Faith – Where Words Increase

Reality and Dreams: Taming the Tension

When people ask me what makes a good manager, I often reply that a good manager stays in tune with reality. They have the ability to see what’s actually happening – not just what they wish was happening. They don’t let their beliefs about how things are (or how things should be) cloud their perception. This mindset allows them to catch mistakes, fix inefficiencies, and resolve conflicts before these issues cascade into something more destructive. The good manager isn’t blindsided by reality, but instead actively engages with it to shape a more positive future – regardless of the short-term discomfort experienced in the process.

Upon reflection, as “managers” of our own lives, everyone deals with this strange problem – that reality is optional, especially in the short-term. With our imaginations and desires so often conflicting with reality, there’s a great temptation to create a new, better world in our minds than the one we actually live in. When we do this, we experience a sort of tension between our dreams and reality. How do we go about managing this tension? Our responses tell us much about our relationships with reality, as well as the trajectories of our futures.

A mindset of embracing reality is found in almost all top performers. Take almost anyone who has achieved great success, and I will show you someone who is effective at perceiving and engaging with reality on some level. You see this all the time with effective leaders – a good leader constantly absorbs information to accurately perceive reality, then executes on the best course of action to address it. Likewise, great athletes or performers must work rigorously on improving their deficiencies to increase their standard of performance. Among these types, there are those who dream big dreams and create visions of the future in their minds. However, the successful ones don’t stop there, but instead engage with reality in order to bring their dreams into being.

What about creating worlds in our minds that are better than reality, then choosing to live in there instead? If you’re doing this, then you should realize that there are few successful people who do this, and there are few long-term benefits to doing this. If someone’s doing this, then they are in active danger of ruining their lives – falling off, and slowly fading.

If you want a brighter future, then you must engage with the reality of the present. Our dreams and imaginations can be helpful, but mostly insofar as they inform potential pathways to a brighter future. When dreaming becomes an end in and of itself, we run the risk of putting ourselves at odds with reality. The results of doing so are never pretty, and the examples of those who forsook the path of reality are many. Instead, we can find real hope by acceptance of what is, and patient work towards what could be.

Problems Awaken Us to the Truth

There’s a reality I’ve been wrestling with recently – namely, that our problems seem to be good for us. When I look back over my life, I find that the deepest meaning comes from the most difficult moments. The seasons I learn the most from are those seasons of loss or struggle, those seasons of pain where I stood for something and endured the consequences. Even when my decisions or beliefs turned out to be wrong, I still felt closer to the truth at the end of the day.

What explains this paradox? My thought is that our problems and struggles in life help us by forcing us to engage with reality. When reality comes to find us in the form of problems, we cannot hide – we must instead face reality head-on through an encounter with the truth. These encounters with harsh realities often teach us so much about both ourselves and life. We become more skilled at dealing with reality as a result, helping us to manipulate and sculpt reality into a better future for both ourselves and those around us. In this way, oddly, problems and suffering are frequently the biggest catalysts for growth in our lives. Without problems, we tend to coast into fantasies and idleness, slipping into the irrelevance of the unreal. Problems jolt us back awake and force us to engage with reality, thereby rescuing us and giving us an opportunity to forge a brighter, more awakened future.

Awash in a Sea of Ambiguity

In an effort to avoid the confrontation with reality, modern people like to stay on the fence. We live in a world of agnosticism, one in which we are quick to say what’s wrong but hesitant to say what’s right. We are so terrified of being wrong – that natural and inevitable consequence of standing for anything – that we surrender the opportunity to even find the truth just to avoid the painful confrontation with reality. Perhaps this is what a culture of social media creates, when all our gaffes and mistakes are immortalized online. As a result, we hide in the shadows, we disappear into the mist, but yet we still wonder why we are so anxious and depressed. We sit on the sidelines and watch as a select few others enter the arena of reality, wondering why our lives have no adventure, no meaning. What went wrong? Why are we always so anxious?

In contrast, the man in this arena knows exactly why he hurts, exactly why he triumphs, and exactly why he smiles with deep, bloodied, glorious satisfaction when the dust settles. He fought for something, he stood for something. Perhaps even the pain of reality’s hard lesson is a sweet and terrible blessing, for when we learn we are wrong, we become aware of the truth. Even in defeat, the one who stands for something has consolation.

