Cindy and I designed our house from the ground up……Cindy more than me. We made some mistakes…….but, all in all, it has served us well. We and our sons have lived most of our lives in this house. There is a back hallway from the garage into the house. It is no surprise that this is how 95% of the people entering our house come in. There is even a plaque that says “back door guests are best”.

The layout of the house is open and expansive. The family room has a 25 foot cathedral ceiling and flows into the kitchen, breakfast room, foyer, and an open loft. The ceilings throughout the house are 9 feet. The only exception is the back hallway……the entrance hallway…….the first thing that you see. We specified 7 foot ceilings for the entrance hallway…..and for all of the rooms on that hallway. It is tight……almost claustrophobic. It is a place that you only go into when you have a job to do……like the laundry.

What……you may ask…..were we thinking?

The cramped entrance hallway opens into the large family room. The transition is stunning. The tiny hall makes the open spaces beyond it even bigger……and more inviting. Nobody “hangs out” in the back hallway…….ever. The back hall is just a place that you pass through to get to the nice places beyond. The claustrophobic back hallway sets up a contrast. It makes the open spaces beyond even more striking.

So…….back to old age. Cindy and I are in our 70’s. And, if you haven’t figured it out yet, we have been truly blessed.
But, what is old age about?

Pain…….just about everything hurts……especially in the morning.

Cancer

Heart disease

Liver disease

Osteoporosis

Dizziness

Declining senses of smell, sight, and hearing.

We write a lot of stuff down.

We often say, “I wish I knew what I know now but had the body I had in my 20”s”.

But, maybe this is a part of God’s plan. Maybe the shrinking of my physical horizons is like the back hallway in my house. God promises that when I die, the list of problems…….complaints…….that I just wrote down will go away…….forever. Maybe my temporary discomfort today is there to contrast with the physical joy of paradise. Maybe, my morning stiffness is like walking through my back hallway……..on my way to the family room.

From now on, this will be my meditation……..when I am dealing with the aggravations of old age. God is just getting me mentally and emotionally prepared……..for paradise.

Old age…….is just a place that you must go through……to get to the really nice place beyond.

He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.

David, Psalms18:19, ESV

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Paul, 2 Corinthians 4:16, ESV

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Paul, Phillipines 1:6, ESV

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

God, Isaiah 46:3-4, ESV

In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

Jesus, John 14:2-3, ESV

I recently spent some time on right vs.wrong. I want to expand on that a bit. I think that our culture has lost its mooring to these two key principles. When I was a kid, we had a small black and white TV. Sometimes it worked. We had 3 channels and they went off the air at midnight. There were very few choices as to what to watch. But, the shows that we had were qualitative different from TV today. There were good guys and bad guys. The good guys were good…….all of the time. The bad guys were bad……..all of the time. In a word, our public media taught us about good and bad every day. Characters like Matt Dillon, Ben Cartwright, Mike Nelson, Mr. Rodgers, and Magnum, PI modeled right behaviour for us……..and we absorbed it. These were our role models. There were organizations that explicitly taught right behaviour……like the Boy Scouts.

But, over the years, these ideals……..these ideal role models have come to be seen as “one dimensional”, “niave”, “childish”, “uninteresting”. The good guys in our public media have been replaced by much more complicated characters. Some would say more realistic, more interesting………more like us. Indiana Jones, Han Solo, Jason Bourne, Brian Mills(played by Liam Neeson in “Taken”) are all modern good guys. They are all complex characters that model some aspects of right but also some aspects of wrong. But, when they do something wrong, at least it is justified in the pursuit of a “greater good”. But, sometimes they do wrong…….just to show us that it isn’t really that “wrong” after all.

What the media is teaching us is that the wrong that we do every day……..is justifiable, is common, is an effective problem solving tool. In a word, our media is teaching that you can do things that are wrong…….and still be a good guy. The trouble is that the list of acceptable “wrongs” grows every day. It has even become rude to point out wrong when we see it. We call this tolerance.

Walking into a store, filling a garbage bag with merchandise and walking out………not a crime.

Voting under a false identity………tolerated.

Dumping trash and toxic waste along our roads and waterways……common.

Killing your child as an exercise in reproductive rights.

Charging $100 for a $1 pill.

Wrecking a city……or our capitol……as a valid form of “free speech”.

Let me be clear…….these things are wrong.

But the list grows every day. What was clearly wrong yesterday is acceptable today. The pan of water that we are sitting in keeps slowly getting hotter. I can’t imaging what will be acceptable tomorrow.

