Beneath the highlight reel

Many people on social media tell us that an exciting life can be ours – if we have enough money, power, or fame – or better yet, a lot of all three.  The message is loud and clear: get what you can, any way you can, and do it in front of as many people as you can…and then, the world says, you’ll be happy. 

There is a ton of content available with people flexing their money, power, and fame.  Looking for likes and approvals in order to feel validated and justified in their life choices.  However, we’ve seen too many people flame out to fully believe everything we see on social media.

We need to remind each other, and ourselves, that what we see on social media isn’t the whole story of a person’s life.  That what is presented is just a collection of highlight reels.  No one’s life is glamorous all the time.  No one is super-adventurous all the time.  No one is happy all the time.

But despite these warnings…I think that deep down, we wish that life could be full of highlights.  We feel like life should be exciting and fulfilling, but we struggle to find it.  The easy reaction would be to damn social media or money/power/fame.  It’s not difficult to rail against them, and you’ll get many people to join you in doing so.

But…social media, money, power, and fame aren’t the problem – our selfish misuse of them is.  That said, they certainly aren’t the solution to our desires, either.  There is another way, one that results in a life where money, power, and fame are managed well, even being a blessing in a person’s life.

Take a look at this psalm describing blessings from God.  There are highlights of money, power, and fame.  Wouldn’t it be great if this was our highlight reel?

Psalm 112:1-9
Hallelujah!
Happy is the person who fears the Lord, taking great delight in His commands.
His descendants will be powerful in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever.
Light shines in the darkness for the upright.
He is gracious, compassionate, and righteous.

Good will come to the one who lends generously and conducts his business fairly.
He will never be shaken.  The righteous one will be remembered forever.
He will not fear bad news; his heart is confident, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is assured; he will not fear. In the end he will look in triumph on his foes.
He distributes freely to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.
His horn will be exalted in honor.

Oh, to have a life described like this!  The blessings are fantastic and far-reaching – but did you notice they are simply tools to protect his family and help others?  The blessings are not the focus of this life.

Instead, a person with this kind of highlight-reel-life is one who fears the Lord, taking great delight in His commands.  God is his focus, and living life according to God’s design is his aim. 

This is the gut-check for us: Are we seeking the blessing more than the one who gives the blessing?  If so, then we can’t expect God to bless us – because we’re not ready to handle it.  Giving a child too many gifts doesn’t mature them, instead it spoils them and the relationship between the child and the giver. 

However, even if we mature to the point God blesses us at the level described in Psalm 112, as great as this life would be to live – admittedly, no one is perfect.  And no one’s life is perfect, even if your heart is confident, trusting in the Lord.  The psalmist knows this, and interestingly added one more verse to close out the psalm:

Psalm 112:10
The wicked one will see it and be angry; he will gnash his teeth in despair.
The desire of the wicked leads to ruin.

Just because you’re on God’s side and He’s blessing you…doesn’t mean you’ll be free from struggles or drama.  The wicked one – the person living contrary to God’s design – will see the life of the person God has blessed.  Instead of rejoicing and celebrating with them, the wicked one will become enraged…and may even act on their feelings, lashing out toward those who live righteously.

But in the end, despite any opposition they face, the one who trusts in the Lord knows that his heart is assured; he will not fear.  He isn’t shaken due to circumstances or situations or opposition from those who are living in rebellion against God.  Why?  Because he trusts that God will have the final victory and that in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.

That kind of life is worth highlighting.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

An old story example (part 2)

Sometimes, truth shows up in unexpected places.  We found this to be true in the last post, when we found that a part of Israel’s genealogy record contained an example for us to consider.  As a refresher, here is the passage:

1 Chronicles 5:18-20
The descendants of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh…waged war against the Hagrites…They received help against these enemies because they cried out to God in battle, and the Hagrites and all their allies were handed over to them.  He was receptive to their prayer because they trusted in Him. 

From this snippet of history, we found that God fulfills His promises.  He was willing to do so because these three tribes humbly cried out to God and trusted in Him for the result.  We then looked at a few of the promises God has made to us church-age believers and considered if we were approaching those promises the same way the Israelites did with what God promised to them.

However, that’s not where the story ends for these three tribes.  After settling in the land, they lived there for many generations…and the next part recorded by the Chronicler is also an example for us.  Unfortunately, though, it’s not a positive example:

1 Chronicles 5:23-26
The descendants of half the tribe of Manasseh settled in the land from Bashan to Ball-hermon (that is, Senir or Mount Hermon); they were numerous…They were valiant warriors, famous men, and heads of their ancestral houses.  But they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors.  They prostituted themselves with the gods of the nations God had destroyed before them.  So the God of Israel roused the spirit of King Pul (that is, Tiglath-pileser) of Assyria, and he took the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh into exile.

