What do you think?

John Donne (1572-1631) was an Anglican priest, poet, member of Parliment, and Dean of St. Paul’s. He preached his last sermon during Lent of 1631. He left behind an impressive collection of works, but he his most popularly known lines are, “no man is an island,” and “never send to know for whom the bell tolls.” His poem, “Good Friday, 1631, Riding Westward” inspired this sketch.

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Professor of Latin and Greek, A. E. Housman is, arguably, more popularly know for his poetry. His most noted poetic work is A Shropshire Lad which includes the popular �To An Athelete Dying Young.� More ironically, given his self-avowed atheism, some of his �religious� poetry remain some of his most popularly collected works. His poem �The Carpenter�s Son� is a favorite Lenten poem.

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A friend has taken on the work of trying to discover his Enneagram number. He�s taken a couple of on-line inventories, but with mixed results. The scores come back �flat�, hinting that he can be any one of three of four types. I told him that�s either a sign that the inventory is flawed, or that he does not yet know enough about what is being asked to answer the questions in a helpful way. I also told him that I�m a bit prejudiced against taking Enneagram inventories to achieve �quick insight� into oneself.

The “traditional” way of working with the Enneagram is with a spiritual director or coach. That person will guide your through asking questions, sharing experiences, etc. And, yes, while it involves reading the material on the Enneagram, I prefer the more traditional Eastern discernment approach than the Western approach of taking an inventory and gaining “instant insight.” You may get your number–and may even get it right, but because you’ve by-passed process you by-pass insight, is my belief. What I�ve observed, however, is that even with inventories, most people seem to need to try a couple of passes before settling on their number/type.

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For some years I’ve relied on religious poetry to provide a balance to my overly-analytical approach to faith (a natural liability of an Enneagram 5). Advent and Lent especially are enriching times as I’ve revisited poets and pieces that have become favorites. Sometimes a poem inspires an image, which I try to capture in a quick sketch. Some of you on the poetry list are familiar with some of those.

Abraham Cowley’s “Christ’s Passion” is one I revisit each Lent. This time around it inspired this sketch. The best way to read the poem is aloud, to listen to the poetry of the language and feel the intonation on the tongue.

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This is pretty cool. OpenBible.info has done some “geocoding” on Google maps to placenames in the Bible. Which means you can use their Bible book list (menu) to locate the geographical place names in the Bible. In itself, pretty nifty. But the power of these things lies in opening up the possibilities of what the data can reveal. For example, use a chronological schema to see how the “Biblical World” opens up and widens. Or, do a study of scale and distances, map the importance of routes, compare biblical and modern-day borders and geography, etc. Check it out.

I’m often asked by students to serve as a reference when they begin to get their resumes in order and start searching for ministry placement. I’m always happy to do so for those whom I’ve gotten to know and have been responsible in their work. I’m always surprised at the few who’ve never taken a class with me, haven’t had two-minutes’ worth of conversation, or have been less than stellar in their performance who ask me to be a reference. Is it chutzpa or something else, I always wonder? For those few, my usual comment is, “Oh, thanks for asking, but I can’t do that.” Most leave it there, only one has asked why not, and I had to tell him.

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I’m just back from three days at the Lost River spring session of Leadership in Ministry Workshop (LIM). One presentation re-visited the topic of the brain and systems theory, and one other made reference to the brain’s functioning as a way to understand one aspect of BFST.

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< <…I was just wondering if I could ask you a question about multigenerational patterns in one’s life. Do you think once someone has some understanding of such patterns that they can then begin the process of maybe changing themselves in relation to these patters. I think I have such patterns as they relate to interpersonal relationships, and seeking out distant emotionally unavailable women in my life and a pattern of going back to the comfort of such patterns. …>>

Rick, yes, I think that much of the value of working on our family-of-origin and on our personal growth (working toward individuation, our maturity, working at being more self-differentiated, etc.) is that we are better able to change our ways of relating and interrelating, with others, and the patterns associated with it.

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I’ll admit that I’m guilty of using the “top ten list” on occasion (heck, I wrote a whole book of lists!). Let’s face it, it’s a perennial catchy technique, and for some things a “short attention span theatre” option is helpful.

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