Is the good life about achieving something?  Does the good life come when I’ve achieved a certain level of income?  Does the good life come when I’ve achieved a certain level of popularity?  Or maybe the good life comes when I attain a certain amount of comfort in my life?  Or maybe the good life is when I’ve been able to reach an enlightened state of self-actualization and self-mastery? 

What constitutes the good life?  Everyone seems to want it.  But I’m not sure that many of us know how to get it.  Most people tend to think of the good life as something that you achieve or something that you get to.  The problem with this approach is that it will necessarily always fall short.  Firstly, experience tells us that we are not naturally as disciplined as we need to be to attain all that we would hope for.  And secondly, our thirst for achievement is never quenched.  We might say that we’ll be satisfied with place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear, some good family and friends, and at little pain and drama as possible, but inevitably there remains this “one last thing” that we need to get in order to finally feel like we’ve made it.  Just a little more money, or a little more power, a little more notoriety, a little nicer house, or a better girlfriend.  We say, just that little more and I will be content.  But we know this to be false.  Experience tells us that by and large we have not been satisfied.  We know that the last car we bought did not give us lasting satisfaction, so what makes us think that the next shiny new car will be any different? 

Thus far, I’ve mentioned only primarily the material.  For some, they recognize clearly that the material can never fully satisfy and so the good life does not consist in the material.  And this, in my opinion, is a right judgment.  However, often the counter approach is self-mastery or self-actualization.  If I can just gain enough control over my passions and thinking and achieve an “enlightened” state, only then will I have the good life.  However, this thinking is also fraught with trouble, as what human being ever experienced complete self-mastery or self-actualization?  If our idea of the good life is based solely on reaching this spiritual nirvana of self-mastery or self-actualization, then we shall never have the good life, because we will always be discontent in our failure to achieve perfection.

So then if it’s not about the material or spiritual achievement, then what could the good life be about?  To answer the question, I must first say that there is an element of truth to the “achievement” approach.  The very idea of achievement implies that there is a “good” to be attained.  If there were no good to be attained, then there would be no point in trying to achieve anything.  So the fact that there is a good to be attained is important to understanding what the good life is.  Most people’s definition of good tends toward the direction of perfection, both materially and spiritually.  Materially in the sense that I have everything thing I need to have perfect happiness, pleasure, and comfort.  Spiritually in the sense that I am in perfect control of all my thoughts and actions and that I always act in accordance with what I think to be the right way to act or respond.  Attaining perfection is by and large what people are after, religious and non-religious.  Perfection is a good thing, and so we believe that the good life is about attaining those things.  The critical problem that this approach faces, which I mentioned briefly earlier is our inability to attain this.  And perhaps even more damning of this approach is the idea that even if it were possible to attain perfection, it still wouldn’t be satisfying.  And what good is a good life that’s not satisfying? 

The breakthrough occurs when one recognizes that the good life is not about achieving, but about receiving.  Good is rightly connected to perfection.  You cannot separate the good from perfection.  So we need someone outside of us to bridge the gap between us and perfection, lest we be completely separated from the good by our inability to attain perfection.  This someone outside of us is Jesus the Christ.  God sent his son Jesus to do what we could not do, namely achieve complete self-mastery and perfection.  And God in his grace allows us to receive the perfection (aka righteousness) by belief and trust in Him.   

But not only is our inability to attain perfection addressed, but our insatiability is also addressed in Jesus the Christ.  The reason is this: perfection by our own means can never fully satisfy, because we are not what is greatest and grand in the universe.  Though the good is inextricable from perfection, the good does not consist solely of perfection.  There is a quality or attribute of perfection that is needed in order to truly satisfy, namely divinity.  Divine perfection, which can only be found in God through Christ, is that which can truly satisfy.  We receive the righteousness and perfection that make up part of the good life, but moreover we receive the ability to glory in God as the author of perfection.  God is greatest and grandest in the universe, and our own perfection can never replace that.  Thus the good life cannot be attained, but must be received, for to attain is to glory in self, but to receive is to glory in the giver.  And what we receive is not just power and perfection, but a personal relationship with God, who is the ultimate good.  Self-mastery is ultimately self-defeating, because the best it could possibly do is achieve a humanly perfection, while there yet exists a divine perfection which remains unattainable.  Though we cannot become like God in the sense of possessing his exact divine perfection, we can become like God in the sense of rejoicing in all his perfect goodness.  And it is in this relationship of love and rejoicing in our Creator that we receive the good life. 

