Louis CK Bible Study Week 4 Recap: the Evil of Jizanthapus

This one was custom.

   Throughout our culture, the idea of the Devil has taken many forms. Is Satan the weird furry red thing at the end of Insidious? Is he the weird gender-neutral albino from Passion of the Christ? Or, is he embodied in rap music, such as Naughty by Nature’s classic “Hip Hop Hooray,” that I may or may not be listening to right now? The Devil can be totally mysterious, and because of that, he can also be terrifying. This week, the Delta Chi Bible Study looks to find out who this Satan guy is—through the Great Deceiver’s interactions with our main man Jesus Christ. That is right, Jesus and Satan once squared off in the desert and completely threw down. As always, let’s look at this with our pal Louis CK.

  First off, watch the clip!

   Alright—what does that have to do with the Devil? First thing we talked about at Delta Chi is what exactly we picture the Devil to be. What does he look like? Is he an angel or a serpent or some kind of superhuman? The reality is, Satan can take many forms (with our guy Louis CK, he just happens to be embodied in a little shit-kindergartner). And while we may not really see him in a tangible form these days—sorry, horror movies—he does work through something called temptation. Let’s look to our passage for a picture of what this looks like. This is out of Mark, but you could also call this Jesus/Satan Royal Smackdown Celebrity Rumble (because, seriously, the Bible would be so much cooler if you sprinkled it with some WWE-inspired chapter titles).

Matthew 4

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. ⁶ “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    and they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

⁷ Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹ “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰ Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

¹¹ Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

   There it is—one of the ultimate battles of good and evil in the history of the world, as told in the bible. That is some real talk going on between Jesus and the Devil, but on the surface, it seems like a bunch of cryptic Da Vinci Code-type talk—just a bunch of guys spouting off rules and codes and trying to outwit each other one after the other.

   Well essentially, that is exactly what is happening. Satan is trying to take Scripture out of context and use those passages against Jesus, but Jesus is able to reject each and every one. Let’s break this down.

The First Temptation—Physical Needs

   Satan first asks Jesus to turn the nearby stones into bread. Remember that the J-Man has been fasting for 40 days at this point (world record for longest fast? 43 days—this is some serious stuff going down), so this temptation would be a serious test of willpower. To us, the choice seems easy—Jesus can do whatever he wants, so why not just have some bread and kick it for a while? However, Jesus is smarter than this, and rather than giving in to his hunger and appeasing the Devil, he simply comments that man does not live on bread alone, but rather, finds satisfaction in his relationship with God. Solid counter. Notice how he barely even acknowledges the temptation.

The Second Temptation—Love

 Then, the Devil takes Jesus up to the highest place in all of Jerusalem. He asks Jesus to throw himself off, because God’s angels are guaranteed to catch him. He will prove his relationship with God in this way. Again, it seems like it would make sense for Jesus to just do the miracle. BAM—I am the Son of God. Boom, roasted. Again, however, he does not. Instead, Jesus turns to Scripture and explains that God has commanded us not to put Him to the test. His response is again characterized by a total disregard for what the Devil is asking. There is no consideration or hesitation at all—Jesus just will not do it.

The Third Temptation—Power

   Finally, the Devil asks one simple thing: for Jesus to bow down and worship him. In return, Jesus will be made ruler of everything he can see. Jesus pays this the least attention of all, denouncing Satan and declaring that he will worship only the Father. The Devil disappears and Jesus chills with the angels for a while.

   What remains consistent? A couple things. For one, Jesus never performs the miracles. He uses Scripture to counter the Devil’s use of Scripture (which we will talk about in a minute), and never gives in. We will see that this is the perfect model of how we should respond to Satan as well (Jesus Christ’s Keys to the Game, if you will).