Who Really Perceives Truth?

Perception is central to our relationship with reality. As human beings, we strive to do our best to have an accurate perception of reality. However, we cannot escape ourselves – our comprehension of reality will always be influenced by our perception. Reality certainly exists independently of our perceptions, yet the flavor of it that we taste is determined by who we are.

This brings us to a critical truth: if our perceptions are all affected by who we are, then who you are determines your perception of reality. In other words, to see the truth, you must become the kind of person who can actually see the truth. Your nature governs how you perceive reality. If true, this statement suggests that it’s possible to be unable to see the truth depending on who you are. In other words, to be authentically in tune with reality, one must become the kind of person who can truly perceive and accept the truth.

For example, I’ve always felt like different person when I fall in love. Things seem lighter, deeper, and more meaningful all at the same time. I perceive reality differently in that state. It’s easier to believe that everything matters, and it’s easier to see the beauty in life. To echo Elon’s quote, “I am often a fool, but especially for love.” There is something happy in this statement, that when in love, you are different – even a fool. Yet nobody would scoff at this reality; it’s almost a wistful statement of reminiscence. Who wouldn’t want to be a fool for love?

When love dies, you also become a different person. For me, while I eventually settle back into my normal emotional state, it’s hard not to believe I was a better person in love. There’s something in the foolishness that seems almost healthier. It’s as if the person not in love loses awareness of all the beauty that truly exists in reality all around them. What accounts for that loss? Did the beauty go away, or did who they are change in such a way that they are now unable to recognize and appreciate the beauty around them in the same way?

The above reality opens the door to the necessity of faith. How can you know if something is true if you are not the sort of person who can comprehend the truth? For example, either there is a God, multiple gods, or there is no god. One person sees mountains of evidence for God’s existence, another sees no evidence. What accounts for this difference in the perception of reality? In many ways, it’s the nature of the two individuals. Perhaps one is a cynic by nature, the other a rigid conformist to what they have been taught as a child. Perhaps one is rational, the other irrational. One may easily believe in the unseen; the other, maybe not. Either way, both have perceptions that are bound by the nature of who they are. Who they are dictates what they see in their search for reality.

Thus, we must have faith at times that doing the right thing will change us for the better. In our current states, we may not be able to fully appreciate and recognize all the truth, beauty, and goodness in the world. Nevertheless, we may take it on faith that striving to do the right thing in the present moment could change us in such a way as to awaken to these things. Each time we do the right thing, each time we say no to a fantasy, a distraction, or a sinful temptation, we put ourselves closer to becoming the sorts of people who can truly taste and comprehend the truth. Such a truth may encourage us on the long, arduous roads we travel where doing the hard but right thing often feels pointless. Should we continue on the road, we may become awakened to the great beauty of the truth at the center of life.

Truth is a Two-Way Street

In the end, I suppose my point is this – that the truth is a two-way street. We may ask questions of reality in search of the truth, but reality also asks questions of us.

When we can’t see the truth, we must not only consider what we are thinking about, but also who is doing the thinking. We must remember that if we allow ourselves to become corrupt, we may lose touch with reality. We may become unable to tell truth from lies, or fact from fiction. In this way, we must be careful to recognize that who we are is just as important to our understanding of reality as the actual things we think about. And finally, we must strive to become the kinds of people who can recognize truth and reality when it calls. For then, our life adventures may truly begin.

“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Love is a Blue-Collar Profession

Everything you do matters. Every little thing.

It’s probably one of the most encouraging (and terrifying) statements one can hear… but I think it’s true. I don’t know exactly why, but deep down, I’d even say I know it’s true.

We often look at life as if it’s made up of the big events – births, weddings, deaths, graduations, break-ups, engagements… Really, these moments are only the revealing, the results of all the small moments that came before. It’s sobering to think how truly small the defining moments of our lives often are. Think of all the marriages that exist because someone swiped right on a photo. Did they know what a critical moment that was? That they were turning the page of their history with a small motion of the thumb? People always look to the engagement and the wedding, but I say it’s time we respect the swipe. It’s the little moments that make us who we are, and it’s these little decisions that have preoccupied my mind the past few months.

