10/08 WHAT DOES COLLEGE PROVE ?

DELAYING
GRATIFICATION FOR THE GREATER GOOD
WHAT DOES COLLEGE PROVE ? WHAT IS THE
SIGNIFICANCE ? WHY IS IT IMPORTANT ? Re DELAYING
GRATIFICATION; IQ INTELLIGENCE versus EQ
INTELLIGENCE.

There are LOTS OF REASONS for going to college and the

implications vary depending upon WHERE you go to college, WHAT
you study; & HOW LONG you stay in college (or beyond), among other
things.

However, in general, one thing that going to college signifies is

DELAYING GRATIFICATION. What does it mean to DELAY
GRATIFICATION ? Primarily, what it means in the USA is the
postponement of the “AMERICAN DREAM”—getting married, having
children, buying the first house, adding a boat, taking family vacations,
etc.

Around the world, GOING TO COLLEGE means something similar to

DELAYING THE AMERICAN DREAM---its delaying the demand of
LEGAL RIGHTS as a citizen.

SURE, some people circumvent the delay of gratification by getting

married before or during college and already having kids; and even
some exceptionally shrewd students go into business and delve into
rental property while still in college or graduate school (Robert A.
Schuller once told a story from the pulpit at the Crystal Cathedral
about his undergraduate days at Hope College where he already bought
his own house and rented it out).

BUT in general most students who go on to college are DELAYING the

demand that society take them JUST AS THEY ARE. Those who drop
out of high school or don’t go on to college or do a perfunctory two
years at a junior college (now called community colleges) and get their
associate degrees DELAY less—OR go to college specifically with the
AIM of getting a higher paying job—such as yes becoming a police
officer.

Traditionally, most of us never thought being a police officer would lead

to a HIGHER PAYING job but in fact in some cities being a police
officer pulls in an excellent salary and benefits. The assistant sheriff of
ORANGE COUNTY reportedly retired to a package of over $200,000
per year, more than the disgraced Sheriff Carona himself—but even at
the lower levels of police work the pay is high.Of course the RISKS are
higher too. And we are thankful, in general, for the work our police do
—EXCEPT when they become corrupt.

But I do NOT include police as amongst those who go to college in an

idealistic way, because TOO MANY of them are NOT truly going into
police work to TRULY serve & protect. They have their EYES on the
prize OF good salary & benefits, a 20-year-career AND early retirement.
Even though there are deadly risks they are NOT taking those deadly
risks because they CARE so much for people or society. They are doing
their job because they care about the salary, benefits, & early
retirement; in general. THANKS to the TRUE HEROES who made
their way into police work for more idealistic reasons. GOD BLESS
YOU.

And then you have other careers that involve more education time such
as becoming a nurse or doctor or lawyer or various other professional
vocations. Most professional jobs require FOUR YEARS of college for a
bachelor’s degree plus several more for the doctorate or masters. In
MOST CASES, but not all, THIS entails sacrifice and delayed
gratification.

BUT ONCE AGAIN, if the eyes are on a PRIZE of money and the so-
called good life then delayed gratification is less significant or is
somehow circumvented , and less idealistic and the trip thru higher ed is
less virtuous. Nonetheless, for those who RUN THAT RACE and
COMPLETE THE COURSE they have sacrificed more than the high
school or college drop out who became a clerk at the grocery store or
Starbucks; and on a purely secular level DESERVE more, because they
CARE more by what they do—whether or not it is in their heart.

I would say the HIGHER YOU GO in education the MORE it is

instilled in you NOT to become an AUTOMOTON (somebody on auto-
pilot, not thinking, and not caring all that much either). Your average
store clerk, coffee barista, waitress/waiter, et al. is on AUTO PILOT and
ultimately does NOT truly believe that society has a HIGHER
PURPOSE FOR LIFE. It’s a cynical attitude. And cynicism begets
cynicism which is BAD for society.

And so GOING TO COLLEGE & BEYOND also signifies, in general, a

higher purpose—LESS CYNICISM, being a GOOD SPORT. One of the
HARD PARTS of going to college is being TESTED continuously at an
individual level. You CAN’T PASS THE BUCK as long as you remain
under the microscope of higher education, especially at the GOOD
SCHOOLS. And they must be ACCREDITED schools.

