Hey all, Next semester I want to write for my school newspaper as a columnist and I really need to improve my writing alot if im going to be doing that, so I was hoping you could critique an article ive been working on for a while. Its been a work in progress for a while and you may see different moods or day references, but yeah dont worry about it. Im really lookin for content, personal style, relevance, and other type critiques.
Emotions,
Emotions obviously play a big role in our lives as we go about day to day life. We are happy, sad, joyful, depressed, excited, worried, enthralled, etc. As we look at it, it can seem as if they all existed as some abstract event that happens every minute and hour, yet it is in some ways chemically based. For today I would like to keep thinking of it in a abstract way and work through and create some kind of tangibility yet without the chemical base. In the end it may be clear that chemicals invoke things, however as I stated before, I do not want to get into that section today.
Emotions interest me because for no reason a person can be sad or happy. Other times people are happy or sad based on events, although at times choosing to be happy or sad in light of of an event. I can say for one thing, The presidential inauguration was not my favorite thing to watch and it left me irritated with the people around me that were over loud and obnoxious. However, Obama is the new president and I will pray for him greatly and that the Lord’s will be done. I had to choose throughout the day to be of good cheer and remember my joy comes from God and my salvation. Yet at times, for myself, life can be grand and I am rather mellow.
To bring up another part of emotions, is what C.S. Lewis calls “Affection.” Affection as Lewis describes, is something not is not talked about in public and is like dirty laundry and only to be in the house, yet it is the basis for Friendship and Eros. In my opinion, Lewis describes emotions quite well and to add to it, I believe that Affection can swell in us more and in the case leading to Eros, consume our minds and lower emotions. To define lower emotions, I would liken them to those that are secondary or more easily swayed. Love is not swayed as easily as sadness or happiness, to give an example. So when I say Affection (and cases involving Eros) consumes our lower emotions, I mean to say that based on how the other person is acting or interacting with us, or how our mind is portraying the images of the relations, can make us happy, excited, sad or depressed. It makes me curious to think though, that as abstract things, one has to wonder where the origin of them truly is. What is the origin of the thing that can consume us?
As I look back at my friends who get into relationships, there usually is an Affection period that grows throughout a friendship. C.S. Lewis describes friendship as part of the four loves but makes a distinction that it is more based on common interest. Which brings up the question of how “opposites attract” which I wont digress into for the sake of time and lack of knowledge on my part. Even then, how does affection grow? Where does it come from? It can be easily stated that all things come from God who is in some ways the purest essence of it. If you ask a child, “what is love?” it has been found that at earlier ages they will use action words to describe parents doing things for one another to show “love,” e.g. they might say’ “love is a hug” or a cup of coffee. As the child matures he will begin to use more abstract words to describe inter-relational dynamics. The Bible says this about it in 1 John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” and 1st Corinthians 13:4-8 “4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails…” To me, all of this is a tall order, especially for an abstract thing we are commanded to do.
Love, as something we are commanded to do, in light of a relationship is a tall order and not just something that is flighty or easily swayed. So where is affection in this? Affection has its place in our lives as we grow and develop our relationships into Eros fashion. Where is the source? It comes from God as not only as a feeling but a command as well. Then why are relationships so awkward and we have the fear of rejection in our lives in regards to relationships and affection?? Although it can be considered a command, it is a desire of God to occur without force.
I think that rejection ultimately can be blamed upon the negative impacts and experiences that the conceptual choice known as “hope.” I truly believe that the Architect from the Matrix: Reloaded defined supremely when he stated, “Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.” Hope is a delusion in the way that our minds become convinced beyond reason sometimes. With no logical proof we believe, trust and hope in things. It is our greatest strength because when we “hope” in things beyond reason, expectancy has a knack for working things out. We place our hope in God for a life better spent with Him and our life's can be expressed in great elements of joy. Consequently we can place our hope in cars, money, careers, people, and relationships and when they do not satisfy or come through for us, we get disappointed, rejected, discouraged, and dismayed by these events. Now can we hope for jobs that would be awesome careers for us and be happy with it? Of course! But you must remember happy-ness is a flighty thing and the next day after we get the job we can conceivably hate it beyond reason. I do not intend to get into the discussion of contentment and life events and how they affect us, however a great amount could be said about them in their separate regards, however our focus is elsewhere.
