Bjcorbin's Blog

As a person whose only graduation occurred more than a quarter century ago, I caught myself pondering what I might share with the young people who are taking this significant step in their journey.  What follows are some things that came to mind.

1.      Life is not a ride, it’s a journey.  A ride is simply being carried along to wherever the vehicle happens to be going, while a journey has an ultimate destination, which requires some navigation and effort to complete.  Unless we purpose in our heart to be someone or do something, we are likely to live life like a pinball; propelled by gravity and bouncing from one obstacle to another.  Anything worthwhile in life will require some investment on our part; those who are unwilling to make such an investment will generally be pushed along by the winds of circumstance to some uncertain end.

2.      Planting apple seeds won’t get you an orange tree.  Just as dependable as the law of gravity is the concept that we will reap (i.e. harvest) what we sow (i.e. plant).  Though this phrase is immediately recognizable to most people, there are few who actually live as though it were true.  Our human nature will often cause us to be unforgiving with other people, while expecting generosity in return; to be deceptive about our motivations, while expecting others to deal with us honestly and to be selfish about our desires, while expecting others to be considerate of us.  We must always remain conscious of the fact that the cup we use to dispense blessing, is the cup that we will eventually drink our blessings from.

3.      What other people believe about you isn’t as important as what you believe about yourself.  Only the things which we genuinely believe have the ability to impact how we live.  Therefore the only words (positive or negative) that have the power to move us are those which we accept as truth.  If a man concludes that he is a failure, no amount of praise or encouragement can bring him to victory; and if a man concludes that he is an over-comer, no amount of criticism can hold him back.  While we are generally powerless to keep others from speaking about us, we possess the ultimate responsibility for what we are willing to accept as truth.

4.      The bad guys don’t necessarily wear black, nor do the good guys necessarily wear white.  It is very convenient to categorize people and things as either good or evil, but very few things (& even fewer people) actually fit well in either category.  Because of our fallen nature, every man possesses the potential to do what is evil; and yet because we were created in the image of God, we also come with a capacity for righteousness.  While few people are likely to pursue something that is clearly evil, all of us are susceptible to fall to those things which we have mistakenly classified as being “good”. 

5.      The pursuit of happiness is like chasing your shadow.  Before we were in our mothers’ womb, God knew us and He created each one us to fulfill a unique place in His creation.  If we never come to an understanding of what that place is, we spend our lives feeling empty and as though we never really fit in.  Joy, contentment, fulfillment, happiness… cannot be the object of our pursuit; but undoubtedly they are the things that will accompany us if we pursue God and His purposes in our lives.

6.      American Idolatry.  In America we love the image of the rugged individualist, the “self-made” man and even the rebel; but because we were made to worship God, we will undoubtedly worship something and because we were made to be followers of God, we will undoubtedly follow something.  Whatever we chose to worship and follow in this life will certainly be our provision in the next. 

7.      Don’t eat everything that is put in front of you.  In the first chapter of the book of Daniel we see the Israelites being brought into exile, as the King of Babylon looks for the best & the brightest amongst their young people.  His plan was to indoctrinate them into the Babylonian (i.e. pagan) way of thinking; and upon finding them he fed them from his very own table, which undoubtedly represented the best of what was available.  We also learn that these young men were not willing to partake of everything that was set before them, which seems to have been a significant part of their preparation for the stunning victories that they would later experience (i.e. in the lions den & in the fiery furnace).  Just as it was then, there is now a prince, who is seeking the best & the brightest young minds amongst God’s chosen people, so that he might indoctrinate them in the ways of this fallen world.  Like their brothers from long ago, these young people must also be discerning of what is being offered and what they should digest.    

8.      Don’t chase the “American Dream”.  The “American Dream” began simply as a promise of opportunity and freedom; but as that promise was realized, the dream evolved into something much less virtuous.  Pursuit of this dream drives us to be more focused on what is seen (i.e. temporary) than on what is unseen (i.e. eternal); to prioritize our desires above the needs of others; and to derive our sense of worth & security from things instead of from our Creator.  Like any dream, we are all destined to one day wake up and in that day we will face the ultimate reality, which is eternity.

