1+1=1

I read an article years ago in The Plain Truth, a magazine that was put out by Herbert W Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God. (I know, I know, but it was an interesting magazine.) I remember that I was impressed by the article, but all I remember CLEARLY is the title: "In marriage, 1+1=1". I think that's so cool. Another way of saying the two become one flesh. I'm reminded of it because this Sunday, my little sister is getting married. So of course, I've got marriage on my mind again. She's been on Cloud Nine ever since they started dating, so it'll be fun to see them lock it down.

Not Your Own

"You are not your own, you were bought with a price."

Living like you believe Paul's words to the Corinthians, will help you realize how true it is that we're "strangers and aliens". Everywhere you look, the message shrieking from televisions, billboards, newspapers, radios, and the web is that it's all about you. You deserve it. Color outside the lines. You're the man! No, the boss - No, you're the king!

It's foreign, in the face of that to say, "No, I'm the servant. He's the King!" Without God, we're dead in our sins. But with His Spirit indwelling us, we CAN resist temptation. It really is possible. When a hot girl in a bikini walks by, you can notice. No harm, no foul. But when your looking turns to leering, LOOK AWAY! It can be done! That's the first example that comes to mind, but we can honor God in so many ways. What I'm talking about here is honoring God through submission to Him, and to His will. King Arthur and The Knights of the Round Table come to mind. Do I want to look at the bikini girl? Sure, I'm a man.

"Then look!" says the world. "You can do whatever you want! It's your life!"

But I'm a man who is submitted to his King. And because I am, I'll deliberately at this moment put what He wants ahead of what I want (Because that's what I really want.) And it's not all about me, it really is all about Him. And I'm not going, "Boo hoo hoo, I didn't get to drool over the bikini girl because stupid God won't let me look." No, I'm going, "Lord, you've given me life, and I can't improve on that by anything I do. But out of gratitude I'm going to honor this woman, and my wife, and You by not polluting this moment." It's a small act of worship. A large act of submission. And it'll burn the Devil's butt more than a waist-high flame. Try it.

It Sure Sounds Good

It feels like we've been red-lining our life the past... I dunno what's it been...month or two? Between babies, weddings, my truck needing brakes, trying to get rid of my wife's old car and find a new one, personnel drama at work, having to fix a busted cable on the garage door so momma can park in there, graduations, birthdays-- It all makes me want to push in the clutch, let the engine idle down, and just coast for a while.

I was thinking through Psalm 23 a little bit ago, which led to the title of this post and the post itself. What sounds so good to me is verse 2, and into verse 3:

"He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul."

Mmmmmmm, yeahhhh. I might see some of that in early July, as most of our company is shut down from the 4th through the 8th. I hope to get out fishing with my dad, brother, and maybe my sister and her husband-to-be on that Thursday, and spend the rest of the weekend remembering how to slow down. I get pretty distracted when I stay too busy for too long. Distracted from God, from my wife, and even from strangers. I notice that when I'm rushing around, it seems like everyone's in my way and I just want them to move so I can get going. I don't have time for them or their problems. But when things slow down, I realize how I've been missing the point of life. I'm getting one of those glimpses right now, as I realize it before things slow down. Anytime God's children (or those who could be) "get in your way", you know something's messed up.

So, enough whining huh? I got things to do! Just kidding- I'm gunna get me a cold Miller High Life and drink it slow, and then hit the hay.

Hockey, Or Something Like It

I was reading about some hockey game where Anaheim beat Ottawa or something like that. But I thought this quote from the story was funny:

"and the Ducks' victory came at the expense of Canada."

Works Without Faith

You've heard James say, "Faith without works is dead." Fair enough.
But is the opposite also true?
That's a question I've been kicking around for months. It seems straightforward enough- Hebrews 11:6 says,

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him."

That's saying faith is good. Okay, I get that. But say an atheist who's not "earnestly seeking Him" decides that helping the poor is the right thing to do. Is she any better off in God's eyes than if she did nothing for the poor? Or if a Hindu refrains from stabbing his neighbor because it seems cruel, will that reduce his suffering when he enters hell? Both of these people stand condemned, as John 3:18 clearly states:

"Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

So you need to believe. And James says faith without works is dead, so works are good. But without faith you can't please God, even with works (which are good). I understand all that. But the wrinkle comes when I try to see my political and social views (which are inexorably linked to my religious views) from the perspective of a non-Christian. Why would I want someone to not cheat on their taxes? They might reason, "If I'm going to hell anyway, I might as well enjoy today!"

Another example would be, "Why not kill the guy who slept with my girlfriend? What's gunna happen, is God gunna send me to hell twice??"

Now, I know there are literally TONS (ok, not literally, that wouldn't make any sense. But figuratively...) TONS of societal reasons to help the poor, not stab your neighbor, not cheat on your taxes, and not kill the lowlife who slept with your girl. Lots of those reasons are good reasons. But they're all good horizontally, none vertically. I used to think that the worse our culture became morally, the easier it would be to lead people to Jesus, because "The light shines in the darkness", and the darker the darkness, the brighter the light shines. I figured the contrast would show ever more clearly how purity and holiness are more appealing than depravity. But sometimes it seems like as things get more jaded, our culture is first shocked, then less so, then becomes accustomed to it until something worse comes along and the process repeats itself. A downward moral spiral, you might say.

Wow, after re-reading that it sounds pretty depressing. And it kinda is. But after all that, I wonder "What if our society's morals improved to the point that so many people had helped the poor that poor people were hard to find? And what if the virtues of fairness, non-violence and fidelity so pervade our culture that no one ever cheats on their taxes, stabs their neighbor, or sleeps around/kills scumbags? Would that society be more receptive to the gospel? I'm sort of thinking the answer is no, and dang, now even THAT society sounds a bit depressing!

So back to my question. Without faith it's impossible to please God, but would good works, which lead to a better civilization and maybe better people, be completely worthless in God's eyes if those works were not born of faith? I keep coming back to a "yes" at this point. There's only one way to the Father, and it's a narrow way. The good news is that there's grace available to all who ask!

Not Fade Away

The Rolling Stones (among others) sang, "Love is love and not fade away". Mmmm, my kind of music. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Now on to my post.

I wrote a few weeks ago about my surprise at discovering how high the expenses were in my company's 401k plan since we switched providers this year. To my chagrin, I found that our plan didn't offer an index fund, which I had hoped would deliver me from the high fees that were causing my hopes of early retirement to "fade away". I had spoken with the company's owner about it before to no avail. Spoke with him again after writing that post, because I was pretty charged up about it at the time, and gave him a little paper I had written up about how I thought it would be good for all of us if we could get an index fund. I think I was becoming a nuisance. He's busy running the company. But today he came up to me out of the blue and told me that as of next January, we'll have an S&P 500 index fund available! Not only that, but since our company's total combined account balance had passed some certain threshold, the expenses on all of our funds will be dropping by (generally) 1/2 percentage point! Who ever thought math could be so fun?

Breathe in, breathe out.

I had already taken other steps to lower my expenses, like redirecting some of my contributions from my 401k, where the expenses are high (did I already mention that?) to a Roth IRA, where the expenses are l-o-w, and they offer index funds. But now with expenses going down in my 401k too, and also a lottery ticket now and then, hopes of early retirement not fade away!

Truth And Tolerance

Art has put up a pretty sensible post on um, Truth and Tolerance. I could just paste it in here and say I wrote it myself, but I feel somehow inclined to give him the credit this time.

Bug

My wife and I saw the movie "Bug" tonight. That's all I'm gunna say about that.