There’s NO WAY AROUND IT. Higher education DEMANDS the most

of us, no excuses. It’s like being a professional athlete with the
CAMERAS on you.
I, myself, went to Calvin College after attending GRCH (Grand Rapids
Christian High)—both of which are in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My
initial BA was in psychology and I graduated with ACADEMIC
HONORS in 1989.

All around me there were my high school classmates BOTH at the

college (many GRCH students go on to Calvin College) as well as those
who did NOT go on to college. Some of my friends went to a junior
college instead and later transferred to a four year college. Two of my
friends, Rick Byle & Doug Kosters initially went to the Grand Rapids
Junior College (which we called “JC” at the time). Later, Rick
transferred to Western Michigan University, slowly matured, and went
on to become a teacher in the Detroit suburbs. Doug Kosters transferred
from JC to Calvin College and was considering seminary when all of a
sudden he took his own life in 1990.

I myself graduated in 1989 and then worked for a year as a MENTAL

HEALTH WORKER at Pine Rest Christian Hospital—a Christian
psychiatric institution . It was a great experience—NOT SO LOVELY—
but in terms of gaining knowledge about psychology and the human
condition—very valuable. BUT I was still in Grand Rapids and knew
that if I didn’t MOVE ON very soon I would be STUCK there forever.
Not to say Grand Rapids is a bad place to live but not as a mental health
worker or any other low level job. I had a HIGHER CALLING.

I just didn’t know HOW that higher calling would transpire into
practical reality. And so I first tried LAW SCHOOL—thinking that I
could make a BIG DIFFERENCE as a truly idealistic, caring, lawyer.
But during that first semester at Wayne State Law School I had a BAD
EXPERIENCE with my roommate, Slim BAAT (not real name) with
whom I lived right there on the Wayne State campus for almost a
semester before realizing that LAW is not my calling—or at least NOT
at Wayne State and NOT with Slim BAAT nearby.

It’s not always clear what factors lead to what. Did I leave Wayne State
Law School because I didn’t like law or have a calling to be a great
lawyer or because my roommate made the experience so terrible? The
more I think about it I think it was the roommate experience. To make a
long story short—one day I walked into our apartment and found him
having a homosexual relationship with some fellow. I never imagined
that Slim was homosexual and am just glad that he never made any
advances in my direction. I don’t know what I would have done--- I
might have become VIOLENT.

Only a few days after that experience I left Wayne State. Slim stayed
there in the apartment that I had pre-paid for the entire semester. He
had it to himself and his homosexual friend. It RUINED my hopes of a
law career—at the moment anyways. And I wonder if GOD uses
UNUSUAL circumstances TO test our character. I ended up heading
WEST to California around October of 1990 with NO notion of what I
was going to do when I got there.

About a month later I heard my childhood friend DOUG commit

suicide back in Grand Rapids. I flew back for the funeral, saw a few
people, and then returned to California. The next few months went by
and I was still reflecting on what I should do with my life. An
earthquake hit Costa Rica in the Spring of 1991 and I RESPONDED as
a disaster relief volunteer for the Christian Reformed Church. I ended
up staying there until August of 1991 –tutoring a few kids down at
Drake Bay Wilderness Camp (near Corcovado National Park—listed by
the London Times as one of the top 20 places to see in the world). It was
a MIRACLE that I ended up in a place so REMOTE—the rainforest
area accessible ONLY by boat—ONLY a few months after I was having
a miserable experience in Detroit.

But I returned to the USA—still DELAYING GRATIFICATION for the

sake of the world and still committed to doing something for a higher
purpose. Sure I could have just become a CLERK of some sort and
EKED out a career in a grocery store, coffee shop, or whatever saying to
the world “Take me as I am” —but I REFUSED to compromise. That’s
a higher purpose at work.

And GOD kept CALLING ME. I came back to the USA got in my car
and headed back to Grand Rapids where I intended to enroll in
seminary—and SO I DID, but after less than a quarter there I decided
to go back to the college and work on a teaching degree. I spent two
years getting another BACHELORS DEGREE—English/education, and
my teaching degree, all the while DELAYING GRATIFICATION.