Rejection is defined by dictionary.com as :
1. to refuse to have, take, recognize, etc.: to reject the offer of a better job.
2. to refuse to grant (a request, demand, etc.).
3. to refuse to accept (someone or something); rebuff: The other children rejected him.
4. to discard as useless or unsatisfactory
5. to cast out or eject; vomit.
Now the last couple definitions can be aligned with the idea of being repulsive. In the context of relationships, our carried theme, and the thought of rejection, we can hold affection for someone and never get to the Eros stage because we are afraid that we are repulsive in some regards. We feel we might be too repulsive and be rejected, “discard[ed] as useless or unsatisfactory”, and become disappointed. Hope plays the role in the middle stage between Affection and Eros, because hope will sway us either way, being “simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.” In some essences, we can allow for self-confidence to play a role in this but it truly comes down to how much we hope, believe and within the context of Christianity, how much our hope is affirmed.
Hope affirmed can greatly influence our ultimate decision to attempt a relationship and let Affection flow further. Whether it be a word from God, confirmed expressions of encouragement from humans (likely friends and family or the occasional stranger that tells you your about to miss the boat), or precedent in our lives leading up to the decision point. Essentially what I am trying to state here, is that Hope, although being our of our own decision making and willful expression thereof, can be greatly influenced by the people and actions around us, including God in the way that He is in control of all people and actions but also speaks to us in various ways.
Ultimately because of Gods love, we have free will and free choice. God loved us so much he gave us the decision to love him back and create a relationship, meaning he also gave us the decision to not follow after him. A relationship is a choice on both parts, God wanted it that way. Because of free will, no matter how much hope we have, the decision is ours to follow after God, or after a relationship - willingly expressing our affection, and our decision alone.
So we come to an interesting cycle of continues pinnacle moments where we could step out in hope, change our lives in some area for the good or lame (bad is an exaggeration), leave ourselves vulnerable, dismiss the self-inflicted ideas of repulsiveness, and hope beyond logic or reason that whoever we’re interested in will concurrently leave themselves vulnerable enough to say, “yes.” We get many of these opportunities, especially with technology. We could send an e-mail, a text, a phone call, a tweet, facebook message, or heck be old fashion and request a meeting to talk (which I personally would encourage), at any point of the 24 hour cycle we live in. Every moment we could be living life expressing and flowing with hope, expectancy and in cases love (whether for God or someone, the first being more important), and experiencing life in so many more faucets than we could imagine. But fear and rejection stop us from it all. We allow for pinnacle moments to pass us by every minute of the day we sit and wait and ponder without doing something constructive (either praying and meditating on the situation or acting and choosing in regards to it).
Even though there is a lot, not only in this blog but other places as well, written about this particular topic, it can all be summed into two decisions. the first one is are you going to go out and ask? The second one is, will the other person say, “yes” or “no” ? If its in the case of God, He will always say Yes and then some. If its a person of the opposite gender, then they may say something different, depending. My only advice in that regard is found in Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT, “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”
I want to bring up another aspect that systemically is needed throughout the whole process of these things to work and fulfill relationships. It is also a word that was used several times in a conversation dinner date I had last night and something Jesus said when he was about to say something extremely important. We use the term, “honest” a lot in our society but with the way we use it, we can imply a factual truth, validity to our statements and construed what we believe truly “is.” Jesus used the term “Verily Verily.” as taken from verilyverily.org, “Verily, Verily” is the KJV translation of the phrase used by Jesus to introduce a strong foundational truth. It literally means “firm” and signifies that what follows is a trustworthy fact that defines reality.”
When we use the phrase “Honestly” and follow it up with something, we are telling a person that we are defining a fact that defines reality, eg. “Honestly, I want to adopt kids and provide homes.” This statement whether it actually true or not is not the issue, but the defining of a perception to the receiver of the message. I will use the term receiver in describing communications within people, mostly because that is an ingrained habit from being a broadcast communications student.
