Cindy and I are in our 70’s. It’s been a great ride. But, realistically, it is nearing the end. It seems like every joint aches. We both have multiple medical issues, any one of which could ultimately be our end. Welcome to senior living……just another phase of life in a temporal world: birth, a vital healthy youth, a fulfilling middle age when we build our “empire”, and then the physical decline to death. I’m not whining. This is simply the truth that we live in.

You too, are operating somewhere on the same continuum. When you are young, it seems that you have an endless amount of time. In your middle age you are distracted with your career and family. Then, when you are very old, you realize that there is not much time to work with. But, the cold hard truth is that the teenager, the middle-ager and the senior are all in the same, time limited, boat.

Depending on your belief system, the physical universe is either millions of years or thousands of years old. The spiritual universe is either eternal, or non-existent. Take your pick. In comparison to the 70 or 80 years of a human life, the difference is inconsequential. My physical life……your physical life……is the blink of an eye. If you don’t believe me, write this down in your journal and re-read it on your 70th birthday.

And there it is.

Either this incredibly brief temporal world is all there is…….or there is an eternal spiritual world…….a world that is ultimately far more important. Either we are a brief, inconsequential, puff of wind in a giant cosmic accident…….or we are important. Either we are doomed or we are a meaningful part of something huge…….something spiritual. And that is about as far as science and logic can take us.

If you restrict your search to science and logic……if you ignore or deny the spiritual…..you will miss the big picture. And that is exactly what our secular humanist society insists that you do. They have accepted their doom…….and they want you to join them. Misery loves company. They are not malicious. They are confident that they are right. You may be one of them.

But……what if there is something better than doom?

What then?

Look into your heart. Are you important…..or are you doomed? My heart screams the answer. I am important. I am loved. I am created. And so……..I reject doom. I reject secular humanism. And so……..I must seek my creator, my sovereign, my Lord. Because he is the only alternative to my doom.

Ignoring the spiritual is intellectually dishonest. Making up some eternity on your own is intellectually dishonest.

If you too reject doom. If you want to seek your creator, begin by talking…….and listening. Begin with a humble prayer. Then study. The best place to start is the Bible. Begin with John and Acts.

What comes next is hard……so hard that many of us don’t even start the journey. You are going to have to submit to the sovereignty of your creator.

This bears repeating.

You are going to have to submit to the sovereignty of your creator.

A famous rabbi once summed it up, “Father…..your will be done”.

Sounds like a real buzz-kill. But, here’s the thing about submission. Your creator loves you and he is better at running your life than you are.

Or, you could choose the path of secular humanism. Take charge. Assume the job of sovereign of your universe. It won’t work. Know this. You cannot create eternity. You cannot even fix this temporal world. You cannot sidestep your doom…..which is only a few breaths away. You cannot save yourself much less the planet. The evidence is crystal clear.

Consider the alternatives:

Secular Humanism…………and guaranteed doom.

Submission to your creator………..and guaranteed life.

he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Jesus submitting to his father, Mark 14:35-36, ESV

There are things that are universal to the human condition. They essentially define what it is to be human. These traits are important……..so important that it is critical that we recognize them………so important that it is essential that we try to understand them. Some of these traits are physical. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. If we ignore this essential reality……if we fail to take it into account every moment of our life……..we die. These physical traits are fairly easy to see, measure, and understand…….like oxygen and carbon dioxide. So far, so good. But, there is a duality. Some of these traits are spiritual. These essential spiritual traits are harder to discern. And yet, they are every bit as real as the physical traits. Ignore them…….reject them……and you will wind up just as dead…….perhaps, even more so.

If you want to live a full, satisfying, joyful life, it is mandatory that you understand these spiritual traits and successfully navigate your way through them.

So…….what are these essential spiritual traits?

Love
Anger
Desire
Despair
Righteousness
Sin
Fulfillment
Pain
Sovereignty
Submission

I’m sure that there are more. Search your heart. You will find that every one of these spiritual traits lives in you. In fact, they influence you every day. You could go so far as to say that one or more of them drives every choice that you make.

Because these spiritual traits are absolutely universal, I believe that they are evidence of our connection to a spiritual reality. There have been hundreds of attempts by man to flesh out the specifics of this spiritual reality. I am a Christian. I believe that the correct explanation lies in the Bible and the Trinity.

So……how do we navigate our path through life…….spiritually?

Adam and Eve were created by God. They were physically complete, but spiritually, they were an empty slate. They were completely naive, spiritually. They were completely innocent. Then, they were given a basic set of instructions….rules.

Love and walk with God.
Remain naive.
Do this and live forever.