Very interesting day today.  There are some family issues that need attention tomorrow on multiple fronts.  In the meantime I’ve got multiple plates full of work that I’ve got to get done for my job.  These sorts of times make me long to go back to school where my time was much more flexible. 

The past year and a half of work have been fairly stressful as I’ve had two back-to-back projects that have had some pretty tight deadlines with many moving parts.  What I’m beginning to realize is that perhaps God actually wants me to have a lot on my plate.  I’d rather not, but maybe this is a way that God is testing me, to see whose strength I will lean on.  As I prepare to go to bed, I don’t know how I will get the things done that I need to get done.  But I still have a job.  And thus far God has enabled me to get the key things done.  Yet it’s still difficult for me to trust that he will do it again.  Because this time it really is too much for me to handle.  And maybe that’s the point.  It is too much for me to handle.  That’s why I need to lean on God.  And so, I will aim to go to bed at a normal time, wake up early, and maximize the time I have tomorrow morning to finish what I need to finish for work, as the bulk of the afternoon will need to be used to address some family issues.

This just in from MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29585222/

Apparently the number of professing Christians in the U.S. continues to decline.  The percentage of Americans who claim no religion at all has now risen to 15%.  It’s probably safe to assume that this number is even greater in larger urban populations outside the bible belt, like the greater Seattle area that I live in. 

Quite frankly, this news does not surprise me.  In general it seems that God is not really relevant to that many people in everyday life.  As a Christian involved in leadership at my church and as a person out in the corporate workforce there is a stark contrast between those two contexts.  The topic of God just doesn’t come up much at work.  You might say that this is expected because people are focusing on work.  But I don’t think that’s the case.  Plenty of other non-work related topics come up during the day and are discussed at varying lengths, but on the whole, religion is not touched upon that often.  This, I think is largely the result of a cultural norm that’s developed that declares religion as a taboo topic.  Religion is not meant to be publicly discussed, but to be minimized and kept to oneself.  Which is interesting, because even if I grant that religion is a personal thing, it does not then follow that we should discourage it’s public discourse.  Public discourse if full of discussion of “personal” items.  One need only look to the tabloids and entertainment shows on television.  People enjoy discussing things that are personal to ourselves or personal about other people.  We are persons after all!

But religion is put into another catogory.  Personal, and undiscussable.  Why?  I believe it’s because religions, at least some, make absolute truth claims that can impinge upon each others freedom.  Religion, and in particular, Christianity makes certain claims that just don’t sit well with today’s American.  By and large Americans today want to live life in the best way we see fit.  And the best way that we see fit is often at odds with what Christianity teaches.  And thus, there is a push back against religion and perhaps against Christianity in particular, because it cramps our style.  It restricts our freedom.  And so we have rationalized God out of any relevant discussions in our lives, for to let him in is too dangerous to the authority of our own self-rule.

So then how are believers in Christ to respond in these times?  Do we adhere to the cultural norms and shy away from bringing issues of faith into the public discourse?  Or is there a way that we can lovingly push back against the prevailing culture and seek to demonstrate the relevancy of faith in public discourse.  Ultimately if people aren’t thinking through these things, then God is dead to us.  If Christians are content to keep their faith “personal”, then what we’ll have is a dying church, a fading light and an increasing irrelevancy of God.    Scripture calls Christians the light of this world.  But I’m afraid many of us would rather remain underground for fear of what others might think of us.

Jesus bore our sins.  What an amazing truth.  Scripture says that Jesus bore our sins in his body so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

The weight of the world’s sin was placed on the shoulders of Christ Jesus.  All the rape, all the murder, all the hate, all the greed, all the lust, all the fear, all the oppression, all the pride, all the selfishness, all of it’s weight was placed upon the back of Christ on the cross.  The shame, the guilt, and righteous judgment were all placed on Jesus.  But there was no deceit ever found in him.  Jesus didn’t have to bear my sin.  He chose to.  He chose to suffer unlike any other man to ever live in order that we might have life!  Jesus clearly is the hero of the story of humanity.  There are no other heroes in comparison to Christ.  What we are incapable of bearing, God has chosen to bear it for us, out of his great love for us.

