Focus

 Today's Heresy.

Most of the great philosophers and thinkers of the past would look at today's "geniuses" and ask in bewilderment are you really wasting your brain power on mechanical ingenuity? Don't you know that the important issues in life are the spiritual ones--the issues that impact man's eternal soul?

A culture's whose focus is on making things more comfortable will have very little impact on the world. Those who are looking at their world and asking what can I do to change those things going on all around me that make me uncomfortable are the source of true change.

A culture's whose focus is on length of days will never find the true purpose of life. Those who know that there is so much more to learn about what really matters in life at a funeral than at a birthday party will live meaningful lives--no matter how long they live.

A culture's whose focus is on entertainment will never find true joy and contentment. Those who embrace the circumstances--good, bad, challenging--the reality that the Holy Spirit is writing into this chapter of their life will learn to be content in all things, strengthened by His joy, and confident in the inexhaustibility of the riches in glory set aside to meet their every need. (Naturally, I love the book metaphor--thanks Dawn--and what an "entertaining" writer the Holy Spirit is!)

A culture whose focus is on making life convenient will never find the power that a life focused on others can bring. There is nothing convenient about sacrificing one's time to minister to others. There is nothing convenient about using one's resources for the good of others and not yourself. There is nothing convenient about doing all that's necessary to be a genuine, spontaneous. loving friend to others--no matter how much that labor of love will make the things that you want to do for you inconvenient.

A culture's whose focus is on building an earthly paradise through technology will lay the groundwork for a hell on earth. No lasting purpose, no meaning, no joy, no contentment, no deep and lasting relationships. A culture who is trying to replace God with what machines can do for them to enrich their lives have deluded themselves into believing as one writer has said, "that though they don't have much to gain, they don't have much to lose either." No. they just lose a sense of God's presence in every moment of their lives, a dynamic purpose, true meaning, unquenchable joy in all circumstances, an earthquake proof contentment, deep and lasting relationships. Nope, not much to lose at all.