Category: godliness

From the Beginning, God created us for the sake of love. We cannot exist without love. We cannot succeed at anything without love. Friendships, business, family ties, academics, government, society, international and domestic peace—everything depends on love in order to continue. This is because we as humans were made for love—both to give and to receive.

Our ability to love others is one in the same as our ability to receive love. Receiving and giving love are actually the same, single action. Sometimes we perceive and “feel” more receiving or more giving, but love really is always a two-way street.

No one can receive love without giving love. No one can love others without being capable of receiving love.

The person who leads the cause for compassion, head of an organization that helps those in need, but cannot accept the simple act of love, is not fully loving others, no matter how big the cause or organization may grow. Many people who are outwardly known as “the caregiver”, but don’t know how to accept love from others, are on a question to have love, but still haven’t found it yet. Don’t be surprised to find out who this is.

Just the same, many people seek to be loved by others. They know what they seek and they seek to be loved with conscious intent. They pray for God to send people who will love them. But, the truth holds just the same for them: Our human capacity to receive love and to give love are one in the same!

If you need to feel loved, then give love to others. If you feel love for others and you want to demonstrate that love for others, then pray for God to increase your own capacity to receive love that you might not be able to return.

Love between us and God is where it all begins and where it all ends. By loving God and accepting God’s great love for us, we automatically grow in our giving and receiving love with others—it’s an unavoidable consequence of true love with God and only flows from love with God first. Love is a God-centered circle.

God is not slow, though with a 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 rid Earth of Satan—we will. God is patiently waiting until that time, preparing us for that time.

Most people have not yet worked out their stance with Satan. They say they want to do good, but then they go do something wicked. People complain about corruption in government and business, but then they go and do morally corrupt things to their families and among loyal 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 finalize resolve in 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, at least try to 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 we want to go, 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.

Solutions to society’s problems require innovation in order to escape the spiral of a seemingly zero-sum game. Necessity is the mother of invention, but that means we need to be allowed to be in need as well as be allowed to invent. If necessities are always provided then invention’s mother is dead. If invention requires permission from whatever bureaucracy is central, then necessity’s child has been kidnapped.

Being in need carries with it a sense of danger. What if I don’t earn money? Will I end up on the street? The need to survive and the healthy sense of urgency to work was given to us by God—the same God who makes sure to provide for us.

Even in poor countries where poverty is widespread, the problem is not as simple as having a giant Santa Clause shower everyone with food. People need education, government needs internal compliance, and society as a whole must study the work of responsibly maintaining lists. It also helps to prevent wicked men from using ultra-powerful companies to cripple natural resources, but these are all issues separate from the value of a “healthy sense of urgency” that drives us to live productive lives.

Unless we live lives that produce more prosperity than we consume, we won’t be able to help those in need. And, as much as others need food, they also need the permission to have some “healthy need”—at least enough need to foster invention. Never provide people with so many of their basic needs that the “provision” sanitizes the urgency to invent.

Invention, innovation, new ideas, responding to a personal urgent need to adapt yesterday’s resources to the problems that didn’t sprout until this morning—entrepreneurial ingenuity is the only answer to the problem of not having enough wealth to go around. That ingenuity needs an appetite, a little hunger, some desire for more. Sometimes our “healthy sense of urgency” comes from fear of becoming homeless, other times it comes from the strictly-enforced habit of making every day better than the day before.

Once your inner inventor awakens, people will rise up just to cooperate because the mere act of inventing extinguishes the poverty around us.

A good leader carries the burdens of whomever he is responsible for. For Jesus, this meant carrying the punishment for our sin—carrying the Cross to his death. For Deborah as an Old Testament judge, it meant listening to the problems of the people and settling their disputes. For Esther, it meant risking her own life to request an audience with the king of the civilized world. For Noah, it meant building an ark to carry the animals and his family. Good leaders carry.

When traveling in a group, a leader should be last to bed and first to wake. Breaks and naps during the day allow this to work, usually while the group is busy with “fun time” or some recreation that requires fewer members of the leadership team. Even Jesus would steal away from time to time for prayer. He even stole a nap in the boat during a storm since he knew all would be well.

