So this morning I had a really great conversation with some friends. It was this weird combination of theology and geek-speak from our school classes. But the ultimate point was this...why do we do what we do when it comes to God?
So...rabbit trail...I kind of took a mini-break from blogging because I recognized that maybe I should think about that question. Why am I blogging? I had developed all these well-thought-out (and possibly legitimate) answers about having a place to express what I was thinking while maintaining some level of oversight and accountability. I also really hope that it can in some way help somebody that may be struggling with some of the concepts or whatever that I'm trying to work through. But here's the rub...I found a few weeks ago that I was suddenly much more interested in my blog 'stats' than anything else. It was kinda awesome to see that somebody in Australia or Russia was checking it out. So I stepped back for a bit even though I really wanted to put some random 'epiphany' out there that would boost my stats some more. Silly? Yes. But real.
So I think I'll stop with my confessional here and bring it back to the topic. Why do we do what we do? Is it because we think we'll get something out of it? Many faith traditions spend a lot of time emphasizing the idea that our actions lead to some tangible reward either here or in the afterlife. If that's our motivation, can we really say that we're acting out of love towards God and/or others? Or is it just a self-serving lifestyle choice? I'm personally convinced that every one of us exists for one purpose only...to bring glory to God and serve his purpose. This is so hard to accept from our (or at least my) perspective of entitlement! If I do something for somebody, then they owe me something, right? That's fair! But God owes nothing to no one...and we owe him everything. So is that why we do what we do? Because we owe God...because we ought to? Honestly, that's probably where I'm at most of the time. But that's not where I want to be. Because I know that actions born out of love are so much better than those from obligation.
Love God...love others. That's why we should do what we do
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