"A faithful man will abound with blessing, but whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished."
– Proverbs 28:20, ESV
There is no substitute for hard work. That’s what Mom and Dad always said, right? Little by little, pay your dues, do your time, and learn your craft. After a while, you’ll start to see some progress, and as you get older you’ll find that, somehow, despite everything, you’ve managed to accomplish a few things in life that are worthy of a measure of humble self-satisfaction. That’s how the WWII generation did it, and it seemed to work, at least in a quaint sort of way.
But maybe you are an aspiring writer of more modern sensibilities, or a movie maker, or a hotshot entrepreneur. If you hold to a high ethical standard or pretend to at least, why not cheat and manipulate your way to the top? And if you really think hard about it, your ship ought to come in sooner than that! So if you write that book, forget about originality and research. You might just buy your way onto the best seller’s list. Or if you have a successful TV show, you might consider re-editing bits of it and releasing it as a movie. People in the church will buy it, they’ll buy anything! In ministry, you see, it’s all about spreading the gospel of Jesus. Isn’t that right? And the quicker the better, so anything goes!
A recent article in Christianity Today portrayed the Bible software company, Logos, as breathlessly pushing the limits of biblical studies, to the point where Logos employees feel they are “hacking” the word of God. One of their employees has devised an algorithm that scrambles Bible translations into new configurations, which make it possible for anybody – literally any Tom, Dick, or Mark Driscoll – to produce an official Bible ‘translation’ (I use the word loosely), that can be bought and sold right alongside the NIV, ESV, NASB, etc.
How tempting! And isn’t that just what you want? A computer-generated mad-libs Bible translation, autographed by a celebrity pastor? And we can remove that pesky human element altogether. As a Bible translator myself, I feel as if I have been put rightfully on notice: We can do this without you now kid. Everyone is instantly an expert, so move along quickly and quietly…
Let’s connect the dots then, shall we? If you want to sell a Christian book, just buy thousands of copies to rig the charts. If you want to make Christian movies, just re-cut and re-sell some of the material from your last project. And if you want to become a great Bible exegete, translator, or theologian, just buy the software that does it for you. No need for hard work, or elbow grease. Why do that to yourself anyway? You’re better than that! After all, the electric chainsaw defeated Paul Bunyan, and the supercomputer Deep Blue was able to checkmate Russian chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov, why should someone as important as you make such an effort!?
Well, there is at least one thing, albeit a small thing, to consider. The faith walk is, truth be told, a very long road, meant to be traveled step-by-step. The progress of the pilgrim calls for grinding, often painful toil, as you travel from the womb to the tomb. This used to be called the ordo salutis – the way of salvation – and in the old days, there were no shortcuts.
But no, forget all of that! You have a fast car and a cell phone. Get busy! Get into the fast lane and go! Make those deals! Push those boundaries! Build that empire of yours! You’ll need agents, lawyers, publicists, and any number of lackeys to work for your success. (Drive them hard, for the sake of the gospel!) You’re young and cool, so don’t waste your time waiting in line. Get to the front, and push people out of the way. It’s all for Jesus, right?
That way, when you get there, you can look around and survey the fields you have conquered. People will applaud you, seek your sage advice, model themselves after you. Just look at all those accolades, titles, honors, and the riches your efforts have afforded to the church and others around you. What’s a few broken eggs to make an omelet? In order to create one must first destroy, or so the axiom goes. And see? You didn’t even need to work up a sweat. You did it the quick way! You cut corners! Let your eyes feast on all you have accomplished.
Oh, but be sure to look quickly, because those sorts of things do have this nasty habit of burning in the fire.