Going down in history?

It has long seemed to me that one of the great challenges of fully Christianizing ourselves is seeking out, discovering, and then removing every vestige of worldliness in our thinking. For my own part, one example of this has been learning not to care very much about fame or getting credit for the things I might do.

Although most intellectuals care very deeply that they be properly attributed, I have learned to simply be happy if the ideas I generate are adopted and perpetuated by others, regardless if my name is attached to them. My reason? The God I serve knows full well what I do, and I trust Him to give me any compensation I might need, including being “known” for such things. I don’t need history to remember me if God forgets nothing.

But this morning I had a different sort of question arise. Some coworkers were discussing the roots of World War II and naturally Neville Chamberlain came up, being famous for his policy of appeasement toward the expansionism of Hitler. And that’s when it hit me. Everyone knows who Neville Chamberlain was precisely because he made such a fabulous blunder in not grasping Hitler’s true intentions. And to this day, he serves as the iconic example of how not to respond to a tyrant. In that way, he is a tremendously useful example from history, and his knownness to students of history is extremely high.

Now, naturally it’s better to avoid blunders and the horrific consequences which can flow from them, such as in this case. That being said, I started wondering whether I would feel satisfied if my own life could be as historically useful a source of guidance as Neville Chamberlain’s was. And in the end, I realized that if I’m really dedicated to teaching people to be wise, there are many far less vivid ways to fulfill that goal than the one which befell him.

So would I choose to be historically significant in the manner of Chamberlain? It’s certainly not my first choice, but if God sees fit to guide people even through my ignominy, shouldn’t I be satisfied with that? If He is pleased with me being hated by history but remembered usefully by her, well, isn’t the sacrifice of infamy even greater than the sacrifice of anonymity?

The real cost of "good deals"

As someone who just unloaded two moving trucks worth of accumulated living paraphernalia, I would say I’m freshly open to the advice of motivational author Brian Tracy: “Pay twice as much for your clothes, and buy half as many. Expensive clothes are cheaper because you wear them more often.”

Although this proverb seems superficially counterintuitive, the underlying idea is brilliantly vital. Because we must wear something every day, the correct way to approach buying a shirt, for instance, isn’t by thinking primarily about purchase price, but about the number of “wears” you will get out of it. As anyone who has bought both expensive and cheap clothes knows, you wind up wearing the costly ones far more frequently for the simple reason that you like them much better. Although well-made clothes may also last longer, this isn’t the real issue he’s getting at.

In my closet, I have numerous shirts which I paid little for but almost never wear. In addition to taking up space and time, they represent an investment which was easy to make because each outlay was small. But since I rarely wear them and since I’ve over time bought so many of them, they represent an aggregate waste of money, plus the time and effort of storing, ignoring, and moving them.

The real measure of the cost of a shirt is thus the price divided by the number of times you’ll wear it. And since we tend to wear clothes we like many times more often than the others, Brian Tracy’s advice doesn’t even go far enough. In reality, I think that clothes which cost twice as much bring you perhaps twenty or more times as much value because of how much better you feel in them and how much more often you don them.

Now, for someone like me who almost exclusively buys clothes secondhand, all my clothes cost very little. But the principle still applies. I should only buy ones I like well enough to pay more for and know for sure I will wear a lot instead of the ones I like just enough to pay such a low price for.

As a friend of mine used to say, “Some things are so cheap they aren’t worth buying.” I would add that some things cost you the most only after you buy them.

And just to be sure it isn’t missed for not being said overtly, this way of thinking surely applies to any other personal possession as well.

What is a sin of omission?

Some examples of things you will probably never hear people say:

“One of these days, I think I’d like to be an alcoholic.”
“I’m going to do whatever it takes to become part of an embarrassing sex scandal.”
“You know, I’ve finally decided to take up chain smoking.”
“What I’d really like to do is put on another 30-40 pounds.”
“Hopefully, if everything works out, I can have a terrible marriage.”
“Eventually my goal is to be so deep in debt that bankruptcy seems like a good idea.”

