Years ago……in what seems like another life……I was in the army. I was a company clerk and one of my jobs was to go to the clerk in the unit above mine and get the mail. I discovered that I could bypass the clerk above me and go to the clerk above him and ultimately, the clerk above the clerk above me. This cut a day or so off of the mail delivery…..everybody won. My Sergeant found out and chewed me out. He yelled, “Listen SPECIALIST…..you will not cut that corner!” The key word was “specialist”. His point was that, as my Sergeant, he had authority over me….a mere specialist. He made the rules. The fact that my plan was better for all concerned…..didn’t matter. It was all about authority…….submission…….and rebellion. He had authority that I lacked. He had this authority because it was given to him by those above him.

Authority, it turns out, is the central issue in the biggest failures of our culture. The refusal to submit to authority, rebellion, is central to the decay in our culture. Authority creates an orderly society. Rebellion leads to anarchy. Think back to your childhood. What was the one line that your parents used that absolutely drove you crazy?

“Because I said so!”

In other words…… “Because I have the authority to decide……and you are required to submit to my authority…….this is non-negotiable”.

Authority:

Legitimate power, decision-making capacity, and the means to cause others to obey.

Oxford English Dictionary

So…..how does authority work? Someone above you has the authority to oversee you. They delegate a bit of their authority to you and you use that authority to oversee those under you…..and so on……down the ladder.

But what about up the ladder?

Authority is given to you by someone who has more of it. Authority flows downhill. You cannot create authority. Any such attempt at self created authority……is illegitimate. Authority begins at the top. Authority is created only at the top. But, just who….or what, is at the top of the ladder. Who is the ultimate creator of authority? It turns out that the creator of authority is the creator of everything else.The ultimate authority is the entity who makes all of the rules and who answers…….to no-one.

Master……Lord…….God…….Creator

It is in our nature to chafe against authority……to rebell. This is “the dark side” of free will. But, in order to rebell against external authority, we must create our own independent internal authority. And because we lack true delegated authority…..our self created authority………our rebellion is illegitimate. To create our own authority, we need a workaround……..and so we deny the true source of authority……or ignore it. And that is where our culture is today. We deny or ignore the authority of our creator.

That is why our cities are crumbling. That is why we kill 3,000 children every day. That is why human trafficking creates more slaves today than ever in human history. That is the reason for war, homelessness, hunger, mass shootings. Every evil in our world can be traced back to rebellion against the authority of our creator……..to denial of the authority of our creator………a creator who gives us two rules……love him……love each other.

We rebell………and we make a mess.

And yet…….in our rebellion……which, by any rational accounting, is a dismal failure……..we tell ourselves that we have it all under control.

How’s that working out for you?

“when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Satan, telling to Eve to ignore God’s authority, ESV

“It is in your nature……to destroy yourselves”

The terminator.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Jesus, ESV

For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.

The centurion, discussing authority with Jesus, ESV

Long ago, there was a mentally ill woman. She was deemed unsalvageable and was caged in the basement of a mental institution. One day, as an act of kindness, a cleaning woman baked some brownies and left them by the door of the cage. This began a chain of events that led to her recovery. As an adult, she repaid the kindness by helping another incorrigible young woman. And so began the friendship of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller.

All of this came about because of a small act of kindness, that, to this day, went largely unnoticed. This is often, if not usually, the case. I think that it is safe to say that we rarely see the long range consequences of the little things that we say and do every day.

We are presented with opportunities like the lady with the brownies every day. We often let them slip by. But, even when we act on them, we rarely see the full ramifications of what we have set into motion. In junior high, I was at the very bottom of the social pecking order……shy, lacking confidence, not very happy, going nowhere. One day, one of the cheerleaders…….arguably the most popular girl in the school……..smiled at me……and she said hi! She walked on and never thought twice about it. But that 2 second interaction changed the trajectory of my life. It was one of 2 or 3 key events that shaped me into who I am today……for better or worse.

People talk about “the butterfly effect”. A butterfly in China flutters its wings. This begins a chain of events and consequences that lead to a hurricane in the Caribbean. As it turns out……..there is a social version of the “butterfly effect”…….and we participate in it daily. We have hundreds of interactions with other people. Each of these interactions, in some small way affects……and changes…….the other guy. And that change spreads out through his interactions…..and so on. And we never see the final outcomes.

The tiny, seemingly inconsequential, interaction with a friend, relative, or even a complete stranger can set into motion a series of events that changes a life…….or possibly the history of the world. Imagine a small kindness in the childhood of Adolph Hitler. Maybe we would remember him as a painter today.

I fully expect, that someday, when I arrive in paradise, I will learn of the long term outcomes of my actions. Someone will walk up to me and tell me a story…..like my cheerleader story……and thank me for a tiny kindness that enhanced, and maybe changed, their life.

