“We don’t do what we believe; we do what we value.”
That statement has stuck with me since I first heard it in a doctoral seminar in 1994. There are so many illustrations of that truth. We may believe in responsible spending, but our actual habits show that we value having what we want and having it now. We may believe we should make healthier lifestyle choices, but our habits show that we value pizza in front of the TV. We may believe “Jesus is the reason for the season,” but our habits show that we value our personal agendas more than following Jesus daily.
Have you ever heard of the Recabites? In Jeremiah 35, God told the prophet to invite the Recabites to come to a side room at the temple for some wine. Their reply: “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jonadab son of Recab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.’ We have obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab son of Recab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jonadab commanded us.” (Jeremiah 35:6-10, New International Version)
We should not make the mistake of interpreting this passage as anti-wine. In fact, it’s not even about wine. (If it is anti-wine, it is also anti-farming and anti-building). God used the Recabites as an example of people who were faithful to the core values they had been taught by their forefathers in contrast to the Israelites who believed that they were God’s chosen people and yet disobeyed His commands.
In many ways, the Recabites were living on the edge, eschewing a “normal” lifestyle. They could live ON the edge because they were living FROM their core.
“Core values” is a popular topic in the corporate world. I think it should be a central concept in the church world. I find, often to my chagrin, that some who share our Biblical beliefs actually share fewer of our Biblical values than many who would be considered “outsiders” to our faith. We discover that when we are living on the edge.
But the only way to survive on the edge is to live from the core. The edge is dangerous. The edge disconnected from the core is destructive.
Question: If you were to ask God to reveal to you your true core values, what stated beliefs might be challenged?
Leave a comment below. I’d love to dialogue with you on this topic.
