Real Talent

A student of mine recently shared something with me that opened my eyes to see how easily we can lose our purity in life. This particular purity lost is not what we naturally consider to be a perversion but something that creeps up on us looking very beautiful. We praise children who own it and we encourage them to grow in it. If they can’t we often feel disappointed and we search for something new. In and of itself it is not something evil. In fact, God in His grace often delivers it to us as a gift. Maybe we forget that sometimes.

Why am I here? What difference could I possibly make in such a great place with such limited time? These questions lead many of us to do one of two things. We either give up in pessimism or we develop a mission to make a name for ourselves. We then decide that our best approach is to use that gift that God gave us; that gift called talent.

What is the purpose of talent and what is the greatest talent? If I am a musician will my music enter people’s hearts? If I’m an artist will my work be displayed in places of importance and beauty? If I’m a writer will my words become alive to others? If I’m a carpenter will people give up their hard earned paycheck for my work? We often struggle to find our place of meaning in this life and we use talents as avenues to satisfaction. What of that desperate person who still struggles to develop his talent? Is he not called to share in this glory? My student reminded me with a passage of Scripture of a talent that has become a rarity. This talent can only be developed when we do as Jesus said and “humble ourselves like a child.”

Humble love. It is easy to forget in our journey to find ourselves, a command given to us that brings ultimate meaning to life. Christ told us His greatest command is to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love others as ourselves. If we have a talent and we cannot use it to love Him and to love people it has lost its worth. This gift has been forgotten in all the beautiful wrapping and ribbons.

So if we have some obvious talent in life whether it is the ability of strength, song, or leadership it is obvious that we need to use what we have to glorify God. But I’ll argue that the greatest talent we can develop is that of love. We all want to feel good about ourselves but how often do we desire to encourage others? How often do we desire to bless others at our own expense? to serve others? And not just to feel better about ourselves but unconditionally? This is truly an amazing talent.

“Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:43-45

Please!

Recently my daughter was asking me if she could eat a candy. It was breakfast time so I told her she would have to wait until later in the day. Her response was, “Please!”
Isn’t that sometimes how we act with God?
I think sometimes we’re just desperate. We want somebody to be healed so badly or we want a situation to be fixed so desperately that all we can do is shout “please” to Him.
Just like I didn’t give my daughter her candy, sometimes God doesn’t answer the way we want Him to. I don’t claim to know all the reasons why things don’t work out the way we think they should but I do know there are a number of things that distinguish us from God. One of those is His omniscient wisdom. “Why did He let her die?” “How could He allow this to happen?” Why isn’t He answering?” These are reactions we have sometimes when we don’t think God’s doing His job. Can we stop and think about that. Is there a bit of arrogance in this train of thought? He understands our suffering. He felt the ultimate suffering once.
We all know that life is not always great. But many of us agree that situations in the past have made us stronger people. We like being stronger people we just don’t like to have to go through the suffering. Maybe we can allow ourselves to look at present and future sufferings with the perspective we have for past sufferings. There is a reason for my suffering, and even if I don’t know that reason, I can trust my Father who cares for nothing more than He cares for me. He loves me more than I could ever know. Maybe I’m supposed to wait until later in the day to have some candy.

A Reminder

Sometimes something bad happens to me and I turn to God and ask Him why. The conversation I have with Him leads me down a road of significance and the purpose of life. It’s sad that, sometimes, bad things have to happen for me to think about why I’m here. I’m humbled by His wisdom and sovereignty. C.S. Lewis said that pain and suffering are sometimes used as God’s megaphone to get our attention. Although I would rather not suffer, I am grateful for the perspective I get to what’s really important in life.

We all should have a purpose statement for life. Something simple and general enough that we know it will never change (Mine is simply to know and live the truth). Write it down and put it in all places that you will be throughout the day so you never forget the real reason you’re here because it is very easy to. If you’re not living up to the expectations you have in your purpose statement it’s a good time to readjust your life.