So we are working against a strong societal headwind when we pursue “right” in the public arena. If you want to be ostracised, tell someone that what they are doing is wrong. But, we must. There are so many voices telling our young people that they can do as they please. And every time that these voices sell another “wrong” as “tolerable” they prepare the way for an even more wrong idea tomorrow. We need voices speaking out for “right”.

Where to begin?

The first thing we must do is to be sure that we have rooted out the wrong ideas that we have already come to accept. So here are a few tests:

Is it true, kind, and helpful?

Does it help me…..but hurt someone else?

Will I be able to look Jesus in the eye when I try to justify it?

When we fully understand and commit to “right and wrong”…….we will be in a much better position to “sell” these “old fashioned” ideals to a culture that has lost its footing.

On my honor, I will do my best, to do my duty to God and my country, and to obey the scout law, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

Boy Scout Oath

A Scout is:

Trustworthy,
Loyal,
Helpful,
Friendly,
Courteous,
Kind,
Obedient,
Cheerful,
Thrifty,
Brave,
Clean,
and Reverent.

Boy Scout Law

Love God……Love your neighbor

God’s Law

A great deal of the acrimony in our public conversation arises from our understanding…….our definition of right and wrong. Today I want to explore this idea.

Right/wrong is a concept that is an inescapable part of the human condition. It is part of our “operating system”……our “Read Only Memory”. In a word, it is written on our hearts. It is so essential, that the few people among us who operate without it are considered mentally ill…….sociopaths. And yet, for such an integral part of our being, we give right/wrong very little thought.

So what are the facts about right/wrong?

Right/wrong has an existence completely apart from us…….from our wants and needs, from our situation, from our desires and appetites. We serve right/wrong…..not the other way around.

Right/wrong does not change……..ever. It is not “a living document”.

Right/wrong is a concept that is universal because it is essential. It was put into us by our creator.

Right/wrong is just as critical to our function as our pancreas.

Right/wrong is not something that we created…….it is not something that we get to redefine…….it is not something that we get to fine tune to satisfy our current appetites.

Right/wrong is truth. It is the truth because it was put there by a higher authority…….our creator.

Right/wrong makes living in a society much smoother…….but that is not its primary function. Summary execution for traffic violations would make travel much more efficient…..but that would be wrong.

Right/wrong has a primary function that is much closer to home. Right/wrong is required for me to thrive. Right/wrong is required for you to thrive. That is why our creator gave it to us. Living your life outside of the confines of right/wrong causes untold suffering for you and for those around you. This suffering is not and never was a part of God’s plan for us.

There is a test that I try to use when I am getting ready to say or do something. This test, when I use it successfully, helps to bring my life more in line with right/wrong. This test is a key ingredient in living a full and satisfying life.

Three questions:

Is it true?

Is it kind?

Is it helpful?

Three yesses and it’s probably right.

One no and it’s probably wrong.

And that gets down to the meat of the problem. We are hard wired with the concept of right/wrong…….but we have free will……..we are not forced to adhere to right/wrong. We live in the most technologically advanced society that we have ever encountered. The list of things that are possible is exploding.

But…….right/wrong……. doesn’t change. For a growing segment of the world population, more consideration goes into the question, “what can we do?” than into the question, “is it right or wrong?” More and more our choices are driven by our appetites rather than our innate understanding of right/wrong.

I think we would come closer to thriving as human beings if we used the three questions as part of our daily decision making process.

I am convinced that the three questions will help bring us into harmony with the universal truth of right/wrong.

I am convinced that living my life in harmony with the concept of right/wrong is the key to thriving in a world that gets crazier by the day.

If only I can just pull it off.

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

Solomon, Proverbs, 14:12, ESV

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

Paul, Romans 7:19, ESV

“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes,

Moses, Deuteronomy, 12:8, ESV

If you ask 100 parents what they want most for their children, 90 of them will say, “I just want them to be happy”. Most of what we do every day is aimed, directly or indirectly, at achieving happiness. So…..happiness is extremely important to us. Arguably, acheiving happiness is the greatest motivator in our lives.

What is odd, is that for something that we spend our entire lives pursuing, we really give happiness very little thought. Measured by how we pursue happiness, we really don’t even understand it.

