- In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. -
I think I’m having a midlife crisis now.
Working hard is something to admire. If given the choice, we prefer to work with others who put in similar or more effort than we do.
We never want to work with people who are willing to coast or perform the minimum required.
Perhaps one can tolerate incompetence from an apprentice for a couple of months, but a year is pushing it.
Its more than that. It’s who we admire. We don’t want to be middle-level managers; we want to be Alexander the Great.
Perhaps that same attitude permeates into our religious lives as well. You don’t want to be just some worshiper of God.
Maybe you want to be the most impassioned on a Sunday morning, raising both hands towards the heavens, or the pastor on stage with spit flying as you lay into the fire and brimstone.
You might wish to be the most righteous in your congregation. Well, is that what God wants from your life?
Does God want you to be righteous? Does God want your life to be in service to Him? Does God want your undivided love and to set Him first above all others?
The answer to all these questions is an obvious yes, but there not the original question. They are distractions from the true question our heart has posed.
Does God want you to be the most righteous?
That question comes from pride. What happens when the finite decides to become infinite?
Death. Perish. Whither.
How about the wicked? They’re the other half to our disturbing verse. How can you prolong your life with evil?
An excellent movie you may have not seen but need to watch is the Count of Monte Christo (the one with Guy Pearce).
The movie has it all. Drama, romance, action, revenge, and yes, believe it or not, an appeal to the need for every soul to be redeemed by God.
But, we see early in the film that a few corrupt members of society maintain their power by casually performing acts of evil where it benefits them.
Hiding corruption here, betraying a friend there, getting so and so killed. It all backfires on them, but it allows them to keep living truly decadent lives.
What’s more? If they had acted decently, there posh lifestyles would’ve never been realized.
It’s very easy to steal when you are hungry. It’s quite another to believe in truth and goodness to the point you would allow yourself to starve for them.
What are you to do? Examine your heart. Well, why do you do evil things for gain? The gain – obviously. Fine, but why not do something difficult? Why not good for gain?
Perhaps it’s because doing good would require you to become uncomfortable. Do not most of these acts include deception? And why deceive?
Because the truth and acting justly may mean we have to pay some cost for these virtues. It may mean we don’t deserve what we have and being honest about that.
Do you love truth, or lying comfort?
Housekeeping: No post this Thursday. Enjoy your Turkey!
Share this post