9.      Expect to meet resistance.  We live in a culture that is obsessed with winning and that tends to portray the road to victory as a glorious parade; but the truth is that unless there is resistance, there is nothing to make us grow stronger.  If the Son of God (a man with perfect faith), learned obedience from the things He suffered, we can be sure that this will be a part of our journey as well.  As Children of God, we’ve been issued armor, given a sword and been called more than conquerors; undoubtedly the God who foreknew us was telling us what to expect.

10. You can always come home.  All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; undoubtedly this will be true in the years to come as well.  In God’s mercy He does not require perfection of us, but He does expect sincerity.  He is faithful to reward those who “diligently seek Him” and to work all things to the good of those who “love Him” and who are “called to His purpose”.  Remember that no matter where your journey takes you, you’ve never traveled beyond the boundaries of His love.

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1.      Peace is not the absence of struggle within our lives; it is God’s response to it.  Despite some popular preaching within the church, the scripture clearly tells us that to live for Christ in this fallen world is going to be a battle.  It says that there will be internal struggles (e.g. the flesh wars against the spirit), external struggles (e.g. Jesus told His disciples that because the world hated Him, it would hate those who followed Him as well…) and spiritual struggles (e.g. we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers and rulers of the darkness of this world and with the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms).  The Lord provides for this battle with armor for protection, with weapons specifically designed to defeat our enemy and with a peace that transcends the struggle.

2.      The Holy Spirit will generally play whatever role we assign Him in our life.  Though the concept of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is foundational to the Christian faith, I’ve found that within the church it is our understanding of the Holy Spirit, and His role within our lives, that most clearly defines our differences.  I believe that if our understanding of Him doesn’t extend beyond what occurred in an upstairs room nearly two thousand years ago, we run the risk of being a people who possess a form of Godliness, but who deny the power thereof.

3.      If you are “mad at God”, you are wrong and you need to stop!  I’ve heard so many people talk about being mad at God, as though that is a perfectly normal and maybe even acceptable emotional response.  While God is certainly merciful enough to deal with this emotion, I’d submit that wisdom (which begins with a “fear of the Lord”) dictates that this is an unacceptable way to live.  If there is disagreement between God and me, I am the one who is not seeing things clearly and am in need of repentance (i.e. a change of mind).

4.      Our mind (i.e. intellect) is just as much a part of our flesh as our emotions, and just as likely to lead us astray.  It is quite common within Christendom to be warned about the power of our emotions and their potential to lead us astray; and while those warnings are warranted to a point, there doesn’t seem to be much acknowledgement of the potential for what we call “rational thought” to do the same.  It seems that the scripture puts much more emphasis on warning us about this latter pitfall, as we are told not to lean on our own understanding, that the wisdom of men is foolishness to God and that there is a way that seems right to a man, but that it leads to death.  My experience is that how we think about something will generally dictate how we feel about it; which means that by the time our emotions are carrying us away, we’ve already lost the battle in our minds.  No doubt this is what Paul was addressing when he encouraged the Corinthians to take every thought captive in order to make it obedient to Christ.

5.      Though God chooses to work through His people, we must remember that we are not equal partners.  Though we as His children need to make ourselves available for His purposes, we must remember that apart from Him we can do “nothing”.  Only He can draw someone to Himself, only He can change a heart and only He can bring the increase.

6.      Our human concept of what is good is just as corrupt in the eyes of God as that which is genuinely evil.  In the garden, Adam and Eve saw the fruit of the forbidden tree as good, even though God had been clear that it was not for them.  This fruit was from the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil, and it seems that our concept of what is good has been perverted ever since.  Jesus challenged the man who addressed Him as “good” teacher; saying that there is only One who is “good”; and there are many today who have based their eternal destiny on the premise that they are a “good” person.  Ultimately it will not be a question of our goodness; it will be whether we have partaken of the fruit of the Tree of Life (i.e. Jesus).

7.      The tests that we go through in this life aren’t meant to be graded by God.  The scripture tells us that before we were in our mothers’ womb, God knew us; that He knows every hair on our head and that all of our days were written in His book before one of them came to pass.  As the trials of this life reveal what is truly in our hearts, we must remember that this revelation isn’t for God’s benefit, it is for ours.  Unless we examine our response to these tests, we are unlikely to understand our need for repentance (i.e. to change our mind or direction) or to undergo genuine transformation.

