The Waiters

Now concerning brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may live properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. – 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12

The always profane and occasionally amusing atheist George Carlin used to ask, “If we are here to help others, what are the others here for?”  Every once in a while I’ll lose my temper and go off in a corner where I will remind God that I do not recall asking for all this.  I don’t know one way or the other if there is a pre-existence, if we were somewhere else before we came here, or, if we were, what that might be like.  During those rants, though, I sometimes get the feeling that I did indeed ask for this life.  At least, I’m pretty certain that I am out of line saying that I didn’t.  Outside of procreation, an atheist can’t really assert that there is some larger purpose for an individual’s life – everything just is and, consequently, we do not have any kind of mystical destiny.  We have a fate.  We fit into some niche and do our part to – what? – keep the species going?  Make life “better”?  Make the world a “better” place?  It’s basically pointless, as Carlin’s existential, recursive joke illustrates.    

For those who know there is a God, for Christians, and anyone who thinks there is more to life than biology and chemistry, we must have a destiny, a destination, a calling, a vocation and a purpose for our lives.  We have a reason for being here.  Some of us may see that reason in some dramatic fashion.  We may, at some point, stand like Aaron between the living and the dead to halt judgment (Number 16:48).  We may have work that feeds or heals or nurtures – physically or spiritually.  We might build and plant.  Or we might, like Jeremiah, uproot and throw down (Jeremiah 1:10). 

But what do we do if our destiny and purpose is not obvious?  We can still love one another in accordance with the great commandment of Christ Jesus (John 15:12).  We can also go on living our lives, doing our best to mind our own business.  I just love that line – to mind your own affairs.  How much better the world would be if I could take that fully to heart, to leave others to do what they must or should, to keep my own counsel, to do what I find at hand to do without regard to the purposes and opinions of those around me.  

 I see that I am called to work, not worry, to avoid dependence on other people as much as possible.  In light of this passage, I can be assured that my prayer – not for wealth, but for sufficiency, is in accordance with the will of God.   This was the standard by which most of us once lived, and it is a Christian standard.  There is no pride or independence from God’s grace in it.  I simply ask for His strength and help to provide for myself that another might not be burdened.  

My works will never be known or lauded.  My life will never be of any consequence in this world.  Even in the next life, I will have nothing of which I can boast or any great accomplishments with which I might be crowned.  And this is as it should be.  If I have been faithful in doing what I could, I will be most content to watch from under a shade tree somewhere as those great in the Kingdom are celebrated.  I will rest in the knowledge that I was one of those who waited.

When I consider how my light is spent

E’re half my days, in this dark world and wide,

And that one Talent which is death to hide,

 Lodg’d with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, least he returning chide,

Doth God exact day-labour, light deny’d,

I fondly ask; But patience to prevent

That murmur soon replies, God doth not need

Either man’s work or his own gifts, who best

Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his State

Is  Kingly.  Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o’r Land and Ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and waite.

                                -- John Milton, “On His Blindness”

Mor-on American Idols

This is what the LORD says: Do not learn the way of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, although the nations are terrified by them, for the customs of the people are worthless. Someone cuts down a tree from the forest; it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel. He decorates it with silver and gold. It is fastened with hammer and nails, so it won’t totter. Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them for they can do no harm – and they cannot do any good. – Jeremiah 10:2-5

As I was saying yesterday, everything man builds is systemically top heavy. Man’s creations, if done apart from a recognition of the Absolute, lack a solid foundation. For example, at the moment, I think the stock market P&E ratio is somewhere around 140:1. If you take the smoothed out PE10, it’s still about 19:1 or 20:1. The average on the PE10 is 16.3:1, I think. This means that the market is somewhere between 20% to 700% overvalued. It is out of balance. One reason earnings are holding up as well as they are is because companies have been cutting costs – largely by laying off employees. The massive infusions of government funny money may be helping, too. At some point either real earnings will pick up or the market will collapse, possibly into a PE10 in the single digits – as has happened historically.

With unemployment approaching 10%, I just don’t see how a boost in earnings is possible any time soon. Of course, I am no economist, and I don’t have an MBA, so what do I know. Do not do any investing based on my view of things.

