Under their influence

Time Magazine recently published its list of the 25 most influential

evangelicals in America, a group that included Billy Graham, Focus on

the Family founder James Dobson, “Purpose-Driven Life” author Rick

Warren and Potter’s House pastor T.D. Jakes. Excluding the obvious

figures -- Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc. -- what religious figure has

been most influential in your life?

It is told that Satan once decided to retire and sell all his

diabolical devices. On the day of the sale, all his tools were put on

display, each with a price tag. One rather plain-looking and

much-worn tool was priced considerably higher than the others. The

devil was asked what it was.

“That’s discouragement,” he said. “It is more useful to me than

all the others. It is greatly worn, because it is my favorite tool. I

have used it on everybody, yet few know that it belongs to me.”

According to the fable, the Devil’s price for discouragement was

so high that no one bought it. And he is still using it.

I recall this parable as I think of an inspirational Biblical

figure, Nachshon, Prince of the Tribe of Judah. The Children of

Israel were trapped between the Sea in front of them and Pharoah’s

chariots in hot pursuit from behind. Moses tried to persuade the

people that they would indeed be free on that day, despite the

obstacles that thwarted their forward march. His efforts were in vain

as the people wept and wailed that they were doomed to perish.

The situation was not hopeless; only the people were without hope.

Discouragement had defeated them. Without hope for the future, they

had no power in the present. When they lost hope, they lost heart.

They could not achieve because they did not believe.

The children of Israel stood trembling by the shores of the Red

Sea, paralyzed by discouragement, even though God commanded them to

go forward. The Jewish tradition teaches that one man, Nachshon, did

not hesitate to carry out God’s directive. He sprang forward into the

raging waters, but nothing happened.

Nachshon was not taken aback. He descended deeper into the water,

up to his ankles, knees, stomach, and still the waters did not part.

Nachshon did not flinch and resolutely continued until the water

reached his neck. At that moment, when he was about to take the

ultimate risk to obey God’s command, the miracle of the splitting of

the sea occurred.

The lesson is clear. God demands maximal effort, for it is only

through actual deeds where one’s faith is tested.

Was Nachshon’s faith put to the test when he prayed on the

seashore? No. Even jumping into the stormy waters was not sufficient,

for he still had an opportunity to back out. Only by going all the

way in fulfilling God’s will did he prove he was a true believer.

Nachshon understood that saying “I believe” and then waiting for

salvation is not authentic faith.

God demands of us that we prove our faith by way of our actions,

and not just with our mouths. Only by being willing to fulfill

difficult commands, do we prove our faith is genuine.

We all face our own Red Seas, barriers that seem determined to

hold us back. At such times we would do well to remember Nachshon and

not surrender to discouragement and self-pity. Rather, we must take

the initiative and move forward.

Instead of telling God that we have great problems, we should tell

our problems that we have a great God!

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yam

Newport Beach

There have been very few “big shots” that have influenced my life

significantly.

I have been impacted by Rick Warren in rethinking the basics of

being a Christ-follower. His wife Kay has encouraged my involvement

in HIV/AIDS compassion ministries, both overseas and here in Orange

County.

C.S. Lewis taught me the power of parable and beauty of

imagination as valuable tools of my faith. John Stott taught me about

living a life without excess in commiseration with the poor and

hungry. Stanley Grenz and local seminary professor Ray Anderson

taught me to look outside the box in terms of developing theology.

The Catholic Henri Nouwen taught me about forgiveness in his great

book, “The Return of the Prodigal.” USC professor Dallas Willard

rocked my world in his book and other teachings on spiritual

disciplines.

One of the more profound impacts on my life came while I was a

missionary in Romania. I read the diaries of Jim Elliott, who was

martyred in the late 1950s in Ecuador. He is often quoted as saying,

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot

loose.”

He gave his life for God’s kingdom. His story was the cover of the

nation’s newspapers at the time, and is being released in theaters

this month in a movie called “Beyond the Gates of Splendor.”

But as I read the journals of a young man in the jungles of South

America, I related to his battles. The honesty of his life and the

desire to give all I had to God.

His story does not end in his death. Years later, the men who

killed Jim and his team became Christ-followers and pastors, and

baptized the adult children of the men they killed in the river where

they killed them.

Most of those people had a secondary influence on my life. The

most impactful people have been the ones who corrected, challenged or

encouraged me when I needed it.

Growing up in a secular home, I had never celebrated a

Christ-centered Christmas or Easter (Resurrection Day). For us, it

had always been about the toys and the candy. It had never occurred

to me that there was a Biblical way for families to handle arguments

or disagreements. What did real love and sacrifice look like in a

home?

From the time I was in college, very godly people walked in my

life and let me see life from a different angle. Cal and Ruth Steiner

from Wisconsin pulled back the veneer of a pastoral home and let me

see the beauty of how they work and live. Ray and Anne Ortlund have

mentored people around the world, many of them here in Costa Mesa and

Newport Beach. Having been married for more than 57 years, they have

been a great example to my wife and I of faithfulness, fidelity and

passion.

And back when I first decided to follow Jesus, a group of people

believed in me and sent me off to Bible college in Chicago. They

didn’t have much, but they would send me boxes of candy wrapped in

dollar bills. Their sacrifices for me have always influenced the way

I live.

