Steve Slater: Ex-flight attendant, Prophet

I watched the news story about the flight attendant who had had enough and decided on the spot to simply quit his job on Tuesday with a huge grin in my heart and on my face. It was gutsy, impulsive, and stupid, which is why I found myself responding the way I did. The cut on his forehead has become a badge of honor that screams, "People have been shoving their crap in my face like I didn't matter for too long, and I say to hell with them, you can shove this job."

Commentators have commented on the irrationality of Steve Slater's impulsive behavior. "Caving to impulses in the moment feels good, of course he had a huge grin on his face, even though he was cuffed", I heard one news person say, "but what happens when he is serving jail time and then later can't find employment again? Who would hire him?" I find myself saying, irrationality all depends on what you think is real.

I find myself among the many overnight fans of Steve Slater, for reasons of my own. I know I should be saying, he should have turned the other cheek...err, other side of his forehead, but I think the reason people are responding to him is because his stunt exposes the inhumanity that people suffer daily. In fact, his actions bring attention to our collective and individual spiritual blindness. Blindness to the humanity of others simply because I think my concerns are more important than yours. I matter more than you do right now. You're just a "service industry employee", aren't you supposed to shut up, smile and take care of me!

Whenever I lose sight of what is real I'm spiritually blind. That Steve Slater matters, has a soul, and is worthy of respect and dignity, regardless of his job title, level of education, or social class is real. This matters. While it may be true that if Steve had been doing his meditation and prayer that day, he might have been able to stay centered in his true self created in God's image, the true self that doesn't desire affection, esteem and approval or need pleasure. He might have looked with pity and compassion on the numb skull passenger who thought that by getting out of his seat while the plane was still taxi-ing was actually going to get him to where he wanted to go any faster.

But if I'm honest with myself for a moment, the reason I say it was stupid of him to flee the plane, beer in hand, down the emergency chute, is because I live with the basic human needs for security, control and social approval of others, especially those in power over me. This is the small, false self with its perspective which is limited by its instinctive need for self-preservation. The same self-preservation instinct to which Jesus calls us to die to.

Perhaps impulsively, not well planned, or with much foresight for his own immediate future employment options, flight attendant, and now folk hero, Steve Slater, made a much needed statement. Schedules, deadlines, budgets, business plans, job titles, financial security, the ability to control my life, ...these are just illusions.

A friend prayed this prayer with me yesterday, and so I post it here as an encouragement to embrace God in every moment:

"Welcome, welcome, welcome. I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it's for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions. I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval and pleasure. I let go of my desire for surivial and security. I let go fo my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself. I open to the love and presence of God and His action within."

A God You Can Taste

If you're like most people I know, you're probably busy enough just trying to balance the demands of your job while trying to have a social life, and oh yeah, take care of yourself too, that time for spiritual renewal is left to fit into the occasional unscheduled Sunday morning. Between long office hours, paying off loans, long commutes, continuing education, dating or spending time with your partner, staying in shape, mundane chores and social obligations, having the time or energy for regular a life of spiritual practice seems like just another item to check off the to-do list.

I should know. I'm a "professional Christian", yet there have been lengthy periods where the idea of prayer seemed like an "ought", and left me with a sense of inadequacy instead of renewal. Similarly reading the Bible devotionally was often folded into the weekly teaching preparation.

In fact, most people I know who claim the Christian Bible as their sacred text, and even those who defend it fiercely, rarely read it. For many Christians prayer happens perhaps when they feel overwhelmed and need a little divine intervention.

Why the disconnect?

I have an idea, because I know these feelings personally. In our highly educated, fast paced and noisy world, our minds are processing huge amounts of information daily (it seems our educational system is geared to produce exactly that...information reciptcals and processing machines). It doesn't come as a great surprise that our approach to the spiritual practices of prayer and scripture are more influenced by the legacy of Greek influence on our western culture than the eastern mindset of the Jews who wrote the Bible, and, incidentally, Jesus himself.

