Mumblings

Humans seem to have this tendency to blame things on others. Please correct me, if this is an illegitimate statement but I don’t find many people who are willing to admit that they are faulty I hardly know if I could myself. Indeed if pressed myself I would know I’m faulty, who wouldn’t? But I would never be able to honestly admit the depths of my pride without a self righteous contempt of all “those others” who won’t admit to being as bad as me. It’s really a pitiful state to be in, knowing you’re awful but being unable to admit the thing because admitting it would only bring you lower. Oh dear, I’ll return to my mumblings…*thinks*.... Now many people are very willing to admit that they fail and they are willing to admit their faults but they aren’t willing to talk about how they themselves are to blame. Examples that prove this are numerous. A child steals a cookie gets caught and will admit that he took the cookie but offers the excuse that he was hungry or that his mom “said” he could have one. A teen murders his peer and admits to doing it but blames his anger or even his peer’s actions. An adult cheats on his taxes and may admit he cheated but blames the government and says the taxes are too high.

Encase you didn't guess this already the pictures have nothing whatsoever to do with what I write.

In each circumstance the person at fault admitted their fault but never admitted that they were to blame, they never admitted a fault with them just something wrong which they did. For most people a cheating parent is not a cheat himself he is just a parent who cheats. A child who steals is not a thief only a stealing child and a murdering teen is not a murderer simply a victim of his emotions and upbringing. That is really it…we like to be victims and it has become totally engrained into our nature. Not engrained rather it has been born into us. Can you imagine a kid upon being reprimanded for stealing a cookie saying, “yes I am a thief, I’m sorry for being a thief” No! that would sounds crazy to our ears, what we hear is, “I’m sorry I took the cookie” or, “I’m sorry you caught me, I won’t let it happen again” We have become accustomed to making excuses and pointing blame at everyone except for ourselves. This tendency of course goes back to our sin nature, to the Fall and it remains the norm today because of humanities unwillingness to control this great cosmos, so the rule of it has fallen to more base creatures, the devil and his minions.


Here now is another problem, not only do we humans want to be victims but to stay victims and have that victimized feeling of self pity which we all know and love we must relinquish our lordship over this world which God granted to humanity and pass it over to The Prince of This World, who waits eagerly to accept it. This sacrificing of our freedom is the price we all pay, when we don’t take responsibility for our actions, when we blame what we do, feel, think and say on anything other then our own self; we give up control of ourselves to whatever it is we are blaming. The teen who blames anger for his actions is actually admitting to being under the dominion of anger. Whenever we allow ourselves to act outside the bounds of God’s will we have submitted to what is unchristian and admitted for all to see that we care more for that thing then we do for God. Isn’t that terrible? Every time I allow myself to fall into laziness I am admitting that I care more for my comfort then God. Will comfort last? Will the results of idle past time and vain hobbies last one minute under the fires of God’s judgment? I hardly know where I am heading with this post; it is indeed mumblings which I hope some reader wiser then I can glean some moral or lesson from and be kind enough to post it in a comment. Best of luck to you wiser person wherever you may be. As for the rest of us lets not be victims, rather lets take up with courage and confidence whatever position of command God has given us. May we govern and govern well that sphere of this world which God created “very good” and which man has allowed to slip into the chaos which we see it dominated by today.

Simplicity

I am a staunch supporter of the idea that life is simpler then we make it out to be. I believe that if common sense were a bit more common we'd have a far superior race of people today. There is this tendency for humanity to take the easiest road to get places. Now sometimes this is good because it has made people invent many useful and convenient tools to satisfy their innate laziness. However its negative side is far more harmful. Our desire to do things the easy way, keeps us from doing the right thing because the right thing is often harder. Leonard Ravenhill rightly says, "you don't have to do anything to displease God, there is only one way to heaven there are a million ways to Hell" If we just continue living our lives, coasting along then we'll never come to a proper relationship with God. We are unwilling to do the simple thing because it seems harder and we make things much more complicated then they have to be in order to justify not acting properly.



Lets take the example of Jesus. He never wrote a book and he had no higher education but at the age of twelve he was debating with the most intellectual men of his day. I do not believe that Jesus had any sort of supernatural wisdom booster pack we humans do not also have access to. That means that whatever Jesus was at twelve we also could and probably should be. We must ask then, how did this boy of twelve with minimal education become so intelligent? The answer, is...simple ;). The important things in life are generally the simplest. It is our pride, our arrogance and all the other garbage that we pick up as we grow up which makes discoursing about the serious things of life so difficult and so complicated. Throughout history it was rarely a problem for people to believe that god created the world. The simplest explanation to something existing is that something created it but in today schools we are willing to except unnecessarily complicated formulas that make no sense. Why? because to acknowledge the sensible, simple, explanation for the universe existing would mean that we are created beings, responsible to a higher power. This is something which no freedom loving individual will admit.

This question of creation is the crux of one's worldview and from it springs the answers to all other questions. For someone who is unwilling to accept the idea that we are indeed created their worldview only gets increasingly complex as they try to explain away good and evil, the problem of destiny, people's guilt, the deterioration of the earth and of course spiritual phenomenons or miracles. Exactly the opposite for someone who submits to the simple explanation that fits into reality. Answer to all those problems rather then becoming increasingly complex become simpler and the answers fit neatly into a well ordered worldview.



So Jesus was able to talk and discuss eloquently about the intellectual topics of his day, not because he had some divinely enhanced mind and not because he had studied for years in the best schools of his era rather he had spent his life in love to those around him. In observing the world and inviting God to interact in everything He did. Because He was willing to accept the simplest solutions that did not contradict reality. This to ought to be our goal, not that we should dispense with all formal education but we must not allow ourselves to think that our most important learning takes place in the classroom. Learning about the nature of God, the nature of ourselves, the nature of people, the nature of the universe and all other important questions will rarely be answered in a lecture hall but the answers come from humble observation of God, people, ourselves and the universe in which we live.