Motivation to be your True Self

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Heb 12:11

Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul. Pessimism is at best an emotional half-holiday; joy is the uproarious labor by which all things live. G.K. Chesterton~Orthodoxy

The more we get what we call ourselves out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become...the more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and up bring and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call 'Myself' becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop.-C.S. Lewis

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

1 Cor 9:24-27

To All Parents

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

It makes for fancy pictures, too!

We all know the verse. I know I heard it when I was still a child. But we all know children from great homes that were raised in Christ and now admit they are no longer Christians. "The Bible says this should have worked!" I have heard from a number of parents. The frustration of seeing a child fall away from faith is painful enough, but seeing it right there in black and white really twists the knife. So what is going on in this verse?

You can't punch them into being good, either

Proverbs is a collection of Idioms, Wise Sayings, Fortune Cookie type wisdom. It doesn't necessarily mean promises. Saul was the guy who wrote it and he fell away himself. Then can we take Proverbs seriously? Is it just a waste of time? If this verse is wrong, how many others are suspect? I think it is questions like this that rise up when experience flies in the face of scripture that people can fall away. That is why I think this famous verse needs to be fixed in mind of America.

ו חֲנֹךְ לַנַּעַר, עַל-פִּי דַרְכּוֹ-- גַּם כִּי-יַזְקִין, לֹא-יָסוּר מִמֶּנָּה.

Richard Hess, one of my professors at seminary, pointed out something very interesting at my graduation party. "Should" is likely incorrect. The NAS Bible footnote points out the literal translation is "train up a child according to his way, and when he is older he will not depart from it." The "his" here is the CHILD.

This verse is flipped on its head! God himself says "my ways ARE NOT your ways" Yes, we should train a child up in the Church, but we should also NOT allow them, throughout the week away from church, to follow all their natural tenancies or else when they are older they will continue to follow those natural desires...FOR EVIL (dun dun dunnnnn).

His tenancies arn't looking too good

Sure, it is still a wise saying. It still isn't a hard and solid promise of what will happen, but at the very least it shows scripture is against the notion that we should let these "precious little angels" run around acting like demons and treating others without a sense of morals or discipline. We have seen those children, we have seen those teenagers, and we have seen those adults.

Remember reader, we are all broken, fallen, screwed up, and are drawn to what is bad for us. Turn your children away from these things so they don't become another statistic in the rising number of jerk wads.

All roads don't lead to Rome

"All roads lead to Rome" It is a famous saying stemming from the fact that since the Romans built the roads throughout most of Europe, they would lead back to Rome. Unfortunately, this phrase has come to be true for most Americans in how they view religion. Doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you believe something. This is a very popular notion that has no basis in reality or fact whatsoever. I can't understand how this concept is still going strong! Every major faith says they are the only way. Muslims are allowed to kill you for thinking you can leave Islam. Christians say the road is narrow that leads to heaven. Yet the Universalism remains.

Wishful thinking. We want all our answers to be right answers, whether they are or not. 1+1=2 is non-negotiable, gravity is a constant and basic facts about our universe are quantifiable. So why do we think that something as basic as WHO MADE US could be up to the individual to salad bar pick and choose?

The other option is that many believe that religion has no basis on truth but is only a means to personal growth and fulfillment. "It doesn't matter if I am a Christian on Christmas but practice a little Buddhist and Hindu, because none of these are true. But the meditation makes me feel better about myself, I like the Hindu stories because they make me seem cooler to my friends and I still want presents." This is the intelligence level I am seeing all around me.

Faith, Worldview, and the End of Xenocide.

So, at the end of Xenocide we see that the daughter on the planet Path has decided to continue to act and live as if she had OCD to appease the gods...it makes sense if you read the book.
Anyway, in continuing the people at first think she is mad. Then after a decade they think she must actually still be speaking to the gods because life without the gods was so hard. Then another decade or so and they start coming to her and following her example as a sign of reverance. Then she becomes a place for pilgrims to journey to and speak with if only for a moment. Then, as she lay dying after a lifetime of serving no one but her own stubborn refusal to face the truth, her last words were asking her mother and father if she did it right. And for this she become known as the patron god of their planet.

This is what non-Christians think of faith. I know that Card is a Mormon but frankly this speaks of a dismissive view of those who have faith. It is always good to look at how those outside of faith see those with faith. We are so stupid to follow the crowd. We are easily coerced. We are thankful that we are being tricked by what we are being fed.

And most Christians would say that same about those without faith.

Many of the arguments atheists make against religions in general stem from their own experiences in life. That is how most people on this planet operate.
"I establish my worldview based on what I have interpreted of what I have experienced."
Every human lives this out every day. There are very few who are able to admit their worldview may be wrong. There are even fewer who seek to fix their worldview. There are a select group that can say they did fix it. Those are the ones who gave up their rights, their selfishness, and their own way of doing things and put their all in Christ. The trick here isn't fixing your own worldview. It is having your worldview fixed by the only person able to have an objective viewpoint.

