It is my sad observation that many people are busy going but really have absolutely no idea about their destination, their vision, or even their reason for continuing to go.  As I have continued to consider this observation I have been reminded of words from two of the beloved volumes on the shelves of my library.

Dr. Walter Bruggemann* writes:

That journey from anxious scarcity through miraculous abundance to a neighborly common good has been peculiarly entrusted to the church and its allies.  I take “church” here to refer to the institutional church, but I mean it not as a package of truth and control, but as a liturgical, interpretive offer to reimagine the world differently.  When the church only echoes the world’s kingdom of scarcity, then it has failed in its vocation.  But the faithful church keeps at the task of living out a journey that points to the common good. (32)

These are powerful words and will provide some of the launching point for several of the coming posts on this site.  They also remind me of words of another thoughtful mentor, Thomas L. Are**:

The song we sing is good.  It is called grace.

I have often felt that if I just had five days, or even five hours in which I were free to listen, God would surely speak to me.  It would have been important to me if he had done so.  I would have listened and now I would have been able to say, “Hear the new word from God.”

However, nothing like that has happened.  I have had many hours free.  God has had ample time to tell me anything he wants me to know.  I have been more quiet than usual and God has been terribly silent.

This disappoints me.  His silence has pushed me back to the old recourses of friends, books, and memories that have always sustained me.  I won’t give an authoritative new chapter but will reaffirm the same old word I have already said, done, thought, experienced, and half-believed all my life.

For the prophets, the only requirement for writing a book was to begin by saying, “Thus saith the Lord.”  Later the church fathers would write: “The church has alwyas said . . .”  I can’t say, “Thus saith the Lord,” because he doesn’t always speak to me.  Nor can I say, “The church has always said . . . ,” for the church has seldom had enough unity to have always said anything.  The most honest thing I can say is, “It seems to me.” (93)

And so for the next few posts I likely will begin with the phrase “It seems to me.”  I hope you might join the conversation.

*Brueggemann, Walter.  Journey to the Common Good.  Louisville:  Westminster John Knox Press, 2010.

**Are, Thomas L.  Faithsong: A New Look at the Ministry of Music.  Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1981

More important information and insight from Dr. William Loving*:

THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG

By William Loving, MD, ABAM

Imagine separating the brain into the areas of higher functions (above the ears) and lower primitive functions (below the ears). The higher functions such as speech, voluntary movement, will power, logic, judgment and ethics are located in the big wrinkled part of the brain above the ears. This area is called the cerebrum or neocortex. The primitive functions which are involuntary and instinctual in nature are located lower in the underbelly of the brain. This area is called the mid-brain and brain stem.

You might think that the pleasure or reward center is located in the area of higher function – but it is not. It is located in the primitive mid-brain. Stimulate this discrete area of the brain known as the reward center and the person feels pleasure, euphoria, or “high”. This is “where the action is” in the alcoholic or chemically dependent person’s brain. Because of their chemical structure, certain substances like alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, opiates and other drugs of abuse have their primary action at the reward center. When stimulated the reward center does two things – it makes chemically dependent or alcoholic people feel “high” and then it sends a message to the rest of the brain saying “do that again”.

It has been discovered, through animal studies and sophisticated brain scans, that the alcoholic and chemically dependent person has an ultra-sensitive reward center, and this type of stimulation causes it to overreact. That means the chemically dependent person not only gets a higher “high” than the average person, but, even more significantly, gets super strong messages saying “DO IT AGAIN!” Not only are these messages to repeat the behavior very strong, but they come from the primitive area of the brain. This means they trump control by the higher function area of the brain. Chemically dependent people find themselves obeying the primitive brain’s message even though it goes against their own logic, judgment, and ethics. The primitive brain then starts to run the show or control behavior, and the higher brain is just along for the ride.

When alcohol and/or drugs are actively used, the primary motivation and control of behavior is coming from the part of the brain below the ears. Above the ears the cerebrum just spends its time rationalizing, explaining away behavior, and lying, if necessary, to cover its tracks. One author said the brain gets “hijacked” by drugs and alcohol. When it comes to behavior, it is like the tail wagging the dog.

*http://www.billlovingmd.com/TailWaggingTheDog.php