This is going to be a pretty raw blog post so I hope you are strapped in and ready to fly.
I have been in deep thought for about two weeks now. When I get this way it doesn't show on the outside, but there is an under current of primary thought that consumes me when I am alone. When things are quiet there are those moments when thoughts come out of the woodwork and I wonder, truly wonder about life.
I realized recently that no matter what we do, good or evil, it just falls apart. There is so much insane attention in the media to people's plights, but is anything really accomplished besides a gut reaction and good entertainment? I mean really what good does knowing about something do if you can do nothing about it? Go deeper. What have I accomplished in life? What has anyone accomplished in life? Even if you are the wisest or richest person all your actions, all your living...fades. Can anyone tell me who the ruler of England was 300 years ago? Even if you could what difference does it make? Kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall. Go deeper. Of all the action I have taken some are good and some are evil. All have an affect on someone else, but I can't say what or how far reaching those effects of action go. If perfection is what is required then even if I am Mother Teresa, it still isn't enough. Go deeper. What is the point of life? Everything I do no matter how noble, no matter how selfless is tainted. Nothing I ever do will escape some sort of human failing or taint. Chew on that for a moment. It really breaks things down. If you are a legalist you are really screwed, if you are religious you should really question why you do all the things you do. If you are irreligious and don't care then you are just making things worse.
Now as a caveat I will say that no matter how much I question I still believe what I believe. None of my questions are really going to change that. I just constantly need to know why. It is just who I am.
Christians (of which I would say I am one) believe in a eternal, all present, all knowing, all controlling God who is good. Now in some sense what should someone with all the power in the world do? Shouldn't those with the most power take care of those without it? This levels quite a responsibility on God, but lets flip it around. If I created a robot (or animate thinking thing) shouldn't that robot be subservient to me? Do I really owe that robot anything, or rather does not the created thing owe everything to the creator? Although this rubs against our human pride if God is who Christians say He is then these posits are well posed. What does God owe me as a created being and what do I owe Him? If God is really big and I am really tiny then doesn't He have a responsibility to help me out? Is God really loving? What is the ultimate good? These are things I think about all the time.
For all you creative people out there do you realize you have actually never created anything? Do you realize that none of our thoughts are original? Everything we think of is just a copy, or an improvement on something. We cannot conceptualize something that we have not already seen. We just run around like children doing our best to copy something and make it look alive. We cannot make something live. Our closest attempt is procreation and even that is a process that has already been established.
For all you people that think you control something you should watch the Bourne trilogy and see how easy it is to kill people. (Ok I'll admit it's a pretend movie, but if a government thinks you are a big enough threat they will kill you, or at least make an attempt at hunting you down.) We control nothing. We can only destroy we cannot make something alive. Try making time stop, or changing a single hair from black to white. Our pitiful attempts at controlling even nature are laughable.
For all you techno geeks out there, it seems that the further we get in technology the more problems we have created for ourselves. From ethical dilemmas in health care, to the outstanding job we are doing polluting everything. Do we even know what a "clean" river is anymore? So all that silicon production for all those electronic toys that is never recycled what about that? Technology only seems to solve one problem to produce another greater and harder problem. Sorry no matter how cool things get we will still be wasteful, inefficient, organic creatures.
For all you green people out there. Stop whining about pollution and go live in the woods. What's that? Oh you don't want to give up your comfortable communications, heating, air conditioning, and modern convenience? Then shut it. Every internet blog about stopping pollution, being more "green", recycling, or any other of the silly things they have you believing is ridiculous. Wait how did you get that power? How did you get that computer? How did you get your food? Follow any process long enough and you will realize how "ungreen" every single thing you do is. If you are not living in the woods in a basic subsistence level lifestyle you are the biggest hypocrite I have ever seen. Trying to be "green" is pointless.
All this just to say if you pick a topic, point, or position what is the long term point of it all? Long term, like three million years after I die long term thinking. Too long you say? The how about three thousand? Three hundred? Thirty? Three? What affect can I have on any of it? What does any of this have to do with God?
