Electric cars, Buddhism, and New Age.

As we finish looking at "losing our life in Christ," nothing comes to mind more than electric cars.  Obviously.

Notable in automotive news is that Ford and Toyota have sidelined plans to build 100% electric vehicles (EVs), sticking instead with hybrid gas-electric vehicles.

One of the maxims of 100% electric vehicles is “fast, far, and cheap – pick any two.”

To get a big enough battery that allows the car to be both fast (boosts of great power) and go far is very expensive.  Or you can have modest (and relatively cheap) battery capacity that will still last for a long trip, so long as you work the “gas pedal” as if there were an egg underneath it.  And so on.

The point is, you can’t put too many constraints on your EV.  You can’t have your cake and eat it too. No matter how much the EV true-believers want to believe, you simply can’t have a car that can actually hold its own in the left lane on the highway, and get you to your relatives in the next state over, without it costing way more than a comparable gas engine.

Three constraints turn out to be one too many for EVs.

How many constraints are too many for our relationship with God?

It turns out the number is - any.  As in, we can’t place any constraints on God.  Nada.  Zilch.  Nein. 

That’s the whole point of “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”   Ultimately our life must be “lost in Christ.”  Ultimately as in, when our time comes to see the bright white light and decide if we’re going to choose Christ, or go to the place where the thermometer is always set to “well done.”  At that point, we must choose to be all in with Christ, or all out.  No fence sitting.

So Mother Church and the great Saints all recommend we sort that all out while we still have time in this life – that we should decide now to give our life totally to Christ.  To lose ourself in Him.

But there’s a bonus (just like Ginsu knives) – when we “give up” our little plans for our life, Christ gives us something much better – His plan for our life.  Thus, “whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

We’re not saying this is easy.  Especially to let go of desires like those we have for our loved ones.  But that’s the point – the desires we hold most dear are exactly the ones we most need to entrust to God’s plan, even if He seems to not be responding to our pleas. 

This is 150% different from other philosophies of “letting go” and “aligning ourselves with the universe.”  That is essentially the philosophy of Buddhism, which is to align ourself with Dharma – the universal truth of the cosmos.  Whatever that is.  The New Thought folks (similar to New Age) follow a similar path and give us the “manifesting” nonsense that all we need to do is align ourself with the energy of the universe and suddenly our Powerball number will be called next week.  Or something like that.

Yes – we are a little pointed when it comes to other religious philosophies.  Why?  Because they attempt to supersede authentic relationship with an actual person, Christ, who walked the face of the earth and suffered and died for us.

“The universe” didn’t suffer and die for us.  It was Jesus, and only Jesus.  It is our loss if we try to place constraints on our relationship with Him, and our gain when we let them all go.

Blessings on your journey with Christ –

Steve and Karen Smith

Interior Life

Postscript:  Mt 16:21-27

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.

Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, "God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."  He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?  Or what can one give in exchange for his life?  For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory, and then he will repay all according to his conduct."