The things of God are stupidity to many. Nobody, of his or
her own volition, seeks after God or things that please Him. If you’re that
person, you can stop reading now. After all, if you’re looking for a cogent
argument this isn’t the place. If any, only a simple faith exists. Many
who argue against what I'm going to say (or type, for that matter) have already made up their mind, not in the least concerned about cogency and rigour, and I
won’t bring the roof down doing that.
Think about it for a moment. If our value system is not
shaped by the Bible (
Matt. 6:19-24), the things we value or treasure
consistently let us down when we seek our significance, or satisfaction, or
security in those things. The energy spent in pursuing what we think those
things will provide—happiness, security, satisfaction—consistently lead to
failure. The pleasures we think will satisfy us never really do—at least not
for long. In fact, they typically just increase our thirst for more. What
futile irony!! Such irony is plainly the very fabric of life when it is lived
independently of God.
Christians or not, people stock up (rightly) to the point
that these material riches become their only goal (wrongly). The “attainable”
goal of a comfortable life. Nothing wrong, right? I put “attainable” because
everyone thinks that once it’s achieved, we’d step back, sit down, and enjoy.
But the fact is, will it ever be enough?
Now God and the Bible aside, I’ve heard on more than one
occasion people who proclaimed: “there’s more to life than {insert your
goals here}”. Sure thing. There’s more to doing research than to lose sleep
over whether the neighbouring lab’s going to outdo and out-publish in a month’s
time.
There’s God.
If only people would align their goals to God’s. Instead
of asking, “What should I eat, wear, or the type of property to own?” asks,
“What do I do with my gifts?” or “How can I bring glory to God?”
I’m perhaps the biggest hypocrite to be saying all these and
echoing Paul, “the least and the most unworthy”. Somehow, the toiling and the
sustained rush over the past months; plus the little eye-opening chitchats with
driven folks did put into perspective the futility of it all when done to
satisfy humanity’s benchmark.
What’s prosperity without a purpose? Self-glory is for the
here and now. Said Solomon: Yet when I surveyed all
that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun
Ecclesiastes 2:11
I’m not going to change anyone.
But I don’t wish to waste my time achieving everything, rely on my
[self-perceived] great understanding + knowledge, giving in to the physical
pleasures and contemporaneously bankrupting my spiritual life.
No, no. I’m not entering monkhood
nor am I shunning the good things in life [that God has created]. All I’m
saying is that I need to have my own convictions and not do as everyone else
does.
It’s not easy to close my eyes and walk. It’s not too
difficult not to peek either, or remove the blindfold and say, “Fine, I’ll do
what I know best.”
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
1 Timothy 6:6-10
If only the Bible hasn’t been relegated in favour of modern, up-to-date societal demands, or verses cherry-picked to fit [our goals and justify our actions] into the world (oh, we see this often among religionists, don’t we?).
I only hope and ask from God that more people will be like-minded when it comes to goals in life —
pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. To serve God and not the gods of this world.