A huge thing to understand from the sender point of view, sender referring to the person who made a statement, is that reality was defined to the receiver, even if that reality is untrue. If its an untrue statement, yet you put forth “honesty,” its truly a contradiction in its simplest nature, but also how is that relationship/friendship really growing and maturing when the honesty cant be fully expressed? The point is not to judge or put blame on anyone for doing such things, this can be reasoned by either parties or either party can be blamed, however you want to look at it. To lightly digress, the “blame”, if you want to call it that, can truly be on the original sender for not trusting the receiver to understand reality therefore the sender chooses to protect in a way the receiver from perceived hurt. The originally intended receiver however can also portray an attitude themselves that may not be worthy of trust or invoke trust with others. I myself have committed the “contradiction of honesty” as defined as an act of protection and also against people who don't invoke trust within their attitudes.
My intent of this short piece is to have you look in retrospect to conversations and interactions with others and how they may have either been misinterpreted or have been impacted by the defining of reality by statements. To have someone look at the power of the words we use on a daily basis and realize and understand that we use words without thinking fully about their meaning sometimes. Jesus intended messages to be remembered and reality to be defined in the purest sense especially when He said in Mark 3:28 ”Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men” or as the NIV puts it, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.” or to paraphrase it, Honestly all the sins and and blasphemies of men will be forgiven.
I had made mention of pinnacle life moments and of repulsiveness and hope, these things, although not highlighted, deserve some time because they are evident and play large roles in reality.
Reality dictates that although God is supreme ruler, we live in a fallen world. Because we live in a fallen world, pain (emotional, physical, and spiritual) will occur with the guarantee of occurring. It is really such a reality that bears no “if” but only “when.” Some may occur in rapid progression, others are more spread out. I met a lady recently whose father and uncle passed away within 2 days of each other. that to me would seem rather rapid and who knows how long it will last (considering spirituality of the situation and if inheritance feuds arise). My own parents have had cancer, although still living, the two struggles were spread out over many years and the diagnoses with almost 10 years different. Life sometimes happen.
Hope, as stated before is our “greatest strength and greatest weakness” and considered a delusion beyond reason. Being a delusion means that it could possibly be hiding a fact. Whether the fact is pleasant or not is irrelevant, in the context I'm speaking towards, hurt can be a result. great joy and gladness can also be a result, consequence or inevitability however life can jade us toward what little good happens to be in this world. When I say little good, I'm obviously not applying that to God for He is love and love in His expressed essence could not be described as anything but pleasant (even discipline and the end result can have pleasant after-effects).
I’ve come to realize religiously, politically, and on a relational level I'm very different from those who would consider themselves conservative and liberal. I’m obviously very conservative and by some liberals, a right wing fanatic. However I’ve found true right wing fanatics that are even more conservative then my own dealings. Something that I have noticed in these sectors, is the more you get deeper into the core of it all, regardless of what it really is, “jadedness.” Jaded according to Dictionary.com,
To wear out, as by overuse or overindulgence. See Synonyms attire1.
v. intr.
To become weary or spiritless.
n.
A broken-down or useless horse; a nag.
Weary, is another keyword I would like to bring up since it can affect what we consider our strength in this context, Hope. Weariness can weigh us down like water drenched clothing, we can hope and have strength but each step is heavier. This being the case, the more we belief in something, the more weary and jaded to external events, circumstances, people, personalities, events, or schools of thought that may oppose the original belief, can have a negative impact and even hurt us. What we must come to realize is that there is a difference between having tuff skin and having a jaded heart. Think of it this way, if a moderate conservative was told he was a loony freak of nature and that fiscal conservatism is inherently ridiculous, then he will either have tuff skin and understand where the other person is coming from or he will write the other man off as just another dumb liberal hes spent his life fighting in Washington D.C. Now this situation can be vice versa with ease but that is not really the point. The point through elaboration of examples and circumstances is that as humans we can get hurt. Evident in reality, it occurs. We think that becoming weary, untrusting, and unhappy is just a fact of life and write it off as nothing.
I believe the aforementioned statement of being, mindset and/or lifestyle to be folly. To become jaded and weary is to set yourself for contentment in the worst way, not allowing yourself to be able to enjoy Gods funnest gifts. Truth be told, from my own opinion, it can be absolutely hilarious to watch as someone gets all riled up over a simple political statement, or watch the neighbors dog harass the mailman, or the predictability of some blond talking on the phone and not paying attention while driving, or the obnoxious laughter coming from the other side of a restaurant. Sure they might be serious issues but those are only serious if you take life too seriously and become weighed down by the rain of life’s seasons.