   The other thing that remains consistent is the Devil’s sheer incomprehension for who he is dealing with. The Scripture he quotes is horribly out of context (the angels he refers to in the second temptation can be seen as highly metaphorical in the Psalm they are taken from—that passage itself actually talks about how God will protect us and shelter us in all situations, not about how he is going to send an army of angels for us to use whenever we want), and his understanding of Jesus is something narrow and limited. You see, the Devil tempts Jesus with things that would typically work on someone human. Food—we need that. Love—we crave that. Power—we demand that. The thing is, since Jesus is just as much God as he is man, these things do not have the same implications for him that they do for us.

   In a way, though, this should be encouraging. If we have Jesus on our side—the Devil literally has no idea how to defeat us! He does not understand the power that Christ has! That is amazing! Of course, this does not mean we have a Get Out Of Jail Free card for every time the Devil tries to deceive us. In fact, we still have a lot of work to do.

   Thank goodness for this passage, because  Jesus has given us his Keys to the Game. Now, from a Christian perspective, it is well-known that the Devil works in the world. He tempts us with all sorts of things—terrible food, unsatisfying relationships, porn—essentially, a lot of things that turn us toward ourselves and away from God. The Devil wants us to put ourselves before God—bottom line. He tried to do this with Jesus in the desert. He tried to tempt Jesus with all of these worldly things so that Jesus would break his fast and come into conflict with God.

   Here is how Jesus won, or rather, here are the Jesus Christ Keys to the Game:

1.       Know yourself. Jesus acknowledges his human side, which might be why the Devil thought he could sway Him with worldly things. However, Jesus also is confident with his place in God’s Kingdom (his kingdom, really). He understands what it means to be the Son of God, and with that knowledge, he is able to outwit the Devil using Scripture. He can lean on his knowledge of Himself.

2.       Know the Devil. Jesus knows how the Devil works, and this is predominantly seen in the final temptation. The Devil offers Christ the world, but in actuality, there is nothing the Devil can offer that Jesus does not have already. In fact, the Devil has no power to give anything. All Satan can do is tempt us—he cannot create evil people or evil action, he can only urge us to consider those actions. And, since Jesus knows how to counter these temptations, he can renounce the Devil completely. Pretty badass, in all honesty.

3.       Lean on your homies. What does Jesus do at the end of the passage? He surrounds himself with angels—people who can support him and be with him. In our own lives, we can do similar things with our friends and our family, and in settings like Delta Chi, our fraternity brothers. We need fellowships around us who can support our relationship with God and serve as scaffolding on our climb to heaven. Even Jesus, in his hour of need, turned to his friends. We saw it at the Last Supper with his disciples, and we see it in his time with the angels here.

   So this week, think about how you respond to temptation, and think about how you use Christ’s Keys to the Game. Remember that the Devil is real, but that God is undefeated against him. Jesus wins every time when it comes to Jesus/Stan Royal Smackdown Celebrity Rumble, so even though it does not make for great drama, it does make for some incredible lessons.

   Peace.

Louis CK Bible Study Week 3 Recap: Did You Shit All Over Every Polar Bear?!

Weekly Jesus meme, per usual.

   Welcome back, friends! If you want to start this bible study at the beginning, check out our introduction. You can find the subsequent parts I and II in the According to Dazz archives.

   Instead of starting with a clip this week, I actually want you guys to read this quick passage first; check out Genesis below.

Genesis 1:27-31

²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earthand subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” ²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of lifein it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

   You have all that? Great. It is time for our good friend Louis CK to lend his thoughts on all of this. Here is your clip for this week!

   Now buckle up, because you have another passage to read. Well, we are going to be doing a little something here called comparing and contrasting, and to do that, you need two things (wow—rocket science!), so suck it up. Here is John 1—many Christians would consider this “classic Gospel”—kind of like the Dark Side of the Moon of the Bible. It is one of the best-produced passages in the entire holy book, and a great intro into an incredible world of thought.

John 1:1-14

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. ⁸ He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

⁹ The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. ¹¹ He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹² Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³ children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

   Essentially, we have a story here told in three parts. Let’s go in order:

Part I: The Ideal World

   Look back at that Genesis 1 passage. Life seems pretty great, right? God creates us with the mindset that we would become masters of this earth, and live with the rest of His creation in a perfect, harmonious setting. We would be a reflection of God Himself, that is, we would carry out His original intention of being people of love and compassion and grace. We were made in the image of God—crazy—and God looked to us to reveal that in our behavior.