If I had to compare the two mindsets, the western mind approaches scripture the same way many people eat lunch. Emphasis on big portions over quality, preferably from a drive-through, or in a microwaveable package, eaten in an uninspiring office cubicle setting in 10 minutes or less. Whereas, in some parts of the world, food is considered sacred, and eating is almost a religious experience for which time must be taken, and the dish must be fully appreciated. The setting must be pleasant, talking about the deliciousness of the food is expected, and part of the enjoyment. The chief concerns are not the calorie count or the fat or sugar content, but the freshness of the ingredients (preferably seasonal), the marriage of the flavors, and the resulting overall culinary experience.

Similarly, the Greek/western mind reads the Bible to extract the correct information from it (presumably in hopes gaining some kind insight that might help one's standing with God). Whereas, the Jewish/eastern mind reads the Bible to experience God within the pages of the text. The Greek mind wants to travel through the a passage of scripture, while the eastern mind is content to take its time, finding renewal by savoring each portion of scripture.

Similarly, prayer in the eastern mind is an experience of divine Presence rather than a kind of personal progress report to God and request for favors. For the Early Church, the Desert Fathers, medieval mystics and recent contemporaries like Thomas Merton, prayer was a way to experience God's naked presence, rather than a discursive exercise. The Bible too, though certainly useful and necessary for guiding us through story, poem and instruction, was seen as a container of God's presence within its words and pages...something to be spiritually tasted and savored in addition to being intellectually processed.

In the words of Judith Kunst, "In Judaism, scripture is not a signpost pointing to truth but a portion of the truth itself--not just a promise to be fulfilled or a commandment to be obeyed, but a real-time serving of scriptural food to be tasted, chewed, and digested into the body, mind, heart and soul."

In Untitled we're in the middle of looking at the ancient practices of Contemplative Prayer and Lectio Divina. If prayer and scripture reading sound uninspiring, draining, difficult and frustrating, these two ways of experiencing God through prayer and scripture might just be for you. More to come . . .

Really knowing

Call me cynical, but if you haven't taken your own advice for a test drive yourself, then I don't want it. I will gladly listen to anyone who has learned what they know through the pain of real world experience. What an enormous difference there is between degrees and scars!

Mark Scandrette in his book Soul Graffiti makes a good point along these lines. He contends that if the average Christian stopped reading the Bible for the rest of their life and just started acting on what they already know of Jesus' teaching, they would mature far more than they ever would by looking for the next best book or Bible study. He says, "In Western society we are also culturally conditioned to assume that intellectual assent to a set of propositions is an adequate substitute for obedience." And so we feel that reading the Bible more, or understanding Greek and Hebrew, or more teaching will help us grow.

I find myself having to admit more and more, that I don't need a new book, or more knowledge. What I need is to find more time to put into practice the things I already know. I find myself making a mental list of the things in Jesus teaching that especially challenge me, and struggle as I ask how can I implement this?

If you really want to know Jesus, start doing the things Jesus did, and you will. You might say that this is the difference between believing in Jesus, and believing what Jesus believed. I dare say that merely believing a set of propositions about Jesus never put food on the plate of a hungry person or a roof over their head.

The question is, will we make the leap from consumer in the religious services aisle to an employee for the Kingdom of God?

Lenten Reflections

I'm feeling the withdrawal symptoms of my TV fast. It's the way my hand instinctively reaches for the remote when I'm on the sofa and not talking or reading a book. It's the urge to have more stimulation when I'm feeding Sascha in the morning. Why is it hard for me to just sit in silence? Why do I find it appealing to read while the TV is on in the background? I've become the very kind of person I tried not to become.

I grew up without a TV in the house. (It was a practical decision on my parents part. You don't have to control TV viewing if you don't have one. Kids are more apt to do their chores when not tempted to catch up on their TV viewing. Pragmatic Germanic thinking.) I was happy, content and very stimulated for all 18 years of my growing up without it. Now it seems I can't imagine life without the boob tube.

As I reflect on my desire for stimulation, I realize that what I'm settling for is convenience and distraction. I want to feel more connected. I want to be entertained. I want to experience adventure, so I'll settle for a vicarious experience. I'm facing up to the fact that I'm probably spending hours a week wasting opportunities for real connection and adventure by settling for the fake stuff.

As you ingest the daily portions of Scripture during this Lenten season, let your interaction with it expose what it is that you're really hungry for. Whether you might think of your fast as a trial or test as James 1 says, allow the unfamiliar cravings and discomforts lead you to discovering what it is that you really desire. Let's not settle for less than that which is truly life-giving.