Thank you Jesus,

-Caleb

Well, it’s been a rough start to the new year.  I had intentions of managing my time better so that 2009 might be a year of increased productivity for me.  Everything was perfect.  I had looked over my list of goals and was in complete agreement with them and committed to put forth the effort to achieve them.  I even created daily schedules for the workweek, Saturday, and Sunday so that I could better schedule the key routines that serve as the foundation of a life that is not wasted.  My health is good, and I had an optimistic attitude.  But there was just one problem.  Life happened.  The theoretical collapsed into the practical and my plans and schedules and good intentions blew up in my face faster than I could say “Happy New Year”. 

I’m recuperating now.  I’ve just come off a week of work where there were nights that I just slept 3 hrs.  The question that rang in my head was “Why in the hell am I doing this?”.  Maybe I’m still asking this question.  I’m a single guy with no family to take care of, busting my butt, losing sleep, in order to review 100+ page documents so that I can sleep 3hrs to wake up again to review some more 100+ page documents in addition to the 100+ emails that I will receive for the day.  Why?  For what purpose?  Honestly, I’m not fully sure.  I can’t help but think this is a test, like some type of training for bigger things to come.  As if God is saying, “Learn to handle this, and you’ll be able to handle what’s coming”. 

Some would think I’m crazy to be complaining.  I get paid well.  In this economy it’s a blessing just to have work.  I’m very thankful for that.  I could be struggling in many other ways.  And yet, I don’t think my circumstance is any less of a trial.  It is a trial to me precisely because it is trying.  Times like these try my patience and my faith.  Certainly God would want me to have enough time to read his word and do his works, so why would he slam me with so much work?  Maybe I should stop working?

I don’t think that’s the answer.  I think there is a temptation in me to quit when going gets tough.  But that is not what Christ did.  If anyone had the right to complain about circumstances not being fair, it was Jesus.  He really got a raw deal.  He had every right not to be treated the way he was by those who beat and crucified him.  He very well could have quit and decided to make a run for it to Asia.  But he didn’t.  He chose to stay in there even when things were excruciatingly tough.  And he did this by the power of God.  There was a vision that he held to which kept him going.  There was a joy that was set before him, which gave him the strength to persevere in the midst of dire circumstances.  This week was a bad week.  But I’m alive and healthy and my faith is in tact and my optimism is strong.  There will be worse weeks, and I will make it through those as well with my faith and trust in the Lord’s goodness in tact by the same love and grace of God that carried Jesus to and through the cross and ultimately in victory over all that hinders man’s ability to worship God in all his magnificent splendor.

I am always excited about the new year. This year is no different. It is a time of new beginnings. It is a time to put away the sins and dirt of the past and look forward to a year of victory. It is hopeful and bright and maybe this will be the year that we really start to make progress in our life goals.

Well, the realist in me doesn’t want to get too hopeful about the new year. This is the 28th new year’s day that God has given me the pleasure of experiencing and each one of the past 27 I’ve gone on to fail miserably at achieving my goals for the year. Okay, so I admit, I probably didn’t have too many goals as a toddler, but certainly in my teen years and onward I had them, and inevitably I failed to achieve many of them.

The hardest ones to achieve are the ones that can’t be done in a single exertion.  It’s easy to get up the nerve to run on the treadmill for 30 minutes.  But that’s no one’s new year’s resolution.  People resolve to things like losing 20 pounds this year, or getting a six-pack of abs.  Achieving those goals will take more than a treadmill run or two.  It takes time and it takes discipline. 

Discipline is the dreaded “D” word.  No one is naturally really fond of it.  And yet it is our only hope if we are to keep any of our new year’s resolutions.  And so I am not going into this new year naively thinking that the novelty of the new year will carry enough power to enable me to keep my resolutions.  No, that would be insanity.  But perhaps, by the grace of God, I might be able to parlay some of that new year enthusiasm into creating some routines and schedules that will foster the discipline needed to stick with the daily actions that I need to do in order to uphold my resolutions.  I’ve already started by creating a daily schedule for weekdays and then one for Saturday and one for Sunday.  On each schedule, I’ve put down those daily actions that I believe will enable me to achieve the short and long-term goals that I have for myself.  That way I hope to not leave those things up to chance and spur of the moment inclination. 

So will this all work?  Only time can tell.  Probably in the end, this year will be a mixed result.  But I’m still hopeful.  Though, my 27 years tell me that my hope can’t rest on my own ability, for I’ve proven my aptitude for failure.  My hope has to rest on the one who has always kept his word and who has never failed to accomplish what he has purposed.  His name is Jesus. 

