Transcript: Episode 0096

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Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast.

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I am Corey J.

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Mahler.

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And I'm still, whoa.

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On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be discussing the subject of excellence.

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This is a little bit of a continuation of last week's episode where we talked about purpose and motivation.

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It was inspired by a conversation Corey and I were having sometime in the last week where we were discussing what the new Earth might be like with regard to our bodies, the perfection of our bodies, to what degree, speculatively, might they become more excellent than they are.

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Purely idle speculation, and I don't know if we'll even get into it today, but it made me realize something that inspired this episode, which is that there is a feminization that has taken place in the culture, that we're all participants in, men and women.

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And when I say feminization, I'm not being insulting to women here, but there's a particular aspect of the female psyche that we've talked about on several occasions, including the leadership episode, most conspicuously.

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Women have a tendency towards equalization, towards egalitarianism, where if someone is superior by some measure, the tendency is to be a crap in a bucket.

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It's just inherent to how girls interact socially with each other.

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It's just how it works.

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And the feminization aspect that concerns us here this week is that that has entered into how all of us think and talk about everything around us, such that when we see something that is more excellent by whatever degree, the tendency is to tear it down.

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When you see something excellent, you don't say, wow, that's amazing, I'm impressed, I'm blessed to have seen this incredible thing, to have seen someone do something at their peak.

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It just blew me away.

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I can't believe they were able to do that as a human being.

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But there it is, I saw it with my own eyes.

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That should be the approach and the response that we naturally have.

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And yet, we're in a position, civilizationally, where the normal response from even decent men, otherwise, is to tend to want to tear it down and say, well, that's not that impressive.

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I could do that, like, whatever, it's no big deal.

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That was easy.

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There's nothing to what I just saw.

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That is, we think, a real problem.

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Because when you look at how scripture exemplifies excellence, it's often lauded as near the pinnacle.

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You know, there's a word that's used in Greek that is translated sometimes, excellence in the New Testament.

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Most of those cases involve, I think we'll link in the show notes if you want to look, like, we're not going to do a big word study.

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There's not some fiddly Greek etymology point here.

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It's just a matter of, in the New Testament, when God speaks of excellence, often it's related to moral excellence, which everybody's fine with.

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We're fine with the most excellent, the most moral, the best, most sinless version of whatever.

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Where this feminization causes us to fall down is that the first example of that word in Greek that's being used for good or excellent is in Genesis 1.31, where after God says, God saw that it was good, God saw that it was good, God saw that it was good.

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On the last day, God saw that it was very good.

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After a creation was completed, it could be reasonably translated, that word very good, the two words meaning very good, you could have translated excellent.

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It was correctly done very good to differentiate between the good, good, good.

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I'm not trying to say that the translation is wrong, but it does mean excellent, just like it means in the New Testament.

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And what's vital about noticing that is that when God, in effect, called creation excellent after he finished it, there was no actual moral action taking place.

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There was just a bunch of stuff.

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He created man, he created all the stuff, and he saw that it was very good.

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And then he rested.

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If we exclusively limit the notion of excellence to moral excellence, then we can't appreciate anything that's just impressive.

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You know, a sunset, like, oh, that was pretty, but you know, whatever.

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We end up being casual, and we end up being irony poisoned by seeing things that are genuinely impressive and genuinely good and beautiful.

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When you look at the philosophy that was involved in those words at the time the scripture was written, it ties directly into the transcendentals.

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The discussion of excellence is directly tied to what is good, beautiful, and true.

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All these things are bound up.

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And so in a roundabout way, when we today, in effect, I'm talking as Christians here, we have a tendency to deny that a man can have done something excellently.

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That a man can have performed in sports or in music or politics.

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Anything that is an endeavor of man, to say that that guy did excellently, that he's an excellent example, we get really nervous because we try to think in moral terms.

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And so the reason for discussing this today is to not to talk about works, righteousness, or any nonsense like that.

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If you're excellent at something, you're not going to save yourself.

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And there's no excuse for not being morally excellent.

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That's the one case among all of them where falling short is falling short of the glory of God, and that's sin.

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Christ died for that.

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But if you're not an excellent baseball player, that's not sin.

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That's someone else doing a whole lot better.

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And so when we see excellence, we should celebrate it, but we shouldn't think that it doesn't exist.

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Christians have gotten into this bizarre mindset.

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And again, I believe it's downstream from feminism causing girls to enter into all these spaces where they're part of how we're interacting and how we're assessing everything that we see.

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And bit by bit, this notion of crabs in a bucket where if you see something better, you can't just appreciate it for how good it is.

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So the first part of this episode is just an exhortation to admire excellence.

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You know, one of the most recent examples is I've talked about before, and then people get mad at me for saying I'm a fanboy.

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I have a thousand bad things to say about Elon Musk, but you cannot deny the excellence of the engineering achievements that he has accomplished in numerous companies.

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Even if you think they're a waste, even if you think it's completely retarded to go to Mars, and the fact that Starship, the booster itself, is 233 feet tall, that tower basically flying into space like a building, when these huge objects then come back down and land and they're captured by a pair of chopsticks, the first time that that was done, I laughed, like I watched in rapt attention, not to see it succeed, but to see it blow up, because there's no way that something like that can happen the first time.

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And in the Walter Isaacson biography of, I was just gonna say Steve Jobs, Elon's the same kind of guy.

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In Elon's biography, they describe where the notion of capturing the Starship with the tower came up, where he brought it up in a meeting, and all of Elon's engineers were like, some of the very best engineers in the world of doing this stuff, basically argued with him for an hour, and said, there's no way that the tower is gonna be able to capture Starship.

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He has a problem that they were trying to solve was, how do they land it?

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Because they wanted to reuse the thing and reuse it rapidly.

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And Falcon 9 has little legs, little tripod legs that come out.

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But Starship is so much bigger that putting the same kind of legs on there was gonna add a ton of weight and a ton of complexity, which makes everything, means you get less payload orbit.

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It means just everything's harder.

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And so just brainstorming, Elon said, well, what if we have the tower catch it?

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And they talked about different ideas and came up with what they called the Mechazilla Chopstick thing, where you have two big arms that would actually catch the rocket as it fell from space.

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And as engineers, like, that's insane.

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We can't do that.

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We don't know how.

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And they decided in that meeting, they were going to do it.

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And it took them years.

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And so when we watched that happen for the first time, no one had ever seen it.

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It was science fiction.

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It was completely ridiculous, the notion that you could just catch a giant spaceship with a pair of chopsticks as it fell to the ground.

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And that's exactly what they did on the very first try.

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That is us being privileged to witness excellence in those endeavors in engineering and rocketry, literal rock science.

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Absolutely amazing that that was accomplished.

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And it doesn't matter if you think of going to Mars as retarded.

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Especially, frankly, if you think that everything that he's doing with Starship is stupid and a waste of time, the reason we're doing this episode is that that person who gets angry when they see this misallocation of resources, misallocation of talent, not even making the case for when that's a good thing, if you think that it was stupid that they tried, you in particular are bound to respect the fact that they did it, because you have every reason to dislike it, but you cannot disregard the fact that they pulled it off.

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We witnessed excellence.

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We witnessed something that no one thought was possible, including his own experts.

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Like nobody thought it was possible until they decided to do it, and they just did it, and they made it work.

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When we talk about excellence in one sense, that's what we mean to see something so amazing that you can't believe your own eyes.

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I've watched that video 15 times, and I cheer every time, because it's incredible.

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I have the vaguest notion of the complexity and the effort that went into that.

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And so I'm not cheering for Mars or anything.

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I'm happy to see men doing the very best work that anyone's ever done in that sort of thing.

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And I don't even care about the practical applications.

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I care about seeing something done so well that it seems impossible that it even happened.

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The opposite response, the typical response, and the response I see a lot of time, which is why I'm mentioning this specific example, is that guys will say, oh, it's no big deal.

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Like, that wasn't that hard.

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It was dumb.

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It was a waste of time.

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I don't see anything there.

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This is a deranged response to excellence.

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It's a corrupt, it's a spiritually corrupt response.

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It's an utterly feminine crabs in a bucket response.

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To see one of the coolest things that's ever happened, like just, it's frigging cool.

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A rocket fell from space and they caught it and recycled it.

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That's insane, and we saw it.

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You should think that that's cool.

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You know, I'm acting like a spaz here, like it's just, obviously, this is an amazing thing.

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Even if the idea, even if their purpose is dumb, the fact that they pulled it off is insanely cool.

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Most people, it seems like a lot of loud mouths, have this innate desire to tear that down, to see something impressive, that even Elon's best guys didn't think were possible until they pulled it off.

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To see that and to want to tear it down, that's what's spiritually corrupt.

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It's got nothing to do with thinking that going to Mars is stupid or whatever, fine, don't care.

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To think that to see something like that is just dumb and I don't care, I'm not impressed at all, that's a sickness.

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When the Michael Crichton novel Westworld was turned into an HBO series, it became a very HBO thing.

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It was pornographic and extremely violent.

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I'm not recommending it, but I did watch it.

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And from the very beginning, there's an element that's relevant to this.

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The premise of Westworld was there was an amusement park, a theme park, where there were these so-called hosts, there were androids.

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They were perfect simulacra of humans.

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So there you couldn't tell whether someone was a human or an android.

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And one of the ways that they kept this theme park working was that these androids that were polled, they were programmed to believe they lived in the 1800s in the Old West.

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One of the tests that the maintainers of the park would perform on them, to make sure they were performing correctly according to their programming, was to determine whether or not they had been contaminated by any outside knowledge of the future or the present in the case of the people visiting.

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So periodically they would pull one of the hosts out of the park and they would show it a picture of a skyline, a modern skyline with future skyscrapers and things, or some example of technology.

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And they would ask them, what do you see in this picture?

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And the host not having any knowledge of the future would look at it.

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And if they were performing correctly, if they were not buggy, the response was, I don't see anything at all.

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And I think that's what we are dealing with today, where people, when they see something excellent, there's this pall, there's this programming that's entered people's minds, to see something amazing and excellent and laudable, something that's worthy of respect, and just to respond to, I don't see anything at all.

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And the way that manifests is usually derision.

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It's to tear it down and to be nasty about it.

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So the purpose of doing this episode is to say, things that are excellent are worthy of adulation and of respect.

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Even if you don't want to give Elon adulation, that's fine.

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But you have to respect the accomplishment because it was something incredibly difficult, something that was pulled off with perfect precision.

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It's okay for us to recognize that.

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It doesn't diminish us the fact that we can't do it.

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I can't do that.

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We'll get to that at the end, that when we see these moments of excellence in all various fields, we have to get aside from this notion that if someone does something really well, that you are diminished.

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We're actually privileged to witness excellence.

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We are made better in the witnessing that thing even in the contrast to our mundane lives, things that we couldn't possibly do are still a testament to how valuable hard work and brilliant ideas are when it's all combined into one piece.

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And again, that's whatever field.

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You could pick art, music.

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We're using some examples that are public performances, public examples, because that's a case where we're all looking in the same direction.

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We're all looking at something to see is this going to succeed or fail?

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You know, who's going to win the World Series?

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Is this rocket going to crash?

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Is this soprano going to hit the high note?

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Whatever it is, you want them to succeed, hopefully, but even if you want them to fail, you have to respect when they succeed.

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All the more, if you think that they're going to beef it, it's not going to work out, and they actually pull it off, and you were wrong about it, show them some respect.

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Show the fact that someone did something way better than you could is a reason for us to celebrate, because these are some of the things that make this life worth living.

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These moments of excellence, these moments that show us how much better we can all be when we are gifted by God, and when we do hard work, and when we're pursuing specific purposes that are laudable.

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You know, for the argument of last week's episode, we're not going to tell you what that laudable, godly purpose should be.

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Just going to assume you're working towards something good.

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You know, if someone is a serial killer, we call them prolific.

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We don't call them excellent.

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The notion of excellence always inherently has some positive moral aspect to it.

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Something is not excellently done if it's gross or bad or harmful.

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There are other words that you can describe it, but you don't say someone's an excellent serial killer.

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It's the opposite.

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Excellence has nothing to do with that.

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So even in the way that we speak about bad things, we sort of understand that there's an inherent moral tenor to just seeing something good.

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And even if it's something as mundane and corporately poisoned as major league sports, to see something well-executed is still worthy of respect.

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And I think as Christians and as decent men, we need to get it out of our heads that we should be sitting on the sidelines and sniping and making snide ironic comments when we see things that are glorious.

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It doesn't diminish God's glory to say that there's glory in this life for certain things.

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God even uses these many examples of the runner's wreath when he finishes the race first.

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These are examples from this life that are not condemned as amoral in Scripture to help us understand heavenly things.

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If you despise the earthly things, how can you possibly have a connection to the heavenly thing?

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Excellence sets an example, and it's an inspiration, and it's a privilege when we witness it.

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Somewhere in the world, there is a man who is the best at building with legos.

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That's a trivial example of excellence, but it's still a form of excellence because it obviously took him time.

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He had to invest in the ability to do that.

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He had to figure out how to do it.

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And some of the constructions using legos or similar things or lego, as the company would prefer, we call the plural, I believe, those are impressive.

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That is a form of excellence.

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And as we'll highlight it in his introduction, some forms of excellence are of a trivial sort.

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They're not necessarily launching a rocket and capturing it with what amount to metal chopsticks.

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But it is still a form of excellence.

