Series: 365

57 – Finish Wisely Every Journey

When you begin a journey, finish it, even the ones you shouldn’t have started.

“Finishing” can mean different things, but it never means “giving up”. Many times our eyes get bigger than our stomachs and we ask take more food than we can eat. “Finishing” in the food analogy does not mean stuffing yourself, but eating the left overs for your next meals until they are gone. If you decide that you can’t eat it, save it for someone who can; don’t just abandon the food and throw it away.

Finish.

Sometimes, we start out on a path leading to death. We don’t know the path will eventually kill us because it seems good and all at the outset. But, later on, we may discover it was a seduction of evil all along. “Finishing” that path might mean turning around and going back, perhaps warning others that the path seems good, but ends in a death trap.

Usually paths that lead to a death trap require us to tell “white lies” and break “insignificant” moral rules in order to star them. Eve was the best example because the fruit looked delicious and knowledge “isn’t that bad of a thing”, right?

My father once started a “selfish” motorcycle trip he shouldn’t have. His motorcycle broke down. Exhausted, he knelt in the desert sand and believed in Jesus. He didn’t finish as planned, but he didn’t take a bus home either; he rode his motorcycle all the way back.

His pastor, who always asked why dad wouldn’t become Christian, never even noticed, possibly because dad didn’t believe in Jesus the “traditional” way. Knowing dad, he probably learned more about Jesus and carrying his own Cross than the pastor learned at Seminary.

When one hasn’t finished hard journeys oneself, however regrettable those journeys are, those who do seem boring.

Dad didn’t finish his journey the way he first intended, but he did “finish” it, taking responsibility for the situation he got himself into. Because he “did the right thing”, Jesus changed his heart.

Learning means finishing. Abandoning the unpleasant is easy, but you’ll never learn that way. When the going gets tough—when your choices hurt—finish wisely.

Genesis 3:6-7, Jonah 1:17; 2:1, 10; 3:1-5, Luke 19:1-10

58 – Humanity: The Non-Omnipotent, Non-Omnipresent, Non-Omniscient

There is great power in knowing what you are not. Know your limits. Know what you can do, be confident in your actual abilities, but do not overstate them. Know the line that your abilities cannot cross.

Part of our broken “sin nature” that comes from Adam’s choice combines itself with the nature that we remain the Image of God. In a sense, it almost makes us get a feline complex—where we reinterpret reality to presume that everything centers around us. We sneeze just before lightning and thus conclude we caused it. Someone gives us an inch and we think ourselves to be rulers.

We are the Image of the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient God—all powerful, everywhere present, all knowing—, but we do not have those specific qualities, but our sin nature presumes that we do.

Part of good theology includes that those qualities are unique to God—He is the Almighty, which means that we are not. Everyone will face the sin nature’s tendency to forget what we are not every day of our lives. The more you get in touch with what you are not, the less you will try to do things that you cannot do, the less you will be offended at results that can’t be, the less you will waste what time and energies you have, the more you will focus on whatever things you can do. Once you focus solely on things within your ability, you will find yourself accomplishing seemingly impossible tasks.

Arguably, this is the key to efficiency: Only attempt what is possible.

There are many things that may seem impossible, but that presumes that we will try methods that fail or that only God can use. If we stay within our limits and only use the powers we have, many purported “impossibilities” will become easy. As for those things we truly can’t do, by knowing that only God can achieve them, He is more likely to achieve them through us, all the same achieving what is impossible without God. So, there is no benefit in telling someone what cannot be done, but only in who we are not and what only God does through us.

Job 38-42, Micah 6:8

59 – If You Spank Them, You Must Hold Them

God made each child with certain talents and abilities. We naturally hunger for those things God made us able to do best. We discover those talents and abilities by sniffing them down through the nose of our desire for them. It is a thrilling mystery every time, for every person, for all of everyone’s life.

As children it’s easier to see, but it repeats throughout life: We misbehave when we have lost the scent trail in pursuit of our inborn talents.