8.      Someone who tries to make the best of both worlds generally makes nothing of either of them.  It is very much human nature to want to have it both ways.  We want to sit in front of the TV, eating what we want and at the same time to remain healthy and fit; we like the stability of a long term relationship, while maintaining the freedom to pursue temporary pleasures when they present themselves; and we desire the security of knowing that we’re bound for heaven, but are not necessarily sold out to the idea of being crucified with Christ.  Despite our nature, the scripture makes no allowances for this, saying that a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways, that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God and that it is better for you to be hot or cold, than it is to be lukewarm.  Early in my walk with the Lord, I queried Him as to why it was better to be cold than to be lukewarm, and I felt like the Lord said that someone who is cold is not likely to mistake themselves as being hot.

9.      When our works are tested by fire, only those things rooted in faith, hope and love will remain.  Hope is the thing that brings love and faith together; because love “always hopes” and faith is the “substance of things hoped for”.  The scripture tells us that without faith it is “impossible” to please God and that despite all the good things we might try to do for God, if we have not love, we have “nothing”.  Paul says that the “only thing that counts is faith expressing itself as love” and that in the end only three things shall remain – faith, hope and love.

10.  Prayer is not just us talking to God, it is God talking to us.  Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone “hears my voice” and opens the door, I will come in…; when you “hear My voice”, harden not your heart; My sheep “know My voice”, they listen and they follow…; He who belongs to God, “hears” what God says…  The scripture is not vague on this point; God is speaking and His children absolutely need to hear what He’s saying.

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5 Inevitable Outcomes of Relative Truth

Statistics indicate that somewhere between two-thirds and three-fourths of adults in America believe that the truth is relative (i.e. that each person defines what truth is for themselves).  Though this philosophy goes by many names (e.g. enlightenment, secular humanism, post modernism, moral relativism…), they all hinge on the idea that truth is more a perception than an absolute (e.g. what I view as truth, may not necessarily be truth to you).  While on a superficial level this point of view might seem graciously tolerant, a deeper inspection reveals profound implications for a society that adopts such a philosophy.  In light of that, I offer these thoughts on what I believe are the very natural consequences of embracing this paradigm.

1.      Self-Centeredness:  A belief that the truth is absolute will generally cause us to search for it outside of ourselves and to view truth as transcendent to our own experience.  It tends to make us more willing to embrace concepts that are beyond our understanding (e.g. a higher purpose or a higher power).  A belief that the truth is relative will generally cause us to turn inward in our quest for truth and to limit it to whatever we can conceive of.  This tends to cause us to live on a more instinctual level, driven largely by how we feel at any given moment.

2.      Broken promises / vows:  Detractors of absolute truth tend to view its immovable nature as oppressive, while seeing the transient nature of relative truth as attractive.  But for those on the receiving end of promises and/or vows, the dynamic nature of relative truth is a legitimate cause for concern; as those who no longer wish to be bound by the limits of their vows can simply redefine their parameters for truth, thereby voiding any previous agreements.  In such cases, the perpetrator will generally rationalize that their mistake wasn’t in breaking the vow, but in making the vow in the first place.

3.      Disunity:  For a society, a community or even a family to be truly functional there must be a willingness on the part of the individuals to forfeit some amount of their personal autonomy for the greater well-being of the group.  The incentive for such sacrifice normally lies within a shared value system or maybe even a commonality of purpose.  Generally, during a nation’s formative stage, a document is forged, which ultimately reflects the commonly held values or goals under which the people choose to unite.  Our own constitution, which has been one of the most successful documents of its kind, hangs all of its lofty principles upon the relatively simple phrase, “we hold these truths to be self evident”.  At the point that each man adopts their own concept of truth, that statement ceases to be accurate; which ultimately renders the words that follow – meaningless. While relative truth would seem to be very liberating on an individual basis, it is highly destructive to the concept of national unity. 