Thinking about all the ways small moments can impact our lives, you begin to comprehend the deep importance of every decision. If all our thoughts, decisions, and actions are the first steps in the chain reactions leading to the rest of our lives, then everything one does matters. That’s a liberating truth when we feel lost in the sea of ambiguity regarding life’s big questions. On the other hand, it highlights the importance and seriousness of our choices, which is a bit daunting… I often feel this weight when making even small decisions, knowing that opportunity and misfortune constantly knock on our doors. As to which one we are opening ourselves to, we often can’t know.

There’s an interesting choice in approach here – the temptation is often to try and divine the door to fortune and success. However, there’s this curious fact that humans write stories and sing songs about their struggles. We don’t read stories about easy, successful lives, though we value the outcome in a sense. There’s something else we treasure much more – those glimpses of the deep, deep beauty inherent in life that are captured in moments of deep struggle and emotion. We don’t want life to be easy, we want life to be worth it, as the cliché goes. But perhaps this is more than cliché.

Perhaps this is the key to the approach above. Perhaps we should do the little things that are worth it? And what is more worth it than love?

I guess what I’m saying is, sometimes taking the path of love requires willingly losing – and thereby voluntarily opening our door to misfortune. It’s sad to say, but most of the people I see trying to do this do it unconsciously, acting out of insecurities and hurts. They mean well, but what they really want is to *be* loved, and then to cherish the warmth of their object of affection in return. From my view, we can love a bit differently. Through a wellspring not our own, we may fill our cup with a love from above, one that imbues us with a courage and bravery to risk the threat of loss. And in this way, we may love with clear eyes, and full hearts – facing head-on all that is to come.

My fingers struggle to type the above… though once again, I think it’s true. But as to how we can feel this Love, how we can know it, I do not know for sure. I have only experienced moments, glimpses even… What I can say is, I suspect this great Love is found not in the grand moments of inspiration or understanding, but in the little moments – those faithful moments – practiced out and worked over seasons of hardship, suffered daily, when we give our days and years in devotion to those fallen creatures beside us, and the One above. In this way, Love is a blue-collar profession.

Love is the Hardest Art

Love means doing the little things even when they become mundane. As an example, I recently watched a video from a divorce lawyer online. He told a story of a woman who realized her marriage was collapsing, not from a big fight or an instance of infidelity, but from a simple oversight – one day she noticed her spouse didn’t restock her favorite granola. He had always done so for years – each day, she would open the kitchen cabinet whenever she wanted a snack to see the granola bag full. However, one day she opened the cabinet and behold, it was empty. She at first thought it may have been a mistake, but slowly she saw that her husband was no longer showing her that he was thinking about her. He stopped caring about the little things. So she did as well. Eventually, the whole marriage fell apart.

Such an unfortunate story shows how love requires surrender – surrendering our self-centered thoughts, surrendering our self-centered ideas, even surrendering the moments where we just want to chill and do our thing in order to show our loved ones we care. The simplest gesture may suffice – just a little something to show the miracle that someone else is thinking about and even cherishing you – that could be enough to sustain your spirit in a hard time. And that could also be enough to enliven and sustain a beautiful relationship in times of stress.

Going Down to the House of Mourning

The older I get, and the deeper I fall into love, the more I find that it is made mostly of suffering rather than those moments of joyful bliss.

I spent much of a recent weekend contemplating this fact, at times with a great sense of sadness. Is this the dark truth, that the most meaningful life is one found in the shadows, the sorrows, the pain? My heart recoils at the thought, but there is something comforting in this as well… troubled at the thought, I sought answers in a book I’ve often turned to in times of disillusionment and sorrow. Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 reads as follows:

“It is better to go to the house of mourning

than to go to the house of feasting,

for this is the end of all mankind,

and the living will lay it to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter,

for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.”