SENIOR ASSOCIATE PASTOR

RIC OLSEN

Harbor Trinity

Costa Mesa

Those persons most influential in my religious life are known by

others I love: I have learned from teachers including Don and Polly,

Lee and Elsa, Esther, Harvey, Fred, George and Bill, and friends

including Norris, Steve, Cindy, Tim, Teri, Mary Ann, Susan and

Donnie. I could go on and on about such people of faith and how they

have influenced my life toward good.

As for people of whom many others have heard: I have been

privileged to know Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu -- to listen to

him, share meals with him and even to be his colleague at a winter

conference in the Rockies (because our walkways were icy, and I was

the only person on staff who could carry his luggage) for a week in

1984, only months before he won the Nobel Peace Prize.

From his deep faith in God in Christ Jesus, Archbishop Tutu turned

his, and our, attention to racial issues and concerns with poverty,

hunger, epidemic disease, economic exploitation, militarism and

nationalism. I share his vision of our church being like a headlight

showing the world ways forward, and lament with him that we are much

more often a taillight. Desmond is an extraordinary human being whose

candor, I am sure, brings a smile to the face of God.

Among the truths I have learned from Desmond Tutu are: “The Bible

is the most revolutionary, the most radical, book there is; if a book

has to be banned, then it ought to be the Bible.” “What do we have

that is not [a] gift? Everything that we are, that we have, is a gift

from God,” “Many people believe that they are outside God’s love,

that God may love others but that what they have done has caused God

to stop loving them; but Jesus by his example showed us that God

loves sinners as much as saints,” and “No one, and nothing, is ever

beyond hope! Jesus says love even the people you don’t like.”

I regularly try to remember, “Jesus says, ‘love ... ‘“

VERY REV. CANON

PETER D. HAYNES

St. Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

Spiritual teachers whom I have known through close regular contact

influenced me, not people in the news or best-selling authors.

Sayings like “Familiarity breeds disrespect,” or “To lose your

faith, become friends with a minister,” are only true if we idealize

spiritual leaders and set them up as perfect beings, far removed from

our own experience. It follows that next, we will be disappointed if

we do get to know them well enough to find that they are, like us,

complex and fragile human beings with shortcomings as well as

virtues.

When we admire someone, it may be a tribute to them, but it also

reveals our own corresponding aspirations and values, however latent.

It should nudge us to take responsibility for developing in ourselves

the characteristics we admire in others, and to express them in our

own lives to the best of our ability and circumstances.

Projections and exaggerations often serve as an excuse rather than

an impetus. People flock to lectures to see Thich Nhat Hanh and the

Dalai Lama, report they are deeply impressed by their words and their

very presence, but how many resolve to practice Zen or Buddhist

awareness in their own lives or to participate with local communities

of practitioners?

A sense that religious figures are far above us may allow us to be

entertained, to applaud in the audience, rather than calling us to

take our own place on the stage, however humble our role may seem. If

we are influenced by a spiritual leader and the teachings of a

tradition, our life should show it.

We read too often about religious leaders who have used their

positions of trust and influence to abuse their congregants,

financially or sexually, with corrupt administrators and naive

communities covering up. We suffer from the extremes of cult devotion

and rock star-like adulation on the one hand, and mistrust and scorn

of all religious leaders on the other. Before allowing a spiritual

leader to have influence, there should be careful consideration of

his or her training, background and lifestyle, with healthy

evaluation and input from the community.

Abraham Maslow, the psychologist famous for his work on optimal

human development, called his teachers his “angels.” For me, this

poetically expresses the appreciation and gratitude I have for the

spiritual teachers who influenced me. One of them, Sr. Virgie

Luchsinger, has been an inspiration throughout my adult life because

of her deep contemplative commitment.

Sr. Virgie’s call to a life of prayer came to her in her earliest

years, while growing up on a dairy farm in Iowa. She entered the

cloistered Roman Catholic Carmelite monastery, leaving the “world” to

devote herself entirely to prayer and asceticism. After 20 years, she

was well able to recognize God in the world, in all things and all

people.

She left the monastery to explore new forms of contemplative life

and became a member of the Sisters For Christian Community, a

pioneering group of Roman Catholic sisters. She became a nurse and

has worked the night shift for 30 years, studying astronomy by

necessity.

While serving as a missionary in Liberia, she managed an entire

hospital at night and was told by the doctors and administrators that

they slept well knowing she was in charge. She taught nurse aides,

and her Liberian students invited her into their homes and were

genuinely saddened when her tour of duty was ended.

She has a master’s degree in theology, and loves study, education,

travel, art and music. As a senior student of Professor Ikka

Nakashima, she is an instructor in the Ikenobo Ikebana School of

flower arranging and of Chanoyu (Tea Ceremony). She has practiced Zen

for more than 15 years and views it as a natural expression of her

Carmelite Catholic heritage.

But more than accomplishments, it is her spacious regard and

acceptance for each person and her attentive care for each task,

which is most joyful and transformative to experience. She has also

influenced me to maintain a commitment to the way of meditation, to

be flexible and creative, to persevere through difficult times and in

periods when there has been little other support. She lives by the

words of St. John of the Cross, “In the evening of life, you will be

judged by love alone.”

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa