Lack No Cause for Concern

We all have something in our lives, something of which we know we need more. Ask anyone and I’m sure they’ll be able to tell you all about what they need and want more in their lives. I know I’m no different; I need more motivation; I need more self-discipline; I need more positive thinking, etc. But focusing on my lacks, my insufficiencies, has never gotten me anywhere and has never made me a happier, more productive person. My pastor could probably testify to that fact with no problem... but he would most likely regale you with many of my finest features as well. And THAT’s what I want to talk about here.

Do you know the story about the widow woman who, during a time of drought, had only one handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruse to feed herself and her son? It is found in 1Kings Ch. 17. Elijah came to her as he was commanded by the Lord to do, and she fed him from her meager remaining reserves. God blessed her for giving what she had, even if it was only a little, and her barrel and cruse were never empty. Quite mysteriously, there was always one handful of meal left in the barrel and a little oil remaining in the cruse for the widow woman to make bread, and this miracle lasted until the drought was over and God brought the rain.

The Bible uses vessels to symbolically represent people – in fact, I can’t think of a single time it doesn’t. In this particular story, there was only ever a handful of meal left in the barrel and a little oil remaining in the cruse, but it was always there, ready to be made into dinner. I find that this represents me very well. I often don’t feel like I have much to offer, but the truth of the matter is that as long as I know God has blessed it – and I do know that I possess undeniably God-given talents – then I can rest assured that every single day I will be able to “make my cake and eat it too,” no matter how meager it may seem to the natural eye.

One of the most fundamental lessons in the Bible is committing your thoughts to good things, as it says to do in Philippians 4:8. Too often, a person, especially a person as prone to melancholy as I am, can get distracted by all that emptiness/nothingness in their “barrel,” and forget that what they do have is quite adequate. There is also a lot of contention that arises when people start thinking things like “Why can’t I be more like that person?” or “Why can’t that person be more like me?” The very simple reason is that they’re not you; every person is different. The Bible refers to there being many different kinds of vessels: there are vessels made of gold, silver, wood, or clay, vessels that contain flour, grain, oil, olives, cashews, raisins, chocolate chips, or mini-marshmallows. And there are just as many different kinds of people as there are different kinds of vessels, probably more. It is vital to remember what you have, rather than focusing on what you don’t, and also to not condemn others for not having the same things that you have. That’s what God made when He made us, and God doesn’t make mistakes.

Remember to train yourself – and others, if such is your burden – with positive reinforcement. The Bible gives this lesson, in a few different places, to not give “evil for evil” which means, in more technical terms, “positive punishment” the definition of which is awarding wrong behavior with a punishment to discourage it from happening again – it is often confused with “negative reinforcement.” We, as humans, often feel we have the right to wrong someone who has wronged us, to punish those who do not do as we want, and to scorn or judge those who make mistakes and fail. This could not be further from the truth. Now, obviously, people still need to be taught that there are negative consequences for their misbehavior, but even in this, the way we need to approach such discipline is through love. Fear is a powerful motivator and it is fear in which a person lives that has been taught through “positive punishment.” But fear only motivates people to be their worst, depending on what they’ve been trained to fear. Love is also a motivator, a much more powerful one. Love is, in fact, the opposite of fear. And as fear motivates people to run from their problems, and hide, and sin in secret, love motivates people to live life to the fullest: happy, productive, honest, considerate, bold, and hopeful.

So if you think that you can only accomplish a small amount today, don’t underestimate yourself, and if you think you should have done more, pray for God to help you tomorrow and don’t beat yourself up. The simplest and surprisingly easiest thing to do to solve such dilemmas is to learn to love yourself and others. Loving others is especially effective because what goes around comes around; you reap what you sow; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

One last thing; some people have a hard time communicating what they feel to others – I know I really struggle with this one – since too often what we feel seems very negative, but emotions are an integral part of human relationships as well as this thing we call love, obviously. However hard it may seem, you need to know how a person – even your own self – feels if you are going to love them properly, because all people are different, remember. So even if it requires dragging it out of someone, never not know how they feel. Then you can reward their honesty – remember “positive reinforcement” – and your relationship will grow stronger. The vast majority of true happiness and productivity hinges directly on relationships, so don’t neglect them.