They had skill, they had fame, and they had authority – everything the world says you need to have a life of enjoyment and significance.  But they forgot how they got those things.  They forgot Who gave them those things.

Instead of continuing to trust in the God of their ancestors, they were distracted and enticed by the same failed gods that had destroyed the nations before them.  It’s easy for us to sit back and wonder ‘How in the world could this happen?’, but any one of these could be a contributing cause:

·       Perhaps their ancestors didn’t teach their descendants as well as they should have.
·       Perhaps the descendants didn’t want to listen to “the old ways”.
·       Perhaps their skill, fame, and power felt more secure than trusting an invisible God.
·       Perhaps the cultural gods validated feelings and activities that were contrary to God’s teachings.

Whatever the reasoning that happened from generation to generation – whether it was a slow decline or a sharp turn off the path – the generations that came from the three tribes that defeated the Hagrites were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors.  Even though they took those steps, they still had their skill, fame, and authority…so maybe they took that as proof they could get away with abandoning God.

But God saw the state of their hearts as more important than the power they had – and He roused the spirit of King Pul to conquer the northern tribes, taking them into exile.  The exile occurred because Israel repeatedly violated God’s first commandment, to have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3).  It is interesting to note that after the exile was over and God returned the Jews back to the land He had promised them, they never again had an issue with following other gods. 

When life is going well…we, too, have a tendency to forget that God brought us to this place and time in our lives.  We get distracted and enticed by other cultural gods, mainly for the same bullet point reasons we considered above.  And God takes our relationship with Him just as serious as he did with the Israelites.  The author of Hebrews gave us this warning:

Hebrews 12:7, 10-11
Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons.  For what son is there that a father does not discipline?...He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness.  No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful.  Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

As a good father, God is willing to punish us when our priorities are out of line.  Just like He did with Israel, He is willing to let us suffer consequences so we can understand who He is and who we are in Him.  When we are disciplined, our best course of action is to learn from it and be trained by it.  Let’s be like Israel, who learned from their exile, and not repeat those same actions again.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Warnings and knee-jerk reactions

Have you ever ignored a warning? 

Maybe someone was trying to tell you about a potential pitfall, but for whatever reason, you didn’t hear them.  How did that end up for you?

So far, David has given us several warnings in Psalm 62.  He’s warned us about two-faced people that will lie to us:

Psalm 62:4
They only plan to bring him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in lying;
they bless with their mouths, but they curse inwardly.

He’s warned us about the illusion of fame and status:

Psalm 62:9
Common people are only a vapor; important people, an illusion.
Together on a scale, they weigh less than a vapor.

Now, David gives us a two-for-one warning:

Psalm 62:10
Place no trust in oppression or false hope in robbery.
If wealth increases, don’t set your heart on it.

Don’t give in to the knee-jerk response: “Oppression?  I don’t oppress anybody!”

The only way to oppress someone is to first have power or authority over them.  Oppression happens when we misuse our authority in order to build ourselves up.  Have you ever flexed your authority muscles, just because you can? 

Don’t give in to the second knee-jerk response: “Robbery?  I haven’t robbed anybody!”

To rob someone is to take what doesn’t belong to you.  Maybe by your physical strength you took something, maybe you were cunning enough that they didn’t notice, or…have you ever taken credit for something that you didn’t do? 

If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, then you are in danger of doing what David is warning against: trusting your identity to your authority or placing your hope in what you can acquire – instead of trusting God.

While we might be tempted to write these warnings off as “play nice and I’ll be fine”, but in the last part of verse 10, David indicates that any reliance on wealth for our security would be foolish:

If wealth increases, don’t set your heart on it.

Making money is not a bad thing, in fact God tells us to work and earn a living in many places throughout the Bible.  However, in verse 10 David states that if wealth increases – and he doesn’t specify which type of riches, legitimate or otherwise – don’t set your heart on it.

Depending on the context, the Hebrew word for riches can indicate strength, capability, skill, valor, or wealth.  We would do well not to base our security on any of these things, even if they increase during our lifetime.

Even in a time of blessing and increase, we need God to continue to be our only source of security.  We can’t say that we haven’t been warned.

Keep Pressing,
Ken