bunch of the complainers. What!? He gives them meat (which was obviously within his power to provide) and then punishes them for eating it. The underlying messages to this are manifold, but among them are: Don't make God angry. Don't complain. Don't trust gifts from a divine source. Appreciate what you have...
That last one's not actually a bad thing to remember. While we may not like the way the Israelite god taught the lesson, the lesson is still valuable. Even when we want to see some things improve in our lives, the place to start is by appreciating what we have. What we have may just be a fabric roof over our heads, a meager water supply, and bushels of insect residue, but that's still food and shelter. It's worth appreciating what we have, even when we aren't willing to settle for it. When we utterly reject our circumstances, we waste energy on denying reality. It's hard to find a way forward if you won't even accept where you are.
The rest of the story is frankly ludicrous. A fire gets started, maliciously or by accident, and some people get sick because they didn't cook their food properly. Because these things happened on the heels of some rampant complaining, the events get connected. It's understandable that the human mind works that way, but it's nonsense. The divine characteristics we all possess are not out to get us or punish us. More to the point, the divine is personal -- it's not capable of wiping out communities of people or burning outposts. There may be other parts of a person's psyche that contrive punishment, but the divine is simply the sense of deep truth, beauty, and creativity that we all possess. So, it's not going to punish us for complaining. Our divine self may actually be the source of some complaints, especially when we are complaining about a real injustice taking place around us. How we deal with our complaints is the real issue.
We could sit on a bar stool and tell the guy pouring us drinks all of our problems. We may call a friend and gripe for hours. We might write angry letters or emails just to vent our frustrations. There are so many unproductive things we can do with our complaints. When we have a complaint about something, though, we also have the ability to evaluate our complaint. If we are willing to start by really appreciating what we already have, our evaluation will be more accurate.
A complaint always arises from a desire. So, instead of just declaring the wrongness of a situation, identify what it is that you want. This may be coming from a very shallow part of your personality, or it may be a very deep-seated need that you've been ignoring. If all of the Israelites did this, they might come up with hundreds of different actual desires underneath their complaints. Some of them may have just wanted to find a spice plant to add some flavor variety to their hallucinogenic fungus. Some of them may have wanted to wander closer to a larger body of water so they could fish. Their solutions would not be universal. Knowing the desire underneath the complaint is crucial to creating a solution.
Once you know what it is that you actually want, you can assess that desire based on reality and your core beliefs, which emerge from that divine character we've been talking about. If what you realize you want is a more reliable vehicle, buying a new car may not be within the reality of your current finances. In that case, you'll need to create a plan that will be a little more involved that going down to the dealership and throwing down your credit card. If what you realize you want is to do bodily harm to another human being, you aren't done defining what you actually want. When you are honestly tapping into your inner sense of truth, beauty, and creativity, it affects the way you see other people. You may be so angry that you don't want to think of another person as a vulnerable, beautiful, inspiring human being. That anger has a deeper desire beneath it. What is it that you actually want?
This takes practice for anyone who isn't accustomed to defining their desires so precisely. The good news is that there is no actual punishment for complaining to yourself, and you are the only person who can ultimately determine what desire is behind the complaint. Once you have clearly defined that desire, and it matches with your deepest sense of truth and beauty with no indignation or machismo or emotional buffers, you can use your own personal creativity to determine a course of action. You create the solutions to your complaints, and you have a capacity to do so in a way that is honors reality and honors the other people around you. Some solutions are simple changes in your own behavior. Some solutions may involve organizing other people, or becoming more involved in an existing organization, in a campaign against a larger injustice. When you keep yourself grounded in the character of the divine, you'll be able to make adjustments to your plan whenever it veers away from reality or threatens to ignore the beauty and value of other people.
So, complain away. Your complaints are most likely valid expressions of something you truly want. Just be sure to complain to the one person who can actually do something about your complaint. Ultimately, you are personally responsible for defining what you want, even if thousands of other people seem to have the same complaint as you. When you respond from a place of deep truth, beauty, and creativity often enough, you may find that you skip over the complaining and cut straight to defining what you want. That's alright, too.
People still like to complain, however. Even though our lot in life is not nearly as restrictively defined as the Israelites', we still find things to complain about. One of the advantages of belief in an all-knowing deity who has a plan for your life is that you have someone to complain to when you don't enjoy the direction your life is taking. In Numbers 11, when people complained to God, he took umbrage to the extent that he doled out poisonous food. Nowadays, not many people seem to think that complaining to God will get them killed, but maybe the God in the story also had a valid point.
