Lack of Substance Part 2

In part I of this blog post, I was discussing how we're inclined to settle for less than the best. I touched on some areas we may settle: our work, our love, our faith...and yet, sadly, there are more...

Some of us settle in our physical bodies, knowing we need to take better care of ourselves yet postponing the doctor visit, the daily walk or gym visit, or perhaps the (gasp) diet! We fall for the same lies: "It is too late to change" "I don't have the discipline." "This is just how I am." Perhaps too, we settle with our minds. (Yes, the mind is part of the physical so I am including it here!) Mark Twain said something along the lines of "I finished my schooling and began my education." Are you still learning, if not, perhaps you are settling on your (very limited) knowledge!

Still others settle in our character, taking the example of leaders who follow a different god: money, power, fame, influence, success or simply taking the path of least resistance whenever we can. Perhaps we let our outside appearance (especially easy for those of us who are young) carry us and we don't bother to develop the internal traits that will be most meaningful when beauty fades and life takes courage. Even if we are regulars at the gym, if we do not strengthen our character, we will fall when faced with the slightest temptation or difficulty: a job opportunity too good to be true, a movie, book, or internet site we've no business watching, reading, or viewing, the attention of an attractive coworker who belongs to someone else (or any coworker to you marrieds reading this!). And not only into temptation will we fall. To reverse scripture slightly (Rom. 5, 3-4) a lack of character could be assumed to result from a lack of testing, suffering and perseverance-if we avoid tests and trials we may never develop character! Without sufficient depth of character (necessarily including patience!)a traffic jam delay or flat tire can push you over the edge. How then, to weather a layoff, breakup, loss of a loved one, or bad health diagnosis? I could probably write an entire posting just on character...and still not more than scrape the surface!

...But all of this writing of ways that we/I settle is kind of discouraging and hardly seems the way to launch into the new year. Granted, scripture tells us that "God's mercies are new every morning" (Lamentations 3:21-23)so all the hype of the New Year is mostly just fluff, but as I was saying...

Many Christians get it wrong when they talk about being content and not complaining. Not that those are wrong attitudes: scripture is clear that we are to do all things without complaining (Philippians 2:14)and being content in God's Love and provision, no matter whether or not you get everything you want! Yet, where they go wrong is when they mistake being content and not complaining with settling instead of responding to a God-given yearning. They instead, as C. S. Lewis writes, busy themselves with happily making mud pies when God has far greater plans for their lives!

Jesus did not settle and was not too easily satisfied. The gospel writers don't say much about his carpentry but can you image the creator of the Universe doing shoddy work "just to meet a deadline" or "turn a profit." He loved even those who betrayed him to death and denied him in his time of need. He wept at the death of a friend-a friend he would bring back to life. His faith was shown in his willingness to do the will of the Father-even when that meant torture and death on a cross. He healed broken hearts, bodies, and families. He provided food to the hungry. His character did not change according to the audience. He did not tell people what they wanted to hear to edify himself or gain their approval. He challenged the religious leaders who tried to make themselves like God in outward action rather than growing hearts with His character. He acknowledged the outcasts in spite of the disproving eyes and words of others and he broke the legalistic conventions of man. He was hated and yet He loved.

In John 14:12 Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." Are you settling while your heart yearns for something more? I recall the oft-quoted words of C. S. Lewis: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." Quite frankly, this world will never fully satisfy us but to have a life well-lived, I believe it is impossible to avoid the following question: Where am I settling that God has more for me on this earth? If you don't know, perhaps that is the most important question to ask Him!

Lack of Substance Part 1

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." In Macbeth, Shakespeare paints a rather bleak picture of life-that of an act in which we pour our energies into a meaningless drama with no lasting significance. In short, life is of no substance.

While I am disinclined to think that we seek to live lives without substance, it seems that many of us allow far too much of that which is insubstantial displace the substantial. In laymen's terms, we fill our life with a lot of things that don't matter and end up having no room for the things that really matter. ...and we are surprised when our lives lack purpose and meaning!

I suppose that some would say we are just lazy creatures, doing what is easiest, but even the things that are not of lasting significance can take a herculean amount of effort. Take, for instance, the who's who of the high school years-I wasn't part of the popular "ruling" class, but I observed that a lot of effort went into belonging. You had to maintain your position, usually by putting outsiders down; you had to look the part, by wearing the right clothes and keeping up with the trends; and of course there was the constant pressure to act cool lest you be banished from the in-crowd. Sometimes the cool people even had to give up friendships or take part in activities they really didn't like, just to keep their position. The sad thing is that we can assume that all that high school coolness didn't follow them to college. At college, the process started over and then once again in the workplace or grad school. The effort never ends!

As the example above shows, we can put a lot of effort into things that mean a lot to us at the time but have no lasting significance. I think that perhaps the saddest part is that we are often so wrapped up in the insubstantial that it doesn't even bother us. C.S. Lewis probably says it best in "The Weight of Glory." "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

Lewis is writing about the glory which God offers us the opportunity in which to live even while we yet remain on this earth, but I think it can be applied to many things that are good but are not God's best for our lives. We are too easily satisfied and settle for a life in the shadow of the things which God has created for us.

We settle in our work: Perhaps taking a secure, high-paying job rather than a career we love. Others stay in middle management when they are more than qualified to run the company. Some work hard so they can play hard to forget about their work, others work so hard they never have time to play. ...and we wonder why we miss out on the "satisfaction in our toilsome labor" that is described in Ecclesiastes 5:18-20

We settle in love. Some forget who we are becoming in Christ and focus their attentions on someone who is far less than the person God is preparing for us. Some stay in a relationship with someone who hurts them and think they don't deserve better. Some cheapen love to the things that the world says it is. We make it about us, about our needs. Then we read the love described in the Song of Songs and wonder where we went wrong...

We settle in our faith. We seek a small God when it is convenient and ask Him to do small things (if we ask for His help at all). We don't have time to read the Bible and study the Word, yet we complain that we don't know God's will for our lives. We want God to work in our lives but we don't really want Him to test us or change us if it is going to be difficult or painful.

Unfortunately it is getting late so I will need to continue this later today!