Unfortunately, I will also find that there are things that I have done……..that have caused harm.

So……the challenge for us is to respect the potential outcomes of the small things that we say and do to the people around us every day.

We are far more powerful than we know.

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Paul, ESV

you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

James, ESV

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Paul. ESV

The primary rules of Christianity are:

Love God…….Love man

There is a third rule. This rule is repeated many times in the Bible……..that means it must be very important.

Fear God.

We like the first two rules. But, rule number three……..not so much.

Today I want to explore……..”Fear God”.

Most Christian teachers say that this means to show reverential respect. That explanation has always seemed a little strained to me. There are better words for respect…….than fear.

Could fear………..actually mean fear?

We like to believe that all good things come from God and all bad things come from Satan. Love God and fear Satan is a good starting point for a Christian. But I am left with a nagging doubt about the “fear means respect” translation. What if fear actually means fear?

We love good things…….we fear bad things.

I think that the confusion may come from how we define good and bad. We typically think of good as something that makes us happy and bad as something that makes us sad……….now, or next week, or over the next decade. But what about the next 50 years? What about eternity?

Consider an extreme hypothetical:

A pastor who has served God well for decades suffers a setback…….his wife is killed. In a moment of weakness, he lashes out at God. He is just about to commit an act of blasphemy against the holy spirit…….the unforgivable sin………but he drops dead before he can. God takes him……before he can damn himself. We generally consider death to be the worst thing that can happen…….but, in this case, is his death bad…….or is it good? After all…….his untimely death…….saves him from hell. It takes him to paradise…….for eternity.

I think that rather than redefining fear………we need to redefine good and bad. We need a more mature understanding of good and bad.

We need to think of good as something that promotes our well being……in the long run…….in an eternal time frame:

Good is something that someone who loves us does for us or to us……to help us or to rescue us……possibly from ourselves………in an eternal time frame.

Imagine God……sitting in heaven…….during the crucifixion. He looks down at his only son, beaten to a pulp, bleeding and suffocating on a cross…………and says to himself……”this is really good…..the best…….it’s turning out just right……..I love it when a plan comes together!”

Not the picture you were expecting is it. The hard truth is……that for mankind…….the crucifixion was a good thing…..the ultimate gift from a creator who loves us. The crucifixion……..the first step in the resurrection……….was the first of the two best things that ever happened in human history. Denying the crucifixion and the resurrection is the most bad thing……….the most damnable thing………that we can do.

Imagine you are God, you sacrifice the most important thing in your world……to rescue a bunch of people…..whom you created…….and they don’t even admit it happened……much less say thanks.

Enter justice.

God is love. But he is also justice. Both are immutable faces of the creator of the universe. We love the love part……we hate the justice part. But, the sad truth is that our behaviour creates a conflict between God’s goodness and his justice……..every day. Our encounter with God’s justice…….is entirely our fault……..not God’s fault.

Back to fear.

Fear is a protective emotion that helps us to avoid bad things and steers us toward good things.

It is appropriate to love God’s goodness.

It is equally appropriate to fear his justice. This makes far more sense than trying to define it out of existence. This makes far more sense than trying to “dumb down” God’s justice so that we can live as we please.

Out of his love for us………God created paradise.

Out of his justice……..God created hell.

We should love God’s goodness……his love for us.

But, because we all have a streak of evil in us, we should also fear his justice.

Love God’s goodness……..Fear God’s justice.

This is what the Bible means when it teaches us:

“Fear God”.

“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

Jesus, describing the father. ESV

So we went on a vacation about a year ago………great restaurants…….great food……it was fabulous. And I gained 10 pounds. My doctor told me I needed to lose the weight……….big surprise. For a year, I tried to shed those 10 pounds…….no luck.

Weight loss, in theory, is incredibly simple……..in practice……not so much.

The hard truth of weight loss is this:

If you stop eating…….you will lose weight. This is absolutely true and it is non-negotiable.

The practical reality is that we don’t stop eating. For a year, I didn’t stop eating……..and I wondered why I didn’t lose the 10 pounds.

Why?

Because I lied………to myself. Because behind every failed diet is a failure to stop eating. And this failure is based on lies that we tell ourselves.

I ate a simple breakfast, toast and coffee. I had a light lunch, a bowl of soup. I had a regular dinner…….with a second helping. And I snacked a little in the evening…..cheese (1/4 pound)…….and a little summer sausage (1/4 pound)…….and, of course, you have to have a sleeve of crackers to go with it.

I told myself that the second helping at dinner wasn’t important. I told myself that I deserved the snack because I had been so good at breakfast and lunch. These were lies…….the worst kind of lies…….lies that I told myself.

