Tag: needverse

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.

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.

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.

39 – Look Before You Leap

There is a time for quick action, but good judgment in short order requires experience and thoughtful reflection.

In driving, we look left before turning right, yet we must always hone our ability to judge time and distance. Safety and speed go together.

Do your homework and consider your options.

Don’t blindly enter politics without having become familiar with the usual boilerplate “fools wisdom” other politicians will give you, globally known as “capitol district fever”. Don’t enter the fashion industry without first walking the floor of a clothing factory and sample office; don’t get your clothing through international trade unless everyone on the floor of that factory spoke a language you couldn’t. And, never travel to another country without at least researching general travel advisories well in advance; if you can get duplicate copies of your vital documents, get triples as well.

I have met numerous Westerners traveling in Asia who were stuck at an airport all night or couldn’t stay as long as they had hoped, all because they did what the airline told them rather then checking travel document requirements for themselves, then double checking twice more. I have yet to meet one person in the world who regrets having known more than was needed ahead of time, no matter what the task.

Many people will belittle you for doing diligence before the deadline. Take a good look at their lives; they don’t have the results you want and they have many problems that you don’t want. The only reason “average” addicts will give you a hard time for running the risk of learning too much is that they “don’t do things that way”. To them, it doesn’t matter if they have the results they want, they only want to maintain their habits, no matter how disappointing.

When someone tells you that you don’t need to look carefully before clearing every intersection, just say, “I’ll send you flowers if I can’t visit you in the hospital myself.”

Firstborns in particular like to wait and research indefinitely before making a decision. But, you can’t anticipate every problem. At some point you must leap and pray for Heaven’s favor, just pack your parachute properly first.

Proverbs 16:1-3

37 – Words Have Power

Words gain their power because of their effect on the mind.

We have three main ways of communicating ideas into the mind: sight, touch, and audio. When we speak, we use two; when we read aloud we use all three.

When writing, we see our words and feel them written through our fingers. In speaking, we feel what we say through our mouths and hear our words with our ears. When we read aloud, we also see the words, thus using all three inputs. This is one reason punishing a student by writing a sentence multiple times can be effective. Usually those students will whisper the words while writing them, even without knowing.

Whatever you say, write, and even type is sent back into your brain through at least two communication methods. This has the effect of self-programming.

You program your mind with your words, whether spoken, written, or even typed.

In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt explores whether a child’s name can have power. Two children were given somewhat negative names and they lived negative lives. But, incidentally, two brothers less than a year apart were named “Winner” and “Loser”, respectively. Winner became a failure and Loser became a big success. While Levitt argues that this defuses the theory of names making a difference in the life of children, I argue that it shows the power of words spoken.

What is the one name you are likely to say more than your own—other than your brother’s who is less than a year different in age?

The Bible is also clear about the power of the tongue, not only of humans, but also of God the Creator. All Creation was made through the Word of God, Jesus is the Word made flesh to deliver us of our sinful situation, the Bible is the Word of God. As the Image of God, it only makes sense that our words also have power of some kind.

Cursing and fowl language are mainly matters of word power. Whether words have supernatural power is moot. Words evidently affect us all. Whether we harness or neglect our tongues, the results will show in our lives. Watch your words; train your tongue.

Proverbs 6:2, James 3:2-12

35 – Earth Will Be Full of the Knowledge of God

When Jesus reigns on Earth, whatever the truth is—whatever things our theology was right about or wrong—all people will know God truly, without need for anyone to teach them. That’s one of the main reasons life will be, in so many words, “Heaven,” except that it will be Heaven on Earth, literally.

Even in the ages after Earth, everyone will understand the structures and systems of society. There won’t be political divides because both the needs and the ways to meet those needs will be widely know to everyone. When society is full of knowledge about God, that changes everything.

We’re not there yet, thankfully.

Even without sin, society must slowly learn about God. We can’t just have God come down, open the skies above everyone’s house, and download all truth. That would reduce us to minions. We must study and learn, ponder and work, in order to understand God.

Once all human society is filled with that knowledge about God, it won’t be from any download; it will be from our experience and from having seen Jesus face-to-face and having real fellowship with those who have done the same.

Learning comes from our own choice to do so, even in the next life. For all Eternity, we will never stop learning and God will never run out of things for us to learn about Him. So, in this sense, part of experiencing “Heaven on Earth” even now—of entering into Eternal Life even during this current, brief life—includes being students of theology—students of the knowledge of God. This begins with fearing only Him and nothing else, loving Him more than anyone or anything else, and pondering clear truths about love and self-sacrifice for others, from the smallest to the greatest circumstances of our daily lives.

Everything in your life—everything—was allowed or introduced by God as part of helping you learn about life, yourself, others, and—central to all knowledge—learning about Him. Look for His reflections—His fingerprints—in the world around you. Knowledge of God, after all, will abound in Eternal Heaven, but it is just as relevant and accessible here, in the world right around us.

34 – The Least of These

Jesus said, “When you do it unto the least of these, you do it unto me.”

The world is full of people who only help people whom they think can help them in return. This is not godly thinking. In a worldview of Biblical morals, helping everyone is helping Jesus because Jesus died to help everyone.

With good Bible hermeneutics we know the Greek way of expression, just as we have sayings in English and any other language. Jesus did not mean, “only unto the least of these,” but the idea is, “even unto the least of these.” We know this for two easy reasons up front, in addition to familiarity with how people talk in the New Testament: First, it’s hard to prove in court that Jesus meant only, second, he didn’t define “least”. “Least of these” has a Greek grammar conundrum. In English we would say, “the lowest of people,” which is still undefined.

Jesus means that no matter who we help or don’t help, he sees all and no self-sacrificial deed goes unnoticed.

Some of the “least of these” includes very wealthy people whom the masses are rude toward. Never show favoritism to anyone, neither for being poor and underprivileged nor for being rich and overprivileged. Jesus died for all people and he wants you to help all people he died for.

In that process, love knows when to be “tough” and let people do their own work. There is dignity in doing things ourselves, not taking handouts, and working to right problems we made for others.

One of my high school teachers had printed on the wall, “Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.” That teacher’s wisdom helped a lot of students, all of them in fact.

Befriending the friendless includes giving harsh advice.

Doing what is right cannot possibly conflict, by definition. Whatever is good for others is always good for you and vice versa; if you think otherwise then you misunderstand justice.

Help all people, sometimes by not helping or not encouraging or not “positively” drawing attention to embarrassment. Don’t just dump money either. Actually help—across the board—all people.

Matthew 25:31-46