Why we do what we do

Our lives are filled with a certain busyness. If you stop to ask somebody how things are going, they will normally tell you how busy they are and rattle off a list of things. Typically these things range from working a job, to working multiple jobs, time spent in school and on homework, time spent with their family or maybe working on their house. Typically there is a point that they are looking forward to, like when a certain project is over, they get out of school, when they get a better job or their kids get through a certain stage of life. It seems this is the way of life. We are busy looking forward to another point in our life, only to find out that if we reach a goal, we have set two more in its spot.

I must admit, I am in the same boat. With a wife, a job, school and leading at my local church, trying to keep up a house from the 50's, I find myself running from one thing to the next. I could talk for a long time about how to organize your schedule or the need to cut things out, which I may do at some point, because I could use some help in that area as well. As good as a topic as that is, I want to focus on they why. Why do we do what we do? Why do we get up every morning and choose the things we do?

The why may seem like a very simple question, it's what we choose to do, but I would like to break this down into a few categories. First, we may have the things we like to do. We like to spend time with our spouse, we like to watch TV, we like to listen to music, or maybe we like to read blogs on the internet. I am certain there are official category names, but for now, I'm gonna call this the "feels good" group, because this is what makes us feel good at the time.

The next group is a little more trickier, because we do these things because we like the outcome, but it makes us do things that we don't necessarily want to do in the moment. For instance, we enjoy electricity, running water, a roof over our head, and most importantly, high speed internet. The way to achieve these goals is to wake up every morning to go to work so that at the end of the week they can hand you a check, then you can use that check to enjoy other things. I will call this the "necessary group" as it makes you do something that you wouldn't choose to do to get the outcome that you want.

If the list stopped there, we would be good. The problem is the list doesn't stop there, but I'm afraid that some day it might. Here is what I mean by that. What about the stuff you don't want to do and it doesn't benefit you? To sacrifice yourself for the good of others, but in the end, it doesn't profit you anything. There are times in our lives when we have to choose the hard thing because it's the "right thing to do", but it doesn't offer us any direct benefit. I'm afraid we are living in a world where this is chosen increasingly less. We might give to a charity, but lets make sure we publish it on every social network we can thing of. Or we might help somebody in need, but usually it's so we can feel good about ourself and/or tell others how awesome and amazing we are.

What if we could have a greater reason? What if there was a greater purpose? What if this lead to a selfless life, where we could give more of ourselves? Sounds weird right? Why would we do that? It would have to be for a greater good than ourselves. It would have to be for something better than what we get out of this life. It would have to have more worth than our lives themselves. Our lives are filled with ways to make it easier, better and more satisfying. We want to enjoy life and max out it's pleasures. Why make it harder? We might find some reasons, some moral ground to say that it's better to contribute to the general needs in society, but society embraces Darwinism. This means if it is disadvantaged, or inferior as it is put, then it will eventually die. Isn't it just better to let the strong live?

The way of a Christian life means we lay our lives down for those weaker than ourselves. This is what Jesus expects of us and for good reason, but lets first look at what is expected. Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus tells us to let our light shine, meaning, do good works. As a Christian, or really, any good religious person, this makes sense, you must do good works so you will be excepted by God. The best part is how the verse ends, it reads, "so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." This second part of the verse starts with the words "so that", meaning, the reason you are going to do good works is for the following reason. This command by Jesus is really telling us to do good works for the purpose of glorifying God, which means, no benefit for us. Ok, maybe there is benefit, but I'm not there yet.

Jesus spends a few chapters in Matthew, chapters five, six and seven, talking about commands that God gives. Most of them are taking some of the commands from the first five books of the Bible, and interpreting them to give them their full meaning. When we get rules, we like to know the line that can't be crossed, because we want to go all the way up to that line, and if we are honest, maybe even cross it a little to test it. We don't like those lines, we like to break those lines. As an example, how man of us drive at least a few miles per hour over the speed limit? What happens when a police office drives beside or behind us? We slow down the the speed limit. As soon as that officer turns off to another road, we speed back up to a few miles per hour over the speed limit again. We like to break laws. Jesus came to explain the law of God to those around Him at the time, because they thought they were doing well, but He explained, you have a new interpretation of the law. You can't go over the speed limit, not even by one mile per hour. He does this with things like anger, lust, envy, worry and on and on for three chapters.

Let me now explain why we do good works, as it will help me close my thought. Doing good works is NOT so we can be excepted by God. See, the problem is, if it's left up to me, God would never be able to look down and say, "Wow, look at Eric, he's amazing!". Why? Well, cause I screw things up. Even more so, I go against God's will all the time. Remember all those commands I told you about that Jesus went through in Matthew five through seven? Well, He interprets murder down to the heart level, meaning, even if you get angry at somebody, that's like you murdered them, it's the same emotion. We can hold it in, but God knows our true heart. What about envy? Your neighbor adds on a pool or remodels their house, or a co-worker gets a new car, suddenly you feel like you need a new car or to fix up your house. You are envying their stuff. You wish you could have it. It's the same desire that a thief has. Lust, if you look at somebody with wrong intentions, it's like committing adultery. You can see how each of these go.

See, we all fall short of obeying God perfectly. Here is the problem, the measuring bar is perfection. Why? Well, it's a perfect God who demands perfection. He made us perfect, problem is, we rebelled agains the King of the world. That is a serious crime. Treason agains a king would get you killed, and God's perfect judgment is no different. This means we are all guilty of treason agains God and the punishment is death. This is very bad for us, but doesn't have to remain here.

So now some time for some good news. As mentioned before, we are law breakers, we have rebelled agains the King of the world. What if we could provide some kind of payment to make up our treason? Well, the one we committed treason gave us a way out. The punishment still must be dealt with, but instead of you, God sent His son Jesus into the world, to live a perfect and sinless life, then to die on our behalf, out sins being put on Him, the wrath of God being poured out on Him because of our sin, so that we may have His perfect life counted toward us. The Bible speaks about this substitution of our sins with Christ's righteousness. Now we are free! Now we are no longer under the wrath of God, but in His love and grace! This is amazing news!

The Bible doesn't leave us there. In my understanding of Christianity growing up, this is where things got a little messy. I could remember the teaching of the cross and how it saves us. I can remember being told to be a good person, but I don't remember them being linked so well. You see, if we see Christ as our savior, then we will worship Him. If we worship Him, then we will want to obey Him. Out of a loving relationship, we want to serve and love others because Christ first loved and served us. This is how we can finally come out of living a selfish, me center life and into a selfless Christ centered life. We get to enjoy communing with God now in our life and we look forward to seeing Him face to face when we die.

If you find yourself busy and lost in time and meaning, wanting to know why, think of what Christ has done for you. I encourage you to pick up your Bible and read. Find out what God has communicated to you through His word, the Bible. Pray. Talk to Him, let Him talk to you. Also, being part of a local body, church, is key as it will provide a way for you to be served and serve. I hope and pray this is encouraging to you.