Earning or Learning
June 26, 2025
We work to earn a paycheck. We plant a veggie garden, working to boost our families’ access to our favorite fresh vegetables. We work to get approval from people — sometimes our Moms and Dads, sometimes people we don’t really know, and sometimes to get approval from people in authority like Religious Leaders or our Employers, that is people who have the power to make our lives better or worse.
In everything we pursue, there is work to be done to get there.
The pattern is a very common one and covers most all human activity.
So, why do I include Religious Leaders?
Time out.
What about “Influencers” who we want to be like, or assimilate their charming character, or otherwise put on pedestals to emulate? Isn’t that like worship? We hope we could be more like them. Maybe we even put our faith in their solutions to life’s questions and attempt to mimic them…
That’s all pretty much natural, normal, or whatever word you think to put on it.
However, I see all such following as a form of religious faith.
No? Ever go to an NFL football game? Clapping, cheering, raising hands, clapping, dancing, even singing theme songs… Such enthusiasm! That’s how I cheer for my team from the safety of my couch. How about you?
“Ya gotta have faith! This is our year to win the Super Bowl!”
Now, aren’t those actions very similar to what critics point out as horribly wrong with certain Christian assemblies in their Worship Services?
You say there’s a difference because of the object of worship?
Well, I agree…
… but not in the way you might think.
Anyways, for this essay, the important precept in each belief system is that we have to work at achieving those lofty goals on the heights of whatever mountain we are told we have to climb to get there.
To illustrate from my own experience, the theme of my Graduation Ceremony in High School was “Climb Every Mountain.” At the time, I suppose, it was very inspirational…
Here’s my favorite version: Sound of Music — Climb Every Mountain
That H.S. memory reminds me that, early on in our life’s journey, we are all Secular Humanists. Even when we are raised in a strict Christian environment, in adolescence, it is the normal path for a young man or woman to wander off, and I actually think it’s the healthiest way to become adult.
Questioning is the best way to get answers and to learn… and isn’t life for learning?
I’ve got to add that in my lengthy questioning stage my anthems were more along these lines: Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young — Déjà Vu (Full Album) [Official Video]
Nevertheless, I want to briefly express in this writing the dynamic difference between religious faiths — both secular humanist, as just mentioned, and sacred, as being set apart from the domains of Societies and Civilizations.
One is composed of the vast variety of atheism/agnosticism belief systems, and the other, is composed of the divergent variety of Chrisitian belief systems.
Oh, I realize this could be a topic for a Doctoral Thesis, but I’m trying to keep this at my own working class level.
Still and all, I like how Professor John Lennox expresses the difference between Biblical Christianity and those two opposing belief systems’ views.
Professor Lennox teaches that there are many moral and ethical persons in both systems, and also, there are not such nice people in both.
People claiming to be of the third, Biblical Christianity, have the same self-opposing contradictions.
So, what’s the difference?
Professor Lennox goes on to explain that in all other belief systems, secular or religious, a person has to work to earn approval. However, with Biblical Christianity you get your approval at the very first, at the outset of the journey, and not at the end.
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. — New International Version (NIV).
I Have Hope — Dallas Holm — Lyric Video — Words of Hope and Comfort
So, I suggest that you end up deciding to take this path:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” — Matthew 11:28–30, NIV.