A child who was born to be an entertainer will seek attention in all the wrong ways—especially if his quiet, orderly family denies him positive, proper, and constructive attention. Of course, the child also may lack practice with peers, but that’s a separate, related discussion. Then, there is proper discipline to explain the boundaries of respect and accepting the things that we cannot change.

People who grow up to be disrespectful probably were not disciplined when they were children to accept whatever things they cannot change.

When we hunger for love and healthy attention, our need is love and healthy attention, not discipline and correction. But, when we just don’t want to accept things that we cannot change, that’s when we need a swift, immediate, firm, well-explained, hand-on-skin, redness gone in thirty minutes, and, in all other ways, proper spanking—so that chasing the wind loses its pleasure. Neglected grownups don’t know whether children need love or discipline nor do they know the difference between discipline and beating.

Accepting what we can’t change is hard. Sometimes the entertaining child needs to practice being quiet in the presence of others—sometimes, not every minute spent at home. Those moments are difficult for everyone, especially the child. As much as the spanking hurts, it’s harder to let go of what earned us the spanking in the first place.

It’s hard to accept that we can’t change things we don’t like. Life isn’t fair. That’s one of the things we can’t change, so we must accept that unfairness will exist somewhere within our universe.

We get to be that child at times. God is right to spank us because He always holds us while we cry.

60 – God the Patient

God is not slow, though in our short attention span it can seem like He has forgotten all about us.

God is above all of our circumstances, though He is also in those circumstances with us. The Bible teaches that God is “near to the broken-hearted”. Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died. Having lived and suffered on Earth, Jesus knows our situation. Yet, Jesus remains beyond the ability for our circumstances to destroy him.

God can stand and observe our situation without limit, not because He doesn’t see or doesn’t care, but because He is strong enough to be patient. He doesn’t need to quickly finish so He can go sleep or grab a snack or visit the WC.

As a child I asked why we need Satan. Now, I have finally come to understand that God will never get rid of Satan—we will. God is patiently waiting until that time, preparing us for that time.

Many people have not yet worked out whether they like Satan. They say they want to do good, but then they go do something stupid. People complain about corruption in government and business, but then they go and do morally corrupt things in their families and among Chistian friends. God asks us the same question every day, “Why do you allow evil in your world? Are you ready to get rid of it yet?” Once we get resolved on our answer, God will give us the tools to put Satan and his servants into the fire forever. But, we aren’t there yet. We’re still making up our minds, so it seems.

Every day, try to at least act like you have made up your mind about getting rid of Satan. Do what is good, make the world around you a little better, let your life be a reason for people to make up their minds about God.

While we take our time and sort out which way is up and down, God will be there, patiently watching, patiently nudging us in the right direction, and, when necessary, patiently giving us a catastrophe here or there to help turn our short attention spans back toward His everlasting patience.

61 – If Someone Gives You a Test, Keep It

Don’t let people toy with you. This is about respecting yourself. Cultivate a reputation that people who want toys will become toys if they try to play with you.

Of course, there is a time for fun and it is good chivalry to be hardy in friendship and jest in the staff lounge. But, at work and with truth, you are not a toy.

I once had a friend irritated at my self-confidence. So, he lied to me, and invented a false claim to attempt to disprove me—”just to see what I would do” as he explained five minutes later. And, he found out what I would do. I have never had a meaningful conversation with him since.

If someone plays “devil’s advocate” with you, treat him like the devil’s advocate: Send him to Hell; make the conversation painful enough that he wished it would end. Call him “Satan” and tell him to get out of your way before you trip; that’s what Jesus did when Peter played.

The easiest way to combat someone who makes up tests just to toy with you is to take them absolutely seriously all the way to the end. This works much like shoving the stick farther into the dog’s mouth to make him want to release it, or grabbing the punch that comes your way and pulling the arm to keep it going.

As you progress in your life, people will criticize you and, when that doesn’t work, they will invent hypotheticals, all the while hoping to offer you some kind of “benefit”.

