The Listening Ear

What would you choose: Change or Death?-2

I bet you still don’t believe it. Given the choice between change and death, nine out of ten of us would not change. Yet, according to Alan Deutschman’s Change or Die, that’s what study after study has shown.

One place where we see this happen in in the area of health conditions. For instance, if you follow up on people who have had a coronary bypass, two years later you’d find that 90% of them haven’t changed their lifestyle. These people know that have a serious disease and they know they should change their lifestyle, but for some reason they don’t. They can’t change.

Deutschman quotes Dr. Raphael Levey who says, “...many (medical journal) articles have demonstrated that eighty percent of the health care budget (is) consumed by five behavioral issues.” These are too much smoking, drinking and eating, too much stress in our lives, and not enough exercise. Often people become sick because of how they choose to live their lives.

This is only one example that Deutschman cites to document his thesis that we humans are very resistant to change, both as individuals and in groups. We like to think that people are rational and that given accurate information, they will act in their own self-interest to change. If the truth would be known, facts are not enough to get us to change.

At the same time, we often believe that other people (not us, of course) can’t change, that they resist change. Deutschmans wants us to realize that the factor that we think should lead to change, don’t usually work, but at the same time positive change can happen when we approach change differently. More on that soon.

What would you choose: Change or Death?-3

In his book, Change Or Die, Alan Deutschman notes three things that seldom are enough to produce change in us as individuals and as organizations. He calls the the three ‘F’s.’

Facts—We think people are essentially rational, that they act in their own self-interest if they have accurate information.
Fear—We like to think that change is motivated by fear and the strongest for change is crisis.
Force—We think that people can’t change, that they resist change and must be coerced into changing.

Deutschman demonstrates the often none of these factors are enough to move us to change. Something else is needed

Deutschman notes that often change comes in our lives naturally. We experiment, we get excited about new ideas, we learn from experience. He wants to focus on those situations where change isn’t coming naturally, where difficulties persist with great stubbornness.

What would you choose: Change or Death?

I think it was a couple of years ago now. I was sitting at at Barnes and Noble, drinking a caffe mocha, and I glanced at the book display next to the café area. There was a title there that caught my eye, just three simple words—Change Or Die.

I wandered over to the display and picked up a copy book, written by Alan Deutschman, and began to skim through it. Eventually I bought a copy and I have spent the last two year going back to it again and again. It has given me a lot to think about and I’ve decided I want to do a series of posts on what Deutsschman writes.

What if you had had a choice to make, to change or to die? I’m not talking metaphorically. I am talking about a real choice between making an significant change in your life or dying because you didn’t change. What would you do?

Most of us believe that we would certainly be willing to change if it was really a matter of life and death. Duetschman tells us that we are probably fooling ourselves. Experts tell us that the odds are nine to one that we wouldn’t change.

How can that be? Certainly, we think, the prospect of death should be enough to motivate us to change our behavior. Well, the truth is most of the time it isn’t enough. It the next posts we’ll look at why this is the case and how needed change can be encouraged.

Paying Attention to the Inner Light-7

In the final section of Mind the Light, Brent Bill talks about how darkness in our lives can enable us to see God’s light better. Here he is talking about those times in life when we are plunged into blackness.

It is often the case, that experiences of darkness drive us to seek God’s light with renewed vigor. It can also be that the negative spaces in our lives can highlight those times when we have seen the light.

We might reflect on how we have found God’s light in those times when we’ve been plunged into darkness. That can give us a clue as to how we can open ourselves to God’s light each day.

Now that we have considered some of the things that Brent Bill has to say about the divine light that dwells in us, we might want to take time to reflect on that kind of light we need for our journey through life. What are the ways we can try to find that light?

If this discussion of divine light has been of interest to you, you might want to pick up a copy of Mind the Light. I said at the beginning, one of the most thought-provoking parts of the book are the ‘Illuminating Moments’ scattered throughout it. For me, they alone are worth the price of the book. These questions give us much to consider about how God’s light is evident in our lives.

Paying Attention to the Inner Light-6

One of the most intriguing sections of Brent Bill’s Mind the Light is the one in which he reflects on the impact that artificial light has upon our spirituality. When we possess the ability to turn light on and off whenever we want, it not only give us more opportunity to read the Scriptures, but it also makes it possible for us to cram more activity into our lives. Artificial light can have both positive or negative impact on our spirits.

This can lead us to ask ourselves some questions: Do I regard artificial light as a gift of God? Does such light make it possible for me to experience God in ways that wouldn’t be available to me otherwise? Is there a way that human light can feed my soul?

We might also want to consider how forgoing human light might lead us to a richer spiritual experience. Instead of flipping on an electric light, perhaps lighting a candle or even sitting in the darkness can encourage an attitude of prayer.

