What's the Point?

If I asked you, "What's the point of your life?" you might give me any number of answers.  You might tell me about what you hope for your children, what you are doing in your hobbies, or your career. 

Now, what if I asked you, "What is the point of a business?"  I don't care what your business is, what it sells or what service it provides.  Regardless of market share, return on investment, or anything else, a business exists for one purpose: to make money.  No business exists for any purpose except to serve its creator by producing money. 

A hobby exists to serve you by bringing you pleasure.  A garden exists to serve you by producing food.


When you create something, whether it is a business, a hobby, a garden, or just about anything else, you create it to serve you.  God created you for a purpose.  What do you suppose that purpose is?

Selective Listening

I titled this entry "Selective Listening" and now I am going to talk about reading, not listening.  You can deal with it.  To start, here are a couple of Bible passages that I think most Christians are fairly familiar with.

¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."
Jeremiah 29:10-14

¹⁶Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
 ¹⁷"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
 ¹⁸"Which ones?" the man inquired.
   Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, ¹⁹honor your father and mother,' and 'love your neighbor as yourself.'"
 ²⁰"All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
 ²¹Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
 ²²When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
 ²³Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Matthew 19:16-24

What I want to know is, why is it that when we read Jeremiah 29:11, we cling to it as a personal promise, but when we read Matthew 19:21, we say "Oh, that was a specific command for someone else" or "Jesus didn't really mean that" or whatever. 

Bull crap.

The Jeremiah verse also says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."  We don't exactly have a line-item veto here.  You can't sit there and tell God, "I want the part about prospering and hope and a future, but I can do without this seeking you stuff."  Most of us aren't even thinking about asking, "What do I still lack?" because we aren't even sure we have to honor our parents and do all that.  We're in negotiations or something.

As Christians, we are supposed to try to become like Christ.  Christ didn't have any earthly possessions besides the clothes on his back.  All of the apostles gave up everything they had to follow him.  Who are we to think that we can follow Christ and not give up anything? 

It's Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day.  The question for today, then, is are you focusing your energies on loving someone who will never love you back in the way that you deserve, or are you loving the one who has always loved you in a way you could never deserve?

If you are looking to love someone that will never love you back
I don't know.  I really feel like there should be a Tiger Woods joke here, or maybe some commentary regarding narcissism.  Regardless, hopefully I'm not talking about your boyfriend.

If you are looking to love someone that has always loved you
Jesus is still alright with me.

Correct but Stupid

Maybe you've heard this or something like it.  It usually is a Christian talking to a non-Christian (usually an atheist), and the Christian will say something like:

"Suppose you're right.  Suppose there is no god.  We go through life, and that's it.  There's no heaven, no afterlife, nothing.  So, you were right and I was wrong--it doesn't even matter.  But suppose I'm right.  Suppose Jesus is the Son of God.  We go through life, and then we face judgment.  I was right, and you were wrong--and it makes all the difference!"

I suppose the logic is sound, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the dumbest arguments ever made for Christianity.

First, why would you say, even for the sake of argument, that there is no god?  If you are a Christian and you have a personal experience with God, why would you even entertain the idea that there isn't?  Think about it.  You wouldn't say, "Suppose there's no such thing as snow..."  I know there is snow.  I keep having to shovel it off the sidewalk and brush it off my car.  People who live in warmer climates may not have ever seen snow, and they might find the idea difficult to wrap their brains around it, but that doesn't change the fact that snow is real and undeniable.  You can't make a valid point based on a completely asinine premise. 

Second, you're making the wrong argument altogether.  Christianity isn't about--or it shouldn't be about--escaping the eternal flames of hell.  There's plenty to look forward to in the afterlife, but this life is pretty good, too.  The angel announcing Jesus' birth says, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people."  It's kind of a big deal!  Having Jesus in your life gives you joy that you can't get anywhere else.  To the atheist, your joy should be obvious and completely unreasonable.

If you don't know for a fact that God exists, you're missing out on the life that God has planned for you.  You're missing out on completely ridiculous joy that should be yours.  And if you aren't missing out, you should be making better arguments.

Sign, Signs, Everywhere a Sign

I read about a shopping center in England where there were stairs adjacent to the escalators.  Researchers posted colorful signs that stated, "Taking the stairs protects your heart."  The result was that the number of people who chose the stairs doubled.

I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to realize that taking the stairs is the better option for your health.  I also think it doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand that the increase in the use of the stairs had everything to do with the presence of those signs.  So I doubt it takes a rocket surgeon, then, to understand what this verse is all about:

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates."
Deuteronomy 6:6-8

God's word is kind of like those signs at the shopping mall.  The truth in God's word is available for our own benefit.  God gave it to us because He loves us and wants the best for us.  Like those signs, we might know (at least on some level) the truth behind those words, but it's easy to not even think about them on our own if we never read them.  That's why God tells us to keep his words in front of us every day and throughout our day.