Adam and Eve began life naive, innocent. Then God introduced a very basic set of rules……the beginning of the law. Hiding in the law was freedom. By God’s design, we were given the freedom to choose. We could obey the rules…….of defy them. We could choose which spiritual trait or traits we would pursue. We were given the choice to accept God’s absolute sovereignty……..or to try to seize sovereignty for ourselves. And it’s been downhill ever since. God had to see this coming. How could God be so obtuse?

Well, it turns out that God is working out a plan…..his plan. God’s plan is rooted in the overriding spiritual trait of God……love. He loves us. And not just that. He desires our love in return. But, love requires the freedom to choose. Love cannot be compelled. Love that is compelled is not love……it is obligation. So, right from the start, God gave us a choice:

Love God, submit to his absolute sovereignty, and live.

Or

Seize sovereignty for ourselves and die.

Imagine a plant. It can accept its roots and thrive in its appointed place…….or it can cut itself free, take off on its own, and wither.

You may not like this. You may disagree.

But, your rejection of God’s sovereignty is irrelevant.

Because it is a spiritual truth…….just like oxygen is a physical truth. Search your heart…….and you will find this spiritual truth.

Choose it…….and live.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus, John 15:4-5, ESV

so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:17-19, ESV

We decide.

Every day, over and over again, we choose.

There are basically 2 ways to live your life……..two paths.

In almost every choice that we make, the path that we choose colors our decision.

Kindness and anger.

We go through each day…….and things happen to us, around us, and to the people around us. Some of these things are good, others are terrible. Such is life. Much of what happens to us is completely beyond our control. But, how we respond to these events is completely in our control.

We are not responsible for the things that happen to us. We are completely responsible for how we react to the things that happen to us.

As I taught my sons: when trouble rears its head and you are seeking a solution, focus on the parts of the problem that you can control. Often this is a tiny, but powerful part of the problem. Control your response……because you cannot control the event.

Kindness and anger. Each of these has things that go with it.

Kindness:
Generosity
Love
Concern
Forgiveness
Forbearance

Anger:
Vengeance
Blame
Hate
Bias

And many more

There is no question that we are shaped by our life experiences. Cindy and I have had more than our share of tragedies. But, overall, I would say that we have been blessed. When things are going well, it is easy to be kind. It costs us very little. At the other extreme, I know a man who has had a much harder life. It seems as though bad things just keep happening to him. It is very easy to choose anger, when the system is out to get you.

Still, the choice is yours.

Job was blessed in his early years and he was a righteous man. Easy. Then, the blessings were ripped away. Tragedy stalked him. This stage of his life was much harder. His wife had an answer for his predicament: “curse God and die!” Job’s response was much harder to do………Job remained righteous. This is the lesson of the book of Job. The book of Job has nothing to do with why tragedy strikes. The book of Job is all about how we respond.

“Gimpel, the Fool” by Singer is the story of a man who was abused by life and everybody around him. And yet he chose kindness. I read this short story in college. It changed the trajectory of my life. Only the Bible has influenced me more. You really need to track it down and read it.

We live in a culture that teaches us to respond to bad things with anger. That’s what our heros do. That’s what the talking heads on our devices tell us to do. That’s what Clint Eastwood would do.

But that’s not what our creator tells us to do.

What our creator asks of us…….what our creator expects from us……..is kindness…..even in the face of tragedy………even in the face of abuse.

“I am Gimpel the fool. I don’t think myself a fool. On the contrary. But that’s what folks call me.”

Gimpel, in “Gimpel the Fool”

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job responding to tragedy, Job 1:21-22, ESV

Most people don’t know it……but, it turns out that Marilyn Monroe was an extremely intelligent woman. A few days before she died, she spoke with Billy Graham. This conversation arose out of a “word” given to Billy Graham, telling him to approach her with the offer of salvation. At the end of the conversation, she told him, “I don’t need your Jesus”. I suspect that this statement put Billy Graham in his place and effectively ended the conversation.

It’s an interesting comment on several levels.

In the first place, she recognizes the existence of God…..specifically, the God described in the Bible…….Billy Graham’s God. She didn’t deny God’s existence. She didn’t deny his power or his authority…….his sovereignty. What she did was to deny her need. Considering what happened over the next few days, she clearly was desperately in need. On the face of it, she was catastrophically naive about her need.

Given her imminent death, she was wrong. She actually needed God more acutely than she had ever needed him before. I think that a more accurate…….more truthful comment would have been, “I don’t want your Jesus.” That is to say, “I’ve got this under control, I don’t want any outside interference.”