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And again, you are not diminished by the fact that there is someone somewhere in the world who is better at lego than you are.

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There is some level at which you could do that same sort of thing.

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Perhaps it's not as good as he is.

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Perhaps it's better.

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It just depends.

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But there is an excellence with regard to that, just like there is an excellence in basically every field of human endeavor.

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The most common example and the one that is perhaps the most readily grasped is indeed professional sports, because that's something that we can all see.

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And it's something that we all recognize when we see it, because we can look at those who perform at that level and see something that, if we're honest with ourselves at least, we recognize we could never do.

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Now, perhaps we could be better than we are, certainly if I spent more time practicing tennis, I would be better than I am now.

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But I'm never going to be a world champion with regard to tennis.

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God has given out gifts to different men in different measure.

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He may have given you intellect.

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He may have given you aptitude with regard to sports, whatever it happens to be.

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And we talked about this in the episode, God's Gifts, Man's Duties, to a certain degree, which is part of what factors in to this.

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But in every field of human endeavor, there is going to be someone who is the best in a given time.

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And there's going to be someone who was or will be the best historically.

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Perhaps he's living now.

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Hard to tell depending on the field.

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Just because that person is excellent in that field, you are not diminished, which is part of what we are attempting to tamp down, to exterminate, if we can, with this episode.

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You should not view yourself as being diminished by the fact that there are those who are better at certain things than you are.

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That's going to be the case in almost any endeavor you pursue.

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There will probably be someone who is better at it.

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Until, perhaps, if you are the one who eventually becomes the best in that field, it will have taken you decades of practice, and you will be on top for a certain period of time.

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We could think of, perhaps, chess.

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The highest-ranked grandmaster in the world usually doesn't stay there for very long.

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There are some historical exceptions, of course, but those men were truly exceptional.

00:20:21.372 --> 00:20:25.052
By and large, sports again, a very good example.

00:20:25.052 --> 00:20:33.392
If you are the top in a particular sport, you are not going to be there for very long just because of the biological reality of aging.

00:20:33.392 --> 00:20:34.672
Someone else will replace you.

00:20:35.612 --> 00:20:42.612
But there is a form of excellence with regard to being at the top or anywhere near the top.

00:20:42.612 --> 00:20:46.732
This is, in fact, something that has been brought up a number of times with regard to the Olympics.

00:20:46.732 --> 00:20:49.332
And there's something to the argument.

00:20:49.332 --> 00:20:59.672
It's perhaps tongue-in-cheek to some degree, but there are those who have argued that we should have an average person in every single one of the events just to compare.

00:20:59.672 --> 00:21:15.352
And that might actually help, because when we're only looking at those who are the absolute top of the field, perhaps it's a little bit difficult for us to recognize the level of excellence that we are viewing and to have that right response of admiration for that achievement.

00:21:16.572 --> 00:21:28.592
Because we're not being honest with ourselves and looking at how well and how highly those individuals are performing compared to what we could do, or an average person could do, assuming you're an average person in the endeavor.

00:21:30.652 --> 00:21:39.992
If you're just looking at the top five or six tennis players in the world, you're comparing them to each other instead of to an average player.

00:21:39.992 --> 00:21:46.472
An average player would be completely demolished by the top leagues in any sport.

00:21:46.472 --> 00:21:48.412
You would score zero points.

00:21:48.412 --> 00:21:51.732
You probably wouldn't even return the serve.

00:21:51.732 --> 00:21:56.112
But it's difficult to see that when it's just the top players against each other.

00:21:57.032 --> 00:22:01.092
But we have to be honest with ourselves and recognize that we're not the best in every field.

00:22:01.092 --> 00:22:03.472
We may not be the best in any field.

00:22:03.472 --> 00:22:05.872
And there's nothing wrong with that.

00:22:05.872 --> 00:22:11.952
Again, you are not diminished by the fact that there are those who are excellent in their fields of endeavor.

00:22:13.032 --> 00:22:19.232
And I want to distinguish two different things here that are related and feed into each other.

00:22:19.232 --> 00:22:29.592
But the reason I want to distinguish them is that in the modern mind, natural talent has been downplayed to some certain extent.

00:22:29.592 --> 00:22:32.072
And the reason for this is envy.

00:22:32.072 --> 00:22:37.992
And really, that's sort of the core, in a way, of the episode that we are doing today.

00:22:37.992 --> 00:22:49.612
We are arguing against envy because there are those who become envious of others when those others have been given certain talents above and beyond what the person himself has been given.

00:22:49.612 --> 00:22:55.812
So you look at this other and go, God gave him exceptional athletic ability.

00:22:55.812 --> 00:23:02.112
He is excellent in this field, at least in part, because of the gifts given him by God.

00:23:02.112 --> 00:23:04.092
If you look at that with envy, that's sinful.

00:23:04.092 --> 00:23:05.432
You should not do that as a Christian.

00:23:05.432 --> 00:23:08.372
You must not do that as a Christian.

00:23:08.372 --> 00:23:11.492
But at the same time, it is destructive to yourself and to society.

00:23:11.492 --> 00:23:13.132
That is not the way that we should view this.

00:23:13.132 --> 00:23:15.332
That's the crabs in a bucket thing.

00:23:15.332 --> 00:23:18.852
When you have that envy, mentally, you are attempting to tear that man down.

00:23:19.592 --> 00:23:32.292
Instead of recognizing this as an example of excellence to which others can aspire, to which you can aspire to a certain degree, to whatever degree you have the ability to do that.

00:23:32.292 --> 00:23:38.932
But on top of that natural talent, there is also the acquired skill.

00:23:38.932 --> 00:23:43.872
Because it is insufficient in almost any field simply to have that natural talent.

00:23:44.012 --> 00:23:51.212
Now, there are some fields in which the natural talent counts for more than in other fields.

00:23:51.212 --> 00:23:55.972
But in essentially any field, you are also going to have to acquire knowledge or skill.

00:23:55.972 --> 00:24:00.192
And I'll say knowledge or skill because perhaps God has given you intellectual talents.

00:24:00.192 --> 00:24:06.332
You're going to have to acquire knowledge in a particular field to become the top in that field.

00:24:06.332 --> 00:24:08.332
It doesn't matter how good you are at math.

00:24:08.332 --> 00:24:14.032
If you know nothing about calculus, you're not going to be a very good mathematician.

00:24:14.032 --> 00:24:19.712
That's acquired knowledge, the equivalent of acquired skill in a sport, which, yes, there's knowledge as well in sports.

00:24:19.712 --> 00:24:22.592
Obviously, it's not just all skill.

00:24:23.932 --> 00:24:32.112
But it's a combination of that natural talent and the acquired skill that makes individuals the top in their field.

00:24:32.112 --> 00:24:37.192
And you should not envy those whom God has given greater natural talent.

00:24:37.952 --> 00:24:40.372
That natural ability, again, is a gift from God.

00:24:40.372 --> 00:24:46.492
And scripture is very clear that God does not hand out these gifts equally.

00:24:46.492 --> 00:24:50.032
We've gone over this in a number of episodes previously.

00:24:50.032 --> 00:24:53.092
Part of this is your inheritance, your patrimony.

00:24:53.092 --> 00:24:56.792
You receive these things from your ancestors.

00:24:56.792 --> 00:25:01.052
There are certain subgroups of humans who are better at sprinting.

00:25:01.052 --> 00:25:04.572
There are certain subgroups of humans who are better at long-distance running.

00:25:05.132 --> 00:25:08.072
There are some who are better at hand-eye coordination.

00:25:08.072 --> 00:25:13.172
These things are gifts from God that are handed down generationally.

00:25:13.172 --> 00:25:18.772
You have that as part of your patrimony if you have whatever particular skill it happens to be.

00:25:18.772 --> 00:25:20.772
It's not a matter of envy.

00:25:20.772 --> 00:25:22.192
It can be a matter of jealousy.

00:25:22.192 --> 00:25:29.312
It is something that you should certainly guard because that is important, and we went over the distinction between those in a previous episode.

00:25:29.312 --> 00:25:39.912
But it is not a matter of envy because you do not look at those to whom God has given these gifts, and think, I have to tear that man down because he is diminishing me.

00:25:39.912 --> 00:25:43.252
A good example of this, a more concrete example.

00:25:44.392 --> 00:25:52.952
While we are recording this episode and every episode, we are using a handful of different technologies that we did not create.

00:25:52.952 --> 00:26:00.052
Now, in Woe's case, he did help with some of it because we are both using Macs, but we didn't design the processors.

00:26:00.612 --> 00:26:04.452
We didn't design the storage, in this case, SSDs.

00:26:04.452 --> 00:26:08.712
We didn't create the microphones or the underlying technology.

00:26:08.712 --> 00:26:12.832
We are not the ones who figured out how to use electricity to do these things.

00:26:12.832 --> 00:26:21.872
And the list goes on and on, from the monitors down to the buttons on the control pad I used to mute and unmute my mic.

00:26:22.972 --> 00:26:28.712
Not one of these things would exist without men who were excellent in their fields.

00:26:30.312 --> 00:26:43.092
I'm not diminished by the fact that those men were excellent in a way that I am not, in a field in which I am not excellent, in a field in which I will never be excellent, I have no interest in pursuing those fields.

00:26:43.092 --> 00:26:50.132
Even if, say, I could pursue them, I'm not going to pursue them, and maybe I couldn't reach the level that they reached.

00:26:51.492 --> 00:26:56.052
We are all benefiting from the fact that those men were excellent in their fields.

00:26:57.032 --> 00:27:01.692
Far from being diminished, this podcast wouldn't exist.

00:27:01.692 --> 00:27:03.412
No podcast would exist.

00:27:03.412 --> 00:27:17.912
So many other things would not exist if not for those men whom God gifted a certain natural talent, and then they acquired the additional knowledge to be the top of their fields, to be excellent in their fields.

00:27:17.912 --> 00:27:22.252
That is how we should view excellence with regard to any field.

00:27:22.252 --> 00:27:32.372
With regard to sports, you can view that person as sort of a figure, someone in the field, something to which you can aspire if you are interested in that sport.

00:27:32.372 --> 00:27:38.832
If it's a sport that you happen to play or whatever it happens to be, you can look at the top player of a game.

00:27:38.832 --> 00:27:40.552
It could be poker.

00:27:40.552 --> 00:27:47.172
And if you are a poker player, you can aspire to that level of excellence in that field.

00:27:47.172 --> 00:27:49.332
Again, this is every field.

00:27:49.332 --> 00:27:52.072
These are all positive again, as Woe was saying in his introduction.

00:27:52.892 --> 00:27:56.092
Excellence carries with it a moral connotation.

00:27:56.092 --> 00:28:00.732
Excellence is only with regard to things that are good.

00:28:00.732 --> 00:28:09.612
That doesn't mean things that are sort of the moral height of human achievement, to perhaps abuse the term there.

00:28:11.112 --> 00:28:14.492
The example I gave of using Lego.

00:28:14.492 --> 00:28:16.932
Is that moral or not?

00:28:16.932 --> 00:28:20.652
Yes, but not in the sense that we usually employ moral.

00:28:21.292 --> 00:28:25.752
It's not in the sense of following the Ten Commandments.

00:28:25.752 --> 00:28:28.472
It's in the sense of being something that is constructive.

00:28:28.472 --> 00:28:30.272
It is not destructive.

00:28:30.272 --> 00:28:32.772
That's the moral distinction that we are drawing.

00:28:32.772 --> 00:28:36.452
And so the things that are constructive are morally good.

00:28:36.452 --> 00:28:37.992
They can have an excellence.

00:28:37.992 --> 00:28:40.452
You can be excellent at them.

00:28:40.452 --> 00:28:52.452
And again, that is whether it is something as trivial as building something with Lego, or capturing a spaceship that you designed, or any other human endeavor.

00:28:52.452 --> 00:28:58.112
And that is another point that I would like to make with regard to excellence.

00:28:59.412 --> 00:29:03.492
There are different levels, different kinds really of human achievement.

00:29:03.492 --> 00:29:06.132
Some are more excellent than others.

00:29:06.132 --> 00:29:10.812
Not all fields, not all endeavors, not all achievements are equal.

00:29:10.812 --> 00:29:14.072
There is inequality even with regard to being excellent.

00:29:14.832 --> 00:29:23.072
And so if you are excellent at LEGO, that's not as impressive as being the top of the field in mathematics.

00:29:23.072 --> 00:29:34.232
The man who is the best at theoretical math is achieving a level of excellence that is different, that is greater than the excellence of building with LEGO.

00:29:34.232 --> 00:29:38.812
I don't mean to beat up on LEGO, but it's just an easy example for this.

00:29:38.812 --> 00:29:39.752
It's very concrete.

00:29:39.752 --> 00:29:48.132
We can all recognize what it is, because virtually everyone listening to this podcast has at some point held LEGOs or stepped on one.

00:29:48.132 --> 00:29:54.152
But different fields are not identical in terms of the excellence in that field.

00:29:54.152 --> 00:29:58.072
It is more excellent to achieve certain things than to achieve others.

00:29:58.072 --> 00:30:00.712
This is again something that we should celebrate.

00:30:00.712 --> 00:30:06.292
We should recognize that greater degree of excellence and be thankful for it.

00:30:06.292 --> 00:30:14.352
That's something that God has given to us, because we all benefit from excellence of other men in other fields.

00:30:14.352 --> 00:30:29.732
Whether it is the technology that we are using, the medicine that helps us to live longer and healthier lives, the man who designed the pen that I use in order to write my notes for the show, whatever it happens to be, we all benefit from that excellence.

00:30:29.732 --> 00:30:37.952
And it is a gift from God of which we should not be envious, and certainly which we should not seek to tear down.

00:30:37.952 --> 00:30:40.332
One last example from sports.

00:30:40.332 --> 00:30:43.972
I looked these stats up on Croc, because I don't really pay attention to baseball.

00:30:43.972 --> 00:30:45.512
I don't like baseball.

00:30:45.512 --> 00:30:48.152
But as Corey's saying, these sorts of things are prime examples.

00:30:48.152 --> 00:30:49.512
We can all understand.

00:30:49.512 --> 00:30:53.952
I'd imagine virtually everyone listening has swung a baseball bat a couple times.

00:30:53.952 --> 00:30:56.192
So I looked up on Croc, it's entirely possible.

00:30:56.192 --> 00:30:57.572
These aren't precise.

00:30:57.572 --> 00:31:00.352
I'm giving a general illustration of a type.

00:31:00.352 --> 00:31:03.492
So if you're a super baseball nerd, please don't hate me.

00:31:03.492 --> 00:31:05.272
I'm not misleading anybody.

00:31:05.272 --> 00:31:12.992
What I did was looked up the World Series from 2024 between apparently the Dodgers and the New York Yankees.

00:31:12.992 --> 00:31:20.352
I was curious about the performance of the batters because batting percentages are something that I think is often used in examples.

00:31:20.352 --> 00:31:21.572
Batting a thousand.

00:31:21.572 --> 00:31:26.192
It's a baseball metaphor that applies in all sorts of cases.

00:31:26.192 --> 00:31:39.972
And the stats that I looked up indicated that the average batting rating for the winning team, for the Dodgers, for the World Series last year, was 229, which is abysmally low.

00:31:39.972 --> 00:31:45.412
If you're batting 229, you're probably not going to get into the Major Leagues in the first place.

00:31:45.412 --> 00:31:50.452
And I was also curious about watching the number of at-bats for any given player.

00:31:50.452 --> 00:31:54.132
And again, this is just very rough math, but it's going to be typical.

00:31:54.132 --> 00:31:59.992
In the World Series, in a given game, a batter was going to be up an average of three to five times.

00:31:59.992 --> 00:32:03.152
It was, on average, going to swing between four and eight times.

00:32:04.012 --> 00:32:06.272
And had an average of two twenty-nine.

00:32:06.272 --> 00:32:15.352
So the reason I highlight this is that if you did happen to watch those baseball games, or you watch any baseball game, you're going to see something similar to that.

00:32:15.352 --> 00:32:20.372
You're going to see one guy come up probably no more than half a dozen times, most of the time.

00:32:20.372 --> 00:32:24.992
He's probably not going to swing the bat more than a dozen times on average.

00:32:24.992 --> 00:32:28.712
And he's going to miss almost all of those pitches.

00:32:28.712 --> 00:32:41.372
And so for us, sitting on our butts on our couches, watching that, it's very easy for us not to see the excellence inherent in being Los Angeles Dodger or a New York Yankees player.

00:32:41.372 --> 00:32:45.212
The average salary for the winning team was around $6 million.

00:32:45.212 --> 00:32:49.212
And for that, in the most important games of their life, they batted 229.

00:32:49.212 --> 00:32:51.472
They missed almost all their pitches.

00:32:51.472 --> 00:32:54.032
If you're sitting there watching them, you think, I could do that.

00:32:54.032 --> 00:32:54.692
I've swung a bat.

00:32:54.932 --> 00:32:56.332
I've hit a ball pretty good.

00:32:56.572 --> 00:32:59.172
So maybe even played in the minor leagues or something.

00:32:59.172 --> 00:33:01.292
I doubt we have any major league listeners.

00:33:01.292 --> 00:33:06.332
Just by virtue of how rare that is, it's not that this podcast would or wouldn't appeal.

00:33:06.332 --> 00:33:12.152
It's just there's so few guys at that level of excellence to even be able to be in the room.

00:33:12.152 --> 00:33:17.192
The very worst player in MLB is better than all of us at baseball.

00:33:17.192 --> 00:33:18.192
And he's the worst.

00:33:18.372 --> 00:33:22.732
Of all his teammates, of all the teams, the very worst guy does a better job than us.

00:33:22.732 --> 00:33:29.872
He's excellent enough to be in the MLB and the minimum salary for the league is $740,000.

00:33:29.872 --> 00:33:35.712
He's getting paid $740,000 to do a terrible job at being a professional ball player.

00:33:35.712 --> 00:33:45.852
Now, the worst guy in the league is going to get sent down and somebody is going to replace him because there's always competition because of the degree of excellence that's manifest at the highest levels.

00:33:45.852 --> 00:33:49.812
Again, sports is just an example that can be given because we all are aware of it.

00:33:49.812 --> 00:33:53.132
That sort of excellence, that sort of competition is present everywhere.

00:33:53.972 --> 00:34:01.432
And the irony poisoning that's endemic particularly to my cohort of my generation.

00:34:01.432 --> 00:34:03.932
I'm a very young actor.

00:34:03.932 --> 00:34:07.092
I basically grew up with older millennials.

00:34:07.092 --> 00:34:10.632
JD Vance and Pete Hegseth are about my age.

00:34:10.632 --> 00:34:15.412
We all probably watch the same cartoons and TV shows as a kid, probably the same serials.

00:34:15.412 --> 00:34:17.132
We had the same experience.

00:34:17.132 --> 00:34:37.552
So I can tell you from firsthand experience, having lived very similar childhoods to them in time, is that when you watch them on camera, and they are sincere, and they're earnest, and they're approaching things from a very pragmatic perspective, they're not screwing around.

00:34:37.552 --> 00:34:43.372
The reason I'm highlighting them is that my generation was completely irony poisoned.

00:34:43.392 --> 00:34:46.972
Irony and sarcasm were our native tongue.

00:34:46.972 --> 00:34:48.632
And I've gotten most of it out of my system.

00:34:48.632 --> 00:34:50.072
I used to be really good at it.

00:34:50.072 --> 00:34:53.252
I was nearly as bad as some, but we all grew up that way.

00:34:53.252 --> 00:34:57.632
Just being completely ironic about things, saying one thing, meaning the other.

00:34:57.632 --> 00:35:02.392
The way of manifest, in particular, when we're talking about excellence, is tearing it down.

00:35:02.392 --> 00:35:03.872
And it was never sincere.

00:35:03.872 --> 00:35:05.252
It was always smug.

00:35:05.252 --> 00:35:09.012
It was too cool for school approach as to whatever you saw.

00:35:09.012 --> 00:35:10.652
You're not going to get excited.

00:35:10.652 --> 00:35:15.192
You're not going to have a sincere response to seeing something cool.

00:35:15.192 --> 00:35:17.492
You're just going to shrug and say, whatever, I've seen better.

00:35:17.492 --> 00:35:18.152
I could do better.

00:35:18.172 --> 00:35:18.632
You're like, whatever.

00:35:18.632 --> 00:35:28.512
It's the dismissiveness coming from that irony and sarcasm has mostly gone away the way it was when we were kids.

00:35:28.512 --> 00:35:36.852
But what replaced it was something that in some ways is even worse, which is the sincere form of, well, that's nothing at all.

00:35:36.852 --> 00:35:44.032
I saw a rocket fall from heaven and be captured by the very same launcher that sent it up that way.

00:35:45.392 --> 00:35:48.392
Some people will look at that and say I don't see anything at all.

00:35:48.392 --> 00:35:56.112
They're like the Android that's been programmed not to see excellence, not to see anything better than its own world, its own existence.

00:35:56.112 --> 00:36:11.372
It's this programmed blinders that prevent an entire generation of people younger than mine, although I think we've all pretty much adopted it, is the idea that if you see something that's genuinely excellent, sarcasm and irony have mostly gone away.

00:36:11.772 --> 00:36:15.732
Now, it's very sincere and it will take a couple of different forms.

00:36:15.732 --> 00:36:21.092
The Christian version of this poison is to say, well, that's not for the glory of God.

00:36:21.092 --> 00:36:22.212
That's not for God's kingdom.

00:36:22.212 --> 00:36:26.152
So that doesn't matter at all, which is deranged.

00:36:26.152 --> 00:36:32.132
That's not what you find in scripture because again, we're not talking about how we are saved.

00:36:32.132 --> 00:36:38.652
It's absolutely true that the way that God saves us is manifest solely on the cross, and we receive that by faith.

00:36:39.212 --> 00:36:48.372
We talk about it all the time to point out that whenever we say anything good about anything else, whenever we try to point at excellence elsewhere, we're not diminishing the cross.

00:36:48.372 --> 00:36:49.972
We can't do that.

00:36:49.972 --> 00:36:53.992
You can't diminish the cross by pointing to something else good in creation.

00:36:53.992 --> 00:37:04.992
That frankly is profoundly blasphemous to point at God's perfect work on the cross and say, well, some baseball player did a good job, so the cross is threatened.

00:37:04.992 --> 00:37:05.872
Are you kidding me?

00:37:05.872 --> 00:37:07.652
That's never anyone's rational thought.

00:37:08.072 --> 00:37:11.172
You know, this is the default position of Christians in the church today.

00:37:11.172 --> 00:37:11.712
It's the most...

00:37:11.712 --> 00:37:17.012
I had somebody yesterday criticize one of my posts when I rebutted his dumb point.

00:37:17.012 --> 00:37:19.392
He's like, you think this is for the glory of God?

00:37:19.392 --> 00:37:23.492
It doesn't have anything to do with an argument or a discussion.

00:37:23.492 --> 00:37:33.652
There's this mode of thought that has captured the Christian mind where anything that I don't like can't be excellent, it can't be good, it can't be beautiful or true.

00:37:33.652 --> 00:37:39.172
Either it's about the cross or it's a lie, it's worldly and we got to just dismiss it.

00:37:39.172 --> 00:37:42.452
The purpose of this episode is to say that that's disgusting.

00:37:42.452 --> 00:37:46.892
That's not right, that's not Christian, it's not sane, it's not rational.

00:37:46.892 --> 00:37:50.592
There's nothing good about that programmed response.

00:37:50.592 --> 00:37:53.652
It's not universal, but it's incredibly common.

00:37:53.652 --> 00:38:09.012
This will come up all the time where people will, if you're going back and forth with someone about anything as a Christian, you're a Christian and you say you're a Christian, and they say they're a Christian, and they don't like whatever it is that you're saying, here's a good example of something.

00:38:09.012 --> 00:38:13.892
They'll just say, well, that's not about the cross, that's not the gospel, that's not about heaven.

00:38:13.892 --> 00:38:15.492
I don't see anything at all.

00:38:15.492 --> 00:38:17.672
There's nothing good or beautiful or true there.

00:38:17.672 --> 00:38:22.252
There's nothing excellent there, because there's nothing to do with salvation.

00:38:22.252 --> 00:38:27.672
I can't say any more clearly, this is not how God speaks about anything.

00:38:27.672 --> 00:38:35.772
When God gives us specific examples of moral conduct, yes, absolutely, excellence in moral conduct is the benchmark.

00:38:35.772 --> 00:38:40.332
And Christ is the benchmark who led the perfect life precisely because none of us can.

00:38:40.332 --> 00:38:49.852
And no matter how hard we try, and how much we care, and how much we love God, we will never perfect in this life our ability not to sin.

00:38:49.852 --> 00:39:03.392
We are given faith, and we are given through sanctification the ability to sin less, to resist specific individual daily sins, to be tempted and to realize it, and say, not today, Satan, I don't want anything to do with that.

00:39:03.392 --> 00:39:10.212
But in the long run, every day, every week, every month, every year, for the rest of your life, you're going to sin.

00:39:10.212 --> 00:39:12.832
And that's why we point to the cross.

00:39:12.832 --> 00:39:19.852
That is why Christ is there, pouring out his blood and his sacrifice for the fact that we can't live a perfect life.

00:39:19.852 --> 00:39:27.052
So excellence morally is always going to pale in comparison to godly living, to God's example of godly living.

00:39:27.612 --> 00:39:32.712
That doesn't mean that godly living doesn't exist, and it doesn't mean that it shouldn't be an example to us.

00:39:32.712 --> 00:39:46.212
But in other aspects of life, it's not a question of falling short of the glory of God, to say that, well, I'm not a major league baseball player, and so what that guy is doing is stupid and dumb, and it's not that impressive anyway.

00:39:46.212 --> 00:39:48.052
He hit 229 in the World Series.

00:39:48.052 --> 00:39:49.272
What a joke.

00:39:49.272 --> 00:39:52.292
You can't be disrespectful of excellence.

00:39:52.292 --> 00:40:01.412
For someone to have done something that difficult, that well for that long, to tear them down and to say, well, by my standards, that's nothing at all.

00:40:01.412 --> 00:40:02.512
It's perverted.

00:40:02.512 --> 00:40:07.372
It's spiritually perverted, and it's common among believers and unbelievers alike.

00:40:07.372 --> 00:40:10.672
And the only difference is, you know, kind of what attack they'll take.

00:40:10.672 --> 00:40:13.812
Everyone's going to say, well, that's stupid and dumb, and I could do that.

