facts

“Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.” Psalm 95:6-7

I love the simple logic of this well-known call to worship. We live in a time when people are quick to ask, “Why should I?” Why should we kneel before God? Because he made us and we are his people. Simple truth, and really all we need to know.

I used to work with a guy who’d say, “Them’s the facts, Jack!” It was his way of pointing out that you can’t change what’s real by playing what if. You can whine and complain and wish and dream all day long, but at the end of the day reality is still reality.

There are a lot of arguments that go around about why it’s good to be a Christian. There are wonderful expositions of the benefits of God’s promises. There are well-reasoned discussions about how the wonderful family values benefit society. There are emotional appeals to the desire for relief from guilt and despair.

In the end, though, those are wonderful side benefits of a basic reality: God made us for his purposes, and we won’t be happy unless we follow him. Them’s the facts, Jack.