These sayings are difficult. My heart sank a bit each time I read them, wondering if this is really how it is. Sadly, I know deep down that there is truth in these statements. Somehow, sorrow really is better than laughter, for by sorrow the heart is made glad. I thought back to our Savior – a man of sorrows. And I thought back to those little moments of surrender that fill the life lived in love. There’s an acceptance of sorrow that must occur when we open ourselves to love.

Naturally, the more you love, the more you *can* lose. As Voldemort whispers to Harry as he tempts him to despair, we also hear the ominous whisper from the enemy, “You are a fool… and you will lose everything”. This is what the enemy whispers to us as well when we begin to take that first step in love’s journey, reminding us what we stand to lose when we invest our hearts in people and places away from ourselves. Yet there is a silver lining – “by sadness of face, the heart is made glad” – what was it that Christ accomplished through His extreme suffering? And how can sorrow produce such joy?

Complicating our predicament is that loving fallen humans in a fallen world feels, in some ways, like a terrible idea! That we are called to do so points us to the deeper plan. Evidently, God has a purpose behind having broken creatures love other broken creatures, perhaps to teach us an important lesson about ourselves. Most importantly, God teaches something about His own great love through this experience. Anyone who has truly fallen in love has reckoned with their own insufficiency. At some point, we realize the other’s insufficiency as well. That glimpse of deep beauty in our loved ones, that awareness of the image of God, fades when life wears down, when tiredness, complacency, fear, anger, and pain cloud our visages. Loving someone through these moments is far harder than in the moments across the candlelit table, or in the romantic dream. Why must we struggle? What is it that we learn when sacrificing our love to the ungrateful, the broken, the hurt – the ones who can’t pay us back?

I turn to these wise words from Charles Spurgeon, looking into the darkness together with him as he points out the faint glow of the sunrise in the distance:

“But, beloved, good as “the house of mourning” is, excellent as its shall may be, mark well that Solomon does not say that, “the house of mourning” is morally better than “the house of feasting”, or that there is more virtue in weeping than in rejoicing; yet he does say that “it is better to go to the house of mourning,” — it is better to sit by the side of the widow, it is better to take the fatherless child on your knee, it is better to sit down and weep with those that weep, than it is to go to the pavilion of happiness, and rejoice with those that rejoice. With such hearts as ours, it is better. Were we perfect, it would be equally good; but since we are inclined to evil, it, is better that we should “go to the house of mourning.” God has made man upright; but the hand of sin has pushed us from the perpendicular, and we stand like the leaning tower of Pisa, inclined to the earth, and threatening to fall. It is right, then, that, as we are inclined to sin, we should likewise be made to bend to sorrow.”

– Charles Spurgeon

In our sinful states, broken and disordered as we are, perhaps the house of mourning acts as a sort of hospital ground for us, a place where our hearts may be softened and healed. A place where humility reigns free, unbounded by the temptations of success and pleasure that dance all around us under twenty-first century spotlights. In this way, when we go to this house, we bring something with us when we return back. Our characters are deepened and our hearts softened. We are better lovers upon our return back to the land between ecstasy and gloom.

The Handshake

“You toss all the mornings lost to the clouds and you watch it go

Your fair weather friends on a parachute binge get lost when the wind blows

The handshake’s stuck on the tip of my tongue

It tastes like death but it looks like fun

I was a loner

I was just waiting by myself

When you, warped temptress

Rose to bring me happiness and wealth

Black tears, black smile, black credit cards and shoes

You can call all the people you want

But it’s you who’s being used”

I think the human being is dreadfully tempted by forgetfulness. Specifically of one’s problems, one’s pains – perhaps this is what drives us to pleasure, hedonism, and selfishness most of all. And so the question could be asked, why do we run from love? Why would we flee something so great? Why do we take the Handshake when we know we’re only going to be used at the end of the day?

Perhaps because the great and the terrible are inexplicably intertwined. As Nietzsche well puts it, ““But what if pleasure and displeasure were so tied together, that whoever wanted to have as much as possible of one must also have as much as possible of the other – that whoever wanted to learn to ‘jubilate up to the heavens’ would also have to be prepared for ‘depression unto death’? And that is how things may well be.” It may be true – it may very well be this way. But Nietzsche doesn’t seem to have the answers, and so we turn back to the scriptures. A wise man once sorted it all out, till he came to an end – the end of wisdom, the end of pleasure, and the vanity of life. Seeming vanity – I can’t quite tell. The moral of the story in Ecclesiastes doesn’t quite seem to be that it’s all pointless, only that God alone knows the meaning of this life – and hides much of it from us.

