A Lesson in Product Testing

We did some software testing at work last week and had about 25 people testing a couple of our products. The first was one that only a handful of people had worked on ever and it was obvious who they were. Many people were having difficulty setting everything up and it was those few who would come in, figure out what they were doing wrong, and show them the right thing to do. The creators of the software had a much better understanding of how it worked and knew what it needed to work well. The other people made their est attempt at it but often got it wrong.

This reminds me of us, God, and life. God made us and knows how we work. Much like the software, he designed us to work in a certain way. We, like the naive users, try all sorts of things that make sense to us but are not correct. We live life not as it was intended and we get results that are less than expected. God comes in and says "This is how to do it." Sometimes we dn't listen to Him or don't believe Him. It's like one of those users who was having a problem telling the expert they didn't want to fix it that way and so went on with malfunctioning software. Oddly enough, that didn't happen even once in our testing.

God designed us to work best under certain conditions and in certain ways. Matthew 5-7 lays out a pretty good manual for life. He's not trying to enforce some arbitrary rules, he's telling us how to get the most out of life. Rules aren't meant to restrict but to protect us from losing out on better things. We don't have law against using cocaine because we don't want people to feel good, we have those laws to keep people from killing themselves, being hospitalized, losing touch with reality, or destroying brain cells. You need those things to live and laugh and love, heck, even to drive a car. God's ways don't limit us, they unlock our full potential to experience all the things we were designed for. Jesus even says he will give us life to the full if we come to him.

Sometimes people make me sad

not disappointed but sad and empathetic.

A guy I used to work with set his facebook status to "I'm in love. Waiting to get a new phone because I've got to have this one." I read the first sentence and though "that's neat;" then I read the second, not so neat anymore. This guy is in his late 20s and single. He's very active in his hobbies and pretty "happy." Any observer would think he's got all he wants. My first thought to the plot twist in his status was "He could gain a lot by being married." It seems to me like that's a huge chunk of life experience that's lacking from his life. I also thought "He's really missing out" meaning he's missing out on some of the best things in life by not being married.

Obviously(?) marriage provides a faithful companion. Someone there no matter what, in any weather, at any time. A consistency in life that is only trumped by God's. It provides a way of giving up ourself for someone else. We learn how to watch out for #2 instead of #1. We learn that love (not being "in love") has to work on the honeymoon and a lot more in the years to come. We learn consistency, faithfulness, service, perseverance, responsibility, communication, how to turn feelings into action. In short, we mature. All these things make we are made more like Christ.

All these seem obvious to me (maybe because I want them?) but he is probably completely unaware that marriage would benefit him. In fact, he probably views it the exact opposite, that it would be a burden, not a pleasure.

I then started thinking about what society means by being "in love" and how it can even be associated with inanimate objects like a phone. I can't help but wonder, is this "love" that people have for things (phones, buffalo wings, the cowboys) the same love they associate with people and, more specifically, marriage. What a sad thing to be able to say "I love you" to a phone and a person and actually mean the same thing. Some people treat their marriages like electronics though. "I love my iPhone 3G while it's the coolest thing out; oh but wait, the 3GS is newer and faster and better, I'm ditching my 3G and upgrading!"

I realized that my thought "He's really missing out" might be way off. If society looks at love and marriage like phone shopping, he, and his potential spouse, are better off not married. Marriage that way is no more than a business contract. An agreement that I'll stick with you while it benefits me (tax credits, cheaper living, status) but if I find something that suits me better down the line the deals off. I would argue that that isn't good business practice but it's a even worse basis for marriage.

It makes me sad the way people view and treat some things. Love and marriage, both essential to a stable society and longingly sought after by our society (we have a million love movies and they don't end with people single) are two of the things we get the most wrong. These two things, beautiful in themselves and made more beautiful by what they teach us about God and how they make us more like Jesus, are missed by so many people who long for them. God says if we seek we will find and if we ask we will receive. Society is asking all the wrong people and looking in all the wrong places. God knows both to their full potential, and designed us to experience them, society just doesn't want to ask Him about them. It's like walking around a ranch with a cookie, asking everyone but the cow for a glass of milk.