In Tim Keller’s book Counterfeit God’s he has a chapter devoted to the allurement of power and how, as human beings, we often elevate power a success (both socially and professionally) to the level of a deity.

As Americans we often have the idea that we can do ‘whatever we set our mind to’, but Keller asserts that:

“We are not nearly as responsible for our success as our popular views of God and reality lead us to think.”

As Keller describes, we have a tendency to want to see our lives as a blank canvas for us to draw on as we go. As children and young adults, we see things in our family and parents that we vow never to emulate. But before long, any rational assessment of our lives will reveal just how much our family and life circumstances have shaped who we are, what we do and what we like to do.

With just a quick step back, we can see these are things we have had no control over whatsoever. We do no choose when we are born, where we are born and to whom we are born.

If these are three things shape a massive amount of our character and person, they are also sure weights in the balance of our success in all kinds of areas of life.

We are therefore profoundly naive to ever honestly believe we are really ‘in control of our destiny’ so to speak. If we believe in the God of the bible, we must be humble and confess that we are not in control of our lives in the way that we would like to be.

Keeping this in mind is a humbling thing and massive step toward trusting God and having confidence in his decision making.

It seems to me that that it’s impossible for anything a human being does to be absolutely without some kind of error. We simply don’t have the capacity to do absolute good, and probably not likely to do absolute bad. Even in doing evil, it seems that there’s usually a hint of something good—however misguided or warped it may be. And likewise, even in the greatest intentions, we mingle in at least a hint of pride, or selfishness or fear.

So, in the less extreme cases, it would seem that most things become a cost-benefit situation.

Obviously, we’re never to choose to do something evil, regardless of how good a benefit it might serve. It would be wrong steal a million dollars no matter how much good that money could do for the poor. It would be wrong for a prostitute to continue her trade no matter how many unlikely people should could share the Gospel with.

But what about things that are good, but with a margin for bad? For example, what about wishing to work hard at your business to glorify God and provide for your family, but with the potential to alienate and neglect them?

I suppose we would have to assess the risk and decide whether the negative effects outweighed the positive ones. (All of this assuming your heart and mind were in the proper place). Frankly, it just seems logical. Even with the right frame of mind, if the good intentions weren’t panning out and family was being neglected, you’d have to concede that even though the intentions and motivation were good, it’s simply something you shouldn’t do.

Reading in the book of Haggai today, it got me thinking about all this stuff. This is what the Lord said to the people of Israel. Haggai 1:7:

Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.

Now, the nation of Israel was not in the same position that I’m describing. Their neglect of the temple of the Lord was decidedly wrong. But I think his call to them to “Consider your ways” isn’t too much different than what I think God could say to the church today.

For all of the church’s good intentions and ideas, it’s simply not panning out. The expensive buildings, contemporary bands, the multitude niche ministry programs and corporate services simply aren’t producing the effects we’d expected. Studies continue to confirm this. Our popularly accepted system of church isn’t working. In fact, I think it’s doing more harm than good.

People often defend the church in this way. “Good things are happening”. They’ll often cite people who have personally benefitted from our specific system. But I think this violates logic. Just because a father works hard and provides well for his family, if they are neglected and estranged, the benefit is not justified. It’s nullified. No one would defend his methods. Not for long.

Yet this may well be the case with the church system we’ve accepted today. I believe it should be abandoned.

Occasionally, the idea the life is a one-shot deal freaks me out. Essentially, no ones going to make it. In a totally naturalistic sense, no one is winning cause everyone’s gonna die. I suppose they’re the same thoughts Solomon was pondering when he penned Ecclesiastes.

People say life is about making mistakes. But that seems stupid, even for a non-Christian. The idea of mistakes implies a standard of correctness. If the standard of correctness were determined by a person’s intention in doing whatever it was they set out to do, then they’re whole life could be evaluated based on their success of that thing. As far as right and wrong are concerned, black and white would just be gray. But as far as success and failure are concerned, there couldn’t be sharper contrast.

But I think that’s what gets me.

No one is getting a second chance at this thing. Yet, everyone (including myself) really seems to embrace the idea that it doesn’t need to be done right. As if we’ll do it better the second time around. That seems to be a pretty big logic gap. It’s not like this is really a learning experience. What good is knowledge if it can’t ever be used?