Skip to main content

Dragon-Slaying


Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:11)

          Simplify by Bill Hybels is a good book to read if you’re feeling like you need a life. He writes about five keys to filling your bucket (soul, heart): (re)connecting with God, (re)connecting with family, doing the right work, re-creation, and exercise. Now at the end of the book, he writes about satisfaction. It’s not only important to figure out what satisfies and what doesn’t, but why those things do or don’t satisfy. Does it not satisfy because it’s too easy? Does it not satisfy because I have unrealistic and/or perfectionistic ideas? Does it fail to satisfy because there is something inherent in the activity that leads to dissatisfaction?
          He lists several filters he uses to evaluate the opportunities that come his way: Will it bring true satisfaction? Does it align with God’s purpose for my life, or with my purpose for my life? Will it lead to a life of significance? (Or, will it lead to the life of significance I actually want?)
          He goes on to list seven things that he describes as “wind-chasing:” physical health and longevity, education, pleasure, work, wealth, sex, and fame. Given that some of these are connected with some of the five bucket-filling activities, this may create confusion. Bucket-filling activities are the means to the end of filling and maintaining a bucket. We start chasing the wind when the activities become ends-unto-themselves, or when we become unbalanced. We chase the wind when those five bucket-fillers, or even our bucket, gets mutated from being a helpful part of our lives to a dragon that hoards wealth and eats what we sacrifice to it but is never satisfied. 
         I like his questions about satisfaction. I suspect quite most of us need to do some dragon-slaying.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “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. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more