At least, I know I’ve never heard anyone say any of these things, and I suspect none of you have either. But if we can agree that no one ever says any of these things (presumably because no one ever sets out to achieve any of these results), then what are we to make of the relatively obvious fact that lots and lots of people do in fact wind up at precisely these destinations?

The answer, I think, is relatively obvious. These and a myriad of other highly undesirable conditions are never arrived at suddenly or even deliberately. Instead, they are gradually chosen over the course of numerous minor decisions to behave the same way a person who actually held such absurd goals would. And not to put the matter too finely, but many of these minor transitions are not even choices at all. Rather, they are merely failures to behave deliberately in the opposite direction.

One might say, perhaps, that only the worst kind of art paints itself.

What atheists get right.

Who is closer to having good theology, legalists or atheists?

Although this sounds like an absurd question, consider what they both have in common. Both legalists and atheists (generally) have almost the exact same false view of God, in which He is a petty, vindictive, self-aggrandizing, and judgmental brat, condemning anyone and everyone who does not precisely conform to His peculiar and exacting standards. The legalists, of course, celebrate this heretically one-dimensional view of God whereas atheists reject it.

But why do atheists reject it? Because they say a God like that would not be a God worth worshipping. Their complaint is that such a God is not at all a God of love, but instead the most evil archetype of villainy. In other words, they deny the existence of this God because He is not good enough, not loving enough. The great irony, then, is that in rejecting the false theology of legalists, atheist are actually standing up in defense of the character of God. Therefore, their denial of God’s existence actually turns out to be celebration of the true God, whose loving Nature and Honor they inadvertently defend. When they say, “This God does not exist, and if He does, is not worth worshipping,” we Christians should shout, “Agreed!”

But we Christians don’t worship this false God. Our God so loved us that in spite of His Holiness and His absolute right to Divine judgment, He chose to completely humiliate Himself in order to get us who did not deserve it. He cared so little about His reputation that He went so far as to let it be tarnished on the Cross and continuously slandered by both legalists masquerading as Christians and atheists alike throughout subsequent history. He is a God which no self-respecting man would ever emulate, for precisely the reason that other-love rather than self-respect are at the very core of His character. And it is this utter lack of self-centeredness that the atheist holds aright in rejecting the false God of legalism.

And so when atheists say they would never be willing to believe in a God who would send people to hell for their petty indiscretions, ask them whether they would believe in a God who would sacrifice His dignity, His reputation, and even His very life in order to rescue people from such a horrific fate. Perhaps they will then reject God because He is too loving, but only someone who has never understood the Gospel would ever reject God because He’s too self-centered and tyrannical.

On foolishness?

Imagine a man enjoying what he thinks is a relatively prosperous marriage. He treats his wife well, provides for her needs, and is a good father to their children. Every day, he goes off to work, excited most about returning home to spend time with them.

Then one day, he starts to sense that something has changed. As his fears grow, he eventually overhears his wife having a barely guarded conversation with another man, clearly indicating she has been unfaithful to him. He confronts her and she admits it, but refuses to stop. In fact, over the next few days, she becomes even more bold, telling anyone that she is cheating on her husband and even deliberately announcing her rendezvous at home. He is ashamed and frustrated and furious, but he doesn’t know what to do about it.

Finally, at a large party they throw every year at their house, with dozens of their friends and neighbors attending, she has the audacity to invite her lover, and he shows up. The crowd is stunned and buzzes about the outrage of it all. In response, the husband leaves the party for a little while, only to return an hour later, a mysterious development which has everyone eager and also a bit nervous to see what will happen next.

Then, after what seems like an unbearably long time, the husband turns down the music and calls for everyone’s attention. To the utter amazement of everyone present, he walks over to his wife, who is standing with her lover. But just as the crowd is expecting the worst, he bends down on one knee, pulls out a stunningly extravagant diamond necklace, and offers it to her, saying, “I still love you, darling. Won’t you please return to me so we can continue the life we promised to build together?”