Patriotism

The Virtue of Patriotism

Like millions of others I watched with joy as the miracle rescue of the Chilean miners unfolded last week. For 69 days these men were trapped under 2,000 feet of rock. And they survived. And a nation rejoiced…and the world rejoiced right along with them.

So many stirring images, so much courage, and faith, and love, and will to live. Funny how these fundamental virtues can unite so many. But the virtue that was perhaps missed in all the celebrating was the virtue of Patriotism.

Patriotism is a virtue? Indeed! St. Thomas Aquinas considered it “a duty one owes” to country, recognizing the good provided by, and the universal ideals supported through, a nation…always worth sacrificing for.

What a moment, listening to President Sebastian Pinera tell the miners, “You are not the same, and the country is not the same after this,” and then spontaneously leading the crowd in the singing of the Chilean national anthem. This was Patriotism in its purest form. Everyone, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, respectful of individual differences, and focused on the celebrating of what is best about one’s country, and what is best about humankind. Pride isn’t always a deadly sin!

Patriotism is too often confused with ultra-nationalism, which starts with a condescending “we’re better than you” attitude, and ends up dividing and alienating. Patriotism as a virtue rises above politics, and superficial slogans, and 15 second sound bites, and honors what is best, what is good and true, what is worth living and dying for, and what is worthy of emulation in one’s country.

What is worthy of emulation? Virtue. Heroic efforts at being good, courageous, generous, kind, patient. You’ll know an act is truly patriotic, virtuous, and not just political, when both the person and his or her country is made better by it. And when people and countries do good, the world becomes a better place.

I think I became Chilean for a brief time last week, watching those beautiful people singing their national anthem, celebrating life and all the ways their country supported life. And I’m a better American for it.

Who are you listening to?

Lucille Ball was dismissed from a drama class, with the penetrating insight: “She’s wasting her time here. She’s too shy to put her best foot forward.”

A brand new band calling themselves The Beatles was rejected by the first recording company they approached. The reasons given? “We don’t like their sound. And besides, guitar music is on the way out.”

Abraham Lincoln had two failed businesses, suffered a nervous breakdown, experienced the death of his fiancé, and lost eight elections.

Michael Jordan was cut from his Freshman high school basketball team.

Thomas Edison was told by a teacher that he was “too stupid to learn anything.”

Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper job because, as the termination report read, “He lacks imagination and has no original ideas.”

The longer I live, the more I realize that people who succeed in life are people who are courageous enough to risk failure and loss, and are able to pick themselves up and get back in the race when they inevitably do get knocked down; they persevere.

And a critical part of risking failure and persevering in our efforts, of persisting in the face of obstacles and creating something beautiful with the gifts we’ve been given is who we choose to listen to. Which voices do we filter out, and which voices do we let in?

How do we do this discerning? Start with a simple rule of thumb: spend more and more time with life-giving people, and less and less time with life-taking people. Too simple? I’m amazed at how many people don’t follow this advice. There is confusion about responsibility (“I must spend time with this person, respect this person, take care of this person”), or history (“It’s not always bad”), or even what it means to be a good person (“I shouldn’t be angry, sad, tired, happy”). Crazy? No, just fear-based. The people you surround yourself with, and let in, can absolutely make you or break you. Choose life!

You’ll know the life-giving people because they will foster hope, see potential, and celebrate you as you are. They will work diligently to not separate truth and love. They will not project their fears onto you. They will not project their pain onto you. And they will not project their dreams onto you. And life-giving people are interested in mutual, respectful, joyful friendships. Beware of people who have no joy…they will resent yours.

Who do you listen to? Whose opinions do you hear…and take in? Are they encouraging, engaging, and elevating to the spirit? Choose well, listen well, and then follow your inspiration…you’ll change the world!

Peacemakers are not blessed because they are other-worldly, avoid confrontations, spend all day in church praying, and never get angrythey are blessed because they are finally at rest in God. St. Augustine put it simply: “God, You have created us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” The meek are able to be peacemakers because they are first at peace with God; peace with self and others follows. This peace is the fruit of cooperating on ever deeper levels with God’s will and remaining open to His healing grace. Peacemakers echo the words of St. Paul: “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:12-13). Paul did not write these words from some ivory tower, safe and comfortable as a professor at some small liberal arts college. He wrote about the contentment of being at peace with God from a dark, dank prison cell in Rome while awaiting execution. In his life, he suffered much for the Kingdom of God: stonings, beatings, shipwrecks, physical ailments, murderous plots, and eventually martyrdom. But this is the power of meekness, withstanding all the world can dish out while allowing God’s supernatural healing to be unleashed in and through your life. It truly does surpass human understanding, and it can be yours as it was Paul’s, but only with Christ’s help. The story of Corrie Ten Boom, told in The Hiding Place, demonstrates this well.