00:40:13.812 --> 00:40:21.592
And additionally, Christians will pile on with the additional blasphemy of, well, that's not even in the gospel, so you're not allowed, you can't like that.

00:40:21.592 --> 00:40:23.452
You can't think that Legos are fun.

00:40:23.452 --> 00:40:25.752
You can't think that this art is worthwhile.

00:40:26.312 --> 00:40:29.692
That's gross, and you're not allowed to do that because it's not in the Bible.

00:40:29.692 --> 00:40:31.792
This is not Christian living.

00:40:31.792 --> 00:40:36.812
We have to do better, and we have to root it out of our own hearts and our minds and the way we think.

00:40:36.812 --> 00:40:42.012
This episode is a meta-episode about how we process the world around us.

00:40:42.012 --> 00:40:49.612
Because when you see excellence, if your first instinct is to tear it down and be derisive, you're making the world a worse place.

00:40:49.612 --> 00:41:03.912
And when you bring Jesus into it and say, well, this thing that someone did well that's laudable, that's morally above reproach, but it doesn't spread the gospel, so I'm going to say something nasty about it, that's not permissible.

00:41:03.912 --> 00:41:07.472
That is in fact an anti-testimony for the cross.

00:41:07.472 --> 00:41:21.112
When you're doing that sort of thing in public, where non-Christians can see you, and every time someone does anything good, you attack it, and you say, well, as a Christian, I'm going to tell you that this isn't how Jesus saved us, so you've got to stop that.

00:41:21.112 --> 00:41:22.472
That makes you miserable.

00:41:23.252 --> 00:41:24.812
It's not good company.

00:41:24.812 --> 00:41:27.032
It's not a good Christian example.

00:41:27.032 --> 00:41:28.992
It's everything wrong.

00:41:28.992 --> 00:41:31.992
It's destroying the gospel when Christians act this way.

00:41:31.992 --> 00:41:35.792
And yet, increasingly, it seems like that's almost all that we see.

00:41:35.792 --> 00:41:37.932
And so, you know, we're talking about excellence.

00:41:37.932 --> 00:41:42.872
This will not be the most excellent episode that Stone Choir has ever done, and that's fine.

00:41:42.872 --> 00:41:53.592
Well, the earliest episode that we did was on Forgotten Doctrines and Scripture, and we highlighted five specific examples of doctrines that just kind of fell by the wayside.

00:41:53.592 --> 00:41:54.992
We don't do them anymore.

00:41:54.992 --> 00:42:05.232
We look at the Bible, we read Scripture, and we read these passages where it says things like, shake the dust off your feet, is a curse against those who reject the gospel.

00:42:05.232 --> 00:42:06.372
And what do we do?

00:42:06.372 --> 00:42:08.252
We don't see anything at all.

00:42:08.252 --> 00:42:17.952
We're the Westworld Android that's looking right at God's Word, saying to do something, and for basically 2,000 years, no Christian's ever seen that or read that.

00:42:17.952 --> 00:42:22.752
And as we said in that episode over two years ago, I don't know what to do with that.

00:42:22.752 --> 00:42:24.912
I look at that passage and say, well, it's there.

00:42:24.912 --> 00:42:30.672
There's clearly, there's some doctrinal element to this, particularly because the apostles did it.

00:42:30.672 --> 00:42:36.412
There are two examples in Scripture of them obeying that to the letter, and it just went away.

00:42:36.412 --> 00:42:39.732
We don't curse at people anymore for rejecting the gospel.

00:42:39.732 --> 00:42:40.972
God says to and we don't.

00:42:41.612 --> 00:42:47.732
So, as we said in that episode about forgotten doctrines, neglected doctrines, that's not the core of the faith.

00:42:47.732 --> 00:42:51.552
That's not the most interesting or most important thing about Christianity at all.

00:42:51.552 --> 00:42:56.552
And yet, when it's in Scripture and we can't even see it, that's when we have a problem.

00:42:56.552 --> 00:43:01.432
So that episode, like this episode, and a lot of the episodes that we do, they're diagnostic tools.

00:43:01.432 --> 00:43:18.732
When we're dealing with Scripture, when we're dealing with life, when we're dealing with other people, are there specific examples like choosing our purpose and seeking our motivation correctly, manifesting leadership in a way that's going to be godly and laudable, including stepping aside so that the better man can be the leader.

00:43:18.732 --> 00:43:21.832
And maybe some days, it shouldn't be you.

00:43:21.832 --> 00:43:31.372
When we're looking at examples of excellence and we're responding in pernicious, it's not even a carnal fashion because this is a new spirit.

00:43:31.372 --> 00:43:35.832
So it's not just unbelievers talk one way and believers talk another way.

00:43:35.832 --> 00:43:40.612
And you know, Christians need to be a better influence on all these pagans that are getting this stuff wrong.

00:43:40.612 --> 00:43:50.012
Culturally, post-Gen X, when the irony and the sarcasm died, the new attack is to say there's nothing good, beautiful, and true at all.

00:43:50.012 --> 00:43:51.752
There's nothing in the world that's beautiful.

00:43:51.752 --> 00:43:53.112
It's all the same.

00:43:53.112 --> 00:43:54.612
There's nothing in the world that's excellent.

00:43:54.612 --> 00:43:55.832
It's all the same.

00:43:55.832 --> 00:43:57.012
You see excellence?

00:43:57.012 --> 00:43:58.292
That's not the gospel.

00:43:58.292 --> 00:43:58.972
Forget about that.

00:43:58.972 --> 00:44:00.032
That's not important.

00:44:00.032 --> 00:44:04.632
They should have done this other thing instead of this thing, even though the thing that they did was excellent and it was amazing.

00:44:05.172 --> 00:44:11.912
I'm going to despise it because I didn't do it, and I know in my heart that I couldn't do it, and I envy that they did it.

00:44:11.912 --> 00:44:14.192
I'm going to be something gross in the punch bowl.

00:44:14.192 --> 00:44:17.712
I'm not going to let them just enjoy this moment that's happy.

00:44:17.712 --> 00:44:21.412
I'm going to say something nasty to tear them down.

00:44:21.412 --> 00:44:24.012
That's not a pagan versus Christian problem.

00:44:24.012 --> 00:44:28.932
That's a cultural problem that is everywhere, and it's just bad.

00:44:28.932 --> 00:44:33.792
We should not look at excellent things, and our first instinct is to tear them down.

00:44:34.432 --> 00:44:44.452
And so, the reason for mentioning this, like this is not the most excellent episode we'll ever do, but it's a really important diagnostic tool to say, look, you're going to catch yourself doing this.

00:44:44.452 --> 00:44:47.932
Think about it as a diagnostic tool for yourself.

00:44:47.932 --> 00:44:48.712
What were you thinking?

00:44:48.712 --> 00:45:00.252
How did you get there when you saw something excellent, and the first thing that came out of your mouth was dismissal or envy or something just mean and nasty about something that was genuinely good?

00:45:00.252 --> 00:45:01.552
Why did you do that?

00:45:01.552 --> 00:45:05.772
What is it inside you that produced that fruit?

00:45:05.772 --> 00:45:07.172
Because that's the value there.

00:45:07.172 --> 00:45:08.712
That's the problem.

00:45:08.712 --> 00:45:10.972
You can't tell anyone individually what it's going to be.

00:45:10.972 --> 00:45:16.852
And we have been complaining lately online about people psychoanalyzing and psychologizing everything.

00:45:16.852 --> 00:45:23.152
But Christians do need to inspect our own motives to understand why did I see one thing and then respond a certain way?

00:45:23.152 --> 00:45:24.392
Why did I say this?

00:45:24.392 --> 00:45:26.892
That cycle should always be going.

00:45:26.892 --> 00:45:30.752
Not in a panicky mode, just, okay, does this check out?

00:45:30.752 --> 00:45:38.972
If I acknowledge the fact that's undeniably true that God's watching me right now, watching me say this and do this, can I defend this before the throne of God?

00:45:38.972 --> 00:45:40.932
Because that's where it is in effect.

00:45:40.932 --> 00:45:46.212
Everything that we say and do is already taken before the judgment thrown in the future.

00:45:46.212 --> 00:45:51.992
So we live our lives pretending that that's not the case, because that's an awful lot of weight to bear.

00:45:51.992 --> 00:45:53.372
And that's kind of a later thing.

00:45:53.372 --> 00:45:55.052
We don't want to think about that too much.

00:45:55.052 --> 00:45:59.632
But in a moment, when you catch yourself seeing something excellent, that's whatever.

00:45:59.632 --> 00:46:00.232
I could do that.

00:46:00.232 --> 00:46:01.312
That's not impressive at all.

00:46:01.312 --> 00:46:02.172
That's whatever.

00:46:02.172 --> 00:46:03.632
It's just dumb.

00:46:03.632 --> 00:46:08.672
If you're doing that, and it turns out that you had gross motives, maybe think about fixing them.

00:46:08.672 --> 00:46:09.572
That's it.

00:46:09.572 --> 00:46:12.452
This isn't heaven or hell for its own sake.

00:46:12.452 --> 00:46:21.652
But as I said earlier, this irony poisoning transmuting into, I'm just going to tear it down because good, beautiful, and true don't exist.

00:46:21.652 --> 00:46:22.912
Excellence doesn't exist.

00:46:23.512 --> 00:46:26.592
That is actually theological in nature.

00:46:26.592 --> 00:46:30.732
That is actually a backdoor attack against God himself.

00:46:30.732 --> 00:46:39.132
Because when you say that the only thing that exists is the cross and the gospel, and all this worldly stuff is just, it's whatever, it doesn't even care.

00:46:39.132 --> 00:46:41.412
Congratulations, you're a Gnostic.

00:46:41.412 --> 00:46:44.332
That's what Gnosticism reduces everything to.

00:46:44.332 --> 00:46:50.252
That this life is a mirage, and it's just some future without bodies or anything else.

00:46:50.252 --> 00:46:51.372
That's paganism.

00:46:51.372 --> 00:46:52.212
That's a heresy.

00:46:52.832 --> 00:47:00.592
We did an entire episode on that because we did it at the beginning of last year, specifically to highlight that that heresy has roared back in the church.

00:47:00.592 --> 00:47:15.132
So the small, minor point about thinking about excellence, when you use that as a test, you're going to find potentially that in a lot of cases, it's going to diagnose spiritual rot that maybe you didn't know even was there.

00:47:15.132 --> 00:47:16.852
So just think about this stuff.

00:47:16.852 --> 00:47:21.072
And if you catch yourself deriding something excellent, stop.

00:47:21.572 --> 00:47:25.132
Just back away quietly and bite your tongue.

00:47:25.132 --> 00:47:28.652
Don't say anything at all if that's your impulse, because it's not a healthy one.

00:47:28.652 --> 00:47:32.232
It's not good for you, and it's not good for anyone else.

00:47:34.072 --> 00:47:55.452
At the end of many of his sacred compositions, perhaps all of them, I'm not certain on that point, Bach would write SDG, Sole Deo Gloria, which of course we all know is Glory to God Alone, or To God Alone Be the Glory, however you want to formulate that from the Latin.

00:47:55.452 --> 00:48:03.252
He did not do so on his secular works, but he could very well have done so.

00:48:03.252 --> 00:48:06.032
It's one of the points that we are making in this episode.

00:48:08.412 --> 00:48:17.092
It does not diminish you in any way, and it does not diminish God's Glory when there are excellent things in his creation.

00:48:17.092 --> 00:48:18.992
And this really should go without saying.

00:48:18.992 --> 00:48:20.572
It should be so obvious.

00:48:21.672 --> 00:48:24.692
Creation is God's creation.

00:48:24.692 --> 00:48:30.192
And so the things that are excellent in creation are to the Glory of God.

00:48:30.232 --> 00:48:46.332
And that is from the trivial, maybe you're the best at darts in the world, up to compositions like those from Bach that will probably never be rivaled, regardless of how long God permits this universe to continue.

00:48:46.332 --> 00:48:52.472
And so he could very well have written the same thing on his secular works, because those were to the Glory of God as well.

00:48:53.812 --> 00:49:06.532
When you do things in your field that are excellent, you are doing that to the Glory of God, because you are using the gifts that God gave you in order to accomplish those things.

00:49:06.532 --> 00:49:09.872
And so we shouldn't deride these achievements.

00:49:09.872 --> 00:49:20.672
We shouldn't deride the excellence of other men in their fields, regardless of what that field may be, because we should recognize in that, that it is something that is done to the Glory of God.

00:49:22.192 --> 00:49:46.632
And in particular, Protestants need to recognize, this is going to be a little different for the Roman Catholics and some others, but in particular, Protestants need to recognize that if you are inclined toward advancing the argument that, oh, well, that isn't about the cross, what you are effectively doing is denying the doctrine of justification.

00:49:48.312 --> 00:50:07.272
And the way in which you're doing that, the reason you're doing that is because correctly interpreted and correctly taught, the doctrine of justification is that it is a legal declaration that you are without sin because Christ took your sin for you.

00:50:07.272 --> 00:50:09.832
Christ paid the penalty for you.

00:50:09.832 --> 00:50:13.292
And a legal declaration takes place in an instant.

00:50:13.292 --> 00:50:15.692
It is not an ongoing matter.

00:50:15.692 --> 00:50:18.352
Justification is not an ongoing matter.

00:50:19.032 --> 00:50:20.952
It is once and done.