So……what is happiness……..or, more to the point, how do we go about finding it? It is a bit more nuanced than you would think. It is not too hard to find someone who has acquired or done the things that we associate with happiness but who is unhappy. It is not too hard to find someone whose life has been stalked by tragedy but who is happy. I’m sure that we can both think of something that we have done…..or acquired that should have made us happy…… but didn’t.

I believe that there are three levels of happiness. We can pursue it on all three levels at the same time. But, more often, we begin at the simplest, most primitive level and then grow into more intense and satisfying levels of happiness……..at least some of us do. Unfortunately, a great many of us are so consumed with acheiving “entry level” happiness that we get stuck and never move on to greater happiness.

So…….entry level happiness:

This is the happiness of stuff and experiences. We identify some object or activity that looks appealing. We pursue it until we acquire it. Then we enjoy it……and we are happy. The trouble is that very quickly, the object/experience becomes normal…….and the happiness fades. We then choose another object/experience and pursue it. And we repeat this cycle over and over. The result is a series of waves of happiness interspersed with troughs of less than happiness. And some people spend their entire lives on that roller coaster. This is the guy who has a midlife crisis that the Corvette won’t fix. The best part of entry level happiness is that all we have to contribute……is money……and maybe some time. We don’t have to meet the needs of our stuff. We really don’t have to give anything of ourself.

Mid level happiness:

This is the happiness of relationships. We seek out like minded people and we become friends, husbands, and wives. This is far more demanding of us. In addition to money and time, we have to give a part of ourself to the other person. We have to take care of them. We have to meet their needs……in addition to meeting our own needs. The fact that this is much harder is evidenced by the fact the half of marriages end in divorce. Friendships don’t do much better. The beauty of the happiness of relationships is that, if we both pay our dues, we can enjoy a lifetime of happiness. A good marriage is the essence of this level of hapiness. The down side is that both of the people involved must contribute. Both people must make sacrifices. Both people must compromise. This also requires a degree of vulnerability.

Ultimate happiness:

This is the highest level of happiness…….the happiness of giving. It is a greater happiness than even a great marriage. But, the reality of it is that a really good marriage is suffused with the happiness of giving. This form of happiness is counterintuitive……..because it doesn’t require you to get anything back from the other person. If fact, the other person doesn’t even need to know that you made the gift. You give someone the gift of love, financial support, forgiveness, perhaps even your life. They may or may not reciprocate……or even respond. They may not even know. But, you will walk away happy.

The surest road to happiness……..is to love and care for another………even if they don’t reciprocate.

This is God level happiness…….Christ level happiness. This is the level of happiness that led Jesus to the cross……….to give us a priceless gift…….a gift that half of the people to whom it has been offered neither respond to, nor reciprocate, nor even acknowledge.

But, I can guarantee you this:

Jesus is happy.

‘There’s no misery in not being loved, only in not loving’

Rod McKuen

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus…..John, 15:13, ESV

Or, to put it another way, on the day when you die how many hours will you have enjoyed living. It’s not quite the same thing. Because each hour of your life is different. Some hours you live beautifully, happily, fully. Some hours……..you waste…… you simply throw them away. And it is a zero sum game. Because every hour that you throw away is subtracted from your lifetime. It turns out that how long you live is dependent on how well you live. In fact, after you subtract out the hours that you intentionally throw away, how well you live may very well be the greatest single determinant in how long you live.

Today, I want to explore the hours of our lives that we intentionally throw away. These are the hours, that on our death bed, have contributed nothing to our lives or the lives of those we love. These are the hours that could have been spent doing something that would have put a smile on our face……..as we are dying.

So what are these thrown away hours?

Any hour that you spend mad.

Many, if not most, of the hours that you spend staring at your cell phone (or other digital device).

A good test for any activity is this: ask yourself, “When I am dying, and my life passes before me, will this activity be on the video clip?”

Why do I say that these lost hours are subtracted from our lives? It hinges on purpose and on happiness. We were put here for 2 reasons: Love God. Love your fellow man. That is our purpose……..our only purpose. Any time that we are engaged in an activity that does not pursue those two goals, we are wasting time…….we are wasting life. Any time that we are engaged in an activity that does not pursue those two goals, we are not doing our only real job here. Any time that we are engaged in an activity that does not pursue those two goals, we are not happy……..because the only way to be truly happy……..is to do the thing that you were created for.

The corollary is this: You cannot be happy…… when you are mad. You cannot be happy with your face buried in your cell phone.

In a manner of speaking, when you are mad…….or glued to your “device du jour”……..you are not living…….because you are not doing what you were put here for.