I did a semester as a teaching assistant with KITT FAFF (NOT REAL

NAME) who was an elementary teacher in the Forest Hills School
District. He had also attended Calvin College—but was NOT a real
dedicated Christian nor from the CRC (Christian Reformed Church).
He grew up in a hard knock life in Ohio (Cleveland or Toledo ? ). He
played a lot of soccer and was a charismatic fellow, but as it turns out he
was a homosexual, unbeknownst to me. One day he invited me over to
the house where he lived and in retrospect I realize now it was a
homosexual initiative. I was so COMPLETELY naïve at the time I did
not realize it until later. And fortunately my naivety worked to my
advantage. We just sat around watching a little television and then I left,
but I realize now he had one thing on his mind. YUCK , GROSS, SICK
—another homo. And that’s part of the problem of homosexuality—they
PREY on innocence, or try to.

Fortunately, I put that behind me and didn’t even wake up to it until

later on in life. I did my student teaching at Holland Christian Middle
(now South Shores Christian) and then headed WEST stopping at
Jackson Wyoming with LOLA my golden retriever—and stayed for the
summer at my AUNT MARTHA’s house with the TETONS in the
background, with LOLA MY GOLDEN ANGEL RETRIEVER by my
side. It was my SECOND SUMMER there.

While I was there Amy Jonkers a beautiful female friend from Grand
Rapids Christian whom I met in Grand Rapids came and visited. It
could have been something, but I was still headed west and Grand
Rapids girls have a hard time not only going much further than the
Mississippi River but out of Michigan itself. That she came as far as
Wyoming to visit me was a miracle—a brief miracle. While there I also
just happened to run into Rachel Sytsma—who was visiting for a week.
She is NOW Rachel Reed—married and a professor at Calvin College.
We went hiking and camping together—a great experience—could have
been something, but she went east and I went west.

STICKING to a HIGHER PURPOSE takes dedication and delayed

gratification. The hardest thing for me to DELAY was sexual
intercourse with beautiful women I met along the way –AND my
relationships with women were tortured because while I wanted to GO
ALL THE WAY with them and consummate the relationship I also knew
the ramifications –mostly that I would then be most likely headed back
to West Michigan for good—UNLESS I could get one of them to keep
going forward with me—not just stopping there to become Mr. and Mrs.
With kids.

I BURNED with desire to consummate any single one of the many

relationships I had with the various women I met from Grand Rapids
Christian High and/or Calvin College. DEEP PASSION: Missy Theule
(now Melissa Wilkins), Barb Wiersma (now married to a Costa Rican ?
and living in Kalispell MT ?) , Amy Jonkers, and there were others with
whom the feelings were less of a heated passion but nonetheless
STRONG LIKE: Rachel Sytsma (now Rachel Reed); Kim Kooiker (Van
Sooykema ?) ; Kathy Lawrence (Cook?) ; Jane Dekker; Julia Sterk,
Melissa in Spain ;and then there were those who in retrospect seemed
like a RATIONAL RELATIONSHIP based on some similarities in
education and background: Amanda Steele comes to mind.

Nonetheless, none of these relationships came to fruition. And this leads

me to talk more about WHAT COLLEGE PROVES and about
“intelligence’ after which I will return to this discussion of relationships.

As you know I originally attended Calvin College, and some of this was
due to TRADITION. Coming from GRCH and being Dutch-American it
was the traditional thing to do. I still had to take the SAT or ACT and
show signs of decent academic intelligence to be accepted at Calvin but
LESS SO than Harvard or Yale, ALBEIT more so than a junior college.
Calvin is rated as one of the BEST private liberal arts colleges. That
means something.

But does college alone signify success or intelligence ? It’s really a

matter of being given “ammunition” for the tools you already have—
and intelligence equates to how you use (or don’t use) that ammunition.
A police officer may go an ENTIRE CAREER without using any of the
ammunition provided. This could signify one of two things: 1) he or she
cowardly avoids all conflicts and situations where it may be necessary to
use the ammunition AND protect innocent people ; or 2) he or she
tactfully & wisely engages in confrontations by DEFUSING a
potentially dangerous or deadly situation—thereby making a weapon
and ammunition unnecessary or less necessary for actual usage.
Nonetheless, sometimes no matter how wise, intelligent, careful, or
prudent a police officer is—the situation arises where deadly force is
necessary.

College is four years. For those who go beyond—it’s another two, three,
four or more years-of putting “ammunition” in the clip. The difference
between those who stick with it versus those who don’t is that the
ammunition obtained is, or can be, LIFE-GIVING AMMUNITION—or
in Christian lingo—the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT ! Our
AMMUNITION gives LIFE & LIGHT—IT enlightens and edifies
people as well as GOD.
“…take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the
flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on
all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
Eph 6:16-18

The WORD OF GOD is a weapon—a POSITIVE LIFE-GIVING

WEAPON—for good. It gives life. Jesus gives life ! And we have that
weapon on the tip of our tongue. But the ammunition comes FROM
THE HEART—and the difference is between merely saying words
versus truly believing it and living by it; and the more you do the more
it becomes an effective life-giving weapon for good. It’s based on
HOPE !

