Sure this saying has its foundation—like most of the others I’ve been going on about—in some semblance of truth. Basically it just means that it’s good to seek advice or collaborate on ideas to get a fuller picture or better perspective on a given situation. Who could really argue with such an implementation of this tiny tidbit of truth? What about in other aspects of your life?
Do you remember the early 90’s TV show “Hercules and His Legendary Journeys” starring Kevin Sorbo? I remember it well as it was one of my favorites. I distinctly remember the episode where Herc first encounters the mythic Hydra, a multi-headed beast which could only be defeated by lopping off a head and burning the stump. Gruesome! But what happened the first time he decapitated the scaly fiend? He jumped in, chopped off a head, and, sans fire, two grew back in its place.
I can’t think of the saying “Two heads are better than one” and not instinctively come back to the imagery of mighty Hercules battling the Hydra. You might not cling to this particular imagery as an allegorical representation for this old saying, but for me it keeps coming back to Herc vs Hydra. Why?
Paul writing to the church at Ephesus said, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
We were never designed to derive our sense of purpose from any source outside Christ himself. Our sole source of service and satisfaction is in Christ alone. He is the Head of this glorious body we are grafted into by the sacrificial outpouring of His blood at Calvary.
How do you make your decisions about life? What thought process do you go through to reach a conclusion on moral matters? What are you investing your time, life, property, and passion in?
Christ as the head wants it to be Him. He wants nothing less than everything from all of us. Jesus himself said, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
I hope you will continue to make Him your Master. It is not merely a one time choice, but an every day decision to relinquish control to the good things found in His grace.
Somebody a lot smarter than me once said, “Anything with two heads is a monster.”
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Preposterously Impossible Hypothesis #3: "The early bird gets the worm."
Do any of you like to be early? To church, the movies, class, job interviews, or whatever else the occasion might be? The general consensus among most successful people would be that punctuality is a worthwhile endeavor. At first glance I would have to agree. However, sometimes don’t you think we take it a bit too far?
Case in point: “Black Friday”, the largest shopping day of the year. Every year people get up at three o’clock in the morning to wait in line for their department store of choice to open at like 4:00 A.M. The door swings open and the mob surges through recklessly. Ignorant of bystanders, fellow shoppers, and the store associates in their path.
Last year alone I read about at least five different instances where people were trampled to death in this situation. I mean come on. That is just on a level of ridiculousness that should make any self respecting person cringe, but that type of behavior is hardly limited to “Black Friday.”
Everyday—all over our country people are making choices to put their own selfishness above those around them. Look at the state of our society. Think about how you act in line at your favorite fast food joint. How do you respond if you go into a restaurant and people who were seated after you get served before you?
Our society has become a society ripened with the mentality that instant gratification is the best option. We want fast, we want it first, and we want it now. We demonstrate this in our relationships, our jobs, and our hobbies. The repugnancy of our actions has created a cycle where each generation is becoming more self-centered and selfish than the one which came before it.
Long term investment in anything is old hat. We want the new nowness. Romance is no longer a thing of beauty to be cultivated over time like a prize garden. It’s a cheap trinket we want to pick up, use, and toss away when we’ve had our way with it. Friendships are shallow and superficial, with both sides seeking mutual gain. The economic infrastructure is rife with this kind of ideology; bail outs, golden parachutes, quick gains, high risk-quick yield investments.
Who is stopping to think about consequences? Who has time for that kind of careful introspection? No, we’re very quick to move on to the next apparent thing that will make us feel better, look better, or get better.
Our spirituality has not escaped this mentality. Some of us would like to close our eyes and pretend it has. Some are all too happy to realize the truth and capitalize on people’s weakness, but God himself is content with neither.
Romans 8: 22-27 puts it like this, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.”
I believe we could all, from time to time, handle a little dose of God-inspired patience. And not only patience, but satisfaction for what we already have. Not merely in material possessions or gain, but contentment in those ephemeral things like relationships.
We should strive to put to death this mentality of me, myself, and mine first. The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Case in point: “Black Friday”, the largest shopping day of the year. Every year people get up at three o’clock in the morning to wait in line for their department store of choice to open at like 4:00 A.M. The door swings open and the mob surges through recklessly. Ignorant of bystanders, fellow shoppers, and the store associates in their path.
Last year alone I read about at least five different instances where people were trampled to death in this situation. I mean come on. That is just on a level of ridiculousness that should make any self respecting person cringe, but that type of behavior is hardly limited to “Black Friday.”
Everyday—all over our country people are making choices to put their own selfishness above those around them. Look at the state of our society. Think about how you act in line at your favorite fast food joint. How do you respond if you go into a restaurant and people who were seated after you get served before you?
Our society has become a society ripened with the mentality that instant gratification is the best option. We want fast, we want it first, and we want it now. We demonstrate this in our relationships, our jobs, and our hobbies. The repugnancy of our actions has created a cycle where each generation is becoming more self-centered and selfish than the one which came before it.
