Hope

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From The Four Vision Quests of Jesus (2015)

  It is a shadowy world within a world, deep and hidden from view. When the Hopi enter the kiva , they are entering a place of mystery. They are acknowledging that there is a power, a wisdom greater than our own intellect. As wise as our ancestors have been in putting together the intricate pieces of the puzzle we call life, they were still only stewards of the mystery of God. When the cloud comes down on the disciples, it does so to illustrate our spiritual blindness. The desire to keep God’s vision for ourselves is short-sighted. Only when we give up the desire to control the power of God do we truly understand our role in creation. The Hopi knew that human beings can make things better or we can make things worse. We can work with the katsinas or we can ignore them. We have free will and our choices matter. How we respect our traditions and attend to our rituals matters, but it does not elevate us above the Creator. We are the technicians of grace, not the source. We must always remember that we are living in this world, but there have been others in the past. There will be more in the future. This is our time, our moment of choice. The mystery of God is not ours to own, only to serve, which is why the Voice in the second vision quest of Jesus simply tells us to do what any good Hopi knows to do when it comes to God: be quiet and pay attention. Through all their years of suffering, the Hopi remained quiet, but they paid attention. They kept their eye on the vision of the transfiguration entrusted to their ancestors. They continued to perform the vital ceremonies that kept life in balance. They never forgot the katsinas and they never lost hope in the future of humanity. At the end of his second vision quest, Jesus comes to his friends and tells them, “Get up. Don’t be afraid.” Those few words of strength are part of the vision because they represent what sustains human beings. The spirit of the Hopi could not be broken by the Spanish or in later years by other conquerors. I wish I could write an end to this chapter by saying that the Hopi threw off the yoke of their oppression and lived forever as free people, but that is not the case. In 1700, the Spanish returned. They forced the Pueblo people back into submission and they returned to their efforts to convert the Hopi to Christianity. Once again, the Hopi resisted. Generation after generation, they held on to their beliefs. Perhaps, in their own way, they whispered to one another: “get up, don’t be afraid.” By 1849 the Spanish had been supplanted by the Americans. Protestant and Mormon missionaries joined the Catholics. Still the Hopi resisted. By 1875 a boarding school was built to teach Hopi children.

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  food Ru 2%; 0 (Bn?) bow Ex 16°(P), Lv 25” 26° (both H), ef. שי ;"78 שי לש‎ WEI... אָבל‎ Dt 23° eat grapes according to thine appetite, (namely) thy fill, cf. לש נַפשו‎ DON ו‎ satisfying abundance, ש' שָמָחות‎ y 16% ש' n.f. satiety ;—abs.‏ [שבעה] שבְעַָהז Ts 561+, estr. “nya Ez 16”, sf. qwnyay ys;‏ as to food, esp. “wy P38 eat to satiety, one’s‏ .1 of‏ ש' also Is 55? (fig.);‏ לֶש ;”39 fill, Is 235 Ez‏ leading to arrogance,‏ שלְחֶם dogs 56” (fig.);‏ ה ,8 .600 , גּאוּן +( 16% as sin of Sodom Ez‏ to carnal desire Ez 16% (fig-).‏ n.m. ""* * plenty, satiety ;—only‏ שבעז plenty, of bread-stuffs Gn 41404"‏ .1-- ; ש' abs.‏ a OS OE) OEE a 2. satiety, Ke 5".‏ adj. sated, satisfied, surfeited ;—‏ שבעז Dt 337+; fs.‏ שבע Gn 25° Pr 15; estr.‏ ש' abs.‏ nya’ Pr 277; mpl. Dyay 1 ₪ 2°;—1. a. sated‏ with food, c. D023 18 2°; MYA” WI Pr 2477 (opp.‏ Y2¥)‏ רְצו[) abounding in ’*’s favour‏ ;)2 רְעָבָה dn) ; abs. satisfied Prig*. b. in‏ | 3 כ Y2¥ satisfied with days, in a good old‏ יָמִים phr.‏ Ch 29%‏ 1 ,(זק] + age, Gn 35” (P), Jb 42” (both‏ also abs. YAY Gn 25°(P; +-2d.‏ ,)73%3 7210+( +jpt). 2. bad sense, surfeited with trouble,‏ ,10% ש' Tb 14%, ep‏ שבע 12 :66 mute et [שבר]‎ vb. inspect, examine (van d. 11 שבר‎ [so G ovrrpiBor |, but Mas.’ v. Norzi; hence connex. with Ar. jas probe a wound, try, examine,improb., and this(ace. to Fra?) denom, from Aram. loan-word ; improb. also is connex. with Aram. 12D think (cf. foll.), Kau *= ATS): __Qal Pt. (שבר‎ c. ב‎ obj, Ne 2° 1 ex- amined into the wall, inspected it closely. TIL. [שבר]‎ vb. Pi. wait, hope (Aramaism; ef. Aram. 2D think, Pa. hope; seo believe, hope, Pa. think, Aph. hope) ;—Pf. rs, May yi19', 3 pl. NY Est 91; 7707 3 mpl. 73 Is 3838, nav ד א‎ mae ;")סש‎ fpl. nyaen Ru r®;—1. wait for, ל‎ pers., Ru 1", 2. hope for, ל‎ rei ץ‎ 119", Os rei Is 38% ON pers. y 104% 145%; 5 inf. Est 9 hope to rule. / [שבר]‎ n.m. hope;— sf. שבָרִ'‎ 1% עַלדי"‎ nay 1468, Ww] vb. grow, grow great (Vv only in‏ א] Job; Aramaism; cf. Aram. %}D, 83D, loco, all‏ 960 שגיב increase, grow great; OAram. BAram, Palm. &(°)3vadj.mch);—Qal Impf. 3 ms.metapl. 830 Jb 8" (of plant; metapl. form Ges'”°; >van 6. H. 730), Hiph. 1. make great, pt. Sv לגוים‎ Jb 12” he maketh the nations great (v.5 3 b). 2. magnify, laud, 2 ms. פ9ל‎ NIWA Jb 36 that thou magnify his work.—Vid. .שגה‎ Trea adj. great ;—of God, abs, NY אל‎ Jb 36”; 0802. שנגִּיאהכה‎ 37%,

