Choose Your Bible Well

Summer nights at Barnes n' Nobles have that purposeless, wonderful quality. On one of these, I started skimming through "Eat That Frog"--a time management book which I was hoping would somehow provide the remedy for my severe organizational issues. I slowly lapsed into life planning mode. I began to see this picture of myself as the glistening wonder of perfection who accomplished all she set out to do. I would be organized. Successful. A vision of beauty. Lets be real, all I needed to do was memorize each principle and force it into habit.

After the second chapter, I put it down and started regurgitating all of the information to the helpless victim, my mother, sitting across table. Surprisingly, in my ramble emerged a profound realization--but not for its uniqueness in the intellectual heights of academia. It was an idea of a homely quality. We would pass by it on the street a hundred times without looking twice. But simplicity often triumphs complexity in terms of power and life-transformation. As Dallas Willard puts it, "the truly powerful ideas are the ones that never have to justify themselves."

I said something to the effect of, "Mom, this book has really good points, but the reason why I'm uncomfortable modeling my life habits out of it is because I don't know if the goal of life is effectiveness."

I promise I'm not just playing Mrs. philosophical here to be cute or clever. Getting to the root of things actually makes a huge difference, the reason being that all of our lives are concretely directed and shaped by what we think is most important. I'm going to call this functional value system that guides us our "Bible." Your Bible could be the randomness of your desires at whim. It could be a combination of what school has taught you is important, and the values your family raised you with. We all need one; we all have one. If our choices shape our lives, and if our choices are dependent on our Bibles, I guess its kind of important what those Bibles are saying. So we face three problems:

The first is a matter of familiarity versus legitimacy. We get so used to living a certain way and dealing with the consequences, that we often fail to see the importance of re-thinking why we're doing something, and whether or not its a legitimate reason.

The second problem is that too many of us let our immediate external influence, literally, decide what our values are. Whether its contemporary culture, family, friends, or books we've been exposed to.

And the third problem is our lack of confidence in the fact that we are fully capable, in the most practical way, of changing our values and habits to crate a different life for ourselves.

Point blank: Our values dictate our choices; our choices create our lives.

And that is why I am uncomfortable with the way Eat That Frog toots the horn of time management for the purpose of being as-effective-as-possible. I think its great to get things done in a timely manner, however, efficiency is a poor Bible. The success so chased after that efficiency makes a reality will definitely bring you moderate happiness. But you won't be thriving. Because you were not made to be merely efficient. All of your make-up was fashioned for something more profound, more beautiful.

Do we want to be human doings or human beings? Is the purpose of life to make every minute count and be so conscious of the counting?

Really, now, what should our Bible's be saying? I think it would do us all a great service to blow off the dust of our Bibles, find out what they really say, and see if they are harmonious with the truth by which everything operates in accordance with. If they are dissonant we are bound to be frustrated. Endlessly lacking.

So discover. Analyze. Decide. Change.

The difference between living for efficiency at base or living for something like grace, love, and the glory of God is astronomical. You will not just live, but thrive.