I would like to take a minute to also talk about relational issues, hurts and hopes. I think I can save us a paragraph or twenty when I state that we have all hoped for something relationally and our hopes were dashed when something didt work out just the way we wanted it to or with the person we wanted to get to know better. The obviousness of this statement is in the obviousness and predictability of life itself. We become affectionate toward others and it grows but then dwindles as we realize (and sometimes occasionally realize incorrectly) that there was nothing ever there to begin with. Whatever chemistry we thought existed, shared personal values, thoughts of perfection of the other party, future goals, etc, can all be potentially rubbish because of a delusion we allowed and even encouraged ourselves to believe in. A delusion called Hope. Now this may sound horribly jaded mind you, however it is a fact of reality. For the record, I would, will and continually choose to believe in “Hope” because of the things it promises and allow myself to be open to hurt. I choose this because there is no other fulfilling way to live life. If I lived without hope and vulnerability, then my Christian faith and walk is completely meaningless. Christ gives us hope because of the hope of a life better spent with Him. Remember this as well, 1st John 4:19, ”We love because he first loved us.” Jesus took the first step and ultimate step to extending His hand toward us in HOPE that we would say yes. We are the essence of repulsive because of our sin and God loves us all the same and wants to build that relationship with us.
As for pinnacle moments, I implore you to spend a life full of expectancy with Jesus, taking those steps, talking to those people you are called to at the bus stop, grocery store, at the coffee shop, after class, the guy who wants his red stapler, EVERYONE. That is one example of living in pinnacle moments and moving on them. If you want to view this relationally with a member of the opposite sex, well then stop dawdling. We could all be dead tomorrow and you’ll miss out. Although if we’re all dead we get to be with Jesus, but I think God allowed us to be here to enjoy life and his creation, especially the beautiful ones placed into our respective lives.
As I end this, I want to make it clear I do not propose we live irrationally or in the moment. As humans we have a tendency to do really stupid things when we do that. My purpose is that people would become aware of their emotions, hopes, passions, and potential. By doing so , and being coupled with a spirit or God-led life, we can live full lives that glorify God and change lives.
Emotions,
Emotions obviously play a big role in our lives as we go about day to day life. We are happy, sad, joyful, depressed, excited, worried, enthralled, etc. As we look at it, it can seem as if they all existed as some abstract event that happens every minute and hour, yet it is in some ways chemically based. For today I would like to keep thinking of it in a abstract way and work through and create some kind of tangibility yet without the chemical base. In the end it may be clear that chemicals invoke things, however as I stated before, I do not want to get into that section today.
Emotions interest me because for no reason a person can be sad or happy. Other times people are happy or sad based on events, although at times choosing to be happy or sad in light of of an event. I can say for one thing, The presidential inauguration was not my favorite thing to watch and it left me irritated with the people around me that were over loud and obnoxious. However, Obama is the new president and I will pray for him greatly and that the Lord’s will be done. I had to choose throughout the day to be of good cheer and remember my joy comes from God and my salvation. Yet at times, for myself, life can be grand and I am rather mellow.
To bring up another part of emotions, is what C.S. Lewis calls “Affection.” Affection as Lewis describes, is something not is not talked about in public and is like dirty laundry and only to be in the house, yet it is the basis for Friendship and Eros. In my opinion, Lewis describes emotions quite well and to add to it, I believe that Affection can swell in us more and in the case leading to Eros, consume our minds and lower emotions. To define lower emotions, I would liken them to those that are secondary or more easily swayed. Love is not swayed as easily as sadness or happiness, to give an example. So when I say Affection (and cases involving Eros) consumes our lower emotions, I mean to say that based on how the other person is acting or interacting with us, or how our mind is portraying the images of the relations, can make us happy, excited, sad or depressed. It makes me curious to think though, that as abstract things, one has to wonder where the origin of them truly is. What is the origin of the thing that can consume us?
