Does being off a little matter much?

There are many areas in life where being off much doesn't result in any real problem. If you are going on a picnic and you hear the temperature will be 70 but it is really 65, then it does not affect your enjoyment. In golf if your putter head is slightly off line and the putt is 2 inches, you will make the putt. If you are practicing the violin at home by yourself and the violin is slightly off tune, the sound of your play is still fine.
However, if your putt is 20 feet and your putter head is slightly offline, you miss the putt badly. If you are playing in an orchestra and your violin has not been tuned, the harmony with other instruments is reduced and the sound of the song is not what it is designed to be.

If you really think about it, many people for much of life believe that being off a little may not be best, but it is really not much of a BIG DEAL. The big questions, like "why am I here?", do not need to be answered. Being a part of a few joyous moments is what life is all about. We become what some have called "individual meaning makers." We dupe ourselves into focusing on temporary, transcendental experiences and avoid the "big things" in life. We piece together scraps of half truths, cliches, and experiences that we think define the life we are designed to live. We accept what others tell us about ourselves and we live beneath our privilege. We feel fine about life as we live it, not even knowing that being an inch off on truth can produce a life that misses the mark by 10 feet later, that not being synced with the tuning fork causes our music to be off key.

Here is an example.

You may be saying, "what is that?" Its is a verse that many people have heard often, "delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Notice what the NIV says. "he will give you your heart's desires." Is the difference BIG? not in literary terms. But is the little difference BIG? Dang straight. "the desires of your heart" are what is aspirational about what is in your heart. "Your heart's desires" are your aspirations that YOU put into your heart. The difference is "whose aspirations are in your heart?" Yours or God's?

The natural tendency to see God through Social Exchange would influence how we understand this Scripture. We want it to say, "if we do this, then God will do that."  In other words, if we delight in Him, He will give us what we want. Yet, this is not what God wants us to know, so it is not what the Scripture really says (this is not uncommon for the NIV translation). God wants us to know that when we think He is the "cat's meow", that when we just love being with Him and adore Him, then He will give us what we aspire to. What we have in our heart (the seat of our motives) will be from Him. This is not a self-serving exchange transaction, but simply an outcome of our delight.

Does this little difference really matter? Here is a recent pic I saw posted by a Christian who is very sincere, mature and dedicated. This shows how subtle but how profound this little difference can be.

You can see from this that the one who produced this is playing off of this Scripture, but it is not right. It says I have prayed, not delighted. Then it positions what God will do as a result of what I do. I pray, God delivers. It feels so good. It looks so right. BUT it is off a small bit, with BIG consequences.

Here's the issue. When we approach God from a position of exchange, which is our nature, we set ourselves up to be disappointed and maybe even cynical about God. At a minimum, we run out of energy trying to do for Him what He wants so He'll do for us what we want.

What happens when we buy-in to this plaque and then things don't turn out for our child as we want? Don;t get me wrong, praying for our children and grandchildren is a great walk of faith. Wishing great things for our children is good. But this is not what God tells us in His word. The seemingly little difference between exchange and grace is everything.

We pray, but God's favor is unmerited. We serve, but God's favor is unconditional. Mainly we delight in Him, we adore Him, and our love for Him has nothing to do with what He does in our circumstances. He has chosen to give us all the privileges and provisions of the Heavenlies. He tells us that numerous times. Falling back into a perspective of exchange with God is easy to do. It seems like its a little thing, but the consequences of living joyfully with Him rather than living in guilt, anxiety, disappointment and questioning Him is BIG.

This is worth continual pondering for those who are called by His name ...