What you care about vs. What you believe

I thought I would add a post looking closer at the quote I had posted last time. I had a number of people comment on it to me, and Dwayne was even brave enough to put his comment out there for everyone to see :).

The quote was:

"It is more important to change what people care about than it is to change what they believe."

So what do I mean by this?

We as Christians really have been programmed to think the other way around here. If people believe in the Gospel, what they care about will change as they are transformed by the truth of the Gospel. Their new belief system will begin to reorganize and re-prioritize their values. So we as Christians focus on the belief aspect, trusting that the truth of the Gospel once believed will change what people care about. If we act contrary to what we believe, then we ask if we even truly believed in the first place.

As I have been a Christian for almost 18 years now, practically speaking I have seen that this above attitude is different than what actually happens in the life of a follower of Jesus. What really takes place is our desires (what we care about) often times supersedes our beliefs. Or we believe something as long as it matches with what we really want. If what we care about does not fit, then we either justify our selfish decisions by stamping a dove and fish on it and calling it holy ("It's God's will for my life", "I feel called to...", etc) or we outright disobey what God wants.

Here are some examples

1) We believe that the Bible is true (we have all nodded in agreement when a preacher teaches this passage) when we are told in Hebrews 10:25 that we should not forsake assembling together, basically gathering together as believers (Sunday or otherwise). Yet we organize our lives and the activities our kids are involved in such that we are unable to "commit" to being a part of the body (sporadic Sunday attendance, missing nights in bible study, etc.) on a regular basis. What we care about supersedes what we believe.

2) We care about being happy and living a content life. We claim a verse like Jeremiah 29:11 to demonstrate that God wants us to have a prosperous life. So we make all our financial decisions based upon maintaining that level of happiness (most often determined by us, not God). Yet, the scriptures teach (and as bible believing Christians we believe) in 1 John 3:17 that if we see a brother or sister in need (context: material needs) and do not respond, the love of God does not dwell in us. How often do we sacrificially give in this type of situation, even when doing so would prevent us from financially being able to satisfy our own desires? Practically, we don't do as much as we could because to do so would prevent us from living the satisfied life we think God has for us. Again, what we care about supersedes what what we believe.

These are just a few examples. I did not go into sins such as lying, pornography, anger, etc. An easy place to start is to think about the idols we have set up in our lives; the "functional saviors" which will get us what we want apart from Jesus. These idols are what we care about most. What is"eye-opening" with this is that whether it's a conscious decision or not, our idols oftentimes overrule our beliefs.

I maintain that if we can change what we really care about: our hopes, dreams, passions, priorities, etc., and submit these cares to Jesus and the scriptures, our beliefs would actually match what we desire and we can stop being hypocrites.

Just some thoughts.