Be braver, be kinder, be wiser, be healthier.
“Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” (Hebrews 10:24)
In order to properly care for others, I must first take care of myself. This, I think, is similar to Jesus saying “first take the log out of your own eye and then you can see clearly enough to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” First off, I am not going to be much good for anyone over a long-term period (or a short-term burst) if my body and/or mind are broken. Second, how can I be sure that the advice that I am giving is “good” if I don’t even follow it myself? Don’t I listen to my own advice? How can I be sure that I am not rather trying to show how “wise” I am? This does not reflect the heart of someone who loves the person they are caring for, but instead someone who just wants to glorify themselves. Thirdly, if I am on a trajectory towards poorer and poorer condition, then I will, sooner than later, require someone to take care of me, rather than me taking care of someone else.
If I truly desire to help other people, I will do my best to ensure that I am well-taken care of.
How can I better care for myself so that I can better take care of others?
Yesterday I concluded that my current (though dwindling and soon to be “previous”) highest value was “the opinion of others regarding my value or worth”. After thinking about this even more, I can undoubtedly confirm this to be true. My method for this reasoning is by evaluating what upsets me the most. The things that most brutally tormented me were occasions when someone said something poor about me, and the closer the person is to me, the more devastating the effect. So if Hayley, my wife, says something negative about me, then it is very likely to be true, because I trust her judgment and she knows me better than anybody, which is why it hurts so much.
I believe that I have finally caught a whiff of the actual meaning of life. In particular, the meaning of my own life. And without sounding too cheesy, I think that it is this: to be the absolute best person that I can be. To relentlessly pursue this.
A couple of questions probably need asked and answered:
Let’s start with the second question, then the third, and then maybe the first.
I think that to some degree, at least at the beginning, there are going to be differences about how people answer this question. I think that a lot of people are going to have some sort of famous person in their mind, some person that they admire, and try to be as much like that person as possible. At least I think this is how most people already live their lives. Though I don’t think most people would be excited to admit this.
In some ways, I’m taking this approach as well, but with some differences, as I’ll get to. If there is one person that I want to strive to be like, one person who fully encapsulates what it means to be “good” and fully embodies that, it is Jesus. I think everyone would agree with that to some extent. Nobody thinks of Jesus and then immediately thinks, “Oh Jesus was just terrible.” In fact I think everyone who knows anything about Jesus would admit to that. Non-Christians would add though, “Yea, Jesus was great, but He was not God.” This is where I disagree, but I won’t go any further than that here.
So, to be the best that I can be would mean that I am striving to be more and more like Jesus.
But this gets complicated, because I am not Jesus, and therefore I am not God, and my circumstances and responsibilities are not different most those of Jesus.
So ultimately I want to live as close as I can to how Jesus would live my life, given my circumstances and responsibilities (I think I am borrowing this idea from Dallas Willard). Or, put another way, I am seeking to live by faith, to walk by the Spirit.
This sounds great, but am I really doing it? Do I really believe this? Or am I a hypocrite? Most likely yes, but that shouldn’t stop me from trying to do more closely align myself with this ideal every day.
Now I’m going to take a second to try and outline a few aspects of Jesus’ character, as told through the gospel accounts, specifically aspects that I think are reproducible by most people.
In order to answer this question, I’d like to start by rephrasing it a bit, taking into consideration the answer from the previous section. In order to do this I need to sit down and seriously consider, each and every day, the following question: “How would Jesus live my life today?”
]]>The central hope of the NT is eternal life through Jesus Christ. The ancient Jews believed that they had a unique relationship with the creator God, while all the other nations worshiped lesser, counterfeit gods.
It seems to me that when people argue against Christianity, they do it from at least two angles: 1) they say that the Bible is historically inaccurate, and/or 2) whether or not the value system that derives from the Bible is helpful or harmful to society.
Another way to think about this is that the Bible provides a narrative which most Jews and Christians throughout history have claimed to be historically accurate. So we have a story that is grounded in history. This story also provides a moral (actually an entire set of morals), or a teaching (or a set of teachings) that are derived from the story.
So it seems to me that we have something like this:
Morality –derived from–> Narrative –authority based on–> Historicity
So what folks may do, when they decide that they do not like the morality or the teachings put forth by the narrative of the Bible, is the historicity of the Bible.
Other folks may not consider the historicity at all and question whether or not the morality of the Bible is beneficial to society at large.
In either case, I think that the critics of the Bible have been quite successful in swaying public opinion away from the Bible, but they did not do a great job of filling the gap, and may have intentionally not filled the gap, instead saying that there is no God and no purpose and no meaning in life.
I’m out of my element here, but it seems like Capitalism is an economic system that allows for the possibility that more valuable goods/services/products/individuals are “rewarded” for the value that they provide. Value is exchanged for money. (Or at least that is the way it is supposed to work, I think that, to some degree, marketing is most successful when the marketers are able to convince people that a good/product/service will provide value to their lives, whether that is true or not. So in some cases it is not the most valuable good/product/service/individual that wins, but instead the best marketed good/product/service/individual.)
This system, I think, sustains those within it through hope: “the harder I work, the more value I produce, the more I will be compensated, the better I will be able to care for myself and those around me”. This hope gives meaning and purpose.
Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.
What is currently most valuable to me? The opinions of others regarding my value or worth.
This needs to die.
While this needs to die, however, this is still the primary driver that causes me to do anything! Therefore, this should not be thrown out unless I have something better to fill its place. Otherwise I will be truly worthless, useless, providing no benefit to myself or others, without purpose and hope.
So, what is a better value to live by? What is truly valuable?
What about “being competent”? “Taking up my cross”? Caring for those around me?
I think this is a good place to start.
The Bible teaches that mankind was made with and for a purpose: to rule and subdue over the rest of God’s creation (Genesis 1:26-28). Both man and woman. In the image of God. They were told to multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it.
Initially, our forbearers did this alongside God, but we refused to trust God, we did not obey God, and instead we believed and trusted the serpent, and so our ancestors were expelled from the garden, from “the easy way”, from communion with God, to the wilderness, to thorns and thistles, to the serpent’s domain.
It is in this new domain that humanity has strugged and continues to struggle. It is here that I sit and write this, struggling as I am and have always been, striving with and against my conscience, seeking for true purpose and meaning, while also afraid that I may be found to be inadequate if I were to press the issue too hard. It is this fear that keeps me safe, and miserable. It is this fear that I must let go of. I must overcome this fear if I am to take up my cross and follow Him. This way will lead to death, along with every other way that could be taken, but the hope is that this way, while leading to death, ultimately results in life. This, as best I can tell, is what is means to “walk by faith”.
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