Utility: Earthly or Heavenly
The concept of utility is great and it almost perfectly captures the essence of humanity and life. It is the brother to the human nature of survival. However utility goes beyond just looking for ways to stay alive but how to also achieve the best possible life one can have. This varies from person to person. For some people, like mother Teresa, the best life one could have is serving other people and God. For others it may be living a life of comfort or ease.
Looking at it from an economic perspective, utility influences buying decisions and the global market economy by a basic supply and demand principal. When someone for reason of enjoyment or racing wants a car that hits 60mph within three seconds of metal to the pedal and is willing to pay for it, car suppliers start finding ways of producing those kinds of cars. This increases the utility of the driver who wants the car and the car company that gets paid for it.
Often times you will see, mostly in the wise, people putting off their maximum utility in the immediate future. This is because of the hope of a better even more “maximum” utility in the far off future. For example, if I buy a used car now that has low or no payments then I can save more money for an even nicer car in the future and I won’t have to pay as much interest in the long run. So I would lose some utility now for the sake of a greater utility later. Christians, by the example and teaching of Christ, tend to give money, time, and services to ministry’s and their neighbors in a hope for maximum utility, not in this life time but for eternity in heaven. What’s better? Showing off the material goods to people here on earth or making sure those same people make it to eternity with us? Sometimes we don’t take the time to think about the future and how the “now” will affect it. And even more often we forget about eternity, at least I do. Think about this concept of utility. What it your maximum utility look like. Is it eternity bound or is it earthly? Maybe it’s a mix of the two?
Sometimes we don’t take the time to think about the future and how the “now” will affect it
