Fight off Non-essentialism

We have all observed the exponential increase in choices over the last decade. Yet even in the midst of it, and perhaps because of it, we have lost sight of the most important ones.

As Peter Drucker said, “In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time—literally—substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.”

We are unprepared in part because, for the first time, the preponderance of choice has overwhelmed our ability to manage it. We have lost our ability to filter what is important and what isn’t. Psychologists call this “decision fatigue”: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates.

 Here's how an Essentialist would approach the closet:

1. Explore and Evaluate
2. Eliminate
3. Execute

ESSENCE: WHAT IS THE CORE MIND-SET OF AN ESSENTIALIST?

This part of the book outlines the three realities without which Essentialist thinking would be neither relevant nor possible. One chapter is devoted to each of these in turn.

1. Individual choice: We can choose how to spend our energy and time. Without choice, there is no point in talking about trade-offs.

2. The prevalence of noise: Almost everything is noise, and a very few things are exceptionally valuable. This is the justification for taking time to figure out what is most important. Because some things are so much more important, the effort in finding those things is worth it.

3. The reality of trade-offs: We can’t have it all or do it all. If we could, there would be no reason to evaluate or eliminate options. Once we accept the reality of trade-offs we stop asking, “How can I make it all work?” and start asking the more honest question “Which problem do I want to solve?”

- Greg McKeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. 2014.

Life-giving Network

The ground for generosity is the awareness that the world is funded by a generous, active God who has made creation as a gift that keeps on giving, and that we are on the receiving end of that endless gift-giving! 

Thus we need not and cannot imagine that we are self-made or self-sufficient. Nor does it follow that “I made my money and it belongs to me.” Responsible materiality recognizes that we are each and all embedded in a life-giving network, and we are permitted the glorious chance to be full participants in and contributors to that life-giving network. 

- Walter Brueggemann, Materiality as Resistance. 2020.

Tower of Babel

People hear an opposing view, and their response is not to listen but to disagree. It’s as if we live in a Tower of Babel where everyone is speaking a different language and people can’t hear or find common ground.

It all becomes noise.

Morals, views, opinions should be held and strongly defended, of course. Yet the loss of civil discourse is troubling. People tune each other out instantaneously. One word is a trigger to shut someone off.

- Joseph McCormack, Noise: Living and Leading When Nobody Can Focus (2020)

Homeless Minds

in The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff, 

Zuboff traces the aggressive way in which the great research engines, specifically Google and Facebook, have intruded into the most intimate and personal dimensions of our experience. Indeed our “experience” has been transposed into marketable “behavior,” so that Google and Facebook sell data about our experience to marketers in a way that contributes to the ruthless, uncaring commoditization of our lives. 

She describes our new social reality as one of “exile” in which we experience a loss of a capacity for privacy and intimacy... those with homeless minds (generated by the new intrusive technologies) are not likely to notice those with homeless bodies (of the left out and left behind who live in economic isolation).

 - Walter Brueggemann, Materiality as Resistance. 2020.

Complete Attention in A Hug

 “You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.” —Deuteronomy 10:20 (NASB)

 
I would like to focus on just one word in the above verse: “cling.” In the Hebrew, this word is devek (קבד). To render it as “to cling” is really to sell it short, since the idea is not like clinging to a rock or a tree during a storm so you do not get blown away. This word is an expression of love and respect—an embrace or a hug. In the context of this verse, I render the word as follows: “You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and you shall hug Him….”
 

The Gift of the Sabbath

 
Rabbinic literature teaches that a devek (קבד) is a high and deep stage of spiritual development in which the seeker attaches himself or herself to God and exchanges individuality for a profound partnership with Him. The force behind a devek (קבד) is a love of God and a desire for intimacy or closeness with Him. Is that or is that not the definition of a hug?
 
This would explain why many Orthodox Jews view the requirements of the Sabbath as the gift of the Sabbath. The requirements are not a burdensome bother, filled with restrictions, but an opportunity to draw closer to God in order to enter into a devek (קבד) and receive a hug from Him. The “dos and don’ts” of the law are thus opportunities to connect with Him. This is why David said in Psalm 1:2, “But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
 
How could anyone get so excited about laws? The Orthodox Jews could because reading, studying, and meditating on the law of God was an opportunity to enter into a devek (קבד) and receive an embrace from God. Why Do You Go to Church? Consider the gift of the Sabbath. Why do you keep the Sabbath?
 

Why do you go to church?

 
Some people see it merely as a family or social obligation, or maybe as a way to win favor with God so they can receive some blessings, get some good luck, or secure a passport to heaven. But for others, observing the Sabbath is an opportunity to draw closer to God.
 
You cannot get to heaven by keeping the law. You can get to heaven only by receiving the finished work of Jesus Christ. The law, however, enables you to come to know this Jesus who is taking you to heaven. When you start to really know God and understand His heart, your love for Him grows; and when you love Him, you begin to desire a devek (קבד).
 
When reading Deuteronomy 10:20, therefore, we must take note that God is not calling us to cling to Him like a parasite or a leech. This thing is two-sided. God will cling to us if we will cling to Him. He will give us a hug if we will give Him a hug. The picture is that of two lovers embracing each other. Devek (קבד) is not a group hug. It is a hug between two individuals—you and God. When God embraces you, it is as if there is no other being in this universe but you. He gives you His full, complete attention in a devek (קבד).
 

- Chaim Bentorah, Hebrew Word Study, Vol 1 . 

