Pavlov's Dogs and Contentment...

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov won a Nobel Prize in 1904 for his research in behavior modification with dogs. I remember studying this in my Intro to Psychology class. He realized that his dogs associated food with the ringing of a small bell. Everytime he rang the bell, he fed the dogs, which led him to notice that the dogs would begin to salivate when they heard the bell ring. His discovery led to a break-through in the study and work ofpsychological conditioning in humans. Basically, he figured out that the dogs' response to the bell was learned behavior.



Lily Eoff

We used behavior modification with our Bichon, Lily. Knowing that Bichons are highly intelligent and trainable (they were once known as circus dogs!), we set out to teach her to do tricks when she was a young puppy. Our problem was getting her to recognize and then emulate the desired behavior; getting her to take a treat was the easy part! Take barking for instance. Either Garry or I would say, "Bark!" then bark and show a treat. We did this over and over. I'm sure anyone looking in the window would have thought about calling the guys in the white coats! However, eventually, Lily got the picture and at the command "Bark!" she finally let out a pitiful gurgle that we praised furiously and then fed her a treat. Well, she liked that, so we continued and she became very astute at barking for her treats. Eventually, she learned to stand, sit, roll over, sneeze, and even dance. I won't go into the details of how all of those were achieved (or you might call the white-coat guys!). The point is that all those tricks were learned behaviors - that's Nobel Prize material!!

Okay, I know I sort of got carried away, but stay with me - I have another point to make, and it's an important one.

I won't string you out - here it is: Contentment, emotional and spiritual, is a learned behavior.

So, what is contentment, really? The word means satisfaction or ease of mind. That's easy to understand as I think of emotions - easy to understand, not necessarily to achieve. Spiritually, it means agreeing with God that everything I have is everything I need. That one is not easy to understand or achieve!

The opposite of contentment is anxiety. Paul had this say about anxiety -

• "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:6-7

So emotional and spiritual contentment leads to a kind of peace that the human mind can experience, but not understand enough to put into words. When you experience that kind of peace, you just know it!

The Garment of Humility

There is an invisible shroud that follows me around and raises its ugly head once in a while. It gets in my way, changes my plans, disrupts my schedule; it even causes me to think, do, and say things that I know are not nice! Sometimes it prevents me from complimenting or affirming someone, sometimes it keeps me from asking for help or admitting that I don't know what to do in a situation. There are times when this shroud can be a positive thing, but usually its results are negative.

Have you figured out what my shroud is? I suspect that it follows you around as well. Its name is Pride.

We all know how destructive Pride can be in our lives.

• Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. Prov. 16:18

I am not going to elaborate on it here - I'm afraid that, if I did, I would never get around to the point of this post. So what is my point:? To look at the antidote to the shroud of Pride - the garment of Humility.

• Humility - 1) Not proud or arrogant, 2) having a feeling of insignificance, 3) low in rank, importance, status (dictionary.com)

What about those definitions rubs you the wrong way?!! All of them, of course. "Sounds" so good, but oh so difficult to live out.

• All of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and He will lift you up in due time. 1 Peter 5:5-6

Humility is an attitude that is lived out in actions. Attitudes and actions are a matter of choice. I can choose to be humble - or not. But as I think more and more about emulating Jesus, I think of Philippians 2:5 - In your lives, you must think and act like Jesus. (NCV) To think and act more like Jesus, I am going to have to make some choices and some changes.

Making a conscious decision to choose humility should be birthed out of the understanding that humility is one of God's characteristics - it's His nature to be humble. Jesus lived out his nature, and one of the most dramatic examples of His humility is found in John 13:3-5:

• Jesus knew that the Father had given Him authority over everything and that He had come from God and would return to God. So He go up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples's feet, drying them with the towel he had around Him. (NLT)

God, the creator of the universe, the One who breathed everything into existence, came in the form of a man, and before He was arrested and executed, He became like a lowly servant and washed the dust from His friends feet! Think about that....that's a WOW!

And then the ultimate picture of humilty -

• He humbled Himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross. Philippians 2:8 (NLT)

How do we even begin? It begins in our minds - as a choice.

• You must have the same attitude that Christ had. Philippians 2:5 (NLT)

That is only achieved when we spend time with Him in His Word everyday - consistently. Humility is not part of our human nature, and it is not part of the Fruit of the Spirit. It's an attitude which results in action that we choose to take on. If we choose to live and act like Jesus - knowing that it is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, then we must choose to lay aside the shroud of Pride and put on the garment of Humility.





Liar, Liar...

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!" - A familiar childhood chant we've all probably sang out to tease our friends. Think for a moment about why people lie. Obviously, to distort the truth, change someone's perception or perspective, or to avoid detection. Those are probably the main reasons for lying. We've all done it at some time(s) and to some extent. Most of us do not lie to cause harm, but unfortunately, not all lies are so innocent.

Ervin W. Lutzer says in 10 Lies About God and the Truths That Shatter Deception , that there are lies about God that permeate our culture.

• God is whatever we want Him to be.
• Many paths lead into God's presence.
• God is more tolerant than He used to be.
• God has never personally suffered.
• God is obligated to save followers of other religions.
• God takes no responsibility for natural disasters.
• God does not know our decisions before we make them.
• God helps those who help themselves.