4.      Lawlessness: The concept of a law is that a society agrees to set a limit, boundary or constraint on what is acceptable within that society.  The agreement on where that limit should be set hinges on some common standard by which to measure acceptable behavior.  In a society that embraces the idea that every man is allowed to define truth for themselves, every law becomes susceptible to the charge that it is an obstacle to personal liberty.  If our goal is to elevate individual freedom to that level, than there is no standard that could ever truly be enforced; which by definition creates a state of lawlessness.

5.      Godlessness:  The concept of fearing God is rooted in the idea that He is powerful, that there is good and evil, and that we will ultimately give some sort of accounting for our lives one day.  But if the truth is genuinely relative, then a just God would have no basis to judge anyone.  We would all simply be acquitted of any perceived indiscretion by the fact that we lived in accordance with the truth as we defined it.  In such a reality, even the concept of good and evil becomes abstract, as what I define as evil another may define as good (e.g. flying a plane into the World Trade Center).  If God has no means by which to hold us accountable, His role is reduced to that of a cosmic bystander.  We can invoke His name and claim to believe in Him, but ultimately it becomes of no consequence.

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1.      Revenge is sweet – In truth, fantasies of revenge tend to be far sweeter than the realization of it.  I’ve noticed that those who feel as though they have been so wronged that revenge is justified, never quite reach the place of feeling that things are truly even in the end.  Seeking revenge simply keeps the pain of a given situation close to the surface and ultimately compounds the damage for everyone involved.  

2.      New and improved – This concept has become so engrained in Western culture that we often assume that something is an upgrade simply because it is new.  While we undoubtedly live in a time of unprecedented advances in technology, I would suggest that qualities like character, craftsmanship and durability have suffered tremendously.

3.      Mr. or Mrs. Right – While there are undeniably people who seem destined for each other, the myth of finding Mr or Mrs Right is that you can then have a relationship that doesn’t take any real effort.  Regardless of how compatible two people may be, a healthy relationship always involves give and take.  Just as in a garden, you must start with good seed, weeds occasionally have to be pulled, infestations need to be treated and sometimes things need to be watered by hand.

4.      Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me – Anyone, who has been wounded by words that pierced their soul, can attest to the fact that the healing of a broken bone is much less painful and takes significantly less time.

5.      There’s no harm in looking – The eyes are the windows of the soul and as humans we have a tendency to gravitate toward whatever we fix them on.  What we see stirs our mind, while those thoughts evoke emotions; and ultimately those feelings press us to respond.  Every great act of treason begins with just a look.

6.      The more the merrier – While this saying has the potential to be true, I have found that more often than not, it isn’t.  In my own lifetime I have noticed that the company of a few close friends beats being in a crowd; that acquiring more stuff hasn’t made life any better and that starving children in Third World countries seem to smile more than the average kid in middle-class America.

7.      Maintenance and/or Scrub free – Though there seems to be a growing number of products making such claims (i.e. to be scrub free or maintenance free), I’ve yet to find one that truly lives up to either.  This kind of marketing appeals to our desire to get good results without making any real effort, but it tends to fly in the face of reality.

8.      Nice guys finish last – To be sure, nice guys are often under-appreciated and taken advantage of; but time has a way of balancing the scales and in the end, nice guys rarely finish at the back of the pack.  Principles such as “you reap what you sow” or “what goes around comes around” tend to prevent this saying from ringing true.

9.      Men want sex, while women want relationship – While there is an ounce of truth behind this idea, its implications are more misleading than helpful.  The notion that men and women want something totally different often serves as justification for the mythological war, known as “The Battle of the Sexes”.  The truth is that both men and women really want the same thing, which is to feel significant and valued.  The fact that men are generally more prone to physical expression, while women are generally more prone to emotional expression, doesn’t diminish this common goal.  Despite the stereotypes, men are genuinely relational beings, just as women are undoubtedly sexual beings.  The struggle for many is that our contemporary ideas about sex and relationships aren’t really getting us to the place of feeling valued or significant. 

10.  Beauty is only skin deep – Something that is pleasing to the eye, but rotten at its core, is simply attractive and doesn’t really qualify as “beautiful”.  True beauty can only be defined by what is at the heart of a thing. 

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