I look back at those idolaters in Jeremiah’s day, and I think how silly they were. Surely no one could take a god seriously that somebody built themselves. Then I look around today at people trying to derive meaning from inanimate objects, from man-made institutions, opinions, substances, people, sports, status symbols, etc. I see it in myself, especially when I look at the things that scare me, the things that I find myself worrying over. It’s really easy to get caught up in the zeitgeist, in the fads and fears that run like a contagion throughout society.

When I see those who appear to be intelligent people talking nonsense, it makes me wonder if I’m the one who doesn’t get it. If I see people clinging to things, how do I know I should not? If lots of people value something, how do I know if they are wrong? How do I know if something is an idol? They must be carried because they cannot walk. An idol is a burden. The real God, of course, is the One who not only is not a burden, He carries us. In True Grit, Rooster speaks of the cat, General Sterling Price, and says that cats really don’t belong to anybody. “’Course,” he adds, “I depend on him.” So, too, with God – He’s my Father, but He can’t belong to me, and thus burden me, in the sense that an idol can. Rather, I belong to Him. And I do depend on Him.

We must be crazy. Why would we fill our lives with dumb things that cannot speak, cannot love us, cannot help us? Why do we allow ourselves to be loaded down like mules with things that a mule, if he were free to choose, would leave behind as worthless? Now, I’m not going to go out and sell everything I’ve got down to my boots and a couple of pairs of jeans, but I am going to work on not letting the empty, the meaningless, and the impotent weary me, intimidate me, or dominate me.

Working for the Living

And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, “Rabbi, when did You get here?”

Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, even God, has set His seal.” -- John 6:25-27

Jesus had fed the multitudes with five loaves and two fish. He sent the crowds and His disciples away. He crossed the Sea of Galilee on foot in a storm during the night. The crowds that followed Him had seen miracles of healing and restoration. Jesus was at the height of His popularity. The people wanted to make Him king.

Most of us would have looked at this as success. Isn’t this what Jesus had come to earth to do? Wasn’t the Messiah’s job to restore the kingdom and the throne of David? Did Jesus not have every right to this adoration, to this position? Didn’t He have, we might say, even an obligation to accept their adulation? Yet instead of offering encouraging words, Jesus begins one of the most difficult discourses in the Bible. He all but mocks those who follow Him – or so it seems to them.

Jesus begins by throwing their motives in their faces. You are following Me not because of messianic signs, He says, but simply because I was able to fill your bellies with free food. They were beginning to think that following Christ was a picnic everyday. There’s no need to work or struggle, and no need to go hungry. There is an element of truth in this -- Come to Me all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, but the spirit is wrong.

God is often extremely gracious to believers early on in their walk. Everything just seems to flow to them as they are following, studying, and hearing much truth for the first time. But there comes a point when we are challenged, when we transition from milk to meat. Having entered the Kingdom as children, we must grow into sons able and willing to do the Lord’s work.

Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life. This is akin to the favorite verse of my late friend Eddie, Matthew 6:33, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Jesus emphasizes the object for which we are to work. Laboring to gratify our appetites may be more virtuous than stealing, but our true goal should be to acquire spiritual vittles that satisfy fully the hunger in our souls.

Dear God, I thought I had learned this lesson long ago, but it seems that I must necessarily relearn or refresh from time to time. Christianity, fortunately, has a built-in continuing education program. The Lord will provide for me, but the physical provision I get so concerned about is incidental. It is the spiritual provision that matters. If one gets full enough of Spirit and Truth, he will not worry, nor need to worry, about having enough cornbread and beans.

Bob has been talking about economics and the threats we face from a socialist system. In the days to ahead, a certain kind of temporal prosperity to which we have become accustomed may be lost. An interventionist government, pandering to unions, environmentalists, and other non-productive elements, could easily cause the engine of our economy to seize. It’s a good time, right now, to invest in canned goods, staple food items that can be stored long-term, basic tools, heirloom seeds, ammunition, and barter items. The prices of the things we need are going to go higher.

But the most essential of my possessions are my hard copies of the Bible (and related Good books). Even more vital to my ability to survive and prosper – and do the will of God in trying times are those portions of Scripture that are in my heart. I know, for example, Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble; He saved them from their distresses. As much as I love my Springfield XDM, I don’t depend on it to do that.

I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy law is within my heart. -- Psalm 40:8