Reality

When wondering how things will be any better or clearer, aiming to see reality clearly may be helpful because sin (especially pride) often hides reality. For example, in the Garden of Eden, sin was believing a lie about God—that instead of his command being there to protect humans, the lie was that he was hiding something wonderful from them.

Often the reality is we often have very little control over the state of success and relationships. Relationships don't depend entirely on us. If we have a good relationship, we allow the other person in the friendship to do as they please. And companies and the results of our work sometimes largely depends on a whole team of people and even on customers, who are people we may never meet or know.

But acknowledging this reality helps us to realize the all-importance of faith in life. We need to rely again on faith. Faith that God is good. That no matter what happens in the company or job or in a relationship, he will be there. And the end of our story as a Christian is the most beautiful story. And even while we're here, the ability to glorify him is ever present.

It's easy to believe that everything depends on us and become overwhelmed or discouraged due to that because we're starting to feel too tired or doubt our ability to accomplish what we have in mind. We may wonder what we can do, but the question should be more "What is God doing?" and the answer is that he is doing everything for our good, and he will protect his children.

What God asks of us is to have faith. And the situation in our life is the situation in our life because he allowed it. Pride either tells us that we don't need God and we can fix it all on our own, or pride may tell us that we are not good enough or God doesn't see us because we are too small or insignificant (pride is displayed in pitying oneself, because pride is an intense focus on one's self).

The hardest part of all of this is to be humble enough to know that all humans don't see reality correctly. We are imaginative people inclined to be a bit too prideful (unrealistic of our abilities and sometimes not even self aware of weaknesses). Our sinful nature hates to think we have not much control over things. We definitely should do all we can and have responsibility but we need to let go of what is not ours to control.

Realizing our limitations is helpful because it takes the focus off the person who has the limitations (us) and puts it on the person who has absolutely no limitations (God) for how things will be better.

We also need to have a good knowledge of God. God is not like Santa Clause, where he only steps in when we are good. He is a God of forgiveness and hope. So that's why we can have faith. We don't have to rely on our works or abilities. We rely on him. It's our love and appreciation for him that helps motivate us to do good works.

Appearance

Often in life it is easy to be discouraged because others have their lives together. The reality is that we as people almost always present the best perspective of ourselves but know the realities of our life that others do not.

You see each person presents the best front for themselves and hides what is less pleasant. This is why often our initial impression of others can be quite off.

We are often discouraged because others have their lives together and we do not. You see since we often only see the best side of others we do not know the reality of things.

Life is difficult and comparison is not helpful. You see God has not placed the same challenges in each person's life. We all face unique things in life.

We should live ideally day by day resting in God's grace. Our faithfulness to God is all that matters. It does not matter how our works or life or faith compares to others. It is often not even possible for us to know.

The only question is what God would have us do today out of love for him. How will we live out the love of God in the world today.

In the Moment

"I said that in the moment," is a common excuse. There is often truth in that our speech in the moment may not reflect how we feel. But at times our speech in the moment reveals more of our true nature.

It is difficult at times because we do not like some things about ourselves. We might prefer to believe the prettified version of ourselves we present to others on a dally basis is our true nature. We often refuse to admit our problems.

The reality is we are quick to excuse ourselves and blame this or that and not see it as a reflection of ourselves. Thus a lack of time to think is an excuse for lack of action or slightly improper action.

Sometimes the reality is what we do without a lot of time to think says more about us than what we do after much thought. You see it is sometimes easy to convince ourselves to do the right thing after much thought, but if we must do the right thing now or not at all we often fail.

We always like to think well of ourselves and thus we create many grand excuses for ourselves. They are not needed as God knows our nature and wishes to save us anyway. But we always continue to like to prettify our lives.

What happened in a moment or what we failed to do often speaks to something in our nature. As Christians we are being renewed by Christ, but we also have our sinful nature which is not fully transformed. We often like to act as if our lives are far more sanctified then they are.

The truth of our ethical lack or even awareness that there may be something ethical we missed doing is difficult for us. We are often quick to judge others and quick to forgive ourselves.

The bible is very difficult in that it asks us to be quick to forgive others and more harsh on ourselves. It is of course entirely fair since God has forgiven us in a completely unqualified way.

It is not like we come to God and show a set of credentials and see if we may be forgiven. If we truly come to God for forgiveness in that moment we are already forgiven. God saves all who knock and ask for the forgiveness that comes through faith in Jesus.

A Reason for Views

Often it will be of help to us in life if we have a reason for views. I believe that often the greatest mistake parents have in relation to their children is expressing judgments on activities which have no thought out rational.

You may see for example a condemnation of video games with the rational of "you wasted all weekend playing those games." Of course the parent may "waste all weekend watching TV." It is often in the church you find many people expressing preferences for things as moral absolutes.

If they like golf than it is fine way to spend a weekend, but it is wasteful to spend the weekend surfing. It is often that there are constant streams of viewpoints which contradict each other on principle because they are preferences and not the absolutes they are claimed to be.

Of course it makes sense how many viewpoints there are floating around which have no clear rational base. We tend not to like to think. And to the degree we do not thing the more the rationality of our judgments comes into question.

It is difficult to understand how the person who spends the weekend surfing is in question and the golfer above reproach for his use of time. Maybe it is that the surfer is assumed to have questionable friends while the golfer's friends must be above reproach? Maybe an answer can be found but often many judgments simply lack any rational basis.

