{"id":3305,"date":"2017-10-26T05:33:55","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T11:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/?p=3305"},"modified":"2017-10-30T06:17:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T12:17:11","slug":"worry-whats-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/worry-whats-point\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the Point of All of This Contention and Worry?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Scroll through your Facebook feed. I dare you.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see people on both sides of the political aisle literally\u00a0besides themselves. Once reasonable, thoughtful people are posting barbs and insults to complete strangers. And this goes for both sides.<\/p>\n

I have a good friend who I once admired, but all he talks about these days is politics. He used to\u00a0freely write about the joy of\u00a0 life,\u00a0 the challenge of being a light in the culture, and encouraging college students to pursue lives that meant something. Today, it\u2019s all about \u201cTrump the Chump.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not alone. Last year,\u00a0 there were scores of friends and acquaintances who all in<\/em> for one candidate or another, dropping all moral and social pleasantry simply to score points.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t get it. As\u00a0Christians, we\u2019re exchanging our eternal passion for a fixation on the\u00a0temporal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0mean to dismiss your positions on these issues, but let me ask this question. \u201cIn the end, in the final scheme of all things important, in light of eternity, where will this rank?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This question can be asked over every situation \u2014 family, friends, home, finances. Just how important is this stuff.<\/em><\/p>\n

Is it worth the anguish?<\/h4>\n

My friend is in the middle of a difficult workplace situation. He\u2019s torn between pleasing his boss and certain career decisions that must be made.\u00a0It rips his heart to have to be in the middle of a no-win situation. He\u2019s losing sleep, anxious over the turbulence and disruption.<\/p>\n

Is it worth the pain?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I have been in the middle of situations, when, at the time, seemed\u00a0devastating. I\u2019ve been betrayed by love, lost friends who simply walked away and gained enemies from sources never imagined.\u00a0I\u2019ve lost jobs, wrecked cars and been in the hospital. In every one of those situations, I was just certain<\/strong> that my life would be crushed, that I would never walk upright as a man again.<\/p>\n

God proved them wrong.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"Eagle<\/a>
Eagle Lake, Photo D. Rupert<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The truth is that all of my thoughts and energies revolve around the temporal.\u00a0Is any of this all that important?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rick Warren puts it like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will not be in heaven two seconds before you cry out, why did I place so much importance on things that were so temporary? What was I thinking? Why did I waste so much time, energy and concern on what wasn\u2019t going to last?\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of you make great sport of talking down one political side or the other.\u00a0 It\u2019s a form of entertainment and when you join a tribe of others who think like, there is a certain comfort and camaraderie. Your concerns about our nation are valid.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to dismiss your cares. And if you have cancer, or your spouse walked out of your life, or you lost your job, or your home has been surrendered to the bank, those things are important to God.<\/p>\n

But I do wonder, in the end, if we will look back at of this, shake our head at all of our spent energy and\u00a0displaced\u00a0thoughts, and ask, \u201cWhat was I thinking\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\"He's<\/a><\/p>\n

He\u2019s not worried. He\u2019s just gathering for the winter. Photo D. Rupert<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, \u201cI will never leave you; I will never abandon you.\u201d Let us be bold, then, and say, \u201cThe Lord is my helper,\u00a0I will not be afraid<\/strong>. What can anyone do to me?\u201d\u00a0Hebrews 13:5-6 (GNT<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Christians, we’re exchanging our eternal passion for a fixation on the temporal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2375,"featured_media":3307,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's the Point of All of This Contention and Worry?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"All of this political back and forth, all of the cultural hand-wringing and all of the worries and frustrations of life and love will be gone in a second.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/worry-whats-point\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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