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  Professor Brown is responsible for all articles and parts of articles not included in the above statements, as well as for the arrangement of the book and the general editorial oversight. The work has consumed a much longer time than was anticipated at the outset. Twenty-three years have passed since it was undertaken, and nearly fifteen since the issue of the First Part, in June, 1891. Several causes have prevented an earlier completion of it. Not only have the Editors been engaged in the active duties of their professorships, to which they were obliged to subordinate even so important a work as this, but they have more than once encountered serious interruptions from unforeseen circumstances of a personal nature. But, above all, the task itself has proved a greater one than they supposed it to be. The field has been large, the questions have been many, and often difficult, the consideration of usage, involved, as it is, with that of textual change and of fresh proposals in exegesis, has required an enormous amount of time; the study of etymologies is involved with masses of new material, rapidly increasing and as yet imperfectly published and digested; the critical discussion of the many related topics is of great extent and scattered through many books and periodicals. Even tentative conclusions can be reached often only through a careful weighing of facts yielded by prolonged investigation. And so the process has gone on year after year. The Editors are quite aware that the patience of purchasers has been put to a severe test. They would be glad to think that they may find in the result a partial compensation. They know, indeed, that this result is far from perfect. Their most earnest care has not been able to exclude errors; the First Part, in particular, was printed under unfavourable conditions, and the years since the earlier Parts were issued have brought new knowledge at many points. It was not possible, nor would it have been just to owners of these Parts, to make considerable changes in the plates. Such changes have been limited, almost wholly, to obvious misprints, and occasional errors in citation. A selected, and restricted, list of some of the more important ‘Addenda et Corrigenda’ is appended to the volume. The Editors venture to hope that in the future they may be able to utilize the additional material which is now in their hands. PREFACE xi A list of abbreviations was issued with Part I. This has been now revised and enlarged, and it is hoped that by its aid the abbreviations made necessary by the fullness of reference, on the one hand, and the requirements of space, on the other, will be quite intelligible.

• From The History of Christian Theology (2008)

  60 Lecture 17: The Sacraments Holy Orders or ordination, in the medieval and Roman Catholic understanding, confers a special power and character on those who receive it. It is one of three sacraments (the others being Baptism and Con ¿ rmation) which imprint an indelible mark or “character” on the soul. Only men who have received this character can consecrate the Eucharist and bestow sacramental absolution. Ŷ Catechism of the Catholic Church, pt. 2. Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacraments, in Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 2, 118–198; an abridged version is in Leith, Creeds of the Churches, 425–439. Davies, The Thought of Thomas Aquinas, chap. 17. 1. Why do Catholics—unlike many Protestants—¿ nd the sacraments to be such an important part of the Christian life? 2. What is the point of the doctrine of transubstantiation? Suggested Reading Questions to Consider 61 Souls after Death Lecture 18 The Christian hope was not the hope of going to heaven with Jesus, but the hope of Christ coming from heaven to earth to establish the Kingdom of God on earth and restore all things and redeem the world and raise everyone from the dead. The hope was resurrection of the dead. That meant an undoing of death so that people who are corpses become living human beings again. T he theological concept of souls going to heaven developed to explain what happens in the interval between death and resurrection. The Christian hope of bodily resurrection leaves a gap or interim between when we die and when we are raised from the dead. In the New Testament, the dead are said to be “asleep,” as if resurrection is something like waking up. Believers who die are “with the Lord,” which must mean somehow with the exalted Lord Jesus at God’s right hand. Four interconnected philosophical concepts about the soul came to be used as a framework for explaining the state of the dead before the resurrection. One is the concept that a human being consists of body and soul; another is the concept that death is the separation of soul and body. Furthermore, there is the concept that the soul is by nature immortal, and there is the concept that good souls ultimately go to heaven. The crucial question was whether souls could be fully blessed before the resurrection. The one time the New Testament pictures souls in heaven, they are waiting for judgment day—they are not quite happy. Augustine hesitates to say disembodied souls are blessed by the full vision of God, because that would seem to make resurrection of the body superÀ uous. The issue was not fully settled in the West until 1336, when Pope Benedict XII declared that holy souls enjoy the beati¿ c vision before the resurrection. Jesus’s own interim between death and resurrection was elaborated in the doctrine of the harrowing of hell. There is a distinctively Christian understanding of what it means to say God died—not the Father or the Holy

• From The Four Vision Quests of Jesus (2015)