With much of the purpose of this life hidden from us, how can we find that strength to face the terrible price of Love? How can we face the implications of Love, knowing it’s a giving of ourselves away despite the uncertainty of this world? Tim Keller shares the following words:

“Hardly anybody wants to actually face the implications of death. Most people, they don’t want to think about it so they have sex, they have food, they do things, they travel – even the Lion King – they do everything they can to make death seem natural. There’s even a wonderful song about it, “The Circle of Life”… and Camus says, No, it is not a lovely thought, and here’s why: a world in which everyone you have ever loved, or will love, is going to become fertilizer, and then you will, and then everyone who will ever remember anything you’ve ever done – it’s not a world that fits us, it’s not a world that supports the most basic desire of our hearts. What’s the most basic desire of our hearts? The most basic desire of our hearts is to have love last. It’s to have beauty last. It’s that when we do something right, it counts – it counts forever… And this world cannot sustain that any more than Martian air can sustain your lungs. And therefore, this world can’t be home.”

In light of Keller’s words, the balm offered for our sorrows is this – we should not fear loss in this life because this life is not our home. Anything we hoped to keep is vanity – a striving after the wind. Yet God through Jesus has offered us a way home, and a way to store the treasure of our striving away from here on earth, where moth eats and rust destroys and thieves steal. Instead, He lays it up in heaven, where God prepares a glorious future home for us. He promises us that all this love we strive for, are broken by, and thirst after is not for nought. When we love as Christ taught us to love, we may store treasure in heaven, for where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also. And so it’s all worth it – even the little moments. We can rest assured that all our trials and all our pains from our attempts to love are being woven together into a beautiful future. For God uses all things together for the good of those who believe in Him.

A Wellspring of Courage – Miscellaneous Thoughts on Blue-Collar Love

How do we deal with the fear of loss? How do we deal with the fear of losing the things we love – our friends, our family, our spouses, our dreams?

– We must be armed with the deepest meaning possible. Ironically, this is Love, and Love Himself. God is Love, and we must have Love in us as we seek to love. In a sense, because God is Love, and God is eternal and good, love is inherently worth it.

– Love stores treasure in heaven. Love often stresses us out because we “love” only for the things here. We seek the benefits of love on earth, but we fear if we lose the thing we love, that that love was for nought. If we love our dog, and he one day dies, then that love is gone forever. If we love our spouse, then something were to happen to them, that love would be “gone”. This is not the case – love is eternal, and we are called to it. When we love, we store up treasure in heaven as we follow God’s call, loving what he gives us, even as it all, including us, is temporary on this earth. This is where we must look to the hope provided by the Resurrection – our grand redemption found in Christ.

– Love hurts! And it’s best to set expectations accordingly. This one is for us dreamers (of which I am very much one). We love to imagine those perfect moments – being loved by our communities when we pour into our friends, our parents beaming at us as we make them proud, those tender moments with our significant others, looking deeply into each other’s eyes, telling them how much they mean – these imaginary moments may take us away from the beautiful, flawed creatures in front of us when things don’t go as expected. Perhaps we thought our sweet gesture would be received with joy, only to have it briefly acknowledged or ignored. Maybe that brokenhearted friend scoffs at our encouragement. It’s so easy to become discouraged when we have high ideals and fantasies about our love.

-Don’t let an unrealistic ideal crush a beautiful, messy reality. Another one for us dreamers! Often, as I’ve written about before, a seemingly cruel twist of fate is a bridge to a better future. We shouldn’t allow our visions of an ideal to drown the great beauty and meaning found in real friendships and relationships.

-Prayer. You have to believe in the power of prayer, because that’s what our whole religion is predicated on – God hearing us. Hearing us when we confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, cry out for help. And if He hears us, then He must love us, too. Cry out to Him in times of darkness – He will deliver you, even if you can’t feel it.

