In Word or Deed

Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash Do you have a life's purpose? Is there something beyond or above yourself that influences your choices? I ask because it would seem that the current of modern culture is moving more and more toward the idea that the ultimate ethic is my own freedom and choice, with the only overarching ethic being that we should support the rights of other people to also follow their own desires. While this doesn't seem too terrible an idea at the start it does lead us down a rather unfortunate rabbit hole. Modern man is more and more losing the ability to live for anything beyond himself and what he finds comfortable, enjoyable, or agreeable. Really, this is just the natural outworking of pluralism and the post-modern mentality. We've taken away any idea of a meta-narrative, of an overarching truth that explains and pertains to every aspect of life. There is no objective truth in the philosophy of modern man and thus there is onl...

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash I used to think that everyone else was lucky. They all had passions, they all had dreams. In others I saw consuming desires that propelled them into their futures. Some wanted to be doctors others engineers, others soldiers, while I sat to the side and didn't know what I wanted to be. I used to think I was broken, that some crucial part of me was damaged or simply missing or that I'd failed to pick it up along the way. Now that I'm a bit older I've begun to wonder, was I just hoping for something to make the decision for me? Is there any inherent merit in a passion that you did not choose and a life that merely carried you along? I can't help but think that maybe what I saw as a self-propelled desire was really the outworking of a personal decision to pursue a goal. Was I longing for something that nobody actually possessed? I like to write, I love it even. I genuinely enjoy sitting down and putting tho...

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash The world often seems to be in a constant state of turmoil and distress. Opposing factions struggle for power in every corner of the world and our various world-views and ideologies combat for supremacy from the water cooler to the world wide web. People everywhere seem to be either searching for real truth or loudly proclaiming that it doesn't exist. Many have simply given up on a life that is meaningful; some of them cutting it short. Where can we go for any sense of reality, any solid foundation of real truth? We can argue back and forth about science and philosophy, we can debate theology and atheism, we can discuss anarchy vs. order, but let me propose that there is one thing at least that no can effectively deny. Humanity is flawed. It doesn't take much observation to prove this simple truth, you don't even have to look outside of yourself. You and I can look inside of ourselves and see selfishness, greed, li...

Photo by Milada Vigerova on Unsplash This is part two of a two part series, please read part one before you read today's post! I apologize that this a week late, I was super busy last week and the post just slipped through the cracks! Continuing where we left off last, it is important -even crucial- to understand that though we share some of the qualities of God we do not possess these qualities in the same way or to the same degree that God does. Just as a mirror that reflects our face is merely a flat image and not a whole other person so too are we representative of God but lacking in the depth and fullness of what He is like. We can be intelligent but not like God is intelligent, we can be creative but not like He is, we can love but not nearly as much as He does, we can be strong but our strength is as nothing against His. To take this a step further, the fact that God made us male and female doesn't have any reflective meaning on the nature of God ...

It's a bit of phenomenon really, our ability to live so much in the moment that even the passage of time itself can be a bit of a shock. We've all experienced this. Whenever a child seems suddenly older or we do just because we heard the exact number of years, or when we look back and suddenly realize just how long it has been since high school, or that your vacation is already over. The point is that although time moves on as it will, our experience of it tends to skew towards the now rather than the will be or has been. Our ability to accurately understand the time we have is woefully lacking. This plays itself out in a number of ways, not the least of which being our abysmal lack of respect for how much time we have left. Do you remember the first time you realized that you are going to die? I do. I was just looking in the mirror one day, getting ready for something I suppose, and the realization hit me that I am now older than ever I have been before...