As a young woman in Holland, she and her family used their home to hide Jews from the Nazi occupiers. When finally discovered, the Ten Booms were sent to Concentration camps, Corrie and her sister Betsie specifically to Ravensbruck. Corrie would survive the hell but her sister would not. Years later, as an internationally-renowned speaker, Corrie traveled far and wide speaking about the love of God and Christ’s ability to transform even the greatest of sinners. But her ability to be a peacemaker, to practice meekness in the face of anger, was put to the test one Sunday after she spoke at a church in Germany. One of the Nazis who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing room at Ravensbruck approached her smiling and reaching out his hand toward her. “How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein; to think that as you say He has washed my sins away.” The horror of the camp, the taunting of the men, the pain and fear all came rushing back in an instant. Corrie tried to respond with charity, but anger paralyzed her. Silently she breathed a prayer: “Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness” (p. 238). Ten Boom explained that in an instant she was given the grace to see that healing was not contingent on human ability to forgive or love, but on God’s ability to forgive and love. She took the former Nazi’s hand and gave him her blessing. God will give us what we need, if we cry out to Him for assistance. He tells us to love our enemies, and then gives us the love to do it.

The meek shall inherit the earth and the peacemakers shall be called the children of God because they rest in the Prince of Peace. And they bring His message of reconciliation to an angry and hurting world, whatever the cost.

What can you do today to be a peacemaker: in your home, at your work place, and in your heart? Simple acts of kindness, gentleness, goodness; think small, get started, and ask God to bless and mutiply. You'll be changed, and so will the world.

Growing Up: The Virtue of Being Family

The family is the heart of our society, of civilization itself. This has always been the case in every culture and every country throughout history. Nothing has a greater influence over an individual than the family unit...not school, not profession, not even church or synagogue. The family of origin, that is the family we are born into, gives us our blueprint for how to see and interact with self, others, life, and God. Family is our first teacher. This is not to say we need to be controlled by our pasts. Certainly healing and growth can happen at any stage of life, but as long as we live we will be interacting with our original families, if not face-to-face at least in our hearts and minds.

Being a family is so much more than simple genetics, or living together under one roof, or eating a certain amount of meals together, or sharing a common history, or even sharing a last name. Being family does not happen accidentally, it must be chosen...multiple times a day. We choose to be family when we make concrete decisions, big and small, with what we say or don't say, do or don't do, think or don't think, feel or don't feel.

• We choose to be family when we love each other in word and deed
• We choose to be family when we teach our children right and wrong, and hold ourselves to the same objective standard
• We choose to be family when we listen to each other at least as much as we speak to each other
• We choose to be family when we reach outside of ourselves and serve others
• We choose to be family when we celebrate the uniqueness of each individual family member
• We choose to be family when we play together, laugh together, and celebrate Sabbath together

Being family is a process that must become habitual...that's why I'm calling it a virtue. And good habits take time to form. Practice, practice, practice...with little and big acts, growing in consistency, intentional and freely given. It's not always easy, and it's not always fun. A healthy family recognizes this, and chooses to make the investment of time, energy, and spirit anyway.

There is nothing more important on a natural level than truly practicing the virtue of being family, and as we ask God into this process, to bless and guide our efforts, the results become sacramental. Get started (or re-started) tonight. You'll be glad a thousand years from now that you did!

The Virtue Project

Stillpoint Family Resources is very excited to announce that The Virtue Project, in development for over a year, is ready to "take on the road." There are five modules to this practical, engaging, and empowering Character Formation program that integrates psychology with theology and philosophy: 1) The Believer, 2) The Couple, 3) The Family, 4) The Parent, 5) The Teen.

Please pray for this work, for the speaking engagements we're already booking, and for future opportunities! And let us know if you'd like more information!

To What End....

St. Maximillian Kolbe, a Franciscan priest, died 69 years ago this day in a starvation bunker at Auschwitz. His is a remarkable story of courage and love.