As I look back at my friends who get into relationships, there usually is an Affection period that grows throughout a friendship. C.S. Lewis describes friendship as part of the four loves but makes a distinction that it is more based on common interest. Which brings up the question of how “opposites attract” which I wont digress into for the sake of time and lack of knowledge on my part. Even then, how does affection grow? Where does it come from? It can be easily stated that all things come from God who is in some ways the purest essence of it. If you ask a child, “what is love?” it has been found that at earlier ages they will use action words to describe parents doing things for one another to show “love,” e.g. they might say’ “love is a hug” or a cup of coffee. As the child matures he will begin to use more abstract words to describe inter-relational dynamics. The Bible says this about it in 1 John 4:8, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” and 1st Corinthians 13:4-8 “4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails…” To me, all of this is a tall order, especially for an abstract thing we are commanded to do.
Love, as something we are commanded to do, in light of a relationship is a tall order and not just something that is flighty or easily swayed. So where is affection in this? Affection has its place in our lives as we grow and develop our relationships into Eros fashion. Where is the source? It comes from God as not only as a feeling but a command as well. Then why are relationships so awkward and we have the fear of rejection in our lives in regards to relationships and affection?? Although it can be considered a command, it is a desire of God to occur without force.
I think that rejection ultimately can be blamed upon the negative impacts and experiences that the conceptual choice known as “hope.” I truly believe that the Architect from the Matrix: Reloaded defined supremely when he stated, “Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.” Hope is a delusion in the way that our minds become convinced beyond reason sometimes. With no logical proof we believe, trust and hope in things. It is our greatest strength because when we “hope” in things beyond reason, expectancy has a knack for working things out. We place our hope in God for a life better spent with Him and our life's can be expressed in great elements of joy. Consequently we can place our hope in cars, money, careers, people, and relationships and when they do not satisfy or come through for us, we get disappointed, rejected, discouraged, and dismayed by these events. Now can we hope for jobs that would be awesome careers for us and be happy with it? Of course! But you must remember happy-ness is a flighty thing and the next day after we get the job we can conceivably hate it beyond reason. I do not intend to get into the discussion of contentment and life events and how they affect us, however a great amount could be said about them in their separate regards, however our focus is elsewhere.
Rejection is defined by dictionary.com as :
1. to refuse to have, take, recognize, etc.: to reject the offer of a better job.
2. to refuse to grant (a request, demand, etc.).
3. to refuse to accept (someone or something); rebuff: The other children rejected him.
4. to discard as useless or unsatisfactory
5. to cast out or eject; vomit.
Now the last couple definitions can be aligned with the idea of being repulsive. In the context of relationships, our carried theme, and the thought of rejection, we can hold affection for someone and never get to the Eros stage because we are afraid that we are repulsive in some regards. We feel we might be too repulsive and be rejected, “discard[ed] as useless or unsatisfactory”, and become disappointed. Hope plays the role in the middle stage between Affection and Eros, because hope will sway us either way, being “simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.” In some essences, we can allow for self-confidence to play a role in this but it truly comes down to how much we hope, believe and within the context of Christianity, how much our hope is affirmed.
Hope affirmed can greatly influence our ultimate decision to attempt a relationship and let Affection flow further. Whether it be a word from God, confirmed expressions of encouragement from humans (likely friends and family or the occasional stranger that tells you your about to miss the boat), or precedent in our lives leading up to the decision point. Essentially what I am trying to state here, is that Hope, although being our of our own decision making and willful expression thereof, can be greatly influenced by the people and actions around us, including God in the way that He is in control of all people and actions but also speaks to us in various ways.
Ultimately because of Gods love, we have free will and free choice. God loved us so much he gave us the decision to love him back and create a relationship, meaning he also gave us the decision to not follow after him. A relationship is a choice on both parts, God wanted it that way. Because of free will, no matter how much hope we have, the decision is ours to follow after God, or after a relationship - willingly expressing our affection, and our decision alone.
