What's Wrong With Being Pragmatic?

Coming from a flamin’ idealist, that’s gotta be a loaded question. Oversimplified, a pragmatic approach means, “What will I really get out of it?” Whether “it” is a potential job change or a purchase you’re considering, the pragmatic view emphasizes and anticipates real outcomes, rather than pie-in-the-sky-by’n-by.

      Every decision you face presents a multiple-choice test, and idealistic prattle aside, you will always choose the option that seems to offer the best probability of reward. Trouble is, that one word, seems, throws a wet blanket over all your scheming for that dangling carrot. As you don’t enjoy the benefit of omniscience, you can’t know the downside that lurks behind all that glittery promise.
      Therein lies Pragmatism’s Achilles Heel. But you knew the title question was loaded from the git-go, right? Pragmatically speaking, every path you take that is based on your own perceptions of reality is fraught with unforeseen danger. Your only option that guarantees an ultimately blissful end, lies in the path laid out for you by the One who holds your future, and who loves you so much that His plan is the best of all possible outcomes.
      So, how can you know which of all possible paths is the right one?
      The Lord Jesus, God’s eternal Word in human flesh, has revealed in His written word, a set of clear guidelines and principles that, when followed, will reward you with His eternal perspective and wisdom, His spiritual gifts and fruit, His focused illumination for each step of the way, and His eternal light that reaches to the end of your earthly days and right into an eternity in His loving arms.
      That perfect path begins at the best-known Scriptural address of all, John 3:16 and 17, which goes like this: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
      But that’s just the starting point. True happiness, both on Earth and in eternity, depends on believing in Jesus as His word says, which means granting Him total access to your heart of hearts, the seat of your will and your motives, and allowing Him to change you into the person He created you to be.
      How could you ever be more pragmatic than that?