Because he was a Catholic priest confronting evil, the Nazis arrested him and sent him to the concentration camp. In July 1941, a man from Kolbe's barracks vanished, prompting the deputy camp commander to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in order to deter further escape attempts. One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, "My wife, my children!" It was then that Kolbe volunteered to take his place. No greater love....

After three weeks, all the men in the starvation bunker had died except for Father Kolbe. Finally losing patience with the process, the guards gave him a lethal shot of carbolic acid to finish the job....as if death could silence such a life. Roughly 40 years later, at the canonization ceremony for St. Maximillian, Gajowniczek (the man Kolbe had volunteered to die for) was present and spoke.

Maximillian Kolbe is an obvious example of what we would call a martyr. But as I sat in church this morning, I began reflecting on what he'd say if he was preaching the homily. My serious hunch is that he'd focus on what the word martyr means..."witness."

What does your life witness to? What does it say about your beliefs and values? How much time do you spend reflecting on your actions, your choices, your relationships, and where you're headed in life? And to what end? What's the point? Intentionality is crucial in the practice of virtue....like a compass is to a ship on the open sea.

Kolbe certainly knew what his purpose was, and he lived with a razor sharp focus. "Only love creates..." And if he were here today, I believe he'd challenge each of us to be creative in this way; to get outside ourselves and serve. To love in action. And as a Franciscan, he'd also tell us to do it in simple and small ways. Choose to do 1,000 things 1% better...

This is the way of transformation. This is where true and lasting joy will be found, where action meets purpose....and where peace and salvation wait.

"One Man's Trash...."

Antique stores are hopeful places; places that believe in second chances. They accept what others have thrown away, given up on, discarded as un-useable, because they see the potential that remains. Recently, I found myself in a dusty and well-stocked one named "One Man's Trash...", an hommage to the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." This store had a little of everything, from automobile parts, to farming and gardening equipment, to knick-knacks and artwork found in everyday households. I struck up a conversation with the older gentleman who owned the store, wondering what he enjoyed most about the antiques business. "I believe that everything can be used again, and nothing needs to be wasted," he said with a contented smile. "I love that notion." Me too.

Everything can be useful, and nothing need be wasted; sounds a little like St. Paul's counsel to the Church at Rome. How much healthier we, and our relationships, would be if this philosphy were truly embraced in mind and heart, and lived out daily? And most particularly in relationship with an inexhaustibly merciful God?!

God can and does use everything to help us grow up emotionally and spiritually, if you'll invite Him into your own personal "antique store," where there are many things that can be re-purposed, renewed, and restored with the right amount of care and attention.

The parts of our lives we're tempted to bury or hide out of shame and guilt are precisely the parts God wants to use to keep us focused on Him, and the path that leads to Life. And He is never put off or scandalized by our imperfections. Does He care if we lie, cheat, steal, gossip, abuse substances, and rebel in any number of other ways? Of course He does, because He loves us and wants the best for us. But through it all, He never stops loving us and calling us back to what is most essential, to what is true.

In all things God works for good, and He loves unconditionally. If He didn't, the manger in Bethlehem and the Cross at Golgotha would never have happened. Through our mistakes, and heartfelt acknowledgement of those mistakes, He promises to teach, to empower, and to inspire us to virtue, and to lasting peace and joy. However, all too often this reclamation project of turning "trash into treasure" is blocked by us, stalling growth and trust in self and others.

And when you're thinking of blocks to healthy and holy living, start with pride. Pride is the Queen of the Deadly Sins for a reason. It was the original sin, and all sins grow from it. It has infected humankind ever since Eden. Pride convinces us that we can do it alone, that we don't need others, that perhaps we're even better than others. Pride also tells us that how we look to others is more important than who we are. So, the great cover up begins in earnest.

Isolation is the fruit of pride. And isolation kills.

Brokenness is an essential part of our inheritance as fallen human beings, but it does not need to be our destiny. God uses everything, but we must first choose to invite Him into the mess, the chaos, the "trash." Give everything to Him: your regrets and fears, your envy and resentments, all those mistakes you feel are too terrible to admit to. Ask for help, and then move on the resources He'll send: emotional, relational, and spiritual. Do this today...and again tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, and so on....because the antique store of your soul must remain open for business, and you need to show up for work every day!

"Trash to treasure"...the ultimate recycling plan!