John Bogle and Character

Last night Abby cried for 2 hours before she slept, until we figured out the buttons on the back of her outfit were bothering her. After we realized that I felt like a heaping pile of crapola. She suffered and couldn’t sleep for hours and stupid dad couldn’t figure out why. My poor daughter.

I’m positive everyone’s getting tired of my spiritual insights in everyday life but whatever, this is my blog so alt-left if you want. (SN. I just recently learned that you can shut down Windows by pressing the Windows button, then ‘U’, then ‘U’ again. 3 quick keystrokes to shut down. Changed my life.)

So as you may or may not know, I’m a huge Boglehead, a fan of John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard. Love nearly everything he has to say. I consider him a financial prophet, if there is such a thing. It’s not just that he has such insight and speaks such truth. It’s that he frequently peppers his speeches with Biblical references so that I’m reasonably certain he’s a Christian. I think Norm was wondering about how Christianity fits in with financial services. Well, I think John Bogle is the model. Work for the benefit of individual investors, and in the ways you can, exert Christian influence in your world.

For example, he said something in a recent speech that I’ve been chewing on a lot:

We had become what [Joseph] Campbell called a “bottom-line society.” But, as I added, “our society came to measure the wrong bottom line: form over substance, prestige over virtue, money over achievement, charisma over character, the ephemeral over the enduring, even mammon over God.”

Seriously, every part of that quotation is absolutely true and worthy of meditation. Our society does measure personal success more by the money we make than by the things we accomplish. We care more about how we are known than the character we have. Care more about appearances than substance. It’s all true.

I’ve been challenged by that. Because I think even we in the church are guilty of that as well. Thinking about how the church comes across, like on Sunday mornings, instead of how the church actually is. Or to be more personal, I think I worry too much about the form of Friday small group meetings rather than the substance of the group itself. Um, this probably makes no sense to anyone but me, but I was convicted.

I think what I’ve been challenged to do is worry less about what I(we) do or appear and worry more about who I(we) am(are), if that makes any sense. What’s the difference? Sometimes nothing. Like being a kinder person necessarily involves acting kindly towards others. But in my mind, I think the character thing involves doing stuff when no one else is around. So if I want to be someone that encourages people towards more passion for God, I shouldn’t focus primarily on acting differently with them, but on praying for them in my personal life; cultivating a character of encouragement, not just the appearance of it. That’s my current working theory.

I’m thinking maybe this works corporately also, emphasizing having a body life beyond Sunday mornings that is attractive to people, not just doing things on Sundays that are welcoming. In the times I’ve led worship, I’ve tried to get people more into it by basically forcing them to clap. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But I’m thinking maybe it would have greater effect if I helped cultivate a lifestyle of worship beyond Sundays. It’s not just about getting people to act a certain way, but to be a certain way. Substance, not just form. I’ve been thinking about that a ton.