Tag: purpose

We Are Living Schindler’s List

It is award season, and we are all hearing the Oscar buzz. Will it be the musical about the transgender drug lord?  The biopic about Bob Dylan?  The musical about witches in Oz?  While some of the movies are pretty good, none of them really stand out as a film that we will be talking about or quoting five years from now.  Some films actually do stand the test of time.  Lately, I have been contemplating a memorable Best Picture winner from the past. 

The big winner at the Oscars for 1993 was Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece, Schindler’s List. The film was based on the true story of Oskar Schindler, a businessman in Poland, who hired Jewish workers for his factory during World War II.  When the Nazis began to round up Jews to be sent to death camps for extermination, Schindler became a hero by helping Jews escape being murdered at the hands of the Nazis.

Today, most of us think that we would have done the same, but very few did stand up for Jews in occupied Europe during World War II.  Schindler risked his own life for the lives of others.  Looking back, it was obviously a noble cause. 

Contemplating Oskar Schindler made me think about an acquaintance of mine who was always desperately longing to be part of a noble cause.  Unfortunately, he also desperately wanted to be liked and approved of by our mainstream, secular culture.  For this reason, he started looking at the causes that were popular in society.  He tried to take up the causes of the people who see themselves as victims.  He began to see race as the motivating force for everything.  He looked to the past and saw the civil rights movement of the middle of the last century, and since that was an important, noble cause, he wanted to be a part of it.  He got caught up in the slandering of whites and the police.  It turned out not to be enough for him for a couple of big reasons.  First, the real civil rights movement was won before he was born.  Segregation had ended.  Jim Crow had been defeated.  People who think skin color makes somebody better or worse are hard to find.  The only people still pushing race as a problem are hucksters like Al Sharpton who are trying to make a buck.  My acquaintance’s second problem was that he is not black.  He could not claim to be a victim himself.  This eventually led him to other woke causes, none of which are noble.

He was led astray by his searching for meaning and something to fight for, but most people do want to be part of a noble cause.  It gives purpose to your life.  Instead of looking to the past for a cause that our grandparents already fought, we need to fight a fight that is relevant now.  Here is the thing.  We can have an even bigger impact than Oskar Schindler did.  We are living Schindler’s List right now.  In fact, there is a cause that is even more important than Schindler’s.  While the Jews of Europe were boarding trains to almost certain death at Nazi death camps, many more people today are boarding a train to eternal death and torment in the next life.  We have the opportunity to help these people like Schindler helped those that he saved.   Countless people have not accepted Jesus as their Savior and are thus on the path to Hell and eternal damnation.  It should be our cause to tell those people about Jesus.

Matthew 28:18-20 says, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”  This is our mission on Earth. 

Not only that, but nothing you do in life is as important as what you do that directs people to Heaven.  If you are the best athlete on the planet, it is meaningless if it does not point people to God.  If you have career success and immense riches, it is meaningless unless that career or your money shows people the route to Heaven.  If you are powerful and lead many people, it does not matter unless you lead those people to the truths of the Bible.  This does not mean that you have to stand on a street corner preaching, but it does mean that everything you do should be done with God in mind and the glory should be given to Him.  If you do this, you have that noble cause.  You are just as important as Oskar Schindler.

Lead by Example

My wife is a businesswoman and she works very hard.  She sometimes wonders why I put so much time into having fun.  As most of you know, I still play baseball at a pretty high level.  I am in a Wednesday night bowling league.  I play poker.  Not only that, but I coach baseball for work.  I also like to be involved in many social events with friends and family.  I am spontaneous.  I was just out to lunch for a friend’s birthday, and another friend asked if I wanted to come over and sing songs while he played the piano.  I did, and it was fun.  I want to enjoy my life.  Even more than that, I want my life to be meaningful and important in a positive way.

This has led to a discussion between my wife and me about what is important in life.  She says that having fun all the time is not realistic.  I agree.  There are certainly things that everybody has to do in life that they do not want to do.  Work immediately comes to mind.  Here’s the thing.  The fact that you have to work does not necessarily mean that it is more meaningful or important than fun.  For example, if 98% of the lawyers and politicians were not working, the world would be a better place.  Just like fun, if work is not done for the right purpose, it is not a good thing. 