First, let's look at what the people were complaining about. If we just assume the truth of the biblical story and leave archaeological research out of it, the Israelites had left what appeared to be a fairly cushy existence in slavery, with all the fish and cucumbers they could eat. Life had been stable, even if they weren't as respected as the native Egyptians. The human race still hasn't outgrown its propensity for looking down on foreigners, so before we think too ill of the Egyptians we might take a hard look at our modern sensibilities. Once they left Egypt, the Israelites were not living the high life, but they also didn't take much personal responsibility for their predicament. They blamed Moses for convincing them to leave, and since Moses was God's spokesman, they blamed God too. Never mind that they proudly looted the Egyptians as they willingly crossed the border into a barren wasteland which turned out to have no reliable food source and little water.
They discovered a substance that was edible. It was there on the ground every morning, and they could grind it up and make little cakes out of it. Since they didn't know what it was, they called it "what is it?", and since they didn't know where it came from, they quickly determined that it came from their god. People trying to identify manna today have theorized various possibilities, from plant lice (what plants?) to hallucinogenic fungus. The Israelites knew it as bread from heaven. Their god was taking care of them. But that's all there was. Eating the same thing day after day, living as tent-dwelling nomads, not knowing where there would be another source of potable water -- it understandably wore on people who were used to a stable life and a stable diet. Personal responsibility wasn't on their minds, though. According to the biblical narrative, they didn't put their heads together and come up with viable solutions. They complained. Moses was the one in charge, so they complained to Moses. God was the one responsible for guiding Moses, so they complained to God.
Moses complains to God, too. In a mirror of an earlier passage from Exodus, Moses complains that God has made him the nurse maid of the Israelite multitude and asks how he is supposed to feed them. Perhaps it was his way of goading God into action. God's first response was to have Moses appoint elders to assist him. Now, Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, had given this advice back in Exodus, and elders got appointed, so it's likely that this is simply a different version of the story about how the first elders got appointed. God gets all the credit for the idea in this one. Sorry, Jethro -- your part's been cut.
God's other reactions to the Israelites are quite hostile, though. When he first hears them complaining, he gets angry. So angry that he burns part of their community. Then, a "wind from the Lord" brings flocks of quail to the Israelites, and "while the meat was still in their teeth" he sends a plague among them and kills off a bunch of the complainers. What!? He gives them meat (which was obviously within his power to provide) and then punishes them for eating it. The underlying messages to this are manifold, but among them are: Don't make God angry. Don't complain. Don't trust gifts from a divine source. Appreciate what you have...
That last one's not actually a bad thing to remember. While we may not like the way the Israelite god taught the lesson, the lesson is still valuable. Even when we want to see some things improve in our lives, the place to start is by appreciating what we have. What we have may just be a fabric roof over our heads, a meager water supply, and bushels of insect residue, but that's still food and shelter. It's worth appreciating what we have, even when we aren't willing to settle for it. When we utterly reject our circumstances, we waste energy on denying reality. It's hard to find a way forward if you won't even accept where you are.
The rest of the story is frankly ludicrous. A fire gets started, maliciously or by accident, and some people get sick because they didn't cook their food properly. Because these things happened on the heels of some rampant complaining, the events get connected. It's understandable that the human mind works that way, but it's nonsense. The divine characteristics we all possess are not out to get us or punish us. More to the point, the divine is personal -- it's not capable of wiping out communities of people or burning outposts. There may be other parts of a person's psyche that contrive punishment, but the divine is simply the sense of deep truth, beauty, and creativity that we all possess. So, it's not going to punish us for complaining. Our divine self may actually be the source of some complaints, especially when we are complaining about a real injustice taking place around us. How we deal with our complaints is the real issue.
We could sit on a bar stool and tell the guy pouring us drinks all of our problems. We may call a friend and gripe for hours. We might write angry letters or emails just to vent our frustrations. There are so many unproductive things we can do with our complaints. When we have a complaint about something, though, we also have the ability to evaluate our complaint. If we are willing to start by really appreciating what we already have, our evaluation will be more accurate.
