The Platinum Rule

I wanted to write about what I call the Platinum Rule. Everyone has heard of the Golden Rule which basically says "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" or in normal language "treat others the way you would want to be treated." Well that is great advice and the world would be a much better place if all Christians actually followed this rule. Unfortunately many don't follow it. But that doesn't take anything away from the fact that it is still very good advice. But I think there is an even better rule that we could and should go by as Christians. That is what I call the Platinum Rule which is:

Treat others the way God would want you to treat them

I believe this is even better advice because we as humans make mistakes sometimes and during those times, the Golden Rule would fail to be the right thing to follow. For instance when a person is depressed, they usually want others to leave them alone. So if they are following the Golden Rule, they would leave other people alone (not talk to anyone and keep to themselves) and they would expect others not to talk to them because that's what they think they want. But as everyone knows, this is bad advice. When a person is depressed is when they need to be in the company of friends and loved ones even more, and I suspect that this is what God would want us to do. If we were the depressed person, God would want us to go talk to other people and spend time with people we care about and who care about us, or to go and help others who are less fortunate than we are so we can see that we really shouldn't be depressed. But even though we may know that's what we should do when we're depressed, that's not what we want to do. And if we're the one who knows of someone we care about who is depressed, most people would not want to bother them because they know how it is to be depressed and they know they didn't want to be disturbed by others when they were depressed. So if they were following the Golden Rule, they would leave that person alone. But if they were following the Platinum Rule, they would go spend time with that person, which is what God would want us to do.

I call this the Platinum Rule because platinum is more valuable than gold, and I believe this rule is more valuable than the Golden Rule. This is something I try to follow every day. It's difficult, more difficult than following the Golden Rule in fact. But it's also given me much more satisfaction in my life and confidence that I am living my life and behaving the way God wants me to. I encourage you to try to live by this rule yourself as well - that is if you agree of course.

So how about it - do you agree? What do you think of the Platinum Rule compared to the Golden Rule? I'd like to hear whether you agree with me and I'd like to hear from you even more if you don't agree with me and why. Post a comment and let me know! =)

Bread and Life

This idea was inspired by a sermon I heard last September and it's been in the back of my mind ever since. The idea is that our lives can be thought of as the bread talked about so often in the bible. I haven't quite worked out all of the references to bread in the bible that I could make use of for this idea, but keep reading and you'll get the idea.

There are many times where men come together for a meal, and bread is almost always one of the main foods they eat at that meal. In addition, during the last supper Jesus took bread blessed it, broke it, and shared it with his disciples. I believe this is what he does with us in our lives as well, over and over again. In fact, I think that we can relate our lives to one of these three phases of bread (either being blessed, being broken, or being distributed and shared with others). The greatest example I can think of that displays this idea is the life of Jesus himself. He was first blessed because he was the son of God, chosen to do God's work on earth and redeem mankind. Then he was broken by being crucified on the cross, which allowed Him to be shared with all of mankind. His perfection and salvation was/is shared with all who are willing to ask for and receive it. There are other examples too (the life of Joseph for example).

So when times are good is when you are in the blessing phase. When times are tough, you are in the breaking phase. And after the breaking phase always comes the sharing phase. To illustrate this, I will tell you about a recent example from my own life. In June of last year I was working as a manufacturing engineer at an automotive testing machinery manufacturing company and enjoying my job very much. I was engaged and abot to be married to a wonderful woman. I was making more money than I had been before, had developed some great new friendships, and was just generally enjoying life. I was in the blessing phase. In July, I was laid off from my job unexpectedly, my family was going through some hard times, and I was supposed to get married in a couple of weeks but didn't have all of the money saved up for it yet and wouldn't be able to get it since I had lost my job. I wasn't happy with the church I was at and was searching for another one that I did like and where I could feel like I belonged, and my life was generally quickly becoming a mess. This was the breaking phase. I soon got married, had a great honeymoon and continued my job search. During my job search, I met a lot of great people and have made some good contacts with recruiters, business people from many companies, and had a lot of time to spend with family and friends. This was the sharing phase. I then received a couple of good job offers (both of which offered a higher salary than I had ever had), and picked the one I thought was best. I found a church that I loved, still attend, and don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon. I also decided to continue my education by pursuing an MBA. This was another blessing phase. Then I got hit with a huge financial burden, received a less than favorable job review, and my grandfather passed away. Another breaking phase. And most recently I've begun my MBA program and met lots of new and interesting people, made a new good friend through my wife's sister, gotten to spend some time visiting with one of my best friends from high school, and have gained some popularity and esteem in my job. So now I'm in the sharing phase again, moving towards the blessing phase.

Think about your own life and I bet you'll notice that you go through these three phases as well over and over again. The blessing phase is great, and the sharing phase is too. The only one we don't usually enjoy is the breaking phase. But it's a necessary one because just like a muscle, we must be broken down in order to be built back up stonger and better than we were before. This is an important thing to remember. And for those really tough times, it helps to remember one more thing...no matter how hard your life is or gets, it is just a phase and it will pass in time. There was a phase of sharing and blessing waiting for you at the end. And most importantly....no matter what phase your life is in, you are always in God's hands - which is the best place you could ever hope to be.