“…we’re all one phone call from our knees…” – Mat Kearney
In the next hour, your life could change completely. Someone you love could die, there could be a terrorist attack in your city, you could lose a limb in an accident…your world could literally change forever…We really are all one phone call from our knees…be grateful for what you have here and now because nothing in this life is certain…
“We have to grow, we have to move forward, to learn and evolve, add to our dictionary of life” – Janet Leigh
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress” – Frederick Douglass
“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another” – Anatole France
Hmmmm. So, I am currently feeling reflective and wondering about progress, personal development and the future. As I’m sure you’ve thought before, this is a very broad and deep topic. The process of growth is seen everywhere: In nature, in children and even in our own lives. When we learn from something and change for the positive, this is growth. While it may sound unthreatening and harmless, I think true growth can be very painful, especially when it concerns the inner-life. Those set of ideas, beliefs, feelings, traditions and thoughts that we consider ‘normal’ often become (or have always been) a hindrance to growth and progress and must therefore be discarded in favour of new ideas and beliefs, more appropriate traditions, and better thoughts, feelings and ideas. This is often very difficult and painful. To realise that something which, up until now, you have considered to be part of who you are needs to be given up is quite shocking. I think it can be likened to losing a good friend. You have memories together, you have ‘history’. In a sense you see yourself as part of that old system, or more accurately you see that old system as being part of who you are (although I suppose these could be one and the same thing). And yet if we are to progress, these realisations must happen many times and in many different ways throughout our lives. A healthy sense of depression will ensue as we mourn for the loss of part of ourselves, but ultimately this is for the good. The comfort we derive from the familiar must give way to the necessity for growth.
Where do we get the strength to deal with these difficulties? To take that first step and assess our situation objectively (searching for the truth irrespective of what it may be) takes tremendous courage and inner strength – where does this come from? I’m not sure. Is it from our personality? Up-bringing? God? Or more realistically a combination of these three.
The above has assumed that we are willing to deal with problems when they arise. This is (unfortunately) not the only option. One could ignore them and hope that they go away ‘da Nile is not just a river in Egypt’. So many people choose this second option of ignoring their problems. They will make up stories, take drugs, get drunk, get in a relationship, all in an effort to avoid dealing with their problems or even more ridiculously in the hope that this will solve their problems. This leaves broken people who propagate broken children and ultimately a screwed-up society of ill-disciplined individuals who cannot grow.
I think two of the most comforting things about being a Christian are: Firstly, that God has told us so much about ourselves, His plan, and how the two interact in the Bible. Secondly, that the true source of determination, ability, motivation, self-control etc is external to ourselves – the Holy Spirit. True and sustained growth is not possible without the Holy Spirit who is that part of the Godhead that is here on earth dwelling with us, helping us, counselling us, leading us and growing us.
In sum, growth is fundamental. We cannot grow without giving up unhelpful parts of ourselves. This is painful and only possible with the help of the Holy Spirit. Just a thought… 🙂
Posted in Christian, Intense, Psychology, Quotes
The caption that goes with this picture is “You will be remembered by what you leave behind”
I have just watched a documentary on the history of nuclear weapons (Imax – Trinity and Beyond – the Atomic Bomb Documentary) and feel bewildered. Every now and then in history there is a watershed moment where something happens or someone discovers something that changes the course of history (from what I’m not sure). It can be for good (penicillin or the Internet) or for bad (the atomic bomb or biological weapons). Perhaps these history-changing discoveries occur randomly and cannot be predicted, but one thing seems to be certain, they seem to be happening more frequently. I suppose this makes sense considering that the growth rate of change is cumulative in the sense that change creates more change, and more technology gives rise to even more advanced technology (a broad application of Moore’s Law to change). This is quite scary. I don’t think that most of us realise the degree of change and discovery that is happening all around us. What new medical breakthrough is being discovered in labs around the world? What new threats are being developed as we go about our everyday lives?
What will be the next discovery that revolutionises warfare? First it was the automation of weaponry and guns, then the nuclear weapon, then biological weapons…then what? This is quite a sobering thought.
What will our generation leave behind to be remembered by?
Posted in Intense
‘Discipline is the basic set of tools we require to solve life’s problems. Without discipline we can solve nothing. With only some discipline we can solve only some problems. With total discipline we can solve all problems’
“Yet it is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the cutting edge that distinguishes between success and failure. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we challenge and encourage the human capacity to solve problems, just as in school we deliberately set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of confronting and solving human problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, ‘Those things that hurt, instruct’. It is for this reason that wise people learn not to dread but actually to welcome problems and actually to welocme the pain of problems.
Most of us are not so wise. Fearing the pain involved, almost all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, attempt to avoid problems. We procrastinate, hoping they will go away. We ignore them, forget them, pretend they do not exist. We even take drugs to assist us in ignoring them, so that by deadening ourselves to the pain we can forget the problems that cause the pain. We attempt to skirt around problems rather than meet them head on. We attempt to get out of them rather than suffer through them.
This tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness.”
-The Road Less Travelled (M. Scott Peck, Page 4+5)
Posted in Intense, Psychology, Quotes, Wisdom
The above is the end of Eliot’s poem describing the Three Wise Men when they gave up their previous world view and accepted the truth that is Christ.
“No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently” – Agnes de Mille
Everyday, each and every one of us makes decisions. Some are good, some are bad, but all are decisions that were made. We choose to do good or to do bad. We choose to live for the benefit of others, or to live for the benefit of ourselves. Ultimately, there comes a time of realisation where the possessor of the will decides to exercise his will irrevocably in one direction or another. Perhaps for some weak and ineffectual people, this moment never dawns and they continue to live a life of bland ambiguity, not truly knowing their left hand from their right.
“Could’st thou in vision see
Thyself the man God meant
Thou never more could’st be
The man thou art, content”
-Anon
I want to live a purpose-filled life.
I want to be a man of God
I want to constantly improve myself
The big decisions in life are not made in the limelight. They aren’t made in the presence of the powerful or the company of the influential. They are made sitting on your bed, looking at your hands and asking yourself the tough questions in life. What will I do? What will I be? What will I believe? What will I leave behind? Who am I?
Often I don’t know what to do. I’m not always sure how to describe it but it usually just comes as a sense over me where I say “I don’t know what to do”. Sometimes I’m not sure what I should feel, if indeed I should feel anything. Sometimes I don’t know if I should care, or if I should care, why I don’t care. It feels like an in between place between having purpose and drive and being completely apathetic. Usually I just sleep it off and it goes away but I think I will think about it now and see what comes of it. It feels like opening a door which leads into a dimly-lit room which has a musty, unused smell. With a beige haze I look around and can’t see anything clearly. I feel awkward and paranoid as I tilt my head upwards, looking forward. Truly, I don’t know what to do…
Nic Spaull 