The TONGUE has the ability to do GREAT GOOD OR UTTER EVIL.

Consider the following :

Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it

makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set
on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world
of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole
person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is
itself set on fire by hell…no man can tame the tongue . It
is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With the tongue
we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men,
who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same
mouth come praise and cursing…
James 3:5-12

If SUCH IS THE CASE then how can we be accountable for our actions
? I myself can attest to one moment telling a person to “watch your
language” and the next moment occasionally using the same language
myself (albeit the primary difference being that I don’t use offensive
language in front of people).
But I can ALSO attest that the MORE we pray and put our faith and
trust in GOD and SUBMIT to the HOLY SPIRIT the more we can
TAME THE TONGUE and the tongue can become TRULY PLEASING
TO GOD, in which case our words EDIFY HIM and lead others to do
good things for GOD likewise:

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all

pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of
mercy and good fruit , impartial and sincere.
Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of
righteousness” James 3:17-18

I spoke last week a little sarcastically of “Christian education” but

that’s primarily because the system I went through is, in general, not a
voluntary system. Parents SEND their kids to the Christian school
system through high school and even going to Calvin (Christian) College
is as much of a tradition as it is something chosen specifically for its
Christian characteristics. Therefore, some kids who have no real sense
of Christian charity or Spirit may end up going all the way through the
Christian high school and Calvin College without being IN THE
SPIRIT. I originally assumed all my “Christian classmates” were
Christians but NO LONGER DO I automatically presume such.

The Christian schools are ONLY AS GOOD as the people around you. If
you have non-Christian classmates at the Christian school who are NOT
edifying GOD or the Christians around them—you merely have a school
providing a Christian structure for both Christians and non-Christians
alike. And those who NEVER acquire the SPIRIT will leave knowing
“buzzwords” of the Christian community but NOT the SPIRIT itself.
Some go on to practice law and NEVER submit to CHRIST. It’s the
submission that’s lacking, not the education.

But JUST GOING TO COLLEGE whether in the SPIRIT OR OUT

should make you a better person. Regardless of Christ or Christians it’s
a WILLINGNESS TO SUBMIT to something higher than yourself.
Going to college you LEARN about cultures, about human nature,
about math, science, English, music, history, etc. You SUSPEND
JUDGMENT and willingly submit to the wisdom of others for at least
two years, preferably four years, and even better—six or eight years.

Of course it’s NOT COMFORTABLE at first. Unlike our biological

body which starts out small and gets bigger, our EGO is one thing that
starts out BIG and slowly but surely, hopefully, gets SMALLER as we
grow and age. The bigger our EGO the less likely we are to SUBMIT in
the right way to others. And when I say “submit” I mean so up to a
certain point & time: Take time to listen to other professors, other
pastors, other teachers—listen, learn, accept some parts, reject others—
and become a better person.

On the other hand DON’T SUBMIT to that which is unlawful or

immoral—and obviously DON’T SUBMIT to homosexuals or
pedophiles who want to take advantage of your innocence. Run from
them or if need by put a FIST IN THEIR FACE and then run.

My freshman year of college was NOT always comfortable nor easy.

Freshman are picked on by those older. In my case I lived in the dorms
with somebody I knew from high school (Keith Steensma) which made it
less uncomfortable at first, but maybe less challenging too. You’re
sitting in big classrooms with a professor lecturing—for four years to
come. It seems like a LONG TIME to delay gratification and suspend
judgment, but the more you do it the better person you become.

What bothered me the most along the way were the homosexuals—even
when I got out of college and beyond the brief stab at law school—there
was more of it at CVHS (Coachella Valley High) where I taught for two
years. I won’t mention any names but it was one reason I left—that’s
the secular world. And I learned from it. And I’m still seeking a female
partner for a life relationship.