But it’s not easy to live the way Christ tells us to through Scripture. So what’s the secret to doing it better? In Luke 11:9-13 Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock and we will receive. He tells us that even evil fathers would not give their children snakes and scorpions if they asked for fish and eggs. The context of this Scripture is clearly about the Holy Spirit and how much our Heavenly Father wants us to be filled if we ask. This is where we receive our strength to live out God’s will. Then we can focus on what’s important in life.

Chasing Spirituality

It is in our nature to seek religion. This natural desire is not necessarily beneficial. It seems too often that we want to find an environment where we can feel that our lives mean something. Religion is an answer to many who seek fulfillment. But this fulfillment is temporary. Last year I tore my ACL and meniscus in my knee. I had the choice to have surgery on it for a second time or live with the disabled leg. The pain could be taken care of with painkillers so my life wouldn’t be miserable. But I would be living with a false sense of security. Maybe I would feel like I could play a game of basketball or take a jog but if I were to place weight on the leg it would definitely give out on me. This is how religion works. It gives us a sense of satisfaction and belonging but it doesn’t answer the real problem.

It is also in our nature to seek spirituality. We want to experience something that might make us feel that we’ve reached beyond this physical world of pain and suffering. We want relief from reality. We want goose bumps so we can know that something really happened. It is very popular in our society to say we are a “spiritual person” and we experience spiritual things. But sometimes these experiences are not so good. Sometimes I turn on the faucet and place my hands under running water and for a split second I feel that the water is extremely cold. I quickly realize that the water is actually extremely hot and I burn myself. The feeling confuses my mind and then reality sets in. That is the danger of these spiritual experiences.

Religion and spirituality are not bad things but when used improperly they can be very dangerous. So what should we seek then? The answer is truth. When we seek truth our religion will turn into a relationship and our spiritual experiences will have meaning beyond a good feeling. If we want real fulfillment and meaning out of life we can look to God’s Word and ask Him to give us the desires (or His desires) of our heart.

Why Be Moral?

There is a contradiction that occurs when people who claim there is no God try to live moral lives. If one does not believe in an absolute standard of good and evil there is no reason to try to live morally. After all, morality needs standards if we’re going to know what it means. Some argue that we make up these standards on our own. If this were so, how could we ever determine in such a diverse world whose standards to accept? This of course leads us into the contradiction that is relativism. If there is no absolute truth there can be no absolute morality.

Many religions use morality as means of attaining salvation. Christ on the other hand taught that salvation comes through His redemptive work on the cross. So if being good doesn’t save us then what is the purpose of morality? The answer is given in Matthew 5:16 when Jesus tells us to let our light shine before men, that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven (emphasis added). So the goal of morality is to point people to Jesus.

This is very humbling. Too often we are so proud of how good we can be and we fall into this trap of thinking we deserve the great things that come our way. As if the reason we do good is to receive good things. It’s not easy to do good when we know we will not receive credit; but it is moral.

Absolute Truth vs. Relativism

"You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."
"What is truth?" Pilate asked.

Jesus made it clear that there is one absolute truth and that truth is found in Him. And still we find Pilate with such a skeptical response. This wasn’t uncommon then and it’s not uncommon today for people to have a hard time believing there can be just one ethically right and wrong answer. Many people, even some Christians, live with this philosophy called moral relativism.

Moral relativism says that ethics are decided on by individuals or by cultures; that there are no absolutes or universal standards that apply to everybody at all times and in all places. People sometimes live by this philosophy to make it easier to “get along” with others. Sometimes it’s used to justify actions. Either way it’s illogical.

If moral relativism is true then there is no such thing as evil, justice, obligation to tolerance (getting along with people without accepting their beliefs as true), or any reason to try to morally improve. We need to be able to reason together about moral rules not just agree to disagree. The assumption is that if you come to a conclusion you are not being open-minded; but being open-minded is how you reached the conclusion in the first place.

There are only three options regarding moral laws: they are imaginary, they happen by chance, or they are designed with a purpose. Christians believe the third option is the most logical. This explains our feelings of guilt and our expectation of punishment. When we offend a moral law we know we are offending the moral lawmaker. This moral lawmaker is Christ and He stands as absolute truth; and so Pilate’s questioned is answered.

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