Values

I believe in values

 

if I don’t know what I value,

I won’t know how to live

 

what we value reveals what we believe is important

and if we live toward our values

which we almost unconsciously do

 

then our values shape

our thoughts, our perceptions of the world

and ultimately our actions

 

our values shape our lives

our lives reveal what our real values are

 

most of us have core values

which are woven into our being from the moment we are born

 

our parents shape our values

so do cultures

teachers

organizations

friends

and even perhaps enemies

 

over the years these values become part of our fabric

they are who we are

 

core values can be positive

my parents, I believe, tried to install in me a set of values

those values were installed in them by their parents

 

I am part of an extended family that has received clear legacy

from Peter Albert Kliewer and Katherine Braun Kliewer

they taught their children, my parents, and my aunts and uncles

that it is important to be aware of the Sacred

 

for them as Mennonites the Sacred was clearly defined as the Biblical God

 

they taught their children that you should be honest

and that you should serve your community

that family was important

and that taking care of the planet is important

 

they taught their children that one should be a person of peace

and that violence is not retributive

 

my parents and my aunts and uncles picked all of this up

and passed it on, imperfectly at times

altered at times

inconsistently at times

 

but still it is there

 

love God

love other people

love yourself

 

take care of others

take care of yourselves

and do not get sucked into the vortex of hate and violence

 

this perhaps is revealed I how many members of my family

the other Kliewers, the Larsons, the Templins, the Kielsmeiers

are doctors, or nurses,

teachers, or ministers

 

how many have worked in “service” jobs, with one main goal

serving others

helping others

lifting others up

 

and I realized that this heritage, these deeply ingrained values

is why I will never understand those

whose value in dominance

power

 

why I will never understand those who want to gain power

not to help and serve

but to dominate and accumulate

 

what a difference it makes if your value is dominance

rather than service

 

it changes how you see your job

your role within in organization

it changes how you see people

it changes who you treat people

 

with dominance one works to have power and make money

with service one works to provide a service

 

with dominance one wants to be over people,

to be in charge, to have the power

with service one wants to work with people so the entire

organization and everyone in that organization do well

 

with dominance people are objects to be used

with service people are precious souls to be loved

 

with dominance one seeks to climb over others to the top

and the ends justify the means

with service one seeks to help everyone succeed, how one

accomplishes one’s task matters

 

I keep thinking about the great issues of our day

Guns (especially guns)

Policing

Voting rights

Healthcare

Honesty in the media

 

we are at our worst, on all these issues

when we see them through the lenses of dominance

rather than the lenses of service

 

for me, as one who seeks to follow Jesus

there is not option here

I must seek to walk the path of servanthood

(however imperfectly I must do that)

 

I hear people say

I’m the boss, I make the rules.

I am going to carry whatever gun I want, wherever I want

(no matter how many times, when people do that, people die)

 

I hear people say

It is important MY party wins, not matter what it takes to win

(vote suppression perhaps?)

It is important that my race, religion, ideology, whatever!!!!

dominate

 

I hear Paul say

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ,

if any comfort from his love,

if any common sharing in the Spirit,

if any tenderness and compassion,

then make my joy complete by being like-minded,

having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,

not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

 

In short, be like Jesus

Who, being in very nature[a] God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

 

Dominance or servanthood

which pathway

do our values reveal?