Happy New Years!
Caleb

Ephesians 5:15-17: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

The most valuable thing that we own is our life. There is no amount of money that can be placed on our life, for if we are not alive to enjoy it, money is useless. In fact, money is only useful to the extent that it can purchase more life for us. What does this mean? Well, certainly it does not mean that money can necessarily extend my life in a chronological sense. Perhaps with money I would be able to have better health care and better nutrition, and all other things being equal, could potentially extend my life chronologically. But all other things are not equal, and so this is not always the case. But the other sense in which money can purchase life for us is that it can save us time. For instance, I did not engineer the laptop that I can writing on, nor did I build the condo that I live in. But, I did spend money on both, so that I would not have to spend my time creating those things. Because of money, I am able to purchase the labor of someone else (either goods or services) so that I can spend my time how I want. This is really basic economics. Everyone in an economy has certain talents and skills to be able to produce goods/services more efficiently and/or better than the next person. Because of this it doesn’t make much sense for me to spend a year building a laptop or 2 years building a house, when I can pay someone else who can build the same things much more efficiently, thereby allowing me to spend more time on the things that I am good at.

Now what you see is that time is really just a measure of life. It is the breaking up of life into distinct measurable chunks if you will. And so ultimately, money and time really are just ways of representing life. Life is the true money and the true time. Money has no value without life. Time has no value without life. And so it is no surprise that when it comes to understanding our hearts, you can know everything there is to know about a man by what he spends his time and money on, for it is nothing more than what he spends his life on. What he spends his life on, that is what or who he worships.

Matthew 6:21 “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Is that not what this verse is saying? Whatever you value, as evidenced by what we spend our lives on, this is what we truly value! Our words really don’t mean that much. We can say we love Jesus, we can say we love people and care about the poor and care about injustice, but at the end of the day if our money and our time testify otherwise, then we are hypocrites and worthy of the strictest judgment! See, we don’t recognize how sinful and wicked we are because our western Christianity has relegated sin to cursing, drinking, dancing, having sex outside of marriage, and watching stuff you’re not supposed to watch. If we don’t cuss or drink, have the appearance of godly relationships and of course don’t kill anyone or otherwise break the laws of the land, then we are good Christian folk. While God still hates murder and cares about what comes out of our mouths, the bigger issue is the condition of our hearts and whether or not on a whole our hearts and entire lives are inclined toward God. The bottom line quesiton for us, is do we worship God or do we worship someone or something else? This is the measure of our righteousness.

The problem is that our hearts are wicked and we’d much rather be our own gods and spend our lives in the manner that we choose. We believe (as we have since the garden) that it would be better for us to determine what’s good for us. We have believed that somehow we know better than God what is ultimately good for us. And so it is no surpise that much of western Christianity is intensely and sickeningly self-centered and self-absorbed. From self-help to self-esteem sermons to our consumeristic mega churches to our “Christian” music with our “Christian” merchandise and and our “Christian” movies, we have created a “Christian” sub-culture geared towards pleasing the “Christian” masses. And to what avail? Is this how we are called to spend our lives in worshipping God and loving others? Shall we ride down the church escalator after service to the church coffee shop to sip lottes with our Christian friends discussing which of the church bands we like and dislike? Is this the sum of our Christian experience?

It is by the grace of God that our foolishness in how we spend the bulk of our lives is not immediately punished. Indeed it was for this foolishness that Christ endured the cross to take upon our just punishment so that by faith through his grace we would be spared of God’s wrath. But we have not be saved to continue in foolishness. Paul urges us in Ephesians to pay attention to how we walk. Paul urges us to be cognizant of how we spend our time and our lives. Why? Because the days are evil and the stakes are high and there is work to be done while we are yet here on earth. If we spend all of our lives on ourselves we will kill ourselves. Jesus says in Matthew 16 “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Far too often we hoard and protect our money our time and our lives, thinking that we are keeping it when we are in fact really losing it.

What would it look like for us to give our lives away? What would it look like for our paradigm of thinking to be other-focused? What if in thinking about the next house or job we get, our primary concern is how this will bless our neighbor and glorify God rather than increase our comfort? Would our testimony of how we treasure God be different than it is today? A life spent in sacrificial service to God and others may look like foolishness to the world but by God’s grace and wisdom we know that it is only then that we are genuinely living life abundantly.

