My word says that knowledge puffs up. Have you seen this to be true, that when people have information it gives them an inflated sense of their own importance? Do you find this to be an attractive quality in people? Knowledge is desirable, but the problems associated with it go back to the very beginning. Is there a way to obtain knowledge that leaves you more humble rather than less so? A transformative encounter will accomplish this for you.

Do you like to play games? Games have rules that all parties must agree to for the game to be successful. Not everyone likes to play games, but there are other activities that have rules as well, such as court proceedings, or even just the rules of the road for driving a car. You can look these up as readily available information, and everyone is subject to the law of the land. Are there rules to life in a larger sense? These are not published and universally agreed to, but you have clearly observed that some approaches are successful and others are not.

Do you carry out the Great Commission? What sort of responses do you encounter? Do you prefer those who are indifferent to those who oppose you? This is a way to avoid conflict, but not a strategy for success. Those who have started their spiritual journey will engage with you even if they don’t agree with you. Those who have not will find the whole subject to be boring. I likened my own generation to children who would not dance to music or mourn for a dirge. They had become indifferent and unresponsive.

I told a story of two houses, one built on rock, and the other built on sand. Both houses remained standing under calm conditions, but when a storm came, the house built on a rock stood and the one built on sand fell. The parallel to human life is obvious. Some people build beautiful structures on a bad foundation. Have you ever see a life of affluence and comfort that would not withstand the storms of life? No building can be better than the foundation it rests on, and the same is true of life.