Have a nice day, eh?
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| alchu Have a nice day, eh? |
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Thursday, December 08, 2005
posted by Allan | 12/08/2005 10:10:00 AM | 3 comments Monday, December 05, 2005 Court is Adjourned This morning I listened to a Tim Keller sermon on pride (a sermon series on Proverbs), and the following was something that really struck me from it. He started out quoting CS Lewis on Pride - How Pride gets no pleaseure out of having something. Pride only has pleasure in having more of it than the next person. Proud people are not really proud of being intelligent, successful, or good looking, they are proud of having MORE success, MORE intelligence, and BETTER looks than the people around them. It is the comparison that makes us proud, the pleasure of being above the rest. Therefore, lust may drive a man to sleep with a beautiful woman, but in lust he may actually want her. Pride may drive a man to sleep with a beautiful woman as well, but just to prove that he can do it, and do it over the others. He doesn't really get any pleasure from her. He then goes on (later) to say: Every single human is desperately, unavoidably out there earning our salvation. We're all unsatisfied enough, incomplete in some way, all out here amassing a resume... endless arugments, endless accruing of evidence for and against. But for what? For a verdict! Which verdict? the one that says "I am a person that counts! I am a person of consequence! I'm okay! I'm a person of worth!" Every single human being needs to prove that to himself and to others. And therefore we're all in court, we're all arguing. endless litigation, whether you're a religious person or not - if you're religious, then you're before God. if you're not religious, you're still doing it! you have to do it! And the easiest way to do that is find someone you're better than, and remind yourself, and them, of it. That's the way to do it! And it's so easy, cause we're doing it to each other. Over here is a crowd that says "we are hipper and we are cooler and we are savvyer and we are more ironic than them." And that makes it easier because over there, they're saying "I hate savvy, postured, stylistic, ironic people. We're sensible. we're hard working. we're down to earth. we're not cynical." And over there there's a group saying "We're more moral and religious!" and the group over there "We are open minded, and we're not religious" and it doesn't matter! Conservative, liberal, athiest, believer christian, muslim, religious person, it doesn't matter. We all need to feel better than other people. we're all out there spinning, arguing.. the endless litigation, the endless trial, the endless accumulation of evidence proving ourselves that we count. We are constantly putting others down to raise ourselves, to prove we're better. We are decimated by others' criticisms because that's evidence against us as significant people. He then says that when our body parts are functioning properly, it doesnt call attention to itself. You don't come home and say "wow my elbows worked perfectly fine today. they were so great!" the only time you'll mention your elbows is if there's something wrong with them. But the ego, calls attention to itself every hour at least. you can't get through the day without thinking about you're being snubbed, you're getting ignored, or your feelings are getting hurt (your feelings are fine, it's your ego that's getting hurt) or feeling down on yourself. What does that mean? it means there's something very wrong with our identities; the basis of our sense of self. There's something really wrong with ourselves. Thankfully we, like Paul in 1 Corinthians 4, can say this: I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. He doesn't base his self-esteem, identity or self-worth on other people's opinions or standards. Nor does he base his self-esteem, identity or worth by his own opinions and standards. The Lord judges him, but that's not all - he's already been judged! The verdict is in! God already accepts him. The performance doesn't lead to verdict, the verdict leads to performance. Paul is out of the courtroom, because Jesus went into the courtroom. Jesus got the verdict _we_ deserved, so that we could get the verdict that _He_ deserved! Pastor Keller went on to say that he keeps a piece of paper in his wallet that he tries to look at every day... it says: Are you anxious? Are you afraid of how you look? Are you getting down on yourself? Are you criticizing other people? Are other people's criticisms devastating you? Are you looking down on anybody else? Court is adjourned. posted by Allan | 12/05/2005 11:58:00 AM | 2 comments |
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