I was just re-reading the book of Ecclesiastes, and was reminded that anything we do without it being for God’s purpose is vanity.  This does not mean that nothing we do matters.  It means that the things we do that affect eternity are the only things that ultimately matter.  As Colossians 3:2 puts it, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”   What can we do on earth that affects eternity?  We can lead people to put their faith in Jesus.

Once we know this, the only question left becomes, “What will lead people to put their faith in Jesus?”  There are the obvious answers, like inviting people to church or telling people about Jesus, and those are certainly important, but they are not usually very successful by themselves.  I have often seen people at events holding signs telling people to repent and turn to Jesus and wondered, “Has there ever been anybody who repented and turned to Jesus because of somebody doing that?”  In fact, shouting about God on a street corner is probably counterproductive and turns people off.

So, what does work?  What can help usher in a religious revival in our country that actually causes lasting change?  The answer is not to be pushy.  The answer is to lead by example.  Make people want to have a life like yours.  These four things will get people to want to turn to God.

  1. Be fun.  If you are regularly doing fun things, laughing, and in the middle of exciting moments, people are going to like you more.  People want to spend time with likeable, fun people.  If you are not fun, nobody will want to be around you, much less be like you or take any advice from you.  Fun also puts you in a position to meet people and build relationships with them.
  2. Be good.  There are fun people who are no good.  I know people who are a blast to hang out with but are not good people.  I would never put them in charge of money, because they are shady and the money would be gone.  I would never want to work with them because they are flakey.  I would not want them to date anybody I care about because they would treat them badly.  Being fun is certainly not good by itself.  Think about Pleasure Island in Pinocchio.  The kids are having fun, but are being bad.  This is why I specified that I want my life to be meaningful and important in a positive way.  If you are fun, but also honest, trustworthy, reliable, and helpful, people will respect you. 
  3. Be happy.  Fun and happy are related, but definitely not the same thing.  There are people who do a lot of fun stuff, but are not happy with their lives.  Happy people smile a lot and rarely complain.  Happy people keep things in perspective and remain relatively happy even when things go wrong.  Happy people can feel sad when something terrible happens, but their default position is cheerful.  Fun makes people like you and want to be around you, but happy makes people want to be like you and emulate you.
  4. Let people know that God is the key to your happiness and success.  Once people like you because you are fun, respect you because you are good, and want to be like you because you are happy, you have to make it known that you are that way because you are a Christian.  It is the truth.  I certainly would not be good or happy without God in my life.  In fact, life would be meaningless.  Once they know that God is the key to your happiness, you do not have to be heavy-handed or pushy.  Be ready to answer questions about God, but you do not have to constantly preach at people.  Instead, lead by example.  Continue to be fun, good, and happy.

There is one more thing.  If you are not all of these things, do not tell people you are a Christian.  I relate it to politics.  When I am out wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat, I am a billboard for President Trump, and I want him to win.  I go out of my way to make sure I am smiling and kind to people.  I always try to be that way, but I am even more conscious of it when I am representing President Trump.  I tip better at restaurants if I wear the hat.  I want people to know that the media is lying when they denigrate President Trump and his supporters.  I want them to know that we are good people.  If I am grumpy or rude, it will turn people off.  In fact, I take off the hat when I am driving, because nobody thinks other people are good drivers, even if they are. 

Similarly, if I am not fun, good, or happy, and then I tell people that I am a Christian, I am poorly representing God.  Nobody is going to see a Christian who is unhappy or constantly complaining and say, “How can I be like that?”  I had a friend who would often post on social media about God, but would mostly post complaints about his life or about some girl he was dating.  It drove me crazy because anybody who saw that would think, “That God thing sure isn’t working very well for him.  I’ll figure something else out.”  If you are not fun, good, and happy, work on that before you tell anybody that you are a Christian.

Now, go out and enjoy life.  Having fun may seem frivolous, but it leads to the most meaningful parts of your life.