Well, that’s all I wanted to say. I hope you were able to get something useful out of that. If you weren’t, you could try reading it again. Nevertheless, God bless.

The Language of Individuals

Tonight, I was inspired to write another post, this one about language. And I don’t mean English, French, Scandinavian, or Canadian (just kidding). Nor am I referring to the five “love languages”, though that is getting closer. I mean the language of INDIVIDUALS, the fact that every single person on the planet is unique and, as such, that each one prefers a manner of communication that is particular to just that one alone.

It occurred to me when I was sitting in church actually, listening to the sermon and a few testimonies. The message of one testimony in particular, really found its way through the rat maze that is my brain. But I am one who enjoys thinking about whatever tickles my fancy and, as such, I compared this testimony to the sermon that was preached by my pastor to try to better understand why it “harmonized” with me so well, while, in truth, it and my pastor’s sermon were rather complementary to one another. It brought a certain message to mind from another pastor, Mark Gungor, who speaks about four basic “countries” of people: Control, Fun, Perfect, and Peace. And each one has their own language.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grIMH7BsEJI

I am a “perfect person” while my pastor is a “control person” and the testifier is, I believe, another “perfect person” very similar to myself, which would explain how their similar messages could have such different affects on me; one was the “control” message while the other was the “perfect” message and was therefore the one I could understand and with which I could best agree.

Of course, that’s just a generalization of what actually happens when people try to communicate. As I said, every person is unique, and has a specific combination of qualities which make them such. So really, my opinion in this regard is that one should get to know people – “know your audience”, as they say – and put on charity; your language is just for you, it is what you best understand, and it’s how God will always know to speak to you, but for others, you should learn how to speak their language as best as you can. If you can learn the languages of other people in your life, the important people in particular, you’ll find that your relationships with them improve dramatically, aside from simply understanding one another better. And the key to doing this successfully is to learn what people love. For example, I love sensitivity, malleability, rhetoric (even sarcasm sometimes), deep thoughts, gentleness and softness, creativity, and strangeness. Therefore I have an extremely difficult time trying to understand people who are blunt, stubborn, straightforward, simple, rough, unimaginative, and boring, as I know they find it hard to understand me, but I also know it can be done.

Let me, at this point, clarify something I just said: The key to doing this successfully is to learn what people love (and then to love those people). You must leave what you are most comfortable with for yourself and the language that you understand, if you want to make that powerful connection with someone else. And if the idea of loving people is too mushy for you, know this: Love is an action, not an emotion; you don’t need any amount of emotional affection for someone in order to love them. In fact, getting way too wrapped up in the emotional aspects of it all can make you very stupid. But, when you talk to someone, do think about the person hearing, rather than the person speaking. And if you think that maybe you don’t know them well enough, ask them about themselves, and the things they love, then listen to what they say and what they don’t say (if you’re clever enough for that sort of thing).

That’s all I wanted to say, for now. Until next time, God bless!

Science Vs. Religion

Today, I thought I'd just post the content of a few emails I exchanged with my cousin a few years ago.

David wrote to me:

Greetings Nathan,

So lately I have been thinking about the debate between science and religion. Why is it that an atheist uses science to argue the irrelevancy of God? And more importantly why in the world does it work so well?

First of all, what is science? So far I have determined that science can be defined as the study and explanation of the universe we live in. Basically it tries to understand a set of facts in the most reasonable way. Science uses a method known as the scientific method. Science asks questions and seeks to grow. Science can be wrong without getting upset; in fact it’s always trying to prove itself wrong. In the end Science is both the greatest and least likely threat to Christianity.