  The New Testament is a vision quest story, an invitation to us to step into the vision quest of God. This quest is transformative. It is not the transcendent myth of a shaman far removed from human experience, doing things we could never hope to do, flying away from us into an ethereal realm reserved only for the few; instead, it is the earth-bound story of a flesh and blood seeker who lives in the midst of the mundane, using what is at hand to turn the common into the extraordinary. The quest is not an escape, but a rooting into reality: a celebration of the everyday, the physical, the sensual, and the experiential. Because of God’s vision quest, our quests can take on a deeper dimension. We can follow the story of the incarnate seeker to focus our own search into an interior geography of faith that can bring us closer to our goal, intimacy with God. No matter where we are, we can step into the space once occupied by Jesus and find a real presence there to speak to us. God’s quest can transform us, not by lifting us out of ourselves but by grounding us into the joy and struggle of being human. Therefore, walking the way of Christ is walking the stations of the quest as much as those of the cross. We follow Jesus into the place of transformation. As a young man I tried to find faith in the midst of doubt. I instinctively sought some way to transform my reality from a painful experience into a healing vision. I turned to the wisdom of my own ancestors to perform a quest in the spirit of Native American tradition. I tried to create a sacred space with the most mundane things I had at hand: a rooftop and a box of cornmeal. I did not know if my quest would take me away from my faith in Jesus. I did not know if I would discover myself to be a hypocrite, but I decided to take that risk. I walked out to a lonely place to find intimacy with God. I experienced transformation by meeting transcendence. I joined the story of incarnation. What follows in this book is a description of vision, the mystery at the heart of the quest, and of the visions of God as I have come to understand them as a Native American theologian. In sharing my thoughts I have no sense of having an experience that is rare or unique. As a Native person, I believe we are all called to make our own vision quests. We are called by our doubts or our hope. We are called by ancient myths or new mysteries. In answering that call, we each make our vision quest in our own way. We have our own traditions. And yet, we walk a similar path: 1. We prepare ourselves to answer the call to a quest. 2.

• From The History of Christian Theology (2008)

  60 Lecture 17: The Sacraments Holy Orders or ordination, in the medieval and Roman Catholic understanding, confers a special power and character on those who receive it. It is one of three sacraments (the others being Baptism and Con¿ rmation) which imprint an indelible mark or “character” on the soul. Only men who have received this character can consecrate the Eucharist and bestow sacramental absolution. Ŷ Catechism of the Catholic Church, pt. 2. Council of Trent, Decree on the Sacraments, in Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 2, 118–198; an abridged version is in Leith, Creeds of the Churches, 425–439. Davies, The Thought of Thomas Aquinas, chap. 17. 1. Why do Catholics—unlike many Protestants—¿ nd the sacraments to be such an important part of the Christian life? 2. What is the point of the doctrine of transubstantiation? Suggested Reading Questions to Consider 61 Souls after Death Lecture 18 The Christian hope was not the hope of going to heaven with Jesus, but the hope of Christ coming from heaven to earth to establish the Kingdom of God on earth and restore all things and redeem the world and raise everyone from the dead. The hope was resurrection of the dead. That meant an undoing of death so that people who are corpses become living human beings again. T he theological concept of souls going to heaven developed to explain what happens in the interval between death and resurrection. The Christian hope of bodily resurrection leaves a gap or interim between when we die and when we are raised from the dead. In the New Testament, the dead are said to be “asleep,” as if resurrection is something like waking up. Believers who die are “with the Lord,” which must mean somehow with the exalted Lord Jesus at God’s right hand. Four interconnected philosophical concepts about the soul came to be used as a framework for explaining the state of the dead before the resurrection. One is the concept that a human being consists of body and soul; another is the concept that death is the separation of soul and body. Furthermore, there is the concept that the soul is by nature immortal, and there is the concept that good souls ultimately go to heaven. The crucial question was whether souls could be fully blessed before the resurrection. The one time the New Testament pictures souls in heaven, they are waiting for judgment day—they are not quite happy. Augustine hesitates to say disembodied souls are blessed by the full vision of God, because that would seem to make resurrection of the body superÀ uous. The issue was not fully settled in the West until 1336, when Pope Benedict XII declared that holy souls enjoy the beati¿ c vision before the resurrection. Jesus’s own interim between death and resurrection was elaborated in the doctrine of the harrowing of hell. There is a distinctively Christian understanding of what it means to say God died—not the Father or the Holy

• From Generation Anxiety: A Millennial and Gen Z Guide to Staying Afloat in an Uncertain World (2023)

  Interestingly, as I began doing the research, I learned the impact that such imbalances can have on the body, particularly when it comes to creating an internal cocktail that will get you emotionally intoxicated on a daily basis with anxious distress. For someone like me who had been drinking that blend for years and was starting to believe that’s just how it would always be, this information about the power of vitamin and mineral balances was beyond enlightening. Given that I had started to become resigned to my anxiety and panic, it was the first time in a long time that I felt a sense of hope. Now, that’s not to say that the cognitive work isn’t also essential. I’ve done a lot to manage how I respond to my anxious thoughts, and exposure and response prevention therapy was still quite helpful (and it’s the first-line intervention for those with panic). But given how life-changing it has been to get my overall body back in balance through supplements and nutrition, I have to share this part of the equation with you. Getting my body in a more homeostatic state has made my anxiety threshold much higher. This means that it takes a lot more to trigger a panic attack, whereas before, when I was experiencing nutritional deficiencies, it took so little to set off the symptoms. Now I find that I have far fewer anxious thoughts because my body is not constantly sending me signals that I am in danger. It’s finally a positive feedback loop. Given this, I want to break down some of these key nutrients that can impact physical symptoms, because it’s important for us to be aware of the correlations between vitamin levels and our mental health. Should you decide to integrate supplementation based on your results, I always recommend working with a provider to get a tailored treatment plan for your body. Supplementation is not a substitution for psychiatric prescriptions and it’s best to get a personalized approach for your specific symptoms. I also want to highlight that research continues to evolve and additional studies are recommended to further evaluate the correlations between vitamin levels and the experience of anxiety. Supplementation is certainly not a catchall, but I believe it can be an integral component in treatment that many of us forget, or don’t know, to include. KEY VITAMINS THAT COULD BE IMPACTING YOUR ANXIETY 1.

