Good News: "All You Need is Love"

Ah, those Beatles.  What couldn't they answer about Life's multiple dilemmas?

I've been reading Timothy Keller's book titled Counterfeit Gods.  It is a fascinating look at what motivates the human creature to elevate other forms of 'dust' to the status of idols.  At the core of his discussions is the built-in capacity for worship which we humans possess. 

He quotes from C.S. Lewis at one point, and I have gone to Mere Christianity to expand the quote more fully.

Lewis writes:

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage."  (Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis).

The Beatles weren't so far off course with their hit song - since love is a requirement for the human spirit to thrive. It may be safe to say that love is the common ground in the human experience.  We have a capacity to love, and a hardwired need to be loved.  Lewis is saying the reality of this powerful desire points to a probability that love exists, outside of ourselves and of humans in general. And that is why we crave it.  We are designed to receive love. And we endeavor to give love, to, in fact, love others, because we are made for love. 

The popular secular culture of our society, and many that have proceeded us, is bent on pursuing romantic love as the ultimate fulfillment, as the defining reason for our existence. And yet at every turn, human love disappoints, because human love flows from conflicted human beings who battle an unrelenting impulse to see 'self' elevated.  Keller writes about Ernst Becker's book The Denial of Death, which explains the "various ways secular people have dealth with the loss of belief in God." He continues, " Now that we think we are here by accident and not made for any purpose, how do we instill a sense of significance in our lives?.... We look to sex and romance to give us the transcendence and sense of meaning we used to get from faith in God."

There's a reason we love. There's a reason we desperately need to be loved.  Love is the currency of our souls. Love is not a contrived thing, though we do disfigure it greatly.  Love exists apart from us, and is the outflow of a self-existent, loving God.

That's the Good News in a nutshell.




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Dad Sayings

Been thinking about my Dad, and some of the many 'sayings' he had.  He didn't lecture with them... more like he subtly taught with them.  As sentences, they were simple and to the point, which no doubt contributes to their effectiveness as teaching agents.  Many will be familiar to people of my generation, such as:

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

"There's no such thing as a free lunch."

"Buyer beware."

"When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

"A fool and his money are soon parted." 

I probably muttered silently to myself on more than one occasion upon hearing these, even  innocuously offered as they were.  But they stuck.  And they taught me real lessons about life, and about human nature.  And while everyone of them is still true today, because human nature does not change, I am stunned by their disappearance from the American lexicon, and their demise as inheritable wisdom.  The greatest gift we pay forward to the next generation is not material or monetary in nature, it is the accumulated wisdom of the ages.  Wisdom equips us to engage the world.

Consider:

How much of the Housing Crisis could have been prevented by listening to my Dad say, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."?  Or for that matter, "A fool and his money are soon parted."

How many politicians would be patently unelectable if "There's no such thing as a free lunch" were the standard grid through which the electorate filtered political speak? 

What would Food Assistance Program enrollment figures look like if people confidently embraced, deep down, that "When the going gets tough, the tough get going", secure in the knowledge that they can in fact manage their own destiny?

Maybe we need to believe more in ourselves, our own abilities and gifts, heed more of the wisdom collected in the lives of our family members and close friends, and through that process rely less on sweet sounding promises offered from the lips of strangers.

My Dad passed away in 2000.  But the lessons he learned from his life - and it was not an easy life, are his bequest to me. I count them amongst my greatest treasure.

Thanks Dad!

Life is like a bank account: You get out of it what you put into it!

Dreamer or Doer?

Two young boys were out inspecting their community in the aftermath of a powerful hurricane.  Devastation and disorder greeted them at every juncture, every turn.  As they drew near to their favorite beach, they noted the near complete obliteration of "Harley's", their favorite snow cone and snack shack.  For a moment they stood in silence, each inwardly recalibrating their own 'reality' compass.  As they approached the debris heap, Ned kicked through the debris, his thoughts darkened and overwhelmed by the loss of so much that had been familiar.  Zeke drifted off to the edge of the rubbish pile that had once been Harley's, and began digging in the sand and rubble.  After several minutes, Ned urged Zeke to leave, but Zeke declined. Ned bid him goodbye, not caring to gaze any longer upon the jumbled heap that had once been the symbol of so many fond and glorious memories. 

Zeke nodded, and kept at his digging. He used shattered lumber to drag the sand smooth.  He found one gallon  plastic buckets that had once held flavoring for snow cones, and five gallon containers full of pretzels and sand.  Zeke worked for hours, until his concerned parents showed up to check on his well-being.  This is what they found:

We are not defined by the circumstances that life hurls at us; rather it is our response to circumstances that defines us.... some would even say, shapes us.