Pursue What Is Meaningful
This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together.
Today's devotional is taken from: Peterson, Jordan B. 12
Rules for Life: an antidote to chaos. Great Britain: Penguin Random House,
2018. Rule 7: Pursue What Is Meaningful [Not what is Expedient], pp. 160-164
Opening Thought: As we move into the seventh rule from Peterson, I want to give
a little reminder to the last rule. When
Peterson says people need to “set [their] house in perfect order before you
criticize the world”, in this conversation Peterson does not say that the world
is ideal and therefore you should get your house to be ideal to match, rather
he notes the world is corrupt and violent. This difficulty of the world forces us
to either rise to the challenge of overcoming corruption and violence or fall
victim to it. If that challenge wasn’t difficult enough, we are also faced with
the inner struggle, we can become so overwhelmed by the frustration of dealing with
an imperfect world, and imperfect people that we can become self-righteous. We
look upon the whole of the world and its inhabitant with judgment, but we never
look at ourselves with the same critique. Going back to Peterson’s second rule,
Treat yourself like someone you are responsible for helping, a mirror to
this rule may be, hold yourself to the same or higher standard that you
would wish to see in others. The bottom line is when we are forced to confront
the harshness of the world, we also need to make efforts to not lose our souls
in the process. Pride may be the quickest way to do so. If you think you are inherently
better and worth more than another person, you are more likely to miss your errors
because you are too busy judging others. C.S. Lewis’ understanding of pride was
that it was straight from evil. This is not the same as being proud of someone like a parent might feel proud of their children’s accomplishments. Pride, as Lewis
would say (and I’m paraphrasing) is when a person looks down upon others
because of a feeling of such intense self-worth. This is the same hubris that Adam
and Eve feel for in the garden and that Cain fell for soon after. It is when we
put our idea, self-worth, emotions, and wants onto a pedestal and make them
what we devote our lives to, as a result, we become fundamentally idolatrous. So, to avoid
this idolatrous disposition from taking hold of us, we need to pursue what is
meaningful, what is truthful, what is moral, and what is transcendent. Only by
beginning a pursuit for the highest of all high ideals, can we be humble enough
to withstand the burden of this corrupt and violent world.
Opening Prayer: Heavenly Father, what greatness you hold. You
are the source of all goodness, righteousness, and love. Help us to see that is
we wish to find peace; we must dedicate our lives in pursuit of You and all you
represent. Once we discover this journey, we will know what faith is all about.
In Christ's name, Amen.
Scripture Brought to Mind: Matt 16:26 What good will it be for someone to gain the
whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for
their soul?
Reflection: In the television series
Smallville which depicts the coming-of-age story of Clark Kent, a young Lex Luthor
and young Clark are having one of their many surprisingly philosophical conversations
which happen in this teen drama. At one point Lex makes a comparison between
his Father Lionel Luther, the rich tyrant CEO of Luther Corp., and Clark’s father
Jonathan Kent, the poor and humble farmer. Lex Luther says this about the comparison,
“when my father dies, kings will come to his funeral, but when your father
dies, his friends will come.” These words ring true to the conversation of
the pursuit of meaning. Often because the world seems so hostile, confusing,
and misleading – people will pursue power or authority. But you don’t need to
be a CEO of a powerful company just search for the wisdom of those who came before.
King Solomon or King David of the bible could teach you a few things about
this topic. However, many people like to hear about things more contextual to
them, so here goes it. Often people wish they could win the lottery, every week
while I’m at the variety store I see a strove of people picking up their scratchers
and lotto numbers, but is more money, and more accessibility the solution to
your problems. One hundred percent, NO! In fact, there are many articles and a
few studies out there that speak to the opposite happening when people win a
bunch of money. According to Don McNay, author of Life Lessons from the
Lottery, many people who win the lottery end up in misery, “so many of
them wind up unhappy or wind up broke. People have had terrible things happen […]
people commit suicide. People run through their money. Easy comes, easy goes.
They go through divorce or people die.” [1] When you do not have a
pursuit of something truly meaningful, then, money is just toxic poison. At best
you end up miserable or dead, at worst you become a tyrant, exploiting others
to keep your waning material power.
In Christianity we believe God to be the highest pursuit; God is
the King of kings. We also believe this Height, is also unobtainable, meaning
no matter how hard we try we will never reach the standard that is God. We also
believe God calls us to the pursuit anyways, to keep us always reaching for what
we cannot reach to avoid us falling for the temptation of low-hanging fruit. We
need to keep climbing after what we can never obtain because that pursuit will
continue to pull us to new heights and greater capacities. Do not settle for
anything less than God. Let God be your compass for morality, ethics, and love.
Challenge for the Week: I know I find it easy not to challenge myself
sometimes. Partly because you can find stability in life; you find a way to
maintain your worldly survival, thus the existential questions which stimulate
the inner philosopher and theologian dissipate. Whenever I feel this lack of
pressure on me I often ask myself this question, “when people are giving the
eulogy at my funeral what do I hope people will say about me, what impact and
legacy will I leave behind? Will merely kings arrive at my funeral, or will my
friends be there?
Prayer for your week: God, let us be more because we realize we
are less. Amen.
Artistic Close: This is
the Kent barn; many Superman fans will know this is where much humility was
taught to Clarke Kent by his parents. It is not Clark’s superpowers that all
him to be Superman, rather it is his character.
[1] Melissa Chan, Here’s How Winning the Lottery Makes You Miserable,
TIME, Jan 12, 2016 https://time.com/4176128/powerball-jackpot-lottery-winners/
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