• From Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995)

  It was twilight by the time we crossed the city line and pulled into the parking lot of a large suburban school, where crowds of people were already making their way into the auditorium. They appeared as Marty had described them: laid-off steelworkers, secretaries, and truck drivers, men and women who smoked a lot and didn’t watch their weight, shopped at Sears or Kmart, drove late-model cars from Detroit and ate at Red Lobster on special occasions. A barrel-chested black man in a cleric’s collar greeted us at the door and Marty introduced him as Deacon Wilbur Milton, copresident of the organization. With his short, reddish beard and round cheeks, the man reminded me of Santa Claus. “Welcome,” Will said, pumping my hand. “We been wondering when we’d actually get to meet you. Thought maybe Marty just made you up.” Marty peeked inside the auditorium. “How’s turnout looking?” “Good so far. Everybody seems to be making their quota. Governor’s people just called to say he’s on his way.” Marty and Will began walking toward the stage, their heads buried in the evening’s agenda. I started to follow them, but found my path blocked by three black women of indeterminate age. One of them, a pretty woman with orange-tinted hair, introduced herself as Angela, then leaned over to me and whispered, “You’re Barack, aren’t you?” I nodded. “You don’t know how glad we are to see you.” “You really don’t,” the older woman next to Angela said. I offered the woman my hand, and she smiled to show off a gold front tooth. “I’m sorry,” she said, taking my hand, “I’m Shirley.” She gestured toward the last woman, dark and heavyset. “This is Mona. Don’t he look clean-cut, Mona?” “Sure does,” Mona said with a laugh. “Don’t get me wrong,” Angela said, her voice still lowered a pitch. “I’ve got nothing against Marty. But the fact is, there’s only so far you can—” “Hey, Angela!” We looked up to see Marty waving at us from the stage. “You guys can talk to Barack all you want later. Right now I need all of you up here with me.” The women exchanged knowing looks before Angela turned back to me. “I guess we better get going,” she said. “But we really do have to talk. Soon.” “Sure do,” said Mona before the three of them walked away, Angela and Shirley busy chatting away in the front, Mona leisurely bringing up the rear.

• From Generation Anxiety: A Millennial and Gen Z Guide to Staying Afloat in an Uncertain World (2023)

  58,59,60 All of this was incredibly empowering for Colleen to learn. While she had before felt like she was predetermined to carry out the same harmful patterns as her aunt (indeed, about 30 percent of abused and neglected children go on to abuse their own children), she learned that she had the power to change the narrative. 61,62 It wasn’t just something to hope for: there were steps she could take to create direct outcomes that broke the generational cycle of abuse. In our work together, Colleen began practicing mindfulness on a regular basis to learn how to respond instead of react, especially when it came to refraining from impulsive behaviors. She integrated distress-tolerance skills as she began coping with her feelings rather than escaping them by cutting her arms. She developed a healthy sense of trust with others, learning how to let people in who earned her respect, rather than doing so solely because they gave her attention sexually. Colleen was changing her behaviors with intention, and slowly but surely, this was likely changing her biology in a biofeedback loop that was working for her in the best way. More than anything, I don’t want you to read this section of the book and believe that you are destined to be anxious. It’s not fated. We are not doomed to live a life of panic and worry just because it’s in our history. Our parents and the generations before them are part of our story. But they are not our entire story. Ultimately, you get to write this chapter. With the pen in your hand, it’s your responsibility to show up intentionally. We do not need to succumb to the narrative that it’s all just too much and that it’s beyond our power. That’s how systems of pain, trauma, and injustice perpetuate. And yes, let’s be real, these problems are bigger than you or I. They’re bigger than our parents and their parents. We are living in a world that is built on generations of pain, where there have been winners and losers, takers and victims. For hundreds of years, wounds have been ignored. It hasn’t been okay and it’s still not okay. If we’re going to face our anxiety and heal this intergenerational trauma, it’s got to be done on a collective level. Our systems—and our perspectives—need to change. We each can play our part in rebuilding these broken systems by helping more than ourselves. When I say that anxiety can make us selfish, this is what I mean. Our worries can pull us in so deeply that all we can see is ourselves and our personal problems. Our empathy is shattered because it’s shrouded by the cloud of a scarcity mindset. We think we don’t have enough to keep ourselves safe so we rarely look out to see how we could help a neighbor.