Notre Dame football players, when they exit the locker room and head down the tunnel towards the playing field, see a sign that says, "Play like a champion today."  There's a reason that statement is on a sign hanging in the staircase to be seen by every player at every home game rather than simply mentioned at freshman orientation.  The Notre Dame football program wants to immerse its athletes in a culture of excellence.

What do you immerse yourself in?  What do you spend more time looking at: Facebook, the television, the inside of the fridge, Sports Illustrated, or your Bible?  Are you surprised by the results?

Random (In)Justice

Ten of Joseph's brothers played a role in him being sold into slavery.  Years later, they have to go to Egypt to buy grain--and even though they don't know it, they are buying grain from Joseph.  Of course, Joseph knows who they are, and he messes around with them a little bit.  When the brothers visit the first time, without Benjamin, Joseph tells them they must return with their other brother.  To make sure they come back, he keeps one brother in prison until they return.

"He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes."
Genesis 42:24

Why Simeon?  Or, from Simeon's perspective, "Why me!?"  Sure, Simeon was guilty for what they had done to Joseph, but he wasn't any more guilty than the other nine (except maybe Reuben, I suppose).  Regardless of what he had done before, this was hardly fair.  The other nine were able to return with grain to their wives and children.  Why Simeon?

The worst part is that when the brothers returned home and told what had happened to them, Jacob doesn't want them to return!  He completely gives up on Simeon, and considers him as good as dead.  Instead of having the brothers return immediately to Egypt so that they can prove their innocence and have Simeon released from prison, they wait.  They wait until they have run out of food, and the only other choice is to accept starving to death.  Only then do they return to Egypt.

Meanwhile, Simeon is rotting in prison.  I don't know what conditions Simeon may have been subjected to.  The Bible doesn't address the topic.  If I had to guess, I would think that Joseph would see to it that his brother was not mistreated in any way, but it still must have been miserable.  And Simeon must have asked why he of all ten had to be the one to be imprisoned in Egypt.

What did Simeon do to deserve this?  Well, he'd done some nasty things in his life.  He deserved prison and more.  Of course, he didn't do anything (as far as I know) that Levi didn't do. 

We all deserve everything we get and a whole lot worse.  The Bible says that Jesus bore the weight of our sins on the cross.  He died because of our sins.  Your sins.  My sins.  In short, I killed Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  You did, too.  Whatever bad happens to us, it doesn't even approach that which we deserve.  Except for the grace of God, what we all deserve is furious wrath from heaven.  Life isn't fair--and that's a good thing.

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be made mature and complete, not lacking in anything."
James 1:2-4

Thirty Years

If you know who Donny Osmond is, you know the story of Joseph.  As a young man with a lot of potential, he ran his mouth a bit too much and irritated the snot out of his brothers.  They wanted to kill him--and life just went downhill from there.  They sold him into slavery.  He went to work for Potiphar and things were looking good until Potiphar's wife got mad at him and lied, which led to Joseph being sent to prison.  In prison, Joseph works for the warden and interprets dreams for a couple of Pharaoh's servants, but he is still in prison without having done a single thing to deserve it for at least two years after interpreting those dreams.  Joseph has held firm to his faith in God, and his life still sucks.

You know what comes next.  In one day, Joseph goes from prison to being second in power in all of Egypt to only Pharaoh himself.   

"Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt" (Genesis 41:46). 

The text indicates that Joseph was seventeen when the strife between him and his brothers really began to heat up.  I suspect that Joseph being sold into slavery came at that age or soon thereafter.  That means that on his thirtieth birthday Joseph had spent his entire adult life--more than a decade--as a slave and/or prisoner.  It would have been pretty easy for him to develop a rotten attitude about life, but the story is clear: Joseph's faith remained in tact, despite the adversity he faced.

If Joseph had been wrapped up in his circumstances, even when called into Pharaoh's palace to interpret Pharaoh's dreams, what would have happened?  First, God probably would not have given him the wisdom to interpret them, and back into the dungeon he would have gone.  Second, if God had granted him the wisdom to interpret them, he may have been unwise with his gift.  Instead of telling Pharaoh the meaning of the dream, and then telling him what to do about it, what if Joseph had simply said, "Sounds like you're screwed"?  His displeasure at how life went the first thirty years of his life would have robbed him of all God's blessings that he ended up receiving over the next ninety.

We must take the long view on life.  It's easy to get overwhelmed by the circumstances of the moment.  God takes the long view, and therefore we should, too.  We have to keep our eyes on the Father and trust him to deal with the rest.