7/30/2010
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” In the new movie Dinner for Schmucks, one of the characters asks Steve Carell if he’s ever spent a year living among goats as one of them (don’t ask, it’s a long story). When Carell says no, he says that’s surprising but goes on to point out that the thing about goats is the eat whatever it is they’re hungry for, no matter what that may be. They indulge in their every desire, and it’s possible that they might even eat themselves if they felt like it. This man then goes on to say in sad voice; I’m just a goat who’s slowly devouring himself. The statement was made with such emptiness, such despair, such hopelessness that despite its ridiculous sound, I found to be quite profound. We live in a society that encourages us to indulge in our every desire. No matter what it is we want, no matter what we hunger for, we’re told not to deny ourselves but to feed our every desire. What we aren’t told, however, is eventually that we lead us to consume ourselves; it will lead to our own destruction. In light of that fact, the Bible’s called to live a self-disciplined, set-apart or holy life doesn’t look like such a kill joy; in fact it looks like good news. The Bible’s instructions on how to live doesn’t make life less fun, it makes it more so. It helps us experience life to the full, while the world’s call to complete self-indulgence leads only to emptiness, discontentment, and death. Hmmm. Maybe Solomon knew what he was talking about after all.
7/29/2010
Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.” One of the new features in this year’s version of the venerable video game Madden NFL is a system called game planning and game flow. Before you play any games, you pick the plays you want run in various situations such as first and long, second and short, inside the redzone, on the goal line and so forth. Then, during the game, plays are called into you by the offensive or defensive coordinator and it’s up to you to execute that play successfully. Not only does it take the game one step closer to what it’s like to be in the real NFL, it also reminded me of my relationship with God. He has the game plan, he’s calling the plays, and it’s up to me to execute those plans successfully, and when I try to call an audible and do things my own way, things usually don’t go all that well. Some won’t like having the AI calling the plays for them in the game, just as some don’t like God calling the shots in real life. However, if we can learn to trust the one who has the bigger picture, the one who sees far more than we do, we can be sure that even when it feels like we’re losing yards and are taking a beating, our God loves us and has the plan to lead us to victory. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty good news.
7/28/2010
Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Like it or not, we all have superiority complexes. That means we have a desire, nay, a need, a compulsion to be superior. We must find someone, somewhere whom we can feel superior to. That’s why we make fun of others, to feel superior. It’s why we compare ourselves to others, to feel superior. It’s even why sometimes we put ourselves down and try to get everyone to notice how miserable we are, because then everyone’s attention is on us and we feel superior. I’ve often felt that the Bible’s dictate to think of others more highly than ourselves is one of the most counter-intuitive instructions in the scriptures. Then a thought occurred to me; compared to God, I’m completely inferior. In fact, compared to God, we’re all completely inferior. One mite of dust may be better than another, but to the duster it all looks the same. So are we in comparison to an almighty, powerful, holy God. Our sin makes us all the same; none really any better than the other. Fortunately for us, God loves us. He sent his Son to save us from sin, to make us more than what we are. He doesn’t view us as inferior, though we are in the extreme compared to him, but rather as extremely valuable and precious. In light of that truth, there is no longer any room for our superiority complex, which is definitely good news.