Do We Invest it, or Do We Spend it?

How much of what we do in our lives is nothing more than extraneous crap? How much time do we spend just doing things for the sake of doing them and because we don't really have to put any effort into them, but that don't really do anything with any lasting significance? What happens when our jobs are there only to pay the bills? Do we create ways to have significance in other areas of our lives, or do we come home, vedge out in front of the tv, eat dinner, and go to bed? Where is that extra time spent? Do we invest it, or do we spend it?

I know it's easy when the work/jobs of life have worn us out to just let go and turn our extra time into "me time". It's the end of the day, everything has piled up, and it doesn't seem like it really matters all that much. I've been there. I've done that. Everyone has done that. Most us us still do it (myself included). What i've found over the years is that when i do that... When i spend my time just as "me time" i tend to get grumpy and easily irritated. I spend that time doing things that i know are pointless and useless, and my attitude shows it. When i turn around and instead invest that time in other people and other situations, i tend to have a much clearer and hopeful attitude about life. That time invested no longer seems like time wasted, and life has much more of a purpose.

Of course that in turn creates other problems like the pointless mediocrity of a purposeless job becomes that much more difficult when it is no longer surrounded by more pointless mediocrity. I guess you just can't win for losing. I so can't wait to get back into a job that actually has a purpose.

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The Desires of Our Hearts

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." When i was younger i read that verse and thought that it meant that if i seek the Lord, He will give me what i want. I still think in reality many times that is true. When we delight ourselves in God many times he gives us the things we desire. What i came to realize quite some time ago is that this idea/concept has nothing to do with this verse. I don't know if this was something that i heard from a pastor's teaching, or if it was something that God showed to me in my daily time. This realization that changed my whole outlook... my whole way of thinking is that this desire of our hearts is not the completion of a physical desire, but rather the passion of our lives. Think about it for a minute..........

This isn't a promise that i will get what i want. In fact contrary to that, we may never see this desire fulfilled in our lifetime. It isn't a promise of completion. It is a promise of desire. It is a promise that when we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will give us a desire or desires for our lives. We will have a passion and a purpose for our lives above and beyond ourselves. That passion may be to reach out to those in desperate need. It may be to help the homeless. It may be to bring hope to those whose lives are falling apart. It may be to help a person or ministry grow and succeed. It may be any of these things or more... more than you or i could ever imagine. That is the promise of Psalm 37:4. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will put in us a passion and a desire that is beyond anything we can do alone. He gives our heart a passion and desire that exceeds us. We go from a lifeless robot to a person with a passion.

Working off of that thought. How many of us have really had a passion and a desire for our lives? How many lose or have lost that passion over the years? How many of us right now are not doing anything in our lives to fulfill or complete that desire? It amazes me to see how often i have gotten so wrapped up in doing everything that i was supposed to do that i lost grip of the passion and desire that defines (or should be defining) me. Living the right life interferes with fulfilling that passion and desire. Oftentimes when i seek what is "best" i just end up with the rest. Why? Because so often what we think of as being "the best" is nothing more than a fading desire. It is a lost cause that has no lasting purpose. Because so often what we seek in our daily lives is contrary to God and the passion that He is giving/has given to us. We lose sight of this passion and end up only being part of the person God has created us to be.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The more i look at the world, the more i shake my head wondering what has happened. I started to notice it in high-school. I was walking down the hallway between classes and there was a group kids around fourth grade going down the hallway. Suddenly, it seemed like out of the blue, one of the younger kids starts making fun of one of high-schooler. I mean he just starts reaming on him, swearing at him, insulting him, and going on & on. From as far as i could tell the fourth grader wasn't mad at the other guy. He was just saying what he was because he knew he could get away with it, and getting away with it he was. The high-schooler starts acting like he's going to pummel the fourth grader and the fourth grader tells him that he's not afraid of him and that if he touches him he will sue him. The kid's teacher was nowhere to be seen, and no other staff member was even paying attention, let alone cared. I couldn't believe the gall of this kid. At around that age, no one i knew in school would have even considered doing that.

It amazes me how much times have changed. When i was a kid we called all adults by their titles Mr. & Mrs. There was no first name basis. (Mind you, i am only in my twenties. This wasn't something that occurred 50 years ago) There was respect because as adults they deserved respect. They were our authority figures and we were raised to have respect for authority. Nowadays that means little to nothing. Parents and other adults tend to be on a first name basis with their kids friends. If a child is disrespectful to someone in public people tend to shrug it off and say not to worry about it because they are just kids. I have seen where an adult chastised their child for being disrespectful to someone else and the other person got mad and chastised the parent for getting upset with their child.

It almost seems like any kind of respect besides self-respect is seen an inappropriate and unfounded. Lack of respect or even disrespect is status quo unless that respect has been earned. How about the fact that not only is the person older than you (or me) and has been through more things in life than us, but that they also have to put up with our crap. I'd say that that is more than deserving of respect.

