How Should We Then Live?

On where to place our thoughts, our attention, our actions in turbulent times

Here in the U.S., a recent election marked the end of a stressful season of presidential campaigning and began the transfer of power to a new president. While many people are celebrating what is to come, others, many others, including me, are lamenting, mourning, grieving. No matter who you voted for, a relevant question for this time was first voiced by Moses thousands of years ago: How should we then live?

Last summer I read The Brave In-Between: Notes From the Last Room by Amy Low after first listening to an interview with her on the Trinity Forum podcast. Low was diagnosed with stage IV metastatic colon cancer at the age of 48, newly divorced, and the mother of two teenagers. As she navigated this new medical urgency, she chose to adopt as her organizing principle, the words of the apostle Paul in his letter to Philippi.

Low writes, “One sentence from this letter is now the map for the most bewildering corners of my own last room.”

“[W]hatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8, NIV)

She chose these intentions as her “lights” to guide her in what was to come.

Or to use another translation, which I like a little better for this verse:

“[W]hatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8, RSV)

True • Honorable • Just • Pure • Lovely • Gracious • Excellent • Worthy of Praise

Lights to guide us in what is to come. I very much like this way of thinking about bewildering times. Lights to guide us no matter which side of the ticket you placed your vote.

I’ve used this verse myself as a guide at times in the past, to ground me, to encourage my gaze and my thoughts to stay in helpful rather than harmful places, and I was grateful to be reminded of these words again. I was grateful to be reminded that these words have the power to help a person navigate very difficult situations.

For myself, I’m revisiting these word now and considering their value as a guide, a plumb line, for navigating and building life in the midst of the political turmoil currently in the U.S., not in the sense of closing my eyes to what isn’t true, to what isn’t honorable, to what isn’t just or pure or lovely or gracious or excellent or worthy of praise, but in the sense of making sure I’m adding to the weight of what is all those things.

Am I attending to that which is true, not just in thought but in action? Am I attending to that which is honorable, not just in thought but in action? Am I attending to that which is just, not only in thought but in action? Am I attending to that which is pure, to that which is gracious, to that which is excellent, to that which is worthy of praise, not only in thought but in action?

Other words, these from the prophet Micah in the Old Testament, also shimmer during these days:

He has told you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

Act justly • Love mercy • Walk humbly with God

A couple weeks ago I posted a piece about Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew’s new book about writing, The Release. I wrote about her use of the concept of gifting to guide authors who are releasing finished work to its audience. I wrote how I thought this concept also could be applied more broadly, to any of us who are releasing something, who have something to give. As Amy Low said in her Trinity Forum interview, we are all “part of a much bigger story.” Now is a good time to think about our intentions and actions as an act of gifting to others, and to ask ourselves, what exactly do our intentions and actions pass on to others as we now live in these important, bewildering, brave, in-between days?

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[Photo: taken of leaves on a boardwalk one recent fall morning.]

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