Random thoughts at 1:11 AM... I'll edit this later...
Thank you for visiting! It's been a long day... thought I'd share some unedited thoughts.
I think Forest Gump got it right when he said, “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Almost everyday we wake up not knowing what we’re gonna get. Hour to hour and minute to minute our plans, thoughts and emotions change. And with constant change going on in the world we live in, it's inevitable our spiritual life will go through change as well. For just as life is unpredictable, so is our spiritual life. Not knowing where we'll be tomorrow, it's difficult to feel prepared for anything. The question is, how do we prepare for the unknown? Is it possible?
I’d rather not say anything too far fetched, but I'd like to think it’s possible to spiritually prepare for the unknown by striving
to be obedient to Christ and His church. In our struggles, we must be critical
of the world we live in and question everything we see and hear. We must learn to filter and censer what we see, hear, think, say and do. Being able to have our own personal censorship (which would require a certain amount of discipline), can dramatically affect the way we live our lives.
Abortion, gay rights, death row, sex out of wedlock, stem cell research, cloning, suicide and polygamy are all touchy subjects in the secular American society. In my opinion, one of the main reasons they're touchy subjects is because people who support these things don't want to hear any argument against it. After all, this is America! This is the USA! A free country where everything and anything goes! So yeah, lets kill babies, play God, encourage people to be abominations to God...after all, it's a free country. In other words, this is caused by liberals taking the freedoms of this country to another extreme. (I'm using liberal loosely. As a friend of mine once said, "I'm liberal with cheese on my nachos.") In this situation I find more and more often people bashing the Church for being “intolerant,” and questioning why the church stands where it does.
As Orthodox Christians (being in the minority) we must be critical of the world and figure out why the world is the way it is. If the world can be critical of us and question our every stance and every move, why should we not question the world? When the world asks why we don't support abortion, reply with why they support killing babies. When the world asks why we don't support gay marriage, reply with why the world supports sinful lifestyles. This might seem stupid for Christians to be critical of everything, then again, is it? Is it too harsh? Too bold? O no, could it be? Are Orthodox Christians intolerant? Goodness no! Orthodox are not intolerant!
Questioning secularism, liberalism and standing up against the claims of intolerance against the church will be sure to stir the pot of dialogue between different groups of people. The American idea of “anything goes” and “everyone has the right to be happy” has legitimately gotten out of hand to the point that the sight of basic morality has been lost. As Orthodox and our journey to Christ, we are called to be our brothers keeper. Due to our instruction to love one another, we are really called to bring others to Christ. Part of that love for each other is discouraging people to live sinful lives.
Just as an example, look at the shows on TV. Disney channel has teen couples kissing and dating. MTV (which used to be a music station) is now filled with 16 and pregnant and other shows revolving around people making bad choices in life and not working to make themselves better people.
It's just small stupid proof we're living in an age where spirituality is being drowned out by everything. The more religion is thrown out the door, the more people look to other things for answers. Science seems to be a popular go to. However, lets take a look at how similar science and religion are. For starters, both science and religion have questions. And both have answers. Both have questions unable to be answered. (Christianity claims God only reveals to us what we need to know. Where science claims they just aren't advanced enough to find an answer.) Both have theory and both have proof. Both have believers and non believers. Both are just as criticized or praised as the other.
I think Forest Gump got it right when he said, “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Almost everyday we wake up not knowing what we’re gonna get. Hour to hour and minute to minute our plans, thoughts and emotions change. And with constant change going on in the world we live in, it's inevitable our spiritual life will go through change as well. For just as life is unpredictable, so is our spiritual life. Not knowing where we'll be tomorrow, it's difficult to feel prepared for anything. The question is, how do we prepare for the unknown? Is it possible?
I’d rather not say anything too far fetched, but I'd like to think it’s possible to spiritually prepare for the unknown by striving
to be obedient to Christ and His church. In our struggles, we must be critical
of the world we live in and question everything we see and hear. We must learn to filter and censer what we see, hear, think, say and do. Being able to have our own personal censorship (which would require a certain amount of discipline), can dramatically affect the way we live our lives. Abortion, gay rights, death row, sex out of wedlock, stem cell research, cloning, suicide and polygamy are all touchy subjects in the secular American society. In my opinion, one of the main reasons they're touchy subjects is because people who support these things don't want to hear any argument against it. After all, this is America! This is the USA! A free country where everything and anything goes! So yeah, lets kill babies, play God, encourage people to be abominations to God...after all, it's a free country. In other words, this is caused by liberals taking the freedoms of this country to another extreme. (I'm using liberal loosely. As a friend of mine once said, "I'm liberal with cheese on my nachos.") In this situation I find more and more often people bashing the Church for being “intolerant,” and questioning why the church stands where it does.
As Orthodox Christians (being in the minority) we must be critical of the world and figure out why the world is the way it is. If the world can be critical of us and question our every stance and every move, why should we not question the world? When the world asks why we don't support abortion, reply with why they support killing babies. When the world asks why we don't support gay marriage, reply with why the world supports sinful lifestyles. This might seem stupid for Christians to be critical of everything, then again, is it? Is it too harsh? Too bold? O no, could it be? Are Orthodox Christians intolerant? Goodness no! Orthodox are not intolerant!
Questioning secularism, liberalism and standing up against the claims of intolerance against the church will be sure to stir the pot of dialogue between different groups of people. The American idea of “anything goes” and “everyone has the right to be happy” has legitimately gotten out of hand to the point that the sight of basic morality has been lost. As Orthodox and our journey to Christ, we are called to be our brothers keeper. Due to our instruction to love one another, we are really called to bring others to Christ. Part of that love for each other is discouraging people to live sinful lives.
Just as an example, look at the shows on TV. Disney channel has teen couples kissing and dating. MTV (which used to be a music station) is now filled with 16 and pregnant and other shows revolving around people making bad choices in life and not working to make themselves better people.
It's just small stupid proof we're living in an age where spirituality is being drowned out by everything. The more religion is thrown out the door, the more people look to other things for answers. Science seems to be a popular go to. However, lets take a look at how similar science and religion are. For starters, both science and religion have questions. And both have answers. Both have questions unable to be answered. (Christianity claims God only reveals to us what we need to know. Where science claims they just aren't advanced enough to find an answer.) Both have theory and both have proof. Both have believers and non believers. Both are just as criticized or praised as the other.
Back to my original point; preparing for the unknown. How life really is like a box of chocolates. I hold my ground with being able to prepare spiritually with a constant struggle to be obedient to Christ. Part of that obedience is knowing scripture and knowing about the world we live in. Making connections that most people can't make. In our struggles, perhaps, there will be times when we'll feel alone. Perhaps we'll feel the cross God gave us is too heavy to carry. Perhaps we will lose our faith. And perhaps our faith will only grow stronger.
Comments
Post a Comment
Comment Here:::