Maybe Later
Alright. I know pride when I see it.
It is time to end the three week silence by admitting that the Roman Civ class needs some more research. We will just put up a 'to be continued' sign on that one and come back later.
In the mean time I offer a thought on the tendency of Americans to create hierarchical structures of value that govern the manner in which we place importance on certain activities and thought processes.
Failure:
I was recently complaining to a friend of mine that I often felt like and fear failure. Rather than attempt to counsel me by listing accomplishments that he had seen me succeed in or asking me about my childhood to determine what bent or skewed view of success and value I had internalized, he simply asked me one question.
"What are you supposed to be?"
Of course, I had no satisfactory answer to this question. He went on to challenge me that my problem was not that I had the wrong view of success and failure, but rather that I shouldn't have a view of success or failure at all. Far from a New Age relativistic argument that there is no such thing as objective good and bad, he was trying to get me to think of one simple thing.
If God created me without my consent, and if He is truly omnipotent, then it is up to His discretion to direct the course of my life. It is no secret that I do not know the future, and thus I don't know where this all knowing God has set the course of my existence. The question then arises:
If I don't know the specific purpose I was created for, how can I know if what I am doing today does or does not serve the ultimate purpose of my existence? In other words, if I don't know what success looks like, how can I know what failure is?
Infuriatingly, this leaves me with only one recourse in attempting to find self-worth. The Love of Christ, the understanding that there is no intrinsic value to my existence accept His delight in it, is my only basis for believing I am a success or failure. (i.e. if He loves me-approves of me- then the Divine project that is me is a success) As there is nothing I can do to avoid, destroy or eliminate this Love, there is no way that I can fail. Therefore, thinking of myself as a failure is a failure (ur...wait a minurte...) on my part to properly understand reality. That is to say, calling myself a failure is a LIE.
It has always been challenging for me to maintain a grasp on the idea of my worth being seated in Christ's love for me because I put that at the top of the list of many criteria that I use to determine the rectitude or appropriateness of my actions. Putting such a value judgment at the top of the pile will never keep it there. Just as the efficacy of the Cross is diminished by our attempts to add to Christ's work, so the efficacy of his love is undermined by our attempts to justify our existence by any other form of validation.
So: The truth is that for the believer, failure is impossible. The truth, so I hear, will set you free.
It is time to end the three week silence by admitting that the Roman Civ class needs some more research. We will just put up a 'to be continued' sign on that one and come back later.
In the mean time I offer a thought on the tendency of Americans to create hierarchical structures of value that govern the manner in which we place importance on certain activities and thought processes.
Failure:
I was recently complaining to a friend of mine that I often felt like and fear failure. Rather than attempt to counsel me by listing accomplishments that he had seen me succeed in or asking me about my childhood to determine what bent or skewed view of success and value I had internalized, he simply asked me one question.
"What are you supposed to be?"
Of course, I had no satisfactory answer to this question. He went on to challenge me that my problem was not that I had the wrong view of success and failure, but rather that I shouldn't have a view of success or failure at all. Far from a New Age relativistic argument that there is no such thing as objective good and bad, he was trying to get me to think of one simple thing.
If God created me without my consent, and if He is truly omnipotent, then it is up to His discretion to direct the course of my life. It is no secret that I do not know the future, and thus I don't know where this all knowing God has set the course of my existence. The question then arises:
If I don't know the specific purpose I was created for, how can I know if what I am doing today does or does not serve the ultimate purpose of my existence? In other words, if I don't know what success looks like, how can I know what failure is?
Infuriatingly, this leaves me with only one recourse in attempting to find self-worth. The Love of Christ, the understanding that there is no intrinsic value to my existence accept His delight in it, is my only basis for believing I am a success or failure. (i.e. if He loves me-approves of me- then the Divine project that is me is a success) As there is nothing I can do to avoid, destroy or eliminate this Love, there is no way that I can fail. Therefore, thinking of myself as a failure is a failure (ur...wait a minurte...) on my part to properly understand reality. That is to say, calling myself a failure is a LIE.
It has always been challenging for me to maintain a grasp on the idea of my worth being seated in Christ's love for me because I put that at the top of the list of many criteria that I use to determine the rectitude or appropriateness of my actions. Putting such a value judgment at the top of the pile will never keep it there. Just as the efficacy of the Cross is diminished by our attempts to add to Christ's work, so the efficacy of his love is undermined by our attempts to justify our existence by any other form of validation.
So: The truth is that for the believer, failure is impossible. The truth, so I hear, will set you free.
posted by Jason Fleming at 3:38 PM
1 Comments:
If it is our intrinsic value that keeps us from being failures, then everyone, not just believers, is a success. We can't fall into the trap of thinking that our act of believing is what magically validates us. That smacks of earning our worth. Which, as we as believers know, is impossible. Those who know Christ simply--haha--have the unbelievable opportunity to revel in our "success" and to fall deeper in love with the One who made us so.
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