When taking a long walk, carry important articles for other people. A leader should go through the physical training to become strong enough to handle a heavier load. When the leader needs help, he asks for it. This cultivates mentoring future leaders. No leader works alone, but every leader should bring strength to the team.

Many burdens have been carried by leaders without the group ever knowing. Never expect an applause or a thanks. Leading is not for those who like award receptions. Victory for the team serves well enough as the leader’s prize. If the team wins a trophy, the leader is most honored to have it hosted by the team or one of its members.

Much of the work of a leader is preemptive and preparatory. Drafting a thorough plan, memorizing the road map, making and remembering the many lists of to-dos and inventory, keeping track of the money—even though someone else serves as treasurer—a leader must know when and how to act. Never rely on an active GPS as a leader; know the map by heart as both a backup plan for when—not if—technology fails, and as a show of competence and proof that the group won’t get lost.

Acknowledging the truth can be one of the most difficult things a person can do. We gladly admit what truths we have already admitted. But, one seeing that oneself was wrong has high stakes! We may have stock to sell—or buy. By being wrong, we may need to carry the mental weight of knowing that our own choices caused the loss of thousands, millions, or billions of dollars—dollars which we happen to need right now.

When people live a long life in denial, but then are confronted with the ugly, hideous, enormous truth that grew huge by feeding on neglect, they can meltdown, physically collapsing to the floor, crushed by the mental weight of so much truth that they kept avoiding.

Denial is no way to live. The sooner you confront a truth, the sooner it won’t be able to sweep away your mental capacity to understand it. Don’t let truth swell like a tsunami against you. Speak the truth in your heart quickly, the moment you can find it. Not facing pressure from unadmitted truth, you will stand through storms said to be impossible.

God searches throughout Earth, looking for anyone who accepts the truth. He considers people who are honest with themselves as treasure worth hunting for.

No one can face a challenge without accurate information. Accuracy about our situations is vital. God does not want us to fail in misery. In order to thrive, we need truth. Victory itself will stop anyone who rejects reality. Accordingly, God will not allow you to even begin down any path leading to the greater rewards until you accept whatever truths have every presented themselves to you. God wants you to go down those paths. The question is whether you are willing to scrutinize your own ideas enough to see and maintain awareness about your surroundings as they actually are.

Truth brings light and hope. Truth sets us free. Truth includes that God forgives and redeems and has the highest of hopes for everyone’s future. The price of truth means recognizing one’s own laundry list. But, the price is worth its cost. Anyone addicted to truth can tell you what doors truth can unlock.

Rules enforced without injury are just an excuse to boss other people around. God made rules for justice and justice is not moot. Rules were made to govern people, to help us all enjoy better lives. Once rules impede on a better life without bringing much more and better vibrancy, those rules become unjust.

Legally, courts often require “standing” in order to press charges. A “concerned citizen” can be a witness as a “bystander”, but only if there is a victim with a measurable “injury”. This is an argument against enforcing “J-walking” when no traffic is present, but that opens a long debate on whether any civil law, including traffic laws, should be enforced unless a crime has been committed against a specific person. But, in God’s sense of justice, J-walking is only “wrong” if it interferes with traffic because true justice is only, always, ever about doing what is right by other people.

Enforcing rules that don’t affect you—putting yourself as the self-appointed cop over people who aren’t bothering you—to stop others from doing something that isn’t hurting anybody isn’t “justice”; it’s “bossing”. Even if someone might be committing a crime, inform the police and let them handle it; don’t pursue and don’t try to enforce. As a witness to a murder, you might keep a loose tail to help police track the killer, but not always—and only if you know what you’re doing.

Witnessing a crime doesn’t deputize anyone. Sadly, many people anoint themselves judge, jury, and executioner. That is no life to live. Never let yourself be the busy-body sticking his nose where it don’t belong.

God gets a bad wrap when “morals” are misrepresented as an excuse for busy-bodies to meddle in other people’s lives. Busy-bodies only boss others because they want a distraction from their own lack of good results.

Justice begins with minding one’s own life, by prospering at home and in one’s own business, then involving others to bless and protect them. Give your justice to the world by being just and fair to your own priorities—by completing your goals as an inspiration to others. And, if you encounter a busy-body, say as much.