Part II: When we shit on the polar bears

   The world that Louis CK talks about, however, is something very different than what God intended. Louis CK shows how today, we value things like expediency, convenience, and bacon over the more important areas of life, such as, you know, taking care of what we all share (i.e. the world). Instead of living out our lives the way God wanted us to live, we have put ourselves first. As a result, the polar bears are brown, oil is oozing all over the place, and God is looking down with his face in his hand going “What the fuck did you do?!”

   The world is broken. You know that funny Internet picture of the dog who trashed his whole house while the owner stepped out? We are the dog. We took the vision that God wanted for us and we chose to ignore it. We did our own thing. Sometimes, we still do.

Part III: The Word enters the picture

   I guess the first question we have to answer here is “What is the Word?” Well, the short answer is that the Word is Jesus, the Son of God. This passage refers to Him as the Word for good reason—it actually comes from the Greek word “logos,” which is rooted in the idea that the spoken word itself has tremendous power. Think of the creation story up there in Genesis 1. Throughout that chapter, God speaks things into being—his words have all the power. Jesus can be considered as the Word because of his humanness. He is here to send us the message—literally, a verbal message—of God’s love for us. Bam, origin story.

   The key line is that the Word became flesh—God became man. Is it important to note, also, that the Bible never says that Jesus was made or created. Rather, the text is careful to say that Jesus was begotten. The idea of something being begotten comes from royal blood lines. Kings would beget a son, with the idea that one day, that son would become equal to himself (that is, a king). Now, when you make something, you create something that is different than yourself. God made man. We make things in our kitchens. Things like that.

   The Bible, though, says Jesus was begotten, not made. That is to say, Jesus was someone who is the same as God. If Jesus were created, he would clearly be something different, but he was not created. Fascinating.

   But what was the big deal of Jesus being here at all? Why did he have to come? Well, it was all in response to God’s original intentions being broken by us people. The world was a place of sin and despair and emptiness, and God decided that, to hell with it, he better come on down here himself and help us figure out our problems. God needed to reveal to us that, because he loves us so much, he was willing to give up his Son (essentially, give up himself) to save us from this broken world. Even though we shit on the polar bears, God wanted to give us another chance, and we have this chance in Jesus, right now.

   So as you go out this week, consider this: what was God’s original intention for you? In Delta Chi, we talked about being a brotherhood, a place where men could gather and support each other and grow together. In some of the habits that we have now, we might have lost some sight of that, but as a bible study, we were able to sit down and bring the focus back to what was important. We may exchange harsh emails at times and neglect to clean our chapter room, but at the end of the day we have to turn back to the foundation of friendship, community, and bro-mancing that brought us all together. You can do the same for yourself, for your family, your friends.

   The challenge of this week is to bring yourself to look at God’s original intentions for you, and how you might have gone away from that (what polar bear have you shit on?). Make a commitment, something tangible and substantial, that will help keep you aligned toward that idea of being created in God’s image. It might be challenging, but think back to the Louis CK clip: do you really want to be that person who God facepalms in front of?

   Peace.

Louis CK Bible Study Week 2 Recap: You Have to Clean Up Your Kids When You Kill Them

Weekly Jesus meme. Classic.

   Welcome back, everyone! For part one of the Louis CK Bible Study, click here.

   Alright, this week we are going to be talked about some pretty dicey stuff, so first thing is first: watch the clip!

   Right off the bat, let’s respond to that and tackle the elephant in the room: I am definitely not ruling out the idea that I might be capable of murder if it was legal. As a journalist, I think it might serve one’s writing well to just have that experience on your resumé. Now that we know what kind of person I am (. . . or do we?), we can turn to the good stuff.

