Morality
Unless there is an ultimate purpose life can be utilized to achieve, the only value one may ascribe to it will be arbitrary. Regrettably, the mind that resigns itself to the absence of true meaning will tend to forsake its nobler commitments in favor of sensual and idiocentric gratification. In this light, life becomes the pettiest affair imaginable.
The path followed in Christ’s wake is not a means to learned explanation, but a state of curative relationship.
Outward piety, if not a reflection of inner grace, is nothing but a narcissistic facade.
If we, as disciples of Christ, seek not the courage needed to edify the hearts of those around us, we attempt to pacify the spirit by way of mere congeniality.
Some may insist that anger is not involved with sin. I disagree. One must be of a mindful presence to evaluate his own shortcomings; and anger is an aggressive, reactionary presence that precludes mindfulness. In reconciling our faults to ourselves, the mindful state promotes patience: an attribute that never abides in the one who allows anger to remain near at hand. Instead of maintaining a peaceable mind by way of sapient consideration, a quarrelsome spirit invites provocation. An unwelcome thing will go where it isn’t resisted, which is why anger has always mothered senseless violence. It is outrage that cannot be counted among the vices of man. Outrage is an essential presence, arising in response to detestable things.
All suffering in the world (short of incidental calamity) is the result of people chasing after their own desires rather than seeking the will of God.
We as humans have somehow been lead to believe that we must take what we can get from others in order to prosper. It seems perfect irony that we should strive for a destructive conception of prosperity whilst taking frenzied steps in the opposite direction of true prosperity, which is born of reciprocity.
Each of us can be a ram’s horn of God, a fiddle to his melody.
Prudence
With help from the illusion of finality in death, we are tempted to believe only in those powers which are carnal. Ironically, these are the least among powers.
It is, for many of us, tempting to believe ourselves pyramids of reason standing among, comparatively, shanty-like fools. But reason is not, as the ego, implicit in man. It is something of the kind we must learn how to uphold. Largely, it is from people that we must learn; yet what does a pyramid believe it can learn from a shanty?
In itself, the pursuit of excellence is destructive and useless. Rather, when practicing a craft, let us pursue purpose, comprehension, and freedom. In these lie the true excellence that does not pretentiously call itself so.
It will rightly be considered baleful if an elderly person assumes belittlement upon any deviating perspective within a younger generation. It should similarly be considered baleful if a youth (I use the word broadly) assumes belittlement upon any deviating perspective within an older generation. If either party draws a line in the sand, the other will not need to draw a line of his own to render them divided.
There is no such thing as a profound word. Words, like any tool in the employ of inspiration, must be used to construct profundity.
Impose no expectations on a potentially beneficial experience. Discover what is, rather than despairing of what isn’t.
It is intellectually fashionable to speak of truth as being relative. It’s the irony of modern “enlightenment”.
Discipline is a striving against one’s impulses. Impulses are born of habit, and habit is formed through worldly conditioning of the mind and body. Through discipline, we consciously remove ourselves from the cycle of this unconscious passivity, which is precisely why discipline is necessary for cultivating personal knowledge of the Spirit.
We must believe in enlightenment without believing ourselves to be enlightened. We must believe in wisdom without believing ourselves to be wise.
A mind that dreads the deeds of tomorrow is a mind imbalanced. A mind that recognizes the opportunity of tomorrow is a mind within peace.
If one frets over a matter of ability, of course he will flounder, groping for imagined proficiency; but if matters vex him not, easily will the mind’s eye locate within what is needed or desired.
The expectation of hostility creates hostility.
The anticipation of a coming time slows its approach.
Conjecture
The only relevant imperative to the current natural order is survival. Therefore, we may rightly ask why morality bothers to present itself as an imperative to us. Natural selection concerns itself with the longevity of a species over that of an individual; for sex does not aid the individual in the preservation of its own longevity. And our species certainly doesn’t need to be moral in order to persist.
I see the past years’ time on a wheel. I do not visualize it, but I see it. And that is why “wheel”, although the best candidate among vernacular, is such a pitifully insufficient term. This brings us to the philosophy that material concepts cannot accurately represent what the rational coagulation of academia does christen “abstract thought.” Forthwith, the liberal arts are just those sorts of things that abstract thought will readily adopt, for the human mind can make of them whatever it pleases; and this is precisely what we call, creative imagination.
“Nothing” is just a word. The concept it indicates does not represent a true lack of existence. “Something”, to our senses, exists as matter and energy. Therefore, any substance that cannot be measured by our limited tools is “nothing” too our brain’s experience. That, however, would not somehow diminish the ability of an intangible thing to exist. But this is an inference of the mind: an oddity able to conceptualize realities seemingly beyond its own operations.
Necessity is on causation of habit. Necessary movements are fully programmed when memory no longer needs to be called upon consciously.
Each respective art it comprised of many devises that we may express ourselves in the utility of. But let us not mistake the devises (physical or conceptual) for the inspired thoughts themselves. We have created art, or “the devices”, in order that our thoughts, via the limited mediums of communication we comprehend, might be experienced after a meaningful fashion. All good art that we encounter is nothing more than a best-effort translation of the thing actually encountered by the artist.
Our current universe, we may observe freely, its properties, scrutinize. But it is impossible to know anything of the properties within further dimensions, what the Evangelic writers (St. Paul, etc.) termed “the Celestials”. Save a portion. There are several properties of celestial reality that exhibit themselves in human existence, and selectively, life abroad. These are: love, compassion, mercy, humility, trust, contentment, selflessness, honesty, joy, peace, relationship, perseverance, purpose, parenthood, and beauty itself.
Revelation
Previously I have scribed, “The path followed in Christ’s wake is a state of curative relationship”; so let us, for the sake of Christ’s body (the Church), define what a relationship isn’t. So long as our interactions with God conform to a reward-punishment model, only the illusion of a relationship will exist.
I do not believe that God measures us according to any caliber; rather, it seems he makes allotment according to purpose.
When another’s world falls utterly to ruin, we must be ones remaining who have not forsaken their suffering. That is when they will really look at our Christ.
We really share the Evangel, in its fullest measure, when we enter into the suffering of others, confirming through our service what we know and avow: that the sincerity, endurance, and humility of our servitude is born of life in God’s Spirit.
When in faith, we still the mind, God enters in.
We must be joyful in simply possessing the knowledge given us. In that, there is no pride of achievement; for we are enabled to share, pursuing the good of others, and not the desire to impress.
There are methods by which we will aid the process, but the end of self-renunciation is accomplished by the very purpose of The Spirit. It will guide us in faith.
We do not make achievements for God. We serve his purpose.
Pride is a robust source of fear; for we are often goaded(inwardly) to be fearful of failing to satisfy the subjective requirements of pride.
We’ve made the Gospel too much about giving the right arguments and not enough about embodying the truth, which is known only in Spirit.
Ministry isn’t a matter of trying to convince people they are wrong; rather, I’ve found it’s a matter of entering into their suffering and trusting God.
To give Divinity admittance, sometimes you need only remove yourself from the noise.
God our parent is not distant or even apart from us. He lives in our life, and suffers in our pain. He is in all and through all. He’s forsaken nothing.
In truly coming to understand the beliefs of others, in coming to reason or feel from their perspective, we come to better understand our own beliefs. Never resist the opportunity to understand.
ScrutinyInFaith 