Why Not Play Your Life on Legendary?

Video games have gotten far more “realistic” since the days of pixelated two-dimensional plumbers dealing with monkeys. I use quotation marks because they are often unrealistic by portraying a world of science fiction weaponry or magic. Also, the games I know allow players to run without getting tired and usually heal their wounds instantly by contact with a health pack that promptly vanishes after use. But the three-dimensional graphics are amazing.

Can You Guard Your Heart?

Recently, I asked how one becomes a different person and answered that one becomes different by acting differently, as opposed to wishing to be different. Of course, people tend to assume one would only act differently if one wished to do so. But that is not necessarily true. People sometimes act in ways that will lead them to become someone that they do NOT want to become. A person who overindulges in alcoholic beverages often does not want to become an alcoholic. But such repeated overindulgence leads there no matter what he desires.

Another instance of behavior leading a person to becoming different apart from his desire to change is child-rearing. Parents have goals for their children’s character and require various behaviors of them in the hope that it will bring about that change. This often starts long before the child has any idea that adulthood lies in his future or that he is developing into a character that will be partly determined in the present.

How One Becomes a Different Person

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be…
Paul’s First Letter to Timothy 3:1-2a (ESV)

Paul goes on to list qualities an overseer must possess. The list is obviously meant to eliminate many Christians from being considered for the office. But he doesn’t begin by saying that people should not aspire to the office. Rather, he encourages them in the aspiration, inviting them to develop the required qualities.

People can aspire to change. Generally speaking, a Christian can (and should!) aim at becoming someone with a different character than he currently possesses.

Psalms 62 Says… a sermon

I recently noticed that Psalm 62 seemed related to the content of my book on Proverbs. Happily, I was invited to preach so I made it my sermon text!

Paul’s Paradoxical Wisdom of the Christian Life

I’m not sure if there are “Dune nerds” any more but that has been a thing in the past.

THE FEAR LITANY

A Dune nerd wasn’t merely someone who read or even appreciated Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel, Dune. It was someone who was able to recite the “Litany against Fear” and enjoyed doing so:

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Anger Is Not Your Real Self

It’s not a sin to be angry in response to some things. It might be a sin NOT to be angry.

And because people know that, anger is a powerful trap for the unwary.

Book Recommendation: “The Way to Will-Power” by Henry Hazlitt

There are many good books you could read about how to get better at life. Jordan Peterson’s works are often recommended. James Clears’ Atomic Habits is helpful. Of course, I’m partial to my own book and highly recommend it from (mostly) pure motives.

But there is another work I recently rediscovered that deserves to be better known and (more importantly) more widely read. Henry Hazlitt is known as an advocate of free-market policies (or maybe non-policies would be a more accurate term). But, thanks to the Mises Institute some of his lesser known works are also available, including his The Way to Will-Power.

Be Like God: Stop Seeking Your Own Glory

It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.
Proverbs 25:27 ESV

As the ESV note will tell you, the Hebrew is rather difficult. But taking this translation at face value, it warns you to act like the true and living God rather than as some false god. God doesn’t seek his own glory and nether should any man or woman because all of us are created in the image of God and designed to reflect his character.

Ungodliness is Trained

In my book, Solomon Says (Athanasius), I point out that godly living can be improved with practice. In that way it is like an athletic sport. As the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:

Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
1 Timothy 4:7–8 ESV

Use Job As a Your Role Model and Encouragement

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil…

The book of Job can be read as an address on “The Problem of Evil.” Job can be interpreted as Everyman and his situation as a picture of the human condition. Job’s three “friends” insist that his extreme suffering indicates extreme sin in Job’s life and tell him he must admit this or else he is accusing God of being unjust. Job refuses to acquiesce that he must be guilty of wrongdoing. Yet, he does not “curse God” either, as his wife tempted him to do (Job 2:5, 9-10).

Ultimately, God answers Job in a series of questions that he can’t answer and he confesses as much.