Impractical Advice (Part One)
Research suggests most people will not wait more than eight seconds for a web page to download. Why? We just don’t have the time anymore.
Our world is moving at a blistering pace. Thankfully technology has given us more ways than ever to save time, but strangley we now have less time than ever (another blog for another day).
Since our time is precious, I will make this quick and get to the point. This is what we want more and more these days - the point, the bottom line, the answer, we want someone to "give it to us straight." As a result our curiosity is diminishing at an alarming rate. We care little about why or how something might work; we just want to know if it does. We want things to be practical.
People long to know the three things they can do to eat better, the seven behaviors they can employ to ensure a healthy marriage, or learn the top secrets of the successful. The problem is that this does not work, which is why new books are always being written about new behaviors that are bound to work. But they don’t work either. If you have a moment, perhaps you might consider why.
When we shape our life around a few practical behaviors we remain a good distance from our own souls. We focus our energies on not doing this and starting to do that. It is simply a matter of mental discipline.
Give me enough time and focus and I can act in any way you ask, but that may have nothing to do with my heart or my soul – it’s only behavior modification. This does not change anything; true change comes from within.
Religion can teach us a thing or two about this. It cares more about our behavior than our hearts. When I was growing up there was a long list of rules, and there were plenty of people who kept these rules perfectly. They had very practical instruction and stuck to it.
The problem was that some of these people were quite mean spirited, bigoted, unkind, and indifferent toward those who were not like them. This ought to have raised all sorts of questions about their hearts, but it rarely did because their ability to follow rules was perfect. Our world today is very religious, isn’t it?
We tend to care less about what’s inside when compared with what others can see outside. From the world of business, to the Church, to the family – we just want it practical. After all, who has the time to dig into their heart, and move beyond behavior? If only there was an app for that …
When our chief concern is “practical advice” we can easily gloss over what lies beneath the surface. Jesus never seemed to concerned about practicality, he was always upsetting people back then and still upsets us today. He goes there and invites us to do the same. If only we had the time to journey within ... but that’s so impractical.