Real situations need real facts to treat them. Take all hypotheticals seriously: “That’s a hypothetical and I won’t speculate on it. And, frankly you shouldn’t ask me to.”

“But, what if you were talking to someone else?” they protest.

Practice these words: “I’m talking to you and you should be present with me.”

Whenever someone calls you a name, wear it like armor. Quote it everywhere, never let them forget the nickname they made for you.

If someone decides to become your self-appointed examiner and give you a test, take it, but don’t give it back. Whatever anyone gives you becomes your permanent property.

62 – Literature of the Bible

Understanding the Bible is much easier if you know the types of genre. Knowing genre, you can quickly identify the specific genre you are reading and know what to expect from it.

Much of the Bible is narrative. This simply records actions and events, neither condemning nor condoning any of what actually happens. The important thing to remember in narrative, as with any other type of genre, is the first time a word or event occurs. If a similar word or event shows up later, both events will have a kind of connection, whether a parallel or contrast. When reading events, take note of the smallest details.

The genealogy genre is easily belittled. Genesis has some genealogy. Genealogies often have small events inserted, highlighting things a person did or did not do. These can be significant. To Jewish culture, a genealogy was also important to confirm which tribe someone came from.

Law is seen much in the second part of Exodus, as well as Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. While other “laws” appear elsewhere—such as God’s instructions to Joshua for invasion—Exodus sets the template for the genre. Laws were specific to Israel, mainly before Jesus. But, we can still learn from them and following many parts of Moses’s Law can be beneficial. The important truths about laws are that Jesus completed the laws for sacrifices and that Jesus interprets Moses’s Law more clearly than anyone else. Look at the Jerusalem Council in Acts and also Hebrews for apostolic commentary on the Law.

Poetry fully comprises Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, and Lamentation, but poetry also appears in other Bible passages. By familiarizing yourself with these books of poetry, you will understand poetry in other books of the Bible.

Figures of speech can appear anywhere in the Bible. Know them in your native language, then you will recognize them in the Bible. Label language as “figurative” only with good reason, never favoring a contradictory interpretation.

Prophecy and visions pop up everywhere, containing both figurative and literal language. Interpreting these requires time and never finishes. Begin with Daniel and Revelation.

The Gospels and Acts are ancient journalism. The rest of the New Testament is correspondence.

63 – Opening Bid Is Final Offer

If you can change your mind after hours of negotiation, then you started without knowing what you wanted—and you owe the other party a consulting fee for the vision mapping session.

Auctions are institutionalized, meant to sell a vast number of good to a vast number of people at publicly agreed prices in quick order. Usually these are for liquidation, fundraising, and government contracts. You are not overstocked nor damaged goods nor are you an overpriced trinket from a charity banquet—do not establish your price as if you were. Governments are the exception.

Pay the highest price you’re willing. Give people what they’re worth and don’t attempt less. If the other party does, walk away right away.

When you offer to join a team, set your ceiling at the outset and don’t go above it. If you say, “Four hours is all I can do that day,” and the person gives reasons why you should give five, they need help with vision and mission. Explain it, “You’ve got too much at stake and seem to be over-budget. I’m a four-hour guy, you need a five-hour guy, and you need to either talk to your accounting department to get a budget for the right guy or talk with your visioning team about a four-hour plan.”

The “Trump” negotiation tactic was well-demonstrated throughout his life, even his presidency: Make the opening offer “hugely” outrageous, then “come to your senses” and ask for what you wanted in the first place. That’s for dealing with parties who don’t know what they want. When people open with that outlandish offer, I go straight to “vision” mode.

The same applies against delphi method and managed conversation.

Many people ask my permission to cancel appointments. I tell them the same, “It’s not my choice. Just figure out your schedule, then call me.”

I once made an ethics-related suggestion to an itinerant speaker about his content. He gave his propaganda-couched excuse, adding, “…if that’s okay with you.” I answered, “It’s not my choice,” and made him own his. That speaker just stood speechless.

Never “negotiate”. Either host an auction, plan a strategy meeting, or act unilateral-friendly so you never pressure others.