• From The Four Vision Quests of Jesus (2015)

  Although the historic context of the two movements is very different, a comparison of early Christianity and the Ghost Dance has much to teach us about the authority of the vision quest in human life. There is a spiritual magma that increases when people are oppressed, a critical mass of hope that builds up beneath the surface. The outlet for that stress is the messiah figure who can offer a vision of renewal. And once people have taken hold of that vision it is very difficult to take it from them. In other words, the human desire to find fulfillment through the vision quest remains strong within us. It is a desire that transcends cultural and religious histories and, above all, it is a longing to complete the vision quest, not just as a person, but as a people. In this way the experience of the first Christians and the experience of the Ghost Dancers is very much the same. In both cases even martyrdom could not erase the spiritual bond that held them to their vision. The vision quest on which they embarked went deep within them and allowed them to preserve their sense of community, even when it had to survive underground. Early Christians continued their practice of the Eucharist in the catacombs. Ghost Dancers continued their traditions in the hidden corners of the reservations. Both continued to understand themselves as the inheritors of a sacred vision. Their task was to keep it alive, to pass it on, and to keep believing against all odds. Faith in God sustained both communities. Even after their original message bearers, Jesus or Wovoka, were gone, the vision quest continued. At the turn of the century, Native people were described as the “Vanishing Americans.” The aftermath of Wounded Knee convinced the dominant society that Native American tribes would soon wither under enforced assimilation. Their languages would disappear; their culture would melt away; but that did not happen. Traditions that were prohibited continued. Despite a level of oppression that I described as “ten times worse” than what Rome could administer, Native American culture and religion survived. The reason why is hidden in the vision of the Ghost Dance. A strange little footnote to the story occurred in 1924. A silent movie star, Tim McCoy, brought an old man in his limousine to visit the set of one of his Westerns. The man was Wovoka.6 Wood Cutter had lived in relative obscurity after the suppression of his dance. He had been reviled in the press and kept under surveillance by the government, but eventually he was no longer deemed a threat. He was left to live out his days as a failed prophet in the Nevada desert. Aficionados of Western history did not forget him entirely, however, and so Wovoka found himself invited to see how Hollywood was recreating the world he and Black Elk knew before it totally vanished.

• From The Four Vision Quests of Jesus (2015)

  It allows us to see that story through the eyes of Hopi experience. It puts the Transfiguration into a different context, one that can renew our own commitment to get up and pay attention. Part of our work of maintaining balance is to make sure that what the Hopi people endured never happens again. The Hopi witness reveals the second vision quest as an affirmation for religious freedom, cultural integrity, and global identity. By defending their past, the Hopi show us our way to the future. For centuries they have had a rich and layered understanding of life. Now the rest of the world is starting to catch up. Hopi tradition is only now able to enlighten Christian scholarship. Perhaps in the years remaining in the Fourth World the Histatsinom will have much more to teach us. Chapter 8THE GARDENIt is difficult for many Americans to realize that the United States Constitution was meaningless for much of the history between Native Americans and the Federal Government. As we have seen, a president of the United States could ignore the ruling of the Supreme Court when it came to the treatment of Native people; Native Americans were not granted American citizenship until 1924 when they were thought to be all but extinct; and it was not until 1978 that Native Americans were allowed to practice their religious beliefs, in spite of what the First Amendment to the Constitution had guaranteed to Americans for over two hundred years. In 1978 Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. It was a landmark piece of legislation for Native people because, for the first time in the four hundred year history between Europeans and Native Americans, the religious practices of Native nations were not banned. Native people were allowed to worship publicly. They could come out of the catacombs where they had been maintaining their religious beliefs in secret for fear of persecution. The parallel to first-century Christians is hard to miss. Like Rome, the Federal Government had persecuted and suppressed Native religions in order to break the will of the Native American people to resist conquest. Native American prophets like Sitting Bull were imprisoned or executed. Religious dances like the Ghost Dance were prohibited under penalty of death. Traditional spiritual objects like the Hopi statues of the katsinas were systematically destroyed. Church operated boarding schools were established to remove Native children from their traditional religious culture and transform them into English speaking converts. In no other part of the world, except in Hawaii where American churches were predominant, was there such a concerted, consistent, and conscious effort to eradicate an indigenous religious system. Not in India. Not in Africa. Not in any other area under colonial rule was there as intense a level of religious persecution as in the Americas. The icon for this historic truth is Mount Rushmore. For generations before the coming of the colonizers, several Native nations (the Lakota, Cheyenne) held the Black Hills to be sacred.

• From Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence (2014)

  During these rallies, knights were forced to swear, on pain of excommunication, that they would stop tormenting the poor: I will not carry off either ox or cow or any other beast of burden; I will seize neither peasant nor merchant; I will not take from them their pence, nor oblige them to ransom themselves; and I will not beat them to obtain their subsistence. I will seize neither horse, mare nor colt from their pasture; I will not destroy or burn their houses. 31 At these peace councils the bishops insisted that anyone who killed his fellow Christians “spills the blood of Christ.” 32 They now also introduced the Truce of God, forbidding fighting from Wednesday evening to Monday morning each week in memory of Christ’s days of passion, death, and resurrection. Although peace became a reality for a specific period of time, it could not be maintained without coercion. The bishops were able to enforce the Peace and the Truce only by forming “peace militias.” Anyone who broke the Truce, explained the chronicler Raoul Glaber (c. 985–1047), “was to pay for it with his life or be driven from his own country and the company of his fellow-Christians.” 33 These peacekeeping forces helped to make knightly violence a genuine “service” ( militia ) of God, equal to the priestly and monastic vocation. 34 The Peace movement spread throughout France, and by the end of the eleventh century, there is evidence that a significant number of knights had indeed been converted to a more “religious” lifestyle and regarded their military duties as a form of lay monasticism. 35 But for Pope Gregory VII, one of the leading reformers of the day, knighthood could be a holy vocation only if it fought to preserve the libertas of the Church. He therefore tried to recruit kings and aristocrats into his own Militia of St. Peter to fight the Church’s enemies—and it was with this militia that he intended to fight his “crusade.” In his letters he linked the ideals of brotherly love for the beleaguered Eastern Christians and liberatio of the church with military aggression. But very few laymen joined his militia. 36 Why indeed would they, since it was clearly designed to enhance the power of the Church at the expense of the bellatores? The popes had blessed the predatory violence of the Carolingians because it had enabled the Church to survive. But as Gregory had learned in his struggle with Henry IV, warriors were no longer willing simply to protect the Church’s privileges. This political struggle for power between popes and emperors would inform the religiously inspired violence of the Crusading period; both sides were competing for political supremacy in Europe, and that meant gaining the monopoly of violence. In 1074 Gregory’s crusade had no takers; twenty years later, the response from the laity would be very different.