A Note of Encouragement from Two Unexpected Sources.

I’d like to share two experiences of unexpected encouragement I received.

I was once coming into a season of restoration from a difficult time of intense doubt and anxiety. Enjoying time with my small group, we spoke of Jesus, of God’s love and work in our lives and in our community.

“Did I hear y’all talking about Jesus over here?”

A woman in a dining uniform appeared behind our couch. She was so excited, and soon began to engage us on what lesson we were talking about. Before long, she spoke about her own struggles, then shared the following encouragement: “When life gets hard, you gotta PUSH – Pray Until Something Happens! When life gets hard, always pray – tell Him what you need and He’ll hear you. Then, always be thankful! When I wake up and don’t feel like getting out of bed, I always remember – He didn’t have to wake me up today. God chose to wake you up. He didn’t have to. So be thankful each time your feet touch the ground.”

I always remember this when I feel like I’m up against a wall, or like my dreams and visions for the future are out of reach. All due to the kindness of a Christian woman to strangers – or better yet, Christian brothers. It was love, and I needed it that day.

The second occasion still occurs fairly regularly! Often I work late when my friend has his 8 o’clock shift on Thursdays. One of my favorite moments comes when our friend Sherri appears from down the hallway, a big smile on her face. “Hii!! I was hoping I’d see you guys today!” Sherri is quick to give me a hug and some of the best encouragement. I remember once when she said I had this glowing aura about me, assuring me that I was soon to be taken off the market with how attractive I was. She sat down to talk about life, hear how I was doing, and, despite having no reason to stop and be friendly, she hears me out and comforts me with advice and encouragement. An unprompted act of love that has given me deep encouragement in times when I’ve needed it. These small acts of love are something I’ll always remember fondly, and are a great picture of the sort of greatness found in even the simplest acts, such as interrupting a conversation to give important advice, or even creating friendship through encouragement and goodwill.

Why do I bring up these stories? Really, because deep down to truly love we need the greatest encouragement. We need to be loved first, and loved in such a way that we are changed thereafter. Once we have that Love, then we are changed, we are strengthened against the onslaught of life’s discouragement, life’s disappointments, life’s pains. Empowered to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and yet fear no evil. A spark of Christ’s love for us may be found even in the smallest of these acts. And even that small spark may kindle the fire in our hears needed to light our way through the (at times) dreadfully dark path of love. Only then can we say with the scriptures,

“Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” – Psalm 30:5

Intentions and the Sermon on the Mount

Often it is much easier not to read the actual words of Christ. His words are both colossal and confusing. Reading the words of pastors and teachers who can digest the words of Christ for us is often more comfortable, yet facing the challenge of reading the words of the Divine is healthy and arguably a necessary part of Christian living. A reason why: Christ’s teachings have a certain other-worldliness to them which can be invaluable at exposing worldly thinking on our part. When you confront the sayings of Christ directly, the discomfort we experience is often evidence of worldly roots in our thinking which make understanding His words and teachings unintuitive. While exegetical teaching can be extremely helpful and productive, it is also true that putting Christ’s teachings into “world-speak” so that we can understand them sometimes eliminates a certain beneficial soul-shocking effect His teachings have in their purest form. Anyway…

The passage below is taken from the Sermon on the Mount, which is a good example of the colossal and confusing nature of the words of Christ. [People often forget that Christ would have had relatively little spiritual training, making the depth of meaning in His words remarkable from a secular perspective. His disciples likewise would have been relatively spiritually untrained, making their telling of these teachings likewise remarkable.]

Matthew 6:1-4

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Contrast the above passage with the following:

Matthew 5: 13-14

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

Christ’s teachings are often extremely nuanced. In one passage, Christ tells us not to practice good works in order to be seen by others, that we might be praised by them. In the next passage, Christ tells us to let our light shine before others, in order that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven. There is therefore a right way and a wrong way to do good works in order to be seen by others. One glorifies God, one glorifies man. The act is the same; the motivation, different.