A complaint always arises from a desire. So, instead of just declaring the wrongness of a situation, identify what it is that you want. This may be coming from a very shallow part of your personality, or it may be a very deep-seated need that you've been ignoring. If all of the Israelites did this, they might come up with hundreds of different actual desires underneath their complaints. Some of them may have just wanted to find a spice plant to add some flavor variety to their hallucinogenic fungus. Some of them may have wanted to wander closer to a larger body of water so they could fish. Their solutions would not be universal. Knowing the desire underneath the complaint is crucial to creating a solution.
Once you know what it is that you actually want, you can assess that desire based on reality and your core beliefs, which emerge from that divine character we've been talking about. If what you realize you want is a more reliable vehicle, buying a new car may not be within the reality of your current finances. In that case, you'll need to create a plan that will be a little more involved that going down to the dealership and throwing down your credit card. If what you realize you want is to do bodily harm to another human being, you aren't done defining what you actually want. When you are honestly tapping into your inner sense of truth, beauty, and creativity, it affects the way you see other people. You may be so angry that you don't want to think of another person as a vulnerable, beautiful, inspiring human being. That anger has a deeper desire beneath it. What is it that you actually want?
This takes practice for anyone who isn't accustomed to defining their desires so precisely. The good news is that there is no actual punishment for complaining to yourself, and you are the only person who can ultimately determine what desire is behind the complaint. Once you have clearly defined that desire, and it matches with your deepest sense of truth and beauty with no indignation or machismo or emotional buffers, you can use your own personal creativity to determine a course of action. You create the solutions to your complaints, and you have a capacity to do so in a way that is honors reality and honors the other people around you. Some solutions are simple changes in your own behavior. Some solutions may involve organizing other people, or becoming more involved in an existing organization, in a campaign against a larger injustice. When you keep yourself grounded in the character of the divine, you'll be able to make adjustments to your plan whenever it veers away from reality or threatens to ignore the beauty and value of other people.
So, complain away. Your complaints are most likely valid expressions of something you truly want. Just be sure to complain to the one person who can actually do something about your complaint. Ultimately, you are personally responsible for defining what you want, even if thousands of other people seem to have the same complaint as you. When you respond from a place of deep truth, beauty, and creativity often enough, you may find that you skip over the complaining and cut straight to defining what you want. That's alright, too.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Evaluating the Power of Prayer: Is It Magic, Meaningless, or Personally Transformative?
A couple of times in the story of Isaac and Rebekah, the practice of prayer comes up. It will continue to come up frequently in scripture, obviously, so a basic understanding of prayer seems appropriate at this point. Even among religious people, there are different beliefs about the value of prayer. Some people claim that prayer can heal disease, mend broken relationships, provide guidance or comfort. However, there are also medical studies which suggest that people have more post-surgery complications if they know that strangers are praying for them. Whatever the case, any understanding of prayer has to take into consideration the belief system in which it originates.
Most Christians would agree that the God they believe in is omniscient, omnipotent, and loving and compassionate beyond human capability. In light of this view of an external divine being, prayer can have only a few possible interpretations. Sincere prayer can only be magic, meaningless, or solely valuable to the person doing the praying. Public prayer can also be used by people who want to convey the appearance of righteousness and holiness for political reasons, and prayers can be used by people who want an excuse for certain actions or decisions. These distortions are less than sincere, however, and this is an important distinction to make. It goes without saying that the practice of using prayer to manipulate other people’s opinions or perceptions is despicable and abusive.
But why would sincere, effective prayer be equated with magic? Any time people believe that they can have a supernatural effect on the world around them, this is the practice of magic, witchcraft, or alchemy. If God can be convinced to take action by a person’s persistence or faith, this actually places power in the hands of the believer rather than a deity. It is really no different from deciding that if the right color candles are lit and the right incantation spoken, you can make another person fall in love with you, or recover from an illness. Of course, one may believe that God is a loving and all-powerful being who simply waits for the actions of believers in order to have an impact in the world. There’s nothing to prevent a person from believing that the prayers of the faithful can move God to action. But a person who believes in that particular flavor of witchcraft or magic should at least recognize it for what it is.
If there is an all-knowing, loving deity who cares for people, then it follows that such a being would do what it was willing to do, whether people asked for it or not. If God intended to heal someone, it would seem that the person would get healed whether anyone prayed for it or not. So, if prayers are not magic, and if God is completely powerful and loving, then there’s actually no real value to prayer. God will do what God will do, whether believers request it or not. Otherwise, people are constantly at the mercy of those who choose to pray rather than a divine power.