• From Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995)

  Johnnie smiled gently. “Ain’t nobody gonna get the wrong idea, Barack. Man, we’re just proud to see you succeed.” The sun was now slipping behind a cloud; a couple of the old cardplayers pulled on the windbreakers they had hung on the backs of their chairs. I lit a cigarette and tried to decipher that conversation with Johnnie. Had he doubted my intentions? Or was it just me that mistrusted myself? It seemed like I had gone over my decision at least a hundred times. I needed a break, that was for sure. I wanted to go to Kenya: Auma was already back in Nairobi, teaching at the university for a year; it would be an ideal time for an extended visit. And I had things to learn in law school, things that would help me bring about real change. I would learn about interest rates, corporate mergers, the legislative process; about the way businesses and banks were put together; how real estate ventures succeeded or failed. I would learn power’s currency in all its intricacy and detail, knowledge that would have compromised me before coming to Chicago but that I could now bring back to where it was needed, back to Roseland, back to Altgeld; bring it back like Promethean fire. That’s the story I had been telling myself, the same story I imagined my father telling himself twenty-eight years before, as he had boarded the plane to America, the land of dreams. He, too, had probably believed he was acting out some grand design, that he wasn’t simply fleeing from possible inconsequence. And, in fact, he had returned to Kenya, hadn’t he? But only as a divided man, his plans, his dreams, soon turned to dust ….

• From Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Cycle of Anxious Thoughts (2020)

  The change that once felt impossible, probable at best, was now in plain sight. [image file=Image00027.jpg] Where are you and I headed? We’re aiming for one step beyond even that. Based on Paul’s writings long ago to the church in Rome, you and I can learn to mind our minds to the point that controlling our thoughts becomes reflexive—an automatic, intuitive response. In Romans 8:5 Paul said that “those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh” and that “those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” He went on: To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.7 I have read and reread this passage in the past few months, mulling over how life would be if I could truly have a mind that dwells on the Spirit. A mind that is full of life and peace. A mind that consistently thinks about God—who He is and what He wants for me. I so desperately want the “perfect peace” God promises when my mind is fixed on Him.8 Again, not perfectly but more regularly thinking this way. I want to be so well versed in the patterns of thinking in line with the Spirit that my default is not to rely on the flesh but on the Spirit in everything. This is the goal of our deliberate interruptions: we abruptly stop the crazy spirals of our minds. As we practice the art of interruption, we’re shifting to a whole new mind-set, and with each shift we will find ourselves growing more and more into the mind of Christ. When we’re spiraling in noise or distractedness, we have a choice to shift our minds back to God through stillness. When we’re spiraling in isolation, we have a choice to shift our minds back to God through community. When we’re spiraling in anxiety, we have a choice to shift our minds back to God through trust in His good and sovereign purposes.

• From Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Cycle of Anxious Thoughts (2020)

  I’m not making this up. From the time you think a thought to that thought having physiologically, scientifically, indisputably changed your brain, ten minutes have elapsed. 6 Your singular thought has enhanced some neural circuits and caused others to die off. It has awakened some neurons and allowed others to drift to sleep. It has built an entire microtubular city in some parts of your mind and left others a total ghost town. All from one simple thought. Now, there are two ways to look at this information I’ve just given you. One way leaves us terrified and distressed: If I think even one negative thought, I could wreck my whole brain in ten minutes flat? I guess that is technically true. But before you spiral into despair, let’s consider the other way. If you have made a habit of thinking negative thoughts, you’re only ten minutes away from a fresh start. Pull out the mind map you created at the beginning of this book. Would your map be the same if you mapped your thoughts today? Have you noticed the thoughts you are thinking? Have you started to interrupt them by remembering you have a choice? Are your spirals shorter and fewer? With each positive choice made—choosing stillness instead of distraction, for example, or community instead of isolation, or surrender instead of anxiety—we are training ourselves to use the mind of Christ that we have. The more we make these positive choices, the more reflexive that approach becomes. We said that at first such a shift is possible through consciously, deliberately interrupting our spirals. But as we practice more, that shift becomes probable and then predictable and then utterly instinctive to us. Eventually we get to the place where we don’t even realize we’re interrupting our negative thinking in order to choose mind-of-Christ thinking, because the impulse has become so ingrained. I liken it to cutting a road in the woods. At first the path is marked by flattened leaves on foot-worn soil. But over time the demand for that path will cause someone to come in and lay gravel on top of the dirt and then pour cement on top of that gravel and then put in mile-marker signs and streetlights at regular intervals along the way. Eventually the path is so clear cut, it would be senseless to take another route. That path is just the path you always take. That path keeps in step with God’s Spirit. That path is the way of constant surrender. That path is the way of abundant humility. That path is the way of full reliance on Jesus, with every step, for every moment. Training ourselves to take the path in our thinking is crucial because when the

