Spared by Courage

When my mom was teaching high school in Nashville in the 1970s a kid in one of her classes brought a gun to school. He was planning to shoot another student.

A girl in class told her what was going on and my mom, in her fierceness, walked right up to the boy and demanded the gun. He yielded and handed it to her.

Later she said that was the craziest thing she had ever done as teacher. She realized she could have been shot, but in that moment she did not hesitate or doubt what needed to happen.

I wonder where the girl who told, and those two boys are today. What became of them? What of their families?

How fortunate they were to be spared that day some forty years ago.

“Without a cause”

This afternoon I was reading an account of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the words “without a cause” stood out like neon:

“Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matthew 5:21,22)

I suspect everyone thinks and feels that they have “cause” to be angry in the moment, but was that really what Jesus said or intended? It seems to contradict the life He lived. Particularly His words later in the same chapter:

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5: 43,44)

The latter is a worthy goal yet difficult to achieve if we are holding a personal “cause” so closely that we justify our anger.

But what does the text say? What do the oldest available manuscripts say? I pulled a book off the shelf to find out. Out of 24 different manuscripts “without a cause” is absent from seven, including the oldest.

Manuscript name, includes “without a cause”?

1. Papyrus 67 [P67] “Barcelona” (AD 125–50): No
2. Coptic [copsa, meg, bo] (third–fifth century): Yes
3. Old Syriac [syrs, c] (third–fourth century): Yes
4. Vaticanus [B] (AD 400): No
5. Sinaiticus [χ] (AD 400): No
6. Sinaiticus [χ2] (after AD 400): Yes
7. Old Latin [ita,b,c,d,f,h,k,l,q] (fourth–thirteenth century): Yes
8. Vulgate [vg] (fourth–fifth century): No
9. Ethiopic [ethms] (about AD 500): No
10. Ethiopic [ethTH] (about AD 500): Yes
11. Georgian [geo] (fifth century): Yes
12. Armenian [arm] (fifth century): Yes
13. Peshitta/Palestinian [syrp,pal] (fifth–sixth century): Yes
14. Bezae Canta [D] (AD 500): Yes
15. Washington [W] (AD 500): Yes
16. Old Latin [itaur] (AD 700): No
17. Byzantine (Byz [E S]) (AD 600–800): Yes
18. Paris [L] (AD 800): Yes
19. Old Church Slavonic [slav] (ninth century): Yes
20. St. Gall [?] (AD 900): Yes
21. Tbilisi [?] (AD 900): Yes
22. Greek Lectionaries [Lect] (AD 900–1576): Yes
23. Family 1,13 [f 1,13] (eleventh–fifteenth century): Yes
24. Miniscule 1292 [1292] (thirteenth century): No

This isn’t a new discussion (That’s how I knew which book to check), it’s been debated for more than 1000 years and the debate will likely continue. My conclusion? I see the statement “without a cause” in verse 22, answered by verse 44 – 46:

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?”

If I apply that message, it doesn’t allow much room for “cause” against anyone.

All You Take With You

“All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.”

“Love’s Austere and Lonely Offices”

This evening, I’ve been reflecting on the last two lines of the poem “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden. The character in the poem is an adult looking back at the cold winter mornings of youth, recognizing the lack of gratitude shown towards the family patriarch in what the author calls a house of “chronic angers.” The poem concludes with the lines:

“What did I know, what did I know of Love’s austere and lonely offices?”

The line “Love’s austere and lonely offices” is so pathetically true. Love is simple in nature yet there is a tendency to make it something glamorous, something beyond its scope. Something it cannot and should not be. At times, love is austere; it is stern and unadorned. It is silent, hidden behind the scenes.

A friend edits the ending of every fairy tales she reads to her children, adding; “and they worked really hard on their marriage, and lived happily ever after.” She is opening their imaginations to the story between the pages. The real life story of the silent heroes we call mom and dad.

For a child, love’s lonely office includes not understanding why “no” and “not now” mean “I love you.”

For a married couple love’s “lonely offices” are they places they stand without regard to personal pleasure. Because of love, friends and extended family never come first. Because of love, time and resources are sacrificed for things that hold little interest. Because of love, both will fret over whether or not they have done the right thing.

It is love that allows them to disagree passionately without fear that an opinion held too strongly will break them apart. It is love that allows conflict and love that keeps all other opportunities for romantic interest out of sight and out of mind.

Love’s eye is not blind. It is selective. It weighs truth in the balance and understands that no collection of flaws and quirks are superior to the man, woman, or child they have chosen.

Certainly “love’s austere and lonely offices” are not the only offices held in marriage, but they are the sacrificial offices required to keep the flame of love’s temple alive.

The Great Questions We Carry

Each year at Christmas my grandfather gives everyone in the family a small hand held puzzle. Often these puzzles are clear cubes containing metal balls and rings that must be aligned to complete a design. Most of the time I can see what I think the outcome should be, yet the challenge is finding the solution before I lose interest.

The wisdom in these little puzzles is clear. They parallel the individual and collective questions we all carry. Some are trivial and amusing, easily put down and picked up again. Others are larger and require more time and effort to solve. After a little fiddling these larger puzzles are often shelved in hopes that “some day” we’ll have time to spread out all the pieces and restore order to the chaos.

We seem to reserve a special place for the truly great questions and we keep them within constant reach. These are the questions of life that won’t let go. They demand our attention.

At times I’ve attempted to force pieces together that don’t belong. Particularly the beautiful pieces that seem so good together. Fabricating solutions in ignorance or accepting answers that are comfortable, but not accurate.

While there are clearly right and wrong choices, there is a wide spectrum of individual solutions within those bounds. Yet the constants, the rules that apply across that spectrum, can be difficult to identify independently. Many of life’s variables are in constant flux. We rarely get a bird’s eye view of the labyrinth, and few of life’s puzzles are cut as evenly as factory made cardboard and plastic.

Fortunately, when we find solutions we share them. Small and simple things can be the greatest gifts. Answers to long sought questions can be the key to gaining mountain top perspective on the dark valley of our lives. Sometimes answers come like a flood and other times in painfully slow drips.

The key is having a desire to search for solutions. To believe the answer exists and to keep working to discover answers that are equal to the questions.

What does this have to do with education and training? Everything.

The Duty of Transparency

This morning I attended the annual all staff meeting at the American Cancer Society National Home Office in Atlanta, GA. Out of all the interesting information that was shared this morning Dr. Otis W. Brawley, our Chief Medical Officer, comments were the most profound:

When dealing with very complicated things our obligation to the American people is to say what is known, what is not known, and what is believed, and label things accordingly.

How much better would we be as a nation and as individuals if we could be as forthright to recognize and admit what is known, what is not known, what is believed, and label them accordingly in all aspects of life.

Be a Tent Post in Your World

When a tent post is put in place everything rises. Be a tent post in your world. As you rise to do your duty, to be your best, everything and everyone around you is blessed. Choose to put forth the effort to be better at what you do and better at who you are.

Who are the tent posts in your life? Who has made your world better, your horizons wider, and you insights deeper because of their choices? Who are your examples for how to be?

In every aspect of life, we choose our leaders. It’s true that someone may be assigned to represent and guide us and, for a time, we may be obligated to follow, but if our heart isn’t in it we will choose someone else.

Others have chosen to look to you for guidance in some aspect of their life. They may never mention it and you may never know exactly when or where you made a difference. Your circle of influence is probably wider than you think. Each of us can choose our actions but we can never choose the consequences. So stand tall, lift from where you stand, and be true.