Greetings Dear Reader,
I have a friend who is a police detective. I once asked him if the adage was true that
to solve crimes one must follow the money.
I have an idea for a detective novel and was gathering data. He said that there is a better one he
uses. He asks instead, the more general
question, “who benefits and how?”
This is quite logical.
Who benefits from the death of another person? Who benefits from the insurance? Who is better off because of the robbery? As I dwelt on this a filter formed in my
mind. I began to see this question in
light of faith and following.
The idea of this is to analyze all of our thoughts and
choices about following Christ in light of this question. In the transaction proposed by a church, a
religious group, or a person claiming to follow Christ, ask the question. Reason out who benefits. Here is an example:
A church that I respect has a mission statement that reads,
“Blackhawk
Church’s mission is to build a loving community that follows Christ in
order to reach a community that is lost without Him.” Part of the living out of that mission is
that they do not give money to any internal programs that do not support
it. They do not use their resources to
simply entertain. The mission must
benefit for the program to get a green light.
The question concerning who benefits in the transaction
matters deeply. If someone wishes for
you to donate to a cause, determining how much of the funds go to that cause is
a good way to begin your response. Now
that I have articulated the principle, I need to frame it in practical matters.
The question becomes one of defining what the benefit
is. If the foundation of the journey is
to love God and love each other, then the benefit must be living out that love
in every transaction. Asking who
benefits can be defined as asking who is receiving love through the
transaction. It is supposed to be
mutual. It can be one-sided as long as I
am the one transacting out of love.
If I do something where I am the only one who benefits, then
I am likely not acting out of love. If I
do something that benefits others and not me, then I still benefit if I do it
out of love. When I first started
writing, many years ago, I chose not to share that writing. I realized that this was not serving anyone
but me. It was not a benefit to others
to use my time and not share what that time produced.
To be an open book (pun intended) and share what I write so
that others may benefit is loving and helps others. It is in that sharing that I can practice
humility and remind others of the purpose of our journey. If I write this blog for the purpose of
following Christ more closely, that is good.
If I share it and allow others to benefit that is better. If, however, I allow honest transaction with
you Dear Reader, then that is best and everyone benefits along the way.
When attempting to love in the journey, we must transact in
things that benefit others. We must live
out our love by seeking the good of others even when it costs us to do so. Analyze the transactions with me Dear
Reader. Let us see who benefits. It may help us drop some things that we do
not need.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every
writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a
homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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Thorn:
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