00:50:20.952 --> 00:50:30.932
Now the issue when you try to say that, oh, well, that's not about the cross, is you're trying to drag out justification into the rest of the Christian life.

00:50:30.932 --> 00:50:32.872
And it doesn't belong there.

00:50:32.872 --> 00:50:37.432
Justification is the entrance into the Christian life.

00:50:37.432 --> 00:50:43.152
Sanctification is the Christian life lived out after justification.

00:50:45.012 --> 00:50:48.652
That is not all about the cross.

00:50:48.652 --> 00:50:55.432
And so when someone tries to tell you that, oh, well, that isn't about the cross, that's not about Jesus, that's not what it means to be a Christian.

00:50:55.432 --> 00:50:58.992
And as Woe said, that's not how God speaks in his word.

00:50:58.992 --> 00:51:03.192
There is more to the Christian life than just the cross.

00:51:03.212 --> 00:51:07.892
Once you are justified, there is the and then of the Christian life.

00:51:07.892 --> 00:51:20.612
And part of that is living according to the skills and the abilities, is all of these gifts that God has given you, and not deriding or attacking others for doing the same.

00:51:20.612 --> 00:51:29.352
If someone is excellent at a sport, regardless of what sport it happens to be, is that explicitly about justification?

00:51:29.352 --> 00:51:31.252
No, of course it's not.

00:51:31.252 --> 00:51:32.992
But is it to the glory of God still?

00:51:32.992 --> 00:51:34.752
Yes, absolutely.

00:51:34.752 --> 00:51:39.172
Because it is a demonstration of the gifts that God has given to that person.

00:51:40.052 --> 00:51:47.552
He could not achieve those things if God had not given him those abilities, and if he had not used those abilities.

00:51:47.552 --> 00:51:51.212
And it is proper to recognize both of those things.

00:51:51.212 --> 00:51:59.352
You can give thanks to God for the gifts that he has given to men, and you can also admire what those men have done with those gifts.

00:51:59.352 --> 00:52:04.672
Because again, there is the combination of that natural talent and the acquired skill.

00:52:04.672 --> 00:52:07.952
It is insufficient just to have the gifts from God.

00:52:08.772 --> 00:52:21.492
If God made you the best potential tennis player in all of human history, and all you do is sit on the couch and eat Cheetos, you are never going to be a good tennis player.

00:52:21.492 --> 00:52:26.912
It doesn't matter that you have the natural ability, that you have those natural gifts.

00:52:26.912 --> 00:52:29.192
You also have to put in the work.

00:52:29.192 --> 00:52:35.352
And so we can recognize that both of those things are present, and both of those things are worthy of honor and respect.

00:52:37.732 --> 00:52:52.232
And as Woe was saying about the issue of irony and sarcasm being an older millennial, we sort of got both ends of this one, which is the case in so many different fields.

00:52:52.232 --> 00:53:01.152
But for us, we sort of got the tail end of all that irony and sarcasm, perhaps particularly growing up in Southern California, but we certainly got that.

00:53:01.152 --> 00:53:13.452
But we also lived through that transition, really, Satan switching up his tactics, that transition to what has really hit the Zoomer generation and younger, just full on in the face.

00:53:13.452 --> 00:53:15.452
It's a sort of nihilism.

00:53:15.452 --> 00:53:24.572
It's this denial that there is anything beautiful or good in the world, and that it's all just, eh, it exists, that's fine.

00:53:24.572 --> 00:53:29.592
You'll see people who can see the most beautiful sunrise, and many of them are.

00:53:29.592 --> 00:53:36.692
I'm not going to say there's one best one in all of history, because there are many beautiful ones, and they'll see that and they'll think nothing of it.

00:53:36.692 --> 00:53:38.452
Oh, it's just another sunrise.

00:53:39.632 --> 00:53:44.832
Now, every one of those sunrises is a gift from God and is something he created, and it is beautiful.

00:53:44.832 --> 00:53:47.372
And the same, of course, for the sunset.

00:53:47.372 --> 00:53:51.612
The natural world is beautiful, and we should recognize that and enjoy that.

00:53:52.872 --> 00:54:08.132
There are a number of anecdotes from different men who knew Tolkien, and some of them would say they didn't like to go for walks with him, because he would take too long looking at trees and various other things in the natural world.

00:54:08.132 --> 00:54:12.232
I don't think that that's a negative attribute to have.

00:54:12.232 --> 00:54:14.752
I don't think that's a negative personality trait.

00:54:14.752 --> 00:54:23.172
I think recognizing the beauty of the things in God's creation is admirable, and I think we should all spend a little more time doing that.

00:54:23.172 --> 00:54:32.512
We spend so much of our time rushing from one place to another that we don't stop and take any time to look at the creation that God has gifted us.

00:54:32.512 --> 00:54:34.192
God made us stewards of creation.

00:54:34.192 --> 00:54:37.872
We should recognize the beauty of it and enjoy it.

00:54:37.872 --> 00:54:41.332
Perhaps I act a little bit like Tolkien on some of my hikes and walks.

00:54:41.332 --> 00:54:45.192
Usually I'm just with the dogs, though, and they don't tend to complain.

00:54:45.192 --> 00:54:49.552
But I do think that we should stop and look at the things that are around us.

00:54:51.732 --> 00:54:58.832
Beauty is another one of those gifts of God that you don't really have to acquire.

00:54:58.832 --> 00:55:00.772
You can't even really acquire.

00:55:00.772 --> 00:55:07.992
It is something that you have or do not have, as God has given it to you in the measure that he has given it to you.

00:55:07.992 --> 00:55:10.592
Yes, it is something that you have to maintain.

00:55:10.592 --> 00:55:21.452
The most obvious example for human beings would be obesity, because you can certainly lose the beauty that God has given you if you permit yourself to become morbidly obese.

00:55:21.452 --> 00:55:31.712
But just because beauty is something for which you didn't really have to work doesn't mean it is something that we should ignore or something that we shouldn't honor and respect.

00:55:31.712 --> 00:55:33.392
It is still a gift from God.

00:55:33.392 --> 00:55:41.392
It is a good thing given to humanity in various measure across different people from God.

00:55:41.392 --> 00:55:43.492
And again, it ties into the transcendentals.

00:55:43.492 --> 00:56:00.752
So much of this ties back to that, in many of the episodes that we have done, this should be a core concern of Christian thought and the Christian life, because goodness, beauty, and truth, in whichever order you prefer, are attributes of God, which is to say they are God's nature.

00:56:00.752 --> 00:56:07.232
We won't get into the specifics of how that works here, because it's a complicated subject for another time.

00:56:07.232 --> 00:56:15.172
But these things being part of God's nature, insofar as they are reflected in the creation, are reflections of God himself.

00:56:15.172 --> 00:56:21.852
And we should recognize that reflection of God in his creation, and we should cherish it.

00:56:21.852 --> 00:56:26.332
We should never think that these things are trivial, or something that can be dismissed.

00:56:26.332 --> 00:56:30.012
Oh, I've seen a sunrise before, I don't care about this one.

00:56:30.012 --> 00:56:33.632
Would you respond that way if God were standing next to you?

00:56:33.632 --> 00:56:38.792
Would you tell him, I don't care about this sunrise that you created, because I've seen other ones?

00:56:38.792 --> 00:57:04.512
Each and every one is a gift from God, and the same is true of every time you see a beautiful flower or a particularly interesting piece of moss, whatever it happens to be, again, from the seemingly most trivial up to the grandest scale, whether it is the most beautiful sunrise you've ever seen in your life over a mountain range while you're out camping, or again, a particularly interesting piece of moss.

00:57:04.512 --> 00:57:09.112
It doesn't matter, because they are all excellent in a certain way.

00:57:09.112 --> 00:57:14.572
They are all gifts from God, things that he has created for us to enjoy.

00:57:14.572 --> 00:57:33.132
And so, whether it is the natural world, or humans are also part of the natural world, but we do like to draw the distinction, or it is the gifts that have been given and trained and are on display, have been exercised by men, we should cherish these things.

00:57:33.132 --> 00:57:34.572
We should not attack these things.

00:57:34.572 --> 00:57:41.232
We should not seek to tear them down or to minimize them or to respond ironically or sarcastically.

00:57:41.232 --> 00:57:58.032
And I recognize that I have a tendency to respond with irony or sarcasm, but by and large, I do not do so, and I intentionally avoid doing so with things like this, because these things again are gifts from God, and we should not minimize them.

00:57:58.032 --> 00:58:02.372
Because when you minimize these things, what you're really doing is you're insulting God.

00:58:03.412 --> 00:58:05.772
And that is something of which we should be terrified.

00:58:06.652 --> 00:58:13.432
Christians should never want to, no one should want to, but Christians certainly should never want to insult God.

00:58:13.432 --> 00:58:16.952
And if you insult his creation, you are insulting him.

00:58:19.052 --> 00:58:25.652
We could think of some of the responses of Job's friends as much as we like to return to the book of Job.

00:58:25.652 --> 00:58:57.032
But I think that a large part of this is that if we resort to irony or sarcasm, if we're from the older millennial or older generations or a certain form of nihilism or perhaps even absurdism in some cases for the younger millennials and younger generations, is that if we respond in that way, we don't have to engage with these things in an authentic and a heartfelt way, a real way.

00:58:57.032 --> 00:59:06.512
And if we have that sort of light touch, then nothing matters to us too much, and nothing runs the risk of causing us some kind of harm.

00:59:06.512 --> 00:59:09.092
And that is not really a life lived.

00:59:09.092 --> 00:59:11.692
That is life avoided.

00:59:11.692 --> 00:59:15.012
You are going to have to invest in certain things in this life.

00:59:15.012 --> 00:59:21.152
One of the most obvious examples, of course, and everyone should have thought of it already, is marriage.

00:59:21.152 --> 00:59:27.032
When you marry, you are running a very real risk of suffering certain harms.

00:59:27.032 --> 00:59:28.552
That doesn't mean that you should avoid it.

00:59:29.012 --> 00:59:32.692
It doesn't mean that a wife is a curse.

00:59:32.692 --> 00:59:34.472
A wife is still a gift from God.

00:59:34.472 --> 00:59:39.232
He who finds a wife finds a good thing and finds favor with the Lord.

00:59:39.232 --> 00:59:41.032
That should be cherished.

00:59:41.032 --> 00:59:43.652
The same is true of everything in this life.

00:59:43.652 --> 00:59:48.312
If you invest in it, there is the very real risk of some kind of harm.

00:59:48.312 --> 00:59:51.892
In many cases, there is the certainty of harm.

00:59:51.892 --> 00:59:53.512
Another good example would be pets.

00:59:54.372 --> 01:00:05.592
If you invest time and emotion and all of these other things into your pets, there is going to be a certain level of harm inflicted on you when the pet dies.

01:00:05.592 --> 01:00:11.092
And you are going to, by and large, outlive a number of your pets in this life.

01:00:11.092 --> 01:00:14.712
I think I've outlived seven of my dogs so far.

01:00:14.712 --> 01:00:16.932
That is just the reality of living this life.

01:00:16.932 --> 01:00:32.792
But again, if you do not make that investment, if you remove yourself from it by having this light touch shielded by your irony and your sarcasm or your nihilism, all you are doing is harming yourself and insulting God.

01:00:32.792 --> 01:00:37.692
You are saying, I am not going to invest in your creation because I don't want to deal with these things.

01:00:39.032 --> 01:00:41.552
You aren't actually avoiding the harm.

01:00:41.552 --> 01:00:45.672
You are inflicting a greater and more lasting harm on yourself.

01:00:45.672 --> 01:00:53.672
And the way to avoid that is by not having these inauthentic, responses to the natural world.

01:00:53.672 --> 01:00:58.952
If you look at a sunset, you are going to recognize that it is beautiful.

01:00:58.952 --> 01:01:18.792
The only way that you can respond to that in any other form, in any other way, then recognizing the beauty and appreciating it, is if you have been trained by the world and reinforcing it yourself, to respond with that sort of aloofness, that indifference to these things.

01:01:18.792 --> 01:01:19.412
Don't do that.

01:01:20.712 --> 01:01:26.352
Have the actual, authentic, natural response that God gave you for free.

01:01:27.472 --> 01:01:30.472
You recognize excellence when you see it.

01:01:30.472 --> 01:01:40.112
There are some cases in which it's more difficult to discern excellence, or at least certain degrees of it, but by and large we recognize it when we see it.

01:01:40.112 --> 01:01:46.732
You recognize if someone is great at a sport, because you can kind of look at it and go, there's no way I could do that.

01:01:47.612 --> 01:01:52.232
He would destroy me at tennis or whatever it happens to be bowling.

01:01:54.492 --> 01:01:56.892
The same thing is true of the natural world.

01:01:56.892 --> 01:02:05.132
When you see beauty, you recognize it, because beauty is something that is built into creation and is built into the human psyche.

01:02:05.132 --> 01:02:18.512
It is something that God has given us, because don't forget that we are in fact icons, idols of God in this world, and so we have a reflection of his abilities that he has given us, of his attributes.

01:02:18.512 --> 01:02:22.752
And so we recognize goodness, beauty, and truth when we see these things.

01:02:22.752 --> 01:02:29.512
The only way that you can fail to recognize those is by deliberately suppressing them.

01:02:29.512 --> 01:02:40.692
Now over a lifetime of wickedness, of course, it becomes easier, because eventually your conscience becomes seared, your heart becomes dead, it becomes a stone, and so then it's too late.

