what is the incentive behind anything that we do in our lives? what motivates us to continue to try? do we tend to just throw in the towel when it gets it too hard, or do we continue to figure it out? do we have a realistic idea of how the world works?
last night we talked about the incentive to have unconditional love with your spouse no matter how your spouse may be responding to you. they used the example that if a couple was given the incentive that they would receive 5 million dollars just to be loving and respectful to each for two weeks. would they do it? of course they would! money was the incentive. what a sad incentive for you to be loving and respectful to the one you are married to. are you going to stop loving your spouse because they don't respond to you the way you think they should; is that realistic?
money is usually the incentive for most individuals to get things done. they what to know how much money they are going to receive for their labors. all of us complain about the cost of things, but we also complain about the quality. take for example health care. we complain about the cost health care, but do we understand what it takes to create the quality of health care? i understand that it is going to cost me a small fortune in medical care costs over my lifetime because of my MS. i am willing to pay that knowing that with my dollars comes the advancement of treatments and the possibility of a cure. so, yes my husband and i are willing to make that sacrifice. our world just sees the dollar signs being spent, but not the other side of the coin.
our country is unrealistic in their expectations. we expect to get something for nothing. we complain that there aren't enough jobs, but do we know the bottom line of why we aren't getting jobs? we complain that the government has spent too much money, but do we see why they have spent too much money? each individual has an expectation of how that money is to be spent, not how much it is going to actually cost. we don't want to pay more in taxes, but yet we want the government to pay for every program that we put before them. how in the world are they going to be able to do that?
we make huge demands on everything in our country without thinking of how much it actually cost to implement those demands. the following are two examples of what we see as good and evil.
bill gates is billionaire. his product is on every pc that goes out for sale. bill gates gives millions of dollars away to charities and causes that we all believe in. that's what people report on what he has given away, not that he still makes millions and his product is expensive. why don't we condemn him for making millions? he is the ceo of one of the largest corporations in the world; why isn't he considered evil? why aren't you questioning why it costs so much to buy his product even though we are always making the demands to have a better product. we don't ask him because he gives money away.
british petroleum is now considered to be the evil of all evil in oil industry because of what happened in the gulf. oil companies in general are looked upon as evil because of their large profit margins, but what if we are missing the other side of the coin? the american people have made it their mission to put regulations on the safety and emissions programs of how this industry produces it's products. that costs a lot of money people. the majority of the profits spent is to keep up with consumer demand (that is you!) as well as continually upgrading the systems to EPA regulations. the american people wanted this remember? do you even know how products contain petroleum in our world?
what if i told you that british petroleum every year sponsors a race of 13,000 plus individuals to ride from houston to austin every year in support of finding a cure for MS? that all the money raised isn't given back to them, it is given to this cause. are they still considered evil? is the ceo still evil because he makes too much money even though he allows his employees to ride on a team to raise money for a cause. he is still evil because he is still trying to make profits to improve the quality of production for this product? he is still evil because he's trying to figure out way to cover all the costs and still pay the people that make these things happen?
there are good and bad consequences to everything that happens is this world, but it always come at price. see i look at GOD this way. i can't follow him and have it both ways. i can't write about scripture and CHRIST without knowing what i have to sacrifice as a human being to do that. if i follow HIM then i have to be willing to follow HIM completely, not both ways. am i unrealistic in this expectation of myself, no. i will make huge mistakes in my journey, but that is what it means to continually grow in HIM. we cannot continually expect others to follow a course without it costing something. our sin cost GOD HIS ONLY SON. there are two sides to every story, to everything, you just have to be willing to look at both sides and make that sacrifice as to what is really important.
"he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 john 2:2
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