Long term investment in anything is old hat. We want the new nowness. Romance is no longer a thing of beauty to be cultivated over time like a prize garden. It’s a cheap trinket we want to pick up, use, and toss away when we’ve had our way with it. Friendships are shallow and superficial, with both sides seeking mutual gain. The economic infrastructure is rife with this kind of ideology; bail outs, golden parachutes, quick gains, high risk-quick yield investments.
Who is stopping to think about consequences? Who has time for that kind of careful introspection? No, we’re very quick to move on to the next apparent thing that will make us feel better, look better, or get better.
Our spirituality has not escaped this mentality. Some of us would like to close our eyes and pretend it has. Some are all too happy to realize the truth and capitalize on people’s weakness, but God himself is content with neither.
Romans 8: 22-27 puts it like this, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.”
I believe we could all, from time to time, handle a little dose of God-inspired patience. And not only patience, but satisfaction for what we already have. Not merely in material possessions or gain, but contentment in those ephemeral things like relationships.
We should strive to put to death this mentality of me, myself, and mine first. The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Preposterously Impossible Hypothesis #2: “You get what you pay for.”
Another familiar sentiment often bandied about is, “You get what you pay for.” Ok, let’s think about this one for a second. This is basically a statement referring to the quality of an item purchased. Yes, I know you know what it means but humor me.
So, you walk into Lowes and need a hammer. The manly man inside you, or aggressively-hammer-shopping-lady inside, sees the “Kobalt” brand steel hammer and yearns for it, but the tightwad inside sees the “Lil Helper” with handy plastic grip for a fraction of the price. Your two personas duke it out in the arena of your self-conscious shopping psyche and the tightwad wins out. You head home with the “Lil Helper” in tow and get to work on that shelf you’ve been meaning to fix for about three months now. You get about five minutes into the job, are enjoying the nature of the work, and SNAP! “Lil Helper” breaks like . . . something that breaks really easy.
You would like to berate yourself and throw a good natured man-fit that probably involves yelling at nothing in particular simply because you enjoy raising your voice, however, you realized . . . “You get what you pay for.”
Buy cheap, get cheap. We’ve seen this story play out in our lives numerous times. Jeans on sale = whole in the seat. Steal on eBay = Korean Scam. New cheaper cat food = a really bad day for the litter box.
But what if, what if, this saying didn’t always prove true. What if there was an aspect to our lives that no matter how hard we tried to make this pithy little principle fit, it just didn’t pan out?
Think about this for a second. What kind of life do you live? Do you call yourself a Christian? Do you adhere to the basic Christian principles of sin and righteous living? Have you always?
The fact is, there is a large part of the population who will one day find that this principle does indeed carry a titanic tone of truth when applied to their spiritual journey. Some will just keep on writing bad checks, keep on doing the same thing that’s made them miserable for years, and never stop to think how bad those checks are bouncing. Some people are content to find themselves investing in the shallow side of life for apparent short term “joy” or “gains.” One day those people will find themselves standing in front a broken shelf with a broken “Lil Helper” wincing at the words, “You get what you pay for.”
For the rest of us, this principle holds almost as much power as an echo on a cloudy day. There may have been a time in our lives when we sowed bad seed. We might have lived rotten lives, invested poorly in the spiritual side of life, and made cheap choices, but something happened and we changed. We took a step in the direction of a loving God who met us right at the point of our need and changed our lives forever. He ignored all the prices we tried to pay for flimsy peace, false security, and fickle prosperity. He saw only the price He paid.
John 3: 16 says it like this, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Someday the banks will close, the world will shudder, and time itself will turn on its head. God will look down on us and do one of two things. Either He will give us what we paid for, or He will give us what He paid for. What category will you be in?
So, you walk into Lowes and need a hammer. The manly man inside you, or aggressively-hammer-shopping-lady inside, sees the “Kobalt” brand steel hammer and yearns for it, but the tightwad inside sees the “Lil Helper” with handy plastic grip for a fraction of the price. Your two personas duke it out in the arena of your self-conscious shopping psyche and the tightwad wins out. You head home with the “Lil Helper” in tow and get to work on that shelf you’ve been meaning to fix for about three months now. You get about five minutes into the job, are enjoying the nature of the work, and SNAP! “Lil Helper” breaks like . . . something that breaks really easy.
You would like to berate yourself and throw a good natured man-fit that probably involves yelling at nothing in particular simply because you enjoy raising your voice, however, you realized . . . “You get what you pay for.”
Buy cheap, get cheap. We’ve seen this story play out in our lives numerous times. Jeans on sale = whole in the seat. Steal on eBay = Korean Scam. New cheaper cat food = a really bad day for the litter box.
But what if, what if, this saying didn’t always prove true. What if there was an aspect to our lives that no matter how hard we tried to make this pithy little principle fit, it just didn’t pan out?