01:02:40.692 --> 01:02:43.212
You no longer recognize goodness and beauty and truth.

01:02:44.232 --> 01:02:47.672
What we're saying is, don't go down that path.

01:02:47.672 --> 01:02:49.572
Don't take that road.

01:02:49.572 --> 01:02:51.412
It doesn't lead anywhere good.

01:02:51.412 --> 01:02:57.632
It leads to a place where all you've done is destroyed yourself and made the world worse in the process.

01:02:57.632 --> 01:02:59.832
That's of course what Satan wants.

01:02:59.832 --> 01:03:03.132
Satan doesn't want you to recognize that there's beauty in the world.

01:03:03.132 --> 01:03:06.572
He doesn't want you to recognize that there's goodness in the world.

01:03:06.572 --> 01:03:10.592
He certainly doesn't want you to recognize there's truth.

01:03:10.592 --> 01:03:12.772
He would much rather you respond with indifference.

01:03:14.112 --> 01:03:20.892
But if he can't get you to be totally indifferent, then at least you can be ironic in your approach, or you can be sarcastic in your response.

01:03:20.892 --> 01:03:23.572
That's almost as good.

01:03:23.572 --> 01:03:25.352
Do not do that.

01:03:25.352 --> 01:03:27.472
That is not living a Christian life.

01:03:27.472 --> 01:03:30.372
It's not living a life worth living.

01:03:30.372 --> 01:03:38.112
You can't have this light touch with regard to life, and actually have a life that is lived.

01:03:38.112 --> 01:03:43.932
You may very well live a long time, but effectively, you died long ago.

01:03:43.932 --> 01:03:54.212
It doesn't matter how many years God happens to give you on this earth, if you don't spend them appropriately, if you don't invest them appropriately.

01:03:54.212 --> 01:04:18.292
And part of that is recognizing that excellence exists, that there is excellence all around you, and that it is to be appreciated, not attacked or derided or ignored or treated as trivial or indifferent, but recognized for what it is, a gift from God that is meant for us to enjoy and to make the world better for us.

01:04:18.292 --> 01:04:21.472
And then we can indeed enjoy those improvements as well.

01:04:21.472 --> 01:04:30.612
Excellence is a good thing, regardless of where we find it, regardless of the field, and we should celebrate that.

01:04:30.612 --> 01:04:40.952
As Corey was describing, walking in nature and appreciating it, even before he referenced Job, I had already pulled up Job 38, and following, so I could reference it again.

01:04:40.952 --> 01:04:43.212
Hopefully a few of you thought of that.

01:04:43.212 --> 01:04:49.352
If you haven't read it before, if you haven't read it recently, go read Job 38 through the end of the book.

01:04:49.352 --> 01:04:55.412
It's when God comes out of the world wind and challenges Job and says, Who are you to challenge me?

01:04:55.412 --> 01:04:59.392
And what he does is describes creation.

01:04:59.392 --> 01:05:02.292
He describes his very good work.

01:05:02.292 --> 01:05:12.192
God describes the excellent world that he has created, in contrast to Job's uppity attitude to challenge him.

01:05:12.192 --> 01:05:14.352
That's part of what's going on here.

01:05:14.352 --> 01:05:16.372
It's a question of attitude.

01:05:16.372 --> 01:05:18.532
And the reason that I mentioned JD Vance and P.

01:05:18.532 --> 01:05:30.012
Hegseth earlier is because we see guys like that from that generation who seem to be good examples so far of what men should be doing in their political positions.

01:05:30.012 --> 01:05:32.272
They come across as sincere because they are.

01:05:32.892 --> 01:05:36.132
It's very difficult to fake sincerity.

01:05:36.132 --> 01:05:40.252
And that's something that, for all of our faults, Corey and I are both sincere.

01:05:40.252 --> 01:05:43.172
I think that comes through to people who are also sincere.

01:05:43.172 --> 01:05:46.232
Someone who's not sincere, it's going to sound alien.

01:05:46.232 --> 01:05:50.052
And so there are a lot of people who hear JD Vance and Hegseth and whomever else.

01:05:50.052 --> 01:05:51.092
I don't think Trump's sincere.

01:05:51.092 --> 01:05:52.792
I think he's always a performer.

01:05:52.792 --> 01:05:55.352
But he surrounds himself with sincere guys.

01:05:55.352 --> 01:05:58.992
I don't mean that Trump is insincere, but he's just, he's always on.

01:05:58.992 --> 01:06:10.272
And when his lieutenants go out, they have not a vulnerability, but they have a sincerity that shows that it's rooted in something substantial.

01:06:10.272 --> 01:06:11.872
They're not just performing.

01:06:11.872 --> 01:06:16.272
They're not performing for the camera, the microphone, they're not performing for an audience.

01:06:16.272 --> 01:06:23.232
They're getting a message out there, but they're doing it in a way that's, I don't know of a way to describe it other than sincere.

01:06:23.272 --> 01:06:34.272
The irony poisoning, the refusal to recognize excellence, the refusal to see beauty in the world, all of it is, again, it's fundamentally an anti-Christian attitude.

01:06:34.272 --> 01:06:38.672
That's the reason that Job 38 and following is such a useful text.

01:06:38.672 --> 01:06:39.512
It's not a proof text.

01:06:39.512 --> 01:06:46.172
It's just, here's God talking about himself through the world that he created, and saying, look at this.

01:06:46.172 --> 01:06:47.612
Do you want to see how big I am?

01:06:47.612 --> 01:06:49.272
Look at everything around you.

01:06:49.272 --> 01:06:50.472
I'm the one who made this.

01:06:51.612 --> 01:06:55.152
There are things in this world that should rightly inspire awe.

01:06:55.152 --> 01:06:57.192
Chief among them is God himself.

01:06:57.192 --> 01:07:02.692
But when he calls upon us to see how awesome he is, he points to creation.

01:07:02.692 --> 01:07:11.932
And so if you cannot at least recognize excellence in creation, there's a spiritual blindness that you really need to examine and fix.

01:07:11.932 --> 01:07:13.952
And that's true in other human endeavors.

01:07:13.952 --> 01:07:16.132
As Corey said, we are part of creation.

01:07:16.172 --> 01:07:17.592
We are creatures.

01:07:17.592 --> 01:07:21.832
We are at the top of the food chain by design.

01:07:21.832 --> 01:07:24.212
We are to be stewards of this world.

01:07:24.212 --> 01:07:26.012
We're not to prey upon it.

01:07:26.012 --> 01:07:28.052
We are to care for it.

01:07:28.052 --> 01:07:30.592
But that is done from a place of dominance.

01:07:30.592 --> 01:07:37.892
And that, as scripture itself attests, what we all see with our own eyes, that inspires a degree of fear among the beasts.

01:07:37.892 --> 01:07:41.332
They recognize that we are dangerous.

01:07:41.332 --> 01:07:43.972
We are something to be feared.

01:07:43.972 --> 01:07:45.252
And that's not a bad thing.

01:07:45.412 --> 01:07:47.832
That's a recognition of hierarchy.

01:07:47.832 --> 01:07:50.952
Creatures can recognize, and yet people can't.

01:07:50.952 --> 01:08:04.672
When people can no longer recognize hierarchy, it's not only breaking the social paradigm that's necessary for a civilization, it's also breaking what's necessary to have a proper relationship with God.

01:08:04.672 --> 01:08:09.452
Because creature creator is hierarchical.

01:08:10.472 --> 01:08:22.152
If you can't recognize that you are not equals with God, that you are not equals with other men in all ways, we are in terms of salvation, we're either saved or we're damned.

01:08:22.152 --> 01:08:26.692
And all men who are saved, it's received as a gift from God.

01:08:26.692 --> 01:08:31.492
So there's no pulling rank when it comes to salvation.

01:08:31.492 --> 01:08:36.872
But in every other way, there's going to be some degree of rank and hierarchy.

01:08:36.872 --> 01:08:39.692
And therefore, you will find excellence among you.

01:08:39.692 --> 01:08:42.372
And you will find people who just completely fall short.

01:08:42.852 --> 01:08:44.392
And what does God say to do with those?

01:08:44.392 --> 01:08:45.512
With the meek?

01:08:45.512 --> 01:08:47.972
Says to care for them.

01:08:47.972 --> 01:08:55.272
The fact that there's superiority somewhere in the room does not diminish everyone else.

01:08:55.272 --> 01:08:59.312
It means that everyone else has an example, and potentially everyone else has a protector.

01:08:59.312 --> 01:09:01.492
That was the purpose of the leadership episode.

01:09:01.492 --> 01:09:09.312
The guy who's taller, stronger, smarter, braver, you put him in charge because he's going to take care of you.

01:09:09.312 --> 01:09:13.312
He's going to do a better job of doing the things that need done than you could do.

01:09:13.312 --> 01:09:16.152
And if you're that man, you need to step up and do it.

01:09:16.152 --> 01:09:28.452
I think one of the most important things that we lose when we refuse to acknowledge excellence is the recognition of how it touches on all of our lives in the mundane aspects.

01:09:28.452 --> 01:09:41.812
Because when you see the guy in the World Series, bat 229, he swings the bat half a dozen times in the game, a dozen times, at the most maybe.

01:09:41.812 --> 01:09:47.072
What you don't see is that in that year, he swung the bat 50,000 times.

01:09:47.072 --> 01:09:52.352
That's why he's a pro, because he swings the bat 50,000 times a year every year.

01:09:52.352 --> 01:09:53.892
You don't do that.

01:09:53.892 --> 01:10:00.912
So you couldn't possibly bat even 229 in the World Series, because you couldn't even touch a pitch from a Major League pitcher.

01:10:01.772 --> 01:10:08.452
We don't recognize greatness, and so we don't recognize the value of our own mundane acts.

01:10:08.452 --> 01:10:09.892
The daily grind.

01:10:09.892 --> 01:10:12.992
You know, we talked last week about purpose and motivation.

01:10:12.992 --> 01:10:14.672
That's about the daily grind.

01:10:14.672 --> 01:10:19.072
Not every day that you have a work is going to be excellent, and that's fine.

01:10:19.072 --> 01:10:25.132
Not everything has to be superlative in order for it to be good and worthy.

01:10:25.132 --> 01:10:30.772
When we take pot shots at excellence, what we're doing is we're denigrating all the hard work that it took to get there.

01:10:31.412 --> 01:10:38.932
And that's usually what the guys will thank God, they'll thank their families, they'll thank their coaches for putting them through the ringer with training.

01:10:38.932 --> 01:10:45.232
Because they didn't just swing half a dozen times in the game, they swung 50,000 times in the season.

01:10:45.232 --> 01:10:47.592
That's what got it done.

01:10:47.592 --> 01:10:59.592
And so when you just see a few small examples, and you see excellence manifest in that moment, always remember that the same ordinary stuff that they got it done with, you are capable of.

01:10:59.592 --> 01:11:04.632
And again, we talked about talent, not saying everyone can be a major league player and shouldn't want to.

01:11:04.632 --> 01:11:10.012
I don't think that's like, I would rather those guys with that ability do something else, but I also don't care.

01:11:10.012 --> 01:11:13.912
I'm not gonna take pot shots of them when they're doing something really well.

01:11:13.912 --> 01:11:22.412
What I will recognize is that their tenacity, it's not just that they swung the bat 50,000 times, they're doing drills for whatever their positions are.

01:11:23.152 --> 01:11:26.812
Lately, for the last decade or two, they're all in the weight room.

01:11:26.812 --> 01:11:40.312
Probably many of them have scientifically calibrated diets that they stick to religiously during the season and preseason training, specifically so that they can compete at that level, because that's how hard it is.

01:11:40.312 --> 01:11:47.692
So all those mundane things that you don't see on the big screen are what it takes to achieve that level of excellence.

01:11:47.692 --> 01:11:49.492
And even then, most don't achieve the excellence.

01:11:50.112 --> 01:11:54.012
But the mundane work, you are a participant in that too, every day.

01:11:54.012 --> 01:11:59.772
Every time you go to work, you're probably, you know, if you're lucky, you have an excellent day a couple times a month.

01:11:59.772 --> 01:12:03.992
And the rest of the time, sometimes you just feel lucky to get through it.

01:12:03.992 --> 01:12:11.472
But what's important is that you are a participant in excellence by doing the mundane things.

01:12:11.472 --> 01:12:14.172
You're doing the same kind of grind that they're doing.

01:12:14.172 --> 01:12:24.472
You're doing a different grind with different results, and you have ostensibly set a good purpose for whatever is keeping you in the game for your job.

01:12:24.472 --> 01:12:26.772
Sometimes the purpose is just, I got to feed my family.

01:12:26.772 --> 01:12:30.332
That is one of the paramount purposes in any man's life.

01:12:30.332 --> 01:12:35.712
Job might stink, but if it feeds your family, you do it because you got to get it done.

01:12:35.712 --> 01:12:43.032
That doesn't always look or feel excellent, but doing that work is invaluable.

01:12:43.032 --> 01:12:47.232
And the reason for highlighting excellence, for highlighting the pinnacle.

01:12:47.232 --> 01:12:49.392
In fact, I looked up the etymology of excellence.

01:12:49.392 --> 01:12:56.672
I can get into it, because it doesn't really matter here, but the etymology of excellence has to do with lofty or great heights, pinnacle.

01:12:56.672 --> 01:13:01.692
It's all relative in physical terms, where you have something higher.

