The Great Divergence

I have found myself at a certain place.  I’ve been here before but it was only in dreams.  I stand in the dirt of the road and there are many paths that lie before me.  The paths have many shapes.  Some appear to be winding like a serpent and others are straight as an arrow.  Yet, still there are wider paths and some that seem as if they are perhaps more narrow, if only by a bit.

There is also a single narrow path that seems to be calling to me.  The terrain of the narrow path is rocky, steep, and I sense many perils.  The journey along this path will be long, tiring, and laborious.  My hands are already shaking.  Whether they tremble from fear or eagerness, I honestly do not know.

Oh how I long for the other paths.  They seem to walk themselves.  They show the signs of having had many travelers.  Those paths are easy and I do love easy.  It is my natural inclination to do less work for more immediate profit.  But why then, does this solitary road seem to expand its influence in my mind.

I just want to scream with every shred of my existence.  “Where in the hell are the signs?”  “How do I know which way to go?”  The silence is painful and deafening.  Truthfully, those are not fair questions.  I know which way to go.  I have always known it.

I think everyone has always known which paths to take.  We just have the proclivity to ask questions in order that somehow we may receive an answer that we like better than the obvious one.  No wonder our questions so often go unanswered.  After all, it is much easier to believe that there are simply no signs, no answers, rather than there being answers we do not want to hear.  But what do I do?  Do I begin on the toilsome trail alone?

I have always had a penchant for soft paths, the ones that do not rub my feet raw.  But the call to the path is becoming irresistible and I find that my will is being overtaken.  Part of me rejoices at this while yet another part rages terribly.  My path lies before me and while it was not my beginning it will surely be my end.  I will face pain and persecution by taking my path.  But it is still a better path.

It is not better because it is longer or harder.  It is not better because I am the one walking it.  No, my path is better because of where it leads.  Not all paths lead to the same places.  When I look behind me, I cannot see any path that I may have taken to lead me to my current spot.  While there have been many divergences, none carry the magnitude of importance that this one embodies.

There are none that can make me walk this path.  There are none that can walk it for me.  Each step must be my own.  I don’t feel as if I am in anyway prepared but still, I must walk it.  An arduous journey awaits me but then again it is not about the path, but where it leads.

Questions Deserve Answers

Questions of Change

Has it come time for the change of the season?  Has the heart grown weary of the usual, the routine?  Does it long for the soft, sweet seduction of the sun or an enveloping blanket of rain?  Is there a desire for delicate touch of November’s chill or the bright resurrection of Spring?  Do not seasons change when it is their time?  Why should our lives be any different than the dirt they were formed from?

Why do we look constantly into time?  How do we profit by demanding tomorrow today?  Is now not enough?  Are we not being sustained this very minute by grace immeasurable?  Can Autumn be Spring, Winter, or Summer?  Can we accept where we are, or must we rage against the path laid before us?

Why do we seek so hard for the darkness when the light has been shown?  Why is it easier to embody the antithesis of our purpose instead of the Archetype?  Why is that yearning, that insatiable longing for change, driving us like a whip at our heels?  Is it because we truly need change?  Could it be, that we are still rebelling against our Creator?  Is it possible, that relying on one greater than us is what our flesh rages against?  Is the cure a change of the seasons or a change of the heart?

 

 

Blessedness

Blessedness

 

Nothing we do can force God to act.  Salvation is not by our own influence.  It is solely by the grace and mercy of God.  It is similar to prayer.  C.S. Lewis once said, “Prayer doesn’t change God, it changes me.”  I believe that Lewis’ statement is exactly correct.  One of God’s attributes is His immutability or in other words the fact that God never changes.  So why pray?  If anything, our prayers, true prayers and not just words, reconcile our wandering heart to God.

When we find ourselves praying in earnest to be obedient, meek, of pure intentions, to be merciful, and desiring righteousness we also discover that we are, in part, living the Shemah found in Deut 6:5.  The Pharisees ask Jesus what the greatest commandment is and Jesus replies with an adaptation of the Shemah and adds, “to love your neighbor as yourself.”  Loving God and loving others fulfills the 10 commandments, the Shemah, and every other declaration for a follower of God.   So if we desire to love God and our neighbors and we are seeking diligently to be obedient and faithful in the ways of God, then we are also fulfilling that which is stated in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.  