None of this changes when one considers the idea of prayers for guidance. In witchcraft terms, this would be called divination. People have also used astrological charts, tea leaves, Tarot cards, bones, gut instinct, self-help books, and any number of other resources for guidance. It’s natural to want to know what the right answer is before making a decision. But if one can coax an answer from God by fervent prayer, this is really no different from sorcery. Likewise, if God wishes to put a believer’s feet on a particular path, wouldn’t he do so with or without a specific request for guidance? There is nothing loving or compassionate about playing games with people’s fates based on whether they ask the right questions.
There is another option, however. Whether any sort of divine being exists or acts in the world, prayer can alter the perspective and the attitude of the person doing the praying. When people take the time to quiet their minds and sincerely align their attitudes with their values, there can be a profound personal impact. One may not be able to cure cancer with an attitude adjustment, but a person can certainly find peace and guidance from a still moment of contemplation or prayer. There is also the matter of gratitude to be considered. Recognizing and expressing one’s gratitude can be an extraordinary way to align one’s actions and intentions with deeply held values.
The objection may be voiced that prayer must be directed outward, by definition. How can one seek guidance if there is no higher power to do the guiding? How can one express free-floating gratitude without someone to be grateful to? I honestly don’t see the problem with turning inward for guidance, or in acknowledging gratitude without a deity to address. Just as happiness and anger and sadness are emotions that don’t always have discretely defined objects, gratitude is an emotion. One can be thankful without addressing the thankfulness to anyone in particular. And I believe that many people already know the answers to their important decisions, although we don’t always trust ourselves. We want some sort of reassurance, especially when our ideas seem out of sync with mainstream thought. Realizing one’s capability to guide oneself can empower a person to take action even when there are no blatant signs from above to rely on.
In fact, taking action is perhaps the most effective way to ensure that a prayer will be fulfilled. There is perhaps a temptation to wait for an external deity to do something. This temptation is fueled by a perception of an external divine that is wiser than any person and capable of producing miracles with the same ease that human beings breathe. Without an illusory deity to grant wishes, it falls to the individual to act in accord with a sincere prayer. Hopefully, such action will not only be in accord with an ephemeral wish, but also in alignment with deeply held values. So often, people can be their own answer to prayer, if they are only willing to act in accord with what they want and bring forth the power of creation that dwells within every person.
Most Christians would agree that the God they believe in is omniscient, omnipotent, and loving and compassionate beyond human capability. In light of this view of an external divine being, prayer can have only a few possible interpretations. Sincere prayer can only be magic, meaningless, or solely valuable to the person doing the praying. Public prayer can also be used by people who want to convey the appearance of righteousness and holiness for political reasons, and prayers can be used by people who want an excuse for certain actions or decisions. These distortions are less than sincere, however, and this is an important distinction to make. It goes without saying that the practice of using prayer to manipulate other people’s opinions or perceptions is despicable and abusive.
But why would sincere, effective prayer be equated with magic? Any time people believe that they can have a supernatural effect on the world around them, this is the practice of magic, witchcraft, or alchemy. If God can be convinced to take action by a person’s persistence or faith, this actually places power in the hands of the believer rather than a deity. It is really no different from deciding that if the right color candles are lit and the right incantation spoken, you can make another person fall in love with you, or recover from an illness. Of course, one may believe that God is a loving and all-powerful being who simply waits for the actions of believers in order to have an impact in the world. There’s nothing to prevent a person from believing that the prayers of the faithful can move God to action. But a person who believes in that particular flavor of witchcraft or magic should at least recognize it for what it is.
If there is an all-knowing, loving deity who cares for people, then it follows that such a being would do what it was willing to do, whether people asked for it or not. If God intended to heal someone, it would seem that the person would get healed whether anyone prayed for it or not. So, if prayers are not magic, and if God is completely powerful and loving, then there’s actually no real value to prayer. God will do what God will do, whether believers request it or not. Otherwise, people are constantly at the mercy of those who choose to pray rather than a divine power.
None of this changes when one considers the idea of prayers for guidance. In witchcraft terms, this would be called divination. People have also used astrological charts, tea leaves, Tarot cards, bones, gut instinct, self-help books, and any number of other resources for guidance. It’s natural to want to know what the right answer is before making a decision. But if one can coax an answer from God by fervent prayer, this is really no different from sorcery. Likewise, if God wishes to put a believer’s feet on a particular path, wouldn’t he do so with or without a specific request for guidance? There is nothing loving or compassionate about playing games with people’s fates based on whether they ask the right questions.
