LIVING IN A BOX OF OUR OWN MAKING

 

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

               In the main, we like putting things in boxes. We like things in our lives to be neatly tied together with a bow. Most of us struggle with ambiguity and open-endedness. A friend of mine made that clear with the following quip.

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who need closure.

               When things are left hanging, something inside of us screams for closure. What happened? What’s the answer? What happened next? We like things neat and tidy.

               It is natural for us to satisfy our need for closure by putting things in neat boxes. We often do this by putting labels on things. He’s a Republican. She’s a Democrat. He’s narrow minded. She’s bigoted. Putting labels on things categorizes them for us. It puts things in little boxes that we can handle.

               I have been reading G.K. Chesterton’s book “Orthodoxy”. In it, he makes that point that the trend of materialism today is to put everything into neat little boxes. By denying the supernatural, we confine life to the narrow box of determinism. Determinism eliminates mystery by having to explain everything in naturalistic terms. There is a logical explanation for everything that we see and experience. Our emotions are the product of the neurological impulses in our brain caused by specific chemical reactions. Life itself is the product of the evolutionary process. There is nothing at work outside of the natural world in which we live.

               The materialistic view of the world places everything into neat, explainable boxes. There is a certain sense of comfort and security in this. If we can explain something, then, in a sense, we can understand it and control it. In a sense, it becomes “safe.” The problem with the materialistic approach is that it places us in a very small box of our own making. It eliminates mystery and the transcendent.

               Yet, there is something within us that cries out for the transcendent. When materialism is taken to its logical conclusion, it become a straightjacket. We find ourselves confined in a very small box of our own making. Instead of our world expanding, it collapses in on itself. Suddenly, we find it hard to breathe within that box. We clamor for the air of mystery and wonder; of the unexplainable and the transcendent. So, we create fantasy worlds and dabble in a spirituality of our own making. If there is no God, then we will create our own god to fill the void, whether that be art, music, science, politics, or even ourselves.

               As Chesterton points out, materialism eliminates free will. Everything is determined by a set of parameters that are outside of our control. But faith in God actually frees us from the boundaries of this confining box. It opens the door to mystery and wonder. It acknowledges that there are things we cannot know, understand, or control. It also allows us to really think outside of the box. Today, thinking outside of the box only results in another box. But spiritual thinking outside of the box actually opens up an expanding universe without boundaries. Materialism seeks to narrow and confine our world. Faith in God seeks to expand and explode our world.

               The common thinking of our world today is that we exist because of random, causeless events. Because of this, our lives have no ultimate meaning or purpose. We may be able to create some temporary sense of meaning and purpose, but in the end, even those will evaporate with time. The Bible gives us a very different picture. It tells us that we were intentionally created in the image of God with meaning and purpose. The meaning and purpose of our lives transcends the time we have on this earth. As Jesus has said, we have the chance to store up treasures for all of eternity. How we live our lives matters, not just to us, but to God. Therefore, everything we do becomes a conscious choice to either invest in eternity or squander our resources on temporary pleasures.

               Years ago, there was a movie called “The Truman Show.” It was the story of a man who, from birth, was raised in an artificial world. He lived in a totally predetermined world where everything was unchanging, until one day he rebelled and found the door to the outside world. Materialism wants to trap us in “The Truman Show.” Faith in God shows us the door to a much wider and more meaningful world.

               There is a significant difference between facts and truth. Facts tell us what is, but they cannot explain why things are. They create the walls of the boxes that we live within. But truth transcends the facts; it goes beyond the sterile walls of a deterministic world. Truth sets us free to engage with mysteries that will lead us deeper and deeper into God’s unconfined reality.

               Many secular people claim that religion takes away our freedom and confines us. In reality, true faith in God does the exact opposite. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, he explodes the walls of our little, self-made boxes and invites us into the expanse of his amazing reality.

John 8:31-32 (NIV)
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

John 14:6 (NIV)
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

 

WHAT IS GROWING IN YOUR GARDEN?

 

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

               I saw an interesting commercial the other day. It began with beautiful scenes of pristine nature. Then it showed pollution being pumped into the water and fouling the environment. The camera panned back and a young woman, who was vaping, came into focus. The tag line was vaping pollutes the beautiful world of your body.

               The point of the commercial was that what we put into our body affects our wellbeing. This is a truth that should be applied not just to the physical things we take into our body but to the emotional and intellectual things we take into our mind.

               In my devotions today, I read a piece by Max Lucado where he equated our heart to a greenhouse garden. The crop that the garden produces is dictated by the seeds that are planted there. Then he asked the question, what seeds are you planting in your heart?

               Solomon warned us long ago to guard our hearts. The heart represents the very core of our being. It is more than just our mind. It is the operating system of our life. Just like in a computer, the operating system controls everything. The output from the operating system is shaped by the data put in.

               Most of us have become more careful about what we eat. We watch the amount of fat and sugar that we consume. If we are diligent in this, it pays off in better physical health. Unfortunately, we are often not as selective about what we allow to come into our minds. We have become used to consuming intellectual junk food. We are bombarded daily with messages that are shaping who we are becoming, and often we don’t see the changes until they become very evident.

               When I was in college, I had a roommate who we very negative. He could find fault in any situation. Nothing seemed to be right in his estimation. Sometime during that year, I developed a similar negative attitude. By the end of the year, if my roommate could not find something to complain about I could. It took me a while to clean out the negative and reset my operating system.

               As followers of Christ, we have to fight hard to swim again to tide of negativism that is so prominent in our society. If we do not guard our heart, we will focus on the wrong things and miss the best things. Paul challenges us to be intentional about what we allow to dominate our thinking.

Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things.

               Paul’s words offer us a filter through which to evaluate what we allow into our heart. When confronted by some message we can ask these probing questions. Is this true? Is this noble? Is this right? Is this pure? Is this lovely? Is this admirable? Is this excellent? Is this praiseworthy? If the answer to any of these questions is no, then we need to shut the door to that message. Don’t let it in. Don’t give it space in your garden.

               At the end of Paul’s challenge, he tells us to think about such things. The word we have translated think can also be translated ruminate or meditate on these things. I like that image. If you are like me, you tend to chew on things, especially negative or hurtful things. Paul tells us to change our diet. We need to intentionally chew on the things that will lift us up not the things that will tear us down.

               Let me ask a couple of important questions. What are you intellectually and emotionally consuming on a regular basis? What are you reading or listening to on a pod cast? What are you watching on TV or the internet? What seeds are you planting in your garden?

2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.