James 24:7

Me: Hi.

My name is Jim.

And I'm a pragmaddict.

You: ("Hi Jim...")

Me: I've been a pragmaddict since childhood. I don't know about you but I found life pretty challenging as a child.  While I always tried to do the right thing, I had a hard time knowing sometimes what the "right thing" was.  I learned pretty quickly that you can never go wrong as long as you do what works in any given situation.

I can think of many instances where I said whatever needed saying, did whatever needed doing, believed whatever needed believing as long as it got me more of what I wanted or needed at the moment.

While they may not have intended it (or maybe they did!) my parents contributed to my pragmaddiction.  

I can remember my dad ranting about this college professor who often wrote a column in the newspaper.  My dad would say, "For such an educated man, he doesn't have the sense God gave a goat."   My dad knew that good sense was equivalent to common sense and that common sense was the sense just about everybody (except certain college professors) had.

That realization came home to me after I got my Ph.D.  My dad said, "Well you've got enough education now to be absolutely stupid." 

You might think he meant that harshly.  Maybe he did but I didn't take it that way.  I took it to mean that I shouldn't get so educated that I ended up sacrificing "the sense God gave a goat."

Even my sainted mother got in on the act.  She was fond of saying, "The proof is in the pudding."  I took that to mean that the truth of matters will always come out in...well...the pudding.  Or maybe that was the wash.  Whatever....the point was "garbage in/ garbage out."  What you put into the recipe yields the resultant dish. 

There seems to be no escaping this addiction to pragmatism.  Everywhere I turn I'm offered another hit:

"What's true is what works."

"You can't argue with success."

Even Dr. Phil is fond of asking: "How's that working for you?" 

Do what works.  When something works do more of it.  If something doesn't work, stop doing that.  

What is the definition of insanity?  To keep doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result?

See...it's hard not to take regular hits of practical advice...

We pragmaddicts live and die by the dictum: "The truth is what works."  Our addiction continues because, at least within the circle of our own self-interest, doing what works...works.

However, recently I've been trying to really challenge my pragmaddiction. 

For example, whenever I hear myself quoting Dr. Phil ("How's that working for you?") I talk back to me and say, "Why should whether things are working for me be the standard of what makes for the good?"

Or whenever I repeat the pragmaddicts dictum: "The truth (or good) is what works" I ask "works for whom?"

Or, I ask, "who gets to determine what 'working' means?"

Of course, you may be sitting there wondering what difference this makes.  After all, to other pragmaddicts, to live according to what works for yourself seems not like some philosophical idea...it seems like "reality." 

Only people who are "out of touch with reality" or who are "so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good" would argue against the idea that what is true or good is what works.

Well..here's my problem...Jesus, whom I call "Lord" came along announcing the coming of God's reign.  He described those who are receiving the kingdom as those who are poor in spirit, those who are gentle and non-violent, those who are unwilling to see the present world as the best of all possible worlds, those who spend their time working for justice and making peace.

He invites us to visualize a future that pretty much matches up to the Jewish concept of "Shalom"- utter peace and harmony, a condition of wholeness and health and holiness, a circumstance where love and mercy and compassion are the primary virtues.

He (and his followers) painted a picture  where those who would feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, minister to the sick and visit the imprisoned would see themselves as actually doing good to Jesus himself.

He (and those who followed him) painted a future where people were reconciled to God and, as a result, finding themselves reconciled to one another and living peaceably with another.

He (and those who followed Him) even saw the day coming when "new creation" would be the order of the day and we would look forward eagerly and hopefully toward that time when God would plop right down in the midst of us and wipe away every tear from our eyes.

He (and those who followed Him) said we were all invited into that kingdom, that it was ours to receive and that we could begin to live now as if the whole enchilada was already present to us...that is, that we could live peaceably with our neighbors and our enemies, that we could bless those who hate us, and pray for those who persecute us.  

Now...not later...now.

In other words, we could live now as if the future was already a done deal.

Of course, the pragmaddicts out there (and the pragmaddict within) say(s):

"Peacemaking? 

How's that working for you?"

"Loving your enemies? 

 How's that going to pay off?"

"Blessing those who use you? 

Wonder what that will get you?"

"Living today as if God's tomorrow is already accomplished? 

"Say wha-?"

I have to say that sometimes the pragmaddiction seems to suggest that the choice is between living in reality as opposed to non-reality.   In other words, you can live in the land of "good= what works" or you can live in the land of dreams and fantasies.

But then I think, "Well, maybe we should ask 'works toward what end?'"  When I ask that it seems to me that everything Jesus claims works toward the ends of God's kingdom and that sometimes, if not most times, those ends are not the ends that most of us pragmaddicts are working toward.

I don't know I need to think more about it.

For now, I'll say this, "I have come to admit that I am powerless over pragmaddiction and I commit myself to a power greater than myself to tell me how to live."  

Thank you!

You: Thank you, Jim.