Points* to be Made

Each week I set aside a certain amount of time on a specific day to spend time with people who hold similar beliefs. We all show up to face reality, check our personal progress and listen to the leader of our group as she guides and encourages us.

I'm sure you've guessed by now that I'm talking about my weekly Weight Watchers meetings. Recently I decided that the weekly humiliation of weighing in was not enough and started a blog that chronicles my weight loss journey. I'd just read that blogging was a popular - and successful - tool in the weight loss arena. The reason is simple: you become honest about what you go through each day and find support in those who share your experience.

Being honest on my weight loss blog is pretty black and white. My success or failure is measured in something called Points.^(TM) Each person is allotted a certain number of points each day to spend on whatever food seems appealing. I simply tell the world what I ate and how many points I spent on it. I think about this during the day and the idea of confessing to the four Carmel Delites makes the craving a bit weaker.

Therefore I propose we all start our spiritual points-tracking. We can all begin with 25 points in the morning. Points could be spent as follows:

• Traded 9 minutes (via snooze button) for morning prayer: -3 points
• Uncharitable thoughts toward other drivers on commute: -4 points
• Ran past co-worker for the last Asiago Cheese Bagel: -2 points

Of course you can also earn extra points:

• 20 minutes of bible study and prayer: +1 point
• Song of praise in response to "one more project" at 4:50pm: +3 points
  

I trust by now that you've realized this points plot is tongue-in-cheek, but I think there's something we can learn from this group of people. They lay their failures out on the line and find help from people who've been there. They celebrate successes. They go out of their way to be accountable within their weakness.

Let's come to the scale and weigh in with each other.

*WEIGHT WATCHERS and POINTS are registered trademarks of Weight Watchers International, Inc.

Believing in the Right Way

"Here I picture the emerging community as a significant part of a wider religious movement which rejects both absolutism and relativism as idolatrous positions which hide their human origins in the modern myth of pure reason. Instead of following the Greek-influenced idea of orthodoxy as right belief,…the emerging community is helping us to rediscover the more Hebraic and mystical notion of the orthodox Christian as one who believes in the right way—that is, believing in a loving, sacrificial and Christlike manner. The reversal from 'right belief' to 'believing in the right way' is in no way a move to some binary opposite of the first (for the opposite of right belief is simply wrong belief); rather, it is a way of transcending the binary altogether. Thus orthodoxy is not longer (mis)understood as opposite of heresy but rather is understood as a term that signals a way of being in the world rather than a means of believing things about the world."

from "How (not) to speak of God" by Peter Rollins
found on the website - www.emergentnazarenes.blogspot.com