WHAT COLLEGE PROVES is a willingness to NOT SUBMIT without

discretion to others (that would be foolish and sometimes sinful). It’s a
willingness to SUBMIT WITH DISCRETION—to listen carefully &
learn and weigh the words of wisdom offered by others—sometimes
accepting other times rejecting that which is given. But then most
professors & teachers are NOT PROSELYTIZING fulltime, not even in
the Christian school. Apart from prayer & maybe a higher level of
compassion & kindness (hopefully, but not guaranteed) the Christian
education (which I attended) is still standard education, according to
state & federal definition and accredited by higher education councils.

ACCREDITED IS ACCREDITED IS ACCREDITED —whether it is

Christian, secular, Jewish, or whatever. Yet some systems don’t abide by
the fact that accredited is accredited. It violates the system of trust and
credibility guaranteed by the process of accreditation. “SHOW ME”
some say when you show up with a diploma in hand. They want you to
PROVE to them, personally, that you merit attention and the right to
speak. When such is the case you know you’ve run into a FRAUD who
has placed him or herself above & beyond the law.

Finally, there was a time when INTELLIGENCE WAS MEASURED by

one standard alone: it was linear, mathematical, scientific, sequential—
along those lines. It was IQ –INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT measured
by one standard. NO LONGER does society only think of intelligence
alone by one standard. We also think of EQ, or EMOTIONAL
QUOTIENT.

If you’ve ever gone to a doctor who is TOTAL IQ but NO EQ you will

walk away with some factual knowledge transmitted to you briefly
either verbally or by way of a small piece of paper on which a
prescription is written and from which you can infer for yourself what
the doctor concluded. You will NOT feel very comforted NOR feel like
the doctor cares about you very much as a person and your larger life.
That’s because the doctor LACKS all EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE.

For many years and still today to some extent albeit less so, HIGHER
EDUCATION, especially amongst the “hard sciences’ believed it was
part of their job to REMOVE the emotional senses from the student—
and instill facts and data in the brain. A good doctor, therefore, would
be one who analyzes, deduces, examines, etc—ANYTHING, essentially,
but FEEL or EMPATHIZE or SYMPATHIZE. Anything that has to do
with feelings, they believed, interferes with science.

And this, of course, included anything SPIRITUAL—because

spirituality, like feelings, is NOT empirical.
Some medical schools and undergraduate science departments are
WILLING TO ADMIT now that this was short-sighted but only to a
certain extent.
And some, but not all, in LAW, including our courts, tend to make the
same IQ error AT THE EXPENSE OF EQ. When I first arrived in
Pasadena to attend Fuller Seminary I spent some time in court AS A
PLAINTIFF addressing various issues that arose during my teacher
years at CV HIGH, and the primary error some of the attorneys for the
defendants kept making was the presumption that I needed to be a law
school trained lawyer in order to do anything in court. The judges
usually know better but sometimes they fall prey to the groupthink of
lawyers as well. You don’t have to be a law-school trained lawyer to get
justice in court—you just have to be PERSISTENT and of reasonable
intelligence.

Back when I was just graduating from college a high school friend of
mine, Steve Korhorn, who worked as a police officer for a few years
before something happened that led to him leaving that career or
occupation; and he suddenly showed up on my doorstep wanting to
“hang out.”

He was doing OK financially—in fact he had a nice speedboat that we

would go out to Lake Michigan and other lakes on during the summer,
but one thing he kept doing that annoyed me was that he would
periodically say to me “I DIDN’T HAVE TO GO TO COLLEGE TO
TELL YOU THAT” after I would make a comment about something . It
was clear that he was passive-aggressive about having not, himself, gone
on to college (other than junior college police academy). He was curious
to know if I had acquired some great, mysterious, knowledge during my
first four years of college, but when I didn’t say anything remarkable he
would respond “I didn’t have to go to college to tell you that…” and
then laugh hysterically to himself.

I don’t know what he expected to hear from me. Did he want me to start
waxing poetic about Socrates or Plato ? Did he want to hear me give a
profound analysis of current economic issues ? You can’t speak
“intelligently” to those who are of less intelligence or of less education.
You can only speak to them at their level and that’s what I stuck with. If
I spoke in terms he didn’t understand he would say, predictably:
“That’s a bunch of bullsh-t”

In fact somewhere along the line it seems clear that entry level cops are
told to NOT TRUST college kids or college graduates. It might even
come from their superiors, college grads themselves. Not sure why—
maybe it’s self-serving in some ways. But he was a PERFECT
EXAMPLE of the OPPOSITE OF WHAT COLLEGE PROVES, or the
opposite of delaying gratification for the sake of the greater good. Here
he was, having worked for a few years as a police officer and already
had a beautiful speedboat. And not much later came a beautiful home in
Cascade, Michigan with two nice dogs and a big backyard with a
doghouse, among other things.