And that is precisely where most secular humanists are today. The secular humanist puts himself in charge……of everything. He is smart and powerful……without question, the smartest, most powerful entity in the universe. He understands just about everything. He manipulates his surroundings to his advantage. In order to pull this off, he puts himself at the apex of the power and control pyramid. The pure SH denies the existence of God……..the existence of any higher power……..the existence of any Supreme Being to whom he must submit. This is wrong……however, it is, at least, intellectually honest.

But, there is a second tier of SH. This is where most Secular Humanists operate. This is where a great many Christians operate. These are the people who admit the existence of God. They just refuse to follow his instructions. They keep him boxed up in a corner of their life. They drag him out every now and then, give him a “to-do” list that promotes their agenda and then stuff him back into the box where he will not interfere with their efforts to control the universe. They believe that this will be enough to buy them a spot in paradise…….and they might be right. But, this plan is fundamentally dishonest. It reduces God, the creator of the universe, to a cosmic “gopher-guy”………a useful tool…….the guy who cleans up the mess after the party is over. They ascribe to God only the characteristics that fit in with their world view……with their plan. They ignore any facet of God that interferes with their master plan. In effect, this “mocks” God and his plan.

This might be the Christian who supports missions around the world, but who wants every last illegal alien rounded up and sent home. Why? Because the “illegals” are using up the resources that would otherwise go to supporting our American lifestyle……a lifestyle that is lavish by comparison to the rest of the world. It is a lifestyle where we spend more than we earn and put the deficit on our credit card. It is a lifestyle that is not sustainable. It is a lifestyle that will implode……soon.

The solution is to solve the problem of sovereignty. The solution is to run the world according to God’s plan instead of our own. That means every letter of God’s plan. That means honoring God’s plan…….instead of our plan. This means putting God’s plan ahead of our plan.And what is God’s plan?

Love God……love everybody else.

And here is the hard part. That will mean doing things that often do not serve our plan. This will mean sacrificing our plan into order to serve God’s plan. This will mean compromising our plan and, likely, our lifestyle.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Galatians 6:7-8, ESV

You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:34, ESV

As a part of my morning meditation, I do something that I never have done well. I sit quietly. I try to empty my mind. I pray: “Here I am Lord……..use me.” Sometimes, an idea comes to me……pretty much out of nowhere. Sometimes, this idea becomes the seed for one of these blog posts. That is the case today.

Use me.

Seems pretty straightforward. I am asking my king for my marching orders for today. This can be a little scary. Just like you, I have an agenda, a plan for the upcoming day. And not just that…….I have a plan for the week, for the month, for the rest of my life. My plan is a pretty good one. For the most part, it serves God’s community. For the most part, it serves my family. But a whole lot of my plan serves me. God has a plan too. He has a plan for me. And that is where the trouble comes in. Because, God’s plan is often different from my plan. No. God’s plan is usually different from mine.

So, how do I deal with the conflict between God’s plan for my day and my plan for my day?

There is a range of ways to get around this:

Eliminate God. If you deny God’s existence, you can eliminate as invalid anything that God asks of you that is outside of your plan.

Marginalize God. You pay lip service to God. If anyone asks, you say that you believe in God. You go to church on Sunday, you pray…..maybe daily, you might even tithe. But when you get up on Monday morning, you start working out your plan. You put God in a box for the next six days. You file God away where his plan cannot interfere with your plan. Maybe you read the Bible. But, you pick through the instructions……you use the parts that support your plan and discard anything that conflicts with your plan. Jimmy Carter was a good Christian man; but, his book “Christianity” is an instruction manual on this technique.

Enlist God. This is, perhaps, the tool that is most used by serious Christians. This is the tool that I often find myself reverting to. I put together a “to-do” list for God. Sure, the list includes a number of “kingdom goals.” But, there is always a line item or two, perhaps many items, straight out of my plan for the day.

I can divide the list of line items on my “to-do” list for God into two categories.

God……use me. Use me to work out your plan.
Example: “come Holy Spirit.”

God…..I need to use you. I’ll use you to work out my plan.
Example: “please let the Bengals win”

As an exercise, write down your “to-do” list from your last prayer. Now divide it between those two categories.

This will give you an idea of just how close your plan is to God’s plan. I find that this exercise is pretty convicting. But, don’t feel bad. Jesus, fully man and fully God, struggled with this same conflict.

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

Jesus struggling with two plans….his plan and his father’s plan.

Luke 22:42, ESV

We are clearly told to pray for God’s help in working out our plan. But, we must be mindful of whose plan we are working on when we pray. That way, when we pray, our prayer becomes a tool for bringing our plan into alignment with God’s plan…….which, after all, is the real plan.

“Father……….not my will, but yours, be done”

Amen

“Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.”

Abraham Lincoln considering which side God was on during the Civil War…….considering which plan to follow, his plan or God’s plan.