There is another option, however. Whether any sort of divine being exists or acts in the world, prayer can alter the perspective and the attitude of the person doing the praying. When people take the time to quiet their minds and sincerely align their attitudes with their values, there can be a profound personal impact. One may not be able to cure cancer with an attitude adjustment, but a person can certainly find peace and guidance from a still moment of contemplation or prayer. There is also the matter of gratitude to be considered. Recognizing and expressing one’s gratitude can be an extraordinary way to align one’s actions and intentions with deeply held values.
The objection may be voiced that prayer must be directed outward, by definition. How can one seek guidance if there is no higher power to do the guiding? How can one express free-floating gratitude without someone to be grateful to? I honestly don’t see the problem with turning inward for guidance, or in acknowledging gratitude without a deity to address. Just as happiness and anger and sadness are emotions that don’t always have discretely defined objects, gratitude is an emotion. One can be thankful without addressing the thankfulness to anyone in particular. And I believe that many people already know the answers to their important decisions, although we don’t always trust ourselves. We want some sort of reassurance, especially when our ideas seem out of sync with mainstream thought. Realizing one’s capability to guide oneself can empower a person to take action even when there are no blatant signs from above to rely on.
In fact, taking action is perhaps the most effective way to ensure that a prayer will be fulfilled. There is perhaps a temptation to wait for an external deity to do something. This temptation is fueled by a perception of an external divine that is wiser than any person and capable of producing miracles with the same ease that human beings breathe. Without an illusory deity to grant wishes, it falls to the individual to act in accord with a sincere prayer. Hopefully, such action will not only be in accord with an ephemeral wish, but also in alignment with deeply held values. So often, people can be their own answer to prayer, if they are only willing to act in accord with what they want and bring forth the power of creation that dwells within every person.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Relying on Signs from God and the Abdication of Personal Responsibility
Much of the book of Genesis is about cultural history: where places are located and the origins of their names, the lines of successions of various places’ rulers, and the lineage of the forefathers of the Jewish people. Then there are stories about those forefathers, some of which seem like they could have been written by a sensationalist modern-day screen writer. Although some people see only encouraging spiritual lessons in these stories, the tales contain some rather disturbing content as well. Taking things in bite-sized chronological chunks doesn’t necessarily give a complete picture of what’s going on with these people, so the next few segments will dwell on a span of chapters from Genesis 24–36.
After Sarah dies, Abraham takes on another wife, Keturah (presumably a local Canaanite girl), and she is young enough to bear him six more children. The descendants of these children became the Letushites, Leummites, and the Midianites. Although the Letushites and the Leummites are not mentioned again, the Midanites thrive as nomadic, polytheistic shepherds until Moses raises up an army to destroy them. The atrocities of that hostility are not enough to put the Midianites down, though, because they return later on to be a thorn in Israel’s side during Gideon’s time.
Abraham apparently did not have the same kind of close or instructive relationship with the sons of Keturah as he did with his son Isaac. Still, before he died, Abraham gave considerable gifts to the children of his concubines (plural) and sent them away, leaving Isaac with whatever was left. But Abraham didn’t think a Canaanite girl would be good enough for his son, so he sent his right-hand man back to the land of Abraham’s people to get a wife for Isaac. The servant set out for Nahor, the town founded by Abraham’s brother, where he met Rebekah, the grand-daughter of Nahor (which means she’s Abraham’s grand-neice, and Isaac’s first cousin, once removed).
When the servant sees Rebekah, he knows that this is the woman for Isaac. He claims that this is because he prayed to God and defined the precise signs by which he wanted God to guide him. The precise signs were the first girl who offered him water to drink and water for his camels, and to make it easy on God, the servant stood next to a spring. This level of hospitality was not uncommon for the region and the time, so the servant was basically making it easy on himself. When he saw Rebekah, he also rushed to intercept her, doing his part to help things along.
Rebekah’s brother, Laban (who will show his true colors when Isaac’s son Jacob comes a-courting), and her mother, Bethuel, approve of the marriage and send Rebekah off to join Isaac in Canaan. The story suggests that they approve because of the servant’s tale about praying to God and then seeing Rebekah, and her display of hospitality in offering water to him and his camels. While it is impossible to know what goes on in the mind of every modern-day believer, it seems suspect to dictate exactly how a god should reveal the right decision. If I want to go out looking for a wife, I could say, “God, send me a sign by having the woman you want me to marry smile back when I smile at her.” I could then go out and smile at any attractive woman I encounter, and voila! God has spoken.