   The passage this week is shorter than usual—you can read it for yourself right here:

Genesis 16: 6-9

⁶ “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

⁹ Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 

   Wait a second—read that again. Abram and Sarai have some problem with their slave, named Hagar, so Sarai mistreats her (which, from what we know about the treatment of servants and slave in the days of the Old Testament, must have been pretty awful to be called mistreatment). Hagar runs away, but an angel of the Lord appears to her and demands that she goes back to her mistress and “submit to her.” That seems pretty awful, right? It certainly does not sound like the God that Christians talk about—the God of love and fairness and compassion. So what gives? Turns out, it is all a matter of context, just like Louis CK discusses in our clip. Check out the full passage now, with the original excerpt in red:

Genesis 16: 1-10

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May theLord judge between you and me.”

⁶ “Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

⁷ The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a springin the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

⁹ Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” ¹⁰ The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.”

   It might make a little more sense now, but just in case, here is the Quick and Dirty.

   So Abram (soon to be Abraham) has this Sarai chick, who will soon be Sarah. Abram and Sarai were promised a kid by God, but still did not have one for a while, so out of sheer impatience, Sarai told Abram to sleep with their slave. Abram, with a total frat move, totally does, and Hagar is knocked up with Ishmael (who, fun fact, will eventually become the founder of Islam—pretty awesome). Sarai is pretty upset about this, and treats Hagar so badly that Hagar runs away. Luckily, the angel of the Lord tracks her down and tells her to return to Sarai, but not before he makes a promise that Hagar will be blessed with a lot of descendants.

   The difference between the two passages should be stark. In one, the Lord seems cruel and rigid, but when placed into the greater context of Genesis, there is a reason behind the return—if Hagar trusts in God now, she will receive a ton of blessings to come. What appears to be a negative in one sense becomes better in another—just like Louis CK points out with murder. The societal context of murder right now says that it is wrong and negative, but when placed into another context where society is fine with killing, it becomes a positive because you do not have to deal with your asshole kids all day.

   The importance of context is rampant throughout  Scripture—this is by no means an isolated incident. Google “messed up Bible verses” and witness the insane power of context. You take a lot of this stuff out of the source material, and it sounds really messed up, but if you put it in the light it was meant to be read under, and the real meaning tells you something different.

   In Delta Chi last week, we discussed some more practical things through the contextual lens—most notably, we discussed drinking. Drinking in Greek life definitely has social value—it is relaxing, fun, and opens you to new ideas and new people. The issue arises when the line is drawn between drinking to meet people and meeting people to drink. In larger society, drinking just to be drunk is heavily frowned upon, but in the Greek system, it is totally accepted—different contexts mean different attitudes and mindsets (just like murder in the Louis CK clip!). Our chapter looked at how we are approaching drinking at this present moment—do we drink to be social, or are we social so we can drink?

   So in your life, where does context define what it alright and what is not alright? Are there things you view differently based on who you are with or where you are? I know for me, it can be hard sometimes to see how different contexts—such as my Christian groups and my fraternity—can overlap, intersect, or intertwine. Ultimately, it seems consistency in your beliefs is key, but perhaps that is the real challenge: consistency through context.

   Peace.

Louis CK Bible Study Week 1 Recap: God is Like a Shitty Girlfriend

The first thing you can do is enjoy the weekly Jesus meme.

   Welcome back, friends! This is the kickoff of God is Like a Shitty Girlfriend—we are excited to have you.

   Alright, first thing you have to do is check out this week’s clip. This one is from the first season of Louis CK’s Emmy-winning television show Louie. 

   Pretty awesome, right? For those of you who had trouble with that clip, Louis CK discusses the story of Abraham and Isaac. It helps if you have the actual Bible passage to go with it, so here is that too.

Genesis 22 

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God,because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself,declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

   In Delta Chi Bible Study, we do a little something called the “Quick and Dirty” after our silent reading, in which we summarize the passage in a very quick and dirty fashion (come on, you are reading a Bible study written for fraternity dudes, what did you expect?). So in that tradition, here is the Quick and Dirty on Genesis 22.