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  TE אוּלי‎ | and (Gn 24%( אלי‎ adv. (perh. from לא לי= לי & אל‎ as in xbab — or not 2) 4 peradventure, perhaps; usually expressing a hope, as Gn 16? Nu 22°" 2371 ₪ 6° Je 20”; but also a fear or doubt, as Gn 27" 7 1% sq. לא‎ Gn 24°"; in mockery Is 47" Je 51°. @. followed by another clause 000986705 it expresses vir- tually the protasis=7f peradventure Gn 185 (cf. v**) Ho 8' the blade shall yield no meal; snyb3) Dy ny: DIN if perchance it yield, strangers shall swallow it up. 3.in Nu 22% (q.v.) must be read; unless she had turned‏ לוּלִי aside from me, surely, etc.‏ I. & I. boa n.m. & n.pr.m. y. sub 1. .אול‎ and (Jb 17", perhaps for sake‏ אוּלם .דנ of assonance with following n>3) pbs adv. but,‏ but indeed, a strong adversative Jb 2° 5° 13°‏ (where @ excellently ot piv 86 adda). More‏ Gn 28% (cf. Ju 18°) 48”‏ וְאוּלֶם ,} usually with‏ howbeit his younger brother shall be greater‏ than he, Ex 9’ but in very deed, Nu 14” (cf.‏ 1S 20° 25%) 1 K 20% Mic 3° 70 1 11° 12" 13*‏ pats‏ ליד Ea‏ E ון‎ N (cf.Ar. Gl (med. \ ( be fatigued, tired, 5 cpl weariness, sorrow, trouble). pS n.m.’°®° trouble, sorrow, wickedness —abs. Nu 23% + ; sf. אלני‎ Gn 35 660.; pl. DN Ho .1--*ף‎ trouble, sorrow ‘38"}2 son of my trouble or sorrow Gn 358 (E); PY! NS לא הִבִּיט‎ Nu 23” (song of Balaam), he doth not behold trouble in Jacob (|| he doth not see misery— © 2 תאניס

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The history of the period begins with a survey of the papacy as the controlling power of Western Christendom. It embraces six stages: 1. The Hildebrandian popes, 1049–1073. 2. Gregory VII., 1073–1085, or the assertion of the supreme authority of the papacy in human affairs. 3. From Gregory’s death to the Concordat of Worms, 1122, or the settlement of the controversy over investiture. 4. From the Concordat of Worms to Innocent III., 1198. 5. The Pontificate of Innocent III., 1198–1216, or the papacy at its height. 6. From Innocent III. to Boniface VIII., 1216–1294, or the struggle of the papacy with Frederick II. and the restoration of peace between the papacy and the empire. The papacy had reached its lowest stage of weakness and degeneracy when at Sutri in 1046, under the influence of Henry III., two popes were deposed and a third was forced to abdicate.3 But the worthless popes, who prostituted their office and outraged the feelings of Christendom during the tenth and the first half of the eleventh century, could not overthrow the papacy any more than idolatrous kings could overthrow the Jewish monarchy, or wicked emperors the Roman Empire. In the public opinion of Europe, the papacy was still a necessary institution established by Christ in the primacy of Peter for the government and administration of the church. There was nothing to take its place. It needed only a radical reformation in its head, which would be followed by a reformation of the members. Good men all over Europe anxiously desired and hoped that Providence would intervene and rescue the chair of Peter from the hands of thieves and robbers, and turn it once more into a blessing. The idea of abolishing the papacy did not occur to the mind of the Christians of that age as possible or desirable. At last the providential man for effecting this necessary reformation appeared in the person of Hildebrand, who controlled five successive papal administrations for twenty-four years, 1049–1073, then occupied the papal chair himself for twelve years, 1073–1085, and was followed by like-minded successors. He is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of popes, and one of the most remarkable men in history. He excited in his age the highest admiration and the bitterest hatred. Opinions about his principles and policy are still divided; but it is impossible to deny his ability, energy, earnestness, and achievements.

• From Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Cycle of Anxious Thoughts (2020)

