The week started with a training meeting. I arrived a ltttle early to find a colleague reading the paper and saying “Nothing is happening”. Well, nothing much had happened in Dunedin. But yesterday there were election results in Malaysia, more pressure on the Euro, and this morning bloomberg reports that colleges are discounting fees.
There are always things happening. You can be scared. And some people get hooked on the adrenalin rush of the news… leading to people going for a low information diet, to improve their cheerfulness.
Imagine my surprise when my reaction to the “media fast” was diametrically opposite to what I had feared would happen. I was happy and cheerful, more relaxed and actually felt like a weight had been lifted from my mind. I honestly didn’t miss any of it–I was more productive and effective in my work and actually felt more intellectually potent without the burden of processing the incoming barrage of media. And even more amazingly I didn’t miss anything. I honestly didn’t feel less informed for not watching the news or following the minute by minute machinations of the financial markets.
Well yeah. But feelings are not a measure of anything. Our actions count, and the moral value of a stance is not judged by how icky it makes us.
11Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.” 18But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
16Do not be deceived, my beloved.
17Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act — they will be blessed in their doing.
26If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
It is not prosperity that is lethal. Prosperity generally follows living by the advice of the Bible — because the Bible is reality based and obeying the laws within it will generally lead to a happy life. But not always. Many righteous men have walked through this life weeping. There are no guarantees, and the Almighty raised prophet after prophet to correct Israel — and they were ignored.
So we are not judged on our happiness. Nor are we judged by the church we attend, how happy the sermon makes us, and how caring and therapeutic the pastoral staff are. James says we are judged by what we do, how he influence others, if we do good. And in examining ourselves, James tells us to kill our pride and destroy our boastfulness.
The Church, when it accepts and tolerates that most American of idols, self esteem, becomes churchian. The process is described by SSM — we believe lies.
Chrisitian marriages face all kinds of stressors in the modern era. Piling lies and misinformation on top of the stress will not help us. Just as teaching the lie of mutual submission in the marital hierarchy does not help us, so too teaching lies about what generates attraction between spouses does not help us. We need to look clearly at how things really are, not how we would like them to be or how we’ve always been taught that they should be. Remember that Satan is the father of lies but in Christ there is no deceit. Don’t fall for lies just because they are convenient, fellow Christians.
We are not to lie to each other, nor to ourselves. And self esteem is a lie.
