Category Archives: Spiritual Life

Am I Hurting Myself without Realizing I Am?

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Presented October 9, 2011

Have you heard the expression, “That’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face”? You don’t hear it often, but you observe it frequently. I can give you three real-life examples.

A worker is angry with the company because they keep laying people off. Some of his best friends have lost their jobs because the corporation can’t make a profit. And he’s angry. So he decides to become lazy. He avoids doing routine maintenance on machinery. He pushes products that are defective down the line so they go out to the consumer, knowing that it will damage the company’s reputation and decrease their market share. He leaves early, getting someone else to punch him out. You know what this will mean, right? It will mean the company will have to lay off more workers — the very thing he hates. In his anger, he’s cutting off his own nose to get even with his face.

Or what about the husband is angry that his wife spent twice the money at Old Navy that he thought she should have. After all, they are saving for a vacation. So, to get revenge on her, he goes out and spends money on things he doesn’t even really want. A moose-call from Grices, though he has no plan to hunt moose. A new laptop, even though he hardly uses computers. A subscription to Consumer Reports magazine, though he won’t take time to read it. In his revenge, he’s cutting off his nose to get even with his face.

Or how about this one? A woman is angry with God because God’s not lived up to her expectations. God has not done what she wanted him to do in her marriage and with her boys. God has been speaking to her about her sin and she doesn’t like to hear that. So, to get back at God, she enters into a life that she knows would make God angry. And in the process, she risks everything – waking up morning after morning, wondering if she has AIDS. In her effort to get even with God, she’s damaging herself. She is cutting off her nose to spite her face.

People do this all the time.

In the life of Jesus, the people who needed him most injured themselves by attempting to injure him. They display this behavior throughout the gospels. They show it in living color today in our text. They cut off their noses to spite their faces.

Sometimes we do the same thing. This podcast addresses this tendency and helps us avoid it.

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Humor Among the Monks…

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In the movie, The Name of the Rose, Sean Connery’s character, William, is investigating suspicious activities in a medieval abbey. While he is investigating in a room filled with monks, a mouse scares those present and they laugh at one another for squealing like little girls.

Upon hearing the laughter, an elderly blind monk, Jorge, enters the room to protest the frivolity. As a lifelong advocate of humor among the brethren, I found their dialogue strangely familiar.

Jorge: (In a foreign language) A monk should not laugh for only the fools lifts up his voice in laughter. (In English) I trust my words did not offend you, Brother William. But I heard persons laughing at laughable things. You Franciscans, however, belong to an order where merriment is viewed with indulgence.

William: Yes, it’s true. St. Francis was much disposed to laughter.

Jorge: Laughter is a devilish wind which deforms, uh, the veinements of the face and makes the man look like monkeys.

William: Monkeys do not laugh. Laughter is particular to man.

Jorge: As a sin! Christ never laughed.

William: Can we be so sure?

Jorge: There is nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did!

William: And there is nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did not. Why even the saints have been known and employed comedy — to ridicule the enemies of the faith. For example, when the pagans  plunged Saint Maurus into the boiling water, he complained that his bath was too cold. The Sultan put his hand in — scolded himself.

Jorge: A saint immersed in boiling water does not play childish tricks; he restrains his cries and suffers for the truth.

William: And yet Aristotle devoted his second book of Poetics to comedy as an instrument of truth.

Jorge: You have read this work?

William: No, of course not. It’s been lost for many centuries.

Jorge: No, it has not! It was never written! Because Providence doesn’t want futile things glorified.

William: Oh this I must contest…

Jorge: Enough! This abbey’s overshadowed by grief, yet you would intrude on our sorrow with idle banter!

William: Forgive me venerable Jorge. My remarks were truly out of place.

No commentary here. Just a realization of the eternal struggle many have reconciling humor with their faith. For a thorough treatment of this, you might want to read, The Humor of Christ by Elton Trueblood. Trueblood saved me from losing my sense of humor to the Jorges of this world.

PS: Be aware that the movie is rated R. It’s not family friendly. A scene or two took me by surprise; then I remembered that rating systems are generally accurate. Duh.

PODCAST: The Audacity of Sin…

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Tiger Woods was talented, clean-cut, charismatic, and generally well-liked. He broke records in the world of golf. His marriage to Elin Nordegren seemed like a fairy tale — two beautiful people with beautiful children. Then, according to the media, Tiger made some bad decisions. Lots of bad decisions involving adultery. One news outlet reported in April that his numerous affairs have cost him about $1 million per mistress. It’s cost him more than that. His game is off. He’s no longer the golden-boy of golf. His popularity is in the basement. And he’s lost Elin. Recently a news headline read, “Tiger says being a father is hard since his divorce.” It’s a classic case of a superstar thinking that the rules didn’t apply to him. It was nothing more, nothing less than, audacity.

Recently, three college students crossed a safety barricade at the top of Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park so they could have their photo taken. The result was not pretty. The swift-moving water of the falls caught them and dragged all three over the 317 foot cliff. It was a classic case of intelligent people thinking that they knew better than the experts. Sad to say, it was pure and simple audacity. It cost them their lives.

In 2009, a 54-year-old mountain climbing guide, was leading come climbers up a snow-capped mountain in his native New Zealand. Although the spot he was climbing had melting snow and ice and he, being a seasoned climber, did not take the normal precautions of belaying himself. You know what happened, right? It was a classic case of a seasoned veteran thinking he was smart enough to break the rules. It is pure and simple audacity.

All three of these stories connect with the podcast here — a message about a man who thought he knew better than anyone else, even better than Jesus.

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