So we come to an interesting cycle of continues pinnacle moments where we could step out in hope, change our lives in some area for the good or lame (bad is an exaggeration), leave ourselves vulnerable, dismiss the self-inflicted ideas of repulsiveness, and hope beyond logic or reason that whoever we’re interested in will concurrently leave themselves vulnerable enough to say, “yes.” We get many of these opportunities, especially with technology. We could send an e-mail, a text, a phone call, a tweet, facebook message, or heck be old fashion and request a meeting to talk (which I personally would encourage), at any point of the 24 hour cycle we live in. Every moment we could be living life expressing and flowing with hope, expectancy and in cases love (whether for God or someone, the first being more important), and experiencing life in so many more faucets than we could imagine. But fear and rejection stop us from it all. We allow for pinnacle moments to pass us by every minute of the day we sit and wait and ponder without doing something constructive (either praying and meditating on the situation or acting and choosing in regards to it).
Even though there is a lot, not only in this blog but other places as well, written about this particular topic, it can all be summed into two decisions. the first one is are you going to go out and ask? The second one is, will the other person say, “yes” or “no” ? If its in the case of God, He will always say Yes and then some. If its a person of the opposite gender, then they may say something different, depending. My only advice in that regard is found in Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT, “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”
I want to bring up another aspect that systemically is needed throughout the whole process of these things to work and fulfill relationships. It is also a word that was used several times in a conversation dinner date I had last night and something Jesus said when he was about to say something extremely important. We use the term, “honest” a lot in our society but with the way we use it, we can imply a factual truth, validity to our statements and construed what we believe truly “is.” Jesus used the term “Verily Verily.” as taken from verilyverily.org, “Verily, Verily” is the KJV translation of the phrase used by Jesus to introduce a strong foundational truth. It literally means “firm” and signifies that what follows is a trustworthy fact that defines reality.”
When we use the phrase “Honestly” and follow it up with something, we are telling a person that we are defining a fact that defines reality, eg. “Honestly, I want to adopt kids and provide homes.” This statement whether it actually true or not is not the issue, but the defining of a perception to the receiver of the message. I will use the term receiver in describing communications within people, mostly because that is an ingrained habit from being a broadcast communications student.
A huge thing to understand from the sender point of view, sender referring to the person who made a statement, is that reality was defined to the receiver, even if that reality is untrue. If its an untrue statement, yet you put forth “honesty,” its truly a contradiction in its simplest nature, but also how is that relationship/friendship really growing and maturing when the honesty cant be fully expressed? The point is not to judge or put blame on anyone for doing such things, this can be reasoned by either parties or either party can be blamed, however you want to look at it. To lightly digress, the “blame”, if you want to call it that, can truly be on the original sender for not trusting the receiver to understand reality therefore the sender chooses to protect in a way the receiver from perceived hurt. The originally intended receiver however can also portray an attitude themselves that may not be worthy of trust or invoke trust with others. I myself have committed the “contradiction of honesty” as defined as an act of protection and also against people who don't invoke trust within their attitudes.
My intent of this short piece is to have you look in retrospect to conversations and interactions with others and how they may have either been misinterpreted or have been impacted by the defining of reality by statements. To have someone look at the power of the words we use on a daily basis and realize and understand that we use words without thinking fully about their meaning sometimes. Jesus intended messages to be remembered and reality to be defined in the purest sense especially when He said in Mark 3:28 ”Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men” or as the NIV puts it, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.” or to paraphrase it, Honestly all the sins and and blasphemies of men will be forgiven.
I had made mention of pinnacle life moments and of repulsiveness and hope, these things, although not highlighted, deserve some time because they are evident and play large roles in reality.
Reality dictates that although God is supreme ruler, we live in a fallen world. Because we live in a fallen world, pain (emotional, physical, and spiritual) will occur with the guarantee of occurring. It is really such a reality that bears no “if” but only “when.” Some may occur in rapid progression, others are more spread out. I met a lady recently whose father and uncle passed away within 2 days of each other. that to me would seem rather rapid and who knows how long it will last (considering spirituality of the situation and if inheritance feuds arise). My own parents have had cancer, although still living, the two struggles were spread out over many years and the diagnoses with almost 10 years different. Life sometimes happen.
Hope, as stated before is our “greatest strength and greatest weakness” and considered a delusion beyond reason. Being a delusion means that it could possibly be hiding a fact. Whether the fact is pleasant or not is irrelevant, in the context I'm speaking towards, hurt can be a result. great joy and gladness can also be a result, consequence or inevitability however life can jade us toward what little good happens to be in this world. When I say little good, I'm obviously not applying that to God for He is love and love in His expressed essence could not be described as anything but pleasant (even discipline and the end result can have pleasant after-effects).