If we live in such a way that we reflect a dedicated and obedient heart, then we are blessed by God.  The blessing is not due to our actions but because we find our joy in being faithful to our Creator.  These actions not only encompass the Beatitudes along with the rest of the teaching of Jesus but also it illuminates our deep, desperate dependence on God.  By attempting to truly be faithful we are shown our sinful nature, a nature that desires to rebel against the Spirit.  So blessed are those who know their need for God and seek to do His ways for they rightly understand their relationship with their Savior, Christ Jesus.     

I still view blessedness as a state of relationship with God.  Granted, God blesses everyone with His common grace of nice weather, pleasing music, and delicious food but I think the term “blessing” has perhaps lost some of it’s meaning.  God blesses us by granting us a deeper understanding of who He is by drawing us closer to Himself.  I fully accept that I can be completely wrong but this makes sense to me when I think of the relationship aspect between God and myself.  I am happiest when I’m most submissive to the will of God.  I have no fears or troubles that plague me because I know God is my shelter.  When I mourn, I mourn in part knowing that this life is not permanent and that soon I shall rejoice and glorify God in His presence.

The Truth of Ethics 2

An understanding and acceptance of absolute truth is necessary for a proper view of ethics.  If there is any truth claim that can be held absolute it would suffice that, if there is one then there are possibly more than one.  To what extent does this go?  We know that not every claim can be correct because that is logically unacceptable.

But is there a moral law?  Does this thing referred to by Christian’s and other theists known as conscience actually exist?  From my previous explanation in Truth of Ethics 1, I feel that a case for the existence of right and wrong is not easily dismissed.  So what does this have to do with ethics?  Simply put, motivation.

Is hardness part of a rock or is a description?  Is it part of the rock’s nature or is it a way that we as humans can relate to it?  What makes the rock hard?  Is the culprit the environment of a rock, how we feel towards it, or is it the makeup of the rock.  Not all rocks are hard.  Some, like limestone, can be soft, porous, or anything in between.

It is the same way with our actions.  Our actions can be good or bad.  The determination of that outcome is based on motivation.  Just as the rock has it’s makeup, our decisions have their own genesis.  When we make a decision based on an impure motivation it corrupts the action.  This affects all decisions, large and small.

Ethics is not like hardness, however, in as much that it is not based on a relative concept of understanding but rather an appeal for absolute truth in the area of morality.  Existentialists will argue against this and rally around the premise that perception equals reality.  While the statement, “There are no absolutes,” is a self-refuting claim, the issue of relativity in the area of morality is much more subversive.

Only by examining the truth claims of others and of our own minds can we truly have an epistemology worth pursuing.  We don’t have to agree with everyone, nor will we.  But fairly examining that which claims to be true with discernment, wisdom, and caution is honorable.  Ethics is an area in which I feel that there can be no compromise.  There is right and wrong and there is our inability to distinguish from the two.

The Truth of Ethics 1

Can any decision be thought of as ethical?  What defines the morality of an event or decision?  Does a baseline exist that allows us to judge these things?  I ask those questions not so that my own religious beliefs will be purported but rather that you and I may think openly and clearly about a situation, especially in regards to the existence or non-existence of morality.

Primarily, I think the question of whether universal standards of truth exist should be examined.  If there is no absolute truth and if indeed things are relevant to each individual and situation, then a basis of ethics is null and void.  I will not use any religion's text to examine this case but I would like to use our your own understanding of life.  I am going to tell a story and perhaps we can gain some insight.

Mr. White was leaving a luncheon with the board of his very successful company.  He was dressed in a immaculate suit that his company bought him.  Mr. White was praised by his peers as a brilliant man of business.  He donated large amounts of his yearly income to AIDS research in Africa and sports programs for the youth in his community.  Mr. White has been married to Mrs. White for many years and they have 4 children and are exceptionally happy.  Leaving the lunch, Mr. White goes to meet a potential client who owns another successful business.

On the way to his client's place of business Mr. White is approached by a man in shabby clothes, dirty-matted hair, and more teeth missing than not.  The man asks Mr. White for $5.  Mr. White, overcome with pity at the unfortunate events, gives the man $300.  The man thanks Mr. White profusely and gleefully trots away with his generous gift.

The meeting between the client and Mr. White goes splendidly.  At the conclusion, the client agrees to support Mr. White's cause.  Mr. White glances at his watch and sees that it is nearing the end of his day.  About that time, his cellphone rings.  Ahh, it was Mrs. White.  She asks Mr. White to go by the store on his way home and pick up some asparagus to go with the potroast, mashed potatoes, and gravy that she is preparing for their dinner.  Will, Mr. White doesn't mind at all because that is his favorite meal.

