Justified

I’ve heard it said both ways by people that I trust. In April of 2010 an excited iPad fan made an inquiry about availability of the revolutionary new tablet in an email to Steve Jobs. Steve’s stunningly succinct reply was “Yep.” Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am very much the Apple Fan Boy and have fallen under Steve’s Reality Distortion Field many times in my life, but I could not be dissuaded by his use of the word yep. Truthfully, I DID spend some time considering it. I used the same technique that Joey used in episode 203 of Friends “The One Where Heckles Dies”. You remember…”Supposably? Supposedly?…….Supposably!”. I’m a “yup” guy.

How many other mindless debates do we get caught up in? People fought and died over crossing themselves with two or three fingers. I’m here to tell you that people can get distracted.

SQUIRREL!

And then this can tend to trivialize important matters. How about the difference in my life between justification and justified? I always have a justification for everything I do. No matter what it is, how insignificant or weighty, I have a reason for why I did it. This is my justification. I would argue that we all do it. However, sometimes I get my justification confused and twisted. Sometimes I act as if the fact that I have a justification for what I do that translates into my actions being justified. Yup, that’s me. This is not strong math! Justification is not wrong, in and of itself. Yet all to often, it sounds more like a first grader’s reasoning than the balanced thought of a rational adult. Honestly, if I were to put all of my justifications into a stew it would mostly be two ingredients: what I want to do and what God wants me to do. I’m not on the Food Network, but I can attest that the “Me Stew” isn’t even close to the “God Stew” when it comes to flavor, nourishment, or sustenance. The “Me Stew” is like candy: it tastes good for a moment, but rots my teeth, leaves me feeling tired, and offers nothing for survival. Yep, it’s true.

So which is it, yup or yep? I really can’t say, and it probably doesn’t really matter. But I do know this: I need to focus on what is real and what is important. I need to keep my justifications justified. I need to eat more “God Stew”.

Yup!