I’ve come to realize religiously, politically, and on a relational level I'm very different from those who would consider themselves conservative and liberal. I’m obviously very conservative and by some liberals, a right wing fanatic. However I’ve found true right wing fanatics that are even more conservative then my own dealings. Something that I have noticed in these sectors, is the more you get deeper into the core of it all, regardless of what it really is, “jadedness.” Jaded according to Dictionary.com,
To wear out, as by overuse or overindulgence. See Synonyms attire1.
v. intr.
To become weary or spiritless.
n.
A broken-down or useless horse; a nag.
Weary, is another keyword I would like to bring up since it can affect what we consider our strength in this context, Hope. Weariness can weigh us down like water drenched clothing, we can hope and have strength but each step is heavier. This being the case, the more we belief in something, the more weary and jaded to external events, circumstances, people, personalities, events, or schools of thought that may oppose the original belief, can have a negative impact and even hurt us. What we must come to realize is that there is a difference between having tuff skin and having a jaded heart. Think of it this way, if a moderate conservative was told he was a loony freak of nature and that fiscal conservatism is inherently ridiculous, then he will either have tuff skin and understand where the other person is coming from or he will write the other man off as just another dumb liberal hes spent his life fighting in Washington D.C. Now this situation can be vice versa with ease but that is not really the point. The point through elaboration of examples and circumstances is that as humans we can get hurt. Evident in reality, it occurs. We think that becoming weary, untrusting, and unhappy is just a fact of life and write it off as nothing.
I believe the aforementioned statement of being, mindset and/or lifestyle to be folly. To become jaded and weary is to set yourself for contentment in the worst way, not allowing yourself to be able to enjoy Gods funnest gifts. Truth be told, from my own opinion, it can be absolutely hilarious to watch as someone gets all riled up over a simple political statement, or watch the neighbors dog harass the mailman, or the predictability of some blond talking on the phone and not paying attention while driving, or the obnoxious laughter coming from the other side of a restaurant. Sure they might be serious issues but those are only serious if you take life too seriously and become weighed down by the rain of life’s seasons.
I would like to take a minute to also talk about relational issues, hurts and hopes. I think I can save us a paragraph or twenty when I state that we have all hoped for something relationally and our hopes were dashed when something didt work out just the way we wanted it to or with the person we wanted to get to know better. The obviousness of this statement is in the obviousness and predictability of life itself. We become affectionate toward others and it grows but then dwindles as we realize (and sometimes occasionally realize incorrectly) that there was nothing ever there to begin with. Whatever chemistry we thought existed, shared personal values, thoughts of perfection of the other party, future goals, etc, can all be potentially rubbish because of a delusion we allowed and even encouraged ourselves to believe in. A delusion called Hope. Now this may sound horribly jaded mind you, however it is a fact of reality. For the record, I would, will and continually choose to believe in “Hope” because of the things it promises and allow myself to be open to hurt. I choose this because there is no other fulfilling way to live life. If I lived without hope and vulnerability, then my Christian faith and walk is completely meaningless. Christ gives us hope because of the hope of a life better spent with Him. Remember this as well, 1st John 4:19, ”We love because he first loved us.” Jesus took the first step and ultimate step to extending His hand toward us in HOPE that we would say yes. We are the essence of repulsive because of our sin and God loves us all the same and wants to build that relationship with us.
As for pinnacle moments, I implore you to spend a life full of expectancy with Jesus, taking those steps, talking to those people you are called to at the bus stop, grocery store, at the coffee shop, after class, the guy who wants his red stapler, EVERYONE. That is one example of living in pinnacle moments and moving on them. If you want to view this relationally with a member of the opposite sex, well then stop dawdling. We could all be dead tomorrow and you’ll miss out. Although if we’re all dead we get to be with Jesus, but I think God allowed us to be here to enjoy life and his creation, especially the beautiful ones placed into our respective lives.
As I end this, I want to make it clear I do not propose we live irrationally or in the moment. As humans we have a tendency to do really stupid things when we do that. My purpose is that people would become aware of their emotions, hopes, passions, and potential. By doing so , and being coupled with a spirit or God-led life, we can live full lives that glorify God and change lives.
