Monday, July 27, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Hope, purpose and a pleasure driven society.
I would like to make a disclaimer thatt in my writing blog posts I have no desire and no intention of being grammatically correct. You will read run on sentences and you will see words mis-spelled and incorrect punctuation. Oh well.
Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.
-Nietzsche
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
-MLK Jr.
If it were not for hopes, the heart would break.
-Thomas Fuller.
Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
-Helen Keller
I'm doing what I think I was put on this earth to do. And I'm really grateful to have something that I'm passionate about and that I think is profoundly important.
-Marian Wright Edelman
Everything--a horse, a vine--is created for some duty...For what task, then, were you yourself created? A man's true delight is to do the things he was made for.
-Marcus Aurelius
Say to yourself, ‘I’m here on purpose, I can accomplish anything I desire, and I do it by being in harmony with the all-pervading creative force in the universe.
-Wayne Dyer
Well there is certainly a variety of quotes you can find through the google search bar. Of course not all I agree with, but hope and purpose have been on my mind. Last night I was watching the news going over the immensity of Michael Jackson's memorial service. And then I saw a plug for a commemorative episode of Pitch Men for Billy Mayes, and I listened to some of the clips from celebrities and how they miss MJ. One that caught my ear in particular was Brooke Shields stating that "we must all be encouraged and happy to remember that Michael is up there sitting on his own crescent moon looking down on all of us." If you were not aware, Michael Jackson professed to be Jehovah's Witness. There were other short interviews of MJ fans that pointed out how wonderful MJ was and the greatness of his accomplishments. And then one man pointed out that it seems that the death of a person causes us to push aside all the controversy and the ridicule and the mistakes that someone dealt with in their life. He was right. Michael Jackson was a really weird guy with some great musical talent and he had a skin disease and problems with drugs and plastic surgery and perverted relations with children and all this stuff that is all tossed out the window when a the man dies. But this post is not about Michael Jackson.
After all the drama of celebrity deaths and the reaction of the worshipers of these people. Because it really is worship when you see 60,000 people at a concert that look more "slain in the spirit" of Michael Jackson than anything else. But it makes me wonder.
---How can anybody live without hope and purpose?"---
As a Christian, my hope is in Jesus Christ, but this hope is based on the realization that what Jesus Christ as done for me is significant. I would think that most people believe in right and wrong, but maybe the concept of sin is a little more vague. So Jesus died for my sins. Why did he even need to? It is sad to see mourners place their hope in lies. It is sad when Brooke Shields finds what seems to be hope and peace in the death of MJ because his religious beliefs told him he would be okay. But this same religion denies the very deity of Jesus Christ! And it occurred to me...of the many people in this world that do not know of the one true God and his Son Jesus Christ, or those that deny he exists, or those that deliberately ignore him...the only way of coping with life is to fulfill our lives with enough distractions to help us forget about purpose and life after death and our beliefs all together.
All kinds of distractions, anything that works! Anything that will prevent me from having time by myself when my mind and thoughts catch up to me and there is nothing to do but consider the meaning of life and the complexity of the world and everything in it and the realization that there is some sort of purpose to what we call "life". But what does it mean to REALLY LIVE?!?!? What fear would come over me! The kinds of knots that would tie up my guts! And to think that there are so many lies that try and suck us in. Lies that seem to have their own personality and attraction.
"Believe me! I will give you hope and purpose and you can be your own god while your at it."
"Believe me! There is no purpose accept to fulfill your own desires. Feed your own desires!."
"Believe me! I will make you FEEL! Make you feel good. Your senses with go wild, and you don't have to obey anyone or anthing but yourself."
"WORSHIP THIS, BUY THIS, TASTE THIS, SEE THIS, HEAR THIS, FEEL THIS, SMELL THIS! Stimulate your senses!"
Do we not live in a world that is enslaved to PLEASURE! And we flippantly throw hope around without meaning. I hope my car starts. I hope I don't have to work tomorrow. I hope they have the flavor I like. I hope they don't come over here...they are socially awkward.
The sin in my life sucks me into a life of pleasure. But as a Christian I think I am still driven by pleasure. But it is giving a new perspective to how we define pleasure.
Pleasure as most would define it is something that fulfills my desires, my selfish desires. Something or someone that pleases me. But because I follow Christ it is Him that I want to please. It is His desires that I want to fulfill. But this brings me back to why my hope is in Jesus Christ. My desire to please God is in response to my realization that there is phenomenal significance to the sacrifice that Jesus Christ has given to me. It is the realization that And this is the essence of being a Christian...to live a life of service and obedience to Jesus Christ, to please Him because we know that the Triune God is for our good.
Romans 5:6-8
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
I find purpose and hope in a God that created me with gifts and passions that I can use to worship and bring pleasure to Him. And it is because this being what I was created for that I in return am pleased to do so. When we are fulfilling the purpose God created us for, we can be filled with joy and we are filled with new life. But it is not my life that I live, rather it is Jesus Christ who lives in and through me. Because my old, sinful self died with Him on the cross and it is through His resurrection that I have the promise of eternal life and the joy of fulfilling my purpose forever with God. It is s beautiful relationship and I am full of hope.
A desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment. Faith.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torments of man.
-Nietzsche
If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.
-MLK Jr.
If it were not for hopes, the heart would break.
-Thomas Fuller.
Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
-Helen Keller
I'm doing what I think I was put on this earth to do. And I'm really grateful to have something that I'm passionate about and that I think is profoundly important.
-Marian Wright Edelman
Everything--a horse, a vine--is created for some duty...For what task, then, were you yourself created? A man's true delight is to do the things he was made for.
-Marcus Aurelius
Say to yourself, ‘I’m here on purpose, I can accomplish anything I desire, and I do it by being in harmony with the all-pervading creative force in the universe.
-Wayne Dyer
Well there is certainly a variety of quotes you can find through the google search bar. Of course not all I agree with, but hope and purpose have been on my mind. Last night I was watching the news going over the immensity of Michael Jackson's memorial service. And then I saw a plug for a commemorative episode of Pitch Men for Billy Mayes, and I listened to some of the clips from celebrities and how they miss MJ. One that caught my ear in particular was Brooke Shields stating that "we must all be encouraged and happy to remember that Michael is up there sitting on his own crescent moon looking down on all of us." If you were not aware, Michael Jackson professed to be Jehovah's Witness. There were other short interviews of MJ fans that pointed out how wonderful MJ was and the greatness of his accomplishments. And then one man pointed out that it seems that the death of a person causes us to push aside all the controversy and the ridicule and the mistakes that someone dealt with in their life. He was right. Michael Jackson was a really weird guy with some great musical talent and he had a skin disease and problems with drugs and plastic surgery and perverted relations with children and all this stuff that is all tossed out the window when a the man dies. But this post is not about Michael Jackson.
After all the drama of celebrity deaths and the reaction of the worshipers of these people. Because it really is worship when you see 60,000 people at a concert that look more "slain in the spirit" of Michael Jackson than anything else. But it makes me wonder.
---How can anybody live without hope and purpose?"---
As a Christian, my hope is in Jesus Christ, but this hope is based on the realization that what Jesus Christ as done for me is significant. I would think that most people believe in right and wrong, but maybe the concept of sin is a little more vague. So Jesus died for my sins. Why did he even need to? It is sad to see mourners place their hope in lies. It is sad when Brooke Shields finds what seems to be hope and peace in the death of MJ because his religious beliefs told him he would be okay. But this same religion denies the very deity of Jesus Christ! And it occurred to me...of the many people in this world that do not know of the one true God and his Son Jesus Christ, or those that deny he exists, or those that deliberately ignore him...the only way of coping with life is to fulfill our lives with enough distractions to help us forget about purpose and life after death and our beliefs all together.
All kinds of distractions, anything that works! Anything that will prevent me from having time by myself when my mind and thoughts catch up to me and there is nothing to do but consider the meaning of life and the complexity of the world and everything in it and the realization that there is some sort of purpose to what we call "life". But what does it mean to REALLY LIVE?!?!? What fear would come over me! The kinds of knots that would tie up my guts! And to think that there are so many lies that try and suck us in. Lies that seem to have their own personality and attraction.
"Believe me! I will give you hope and purpose and you can be your own god while your at it."
"Believe me! There is no purpose accept to fulfill your own desires. Feed your own desires!."
"Believe me! I will make you FEEL! Make you feel good. Your senses with go wild, and you don't have to obey anyone or anthing but yourself."
"WORSHIP THIS, BUY THIS, TASTE THIS, SEE THIS, HEAR THIS, FEEL THIS, SMELL THIS! Stimulate your senses!"
Do we not live in a world that is enslaved to PLEASURE! And we flippantly throw hope around without meaning. I hope my car starts. I hope I don't have to work tomorrow. I hope they have the flavor I like. I hope they don't come over here...they are socially awkward.
The sin in my life sucks me into a life of pleasure. But as a Christian I think I am still driven by pleasure. But it is giving a new perspective to how we define pleasure.
Pleasure as most would define it is something that fulfills my desires, my selfish desires. Something or someone that pleases me. But because I follow Christ it is Him that I want to please. It is His desires that I want to fulfill. But this brings me back to why my hope is in Jesus Christ. My desire to please God is in response to my realization that there is phenomenal significance to the sacrifice that Jesus Christ has given to me. It is the realization that And this is the essence of being a Christian...to live a life of service and obedience to Jesus Christ, to please Him because we know that the Triune God is for our good.
Romans 5:6-8
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
I find purpose and hope in a God that created me with gifts and passions that I can use to worship and bring pleasure to Him. And it is because this being what I was created for that I in return am pleased to do so. When we are fulfilling the purpose God created us for, we can be filled with joy and we are filled with new life. But it is not my life that I live, rather it is Jesus Christ who lives in and through me. Because my old, sinful self died with Him on the cross and it is through His resurrection that I have the promise of eternal life and the joy of fulfilling my purpose forever with God. It is s beautiful relationship and I am full of hope.
A desire accompanied by confident expectation of its fulfillment. Faith.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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