How much of our obedience to God is mandatory, and how much of it is optional? Of course this sounds like a trick question, but in fact it’s a question which simply reveals the trick most of us play on ourselves when thinking about obedience to God.
If we’re honest, most of us think that obedience to God is a matter of doing “just enough.” We must do just enough in order to be good Christians or to preserve our salvation or some other nebulous concept, and anything beyond this minimum is up to us. If we do more, we get rewarded more, but it’s not mandatory. Our minds having been polluted by jobs and school, we think in terms of doing just enough to not get fired or just enough to avoid a bad grade instead of feeling we must be the best employees and the A students.
Of course there are many areas where God does leave the choice to us, but in those areas where He has spoken, it is a gross mistake to say that obedience is ever optional. And at those times when we think it is, we would do well to recall Who is the Master and who is not.
TOD 10.09.07
In most marriages, there are times when people don’t really feel like they are one flesh together. It’s not this way at the start, when both spouses are so caught up in the joy of each other that they forget about being separate. But somewhere down the line, their craving to be together diminishes and they remember their own desires and views.
At these times, they get to learn a brand new skill: working to be one flesh when the feeling of it isn’t strong. The best tool for this is apologizing. But many people, having long been convinced of their own splendidness, misunderstand what it means to admit fault. Apologizing does not require that I was completely wrong. It simply requires that I was not completely Christlike.
And if Jesus is right that we are to be perfect as God is perfect, then surely I can apologize whenever I am imperfect. As I do so, I lead the way back to unity with my wife and away from being my own man, which I no longer am.
At these times, they get to learn a brand new skill: working to be one flesh when the feeling of it isn’t strong. The best tool for this is apologizing. But many people, having long been convinced of their own splendidness, misunderstand what it means to admit fault. Apologizing does not require that I was completely wrong. It simply requires that I was not completely Christlike.
And if Jesus is right that we are to be perfect as God is perfect, then surely I can apologize whenever I am imperfect. As I do so, I lead the way back to unity with my wife and away from being my own man, which I no longer am.
TOD 10.04.07
I saw a bumper sticker today which made me chortle. It read, “Only you can protect your marriage. Vote no on the marriage amendment.” The reason I laughed was because it was such very well-phrased nonsense. The reason I stopped laughing was because I recognized it was meant seriously.
Now, obviously this sticker makes a false play on words when it talks about protecting “your” marriage. The problem with gay marriage is not that it threatens any particular marriage, but rather all of marriage as an institution which privileges permanent baby-making relationships. But the other error here is asserting that the success of marriage is entirely up to the people in it.
Marriage is not a purely private thing. The spouses are heavily responsible, but so, too, are the close friends and family for nurturing it as well as the larger society for providing a safe environment for it to grow in. So beware pithy phrases. They can easily deceive you into thinking that the ideas underneath the verbal gold plating are as pretty as they appear.
Now, obviously this sticker makes a false play on words when it talks about protecting “your” marriage. The problem with gay marriage is not that it threatens any particular marriage, but rather all of marriage as an institution which privileges permanent baby-making relationships. But the other error here is asserting that the success of marriage is entirely up to the people in it.
Marriage is not a purely private thing. The spouses are heavily responsible, but so, too, are the close friends and family for nurturing it as well as the larger society for providing a safe environment for it to grow in. So beware pithy phrases. They can easily deceive you into thinking that the ideas underneath the verbal gold plating are as pretty as they appear.
TOD 10.03.07
I recently had the opportunity to be selected for jury service. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t picked, but, in the process, I experienced a sensation of great reverence for the legal system. Having seen many courtroom dramas enacted on television, I’ve been an imaginary juror for serious crimes hundreds of times. But sitting there observing a real trial for a simple misdemeanor, I found myself pondering the deep gravity of deciding to take away another person’s liberty.
See, it’s easy at a distance to “know” what you would do. But when you are personally responsible, you think about it differently. And that’s why I try to remind myself of just how tempting it is to second-guess the decisions of other people when I have neither the authority to make them nor the burden of living with them afterwards.
It’s not that I don’t want to think and talk about other’s decisions. I just want to remember that it’s always a lot easier to say what I would do when I don’t have to actually do it myself and live with the consequences.
See, it’s easy at a distance to “know” what you would do. But when you are personally responsible, you think about it differently. And that’s why I try to remind myself of just how tempting it is to second-guess the decisions of other people when I have neither the authority to make them nor the burden of living with them afterwards.
It’s not that I don’t want to think and talk about other’s decisions. I just want to remember that it’s always a lot easier to say what I would do when I don’t have to actually do it myself and live with the consequences.
TOD 10.02.07
Ability produces success. Success leads to pride. Pride causes arrogance. Arrogance encourages judgment. And judgment is a form of hatred, hatred for those who were not blessed with my ability. Thus, the very gift of God to me can become my way of despising those who were not given my gifts.
Blessings produce prosperity. Prosperity cultivates the hope of continued good fortune. Hope encourages expectation. Expectation grows into a sense of entitlement. And a sense of entitlement leads to being ungrateful for anything less than constant increase rather than being grateful for ever having had more. Thus, the abundant blessings of God giving me more than I deserve can cause me to not even enjoy the good which I’ve received.
Instead of thinking God has failed us when He doesn’t give us something we want, perhaps we might consider the possibility that He loves us too much to let us become what we would if He had.
Blessings produce prosperity. Prosperity cultivates the hope of continued good fortune. Hope encourages expectation. Expectation grows into a sense of entitlement. And a sense of entitlement leads to being ungrateful for anything less than constant increase rather than being grateful for ever having had more. Thus, the abundant blessings of God giving me more than I deserve can cause me to not even enjoy the good which I’ve received.
Instead of thinking God has failed us when He doesn’t give us something we want, perhaps we might consider the possibility that He loves us too much to let us become what we would if He had.
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