#33 - Navigating Life's Storms {Reflections}

Hey everybody, what is up?

My name is Ryan and I am here in the laboratory and we are on episode.

What episode is this, mike?

This is episode 33.

Episode number 33.

So, hey, thanks for coming along.

If you enjoy these too, by the way, I'd love for you to share them with a friend or a family member or anybody that might enjoy them as well.

But, hey, I wanted.

This morning, a buddy of mine, his name's Jeremy, sent me this message of a tweet by Jonathan Haidt, and if you don't know who Jonathan Haidt is, I would encourage you to check him out.

He's got some great books out.

Haidt is H-A-I-D-T.

He wrote the Coddling of the American Mind, he wrote a book called the Righteous Mind and just came out with a brand new book called the Anxious Generation, and these are all wonderful.

I have not read the newest one yet, but his tweet is about his newest book and in the book he's really exploring the subtitles is how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness, and basically he's a social psychologist exploring, in this case, the effects of sort of the culture on youth and young people right now, and there's this extreme spike in mental health.

You know issues and conversations and he just sort of explores why.

And anyway, in his tweet that my buddy, jeremy sent to me, he writes this he said kids and religious families have fared better in the smartphone era, with smaller rises in mental health.

Him and this guy, zach Roush, who wrote the book with him, zach Roush, who wrote the book with him, zach Roush, and I believe it's primarily due to being anchored in real world communities and rituals and obligations and low enemy.

Enemy is this idea of sort of it's like a lack of usual social or ethical standards in an individual or group, so kind of this unmooring of like regular social standards or ethical directions and these kinds of things.

And so he says I believe it's primarily because kids in religious communities or church communities are anchored in real life, real world, human flesh and blood, communities with rituals and obligations, and they're tethered to this thing that's greater than themselves.

And it reminds me I love the word religion.

Religion gets a bad rap in our culture today because religion can no doubt have a, you know, a sort of a false self.

It can be this disastrous, oppressive thing when used to, I don't know, to oppress or manipulate or control people and of course that's not a good thing.

But the word religion if you look at the etymology, religion comes from this Latin word religere, which means to bind or to be tethered to something.

And I love this idea because in my mind I picture a boat that's actually moored, or like tethered to a post in the deepest part of the ocean.

Let's say, for example, it's not, you know, there's waves coming and crashing all around it, but that boat isn't going anywhere.

And otherwise, if you're unmoored from something, from anything, then I imagine just a boat at sea drifting mercilessly at the will of the ocean.

And so religion in my mind, in its purest I think most, I don't the best form is being tethered to something bigger than ourselves or greater than ourselves, of course, in our narrative.

I'm a part of a Christian church, a Lutheran church, and so for me it's the Jesus stories.

The Jesus stories ground me, and of all the things in my life that come and go and the changes I've made or the ways I've grown, hopefully matured, over the years, the one mainstay in my life has been the Jesus narrative and I want to always be tethered to something deep and profound and ancient like that.

That's why I find it so compelling and I just love the stories, of course, and I don't mean I love them like a good movie, I mean they deeply resonate with me.

And so it's interesting because and Jonathan hates work he's talking about how, like look kids that don't have this tie to a religious community or a Christian faith or a church community, they're disconnected relationally, they don't have that community with people that surround them.

And I even say it's just the small things like saying, hey, how are you High-fiving?

Let me pray for you.

Here's a cup of coffee.

Which I think is one of the greatest gifts of the church is that we can have this authentic Well, I hope it's authentic some version of authentic kind of community where you're actually engaging with other people.

And in today's culture, where we're so disconnected, disassociated, we have our food delivered, we watch Netflix in our living rooms, we don't get out a whole lot.

Those third spaces are kind of disappearing, you know, like the coffee shops or the movie theaters.

Even the shopping mall is kind of becoming antiquated.

But the church can be that, it can be like a place where we gather and we talk about things and we, you know, argue about things.

We drink coffee together, which seems like nothing, but it's not nothing.

It's important to be anchored in that real world community.

And then also, he talks about rituals and rituals to me.

I love rituals.

I'm deeply convinced that these are what shape us, our liturgies, as Jamie Smith calls them, the things that we do are habits or rhythms that point to a divine, some sort of divine being or source, right Like rituals in and of themselves are not magic.

I'm not like conjuring up the presence of God.

Rituals rather open my eyes and open my heart and my ears to the things of God that are already there, but they do it because they're like a concrete expression of an ideal.

And so I love rituals because they actually like open up practices.

These kinds of things.

They open me up to experiencing God, the God who's already present in there in the ritual.

But I just it helps me kind of on my end, but they do.

These things shape us.

And so having a kid kind of come to church every Sunday, or whatever your religious rhythm is, these are important.

Praying, taking communion, being baptized, sharing in these kinds of gathering-type rituals are vitally important.

It seems like speaking of social psychology anyway.

And then again this low enemy, this idea of like, hey, we are tethered to something.

We have a direction.

Our ethics are based on this thing, the cross, I would say our worldview, our paradigms, and in the Christian tradition it's this idea of the God who self-sacrificially gives of himself for the whole world.

So if that's my aim and my direction, my ethical standard, then that's the story I'm going to live by.

I want to and I don't always do it, but I want to give up my life for the sake of the world.

May my life, my vocation, my days be a breaking and a pouring out for the healing of the world.

That's what I want to be a part of.

And so, anyway, I was fascinated by this and I'm not surprised at all that kids who grow up in these kinds of circles and communities just seem to do better with all the pressure of social media, the addictions of cell phone and all of the, just the disconnection that we experience in our culture.

So I say, if you're a parent out there, there's no shame in bringing your kids to church.

When I was younger and we would bring our kids to church, I didn't like ask their permission.

I would just bring them and I wasn't going to force them to believe in God and these kinds of things.

But I would say, hey, this is what we do as a family.

We go to church and we and I try to make it as not weird as possible.

Sometimes it can get weird, but, and I explored with them the things that I found life-giving and I would just pray that those things would take root.

So don't be ashamed of bringing your kids to church, or bringing them to your house church or your journey group or to different things that are, you know, exploring faith, and these are important things.

And so I think, at the end too, this gives me hope that many people I talk to today are like Ryan, what do I do?

Because the world seems to be on fire and nobody's helping put it out.

Everything's to be in chaos.

It's getting worse and worse, I hear which, by the way, if you look back on history, it's always been getting worse and better at the same time, for centuries, you know.

But I would say this this is our hope If we can tether ourselves to the cross, to the story of a God who self-sacrificially gives of himself, who lowers himself to the point of death on a cross, and invites us to do the same, that can be, I think, the hope of the world that Jesus can truly and really save us.

So today, may you have hope.

All right, love you guys.

Peace.

Hey, if you enjoy this show, I'd love to have you share it with some friends.

And don't forget, you are always welcome to join us in person at Central in Elk River at 830, which is our liturgical gathering, or at 10 o'clock, our modern gathering, or you can check us out online at clcelkriverorg.

Peace.