Bigger, Faster, Stronger

Always improving; that’s what Americans do. Home Improvement stores cater to our “need” to make endless changes to our houses. We like to customize our stuff, too. “Customizing” is improving with style. But improving and customizing stem from a seeming insatiable desire to do something better. Have you ever caught yourself saying or thinking, “That’s nice, but if I were doing that, I would do it much differently.” Whether it is someone’s home, their car, their written report, or the pastor’s sermon, we find ourselves critiquing the work and offering (if only to ourselves) a better way of doing things. “Yeah, so? What’s your point?” you may ask.

Toward the end of my healthcare career we became obsessed with “customer satisfaction.” What an insatiable monster and moving target that is. Our goal was to always exceed expectations. We learned many things through these efforts, but we also discovered that people have really, really high expectations—that grow with use. Supposedly a reporter once asked John D. Rockefeller, at the time one of the richest men in the world, “How much money is enough?” He replied with a smile, “Just a little more.”

There is nothing wrong with improvement. There is nothing unspiritual about becoming better at something. The process of sanctification itself bears witness to our need for improvement. But there is a darker flip side of which we must be aware. There are so few things that impress us anymore; so few things that (as they are) evoke awe and wonder, or gratefulness. We have high expectations, and expensive tastes. It is difficult for many of us to be appreciative of simple and unsophisticated gifts. I remember working with a Russian carpenter many years ago. He was marveling at some of the tools we were using. He would stop every so often and exclaim, “This is a beautiful tool.” I thought for the longest time that he was using the wrong English word in his attempt to comment on the usefulness of the tool he was using. Only later did I understand that he was truly and deeply impressed by its design and function. To him the tool was beautiful. To me the tool was a tool; no big deal.

How is it that someone can discount a valuable tool as “just a tool?” How is it that someone can despise the value of dependable transportation or a modest home?  How can we so easily minimize the value of someone’s work? Why can we be ungracious (so easily) to those who serve us? Wanting “more,” “better,” “newer” may be an indication that we are dissatisfied with what we have. Can we admit that? If so, understand it is really hard to be thankful when one is dissatisfied.

Perhaps one could contend that America is strong and successful because we are never satisfied with the status quo. However laudable that sounds on a national level, that striving may reveal a diminished capacity for contentment individually.

November is a month that we gather for two times of corporate gratefulness: Veteran’s Day, and Thanksgiving. To do this well, we need to set aside our arrogance, our pride, our striving for excellence (the nice name we give to our discontent), and look at the world around us through new eyes. We need to humble ourselves and see how fortunate we are. The psalmist captures his journey through this process in Psalm 73.

Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Psalm 73:1-5 ESV

In other words, the Psalmist was revealing, “Others have it better than me. I envy them. I really envy them.” The Psalm reveals that he struggled with this envy and discontent until he met with God in the sanctuary (vs. 17). That encounter with God re-calibrated his thinking and broadened his vision. It improved his perspective. Prayer altered a dangerous cascade of events for the Psalmist. You see envy leads to discontentment which can lead to bitterness.  Bitterness engenders dissatisfaction with God and a sullen, if not broken, relationship with Him.

But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,                until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. . .

When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Psalm 73:16,17, 21-26 ESV

This is the reordering that needs to take place in many of our hearts--for us to go from envy and discontent to thanksgiving and worship. John Piper reminds us that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him." The question then is how can God be glorified when we are desperately seeking satisfaction in everything but Him?

Labrador Lessons

There have been many Labradors in my life. The current one has to be the softest of all. I have had hunting dogs that have braved deep snow and sub-zero temperatures for the chance to hunt. They have been bloodied by ice, thorn bushes, and the occasional wild animal. Emma would probably not go hunting in such conditions, or would volunteer to guard the lunch if she did. Her idea of roughing it is sleeping on the floor. It’s my own fault, I suppose; she is the first Labrador house dog we have had. She doesn’t understand much of dog-dom.

Emma is one of the smarter dogs I have had, though, and certainly one of the most compliant. But we do have problems from time to time. Case in point: Emma is fussy about where we walk. Our neighborhood is surrounded by dozens of streets that do not have sidewalks (I know, what’s up with that?). So from time to time Emma and I are forced to walk on the sides of narrow streets with cars whizzing by us at 45 MPH. Complicating matters is that our part of the country has cultivated an incredibly annoying weed that produces a seed known locally as a “goat head.” I’ve never seen a “goat head” plant, but their seeds are everywhere, and they are the most vicious thorn I’ve ever encountered. Goat heads have chosen to be the arch enemy of bicycle tires and dog paws.  Get this; someone actually imported this annoying plant because they believed it might benefit idle cropland. I would like to see a cost comparison of the fertilizer saved versus the number of the bicycle tubes and tires the average family purchases each year.  My guess is we are averaging fifty-seven tubes per acre because of this obnoxious stuff.  Anyway, goat heads gather at the side of all roads (every last stinking one of them), and where there are no sidewalks, they share the space where bicyclists, pedestrians and dogs must travel.

Owing to experience, Emma’s greatest times of rebellion occur during those stretches of roadside without sidewalk. When forced to walk with me off of the road, she leans against the leash hoping to keep two paws on the pavement. She is unreasonable and totally unrepentant in this behavior, and completely oblivious to the difference in mass between a goat head and a speeding car—her grasp of elementary physics is, well, deplorable.

Anyway, in her mind, she knows better. I can see the wheels in her head grinding away; it’s a very simple algorithm for her: “road and sidewalk = no goat heads.” There are no other variables to consider. Further, she thinks I’m the imbecile for not getting the equation. I’ve actually seen Emma shake her head in disgust. What she does not know, however, is that there are other variables to consider—important ones. Thorn punctures are annoying, but the recovery time is much faster than the damage one might encounter after being run over by a beet truck, or even a tiny Kia speeding to school. This attitude of “knowing better” may ultimately lead to her downfall. One day her collar might be too loose and with one poorly timed jerk of the leash . . . she may meet her maker.

Perhaps you see the analogy. Our experience, our learning, our mentors, our friends, and a whole host of other influences have informed our thinking about a lot of things. We may have practiced this knowledge and “proven” it. “Aha, there are no goat heads on the middle of the road!” We build convictions about our knowledge and choose to live by those precepts and convictions. But some of them are wrong. Some of them do not account for all the variables. Our algorithms are too simple. Pride keeps us mired in our own thinking. It is pride speaking, when we say (or think) “I know better.” So when we read Paul’s words, do we understand which side of the leash we are on? Are you still tugging against it?

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  1 Corinthians 1:22-25 ESV

Our fears about the path we are on cause us to tug against the leash. Our imperfect understanding feeds our fears. Our pride insists it knows a better way. But, there is probably a bigger picture. Sometimes the thorns we encounter on our walk in this world are merely a consequence of the path we have chosen; sometimes they are things used by God to teach us; and sometimes the thorns are but the lesser of two evils. From our perspective, we cannot always understand the value or meaning of thorns. But the one on the smarter end of the leash has more knowledge and more perspective.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV

--And He, God, is wise, caring, and trustworthy.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 ESV

But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 ESV