This is a question that has haunted my mind for some time. Why do some guys prefer blond, burnett, or in my case strawberry blond? Why do some people play golf and others go fishing? Why do some people spend so much time and money working out, putting on make-up, getting the right clothes, etc., while others are perfectly content with just looking normal? Why do some people love sports so much that they watch ESPN sportscenter non-stop, and when they are not watching that, they are watching a game of some sort while others really do not care for sports or sportscenter for that matter. Why do some people keep their houses clean while others live in a pig pen? Why do some people love God, but others hate him?
This is a very tough question that I have raised, and I don't even know if I can answer it, but I am going to try and maybe with the input of you people out there, we can come to a conclusion. There is a huge amount of factors that go into the importance of things in our lives. The first factor is our culture. Culture seems to have a certain set of norms that it tries to place on everybody. It seems to tell us quite often that the tanned and toned, skinny body in which you can see every rippling muscle is better than the the regular every day body. Most of us do not have a regular membership to a tanning spa, nor can we spend 2 hours a day working out in a gym.
The second factor is our background and how we are taught. There are certain things that brought us joy all through our younger years. Maybe it was sitting down and watching sports with your dad, then watching sports brings back those times just beneath your subconscious. Or maybe for you ladies it was primping with your mom. Maybe you would sit down with her sometimes and she would put make-up on you and you would "fix" her hair. Maybe in your past you had a memorable experience, whether good or bad, with an adult after which you vowed to either pass the tradition on or never to act that way to another human being as long as you live. Maybe your parents sat down with you every night and read the Bible to you and prayed with you. They showed you what true Christianity could do for a family. Or maybe you grew up in a home in which religion had no part and your parents taught you that you don't take no crap from anybody, period. All these experiences in our backgrounds contribute to what we see as important.
The third factor is payoffs. You may wonder what I mean by 'payoffs.' I will try to explain. Anything that caused good things to happen to you, or at least things that you viewed as good, is obviously something worth repeating. And anything you did or tried to do that caused pain or hurt is not something you want to repeat. In other words, if you went out on the football field during your freshmen year of high school and you got pummeled, you may decide to never lace up your cleats again. On the other hand, if you got out there and you ended up being a cotributing factor on the team, you might just play all four years of high school.
I am sure that there are many other factors that contribute to the amount of importance that we assign different things in our lives. However, I believe that these are probably the main ones (please feel free to comment on this idea). But while looking at these factors, I come to one conclusion. There are no absolutes in any of them. Our culture, our background, and what brings us a payoff could all be wrong (I feel that no further comment needs to be made considering this statement, however, if I need to expound let me know). I am reminded of the first graduate class that I took at Oklahoma Christian University. While in under grad, I could usually wait until the last minute to start working on assignments because I was a hard worker, a fast reader, and I could accomplish rather large things in small amounts of time. I entered graduate school and I found this not to be true. I tried to read seven books in 3 weeks and it just didn't work! All this brings us to one question: How do we find out what the true importance is of all things if these three factors that all of us experience are imperfect? I believe that this question inevitably leads us to a higher power. In my case, I believe that through a combination of prayer, reading the word of God, and fellowshipping with the People of God I will always be learning more about the most important things in this life.
I hope that through these three things, God's Word, His people, and prayer, that we can constantly evaluate and examine the things that we assign importance to. Make sure that you are not a slave of your culture, your background, or your payoffs, but instead be a servant to Christ. Paul writes this about himself and other great preachers of the faith, " So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God."
-1 Corinthians 4:1
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