So……..your life expectancy is about 78 years…..give or take. How many hours each day do you spend mad? It may hinge on how many hours you spend watching CNN or Fox……because keeping you mad is a multibillion dollar industry……2 hours a day?? How many hours a day do you spend doing something mindless on your cell phone?……4 hours a day?? Fill in your own numbers.

6 hours is about 1/3 of your waking day. That is about 26 years of your life expectancy. So…….if you are fairly typical……..your actual net life expectancy, after subtracting out the time that you intentionally throw away, is about 50 years.

Every now and then you will meet someone who is truly, deeply, foundationally happy. They are at peace. They are……..serene. What is the deal with these people? You are probably looking at someone who has drastically reduced the amount of their precious time that they are intentionally throwing away.

That is the person that I want to be…….. for the time that I have left.

I ain’t a-saying you treated me unkind
You could’ve done better but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

Bob Dylan

You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

Deuteronomy 5:23, ESV

I am a woodworker. It began as a hobby and is now a small business. Mostly I make canes and “artsy” furniture. I’m old school and do things the old way. There is an old rule for making a horse out of wood: “Start with a tree……remove anything that doesn’t look like a horse.” And that is what I do.

This week I picked out a nice black walnut board and began making a cane. As I removed the “stuff that didn’t look like a cane”, I worked my way down to a defect. It was a split in the wood……and for a cane, it was a fatal flaw. I sawed it up, tossed it into the fireplace and started all over with a new board. I had about $10 in materials and $20 in labor invested in it; but, the cane wasn’t valuable enough to justify the $100 worth of effort it would take to salvage it. It was a good practical decision……and I am a good practical woodworker.

But, then it occurred to me……I am like that piece of walnut. So are you. We look good on the surface. But, when you start peeling away the layers, you begin to encounter flaws, some of them merely cosmetic…… some of them potentially fatal.

We are the raw materials that go into our society, our culture. And God is working with those materials. He is constructing a kingdom here on earth. He has an vision that he is working toward. And that vision is summed up in the two primary rules of the Bible:

Love God……love man.

So, he works away at his workbench……..removing anything that doesn’t look like “Love God……love man”.

And he works his way down to a flaw in the material……my flaw…….or yours. And that is where things change…….where God is different from me.

Instead of tossing me into the fireplace, he uses me……just as I am. He invests the effort and resources necessary to draw something beautiful out of something flawed.

I’m sure that this process will work better if I am fully engaged…….and I try. But, God will use you and me……and all of our flaws……to build something beautiful……..even if we don’t cooperate…….even if we reject him outright.

Why would God continue to invest his effort in working with flawed materials? Why doesn’t he just toss us into the fireplace and start all over?

Because he loves us.

That’s just the way he operates.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

Jeremiah 18:1-6, ESV

Cindy and I spend a lot of time in Arizona. There is an operation out there called Biosphere. It is a sealed environment. It began as a serious scientific investigation into what it takes to create a sustainable ecosystem. At one point there were even people living in it. Ultimately, however, it seems to have devolved into a tourist attraction.

Why?

Biosphere failed because its ecosystem was not sustainable and could not be made to become sustainable. We hear a lot about sustainability these days. We worry about climate change because an ecosystem that is heating up, as ours clearly is, is not sustainable. That is to say, our ecosystem, earth, cannot go on like this indefinitely. Good intentioned people are working hard to change things in order to acheive sustainability……..in order to achieve survivability.

They tell us that climate change is an “existential crisis”.
And they are right.

They propose solutions:
Electric cars
Wind and solar power.
Mass transit

They hope for a tech breakthrough:
Fusion energy

But, the cold hard truth is that world population has tripled in my lifetime and will double again in a few decades. In spite of our best efforts, our global “carbon footprint is getting worse, not better. At some point in the future “planetary warming” might slow down…….but, if so, that slowing hasn’t begun yet. The cold hard truth is that there is no viable plan to stop the warming much less reverse it.

What this means is that sustainability on this planet…….is a mirage.

What this means is that life, as we know it, on this beautiful planet simply cannot go on indefinitely. The best we can hope for is to delay our inevitable doom. The science is crystal clear and we are ignoring it.

And that…….is the bad news.

But, there is some good news. It turns out that science is telling us……if we will only listen….. what the Bible has been telling us for centuries. This planet is not immortal. It was never intended to be immortal. Sustainability is a human idea, not God’s idea. God planned for a beginning. God planned for an end……and it is going to be ugly.

