Transitory Psychosis

I read with interest an article regarding a Stanford University study on multitasking. (Read it here.) Like most people in my age bracket, I was taught early on to do one thing and complete it before moving on to the next. With the absence of cell phones, the Internet, Facebook, and a lot of other modern information streams that wasn’t too difficult–provided I had the self-discipline to turn off the radio and TV.

Fast forward a few years to the contemporary world. Today we are inundated with non-stop streams of information coming at us from all sides. The old saw about men and television is that men don’t want to know what is on TV, they want to know what else is on TV. In other words, men don’t just sit and watch one thing. They constantly click the remote to other channels (or games) to see if they are missing something that might be better. Of course, I’ve learned that men aren’t the only ones affected by that virus. Women do it too.

The problem is that as information streams multiply, the remote virus seems to spread. We seem to feel an irresistible urge to mentally “change the channel” every so often. We seem to feel a need to know what is going on in the world (Internet), in the lives of our friends (Facebook), and even in the lives of people we haven’t seen in years or wouldn’t pick up the phone to call. In fact, there is even an urge to know what is going on in the lives of people we’ve never even met (Twitter).
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This week I’ve posted about my definition of success: Success is doing God’s will, God’s way, in God’s timing. That definition, of course, raises the question: How do we know the will of God? That’s what the previous post began to address. (If you’ve missed those posts, you may want to go back and read them.)

We’ve looked at two means by which Christians can determine God’s will: His Word (the Bible), and His Spirit (the Holy Spirit). Let’s look at two more.

3. God sometimes reveals His will through His people. There are times when God has spoken through His people to reveal His will. In a sense, this is really the Holy Spirit speaking through people to reveal God’s will. Acts 21 provides one example when Agabus delivered to Paul the news of the imprisonment that awaited him at Jerusalem (verses 10-12). Because of human frailty and fallibility, I list this third among the means God uses to reveal His will. Human beings, even Christians, can be influenced by other factors and give us a bum steer at times. In Acts 21, if Paul had listened to his friends, he would’ve avoided imprisonment by not going to Jerusalem (verses 12-14). Had he done so, he would’ve missed the opportunity to take the gospel to the high-ranking officials in Rome and we would’ve been deprived of the rich epistles he wrote in prison. When seeking the will of God, we should listen to the counsel of good and godly brethren, but we must evaluate it based on the revelation found in the Word of God. (more…)

In my previous two posts I’ve stated a definition of success: Success is doing God’s will, God’s way, in God’s timing. That definition has helped me over the years. If that definition of success is correct, it is obviously of utmost importance that we know the will of God so we can do it. So how do we know the will of God?

From Scripture, it would appear God reveals His will to us by four different means: His Word (the Bible), His Spirit (the Holy Spirit), His people (our Christian brothers and sisters), and our circumstances. For practical purposes, I see a degree of hierarchy in these four means. Let’s look at each one briefly.
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I said yesterday that success is doing God’s will, in God’s way, in God’s timing. So how do we determine God’s will? The answer to that question seems to vary with who is doing the talking. But before I give you my answer, let me mention how God’s will is NOT to be determined.

1. A sense of peace. You’ve probably heard it said that you can know God’s will by the fact that you will have peace about the decision(s) you have made. While that’s a popular assertion, it is not an effective way to determine God’s will because it depends upon ourselves and our feelings. Our feelings, perceptions, and emotions are notoriously unreliable. Have you ever made a wrong turn with full confidence you were going the right way? A sense of “peace” can come from a variety of circumstances having nothing to do with the will of God. Making a decision (even a wrong) one can bring “peace” because the inner conflict has been resolved. Giving in to a persistent temptation can bring “peace” for the same reason. Want a temporary sense of “peace,” go ahead and say what you think, run off with the person you’re attracted to even if he or she is someone else’s spouse, or return to your former lifestyle of sin. All will provide a temporary, albeit quite false, sense of “peace.”
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Everybody I know wants to be successful. Nobody I know seriously desires to fail. The problem is that we aren’t always very good at defining our terms–especially among the followers of Christ.

To the secular mind, success is pretty easy to measure: sell more, buy more, achieve more, make more, etc. The trappings of success are pretty simple too–the corner office, the important title, the right house in the right part of town, the luxury automobile, the ability to influence the right people, etc.

Even in the church world, the measure of success seems pretty simple to some: nickels and noses. The “successful” church has larger offerings and larger attendance than “average.” The more churches that rank beneath yours, the more successful you are.
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How do we evaluate ourselves? What it the measure we use to determine if we are pretty, wealthy, successful, intelligent, etc.? Determining that measuring rod will have a lot to do with whether we are happy, content, and confident.

Unfortunately, the measure we often use is that presented to us in the media, particularly print and various forms of video. How many women have looked at the magazine photos of two-time mother Britney Spears in a bikini and mentally compared Brit’s appearance to their own? How many guys have witnessed the amazing athleticism of a world-class athlete like Kobe Bryant and felt almost unworthy to pick up a basketball? How many people who are rich by world standards look at guys like Bill Gates and feel they can’t possibly measure up?

The truth, of course, is that all of those people are part of a tiny minority who have the right genetic predisposition, training/coaching, opportunities, health, and support to get where they are. I’m not depreciating their accomplishments (I’m not necessarily applauding them either), but these people are far from ordinary. They aren’t even above average. So using them as our yardstick is not only unwise, it’s silly. On top of that, these people often lack the Christlike character we are called to emulate as believers.

We’re silly to measure ourselves by standing alongside the super-elite. Instead, we need to learn to see ourselves as God does–a unique individual with gifts, strengths, and weaknesses all our own. “Success” in His eyes is not based on how we measure up to others, but whether we fulfill His will for us.

I was reminded yesterday by an article on maximumimpact.com of an Olympic story that had slipped from conscious memory—the decathlon duel of Dave Johnson and Dan O’Brien that was supposed to take place in 1992 in Barcelona. As the Games approached, Reebok saw an opportunity and played up the rivalry of the strait-laced Dave and free-spirited Dan. The two were the best decathletes in the world and it seemed the only question was who would get gold and who would get silver.
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I ran across an interesting quote this morning from J. Oswald Sanders. It’s worth passing on.

“A great deal more failure is the result of an excess of caution than of bold experimentation with new ideas. The frontiers of the kingdom of God were never advanced by men and women of caution.”
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I enjoyed a restful Thanksgiving last week (was it really only last week?). The food was great. The time with extended family was great. I even enjoyed watching a little football. Although I’m not an Arkansas fan, I enjoyed seeing them beat LSU, knocking them out of their perch at No. 1 in the country.

However, as I watched bits and pieces of that game and several others, I couldn’t help but notice other things–packed stadiums, painted fans, intense anxiety when the game was close, explosions of joy by the winning side, and the dejection of the losers. I listened as commentators dissected each play in painstaking detail and talked about the head coaches million-dollar contracts. In the midst of it all I had to admit that we Americans are a nation of people intensely committed to matters of no consequence.
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What motivates you? What keeps you heading out the door to work each day or tackling your daily responsibilities? What drives your ministry? What propels you to “succeed”?

Last night, reading in Ecclesiastes, a verse jumped out at me: “Then I observed that most people are motivated to success by their envy of their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless, like chasing the wind” (Ecc. 4:4).
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