This issue falls into even more of a problem because we (including the pastors and other church leaders) don't seem to have/act out respect for God during prayer. How many times have you seen a pastor or leader praying over or with a congregation and everyone has their heads bowed and is either reverently silent or is praying as well. I'm sure that a number of you who read this will say, "Sure, it happens every week at my church". But, what about the worship team? While someone is praying, they are getting onto and off of the stage. They are getting setup or they are tearing down. Why? So that everything can flow seamlessly? So that we have the best quality show? So that all that the audience(, i mean "congregation") sees is the best? Since when is it more important to put on a good "show" than to have respect for the creator of the universe? Why is the congregations view more important than respect for the one who has taken us from our own desire for selfish darkness into the light? How can we expect our children to be respectful of those in authority when it seems like we don't have the respect we should have for the ultimate authority, God?

(I do apologize for picking on the worship team. This is something that i see throughout the entire church body and not just in this situation. It's just an easy example that crosses congregational and denominational boundaries due to its commonality.)

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The HIV Connection

A bunch of years back i came to the understanding that i have stated here previously. Everything is connected to everything else. The physical to the emotional to the spiritual to the intellectual. Everything is interconnected. As i was thinking about this interconnection in my prayer and devotional time i came across a correlation that really shocked me. The more i thought about it, the more it made sense and came together.

Bear with me as i try to explain and piece this together. It's a simple concept really, just not easily explained. (Keep in mind, this explanation of AIDS is merely a simplified explanation of something very complex. You might say that it is the dumbed down high-school version [ddhv].) AIDS (Auto-Immune Deficiency Syndrome) seems to be a really hot topic nowadays. The AIDS epidemic in Africa. AIDS rate rising in the US. However, as much as AIDS kills people, AIDS in and of itself is merely a symptom of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). How HIV works (ddhv) is that the virus infects a person and begins to reproduce. It imitates our bodies white blood cells (our body's natural defense system) to such a degree that the white blood cells can't distinguish the virus from other white blood cells. The virus then infects the white blood cells using them as a host to reproduce while destroying that white blood cell in the process. Thereby they successfully and effectively imitate and destroy our body's immune system without the immune system being able to fight back. Thus it destroys our defense against other diseases faster than our bone marrow can produce more. Without that defense system in place our body becomes more susceptible to other forms of disease. Our bodies become unable to fight complex or over time even simple sickness. Thus without our white blood-cell count up to par a person can be killed by a simple common cold that an ordinarily healthy person would have beaten in a matter of a day or two.

The same thing happens to us intellectually & spiritually. Our morals, principles, and values protect us. They help to define who we are, and they keep us healthy. They help us to fend off invading sin and corruption in our lives that would work as disease corrupting and destroying us. They act as our spiritual white blood cells. The stronger and better they are, the better they work at keeping us healthy. Their source is the truth. The truth is the foundation of our morals, principles, and values. Truth is like the bone marrow that produces and stabilizes our spiritual white blood cells. Relative truth states that there is no real truth. It states that truth is dependent upon circumstances not any real source. Relative truth acts as though it is truth only instead of producing healthy morals it destroys them. It states that truth is dependent upon the circumstances around it and has no definite source or value in itself. Thus truth and the values, principles, and morals that it produces are merely a representation of ourselves and thus can be whatever our society as a whole or we as individuals decide it to be. Thus truth becomes a slave to our desires and our actions follow suit. Thus our desires become the driving force in our lives.

Thereby relative truth imitates truth and then turns around and destroys it from the inside out. When we embrace the concept that truth is relative and doesn't really exist the only thing that stops us from destroying ourselves and others is fear of retribution. So a person with nothing to fear or nothing to lose becomes a person intent upon destroying themselves and others.

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Good & Evil, Black & White, Hot & Cold

It's interesting to me how i hear people talk about good and evil. Our society & the media seem to see good and evil as diametrically opposed forces. As if it is a battle between God and the devil. Black vs. white. Hot vs Cold. Two equally ranked brute titans battling for the ages and whoever is stronger wins. What is interesting to me is that in many ways they have it right without ever realizing how wrong they are.

When attempting to describe good and evil as in comparison to black & white and hot & cold the analogy is very strong and correlates very well. What is interesting about these analogies is that black and white are not two diametrically opposed forces. For example, when you are in a dark room and you can't see, what do you do? You turn on the light. When it is bright out and you need it a little darker in the room what do you do? You turn on the dark, right? Even my two and three year old know that that's not the case. You don't turn on the dark, you turn off the light or close the shades so that the light doesn't get in. Black is not something you can turn on or off. It exists where light does not. There is no dark battling light there is only light or lack of light. Where light exists darkness flees. There even comes a point where there is no more light when it is pitch black. It cannot get any darker because it is the point at which there is no light at all.