On the other hand, if I am enjoying bachelor life, I could say, “God, send me a sign by having the woman you want me to marry ride up on a grizzly bear, juggling artichokes and singing Mack the Knife.” I could then sit in my house all day and determine that God doesn’t want me to marry anyone. I might make such demands based on my level of interest in the result, or as a way of acting out a self-destructive drama. Either way, the decisions I make determine the likelihood that I will get what I want out of the situation. Attributing things to God serves the twofold purpose of getting human beings off the hook and making the decision indisputable.
The response to a prayer of Isaac shows a different side of the perceived external divine, however. Rebekah was childless, so Isaac prayed to God that she would have children. His prayer was answered. Rebekah got pregnant, but she had a feeling that something was wrong. God told her that the twins she was carrying would establish nations which would be at odds with each other, and that the older would serve the younger. Some kind of cosmic practical joke? “I will answer your prayer for children by cursing you with children who have problems getting along with each other.”
Well, these kinds of prophecies are easy to make after the fact. There are many women in the world who get pregnant without praying for it, and there are many women in the world who don’t get pregnant despite fervent prayer. Just as prayer doesn’t make the right bride appear, prayer doesn’t make conception occur. If it did, that would be like magic. And while it’s convenient to blame a divine prophecy for the behavior of siblings, the story reveals plenty of reasons why Rebekah’s twins, Jacob and Esau, would have a difficult time getting along with each other, not the least of which was parental favoritism which led to bullying and deception. We surely can’t lay all of that on the shoulders of an external divine being.
It’s convenient to place control of all that is good or bad in the hands of an external, all-powerful being. When we like something that has happened to us, the external divine can serve as an object for our gratitude. When we don’t like what has happened to us, we can blame an external divine instead of our own choices, and if we are fearful enough of that external divine being, we will accept the consequences without too much complaining. After all, “everything is just as God wants it to be.”
The problem, of course (as has been stated before), is that people make decisions and choices that impact their lives and the lives of people around them. Sometimes, it would be easier just to be honest with ourselves about what we want. After a long journey, if you are willing to ask the first attractive girl you see to marry your master’s son, just be honest about it. Gut reactions and personal desires are going to determine those things anyway. Just be honest with yourself. If you want to go out and get a job, make the decision to go out and do everything within your power to get it. If you just think that you should be working, out of a sense of obligation, be honest that your heart isn’t really in the search. Figure out what is standing in your way, and be honest about what you want. The results of being blatantly honest with oneself can be profound and life-altering. Attributing every outcome to something outside of oneself is a form of victimhood, and it can lead to seeing oneself as weak and incapable. Most people are strong enough and capable enough to be honest and take responsibility for their own actions.
Accepting a realistic level of personal responsibility for our circumstances is healthy, as is recognizing what aspects of our lives are simply out of our control. Just because something is out of our spectrum of control, however, doesn’t mean that it is meant to be or willed by an omniscient being. Sometimes, things just are. There’s no divine purpose behind a bad relationship, or a toxic work environment, or problems with the construction of a house, or the death of a family member in a car wreck. One can potentially reap spiritual benefits from any circumstance, but that again comes down to personal choice.
After Sarah dies, Abraham takes on another wife, Keturah (presumably a local Canaanite girl), and she is young enough to bear him six more children. The descendants of these children became the Letushites, Leummites, and the Midianites. Although the Letushites and the Leummites are not mentioned again, the Midanites thrive as nomadic, polytheistic shepherds until Moses raises up an army to destroy them. The atrocities of that hostility are not enough to put the Midianites down, though, because they return later on to be a thorn in Israel’s side during Gideon’s time.
Abraham apparently did not have the same kind of close or instructive relationship with the sons of Keturah as he did with his son Isaac. Still, before he died, Abraham gave considerable gifts to the children of his concubines (plural) and sent them away, leaving Isaac with whatever was left. But Abraham didn’t think a Canaanite girl would be good enough for his son, so he sent his right-hand man back to the land of Abraham’s people to get a wife for Isaac. The servant set out for Nahor, the town founded by Abraham’s brother, where he met Rebekah, the grand-daughter of Nahor (which means she’s Abraham’s grand-neice, and Isaac’s first cousin, once removed).