01:13:01.692 --> 01:13:11.252
And every time we talk about these things in just normal conversation, the heights, the peaks, the pinnacle, the thing that's excellent is that which is above the rest.

01:13:11.252 --> 01:13:16.032
There can only be one capstone that's right on top, right in the middle.

01:13:16.032 --> 01:13:19.592
And then all the other stones on the wall are what make it possible.

01:13:19.592 --> 01:13:30.852
So the daily grind, the hard work that we do that doesn't get recognition, you get paid for it, hopefully, but you don't necessarily get a pat on the back for it, and it doesn't look impressive.

01:13:30.852 --> 01:13:41.132
But by delivering day after day, you are building a wall that will eventually have a capstone that can be called excellent through having lived a good life.

01:13:41.132 --> 01:13:42.512
Again, this is nothing to do with salvation.

01:13:43.072 --> 01:13:53.452
It's just show up, do the work, be honest, be completely ordinary, and you are a participant in the very excellence that we celebrate whenever we see it.

01:13:53.452 --> 01:14:08.912
It's a good thing to be sincere about seeing amazing performances, about seeing amazing moments in history, because it's a reminder that we as men are capable of doing incredible things when we put that much effort into it.

01:14:08.912 --> 01:14:11.012
And not every man can achieve that.

01:14:11.172 --> 01:14:13.752
You know, rocket science is rocket science.

01:14:13.752 --> 01:14:17.592
You know, rocket science and brain surgery, two of the hardest things that man can do.

01:14:17.592 --> 01:14:27.132
So they're highlighted, they're singled out, or doubled out as examples of most of you can't do this, and you wouldn't want to because you're going to kill people if you try.

01:14:27.132 --> 01:14:28.652
It's really hard.

01:14:28.652 --> 01:14:31.372
Even if you're good at it, it's really hard.

01:14:31.372 --> 01:14:38.912
When we see someone doing the best, someone doing something that's very good, something that's excellent, always give that the credit that's due.

01:14:39.332 --> 01:14:43.992
Just be willing to have a sincere and open heart to say, yeah, that's impressive.

01:14:43.992 --> 01:14:46.452
I'm delighted to have seen that.

01:14:46.452 --> 01:14:50.932
And you can do that with the recognition of all the hard work that it took to get there.

01:14:50.932 --> 01:14:54.032
We see the rockets go up every time that Elon launches.

01:14:54.032 --> 01:14:58.272
Now it's so mundane that no one really pays attention to most of the rocket launches.

01:14:58.272 --> 01:15:00.672
He blew up a bunch of rockets at the beginning.

01:15:00.672 --> 01:15:03.892
The first rockets all exploded because it's rocket science.

01:15:03.892 --> 01:15:09.732
So when you see guys at the Pinnacle doing excellent work, it's easy to forget how much struggle it took to get there.

01:15:09.732 --> 01:15:12.812
And that struggle is a struggle that you're familiar with.

01:15:12.812 --> 01:15:18.692
So just remember that when you denigrate excellence, you're actually, you're dragging yourself.

01:15:18.692 --> 01:15:28.032
You're diminishing yourself by refusing to acknowledge that the same hard work that you do, that you participate in, is a sort of hard work that produces excellence.

01:15:28.032 --> 01:15:38.752
And even though the trajectory of most of our lives is going to follow a path where we don't ever see visible public excellence, like we're talking about as examples here, that's perfectly fine.

01:15:38.752 --> 01:15:46.092
The hard work, the sincere and honest work, has a moral excellence because it's the right thing to do.

01:15:46.092 --> 01:15:47.252
And you don't do it for credit.

01:15:47.252 --> 01:15:50.832
You don't do it for glory, except for the glory of God.

01:15:50.832 --> 01:15:52.612
And that's just fine.

01:15:52.612 --> 01:16:03.172
But try to make sure you get away from the irony poisoned or post irony poisoned, feminized, crabs in a bucket attitude of, I'm going to tear this thing down because it's better than me.

01:16:03.172 --> 01:16:04.612
No man should act that way.

01:16:04.612 --> 01:16:07.252
And certainly no Christian should act that way.

01:16:07.252 --> 01:16:10.672
We should celebrate excellence because it's an example for us all.

01:16:10.672 --> 01:16:12.392
It's an inspiration.

01:16:12.392 --> 01:16:17.092
To be a human who is alive, to witness such things is a privilege.

01:16:17.092 --> 01:16:18.652
We should be happy about it.

01:16:18.652 --> 01:16:23.332
Just as happy as Tolkien was walking in the woods, and he will again in the new earth.

01:16:23.332 --> 01:16:27.472
Everything will be recreated, and we're all going to get to enjoy walks with Tolkien together.

01:16:27.852 --> 01:16:28.912
We'll have eternity.

01:16:28.912 --> 01:16:32.432
I look forward to my turn, because I loved his books as a kid.

01:16:32.432 --> 01:16:41.832
That creation that he celebrated ad nauseum for some people's tastes in his novels were inspired by his love of God's creation.

01:16:41.832 --> 01:16:48.132
It's a good thing to be inspired by the excellence around us, even when it seems mundane.

01:16:48.132 --> 01:16:50.832
So I hope that this has been a positive episode.

01:16:50.832 --> 01:17:01.292
This is a framework and a tool for thinking, let's just make sure that when we're looking at things elsewhere in the world, things outside of ourselves, that we're using the right benchmark.

01:17:01.292 --> 01:17:06.632
And it should never be, well, that guy's doing something I could do if I wanted to, but I'm not doing it.

01:17:06.632 --> 01:17:08.652
So it doesn't matter that he did it.

01:17:08.652 --> 01:17:14.132
If he did something excellent and beautiful and good and amazing, give him credit where it's due.

01:17:14.132 --> 01:17:16.792
Show men respect when they do well.

01:17:16.792 --> 01:17:22.272
And then when respect is due to you, hopefully it will be accorded to you.

01:17:22.272 --> 01:17:26.052
This is also a reminder, give people a pat on the back.

01:17:26.052 --> 01:17:30.772
If someone's doing a really good job and no one's ever telling them, try to go out of your way to tell them.

01:17:30.772 --> 01:17:34.772
Very rarely do men get compliments for doing good work.

01:17:34.772 --> 01:17:36.532
Doesn't happen much anymore.

01:17:36.532 --> 01:17:39.052
And part of that's the lack of sincerity.

01:17:39.052 --> 01:17:48.052
Back when there were newspapers, I clipped a Dilbert comic that I still have somewhere in the house, where Dilbert went in for his review with his pointy-haired boss.

01:17:49.172 --> 01:17:53.432
And his boss said that he only met expectations last year.

01:17:53.432 --> 01:17:56.092
And Dilbert went back and forth with a couple of things that he had done.

01:17:56.092 --> 01:18:00.892
And one of them was like donating his kidney to one of their top customers.

01:18:00.892 --> 01:18:06.972
And his boss's response was, well, I said you meet expectations because I expected you to do that.

01:18:06.972 --> 01:18:09.212
That's not the way to treat people.

01:18:09.212 --> 01:18:14.052
If someone goes above and beyond, make sure that you acknowledge and respect doing something amazing.

01:18:14.612 --> 01:18:20.612
It uplifts everyone to acknowledge and to respect that which is deserving of respect.

01:18:20.612 --> 01:18:22.792
When you see excellence, call it excellent.

01:18:22.792 --> 01:18:25.692
It's okay to be sincere about these things.

01:18:25.692 --> 01:18:26.692
That's it.

01:18:26.692 --> 01:18:27.892
Be sincere.

01:18:27.892 --> 01:18:31.352
Don't be ashamed to just be genuinely impressed by something.

01:18:31.352 --> 01:18:33.272
It doesn't diminish you.

01:18:33.272 --> 01:18:34.732
I don't know where that came from.

01:18:34.732 --> 01:18:39.032
We tried to trace the trajectory here, but it's insane to me.

01:18:39.552 --> 01:18:44.252
But to see something that's better than I could do somehow makes me less.

01:18:44.252 --> 01:18:47.852
No, I'm privileged to have been alive to see it.

01:18:47.852 --> 01:18:52.572
I'm honored to be a witness to it and to be able to tell others how cool it is.

01:18:52.572 --> 01:18:53.532
That is a good thing.

01:18:53.532 --> 01:18:54.972
It's a blessing.

01:18:54.972 --> 01:18:58.712
We should never have any response other than respect for greatness.

01:19:00.032 --> 01:19:07.912
One of the functions of excellence in the world is serving as a standard toward which we can aspire.

01:19:09.052 --> 01:19:12.232
Or a pinnacle we can seek to reach.

01:19:12.232 --> 01:19:20.432
This is perhaps how some people view mountain peaks, those who are inclined to go out and summit mountains at any rate.

01:19:22.132 --> 01:19:29.392
We shouldn't view it as being something that is a challenge to our abilities because it exists.

01:19:29.392 --> 01:19:42.692
So, for instance, most of us will never climb most of the tallest mountains, not only in the world, but even just in, say, our own home countries, or in some cases, our own home state.

01:19:42.692 --> 01:19:53.452
I used to live in California, as all of you know, and very few Californians will ever climb Mount Whitney, it being the tallest peak in the lower 48.

01:19:53.452 --> 01:19:59.832
That doesn't mean that the existence of Mount Whitney somehow diminishes you as a person, because you'll never climb that mountain peak.

01:20:02.072 --> 01:20:05.992
Most of us will never play in the major leagues in any sport.

01:20:05.992 --> 01:20:10.092
We will never be the best chess player in the world.

01:20:10.092 --> 01:20:24.852
Another good example of being a pinnacle of one's field that should perhaps be mentioned in this episode, since we've talked so much about spaceflight and rockets and things, is Véronique von Braun.

01:20:24.852 --> 01:20:29.372
Without his achievements, we probably would not have a space program.

01:20:30.792 --> 01:20:37.892
We would certainly have been set back some unknown amount of time with regard to rocketry and things like that.

01:20:37.892 --> 01:20:40.752
He was an exceptional man.

01:20:40.752 --> 01:20:49.232
The things that he achieved in his life are of an order and magnitude that is seldom met by any man.

01:20:49.232 --> 01:20:59.072
And so regardless of what you may think of his politics or anything like that, you can recognize the excellence of what he achieved in the physical sciences.

01:21:00.192 --> 01:21:07.032
If you are someone in those fields, you can look at him and let what he achieved serve as motivation for you.

01:21:07.032 --> 01:21:11.532
You can look at that excellence and strive toward it.

01:21:11.532 --> 01:21:15.012
Attempt to achieve that sort of excellence yourself.

01:21:15.012 --> 01:21:19.152
Perhaps you won't rise to that level, and you probably won't in this case.

01:21:19.152 --> 01:21:26.052
But just because you won't rise to that level doesn't mean you can't achieve your own personal sort of excellence.

01:21:26.732 --> 01:21:31.332
And that is sort of the point with which I want to leave you in this episode.

01:21:33.012 --> 01:21:40.692
There is such a thing as objective excellence, and there is such a thing as subjective excellence.

01:21:40.692 --> 01:21:48.812
Objective excellence is the easier one to understand, perhaps, because we all recognize the existence of it.

01:21:48.812 --> 01:21:52.952
There is a best tennis player in history.

01:21:52.952 --> 01:21:58.672
Perhaps he hasn't been born yet, and so I could say there will be a best tennis player in history.

01:21:58.672 --> 01:22:03.212
At the point we are now in history, there is a best tennis player in the past.

01:22:03.232 --> 01:22:08.532
One of the players, existing players, is the best at that game.

01:22:09.712 --> 01:22:14.712
One of the chess grandmasters is the best at chess.

01:22:14.712 --> 01:22:20.172
The same is true with regard to every human undertaking, every human endeavor.

01:22:21.012 --> 01:22:24.872
There is a man who is the best at it.

01:22:24.872 --> 01:22:31.212
That is, in one sense, the objective best, because he is the best human at it.

01:22:31.212 --> 01:22:40.112
You could also say that there is an objective best in that there is a perfect version, but that's sort of a philosophical aside.

01:22:40.112 --> 01:22:47.492
In contrast to that, we have the subjective excellence, and that is your personal form of excellence.

01:22:48.332 --> 01:22:58.012
And so, with regard to anything that you undertake in your life, there is a best version of you at that thing.

01:22:58.012 --> 01:23:00.492
It's going to take work to get there.

01:23:00.492 --> 01:23:07.112
I will never be a concert pianist, but I could certainly be better at the piano than I am now.

01:23:07.112 --> 01:23:14.092
There is a level I could reach that would be my personal version of excellence with regard to playing the piano.

01:23:14.812 --> 01:23:20.332
The same for playing tennis, lawn darts, whatever it happens to be.

01:23:21.532 --> 01:23:30.052
With regard to your personal undertakings in this life, there is an excellence that you can achieve in that endeavor.

01:23:30.052 --> 01:23:41.412
And one of the ways that you can use the excellence of other men is by looking at those who are excellent in the same fields in which you endeavor and aspiring to that.

01:23:42.652 --> 01:23:51.852
You can look at the performance of a great pianist, one of the best ones in all of history, and there are a number of them, and you can aspire to that.

01:23:51.852 --> 01:23:55.592
You can let that serve as a motivation for you.

01:23:55.592 --> 01:24:10.992
Part of your purpose to tie back in to last week's episode can be to achieve the best level of performance that you, given your gifts and abilities and obviously time and other things, can achieve.