Going into the store Mr. White notices a small child standing next to an alley parallel to the entrance.  The child is struggling to open a piece of candy.  The child is still a toddler, recently learning to walk by the way that he was wobbling on his tiny feet.  Mr. White goes and buys his asparagus and a dozen roses for his wife.

Leaving the store Mr. White notices a cardinal drinking water from a deep puddle on the side of the street.  Cardinal's are Mr. White's favorite.  As he sits and gazes at the bird for a short while his belly begins to rumble.  Mr. White, realizes that he is beginning to get hungry.  Although his wife is cooking his favorite meal, Mr. White decides that something small would do nicely.  "Something sweet would be perfect," thinks Mr. White.  

Behind him, Mr. White hears a faint crackling sound.  He turns to see the child behind him in the alley still fidgeting to remove the wrapper on the candy.  Mr. White sees a gleam in the corner of his eye.  Sitting in a pile of trash is a large brass rod, pristine and shining beautifully.  "Kids like shiny things, perhaps I can trade it for the candy," White thinks.  The child looks up at Mr. White as he approaches.   "Do you want to trade this for your candy little boy?" asks, Mr. White.  The toddler shakes his head.

Slightly resigned Mr. White asks the child if he wants help opening the candy.  Just then, a loud noise comes from the alley and both Mr. White and the child look to see the cardinal flapping and chirping loudly at a piece of metal.  Upon further inspection it appears that the metal broke off from a near by building.  Mr. White looks around an no one else heard the loud noise.  

Then, while the child is looking at the cardinal, Mr. White takes the brass rod and bludgeons the child's head until he stops moving.  Mr. White picks up the piece of candy, opens it, and pops it into his mouth.  Then, Mr. White deposits the rod, the body, and the wrapper in the dumpster in the alley only stopping to wash the gore from his hands in the cardinal's puddle.  Mr. White gets in his car and drives home.

Not to patronize, but is their any action that you would classify as wrong or evil?  When someone murders, not in self-defense but in an act of unprovoked aggression, can that be a neutral act?  Granted, the objection could be made that actions such as Mr. White do not exist in actual life.  But, what about companies who take advantage of the dying in Africa by using them to test new drugs?  What about regimes in countries trying to privatize the water supply to the point that even collecting rainwater is illegal?  What about pharmaceutical companies that increase the cost of their medicines exponentially in areas that have greater need for them?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489389,00.html

http://www.afrol.com/articles/14516

http://www.reason.com/news/show/34992.html

Can these acts be unequivocally impartial?  Some probably can read this and feel no emotional response.  But I would speculate that those people have no view of human life as anything but chemical reactions and a nothing is real mindset.  Your thoughts?  

In Christ

The majority of this world is enslaved.  We are enslaved by marketing, our socioeconomic backgrounds, banks, student loan companies, our commitments, and our desires.  As any slave, we may have our own areas in which we have autonomy but we are still subject to our masters.  Deep down we all desire freedom.  

Unfortunately, there is only one way to gain that freedom and that is to die.  We must die to this world, who we are, and what we own.  We must die at the cross and be risen with Christ.  Do that, and we have freedom in Christ.

Freedom in Christ is not having the freedom to do what we want, to sin, and be forgiven, but rather freedom from sin.  In the flesh, prior to experiencing the salvific grace that we find in Christ, we have no freedom.  In the unregenerate state, we must sin.  We must sin because it is who we are without God.  It is our nature.  Birds fly, lions prowl, humans sin.  None are created pure.

All good things come from God.  This includes actions.  An act is based on its motive.  So even when a non-Christian does something that the world would judge to be "good" it is still evil because that person did not do it out of submission and love to God.  Any action we do apart from the the direction and guidance of our Creator is an act of sin.  Granted, it can have benefit but because the person is following their own ways and not God's, it is evil in nature.  As Christians we are no longer subject to that because of the Holy Spirit.  The good actions that we consciously do are by compulsion of the Spirit and not of our own flesh.

With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have freedom.  We no longer have to sin.  We still will sin and we will face the consequences of that.  However, the wrath of God was imparted to Christ on the cross and we in turn received his righteousness.  Freedom in Christ is having the freedom to not sin, to no longer be in constant rebellion with God.  With Christ we are enslaved no more.

While we become discouraged at our failures and shortcomings with our relationship with God, we can know that we are not forced to turn our backs on Him.  We know that God loves us and that His love is not on a sliding scale.  God's affection and loyalty to us is not given only after a strict checklist is met, even though in reverse, ours probably is.  Freedom calls to all of mankind.  Freedom is only completely found through the cross that Jesus bore.  If we believe upon him, we can taste that freedom.