When the servant sees Rebekah, he knows that this is the woman for Isaac. He claims that this is because he prayed to God and defined the precise signs by which he wanted God to guide him. The precise signs were the first girl who offered him water to drink and water for his camels, and to make it easy on God, the servant stood next to a spring. This level of hospitality was not uncommon for the region and the time, so the servant was basically making it easy on himself. When he saw Rebekah, he also rushed to intercept her, doing his part to help things along.
Rebekah’s brother, Laban (who will show his true colors when Isaac’s son Jacob comes a-courting), and her mother, Bethuel, approve of the marriage and send Rebekah off to join Isaac in Canaan. The story suggests that they approve because of the servant’s tale about praying to God and then seeing Rebekah, and her display of hospitality in offering water to him and his camels. While it is impossible to know what goes on in the mind of every modern-day believer, it seems suspect to dictate exactly how a god should reveal the right decision. If I want to go out looking for a wife, I could say, “God, send me a sign by having the woman you want me to marry smile back when I smile at her.” I could then go out and smile at any attractive woman I encounter, and voila! God has spoken.
On the other hand, if I am enjoying bachelor life, I could say, “God, send me a sign by having the woman you want me to marry ride up on a grizzly bear, juggling artichokes and singing Mack the Knife.” I could then sit in my house all day and determine that God doesn’t want me to marry anyone. I might make such demands based on my level of interest in the result, or as a way of acting out a self-destructive drama. Either way, the decisions I make determine the likelihood that I will get what I want out of the situation. Attributing things to God serves the twofold purpose of getting human beings off the hook and making the decision indisputable.
The response to a prayer of Isaac shows a different side of the perceived external divine, however. Rebekah was childless, so Isaac prayed to God that she would have children. His prayer was answered. Rebekah got pregnant, but she had a feeling that something was wrong. God told her that the twins she was carrying would establish nations which would be at odds with each other, and that the older would serve the younger. Some kind of cosmic practical joke? “I will answer your prayer for children by cursing you with children who have problems getting along with each other.”
Well, these kinds of prophecies are easy to make after the fact. There are many women in the world who get pregnant without praying for it, and there are many women in the world who don’t get pregnant despite fervent prayer. Just as prayer doesn’t make the right bride appear, prayer doesn’t make conception occur. If it did, that would be like magic. And while it’s convenient to blame a divine prophecy for the behavior of siblings, the story reveals plenty of reasons why Rebekah’s twins, Jacob and Esau, would have a difficult time getting along with each other, not the least of which was parental favoritism which led to bullying and deception. We surely can’t lay all of that on the shoulders of an external divine being.
It’s convenient to place control of all that is good or bad in the hands of an external, all-powerful being. When we like something that has happened to us, the external divine can serve as an object for our gratitude. When we don’t like what has happened to us, we can blame an external divine instead of our own choices, and if we are fearful enough of that external divine being, we will accept the consequences without too much complaining. After all, “everything is just as God wants it to be.”
The problem, of course (as has been stated before), is that people make decisions and choices that impact their lives and the lives of people around them. Sometimes, it would be easier just to be honest with ourselves about what we want. After a long journey, if you are willing to ask the first attractive girl you see to marry your master’s son, just be honest about it. Gut reactions and personal desires are going to determine those things anyway. Just be honest with yourself. If you want to go out and get a job, make the decision to go out and do everything within your power to get it. If you just think that you should be working, out of a sense of obligation, be honest that your heart isn’t really in the search. Figure out what is standing in your way, and be honest about what you want. The results of being blatantly honest with oneself can be profound and life-altering. Attributing every outcome to something outside of oneself is a form of victimhood, and it can lead to seeing oneself as weak and incapable. Most people are strong enough and capable enough to be honest and take responsibility for their own actions.
Accepting a realistic level of personal responsibility for our circumstances is healthy, as is recognizing what aspects of our lives are simply out of our control. Just because something is out of our spectrum of control, however, doesn’t mean that it is meant to be or willed by an omniscient being. Sometimes, things just are. There’s no divine purpose behind a bad relationship, or a toxic work environment, or problems with the construction of a house, or the death of a family member in a car wreck. One can potentially reap spiritual benefits from any circumstance, but that again comes down to personal choice.
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