  In other words, way too small to see. But their lack of visibility to the human eye doesn’t make them any less important to the human experience. They mean everything to how we process life. Microtubules have been called “the brains of the cell” and can be likened to a Lego set during a free build.4 This is what I call it, anyway, when my son ditches the instructions that come with each set in favor of sitting with piles and piles of colored bricks before him, relying only on his imagination to tell him how the assembly should go. Let’s say that you’re the one free-building, and you decide to assemble a tree. You might reach for several brown bricks to make the trunk and branches and then a few light and dark green bricks to fill out the leaves. Let’s say that, partway through that assembly, you change your mind and want to build a fence instead. Well, you keep going with the brown bricks, but you might alter the shape of the build—from a trunk-like shape to the long slats of a fence—and you don’t need the green bricks at all. If partway through that build, you decide that what you really want to make is a robot, then you might push aside all the brown bricks, reach for a handful of gray bricks, and take it from the top. Inside your neurons, those microtubules are constantly building and deconstructing and reforming and coming apart and adjusting and shifting and stopping and starting again, in accordance with—wait for it!—your every thought.5 With each thought you think, those microtubules work hard to provide mental scaffolding to support that thought. That scaffolding gives structure to the entire nerve cell and in the truest sense alters your brain. Mind blown yet? Wait. It gets better. Guess how long it takes a microtubule to finish the scaffolding that gives structure to the cell? From creation to completion, what is your guess? Ten. Minutes. I’m not making this up. From the time you think a thought to that thought having physiologically, scientifically, indisputably changed your brain, ten minutes have elapsed.6 Your singular thought has enhanced some neural circuits and caused others to die off. It has awakened some neurons and allowed others to drift to sleep. It has built an entire microtubular city in some parts of your mind and left others a total ghost town. All from one simple thought. Now, there are two ways to look at this information I’ve just given you. One way leaves us terrified and distressed: If I think even one negative thought, I could wreck my whole brain in ten minutes flat? I guess that is technically true. But before you spiral into despair, let’s consider the other way. If you have made a habit of thinking negative thoughts, you’re only ten minutes away from a fresh start.

• From Get Out of Your Head: Stopping the Cycle of Anxious Thoughts (2020)

  You are what you think. The Bible says, “As he thinks in his heart, so is he.”5 Satan knows that we are what we think—so if we are believing things that are not true about us, then we are believing what the devil wants us to believe instead of what God wants us to believe. You probably know what that one most recurring thought is for you, the one sticky thought that more than any other informs your other thoughts and, yes, your actions. The enemy will tell you that change is hopeless, that you’re a victim of your circumstances and your thought patterns. The enemy wants you to settle, to find a way just to survive and be somewhat happy. The enemy will urge you to accept that “this is just who you are,” that your thinking is rooted too deeply in your personality or your upbringing to ever make a shift. Your first objective is to capture the thought—to have the courage to face that defining, destructive thought and interrupt it: I have a choice. Remember, this journey is not primarily about behavioral change, though that may be a by-product. I can make no promises that this journey will change your circumstances. You may still lose your job, battle an autoimmune disease, or not find the perfect husband. Taking every thought captive is not about what happens to us. It’s about choosing to believe that God is with us, is for us, and loves us even when all hell comes against us. But I have better news: capturing thoughts and then believing the truth will inform and shape every aspect of your life and give you peace and joy that transcend your circumstances. How? Because Jesus defeated sin, Satan, and death and rose from the grave, and because that same resurrection power indwells men and women who have been redeemed by the gospel. This is a journey into joy that makes zero sense based on our circumstances. This is a fight for clear, focused purpose amid rampant consumerism. This is a God-given peace that surpasses understanding for our seasons of suffering. This is redeeming the time amid unprecedented distraction and noise. This is the beauty of esteeming others amid a narcissistic culture. This is learning to speak the truth in love in a world that says we should never offend. This is how you can breathe deeply and sleep peacefully in an anxiety-ridden society. This is an otherworldly way to live. You, as a believer, are a citizen of another reality.

• From H Is for Hawk (2014)

  I was so impossibly tired; there seemed no point in flying her at all. But when I unhooded her out on the hill, Stuart, noticing her oddly upright stance, the pale feathers fluffed over her toes, the rising feathers on her crown, the shackly, possessive grasp of her feet on the glove, raised his eyebrows and asked, ‘What does she weigh?’ ‘One pound and fifteen ounces.’ ‘Look at her,’ he said. ‘She’s a different hawk today.’ She was. I called her. I had lost hope in her coming but I called her all the same. And she flew to me. She flew like a promise finally kept. She raced towards me, wings flickering across fifty yards of flint-strewn earth, hit the glove and stayed. I gave her back to Stuart and called her again. Three times she flew to my fist the whole length of the creance with total conviction. There was no hesitation, no faltering. The hawk flew to me as if I were home. ‘You’ve hit her flying weight,’ Stuart said approvingly. ‘A couple more days of this and we’ll get her flying free.’ Of course he was right. I had miscalculated her flying weight for weeks. But the narcissism of the bereaved is very great. I thought that the reason the hawk had flown to me was because I had confessed how bad things were. It had made me feel better – and it was this that had made me less offputting to my hawk. I must try to be happier, I told myself. For the hawk’s sake I must. 16 Rain White is making a trap. It is not easy. There is a testing practicality to this that pleases him. He has stripped an ash-wand of bark and bent it into a U. He’s given it leather hinges, covered it with two yards of knotted strawberry netting, and made it into a bow-net like the ones the old falcon-trappers used. He’s going to bait it with a tethered blackbird and catch one of the hawks in Three Parks Wood. Or try to. He’d first seen them a month ago, and they’d never quite left his mind. They were nothing like Gos; they were small, fast, sharp-winged. Aerobatic. They’d raced round a tree wing-tip to wing-tip in a perfect vertical bank, exactly like aircraft round the pylons at the Hatfield air race. An aviator’s dream; a dream of the future. He reaches to pick up the reel of line that will pull the net over the hawk he will draw to earth. And he remembers an old nightmare. Fleeing in terror from a gang of thugs, he’d leapt into an aeroplane and piloted it up towards safety. There was danger in the dream, a net of telegraph wires strung above that blocked his ascent to freedom. He is not sure what the hawks are.