Secular humanists cling to sustainability because they have no “plan-B”. For the same reason, they ignore the long term projections of science.

Christianity, however, describes an end to this physical world that aligns with the long term projections of science at least in broad strokes. In addition, Christianity offers the hope of a world after this world.

Christianity agrees with science that the planetary ecosystem that we call earth is doomed.

But

Christianity offers sustainability…..for your spirit.

And that is the good news.

in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

2 Timothy 3:1-5,ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

Revelation 21:1, ESV

Some background:

My dad died when I was 17. I never thought about death before that……I thought about it a lot after…….and I was terrified. I worried a lot about my death……at age 17. I decided to live my life in such a way that, if I died at age 40, I’d have gotten my money’s worth. I became a practicing secular humanist. This went on for a decade or so. I married a great woman and had 3 sons……who were challenging. I had a good hard look at Christianity. I decided that there was enough hard evidence for the resurrection of Christ that it was true. And if the ressurection was real, then the teaching of Christ was very important. I became a practicing Christian. And here I am.

So……..what is death. Death is a curtain that we approach at the end of this life. And at age 70 that approach is getting close for me. We cannot see through the curtain. We cannot know with absolute certainty what lies behind it………no matter how confident we are. It is a drastic change. Scientists would call it a singularity.

What is behind the curtain? There are three possibilities: nothing, something good, and something bad.

Nothing means nothing. No person, no place, no you, no creator. In a word, when you die, your friends and family put you in a hole and cover you with dirt. This is the end point for secular humanists, who believe that if you can’t see it, measure it, or manipulate it…….it cannot be real. The implications of nothing in our daily life are profound. Because you are the highest life form (you personally…..not mankind in general) you get to define what is right and what is wrong. You can do as you please. All you have to do is define your appetites as being right……..define your personal morality as being right……..you can even define your sex however you want. The problem is that everyone else is doing the same thing and they demand that you honor their definitions. Your decision to give the money in your pocket to the guy with the little cardboard sign on the exit ramp is no more valid than the thug’s decision to kill you and take the money. The pro life advocate’s belief in the value of life is no more valid than the abortionist who spends his day killing unborn children. In practice, this is how our culture works. And don’t bother committing the unforgivable crime of our culture……..telling the other guy he is wrong. His definition of right and wrong is every bit as valid as yours. The irony is that he will waste no time in telling you that you are wrong. Tolerance seems to be a one way street. The good news is that “nothing” is pretty safe. No matter what you have done, there is no lasting consequence.

Something, on the other hand, is a whole different kettle of fish. It could be temporary or eternal. It could be very good or very bad. The good news, if you are a Christian, is that you get to choose your fate. Recognize Christ……or deny him. Choose eternal goodness or eternal badness.

The irony is that, purely by accident, Henley was right in his poem “Invictus”.

“I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.”

“Invictus” by Henly

And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Ecclesiastes 12:7, ESV

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21:4, ESV

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Psalms 23:4, ESV

“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus, talking to a bad man who recognized his divinity, Luke 23:43

I begin this week with a very narrow but very complex question.

What does God want……..from mankind……from me?

This post obviously begins with the assumption that God, the creator, exists. If you don’t believe in a creator…..if you believe it’s all a big series of accidents…. then relax, you can do as you please…….there are no overarching rules……..there are no expectations…….there is no reward and there is no punishment……..as long as you are right. But, the probabilities are working against you.

God went to a lot of trouble to create the 200 billion trillion stars in the universe. He went to a lot of trouble to design the 200 billion chemical bonds that make up your and my genome…..all of it exquisitely tuned, interconnected, and coordinated to make life possible. But why? He must have had a purpose in mind. What could God have hoped to get out of all of this effort?

The answer, I believe, is found in our very nature. It is there because we bear the fingerprints of our creator. It is written on our hearts. It is written on our hearts because it is important to God. And, as it turns out, the most important desire of our hearts is exactly the same as the most important desire of God’s heart.

Relationship.

Ask any adult, “what is the one thing that you have lost in your lifetime that you regret the most?”

Ask any adult, “name one thing that you would give up everything else for?”

The most common answer by far will be a relationship.

The Bible underscores this. Over and over again, the question comes up. “What does God expect of me?………What does God require of me?”
The Bible gives us a lot of guidelines; but, there is only one thing that is absolutely required. There is only one non-negotiable prerequisite.

Relationship.

