Today I’ve got a few links I’ve been accumulating on a couple of different topics I wanted to share.

Identity – do we find it in the right places?

A while back, Paul David Tripp addressed the issue of COVID and working from home, and noted that life involve balancing three key areas of life – work, God and relationships and if you expand the effort/time you devote in one of these areas, it causes the others to shrink. And sometimes, work can grow into an especially important area for us. He notes:

… what is the main cause of our work circle expansion? For most of us, it is motivated by a personal quest for identity.

Too many of us hunt for meaning and purpose in our work. Regardless of your title, your salary, or your career accomplishments, the grace of God has freed you from looking for identity anywhere else apart from Christ.

In other words, we might focus disproportionately on work out of a search for a feeling of meaning and identity – but Christians ought to be able to fight this, because our real identity is not in what we accomplish in the workplace, but in Christ.

The following week, Tripp looked further at this in a follow-up post and argues that this is not just an issue of our priorities, but of our identity. We easily look to the wrong things for our identity. He lists three main enticing identities we might seek through our work:

  1. Identity in Achievement and Success: “I am what I have accomplished.”
  2. Identity in Power and Control: “I am in control; therefore, I am.”
  3. Identity in Affluence and Possessions: “I am the size of the pile of stuff I have accumulated.”

For me, I think the first of these is the most tempting – I do want to do good things, to help people, etc. And if I’m not careful, this can become a search for identity. Anyway, read both articles – they’re worth thinking about carefully.

Anti-americanism among Americans

Gene Veith addressed an issue I’ve noticed, of anti-americanism among Americans. Many Americans, especially younger ones, apparently think American history is not something to be proud of, and many think the Declaration of Independence is not much superior to the Communist Manifesto. These ideas are deeply disturbing to me, but I’ve observed it myself – a kind of anti-Americanism is becoming common and even popular.

Now, as a Christian, I strive to be a Christian first and an American later, and I certainly don’t think our country is perfect – but I do care for it, and I want the best for it. And that’s the issue Veith addresses:

G. K. Chesterton said that loving your country is like loving your family. You don’t love the members of your family for all of their wonderful qualities, as if you would stop loving them were they to lose those wonderful qualities. You love them just because they are your family. And you should love your country just because it is your country. Yes, you laud its good qualities, just like you laud those of your family members, and are especially aware of them. But if your family or your country go wrong, your love may even be intensified by your anguish.

I thought this was an excellent point. I live here, and, while I don’t have to see America as perfect, it’s appropriate for me to desire the best for America – and to strive to work with those around me to make it the best place it can be. So, much as I see the flaws in my wife or my children and strive to help them grow, change, and serve God as best they possibly can, my attitude towards my country can be the same. I don’t have to believe it’s perfect, and I can be honest about its flaws – but at the same time I should desire the best for it (and pray for it and its leaders, e.g. 1 Timothy 2:1-2) and do what I can to work for its good. And, yes, even laud its good qualities.

The true cost of commuting

I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to how to think about finances, and from time to time I’ve enjoyed a blog called Mr. Money Mustache (MMM). The author is an engineer who retired in his 30s, and he has a penchant for doing simple math about money, which is I think what tickles my fancy about it so much. Some years ago he wrote an article on the true cost of commuting which really stuck with me, especially given the Southern California car culture.

He looks at how much we ought to be willing to pay to live closer to work, if we place a realistic value on our time as well as wear and tear on our cars, etc. His ultimate conclusion will be surprising to most, I think:

So each mile you live from work steals $795 per year from you in commuting costs. $795 per year will pay the interest on $15,900 of house borrowed at a 5% interest rate.

In other words, a logical person should be willing to pay about $15,900 more for a house that is one mile closer to work, and $477,000 more for a house that is 30 miles closer to work. For a double-commuting couple, these numbers are $31,800 and $954,000.

…If these numbers sound ridiculous, it’s because they are. It is ridiculous to commute by car to work if you realize how expensive it is to drive, and if you value your time at anything close to what you get paid

Now, I don’t agree with MMM on everything, and he approaches things from a purely secular perspective, which I don’t. But, I do think this analysis is worth reading in full and considering carefully. I think this is especially worth taking time for given that the Southern California culture seems to automatically assume that commutes of 40 minutes to an hour or more each way are normal and not worth thinking twice about. But that’s a huge amount of your life spent commuting and taken away from other things. Is this how God wants us using our time and money?