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I just read that. I've always been confused by the verse "blessed are the poor in spirit". What does 'poor in spirit' MEAN?

I just read your essay and I have to give some tough love here. You dropped the ball.

You told us a very compelling story about a lawyer who places his priorities on doing good work instead of displaying wealth. Lots of us have those same priorities, even atheists.

It's hard to deal with people who have different priorities (the lawyers who look down on his humble office).

You gave us no advice on how to deal with those people except "we're Christian, just keep doing it and good things will happen to you." That's useless to me and the 20 Billion other people on the planet who aren't Christian. In fact, it hardly helps the Christians.

How do I deal with those distainful lawyers? What is the proper thing to do to keep from "turning to the dark side" of waste? That's the one thing that article needed from you. Knowing that someday we'll receive our just due isn't enough. We need practical ideas on how to deal with the bastards until then.

Sorry to be so hard on you about this one. I just feel shortchanged because you started a GREAT article but didn't finish it...

Pick Me! Weblog

A serious answer to Laura:
Gordon doesn't say,"we're Christian, just keep doing it and good things will happen to you." The quote is not in his text, nor to I read that implication.

What he does say is, "At these times, my friend must swallow his pride, keep silent, and let the other lawyers think whatever they may think." Period.

From a Christian perspective, we,if we have been Christians long enought to have been taught, know that we are not supposed to care what anyone else thinks. Having said that, usually we find that pretty hard to do. Articles like this and sermons and classes and talks over wine with our friends help us to deal with it.

For someone who doesn't have that kind of teaching and a commitment to that kind of life with other Christians to support us, I would say this:

Surround yourself with people who are like-minded to you. If you don't want to place an emphasis on superficial stuff, have friends who don't want that either. Spend time with people who don't encourage you that the world is racing willy nilly to an overspending, war-making, gas-gulzzling catastrophe. If someone looks down on you for your choices, either stand firm in your convictions silently or explain nicely why you choose not to spend $500 on Jimmy Choo shoes. (Please note that while I have heard of these overpriced baubles, I had to look up the correct spelling and can't get my size 11 feet into them anyway.)

Find out what is really important in your life. Make a list. Seriously. Does the opinion of others who are making bad choices rank in that list? What does? If it is the smile on a child's face, put a smile on a child's face. If it is saving money for a new roof, don't spend on a new Chinese vase. Do what is important to you. If you do, I doubt you will be too concerned about whether other people are happy with your choices.

Help someone else. The lawyer in the story is someone I know. He has given more time to helping others who really need help than anyone I know except Paula. (You gotta know this Paula folks, she is a big old blonde headed Jesus.) Lawyer man was not recognized by his peers in lawyering for the best office decor. He won that honor for the things he does for the folks who hire him. He works even harder for those who pay him nothing. He would be much happier just to keep building houses for the working poor or feeding hungry folks or mentoring orphans or teaching kids. I know, I saw his face. It is evident right there between his cheeks.

If you aren't Christian, and I have no idea whether you practice any other faith, so I will leave them out too, then do something similar to what I would do without the "Dear Jesus... Amen". Meditate or talk out loud to yourself or call a friend who is sympathetic or journal.

What we all need to do is to get past the point where what other people want is the thing we do. Why do that? If we care too much about the opinions of others, we are letting them make our choices for us. I am too much of a control freak for that. Hell, I hardly let God have his way, no way someone fallible is going to tell me what to do. Hope this helps. My apologies for going on so long Gordon.
OldPoet

Me again... I just clicked on that new "What other people are saying" link in the upper left. It is a SCREAM. Congratulations for making so many people so mad that they have to confuse God with Adam or refer you to Hell. Don't worry, they yelled at Jesus...and as we both know...you ain't Jesus. OldPoet Prodigal Aspersions

Can you include some of the good things people are saying under that new link? Otherwise it seems to tilt heavily to one side...

I liked Old Poet's advice to Laura about surrounding yourself with like-minded people. I don't have any profound comments to take away the burning, buzzing in your chest when people act like "bastards", but I would wager that this could be found on hundreds of websites on how to deal with difficult people. Since this article was written toward Christians (for a Christian organization) the like-minded people we surround ourself in is the church.. albeit the church is often a place of people who act badly... ourselves included.. We have to have that fellowship with others. I know of no one who is consistently the ideal person, Christian or not. So we have to turn the other cheek (so to speak) or we become that which we abhor. I'm not a Bible Scholar, but Paul addresses this within himself in the scriptures... I can't remember the wording... We also can't do the "right thing" for hopes of a reward. Maybe we just respond to bastards in kindness because we have been blessed by people who are loving, kind, and patient with us when we act like bastards. Nobody said it'd be easy..

This article has bugged me a little since I read it, but after a day of intermittent mulling, I can't pin it down to one easily described reason.

So given my lack of a clear thesis, here's some intermittent mulling.

External appearance is easily dismissed, but I don't see anything wrong with--for example--spending a little more on a haircut with a more aesthetically pleasing effect. One reason is that aesthetics are an opportunity to participate in grace--small G. You know more about large G than I do.

Ostentatious display of wealth: Sure, that's annoying and shallow.

Participation in external grace that may require extra expense that shows: That's bad?

It's not the thing. It's the why. A simple office can mean the person in it has chosen to live simply; or it can mean "Look how simply I have chosen to live! Ain't I great?"

It sounds as though your friend's reasons are in the former category, but a simple office itself doesn't prove anything. A simple office is potentially as much a studied external appearance as an ostentatious one.

If it arises organically from a thoughtful life, that's one thing. If it's a way of consciously shaping other people's opinions, that's another. I think this can apply to any external appearance: Offices, clothes... even computers. People at my day job have laptops as status symbols; they don't lug them home and could just as easily use less expensive tower models. I have a laptop because it suits my life to work on it at Starbucks. Some people clearly think I'm being ostentatious, with the silver laptop and MBox and Firewire hard drive and noise-canceling headphones all blinking their LEDs on a table with my cappuccino.

I don't care what they think. I get my work done and go home. Isn't that more important than caring whether I could be perceived as showing off wealth?

I came over from Steel's place for a visit. I enjoyed your post. Have a wonderful day!

God Bless

I must admit that I truly love the new "what people are saying" section. I love those things in general but on your site it is even better. The truly unfortunate thing is that it is all those who profess a belief in Christ who have sent such comments. I am glad that you are able to turn this into something that is humorous instead of taking it to heart. It is definitely a good spot for these types of comments. I laugh and I hope I laugh with you.
Trevor
A fellow pastor
Also an NIV user

OldPoet
I intended my suggestions to Laura. An audience of one who asked how to deal with a specific situation as a non-Christian. Trying to make people feel bad or looking down one's nose is not pretty. This non-prettiness can also come from a "look at how humbly I live. I am so humble" attitude too. Living a simple life because you want to is ok. Living a mildly stuff oriented life is ok too. And people are free to live large also. I don't approve, but it's their lives. Laura's question is how to deal with the bastards who try to make you feel small for your choices. My answer is still: Be happy with your choices. Seek like-mindied people. Think (or pray) on good things.
www.prodigalaspersions.com

Old Poet, thanks for pointing out how I may have sounded when I responded to your statement to seek like-minded people. I reread my post and should have reread it more closely before I posted it. I did sound self righteous and for that I apologize. I think I was reacting to the indignation I sensed in Laura's comments and did come across as "I'm so humble". In truth, I got indignant too. My bad. Didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings.