It's been a while, and this is my New Years Eve Eve musing. It was inspired by a little piece of paper that rests as a bookmark in my Buechner devotional. On this paper is a little note that a teammate wrote me while I was in India. She had written little bits about me that she saw, and at the end, a quote from 1 Timothy. To her: I thank you; to God: the glory.
What is your god of choice?
We all have them and, in essence, they all boil down to the love of the metaphor of money. Paul, in 1 Timothy, says that the love of money is the root of all evil, and this is true at face value: money causes greed, strife, lust, hunger, starvation, lack of resources for things that matter like clean water and healthcare, etc. But deeper still, what is money? Money is this thing (tangible or non) that we ascribe value to and then use as a scale, a bind, against another person. And so, really, I ask you: what is your money; your god of choice?
Me? By far my god of choice is intellectualism, and I'll be damned (or blessed, either way it's a bad pun) if that's not a form of currency. My intellectual friends and I will flash our bright and shining nuggets of "knowledge" that have no "news" relevancy to others (ref. Walker Percy, The Message in the Bottle). Like there, I pulled out the fact that I have read a Walker Percy book (or, really, I had it presented to me in a class, I haven't cracked the blasted thing) that you might not have, and so, in order to entrap the entirety of the implications I was wishing to convey, I gave unto you - O' lower being than I - the reference, such that you might better yourself to my haughty intellectual level.
Grades in school function in the same way, and they're but only one of the many places where this absurd intellectual exchange is measured. I can potentially use my grades as a scale against you: I will graduate at least Cum Laude, if not Magna. And it's all BS.
But the problem, as was noted with Paul, existed LONG before the university institutions and grading systems:
"If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men or corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain" (1 Timothy 6:3-5).
"a means to financial gain..." in the sense of whatever we ascribe worth to. Once we have ascribed worth to it, we can hold it, and lord it over someone else. But where will that get us? "Controversies and quarrels about words." For the intellectual, this is a mode of life. And through this mode of life, I bow to my false god, and serve him with most of my life.
And yet: "We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God" (1 Corinthians 8:1b-3)
And God, who has a knack for coming out of left field, likes to blindside me with Truth so simple that it turns the intellectual on his head. Or to those who use money as their money, Truth from such a poverse event that it turns them from their old god. Or to those who use strength as money, Truth from such a weakening or debilitating event that it wrecks their tenacity to the false.
Oh God,
Might I love You.
And leave my old god.
Might You take my ways,
And use them to serve You.
Amen
What is your god of choice?
We all have them and, in essence, they all boil down to the love of the metaphor of money. Paul, in 1 Timothy, says that the love of money is the root of all evil, and this is true at face value: money causes greed, strife, lust, hunger, starvation, lack of resources for things that matter like clean water and healthcare, etc. But deeper still, what is money? Money is this thing (tangible or non) that we ascribe value to and then use as a scale, a bind, against another person. And so, really, I ask you: what is your money; your god of choice?
Me? By far my god of choice is intellectualism, and I'll be damned (or blessed, either way it's a bad pun) if that's not a form of currency. My intellectual friends and I will flash our bright and shining nuggets of "knowledge" that have no "news" relevancy to others (ref. Walker Percy, The Message in the Bottle). Like there, I pulled out the fact that I have read a Walker Percy book (or, really, I had it presented to me in a class, I haven't cracked the blasted thing) that you might not have, and so, in order to entrap the entirety of the implications I was wishing to convey, I gave unto you - O' lower being than I - the reference, such that you might better yourself to my haughty intellectual level.
Grades in school function in the same way, and they're but only one of the many places where this absurd intellectual exchange is measured. I can potentially use my grades as a scale against you: I will graduate at least Cum Laude, if not Magna. And it's all BS.
But the problem, as was noted with Paul, existed LONG before the university institutions and grading systems:
"If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men or corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain" (1 Timothy 6:3-5).
"a means to financial gain..." in the sense of whatever we ascribe worth to. Once we have ascribed worth to it, we can hold it, and lord it over someone else. But where will that get us? "Controversies and quarrels about words." For the intellectual, this is a mode of life. And through this mode of life, I bow to my false god, and serve him with most of my life.
And yet: "We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God" (1 Corinthians 8:1b-3)
And God, who has a knack for coming out of left field, likes to blindside me with Truth so simple that it turns the intellectual on his head. Or to those who use money as their money, Truth from such a poverse event that it turns them from their old god. Or to those who use strength as money, Truth from such a weakening or debilitating event that it wrecks their tenacity to the false.
Oh God,
Might I love You.
And leave my old god.
Might You take my ways,
And use them to serve You.
Amen
posted by Thinker Joe | 8:03 PM
1 Comments:
sooooo i'd like to apply my education [not because i paid a lot of money for it and i worship it, but because i'm blessed with it]...
'How Long will you refuse to humble yourself before me?' Exodus 10:3
I think true intellect isn't heard or spoken with words, but rather simply seen. Those who run their mouths are as hard as Pharaoh whose heart cannot be softened because he was so self absorbed. I think we could have seen humility if Pharaoh had let God's people go...
I believe true intellect is unspoken, and in being that, it is humble, and at that point it goes from being nearly blasphemy, to worship. i think thats a God worth serving.
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