Think about this for a second. What kind of life do you live? Do you call yourself a Christian? Do you adhere to the basic Christian principles of sin and righteous living? Have you always?
The fact is, there is a large part of the population who will one day find that this principle does indeed carry a titanic tone of truth when applied to their spiritual journey. Some will just keep on writing bad checks, keep on doing the same thing that’s made them miserable for years, and never stop to think how bad those checks are bouncing. Some people are content to find themselves investing in the shallow side of life for apparent short term “joy” or “gains.” One day those people will find themselves standing in front a broken shelf with a broken “Lil Helper” wincing at the words, “You get what you pay for.”
For the rest of us, this principle holds almost as much power as an echo on a cloudy day. There may have been a time in our lives when we sowed bad seed. We might have lived rotten lives, invested poorly in the spiritual side of life, and made cheap choices, but something happened and we changed. We took a step in the direction of a loving God who met us right at the point of our need and changed our lives forever. He ignored all the prices we tried to pay for flimsy peace, false security, and fickle prosperity. He saw only the price He paid.
John 3: 16 says it like this, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Someday the banks will close, the world will shudder, and time itself will turn on its head. God will look down on us and do one of two things. Either He will give us what we paid for, or He will give us what He paid for. What category will you be in?
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Preposterously Impossible Hypothesis #1: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
You, like me, have heard it said a great number of times in your life, unless of course you lived among the socioeconomic stratosphere, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” It’s sentiment is echoed in other nefariously pithy remarks such, “pay your dues,” or “earn your keep.” And while the humble beginnings of this friendly little quip are most certainly rooted in good sense and sound practice—the truth of it is thin at best.
I use to practice eating free lunches on a daily basis. While on scholarship I ate a lot of “middle of the day” meals that didn’t cost me a penny. For that matter, I ate a lot of breakfast and dinner for free as well.
Ok, don’t buy it? Toss out the scholarship enabled consumption. There was always a campus ministry jumping at the chance to fork over some free grub. Heck, if you planned it out right you could snag a double lunch on some days.
But don’t let that fool you. This preposterously impossible hypothesis has little to do with our ingestion practices. It hinges more on our American made principle of earning things.
Don’t get me wrong, I am soundly patriotic. I love my country. I believe in working hard, not in hardly working, but there is a chief danger to be found within this particular train of thought—especially when we begin to allow this line of thought to enter our walk with God.
Think about it. Take this principle and try to apply it to your Christian walk. If you seriously did this, AND SOME OF YOU HAVE, you would be convinced in a very short time that salvation is something that you deserve—something you have earned. It is not, in either case.
Christ said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John 6: 51 NIV
There is a key word there—GIVE. Not bartered, not traded, not sold. Given. Gave. Gift.
Hmmm. There’s no such thing as a free lunch? Preposterous.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Grilled Cheese As Proof for the Existence of God
The slighty browned golden crisp crust crumbles in a symphony of crunchy-buttery delight. Your taste buds descend upon the feeble frame of the delectable sandwich. Your incisors pierce the glorious boundaries as you are met with the heavenly flood of gooey golden goodness which breeches its breaded borders. Mmmmmmm.
Cheese sandwich, grilled cheese, hot cheese ... this delightful dish has taken many names. Many of those who enjoy it have probably named it something aptly appropriate for reflecting their appreciation of the joy it brings them. And why not? Few things so seemingly normal can provide such a wonderful treat.
Take a few regular household items from fridge or pantry. Whip them together. Give a little time, attention, and heat--Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo--the result is as grandiose a goodie as ever graced your gullet.
Who first thought of a grilled cheese? Where did they come from? Was it by happenstance or accident that ancient Babylonians drafted the original? Does it hearken back to the days of pre-history?
How could something so incredibly ordinary offer such sensationally amazing results? How did a multitude of millennial mishaps yield the unquestionably astounding result we now know as the grilled cheese sandwich?
Friend, if you can answer that I'll let you have my grilled cheese sandwich. Yum.
Cheese sandwich, grilled cheese, hot cheese ... this delightful dish has taken many names. Many of those who enjoy it have probably named it something aptly appropriate for reflecting their appreciation of the joy it brings them. And why not? Few things so seemingly normal can provide such a wonderful treat.
Take a few regular household items from fridge or pantry. Whip them together. Give a little time, attention, and heat--Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo--the result is as grandiose a goodie as ever graced your gullet.
Who first thought of a grilled cheese? Where did they come from? Was it by happenstance or accident that ancient Babylonians drafted the original? Does it hearken back to the days of pre-history?
How could something so incredibly ordinary offer such sensationally amazing results? How did a multitude of millennial mishaps yield the unquestionably astounding result we now know as the grilled cheese sandwich?
Friend, if you can answer that I'll let you have my grilled cheese sandwich. Yum.
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