You have heard that you can't see the forest thru the trees. You need a bird's eye view to see everything objectively. God not only looks from on high, but without bias, flawed, broken eyes. He has the benifit of wisdom, knowledge, and seeing all of time. He sees the beginning, the middle, and the end of not just your story, but THE story. This is the only person's worldview worth adopting because He is the only, true, WORLD VIEWER.

Simple Facts to Succeed at Life

1. Be confident. Even if you do not feel confident, fake it. You can get away with anything if you look like you know what you are doing, are calm, and act like you belong.

2. Don't spend money on stuff. Things that don't add to your life experiences are just going to own you.

Language Warning!

3. If you do marry (you don't have to) make sure the other person is worth all the hard work it will take to live with them. All marriages are hard work. Sometimes the hard work is keeping your mouth shut. Sometimes it means speaking up when you don't want to. It should always have proper boundaries.

4. Find something you can do well AND enjoy doing enough that you wont get tired of doing it repeatedly for 40 years. If you do what you love you will never work a day in your life. Too many people try and do what they want, but stink at it or get burned out. If you are not amazingly lucky enough to find such a job that doesn't already have a 300 people waiting line, then remember one simple fact. GAMES are just WORK you ENJOY. Playing video games, collectible card games, WOW, whatever, is you PAYING to WORK. So it had better be worth it. And don't do something you are good at for free. Just don't strive to be good at something everyone else can do.

5. Unwritten rules are holding back most of humanity from enjoying their lives.

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”

Talking to strangers is awesome sometimes, going for a run in the rain is a blast, and yelling goofy things at the top of your lungs is cathartic. If it is legal, and doesn't hurt anyone else, and especially doesn't hurt yourself in any way.

6. I can't believe I have to say this. Don't be a d***head or a b***h. It is easy to do if you think you are better than others. It is easy to think you are better than other if you have excuses for your actions. It is easy to have excuses for your actions if you don't think sin exists. It is easy to think sin doesn't exist if you don't think God exists. It is easy to think God doesn't exist if you don't want to be held accountable for your actions. And thus the cycle completes. 

7. Anger is not bad. It is a tool. It tells you something is wrong. Figure out what is wrong before you act on any anger. If you can do that you are ahead of most of the world.

8. WORK OUT! No ripped guy or toned girl had low confidence.

Also, endorphin's. Also, best excuse to watch TV. Also, It can be easy for even nerds.

9. Live like an actual Christian. This means Church more than twice a year, loving your neighbor, and letting the Holy Spirit change you after you have accepted Christ as your savior. It's a slow process, but God has much more patience for you than you ever will.

Depression VS Confidence

I have noticed that my self confidence took a sharp down turn since I got married. Do I take the simplistic, cowards way out and blame my wife? Of course not. That would be like blaming a lamp for showing how messy my house is. My spiral of depression is only that I was shown that I am not as perfect or wonderful as I kept telling myself. I think that is a big reason for divorce. We want someone to tell us we are awesome all the time.

That ain't gunna happen, kids.

No one is going to live up to the hype we have in our heads. Luckily we didn't put all that hype there.(language warning!)

But there is a choice I have to make every day. To live with confidence despite how flawed I am. Christianity teaches we are to have confidence in Christ despite how stupid I am. This is a big reason why Christianity wins out, it admits we all suck and can't do it. And this is the same reason why America is becoming more and more atheist as the super-flawed "make sure not to damage a child's self-esteem" fad continues.

Keep getting off topic. I have confidence in God because, well, he is God. Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnibenus. (All everything good). Trust in God, check.
But how do I trust in myself and have some kind of personal self worth?
Christ in me. The more I strive to WWJD all day long, the more I can have Christ esteem instead of self-esteem. In that, self-esteem is a by-product, which is what self-esteem was meant to be all along. It is by being torn down, like a muscle when you work out, do you become stronger as a person.

Rom 5:3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Faith, Sex and Xenocide

Context: In the 2nd book of the Ender series, there are 2 teens whose love is deep and beautiful on a Catholic colony on another world. Their love serves as pretty much the only innocent thing in the whole book. But then, at the end, we find out they are unwittingly half brother and half sister. Immediately they stop even talking.
In reference to this in the 3rd book, a family friend sees them working together for the first time in decades in the midst of a crisis. This friend marvels at the good that they did not sleep together.
"adolescents who controlled and channeled their youthful passions were the ones who grew up to be both strong and civilized, Adolescents...who were either too weak to control themselves or too contemptuous of society's norms to try usually ended up being either sheep or wolves-either mindless members of the herd or predators who took what hey could and gave nothing."
Doesn't this ring true? In the toughest times of life, it is how we act that can determine the rest of our lives. When peer pressure is the strongest, if we hold our own we grow to be leaders. When sexual temptation is the strongest, if we remain chaste we grow to have control over our minds and bodies. When the stresses of adulthood assail us, if we can smile and trust in God's provision we will know peace in a troubled world.