What is God up to? From the creation of humans to where we are now what is the big picture? If Jesus Christ is the best God can think of what does that say about God? What does He want? If Jesus was God incarnate then feeding everyone in the word is not the point. He didn't do that even though he could have. Healing everyone of every disease is not the point either. He could have done that to and didn't. Sheltering everyone in the world is no the point either. He didn't do that (even though he was a carpenter). Christ said "I have come to seek and to save the lost." (Luke 19:10), "I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." (John 10:10) What was God doing in Christ? It is almost ridiculous in the very inception. God comes, lives a subsistence life. Builds tables and chairs for approximately 17 (Edit: I originally said 27 years! Sorry bad math skills late at night) years. Preaches and does miracles for three and then dies, rises again, and ascends to heaven. Huh? This is the greatest good from an all powerful God. I can't really wrap my mind around it. Why? Why, why, why? I don't get it. What is God after? What does he want?
This is where I live. Hope the discomfort is evident and shared.
Oof. :) I hear what you're saying. And there's a lot of things I could say, but I don't really think you want an answer. At least not the kind that I could give.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll just say this: Our God is big enough to handle your questions. He's not going to be threatened. Question away.
And please remember, we only see a tiny piece of what's going on.
"For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Cor. 13:9-12)
My response is apparently too big. So I'm going to have to split it into seperate comments.
ReplyDeleteSo I would say you're asking the wrong questions. The type of questions you're asking are like asking someone to prove that there isn't an invisible alien in the room.
You should read Desiring God by John Piper. The whole point of the book is exactly this: What's the point? And I think his answer is simple and concise. The answer is to honor and glorify God. In everything.
So taken practically the reason to be green is to honor God as stewards of creation. The point of Christ was to reconcile our relationships with God so that we could honor and glorify Him.
When you said "I realized recently that no matter what we do, good or evil, it just falls apart." I think what you really meant is that when we rely on ourselves and try to do things that We think are best, or that We want, or that bring Us glory then they fall apart. But when you shift your focus on 100% doing something to honor and glorify God the things you do won't fall apart because they will be in accordance with Christ's will.
I think it's a fallacy to say "Everything we think of is just a copy." That's tantamount to saying that a box of legos is a sports car or a castle. Which it is not. It has the possibility of being a sports car or castle. But not on it's own and not until something breathes that into it. I think what you're hinting at is that there are distinctions in creation. There creation of making something out of nothing. God is the only one that has the ability to do that. We are part of something and are therefore bound by the thing we are apart of. That thing (space time) limits us to not being able to create something from nothing. But God, who is not bound by space time, is able to work outside those bounds.
ReplyDeleteBut there is another type of creation, which is taking something that in and of itself is not a thing, and making it a part of a thing. So when we procreate we're taking sperm and egg which in and of themselves are not a human and making them human. It is to bring something into existence that was not in existence prior.
"We cannot conceptualize something that we have not already seen." Tell that to the person who first created baseball or football, or the person who created the airplane or the boat or the car. Sure there were things that inspired these things to be created. But the inspiration was not the created thing. All non-organic things you use today are things that were conceptualized before they were seen.
"For all you people that think you control something you should watch the Bourne trilogy and see how easy it is to kill people." I'm not even really sure that this sentence makes sense. You just said that a fake movie about people that don't exist and is completely made up is the reason we, who live in reality and a story that is not made up, should know that we don't control anything. I agree with the point you're making but wanted to point out that this is not an example of that point :)
ReplyDelete"If you are not living in the woods in a basic subsistence level lifestyle you are the biggest hypocrite I have ever seen." I'd say that's a pretty bold statement. One that would make sense if we lived in a black and white world. But unfortunately we live in a world with varying degrees. And so the person that uses 1 watt of energy is not the same as the person who uses 100 watts of energy. And the person who uses 100 watts of renewable energy is not the same as someone that uses 100 watts of energy created from fossil fuels. What would be hypocritical would be to say we need to be sustainable and not try to be sustainable yourself. It's only hypocritical if what they were saying was that we needed to have zero impact on the world around us. But what they are in fact saying is that we need to have less impact on the world around us.
So I will go back to where I started. You should instead of asking "What is God up to?" you should instead be asking how what you're doing is apart of what God is up too and how it is glorifying to God.
Just my opinion. Take it or leave it. :)