If you have ever tried to lose weight…..and failed……you are guilty of lying too. Don’t feel bad……you are in good company. Besides that, there is a multibillion dollar industry selling the lie.

The simple truth is……that we lie to ourselves……..all day……every day.

That rolling stop when there is no other car in sight.

Driving 75 in a 65mph zone.

Using the handicapped parking spot…….when you are not handicapped……for just 5 minutes.

The lies?

“This really isn’t important.”
“That rule is stupid.”
“It really doesn’t hurt anyone.”
“It’s no big deal.”
“I can handle it.”

BTW this is just a taste of one day’s worth of lies that I told myself…….yesterday.

This post, it turns out, isn’t about dieting at all…….you probably guessed. It is about lying…….to ourselves.

When you do something wrong and tell yourself, “It’s OK”. You are actually doing 2 things wrong……..the act itself…….and the lie that you tell yourself to justify the act. It may very well be that the act itself really isn’t a big problem……..but the lie IS a big problem.

Lying to yourself is a big problem because the little lie that you tell yourself today makes it easier to tell the next little lie……and the one after that. Until, one day you find yourself telling yourself a lie that isn’t so little. Then you tell the big lies……the lies that can destroy you.

My drinking isn’t a problem….I can handle it.

Cigarettes don’t kill that many people.

Lying to my parents is OK……it’s none of their business anyway.

Then one day you find yourself with your girlfriend sitting in the waiting room of the abortion clinic…….and you say, “this is for the best.”

And you wonder….”how did I ever get to this point?”

You may still commit the act………but you owe yourself the truth………….you owe it to yourself……..to say to yourself………”this is wrong.”

Our society does not allow us to tell the other guy that his behavior is wrong. Even worse……….we are losing the gift of telling ourselves that our own behaviour is wrong.

So…..today……. find a time when you are getting ready to do something that just isn’t quite right. And tell yourself…..”this is wrong”. Even if you still do it…….you will have taken a small step toward honesty…….honesty with the most important person you will deal with today……. yourself.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Solomom, ESV

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth

Paul, ESV

I recently made a post based on a cow that I saw for a few seconds 40 years ago.

Today’s post is based on a movie that I saw one time, 50 years ago.

“The Brotherhood of the Bell”.

The synopsis is this: A guy joins a fraternity. After college, he goes on to a sucessful career, marries a beautiful woman, and lives a life where everything just falls into place. One day, an old fraternity brother asks him to do something that is really wrong……..and he does it. His act leads to the death of an innocent man. Racked with guilt, he renounces the fraternity. And then his world falls apart……he loses his job, his wife leaves him, and more. It turns out that all of his successes in life were orchestrated by the fraternity. He was never in charge. His triumphs were the work of an outside entity. He did have some autonomy……but most of his life was planned and executed……..by an outside force.

So…….do you ever wonder why the things that have happened to you happened to you? Do you ever find yourself saying…….”Why would God allow that”…….or worse…… “how could God do that?” I have struggled with those questions for a long time……..and only recently have I found an explanation that might work.

I think that it is possible that God sends things into our lives in order to prepare us for something……..an encounter that may not occur for decades. The great triumphs, the unspeakable tragedies, even the inconsequential events of our lives……like the cow or an old movie………have all shaped us into the people whom we are today…….and have prepared us…….for something.

What if it’s not random? What if that promotion, that winning lottery ticket, that illness, the death of a loved one………even that parking ticket is preparing you for a conversation with a stranger that will occur 50 years from now? What if your tragedy today…….or your triumph…….is the beginning of a series of events that will further God’s kingdom decades from now.

What if God is far more involved in the minor details of your life…….today……than you realize?

The problem is that we are ignorant. Abba Eban could have been thinking of me when he said, “his ignorance is encyclopedic.” We don’t know the details of what God is up to. We are not privy to God’s long term plan. It is easy to say that God isn’t paying attention, to say that God is wrong, or that God doesn’t exist. But, that is just our ignorance speaking.

It’s easy to praise God when something good happens.

It is much harder to praise him when tragedy strikes.

But, in both cases, we are called on to trust him…….to trust in his love…….to trust his long term plan.

Know this:

God loves you……and me…….and the other guy. I need to trust that my tragedy today may be the first step in a chain of events that will shower love down……..on someone…….somewhere…….possibly long after I am gone.

Like the cow…….or the old movie…..something may come into your life today…….a triumph, a tragedy, or something inconsequential. Know that God may be setting the stage for something important somewhere down the road.

Be patient…….and trust in his love.

And we know that for those who love God
ALL things work together for good
For those who are called according to his purpose.

Paul. ESV