92 percent of Americans say they believe in God. That make us a "Christian" society, right? Wrong... When pressed, statistics tell a different story. Americans believe in spirituality, but not necessarily the God of our Bible and Jesus Christ. Somewhere along the way, America has bought into lies about the God of the universe, and believers are standing silently by - allowing the Truth to be distorted.

To begin to really understand this dilemma and to begin to counteract it, we must know who the main players are in this drama.

One is God - the God of the universe - We must know our ally, His nature, and how He works:

• The One by whom all that is created was created (Rev. 4:11).
• The One who is all powerful, all knowing, and all present.
• The One who does not change (Malachi 3:6).
• The One who says, "I AM who I AM." ( Exodus 3:14).
• The One who says, "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Light..." (John 14:6).

To know that One is to know Jesus and the Word. We need to study it and hide its truths in our hearts to foil Satan's attempts to veil our eyes (2 Cor. 4:3).

The other player is Satan himself. We must know our adversary, his nature, and how he works:

• 1 Peter 5:8 - ...your adversary, the devil, is prowling about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour
• 2 Cor. 4:3-4 - ...Satan is the god of this world...and the one who tries to keep us from seeing Truth
• John 17:15, Eph. 6:16 - Satan is the evil one...
• Eph. 2:2 - Satan is the prince of power of the unseen world...
• John 8:44 - Satan is a murderer, a liar, and the father of lies...
• Rev. 12:9 - Satan is a dragon, the serpent of old, and the deceiver...
• 2 Cor. 11:14 - Satan disguises himself as an angel of light...

How easily deceived we can be when our eyes are not focused on Jesus consistently. Yet, it seems so simple. On one hand we have Truth, on the other hand we have the Father of Lies. But that liar will never come to us looking like the red guy with a tail and pitchfork. He will come dressed in all kinds of disguises trying to trick us, deceive us, and destroy us.

Believers need to choose to no longer stand silently by and let our world believe the enemy's lies about God.

As we begin a new week, I echo those words of Peter to all of you and to myself: "Be sober of spirit, be on alert...our enemy is seeking someone to destroy..."

I also echo the words of David, "But the Lord abides forever; He has established His throne for judgement...The Lord will also be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble...and those who know Your name will put their trust in You. For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." (Psalm 9:7-10)

Ordinary or Extraordinary?

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the difference between being conformed or transformed spiritually in relation to the world in which we live. Today, my mind is thinking about the difference between being ordinary or extraordinary.

I think of ordinary as being like most other things in the same category. I play Bunco with a wonderful group of teacher friends. For years, each table played with the normal white dice with black dots - ordinary. Then a math teacher in the group brought dice she used with her students. Some were green, some red, some yellow, some pink, etc. - extraordinary! We never know what color of dice will be at our table as we try to play our way to the top! For some strange reason, it makes our games more fun. (It may be that it just doesn't take much to entertain ladies who have been with kids all day!)

In the same manner, after I had been teaching long enough to get my legs under me, I decided I did not want to be an ordinary teacher teaching an ordinary subject. I wanted my students to love literature and writing and even grammar (now that's a stretch!) as much as I did. So if it meant creating lesson plans beyond what the textbook suggested or thinking up assignments and projects that would capture their interest and also be somewhat fun, then that's what I would try to do. At one point, the teachers on my interdisciplinary team and I decided to recreate with the students the Oregon Trail. We put together math, English, history, and science to tramp across the acreage surrounding our school with the students pulling their wagons and dealing with our version of the many hazards the pioneers faced.

Now, obviously, we had mixed reactions from the students. These were eighth graders, so to some it was NOT cool to be dressed up like a pioneer pulling a red wagon loaded down with pounds of bricks and water jugs. I did see quite a bit of eye-rolling going on! But we had so much fun, and I can guarantee you that those students will remember more about Westward Expansion than they ever thought possible. My oldest daughter was in that first group of trail-blazers, so I saw a LOT of eye-rolling from her. I mean - it was her MOTHER making them all do this! Not cool! But not long ago, she mentioned how much fun that experience was and how unlike any other "lesson" in school she experienced - and she is almost 30! It was extraodinary!

Well, I don't want to live an ordinary Christian life! And I don't believe the Lord wants or expects the ordinary from us. Let's look back to Romans 12:2 -

• Do not be conformed to this world [live like ordinary, worldly people], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind....[live an extraordinary life by learning to think like Jesus] (editorial comments are mine)

Living that kind of extraordinary life can't be accomplished without the help of the Holy Spirit living in a believer. But if that Spirit does live there, then that believer has the capacity to learn to think like Jesus. And that, my friends, will lead to an extra-extraordinary existence!

A good place to begin is Philippians 4:8. This verse can serve as a filter for our thought processes.

• Finally brethern, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

If we want to have our minds renewed, to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, then we must choose to learn to think like He thinks. That verse gives us insight into what He likes His mind to ponder. Truth, honor, righteousness, purity, love, excellence, praise-worthy....

Now, I've been working on this for a while, and I have to tell you it is NOT an easy task. It is NOT our nature to think on the honorable, right, pure and lovely things about ourself, our circumstances, or other people! So don't get discouraged and give in to being ordinary. Remember that you (I) can do all things through Christ who gives us (me) the strength! (Phil. 4:13)

Let's agree that we want to be one of those green, red, or even yellow die that when scattered on the table draws attention to itself because it is different - in a good way. Our difference will be because we have the mind of Christ and are learning to think like Him.