Weep and Meditate for Joy

Weeping is an expression of the heart. Many times, when your meditation brings you into the heart and mind of God, you begin to weep. Other times, you might weep for pure joy. There is something so cleansing when you have a time of weeping before the Lord. Sometimes, you might weep out of heartbreak as God shares with you that part of His heart and mind that weeps for a lost world, for the suffering of the world.

 The Hebrew word for “meditate” in Psalm 1:2 is hagah (הגה), which has many usages. It is sometimes rendered as “to moan,” “to growl,” “to utter,” “to muse,” “to devise,” “to plot,” “to roar,” or “to imagine.” I can see “imagining” and “musing” as meditation, but what is this “moaning” and “roaring” business?

Meditation is more than just musing over something. It is intense concentration, focusing all of your attention on the Word of God. If you are to know God’s heart and mind, you must focus your own heart and mind on Him. 

                                        - Chaim Bentorah & Laura Bertone, Hebrew Word Study , Vol 2.

What Does It Mean to “Rest”?

God had commanded His people to “rest” on the seventh day. (See Exodus 16:23.) The phrase “so the people rested” in Exodus 16:30 is translated from the Hebrew word yisheveth (ותבשׁי). It is from the root word Shabbat (תבּשׁ), which means “to rest” and “to cease.”

In addition to Shabbat, there are twelve words in Hebrew that begin with shin (שׁ) beth (ב).

Here are the other 12 words that begin with shin beth (בשׁ):

1. Shin beth (בשׁ), aleph (א) = shava’ (אבשׁ): “God’s passion.” The first letter of the alphabet is aleph (א) and represents God. Shin (שׁ), beth (ב), aleph (א), or shava’ (אבשׁ), refers to God’s passionate love. The first thing you are to do on this day of rest is to just sit back and let God love you, enjoying His passionate love.
 
2. Shin beth (בשׁ), beth (ב) = shavav (בבשׁ): “Kindle a fire.” The next thing that should follow on the Sabbath is shavav (בבשׁ), which is to allow this passionate love of God to kindle in you a fire of love and affection that you can return to Him.
 
3. Shin beth (בשׁ), hei (ה) = shavah (הבשׁ): “To take as captive.” When you and God express love to each other, He will take you as His personal “captive.” Shavah (הבשׁ) is the same word used when a groom comes for his bride, takes her from her father’s house, and carries her to his father’s house to make her his bride and to enter into intimacy with her. So, the next thing God wants to do after He has expressed His love to you, and you have expressed your love to Him, is to shavah (הבשׁ), or to take you away as a bride to His bridal chamber to spend a time of intimacy with you.
 
4. Shin beth (בשׁ), chet (ח) = shavach (חבשׁ): “To soothe, calm, relax.” When God takes you away as His bride, the first thing He will do is what a bridegroom will do for his new bride—he will seek to make her comfortable and relaxed, to assure her that everything is all right, that he will make certain nothing will happen that will shame her or harm her. During this time with God, you will become shavach (חבשׁ); the pressures and stresses of the prior six days will settle down and be soothed, and you will find your frayed nerves being calmed.
 
5. Shin beth (בשׁ), teth (ט) = shavat (טבשׁ): “To measure.” Once you are in the bridal chamber, God will measure you. He will lovingly gaze upon you as a husband would gaze upon his bride and measure her beauty. Then he will softly, quietly, whisper to her that she is beautiful. This is the moment when God reminds you that through the sacrificial death of His Son Jesus Christ, all your iniquities and sins have been cleansed, and He has made something beautiful out of you.
 
6. Shin beth (בשׁ), kap (כ) = shavak (כבשׁ): “To mingle, interweave, have intercourse.” After a time of just enjoying your beauty as His bride, God will then share a more passionate intimacy with you.
 
7. Shin beth (בשׁ), lamed (ל) = shaval (לבשׁ): “To grow.” During this time of intimacy, God and you will grow closer together, more in love and more passionate with each other.
 
8. Shin beth (בשׁ), mem (מ) = shavam (מבשׁ): “To share hidden secrets and hidden knowledge.” When two lovers are being intimate, speaking lovingly to each other, they cannot help but share their deepest secrets. They will share things that they would express to no one else. Thus, during this Sabbath rest, God will share the secrets of His heart with you as His bride, as you share the secrets of your heart with Him as your Bridegroom.
 
9. Shin beth (בשׁ), nun (נ) = shavan (ןבשׁ): “To be tender and delicate.” (The word shavan (ןבשׁ) uses the final form** of the letter nun.) During this time of intimacy, having trusted each other with the deep secrets of your hearts, you enter a period of just sharing intimate words with each other. This will be a time when God speaks tenderly to you as His bride. He will speak of love. He will call you His dearest, His most precious, His treasure, and other gentle, loving, sweet names.
 
10. Shin beth (בשׁ), ayin (ﬠ) = shava’ (ﬠבשׁ): “To become satisfied, fulfilled.” After a time in which God and you share love, intimacy, and the secrets of your hearts, you, as His bride, will feel a great, overwhelming sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.
 
11. Shin beth (בשׁ), sade (צ) = shavats (צבשׁ): “To weave or intermingle together to create something beautiful.” During this time of intimacy, God as Bridegroom and you as His bride will intermingle together, will weave together, to create something beautiful from your relationship.
 
12. Shin beth (בשׁ), resh (ר) = shavar (רבשׁ): “To examine in order to make pure.” As the Sabbath concludes, and God has cleansed you, shared His secrets with you, and made you an intimate part of Him, He will then do a final examination of you as His bride and declare that you are indeed pure and holy before Him. 

- Chaim Bentorah, Hebrew Word Study, Vol 1 .