Sacred Cynicism

All of us know how important it is to make good choices in life. Sometimes we will stand in front of 13 shades of yellow, all of which look exactly the same to a man, in an attempt to find the perfect shade for our kitchen. This is a lesson most of us learned very early in life, and the lesson really became important as we started Junior High. Our parents worried, prayed, and spent sleepless nights hoping that we avoided the people and situations that would lead to our moral or spiritual downfall.

When we became older we started to observe and learn this lesson ourselves. Most of us had friends or acquaintances who made awful decisions, and we watched them lose college opportunities, reputations, or in some cases, their lives. If we were wise we noticed how important it was to make sound decisions, and avoid those things that negatively impact our lives. Now as adults, we try to communicate the same message to our children, as we steer them away from all of those immoral, destructive activities that tend to ruin lives.

Let me ask a different question. Do our choices end here? Is there more to life than merely avoiding the obviously evil? I am not sure this is a question that we ask very often. We live at a time when we have endless options. I remember the advent of cable TV, and how great it felt when we went from 3 channels to 12. Now even the Basic Cable packages run 60 to 80 channels. Just 20 years ago most people got their news from the 3 basic networks, and now we have a myriad of choices. This level of choice and option runs through every area of our lives. We are immersed in potential choices. Does this have any impact on our lives? Perhaps it does, but in ways we may never notice.

When my parents talked with me about choices, it was always in the context of right vs. wrong. Yet this is often not our context. We choose between a number of things that are not wrong. Youth baseball or soccer. Fish or chicken. Eat in or eat out. Ford or Honda. There are so many good things to do, so many activities to enjoy that we fill our lives with many different things, perhaps too many. In this constant battle with decisions, we might losing our war with ourselves. So much food to choose, we overeat. So many things to see and do we overstimulate ourselves. So much to acquire, we spend sleepless nights wondering how to get it.

All to easily life becomes overstressed, overdone, and so busy with choices we find we are neglecting the vital. Life is so noisy we cannot bear the quiet. So much information is coming at us, that we have drowned the still, small voice that points out the truly important. So much time doing, we have forgotten how to simply be. So much busyness, we no longer know how to pray, and listen.

Perhaps in this world of plenty and countless choices we should remember the words from Matthew 6. “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things shall be added unto you as well.” Immersed in this busy, choice-filled life, it is so easy to forget who I am, and what I am called to be. Before any of my choices and my interests, I am to be one who represents a Kingdom that is better than this blessed, choice filled kingdom we live in. If we do not choose wisely in this kingdom, we might find ourselves losing grip of the greater Kingdom.