The same thing works for hot and cold. What is the formula to make water into ice? It is H2O - h (water minus heat). It's not water plus cold because just like with light cold is simply the lack of heat. When you attempt to cool yourself down with ice what you are actually doing is dissipating the heat. There is such a vacuum of heat in the ice that when it comes into contact with your skin the heat in your skin dissolves into the ice. You feel cooler due to that heat leaving you, and that ice-cube melts due to your body heat entering and warming that ice cube. This can be a bit of a confusing concept at times, so maybe i should go at this a different way. Heat and cold are relative to each other right. Something feels cold because it has less heat than something else. Fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit to someone from Alaska is warm, maybe even hot. Fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit to someone from the Caribbean islands may feel extremely cold. However, there comes a point at which something cannot get any colder. Absolute Zero is the term for the temperature at which no heat exists. It is impossible to get any colder than that. However, heat can keep increasing indefinitely. There is no known hottest temperature.

So in essence there is no such thing as black & white or hot & cold. There is only light & lack of light (or less light). Heat & lack of heat (or less heat). The same thing applies to God. There is no good & evil. Evil is merely a corruption of good. It is the lack of God. Thus there is only God & lack of God (less God). Of course this is still not a perfect analogy because unlike with black & white and hot & cold there is no such thing as an absolute zero with God. He exists everywhere. He cannot, not be. So there cannot ever be No God, there can only be attempts to block him out like shades blocking the light on a very bright day. Thus the argument is not God vs. Satan or good vs. evil, but rather God vs. less of God.

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The Vase

One day a mother entered an antique store with her young son. She was looking for a gift for a friend and she knew that this shop owner would have it or know where she could find it. As she was talking with the owner her son starts to cry. They go over to investigate what the problem is. When she finds her son he is standing with his hand stuck in an ancient oriental vase. This vase is obviously a prized piece, part of the antique dealer's collection on display and not for sale. So the embarrassed mother tries very hard to get her son's hand out of the vase. Unfortunately, it won't come out. The shop owner recommends that they try some butter. So they try to put the butter on the child's hand to overcome the resistance. Unfortunately that does not solve the problem. By this time the plight of the troubled young boy has garnered the attention of numerous shoppers and people passing by. Everyone seems to have an idea as to how to help get the boys hand out. Oil, a shoe horn, warm water, none of it seems to work. As time goes by the plight garners the attention of a local news station. Eventually, there becomes no other solution than to destroy this priceless antique vase. The rather upset shop owner insists on doing it himself. If the prized piece in his collection must be destroyed, he is going to be the one to do it. Smash! The vase is destroyed and to the mother's relief, her son's hand is free. With tears still rolling down his cheeks and a huge grin on his face, the little boy triumphantly raises up his little fist and opens his hand to proudly show his mother his treasure ... a single penny!

How many times are you and i this little boy? We are so insistent on getting what we want and it doesn't matter what it takes to get it. We are going to grab onto what we want and not let go. In the mean time our insistence on not letting go of something small and insignificant means that we destroy something of great value. That penny can be our ego. It can be a new outfit or large screen tv. It can be a grudge. It can be a relationship with a girl or a guy. It can be a job or a position. We want what we want and we will not let go no matter what. As a result we destroy something priceless and beautiful. A marriage, a church, a company, a future, sacrificed on the alter of self-satisfaction. Is there something in my life that i am refusing to let go of?

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... Warts and All

This is part 2. Please see "Let's Talk About (More Than Just) Sex Baby" for part 1. In part 1 we were talking about how we as people are made up of interconnected parts or facets. When there is a problem with one aspect of our lives it affects the others as well. We were relating that to relationships and how we tend to (as a church) focus on the unhealthy physical aspects of a relationship. However, it goes far beyond the physical.

When we are involved in serious relationship after serious relationship it tends to tear us apart on numerous levels. Our sexuality becomes disjointed and disfigured, but so does our emotional focus. Sex takes 2 people producing 1 flesh. When that sexual bond is broken with multiple sexual partners, we permanently lose a part of ourselves and gain a part of that other person. The more people we are involved with sexually, the less we are ourselves. The same thing happens emotionally. When we build an emotional bond with another person in that intimate of a setting we tend to give that person a part of ourselves and they to us. It is a bond that never really fully dissolves. We carry a piece of that person around with us for the rest of our lives, and no matter how hard we try to dislodge that aspect of that other person, it remains. When a person has had numerous emotional partners, building that emotional bond through time attention and giving of one another at deep emotional levels, we tend to remain emotionally connected to them long after the relationship has ended. We permanently gain a part of that person and lose a part of ourselves.

Many people call this "emotional baggage", which is a pretty accurate description. Many times therapists are hired to help a person "remove" this "baggage", but the reality is that this is baggage that cannot be removed. It is a cyst or wart that is permanently attached to you. What a counselor helps you to do is to minimize the negative impact this permanent growth has on your life. When we have time and time again given ourselves emotionally to another person we end up with an emotional life that is so wart encased that we cannot emotionally connect with anyone in any real way. We create for ourselves an emotional armor that cannot be penetrated even by a healthy and constructive relationship. We become a knight in armor. However, that armor is used to keep people out instead of being used to rescue people in distress, and it certainly is not shining armor.

Being involved in relationship after relationship slowly tears us apart not only physically and emotionally as has been stated here, but also mentally and spiritually as well. Nothing that we do affects only part of us. Every aspect of ourselves is interconnected to one another and nothing that we do only affects one part of us.

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