Eastridge Special Forces
Everyone is Self-Made
What is our state in life? Are we rich, poor, happy, content, ambitious, adrenaline junkie, in love, philosophic or hate politicians.
What things do we make sure surround us? When we go camping, traveling, at work, weekend at home… what do we carry? Rap music, obnoxious or aggressive people, books, cookware, porn pictures, love for our family, television shows going in our head, or maybe a bunch of chocolate?
Whatever your answers may be, do you think they are related?
I was browsing youtube earlier and ended up listening to some gal talk about self-made millionaires. The point she was trying to make was that everyone is self-made… not just millionaires.
And so I have been wrestling with that. Is that true? It sounds right. How does that reflect in a world beset by an Evil One and a God who is intimately in control of our lives… whether we like it or not? Are riches a blessing from God or the fruit of certain labor?
I ponder the Bible and think of examples. Job received the blessing of God in his possessions. Yet, wouldn’t he have lost them earlier if he had mismanaged or was ignorant of how to utilize such an investment. Definitely, Satan had his way with Job, but Job got everything back – doubled. Hmmn. Job was a self-made man by arranging his blessings in ways they would multiply. God blessed the fruit of his labor.
I look to Solomon. He obviously obtained wisdom in abundance (as a gift) that enabled him to manage a huge portfolio and a nation of people. Yet, by the end of his life, he had taxed the people so much they were ready for revolt. I wonder if the blessing of God had left him in the last stages… or if he was self-serving in his wisdom which dried up the silver and gold income and he was forced to tax the people to keep revenue coming in.
I am not fully convinced either way, but I do know one thing for sure… what we put into our bodies we will get out. If we keep a steady diet of porn input, we are going to get a sexually depraved mindset. If we regularly read “how-to” business books, we will grow more entrepreneurial in our thinking. And devotions and Bible reading will get us closer to godliness than going without.
I believe man has a free will. And I believe that what we do with our freedom will bless us or deprive us. And though we submit our endeavors unto the Lord, asking His blessing, our decisions make us the person we become.
A man who will risk his labor and time into an enterprise is more worthy of reward than the man filled with fear and thus seeks a safer easier way. And the more a man risks the more he will seek greater knowledge and experience. And he will use the wisdom gained to make calculated risks to further his claim in life.
So in a way, the risk taker – both successful and unsuccessful as well as the man who seeks security by avoidance are all self-made by the choices they make.
In the same way, children who do awful actions (drugs, sex, lawlessness) cannot blame their parents or their friends. No, it was their own choices that led them to those actions not the circumstances. And those choices form their character and that character becomes the people they will become (say easily influenced).
Yet, all the ambitions and dreams we hold must be refined by the Lord’s fire. Success in these matters – fame, finances, influence or power – may not be what the Lord intends for our hearts. We should work with intensity unto the purposes the Lord calls us to pursue. Because in either way, it’s hard for God to bless a parked car.
We shouldn’t seek the greatest places of honor at the table/in the world unless the Lord is pushing us toward that endeavor.
When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place. Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:7-11).
SC