Good works can bring either heavenly rewards or earthly rewards, depending on intentions behind the action. If you perform good works to be seen by others, then you will get the earthly reward of praise by others. You also will be acting as do the hypocrites, those actors on the stage of life. This is perplexing – why is performing good works to be recognized by others a form of acting? Because the person performing good works in order to be recognized by others is pretending to have intentions which are pure (i.e. those which are glorifying to God and thus, pure). The hypocrite cuts out the God-glorifying component of the good work. Others may still give glory to God for the performance of the good work, which seems to still be righteous. However, for the interests of the good work performer, his reward is immediate and selfish. It is not from the Father but from man.

This specific teaching is paralleled by other portions from the Sermon on the Mount. For example…

Matthew 6: 16-17

16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”

Once again, Christ frames His teaching in terms of what the Father rewards. Here, there is a right way and wrong way to fast – one which is rewarded by the Father, and one which is not. Those who fast to be seen by others and reckoned spiritual by them already have their earthly reward. Those fasting for the Father are rewarded by Him. Again, the intention behind the action dictates whether an earthly reward or a heavenly reward is received (and remember, earthly rewards perish).

An important message from Christ’s teachings here could be that your intentions are the true measure of the status of your heart. Furthermore, changing your intentions could be a secret to changing your heart. The thinking goes like this: Clearly, the performing of good deeds in and of itself is not sufficient to bring about heavenly rewards. Thus, there is a sort of good work-performing that is fruitless to the performer. The heart and intentions behind the good works are what store up treasure in heaven, the sort of treasure given by the Father which does not perish. This means that fruitlessness and feelings of fruitlessness can be direct results (and thus indicators) of doing what is good with the wrong intentions. To have fruitful heart-change, one must change his intentions and purposes behind his actions. Doing so may be one way to change the heart, as intentions and purposes are heart-qualities.

To elaborate on this point: There is a sort of trap we can fall into where we can live seemingly faithful lives in which we do all the right things and still live fruitlessly. Perhaps this is something personal to me, but often I feel this frustration where I feel like spiritual maturity is a lifetime away. In other words, I feel spiritually fruitless. In an age where an increasing number of people feel a sense of meaninglessness to life, it is likely that many others feel the same way – they realize that their actions, regardless of whether they are successful in bringing earthly rewards, are producing little which will be of eternal value. My thought here is that these feelings may be evidence that our intentions are off. Perhaps the current of the world has swept us along in its destructive self-centered mindset, and all the attempts at good deeds have been done in the spirit of the hypocrite. And perhaps the answer to this problem is an examination behind the intentions of our hearts in all that we do. Maybe that is one of the central ways to actually change the heart, as the good works themselves are powerless to gain us heavenly rewards. Rather, they must be paired with the right intentions and purposes to be blessed by the Father.

In other words, if life has ever felt meaningless to you, ask yourself the question, “Have I been living for myself recently?” and you will likely have your answer.

“… What about the main thing in life, all its riddles? If you want, I’ll spell it out for you right now. Do not pursue what is illusionary -property and position: all that is gained at the expense of your nerves decade after decade, and is confiscated in one fell night. Live with a steady superiority over life -don’t be afraid of misfortune, and do not yearn for happiness; it is, after all, all the same: the bitter doesn’t last forever, and the sweet never fills the cup to overflowing. It is enough if you don’t freeze in the cold and if thirst and hunger don’t claw at your insides. If your back isn’t broken, if your feet can walk, if both arms can bend, if both eyes can see, if both ears hear, then whom should you envy? And why? Our envy of others devours us most of all. Rub your eyes and purify your heart -and prize above all else in the world those who love you and who wish you well. Do not hurt them or scold them, and never part from any of them in anger; after all, you simply do not know: it may be your last act before your arrest, and that will be how you are imprinted on their memory.”

― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

Postscript: Another important aspect of the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount is that they all require deep faith to be followed. All good works are to be performed specifically for the glory of God to be able to merit eternally significant rewards. The command not to be anxious likewise is predicated on God’s goodness and His sovereignty over all of life. The command to love thy enemy is predicated on the idea that God is to be emulated in His goodness to all on earth, even the evil. Thus, faith is the key which enables the Christian to be capable of following Christ’s teachings to any degree. None of Christ’s teachings are effective for the faithless individual.