Relationship can be thought of as the distance between you and God. You can almost measure it. You can compare this distance on a day to day or a year to year basis. You can compare it over time for yourself. You can compare it over time for our culture as a whole.

And this raises the central question:

How close are you to God today? As a nation, how close are we to God today?

Are you closer……are we closer…… today than yesterday……are we closer……this year than last year?

I would caution that, as a culture, our distance from God is growing. My ability to heal that gap……for the culture as a whole……..is limited. But, the distance between me individually and God is completely in my hands. The distance between my family and God is also in my hands. The greatest gift that I can give to my family is to grow our relationship, to diminish the distance between us and God.

This is critical……because, in the end, the quality of your life, will be judged by that one measurement. When you die and move on to phase two of your existence, that measurement is the only data point that will matter.

Anything that you do that increases that distance is failure. Anything that you do that doesn’t affect that distance is irrelevant. Anything you do that draws you closer to God, is progress.

So, consider the metrics that you use to assess your life:

Your net worth
The value of your house
The success of your children
Your position at work
The win/loss ratio for your favorite sports team
The distance between you and God

Only one of these has any lasting significance.

There are two corrolaries that flow from this.

Your distance metric can be improved….right now.

The guy with the little cardboard sign on the exit ramp could have a better distance metric than yours.

Something to ponder.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.

Jesus, John 14:6-7, ESV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Jesus, Matthew 7:21-23, ESV

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:10-13, ESV

I’m 70 years old. I spent 25 years in one formal school or another. Then I went to work. At the end of my career, I realized that most of the knowledge that I used every day in my work……I learned “on the job”. The real lesson here is that no matter what you do for a living…….if you are breathing……. you are learning. Life is one big school. Your only real graduation…….is when you die.

In grade school, your teacher presented you with information. Some of it went right over your head. Some of it you didn’t agree with. Some of it you slept through (mea culpa). And some of it stuck. Today, I want to explore the information that stuck. It is this teaching/learning that matters, because this is what has shaped you……that will continue to shape you….into the person that you are and will become. There is a caveat here. When a teacher presents you with information, you don’t get to choose whether to learn it or not. The fact is that you retain most of it……. whether you like it or not…… whether you agree with it or not…….whether you even realize it or not. You retain this information whether it is good for you……or whether it is bad for you.

At my age I have been exposed to a great deal of information. Some of it is constructive and some of it is destructive. As I sit here, there is a jingle from a drug company ad that I cannot get out of my head. From time to time an image of a woman from my days as a subscriber to Playboy returns. I don’t like this information, I don’t want this information; but, I chose to let it into my life and it will be there till I die. And it will be a part of what shapes the man I am still becoming.

So, what’s the point?

You absorb the information that you are exposed to. You have very little ability to filter through this information, once you have been exposed. And this information shapes the person that you are becoming. This information shapes your character. There is an old line from the early days of computer programming. For us old farts this was the age of “punch cards”. Look it up if you are under 60.

“Garbage in…..garbage out.”

Put bad data into a computer and you will get bad analysis out. There is a multibillion dollar industry whose only business is to expose you to data…..information…..that profits them. It is centered around your TV, your smart phone, your radio, even the pump at the gas station. Soon your refrigerator will be in on it. Some, possibly most, of the information that these people are selling you is bad for the development of your character.

How can you protect yourself?

There is only one way. You have to pre-filter the information that you allow into your life. You have to pre filter the information that you allow to shape your character.

Here are some of the things that I try to filter out of my life. You need to make your own list:

“Entertainment” that centers around killing people……most crime shows, most westerns, most war movies. Over half of TV shows include violent content. By age 18 a typical young person has witnessed about 10,000 murders on TV. By comparison, only 1/3 of 18 year olds have been to church 1000 times. For most young adults, the number is drastically lower.

Late night TV. Johnny Carson has been replaced by talk shows that are selling a political agenda.

Smart phones that will provide you with information that proves that what you believe is right and true……no matter what you believe.

Filtering out this information will create a giant void in your life. How do you fill that void?

Call a friend on the phone…….and talk.

Join a club.

Read a good book.

Volunteer.

Get involved in serving others.

Get active in your church.

In short…..you need to become more discriminating in the sources of information that you incorporate into your character. This will not be easy.

You are swimming upstream.

“When you dance with the devil…… the devil doesn’t change…….you do”

Nicholas Cage commenting on a violent film in the movie “8 mm”

“The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Jesus commenting on how what we see shapes us, Matthew 6:22-23, ESV