Since science is composed of facts, every scientific theory can be broken down to its underlying factual nature. Its fractals are factual! So the biggest example would be the theory of Evolution. Is the earth millions of years old and who cares? Personally I am convinced that the earth is millions of years old and I don’t care. However, I see so often that it matters a majority of Christians, and not only many Christians but many people who previously were Christians and presently are not because they were converted to “Science” the unreligious religion.

So I asked myself: Given a situation where X is true, what would the effect of X have on my relationship with God. [Where X is a specific debated scientific theory]. In this case I substitute Evolution for X and the answer I get is: No effect. Now I ask the same question of you. Given a situation where Evolution is true, what would the effect of Evolution have on your belief in God? Would it have an effect?

Evolution is just one theory. But let’s break it into facts: it is a fact that the rock that makes up our planet is old. It is a fact that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. It is a fact that the light from stars hitting our planet is millions of years old. It is a fact that our sun has used up 5 billion years worth of its fuel, it is a fact that species change over time, and it is a fact that at one point in earths past there was only slime in the oceans. Suddenly when a Christian says: “the earth has only been around for 6 thousand years” I begin to question said Christians education and seriously doubt their sanity.

So when I am in doubt I search the scriptures. What I found was this: In genesis God says “let the earth bring forth seed and green stuff” “let the waters bring forth water animals” “let the earth bring forth animals”. So far being a Christian does not contradict the facts. So far I can believe strongly in my God without doubt. Suddenly I realized something, the facts that make up our planet and even help make the theory of evolution ultimately point to the amazing complexity and intelligence of my God.

And so I have written this long letter to let you know that I value your input. Thanks for the feedback that I know you will fill my inbox with.

David

 
Then I (Nathan) wrote:

I believe that science, as you define it here, is not a threat to the "knowledge of God," truth is truth - simple.

"Christianity" however, will, by and large, be threatened by science, again, as you define it here so well, because science is as it does, it seeks the truth even if it means proving itself wrong. So much of Christianity, as it is today, is full of falsehoods, misconceptions, misinterpretations etc. So, science, in its essence, would destroy it, or rather the idea of it, to be technically correct, and remake it until the idea and ideals of Christianity are congruent with the knowledge of God; so far, they're not.

The reason, I believe, that when atheists use science to bruise the idea of Christianity and it works so unbelievably well is that while Christians may have reason to believe in God, they are all too often lacking in the KNOWLEDGE of God and so fall prey to those atheists who use what seems to be sense and reason but is only a semblance.

As for the theory of evolution, I personally believe that it's false. I DO believe that the Earth is very old and all that, but there hasn't yet been any evidences or proofs discovered that support the evolution theory that are concrete.

Of course, when I mention the theory of evolution, I specifically am referring to the theory that all life began with basic amino acids etc. that, by incredible happenstance, came together and started to change into complex and more complex organisms over a great deal of time and so on and so forth.

I don't really know EXACTLY how all life came to be, but I do know that it was not random or by chance. Jesus did it all, He had a plan, He created humans in the image of Himself and His Father and it was a miracle, miracle being defined as something happening that's either too unlikely or completely impossible so as not to be expected to happen, ever.

 And David finally wrote:

Fascinating. I totally agree with these words. The words incredible happenstance stick out to me here. To me and I can see for you as well, the methods do not matter. We know that God created the world, and to have faith in the face of overwhelming evidence is simple, for the methods that God used are not important, only the realization that God is the one who used the methods.

The first message you wrote was very well written. The fault lies with Christianity. Indeed, when I traveled on the train to Chicago I met many very right-wing Christians who were in general uneducated. Not only in just basic knowledge (My people perish for lack of knowledge), but in what the bible itself teaches. I find it astonishing the number of people who believe wholeheartedly in Lucifer and his army of fallen angels, and yet they are surprised when I point out to them that the work Lucifer was only used twice in the bible and in one place it was translated as "Day star" (2 Peter) and was referring to Jesus himself.

When I say this generally their eyes glaze over and they stop listening, so its not like my talking to them has done anything good. 

And that's it (typos and all). 

 

Please let me know what you think. God bless you until next time!

Nathan