How he did it on a ex-police officer salary or pension I do NOT KNOW,

but at that time (back around 1989-90 ) I was naïve enough to believe
that police don’t make much money or that they are not intelligent. He
found a way to leave police work but somehow also keep a speedboat
and buy a beautiful home; and I know it wasn’t all from his wife Darla’s
salary as a legal secretary. Likewise I became suspicious of my friends
Eric & Audrey who had a mysterious house fire while they just
happened to be gone and which just happened to be covered by fire
insurance and which just happened to allow them to remodel in a very
nice way.

I’ve said it before—police ARE in fact intelligent, and so are McDonald

employees who “flip hamburgers” for a living. In fact, police learn a
bunch of radio codes, how to turn on and off a bunch of lights and
sirens, how to handle firearms…and on an on and on—a lot of technical
stuff that I would not be able to do that well.

Likewise, McDonald workers not only flip burgers but they prepare
foods, they preserve foods, they store food, they run a visa/mastercard
machine, a cash register, take orders on a headphone from drive-thru
customers, they have to be patient, polite, stay busy, keep clean…and so
on and so forth.. Likewise, doctors are obviously very intelligent, but if
they are just chasing money it makes all their “dedication” meaningless
and ultimately patient care will obviously be lacking. It’s the emotional
investment and amount of genuine care for the individual that makes
the difference.

Neither police officers NOR McDonalds workers, are unintelligent.

They are very intelligent. The question is intelligent ABOUT WHAT ?
For one reason or another they decided NOT to apply their intelligence
to larger issues that you study at large (macro) as well as up close
(micro) in college. For that matter, a lot of criminals are NOT
UNINTELLIGENT—they just decided to apply their intelligence in
ways that serve themselves, not others.

As a teacher I occasionally ask students who are slacking off in the

classroom if they want to work at McDonalds for the rest of their life?
The fact is—not because they are NOT SMART ENOUGH to do well in
school, but are they SMART ENOUGH to stay in school so they don’t
have to do a job that actually requires a lot of intelligence but will also
become very routine and very boring & unchallenging to them after a
while.

Likewise, police officers—after they learn the minutia of police work

may think to themselves, “This is boring” not to mention occasionally
life-threatening, and for what ? To protect and serve people they slowly
but surely begin to abhore—i.e. the citizens. And some of them stick
with it but with a major grudge on their shoulders and no longer protect
& serve the citizens, they only protect & serve themselves. Thank
goodness there’s a lot of good police who make up for the bad. The verse
that comes to mind is this:

“For many are called ,but few are chosen.” Matt 22:14
When we think of GOD calling people , I think there is a good parallel
to us being called in life—and the education system that has been
provided. Each and every person have the opportunity to go to school
and have the opportunity to stick with the education—be it public or
private. But predictably some drop out early others drop out later—and
only a FEW stay in it to the end. Likewise it is with the KINGDOM OF
HEAVEN, God may have given everybody (depending upon how you
interpret the Bible and predestination, etc). an EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY to follow HIM and inherit, not earn, eternal life.

But what is required ? Like staying in school, following GOD may

require delayed gratification or no earthly gratification at all in some
cases. Sometimes “delayed gratification” means all of one’s earthly life.
The reward is heaven. Those who want their reward here and now can
have it, including the praise & recognition of the world, but in some
cases that will be the ONLY REWARD they get.

So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with

trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the
streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have
received their reward in full. Matt 6:2

Like Esau they will sell their inheritance for a “bowl of stew” so to
speak.

Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said

to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm
famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.) Jacob
replied, "First sell me your birthright." "Look, I am about
to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?"
But Jacob said, "Swear to me first."So he swore an oath
to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Gen 25:29-33

See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau , who

for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.
Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing,
he was rejected.He could bring about no change of mind, though
he sought the blessing with tears. Heb 12:16-17

It is clear that in order to enter into the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN we

must take the road less travelled which requires departing from the
path of least resistance. This takes courage & perseverance and all the
other FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT, and undoubtedly you will be mocked
by the world in so doing. But ISN’T IT WORTH IT ? !

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things
there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the
sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let
us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking
and envying each other. Gal 5:22-26
vander KOK
JOHN THE EVANGELIST FOR CHRIST