Something that I’ve realized today (or am seeing more clearly) is that my mind loves to think up creative ways and excuses to waste time. In the past I’ve been somewhat proud about the fact that I don’t waste time watching much television. But what I’m realizing is that often I’m wasting just as much time per day as if I had watched television.

For me, my biggest problem is probably the internet. Not so much blogging or actually doing productive activities, but just doing what I call “rabbit trailing” on the web. What happens is that I’m usually in the midst of working on something that I should be doing and then I decide that I need to be distracted for a bit and so my mind will conjure up something that I absolutely need to check on, like the weather or the stock market, or the headline news. And so I check one of those “critical” items, and then I inevitably happen upon a link to another critical item that I had not thought about previously, and so I click on that link, while I simultaneously open another tab on the browser to search for an idea or person that popped into my head from one of the articles that I just read. Before long I’ve got 17 tabs open, all of course full of mission-critical information that I had to know right now. Once 2-3 hours have gone by, I begin to realize that maybe I haven’t just been engaged in the most productive of activities.

And so this has been a common pattern in how I approach spending my time. I am continually lured into internet rabbit trailing by my evil and wicked heart that does not want to focus on that which is truly meaningful and important. I’d rather tickle my ears and thoughts with entertaining morsels of gossip and quench my thirst for fantasizing about Seattle actually having a good sports team or about me being a presidential debater or someone else that I will never be. Maybe I should just focus on being me and doing what God has given me to do? But that would be too easy then, now would it?

Do Hard Things is a book geared towards teenagers written by a set of teenage twins, Alex and Brett Harris, who believe that our culture has low expectations for the youth of today. They are on a mission to motivate teens across the nation and even the world to step up an do hard things for Christ.

The Harris twins begin the book by arguing that the term teenager is a relatively new concept where a teenager is physically grown but is not expected to have the responsibilities of an adult. However they argue that this was not the case 100 and more years ago. In most societies during most times, boys became men at an early age generally at some point shortly after puberty when they begin to gain adult strength. If they could do the work of an adult, then they were considered an adult. However, once a law was made that mandated that children be educated through high school, the expectations for teens to contribute to society diminished and thus we have the consumeristic teen culture of today.

But if Alex and Brett Harris have their way, teens all across the globe will no longer see themselves as adolescents that have no responsibility or expectations to benefit their society. Teens will become “rebolutionaries” or those who rebel against a culture of low expectations and begin to revolutionize what the world believes teens can accomplish.

The Harris twins break the book up into three parts, the first dealing with misconceptions of what the teen years are supposed to be about, the second listing the types of hard things that teens should do and strive for, and third the vision and stories of what it looks like to live a life doing hard things.

Overall, I found this to be an easy read with a convicting and hard message. I’m only 26 years old, but I already feel the gravity of the sense of urgency of the call to so something meaningful and impactful with my life. Reading this book has made me feel that I’ve already wasted 10+ years of usefulness to my community for the sake of the gospel. I was encouraged by the many examples of teens sometimes 11 or 12 years younger than myself accomplishing things that many 40 and 50 year olds are too afraid to do. The twins inspire hope. Hope that I, despite my failings and apathy, can awake from my slumber and serve God and my community with a new and infectious zeal that would carry forth with accomplishments and fruit that I would never have thought possible.

My only critique of the book would be that it is very heavily dominated by examples of hard things and words that would encourage the possibility of doing hard things. While these are necessary and good, I would have like to have seen a bit more substance behind why we choose to do the hard things. We obviously shouldn’t choose to do hard things just because they are difficult. But rather, there is something intrinsic about certain “hard things” that is rewarding, valuable, and worth doing. The Harris twins did a little bit of this, but could have added more depth by going into additional detail behind the nature of the intrinsic value of certain hard things.

That critique aside, I still believe that this is a very good book, not only for teens, but also for those post-teenagers that want more from there life than the current rut they feel their in. I know that I was definitely encouraged by the Harris twins and motivated to step out of my comfort zone in order to participate in the gospel more boldly.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve written. In the mean time, I went fishing for the first time ever. I’ve always wanted to be able to catch my own food and eat it, so a friend from church invited me to go with him to mineral lake to fish for trout. It apparently wasn’t the best time of the year for fishing in this lake, but we were able to catch four medium-small rainbow trout that we fried up for “breakfast” around 4:30 in the afternoon. We rounded out the meal with three fried eggs and bacon. Now that’s what I call a well-balanced meal.