Presenting ideas and thoughts about matters of importance
The defense attorney unexpectedly looked me straight in the eye.
“Juror Number Eight, are you a good judge of character?”
How would you have answered?
I was sitting in the jury box in a courtroom high up in the gleaming new Community Justice Campus in Indianapolis. It was not a place where I would have chosen to be, except that I had received the yellow Summons for Jury Service postcard a few weeks earlier, ordering me to appear as a prospective juror.
When conflicting forces compromise a PC, the operating system freezes and generates a “blue screen of death.” A question presented in a spirit of humility – are we here nationally?
What does “abide” have to do with living successfully in an anxiety-saturated, hope-sapped world? What’s the pathway – what should be our focus?
Here’s a vital directive that can help us. It was given to us some 2,000 years ago on possibly the darkest night of the physical universe. Just hours before His gruesome death and ultimate sacrifice, our Savior and Elder Brother, Jesus Christ the Messiah, provided this deeply personal and powerful imperative command.
His directive is heightened by the fact that he was in full possession of the facts. He knew full well what was about to happen to Him, and, as the Bible records, it troubled Him. But His focus was elsewhere, like ours needs to be.
While Jesus knew he would soon experience searing pain, humiliation and death, he had been given a remarkably special gift.
In Hebrews 1, verse nine, we read something that sometimes gets read right over. Quoting Psalm 45:6-7, we read from the New Living Translation, “You [referring to Jesus Christ] love justice and hate evil.
Therefore…your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else”
We may not think of Jesus Christ being a joy-filled person while on earth, but the Bible confirms that He had a special anointing of joy from God Himself. The spiritually driven positive outlook was part of Jesus’ ministry. What did that gift reflect?
It is not pleasant to consider, but it’s obvious today – the United States of America – and in fact, much of the world – is savagely divided. Superheated fissures fracture across numerous political viewpoints, personal conduct, and even whether or not anything exists that can be regarded as truth, especially when one adds the word “absolute.”
We all hold a perspective. How can we know we have the most accurate one?
Here’s a thought: I recently had a conversation with a retired senior FBI agent. He talked considerably about how divided America was – politically, intellectually, even morally. He was agitated, concerned, and thoughtful about the present and the future of America.
He didn’t directly quote the scripture, but he alluded to the words of Jesus in Matthew 12:25 – noting that a nation divided against itself cannot stand.
So what does that mean for us? What can we personally do?
We shape, mold and fashion our lives according to our perceptions and our perspectives. Which perspectives are true? Which are false? Which are misleading?
One could make a case that we live today in a 21st century Rashomon effect.
The famous 1950 Japanese psychodrama movie Rashomon is considered one of the greatest movies ever made.
The movie portrays how people can sharply interpret a critical event in dramatically different ways.
In the movie, a murder takes place. But four eyewitnesses all have their own take on what happened, which all differ dramatically. Each presents subjective, alternative and contradictory versions of the same incident. One of the main takeaways is that people see things, process them, and interpret them occurring to their own backgrounds, standards and experiences.
Which one is true? Well, there’s the rub. The movie – which resembles life today – examines how different eyewitness perspectives can be.
A quick look at today’s geopolitical events sadly demonstrates how the Rashomon effect is alive and well today. Whole groups of people hold energizing but completely opposite political and societal perspectives.
Like in the movie Rashomon, people regularly create and vigorously present subjective, alternative and contradictory versions of the same incident.
With different eyewitness of big history claiming radically different perspectives, we live in the midst of a giant living Rashomon movie. It affects us deeply, whether we want it to or not.
Saw an interesting social media post — perhaps a bit snarky — asking why in a complicated world of 7.4 billion people would the Bible appear to exclusively focus only on one general area: the Middle East? The snarky bit emphasizes the apparent myopic view of this ancient text, particularly as it focuses on numerous civilizations that have apparently vanished.
So that’s a fair question. Let’s apply Occam’s Razor for the answer. Occam’s Razor, or the Law of Parsimony, states: pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate, “plurality should not be posited without necessity.”
In other words, let’s keep it simple. The simplest answer is generally — perhaps often — the best.
So would it be too difficult to place the mass of relevant human history in context? That context being the age of the physical universe (13-14 billion years) compared to the germane activity of humanity (~6,000 years).