01:24:10.992 --> 01:24:16.232
The motivation for that can in part be looking at these other men who have achieved these great things.

01:24:16.232 --> 01:24:18.852
That's a proper response to that.

01:24:18.852 --> 01:24:30.932
That's honoring and respecting that excellence in other men, instead of the negative way of using that and using it to tear down perhaps that man if you can and yourself at the same time.

01:24:30.932 --> 01:24:35.012
You shouldn't look at these other men as being necessarily competition.

01:24:35.012 --> 01:24:38.232
Not everything in life is a competition.

01:24:38.232 --> 01:24:39.312
Some things certainly are.

01:24:39.312 --> 01:24:41.892
We've talked about sports in this episode.

01:24:43.732 --> 01:24:57.492
But in some ways, it's not a competition between you and these other men, because what you are attempting to achieve, the thing toward which you are working, is that subjective excellence.

01:24:57.492 --> 01:25:07.532
Yes, if you happen to be one of the men competing at the very pinnacle of the field, then you are competing over that objective excellence, and there's a form of competition there.

01:25:07.532 --> 01:25:12.612
But it's not in the sense of tearing down the other men, or having his accomplishments tear you down.

01:25:12.612 --> 01:25:26.412
It should be in the sense of building each other up, and letting his achievements serve as motivation for you to achieve, and then he should in turn let your achievements serve as motivation for him to go on and achieve further things.

01:25:27.672 --> 01:25:44.052
This is a productive use of these differences that God has built into creation, of these distinctions between and among men, of this hierarchy that is a natural part of everything in God's creation, because there is hierarchy everywhere.

01:25:44.052 --> 01:25:53.012
Which, this is a point that we have emphasized in a number of episodes, and we will undoubtedly continue to do so, because it has simply fallen away in modern society.

01:25:53.012 --> 01:25:54.572
But there is hierarchy everywhere.

01:25:55.352 --> 01:26:01.172
It doesn't matter if we try to construct a society that does not have hierarchy.

01:26:01.172 --> 01:26:05.412
It will still exist, because God built it into creation.

01:26:05.412 --> 01:26:10.212
You cannot get rid of the things that God has built into creation.

01:26:10.212 --> 01:26:23.652
You can ignore them to your detriment, but you will not destroy them, because they are things that God has designed, things that God has implemented, things that God intends to exist in this life, and in the next.

01:26:24.812 --> 01:26:28.252
We are not all going to be equal in the next life.

01:26:28.252 --> 01:26:35.372
There is no way that you can read God's word and think that we will all be equally good at everything in the next life.

01:26:35.372 --> 01:26:38.192
That's completely and utterly absurd.

01:26:38.192 --> 01:26:43.212
For one, I have a reach of about an octave on a piano.

01:26:43.212 --> 01:26:53.412
I am never going to be able to play some of the more difficult, particularly Scandinavian pieces, that call for a reach of an octave plus two or three.

01:26:53.412 --> 01:26:55.352
I simply can't do that.

01:26:55.352 --> 01:27:00.152
It is beyond my abilities, physically speaking.

01:27:00.152 --> 01:27:04.632
That doesn't mean that I am diminished by the existence of those.

01:27:04.632 --> 01:27:10.012
I should look at those pieces and the men who can play them and be impressed.

01:27:10.012 --> 01:27:12.952
I have respect for the men who can do that well.

01:27:12.952 --> 01:27:21.772
It's something that I personally can't do, but I can certainly play some of the other pieces, particularly the German ones, and I can try to play those well.

01:27:21.772 --> 01:27:41.772
We have been so trained by the modern world, which has been, quite frankly, designed by Satan, but we have been so trained to try and diminish everything around us in order to make ourselves not necessarily feel better, but not feel worse.

01:27:41.772 --> 01:27:52.032
Because the alternative to that is, of course, putting in the effort, is doing what needs to be done in order to achieve that personal level of excellence.

01:27:52.032 --> 01:27:55.012
And it's much easier to sit on the couch and eat Cheetos.

01:27:55.012 --> 01:27:59.132
And that is, quite frankly, what Satan would rather you do.

01:27:59.132 --> 01:28:02.932
He doesn't want you to use the gifts that God has given you.

01:28:02.932 --> 01:28:08.132
He doesn't want you to enjoy this creation that God has gifted to us.

01:28:08.132 --> 01:28:16.972
He would much rather that you just think that everything is a matter of indifference, that everything is, well, it's there, but who cares?

01:28:16.972 --> 01:28:18.372
It's another sunrise.

01:28:18.372 --> 01:28:19.832
It's another mountain.

01:28:19.832 --> 01:28:21.932
What does it matter to me?

01:28:21.932 --> 01:28:30.012
And so the response that he wants from you when you see excellence is to think that it's trivial, is to ignore it.

01:28:30.012 --> 01:28:33.232
Even better, to try and tear it down.

01:28:33.232 --> 01:28:42.032
The response of the Christian, the response of the moral man, is to look at that and recognize the greatness for what it is.

01:28:43.092 --> 01:28:58.112
To recognize the excellence that is an expression of again the gifts from God and the hard work that those men have put in to use those gifts, to train those gifts, to refine them, to hone them to that fine point.

01:28:58.112 --> 01:29:06.732
To recognize the depth of that achievement and see it as a cause for celebration and motivation in your own life.

01:29:08.072 --> 01:29:18.512
Now, it may be that when you look at a sports figure, that's not going to be motivation for you personally, because perhaps you have no interest in baseball, or you have no interest in tennis.

01:29:18.512 --> 01:29:24.332
But again, in your own field, there will be those who are excellent in that field.

01:29:24.332 --> 01:29:27.472
Let them serve as motivation for you.

01:29:27.472 --> 01:29:42.452
Let them serve as a fixed point, as it were, something to which you can aspire, because you can look and see, this is the sort of thing that men can achieve if they use God's gifts that he has given to them, and they put in the work.

01:29:42.452 --> 01:29:45.632
And it's that putting in the work that truly matters.

01:29:45.632 --> 01:29:52.972
Because again, it is insufficient if all you have is the natural talent and you do nothing with it.

01:29:52.972 --> 01:30:07.352
If you are the most intelligent man who has ever lived in all of human history, whatever man that happens to be, and all you do with that intelligence is play video games all day.

01:30:07.352 --> 01:30:11.372
Are you really using the gifts that God gave you?

01:30:11.372 --> 01:30:13.472
The answer, of course, is no.

01:30:13.472 --> 01:30:16.052
And that's a big part of this.

01:30:16.052 --> 01:30:22.572
What we are advocating, what we are saying, is that God has given you certain gifts.

01:30:22.572 --> 01:30:41.772
Perhaps he hasn't given you the gifts necessary to be a rocket scientist or to be a brain surgeon or to be a Major League Baseball player, but he has given you gifts that you can employ in whatever occupation you have, in whatever undertaking has been set before you.

01:30:41.772 --> 01:30:55.372
You can use those things, and you can hone them using the motivation from looking at other great men, from those who have achieved excellence in their fields or your field, and you can use these things to the glory of God.

01:30:56.892 --> 01:30:58.752
And that's an important point.

01:30:59.952 --> 01:31:08.412
The glory of God is not putting crosses on your shoes, if you're a cobbler, if you're a shoemaker.

01:31:08.412 --> 01:31:10.992
It's making good shoes.

01:31:10.992 --> 01:31:17.372
And the reason for that is because making the good shoes is using the gifts that God has given you.

01:31:17.372 --> 01:31:19.472
And maybe you don't make the best shoes in the world.

01:31:19.472 --> 01:31:20.292
That's not the point.

01:31:21.072 --> 01:31:32.792
The point is using the gifts that God has given you to the best of your ability, honing those gifts, becoming excellent in your field with regard to your own capacity.

01:31:32.792 --> 01:31:35.972
That is what you should be doing as a Christian man.

01:31:35.972 --> 01:31:43.892
It's not putting the cross on your shoes and declaring before all the world, look how Christian I am because I put a cross on my shoes.

01:31:43.892 --> 01:31:46.072
Your neighbor needs good shoes.

01:31:46.072 --> 01:31:48.552
He doesn't necessarily need shoes with a cross on them.

01:31:49.852 --> 01:31:58.032
And so you may think again back to that issue of when you engage with certain other Christians, they always try to say, well, that's not about the cross.

01:31:58.032 --> 01:31:59.452
That's not a matter of salvation.

01:31:59.452 --> 01:32:03.612
That's not soteriological, whatever language they happen to use.

01:32:04.712 --> 01:32:06.892
Think about putting a cross on shoes.

01:32:06.892 --> 01:32:09.092
It's completely ridiculous.

01:32:09.092 --> 01:32:11.092
That is what they are arguing.

01:32:11.092 --> 01:32:16.652
And quite frankly, you should probably laugh at them, because at the very least, it's silly.

01:32:17.632 --> 01:32:21.152
Often, it is also wicked, because there's an ulterior motive.

01:32:21.152 --> 01:32:26.012
But it's just a ridiculous argument, because that's not the Christian life.

01:32:26.012 --> 01:32:41.152
Again, justification is one and done, as it were, because it is a judicial declaration that you are justified, that you are holy for the sake of Christ and His work.

01:32:41.212 --> 01:32:43.652
And then comes the and then.

01:32:43.652 --> 01:32:45.512
Then comes the Christian life.

01:32:45.512 --> 01:32:47.432
Then comes sanctification.

01:32:48.512 --> 01:32:55.172
But you have to actually live a life in order for that to happen.

01:32:55.172 --> 01:32:58.552
Sanctification is progress in this life.

01:32:58.552 --> 01:33:10.432
You slowly become sanctified over time due to the work of the Holy Spirit and the cooperation of your will, because once your will has been regenerated, you do in fact cooperate.

01:33:12.232 --> 01:33:26.812
But that's not the totality of the Christian life, because part of the Christian life is using these abilities, these skills, these things that God has given you, these gifts from God, and doing the best you can with them.

01:33:26.812 --> 01:33:30.732
It is a Christian life to be a cobbler and make good shoes.

01:33:30.732 --> 01:33:34.592
It is a Christian life to be a baker and make good pies.

01:33:34.592 --> 01:33:51.312
It is a Christian life to be particularly good at a sport, and to invest the time and the effort to do well, to use those skills, to train them up, and to become the best that you can, to become excellent in the field, insofar as you are able.

01:33:51.312 --> 01:33:59.672
And the same is true with regard to every Christian man, and every single occupation set before them.

01:33:59.672 --> 01:34:04.112
Because it doesn't matter which occupation you happen to have.

01:34:04.112 --> 01:34:16.692
It doesn't matter what undertaking, what matters is that you use the gifts that God has given you, and you aim toward excellence, and you achieve it to the best of your ability.

01:34:16.692 --> 01:34:20.192
Because that is a Christian life actually lived.

01:34:20.192 --> 01:34:25.152
Again, it's not a matter of everything has to be the cross.

01:34:25.152 --> 01:34:26.892
That's not scripture.

01:34:26.892 --> 01:34:29.852
That's not what God wants for us.

01:34:29.852 --> 01:34:44.132
The whole point of you being justified, of you being saved, given the free gift of faith, is it so you can live as a Christian, so you can live as a redeemed son or daughter of God.

01:34:46.292 --> 01:34:53.452
Those who try to tell you that everything about the Christian life has to be so teriological, it all has to be the cross.

01:34:53.452 --> 01:34:57.832
Really what they're denying is the very existence of such a thing as the Christian life.

01:34:59.132 --> 01:35:03.212
We don't want you to do that, and God certainly doesn't want you to do that.

01:35:03.212 --> 01:35:09.592
And some of them will bring up, Paul says, for I decided to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified.

01:35:10.792 --> 01:35:14.832
That's with regard to teaching justification in the Christian faith.

01:35:14.832 --> 01:35:21.152
It's not with regard to the Christian faith itself and the Christian life lived.

01:35:21.152 --> 01:35:28.392
The same sort of ridiculous argument comes up when people try to argue that Christ said he came only for the lost sheep of Israel.

01:35:30.152 --> 01:35:32.472
Well, the issue is, what does he mean by Israel?

01:35:32.472 --> 01:35:38.312
And of course, he means the church, not ethnic Israel, but that's a topic for another time.

01:35:38.312 --> 01:35:48.792
When people try to argue that it's Christ and him crucified, and that's all that Paul wanted to know, and so we should just imitate Paul, what they're arguing is utterly ridiculous.

01:35:48.792 --> 01:35:50.432
Read Paul's letters.

01:35:50.432 --> 01:35:51.752
Is that all Paul says?

01:35:51.752 --> 01:35:53.072
Is that all that Paul teaches?

01:35:54.012 --> 01:35:58.012
No, because it's not the totality of the Christian life.

01:35:58.012 --> 01:36:06.052
The Christian life is a matter of striving toward excellence, insofar as it has been given you by God to do so.

01:36:07.512 --> 01:36:09.532
God has given you gifts.

01:36:09.532 --> 01:36:11.232
You need to use them.

01:36:11.232 --> 01:36:15.732
Let other men, who are excellent, serve as motivation.

01:36:15.732 --> 01:36:17.552
Recognize that excellence.

01:36:17.552 --> 01:36:25.332
Recognize that you can achieve a form of it, and give thanks to God, both for the excellence of those other men and for the gifts that he has given you.