And that is often the issue in parents and people in the church expressing claims about reality. If the claims have no rational base thought out they are likely to be off. The reality is often there is far too many viewpoints. We would be better off with far fewer viewpoints expressed after more thought.

The Core of Christianity and the Periphery

In theology there is a core and a periphery to theology. All truth is important, but not all truth equally vital.

The distinction is not arbitrary or unimportant. You see that scripture says that if we have all virtue, but lack love then our faith is meaningless. If we have the whole world, but lack faith in God our life is meaningless.

You see faith and love are at the center of Christianity, they fall in essentials. It is of great importance to the church to recognize what is important and what is not so important.

You see many churches in the current day focusing heavily on minor points of scripture which are toward the periphery of Christianity in importance and completely neglecting elements at the core.

Ultimately we need to embrace all of the truth in scripture, but we also need to pay attention most closely to what scripture says repeatedly. Usually scripture repeats what is critical in many places and many ways. Often scripture explicitly says that a principle is vital.

The distinction is lost to many theologians and churches. It seems unimportant. The reality is it is of great importance. Minor debates over the meaning of a Greek word used only one or two times or a single Old Testament text often have as much fervor as debates over the meaning of justification by faith alone.

You see we completely lack an understanding of the structure of Christian theology if we get caught up in the tiny debates of nuance and do not care about debates at the very center of Christian faith.

It is of course completely unmodern to place certain truths at a much higher level than other truths. But the reality is that it makes complete sense and you see many situations where it is the case in life that one truth is far more vital than another truth.

Listening

The bible always encourages us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. The reality of life is that our pride causes us to wish to speak and not listen.

We cannot be of edification if we do not listen. Even if we know more than those we speak with we cannot edify by speaking.

I have found often when I have had problems people are quick to give advice without listening to what I have to say. You see they wasted my time and their time by not listening before speaking. You see their advice was worthless because it was so general I could have found it on a thousand web pages and had already seen similar advice on many.

Maybe they could have been of use if they first spent a few moments listening. They might have had something helpful to say if they spent a few moments listening to my situation instead of spending five minutes saying vague generalities which do not apply.

You see speaking with an expert on a topic is not necessarily of use if you have a question if they will not take time to listen to your question. This is how it is often in life with many issues. We all speak so much that no progress is made because we have never listened to other's issue.

A related issue is trying to have too many friends. There are those who try to juggle fifty relationships and do none of the relationships well. They are friends with so many people they cannot keep any of the details of their friend's life straight.

You see relationships take time. There is a thing as having too many friends. The issue is that friendships take time because they are based on knowledge. We must listen and learn to be truly good friends.

You cannot really listen effectively to the lives of fifty friends. I personally would rather have two to three really close friends than fifty friends whose lives I cannot keep straight.

I find at times there is a loneliness of being with people you have spent so much time interacting with that exceeds that of being completely alone. I have never felt so alone as being around people who I have spent years trying to share my life with and I know massive amounts of things about them, but they cannot keep the smallest facts about me straight.

The reality is that these people were too busy to really try to have a relationship with me. I wish they had accepted the fact and not gone out of their way to pretend they cared.

What We Need vs. What We Want

Needs and wants are mixed together and often indistinguishable by the human mind.

As a grad out of college I worked on a small temporary project along with a man who had worked for many years making $100,000 per year before losing his job in layoffs. The man in his sixties said that he never had children because he did not believe he could raise a family on $100,000 per year.

The point is not what income is needed to comfortably raise a family, but a confusion of needs and wants. It became clear in my discussion with the man that often he could not distinguish between the two.

It is the human condition which blinds us to reality many times. Sin has an affect on human thinking. It clouds our rationality.

Often the affect of sin on the human mind is dismissed. Many great minds are not Christians and many poor minds are Christians.

The affect of sin on the human mind is not so much on rationality such as math and logic, but on moral issues.

At times moral issues are heavily related to financial decisions. Some financial problems are moral ones at their core.

Not all sin affects all people equally but sin can often manifest in the blurring between needs and wants. Sometimes the blurring can cause the sinful mind to accumulate great wealth ignoring what it is doing in the world.

It is not always the blurring which leads to poor financial decisions, but also sometimes the blurring which leads to good financial decisions at any cost.

Honesty in Theology

Honesty is an important part of theology. What I mean is theology needs to match reality.

You see many preachers and theologians concerned with holy living over simplify sin out of a great concern for loose living. They understand grace but are afraid and like to focus on works.

At times you will see them squirm in a small group setting when people are honest of their struggles in faith. You see they are concerned by the reality of life and wish for people to live well and often it is easy to reject the reality.

The reality of sin is that it is not ideal and holiness is something to strive for. But trying to hide the reality of the human condition and act as if the sinful thoughts of people are abnormal is not helpful.

You see we must start by first accepting the problem. That is why the admission of sin is necessary for faith. We can't accept grace if we don't believe we need it. .

The same thing is true with sanctification. We can't grow if we don't know what we need to grow from.

This is why many people who feel very holy tend to be the least holy. You see they have no idea of their sinful tendencies and thus have little idea of where they need to grow.

Often those aware of their sin are making progress on it. God can use the knowledge of their sin to help improve them. It is always difficult to fix what we do not believe is broken and that is why accepting the reality of human life is important.