They say that the visualization of data is one of the best ways to understand someone. Fortunately, the talented people at Metrocosm have taken the most comprehensive geo dataset available on cities (ancient and modern) and made it come alive.
Note below, at 3,450 B.C. (5,466 years ago), we only have one city, Uruk. 
And not a very big one at that. It, of course, is in the Middle East. Modern day Saudi Arabia, give or take a few hundred miles.
Now continuing, we advance a couple of hundred years to the Bronze Age, where we now have the first vehicles with wheels. We also have a couple more cities. They are still very small in stature.
Now let’s jump ahead about 1,000 years to the time when the Egyptian dynasties are marking their mark. We’re now at the time of the construction of the Great Pyramid, about 2,500 B.C.
How are we looking for urbanized cities?
Still, only a handful. And, of course, all in the Middle East.
So let’s jump ahead another 1,000 years or so when the first dynasty appears in China. Still not very impressive in the amount of recognized historical cities. 
And still intensely focused on the Middle East area.
So lest we get boring, let’s accelerate things at bit.
In AD 25 (or CE, if you prefer), the time when Jesus Christ walked to the earth as a human being, things have begun to heat up on the urbanization front. But are you noticing a trend?
So over the next 1,900 years, a virtual population explosion takes place. From a collective few million people, the world population dramatically bursts to top the 7.4 billion mark. I invite to watch the dramatic explosion for yourself here.
But what’s the point, the simple answer? The area of Israel (ancient and modern-day) is basically the only continental land bridge that joins three continents: Asia, Europe and Africa. Major trade routes — the heart of commerce and transportation — have always passed through there. The land and region of Israel represents the apex of ancient — and fairly modern — civilization. It is the only land that God openly designates as one promised to a people. And that’s a promise that will be fulfilled.
It is the most high profile historical region on the planet.
Numerous biblical oracles also extend beyond ancient Israel — the phrase “all nations” and similar like “to the ends of the earth” (Acts 2:8. New International Version) are not uncommon.
So here’s a consideration. The Bible has a global focus. And when it focuses on the area of the Middle East, perhaps the authors are doing so deliberately.
“Do everything in love.” An unexpected directive at the conclusion of an intense ancient letter. When the apostle Paul wrote his first letter (or rather, the first letter that we know of) to the gentile congregation at Corinth, he covered the whole spectrum. He profoundly emphasized the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to the Greeks a distant figure of Jewish background. He touched on prophetic elements. He severely corrected the congregation for tolerating a continuing situation involving intimate relations forbidden by Old Testament law. And in the midst of this intensity, he dictated an incredible piece of literature, which we know commonly as the “love chapter.”
A complex man, living in complex times. Perhaps a bit like today. Here’s a related thought. Biblical scholar Ben Witherington made an excellent point when he wrote: “A word of caution is in order. We are captives to the sources we have.” In this same volume, he also rightly noted: “There is no such thing as uninterpreted history…every historical account is written from some point of view.”
In the Bible and other sources contemporary and ancient, often as in life today, we have somebody’s recorded point of view. We have the answers. What we don’t often know is this: what were the questions?
The Bible preserves some tantalizing, just-out-of-reach thoughts. It speaks in the Old Testament –Isaiah and Jeremiah, for instance – and in Acts in the New Testament of something called “The Way.”
What was that “Way”? Have we fallen into the pit that Witherington warns of? Have we misinterpreted critical historical accounts? Do we see current events through a warped lens of distorted antiquity?
The prophet Jeremiah gave ancient Judah an interesting command:
“This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it” (Jeremiah 6:16, New International Version)
What relevance does this have for us today? In this world’s increasingly synthesized and globalized society, I suspect many might deploy that “crossroads” metaphor rather emphatically. Here we are. Where are we going?
This blog, Seeking the Way, does not aspire to the pretentious. It will hopefully present and discuss both the secular and the sacred in a fashion that helps the author (at least) define some of the questions. And if things go in a fortunate fashion, perhaps even try to match up a few with the answers.
Will there be interpreted history? You bet. But hopefully it will be grounded in truth.
So back to Paul. What’s the framework here? Paul emphasized that if he didn’t do things in love, then as he said, “I am nothing” (I Corinthians 13:2, NIV). So as this blog begins, we’ll start there: “Do everything in love” (I Corinthians 16:14, NIV).
Fortuna favet fortibus.