   God asks Abraham to kill his son Isaac, and surprisingly, Abraham agrees. He takes his son up to the top of a mountain, and is all set to kill him when God steps in again, praises Abe’s faithfulness, and promises him numerous descendants and a great legacy as a reward.

   Not super complicated, but it does raise a lot of questions.

1.       Why would Abraham agree to just up and kill his son like it is no big deal?

2.       Why does God double-back on himself?

3.       What does this mean for God and Abraham going forward? God and everyone else going forward?

   We can go through these one at a time. For the first question, our group found it very strange that the Bible would omit any sort of internal struggle that Abraham was feeling when God gave his orders. Seems like it would make for some good drama, right? Unfortunately, the Bible is sometimes pretty bad at giving us any sort of look into these people’s feelings, and in this case, it seems particularly strange to leave it out. The best answer the Delta Chi brothers could come up with here was straight-up faith. The dude trusted God so much that he believed in His plan all along. Never wavered once—even Louis CK thought it was nuts.

   Let’s skip to the third question (we can come back to the second one in a minute). The promise at the end of the passage is a pretty huge deal. God is basically telling Abraham that his countless descendants are going to blessed with power, land, and influence for hundreds and hundreds of years to come. It promises that God is going to be there the whole time, making sure things go alright. It is another one of those “Chosen People” moments for the father of Judaism (begs the parallel: is Abraham the LeBron James of the Bible? Vested with great power, but both struggled early—LeBron did not win a Finals for many years, and Abraham did the whole “screw your plans, God, I’ll have sex with whoever I want” thing back in Genesis 16—then they both made some great moves to Miami and a life of faithfulness, respectively, and they now enjoy lives atop the NBA/father of three religions—I’d buy that). Anyway, the deal with the covenant was to show how insightful God was about this whole thing. If he is going to make a promise that big, he needs to know he can trust Abraham.

   The elephant in the room, however, is why? Why even have this test at all? Just like Louis CK said, it was pretty shitty of God to psyche old Abe out like that—what was the point? Abraham had already been faithful for many years (again, except for Genesis 16—that pretty much sucked for everyone). The Delta Chi brothers proposed something interesting: what if God was doing some clever foreshadowing here?

   The climax of the Bible, to Christians, is the story of the Christ found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Essentially, this is the story of a sacrifice—God sacrificed His son Jesus to save humanity, just as Abraham was all set to sacrifice his son as well. We cannot imagine what Abraham went through while he was carrying Isaac up the mountain, and I think it is fair to say that when God looked down on Jesus as he was being nailed to the cross, it was not all sunshine and lollipops up in heaven. Was God trying to explain how significant the Christ sacrifice would be through the plight of Abraham? Definitely makes for some interesting parallels between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

  

   Let’s bring it back to the clip. Regardless of the Jesus tie-in, it still seems pretty extreme of God to ask a grown man to murder his son. Louis CK was right, it is very shitty-girlfriend-esque to go back and forth like that. No one likes a waffling God, after all. But what the DX Bible Study found last week is that this “shitty girlfriend” attitude can be extended to a lot of things in our lives. For us, it was our fraternity. Why would you go the extra mile for something that admittedly lacks a ton of immediate affirmation and acknowledgement? Likewise, it seems silly to chase after God all the time when the result can be so intangible.

   The thing is, God always has your back in the long run, just like our bible study decided that DX always has our backs in the long run. This house gives back what you put into it, and the more you put into it, the better your experience will be, so even the times when you wash the dishes alone or make a grocery run unannounced can end up paying dividends. Upstairs, God is working to pay those dividends for you even when you might not be ready to thank Him for it. In that way, maybe God is not such a shitty girlfriend after all.

   We challenged ourselves to think about the things in our lives that we approach with the “shitty girlfriend” attitude, and we sought to turn those into positives by thinking about the future dividends in store for us. In our house, our chapter, Northwestern—whatever. Good things have been promised to each of us, and with the Big Guy in the Sky, it will definitely be worth it.

   Peace.

   Next week in the Louis CK series: You Have to Clean Up Your Kids When You Kill Them.