Those who said there are too many titles
A few decades ago, tuberculosis was a disease that people feared. Tuberculosis is a disease caused by inability to eat. But now geriatric diseases are in vogue. Adult diseases are diseases caused by eating too much. Too much to eat. There are too many good things. We live in an age of surplus. How much should a person eat to live well? How much should I have? How much love should I get? Long ago, among the songs the Beatles sang, there was a song that said, 'all you need is love'. People believed it and tried to do it. So, I poured a lot of love, a lot of attention, and a lot of money into my children, but it turned out to be overprotective. You gave love in excess. It might be better to leave it alone.
How much rest can we rest? Everyone says we are tired and we want to rest, but we already have too much time. How much play do we need? Not long ago, when a domestic theme park allowed free admission on weekends, hundreds of thousands of people flocked to it, and there was a big accident, such as crushing people. People want to play and play again.
How long do we live to live? As the average life expectancy of people increases every year, people become more obsessed with their health and desire to live longer.
How much can we say we have achieved success? Where is that standard? We constantly struggle with numbers. Baseball is a sport that is judged by numbers. Batting average is also a number. Twenty-five pennies means to go out ten times and hit 2.5 hits, not just the odds of hitting the ball, but the odds of sending out a batter. Athletes also express their performance in numbers. As watches become more and more precise, the time has come to measure accurately down to 0.01 seconds, so you can set a record by running 0.01 seconds faster. So I try to run faster.
Entrepreneurs are constantly wrestling with numbers. Sales, net profit, growth over last year, stock price, all these are numbers. I thought that being a successful entrepreneur would make me happy, but I have learned that success brings its own stress. For example, if a company's net income was 10 billion won last year and 6 billion won this year, that would be stressful. In fact, 6 billion is a considerable number, but since it has decreased compared to last year, we feel a sense of crisis. If it was 4 billion won last year and 6 billion won this year, it's fine, but the fact that you made 10 billion won in profit last year is now a burden, so if you don't achieve that much, you feel like a failure and feel a sense of crisis.
When a child who was in first place in the whole school enters second or third place in the following semester, it is a huge stress for me. Why? Because I've been number one. If you can't keep it because you've won first place, you think it's a failure.
At the peak of popularity, other celebrities seem to be happy, but the stress is not the only thing. Because now there's only one thing left to do is go down. It is said that the psychological burden is quite large because other stars are coming up under it.
Why can't we be satisfied with being first, and not content with being successful once? Those of you who have watched the advancement of computers know this. It started with 286 and went up to 386, 486, and Pentium. The Pentium is the 586 series. People said that after Pentium was released, there would be no more demand for PCs. Because you already have a Pentium and you can do what you need. But these days, a new thing called dual core has come out. The dual core is 30!% faster than the existing computer, especially when performing multiple tasks at the same time. As a result, the price of the old computer goes down. Why? It's because I'm only going to buy dual core now.
‘Those who live in an apartment of ten pyeong dream of an apartment of 20 pyeong, and those who live in an apartment of 20 pyeong dream of 30 pyeong! Then it will happen!’
This is theoretically correct. Why doesn't God bless those who believe? Why not make it better? The problem, however, is that no one said that they believed in Jesus and gave up on a 40-pyong apartment and went to a 20-pyong apartment. No one sees it as progress or as a blessing. This is what quantityism is all about. The inclinations of modern people and the Christian faith are intertwined, so faith does not change our inclinations, but our inclinations influence our beliefs.
Most of our cabinet members are politicians, professors, and professional bureaucrats, but many high-ranking US cabinet members are business executives. Dick Chaney was the company's CEO before becoming Vice President. Rumsfeld, as well as former Weinberger, were former CEOs of Bechtel Automotive. However, when these people become the CEO of a company and then become a public official, their salary is reduced by 10%. Wages are drastically reduced. But they happily take it. This is because it is not only a great honor for an individual, but also an opportunity to serve the country. For them, service is a long-standing tradition of honor. In England, public officials and civil servants are called ‘civil servants’ and ministers are called ‘minister’.
Surprisingly, many people come to the church because they are tired of always wrestling with numbers and speed. If you see a church wrestling with numbers and speed in the name of faith, where can you find comfort and where can you find the kingdom of God? would you? How is the kingdom of God different from the kingdom of the world? Isn't it? Do you know why the Catholic Church appeals to modern people and city dwellers? Because there are traditions. There is a tradition that is not influenced by the times or trends, and there people can feel a sense of security, peace, and holiness. Korean Protestant churches in the 21st century are too fashion-sensitive, speed-sensitive, and trying to compete with the world, but these speeds and achievements are already ahead of the world to the point where they can't catch up. Mimicry is fake. If you imitate it, you can only become a fake. We must discover what is unique to our faith. This faith is unique as it was when Jesus preached the kingdom of God in Galilee two thousand years ago. The inherent thing of faith never goes out of fashion. It is not affected by currents. You have to find it.
In this day and age, ‘More! Higher!' Faster!' If anyone can say, 'I have too much,' we should respect that person.
One time, while I was talking on the phone with a church member, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I said this.
‘You already have too much. I have already been very blessed. Still, it is a sin to be dissatisfied, to want more, to be anxious about not having more, to be anxious, and to fight. So, how do people who have less than you live?’
If you are not satisfied with what you already have and want to have more, it is a sin. It's not faith, it's sin.
More people! Bigger! But God told Gideon that there were already too many. In verse 2, “The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many.” The number of soldiers was so great that even though some of them were sent back, God said there were many. Verse 4 “Then the LORD said to Gideon, “The people are still many.” In the end, the number of soldiers was reduced from 32,000 to 300. This enemy fought and defeated Midian with the army. This is a very peculiar tactic of God. It is something only God can do. It's like when David went out to fight Goliath, he tried to put on Saul's armor and sword at first, but it was too heavy and cumbersome, so he took it all off and went out carrying five stones and won the fight. Hallelujah!
Faith is not about having more and enjoying more. Rather, because you have faith, you already have too much, and if you give it away, you will rather experience the power of God. We need to change this way of thinking. 'I have already received a lot. What I got is enough What I have is still too much.’ When I did that, it actually meant that God was working even greater. Hallelujah!