\u201cWe were upside down hanging like bats.\u201d This is how one passenger described<\/a> what happened when a Delta flight made<\/a> a hard landing Monday afternoon in Toronto, lost a wing, burst into flames, and flipped<\/a> onto its roof. Delta said twenty-one injured people were taken<\/a> to local hospitals; nineteen were released by the next morning. Three had critical but non-life-threatening injuries, one of whom was a child. However, there were no fatalities.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re like me, the last sentence changes how you read the rest of the paragraph.<\/p>\n In other news, a supercomputer simulation has predicted<\/a> when humanity will go extinct. It foresees a day when rising temperatures, volcanic chaos, and an unrecognizable climate will make most of our planet uninhabitable for mammals. However, this cataclysmic apocalypse will not occur for another two hundred and fifty million years.<\/p>\n Again, if you\u2019re like me, the last sentence changes how you read the rest of the paragraph.<\/p>\n One more example: US shoppers are dumping<\/a> favorite brands over their political stances. According to a new poll, four in ten Americans have shifted their spending in recent months to align with their moral views. Unsurprisingly, boycotts usually come from the consumer base whose party is not in power in Washington.<\/p>\n Customers are therefore evaluating products through the lens of personal ideology rather than the product itself. For example, the backlash against Bud Light when it partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney cost the parent company $395 million but had nothing to do with the taste of its beer.<\/p>\n It is human nature to focus on those parts of nature that affect us as humans. Evolutionary psychology would explain this as a manifestation of our instinct for survival. Pragmatists would encourage our focus on the parts of the world that work for us personally. Postmodern existentialists would say that the only dimension of the universe we can experience is that which directly affects us, so we naturally experience it on a more visceral level.<\/p>\n However, I think there\u2019s another way to see the way we organize and manage our engagement with the larger world.<\/p>\n Jesus told his disciples, \u201cI chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit\u201d (John 15:16). God intends us to be \u201ca vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work<\/em>\u201d (2 Timothy 2:21, my emphasis).<\/p>\n We know that our salvation is by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8) and \u201cnot a result of works, so that no one may boast\u201d (v. 9). However, the next verse states, \u201cWe are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works<\/em>, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them\u201d (v. 10, my emphasis).<\/p>\n \u201cFor good works\u201d could be translated as, \u201cfor the purpose of accomplishing the works for which we are intended.\u201d One scholar comments, \u201cGod marks out for each in his purposes beforehand the particular good works and the time which he sees best. God both makes ready by his providence the opportunities for the works, and makes us ready for their performance.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition, \u201cthat we should walk in them\u201d could be rendered, \u201cthat we should continue to accomplish them until they are completely fulfilled.\u201d John Chrysostom (died AD 407) noted:<\/p>\n We need a virtue which shall last throughout and be extended on to our dying day. If we had to travel a road leading to a royal city, and then when we had passed over the greater part of it, were to flag and sit down near the very close, it were of no use to us. This is the hope of our calling . . . Otherwise it would profit us nothing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n God created you and me for \u201cgood works\u201d specific to our personal lives and our place and time in the world. It is therefore only logical that we would focus more specifically on those events and circumstances which not only affect us but which we can affect.<\/p>\n Jesus was always present in the moment, wherever he went. The One who came to save the world ministered to one broken body and sinful soul at a time.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the problem: You and I are inundated every day with news from literally around the world. And fear-based programming is proven<\/a> to attract attention and generate profits, in large part because our \u201cnegativity bias<\/a>\u201d instinctually looks<\/a> for risks so we can avoid them. All of this in a time when we see more news<\/a> in a day than our ancestors confronted in a lifetime.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s why this matters.<\/p>\n John Locke, the famed British philosopher, argued<\/a> that all actions derive from a prior intention. Unless external obstacles prevent us, he observed, \u201cWhat follows after that follows in a chain of circumstances, linked one to another, all depending on the last <\/em>determination of the will\u201d (his emphasis).<\/p>\n However, when our intention is to better the world, the actions that are required feel as overwhelming as the task itself.<\/p>\n This is one way Satan uses our faith-driven compassion for the world against us. As the saying goes, if the devil can\u2019t make you bad, he\u2019ll make you busy. If he can use the cacophony of bad news that swirls around us to distract us from the \u201cgood works\u201d our Lord intends for us today, he\u2019ll keep us from impacting our culture for Christ.<\/p>\n And, over time, he may convince us to abandon the effort of cultural transformation altogether.<\/p>\n When the entire universe feels dark, your light may seem inconsequential. If you then \u201cput it under a basket,\u201d everyone in your \u201chouse\u201d loses (Matthew 5:15). Including you.<\/p>\n So, to employ Locke\u2019s assertion, let\u2019s begin the day by reframing our \u201cintention.\u201d Leo Tolstoy observed:<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.\u201d<\/mark><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n If our intention<\/a> is to be more like Jesus today, and if we then ask God\u2019s Spirit to transform us into the character of his Son, we can never be the same. Over time, the actions that derive from our intentions will impact the people we influence. And they will touch the people we cannot until a movement of culture-changing Christians multiplies around the world.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re thinking God could never use your life in such a transformative way, that you\u2019re too busy and the world is too broken to make a difference that matters, guess where that thought is coming from.<\/p>\n \u201cPreachers are not salesmen, for they have nothing to sell. They are bearers of Good News.\u201d \u2014Billy Graham<\/p>\n \u201cWe were upside down hanging like bats.\u201d This is how one passenger described what happened when a Delta flight made a hard landing Monday afternoon in Toronto, lost a wing, burst into flames, and flipped onto its roof. Delta said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4396,"featured_media":7013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cThis is the hope of our calling\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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All actions derive from a prior intention<\/strong><\/h2>\n
If the devil can\u2019t make you bad<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Quote for the day:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Our latest website articles:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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