Paying Attention to the Inner Light-5

If we can find God’s light within us, then certainly it must dwell in others. Another way for us to Mind the Light is to look for the light of God in other persons. Brent Bill asks us to try to see others they way that God sees them. This will require some imagination on our part.

For Bill, this way of seeing other people starts with recognizing what we have in common with someone else. By making ourselves aware of what we have in common, we begin to realize that the peculiarities and unusual traits we find in them are not really the different from our own.

As we really see others, it leads us to pray for them. One way to do that is simple to imagine them surrounded in God’s loving light. This can move us outside ourselves so that we see them with the loving eyes of God.

It strikes me that it is particularly important for us to put this into practice with those people with whom we have experienced some friction. When we can see them surrounded by God’s love, I think we are better equipped to deal with people who may irritate us. We also recognize how our own make up may contribute to our feelings about them.

Paying Attention to the Inner Light-4

Another place the Brent Bill wants us to Mind the Light is be recognizing the inward light that shines in each of us. He notes the the search of enlightenment has taken place a variety of cultures and across human history.

The Christian faith finds the Way of Light manifest in the presence of the Risen Christ. To follow that way means to seek the guidance of Christ. Quakers believe that the light of Christ dwells already dwells in every believer. Minding the light means to pay attention to what’s already present.

I have often had the impression that many Christians aren’t really expecting God to guide them. Yet, Bill maintains that we often experience what Quakers call ‘leadings’ if we pay attention to the soul work that is going on in us. These leadings call us to some kind of action. He quotes Southern writer Flannery O’Connor says that what we need is “the kind of mind that is willing to have its sense of mystery deepened by contact with reality and its sense of reality deepened by contact with mystery.”

When we draw near to God, God draws near to us. The distance between our inner life and our everyday life begins to close. Nevertheless, we need to trust that God gives us all the light we need, even though it may not be all that we want. Brent Bill confesses, “I’m will to be led—I just want searchlights instead of flashlights lighting the way.”

Sometimes we have to recognize that too much light isn’t good for us either. That’s hard for us to admit and hard for us to accept.

Have you ever had the sense of divine light within you? Have you found God’s presence to be light candlelight in the darkness, a light of constant presence? These are good questions for us to consider.

Paying Attention to the Inner Light-3

In Minding the Light Brent Bill explores that ways that we encounter God’s light in creation. He encourages us to really pay attention to the things we see in the world around us in order to perceive God’s light revealed in those things.

Bill draws on his experiences with photography which taught him to look at the way different types of light affect how a photo turns out. Photography helped him notice the various forms of beauty that are found in the world. Bill says, “...I began to think of direct light as God at work in us, reflected light as God in the people around me, and alternative light as things like the Bible, works of good art, poetry, literature and more.”

Such seeing is a spiritual discipline and one of the joys that comes from this kind of seeing is from noticing something previously unnoticed, beholding the brilliance of love blazing in the world around us.

How do we put this into practice? One way is to simply take time to really look at things. We can’t rush it, but need to take time to really take in the beauty of a tree or the delight of a small child playing. We can ask ourselves, how can I see God in every place?

Paying Attention to the Inner Light-2

In Mind the Light Brent Bill urges us to see God’s light both around us and inside us. Just as all living beings need light, our souls crave the light of God’s presence. After all, “God is light; in God there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5).

Bill contends that we will experience God’s presence when we learn to see deeply, to behold, using our senses to be sure, but also seeking to see beyond the surface of things. He teaches us that we will see hints of God’s activity, God’s guidance and God’s grace when we learn to look at the world and our lives in this way.

It is important to note that God remains sovereign in this process. The Spirit will reveal himself to us when and in the way that the Spirit chooses. Nevertheless, we can learn to be looking for the ways that God shows himself to us. That’s what it means to mind the light.

Paying Attention to the Inner Light

I have just finished working through another book by J. Brent Bill called Mind the Light: Learning to See with Spiritual Eyes. I’ve written preciously about another of his books, The Sacred Compass. Brent Bill writes from a Quaker perspective and in this book he focuses on the Quaker notion of ‘inner light.’ 

Minding the Light involves paying attention to the light of God’s presence in our lives. It is a way of deep seeing that tries to discern the ways that God is involved in our inner and our outer lives. It has taken me a while to make my way through this book. 

The primary reason that I’ve taken my time with this book is that it offers a rather extensive series of ‘Illuminating Moments.’ These brief exercises are intended to help the reader pay attention to the divine light in our lives. As I read through the book, I frequently used these exercises as an opportunity to reflect in my journal on what I was reading in the book. 

In the next posts, I’ll comment on some of the concepts in the book. If you find the concepts to be helpful, I’d encourage you to pick up a copy of the book so that you can work through the ‘Illuminating Moments.’ They will help you apply the concepts to your own life.