Reality and the Good need to be Synonymous

Everyone has an idea of the Good. It is from this idea that one's alters her life. The overweight man will go to great lengths to, assuming he sees the end result as Good, loose weight. Conversely, the bodybuilder arranges his schedual around his workouts. The athlete will put in the time and work in practice in order to perform well on the feild. The Minnesotian will chop wood in order to provide warmth for his family. This idea shapes how we live.

Reality is what it is. You will either accept it or suffer - you will either look both ways before crossing the road or die. You will either stop eating junk food or succomb to ill health. You will either eat or starve, win or lose. There is no middle ground, no grey. The map determines the course, not vice versa.

These two ideas, namely the Good and Reality (what really is), must become synonymous in order to avoid suffering and truly find what is Good. The pornographer fails to find intimacy. The glutton fails to find sustenence. The drud addict fails to find escape. The 30 year old teenager fails to find acceptance.

This lack of good in these examples is due to there false notion of what is Good. It is Jesus Christ and His Kingdom that is really real and living within that Kingdom truly good.

Are you satisfied?


"Whoever keeps the commandment keeps his life; he who despises his ways will die."
- Proverbs 19:16

"I come that they may have life and have it abundantly."
- Jesus, John 10:10b

"Let us herein examine the order of the world, and see if all things do not tend to establish these two cheif points of this religion: Jesus Christ is the end of all, and the center to which all tends. Whoever knows Him knows the reason for everything."
- Blaise Pascal, Pensees

The Crutch of Christianity

I've heard it said many times over that Christianity is a "crutch" for people who aren't able to get along in this world in a normal manner. They say Christians are somehow inferior and thus need something to lean or depend on. This attitude is a product of pride - something everyone including Christians face.

It is in vain that anyone, whether Christian, atheist, or Buddist, believes he or she is able to walk without the aid of a "crutch" - we are far weaker than we know. For instance, the irreligious man, while rejecting any conception of God, nevertheless "leans" on various things or people; a spouse, a girlfiend or boyfriend, a pet, knowledge, a hobby, or anything of the like.

The difference between the crutch of Christianity and any other crutch is that Christianity (the Person of Jesus Christ) is the only One who is able to support us. Depending, hoping, trusting, leaning, on anything else leads to unmet expectations which only ends in anger - for the person's will is being obstructed. Only hoping, waiting, trusting, in Christ is a person satisfied.

"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!"
- David, Psalm 34:8

"A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. 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."
- C. S. Lewis

On Love

Gifts from the Lord are like apples growing in an orchard. The Lord grows apple seeds into apples trees. Apples grow on these trees until the time is just right for picking. It is then, at their peak, that apples are to be picked.

In the same way, gifts from the Lord are to be savored “in season.” The Lord has His perfect timing as the gift, or apple, is at its peak. An apple plucked too soon is sour whereas an apple plucked too late is mushy. We mustn’t be too hasty or too patience – we must wait for just the right time.

Marriage is a good example of a gift from the Lord that is to be enjoyed “in season.” Getting married too soon could leave a sour taste in your mouth (i.e.to broken marriages, custody battles, etc). Getting married too late could leave you stomaching that which would have tasted a lot better (i.e. unable to relate to children as the age difference is too great or unable to have kids, etc). No body wants either of these extremes. Are we reduced to picking the lesser of two evils? Is that what the Lord wants for us?

Instead of trying to cultivate patience, running the risk of sourness, and instead of acting on our desires, running the risk of mushiness, may we cultivate love which chooses to see the situation and those involved as they really are and desires the good. In seeing things as they really are, love is able to remain patient until the time is right for action. (We are speaking here of love as a commitment to the good of the beloved, not merely a fleeting feeling. The kind of love we are to have for our neighbors.)

“And above all these (vv. 12-13) put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

- Paul, Colossians 3:14 ESV

“A False balance is an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight.”

- Solomon, Proverbs 11:1 ESV

In considering people’s differing opinions of the good, the question of true love is raised. The true lover knows the true good and seeks to hoist his beloved into the realm of what is real or true. It does my beloved no good to give her an apple when what she needed was a banana.

The question now becomes;

1. Who is the beloved?

And

2. What is best for them?