I believe in my way of living!

You will hear this quite often from people who say, “I believe in my way of living” and “I follow my heart”. It is the common creed embraced by billions of people. It’s a statement of faith in one of the great pop cultural myths of the Western world. The problem and danger with that belief system is that when each one of us, based on our status, power and background attempt to set their views and creed as a standard of what is right and wrong it can ultimately result in disaster.

Think along with me on this. If you happen to be in to the court of law for manhandling and injuring someone seriously, and you tell the court of law “I did what I felt was right at that point of time because it was necessary”, then how do you think the court is going to treat you? As a defaulter, do you think you will be acquitted for your great philosophy? We all know the obvious answer.

All these many years we were striving to establish our own standard of right and wrong, were hurt and ended up hurting each other in the process. But it is time we draw our attention to find what is the standard for right and wrong? We cannot live on our own standards and expect everything to fall well perfectly, or things to align with our views. We are both right and wrong sometimes and most of the times that’s the greatest danger. Therefore, we are all forced to adhere and comply with the constitution of law and order for maintaining harmony and solidarity. We have moral laws and moral framework irrespective of religion.

One writer explains about the heart describes it beautifully this way “The truth is, no one lies to us more than our own hearts. No one. If our hearts are compasses, they are Jack Sparrow compasses (The compass which is magical and it points toward that which the holder most desires). They don’t tell us the truth; they just tell us what we want. They are not benevolent; they are pathologically selfish. In fact, if we do what our hearts tell us to do, we will pervert and impoverish every desire, every beauty, every person, every wonder, and every joy. Our hearts want to consume these things for our own self-glory and self-indulgence.'

The Bible says, “The one who lives with integrity will be helped, but one who distorts right and wrong will suddenly fall.”. Let us not tamper with what is right and wrong. We are not God. We need His grace to help us do what is right and which promotes brotherhood and not distort morality to promote our selfishness. All the commandments are fulfilled in these two great commandments in the Bible, "Love your God with all your heart, and love others as yourself". You can click the link to know to what God expects from you and me.

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Can there be a good side to pain?

 

Nobody, I repeat, nobody enjoys pain or willingly chooses to suffer, unless a person has chronic mental illness. Pain always has a negative connotation, which is not entirely true. Human experience and elementary medicine teach us that pain has an important role in our lives. Pain warns us of danger. For example, you put your hand too close to the fire, your nervous system alerts your brain and you feel pain. Your reflexes kick in, you withdraw your hand and you are saved from injury. This proves that pain is not bad afterall. Generally, pain is an indicator, or rather a symptom to a more serious problem or an issue that allows a person to take corrective measures.

If you notice, certain amount of pain is involved in physical development. People with an intention of body building do workouts which cause pain, sports like boxing, martial arts, athletics are quite demanding and inherent with pain, which people endure to excel. The same is true with character formation. Suffering and pain can have a major impact on character formation. There is the truth in what the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky commented on character formation through suffering - “Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.”

A world devoid of pain and suffering will lead people to sudden catastrophe or worse, death. I often refer to a condition called CIPA (Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis). This is a condition where one does not feel pain at all and it is dangerous because the person is unaware, they have hurt themselves. Parents of children suffering from this condition wished if God could bless them with a sense of pain in order to be careful. The point I wish to bring to focus is God in His sovereignty has incorporated pain in creation for our well-being. At the same time, I do not want to brush off the fact that pain and suffering are also caused by humans, like Cancer, Coronavirus and many other diseases for which we pay a huge price.

I would like to conclude with the story of God recorded in the Bible, where history resonates with the fact about the sufferings Jesus went through. The Bible says, He chose to suffer, undergo gruesome torture and experience excruciating pain on the cross of Calvary. Jesus who rose again on the third day, could have fought against the forces of darkness and escaped the cross, but rather He obediently underwent pain in order to die for the sins of humans. This is the glorious story of salvation. All that we are expected to do is believe and accept this gift of salvation offered by Him. Unlike other gods, He did not wage holy war or fight enemies but demonstrated love through His sacrifice for our sins. Therefore, we don’t have to work out our salvation by our own efforts but just accept what He has already offered us. You can choose to know more about Him.  

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Biased in our opinion!

 

Inadvertently, we all have biases when receiving and translating information, supporting a cause or view, picking a political party, sharing opinions and so on. This is because we are convinced what we know is the truth and we are a better judge of that. It's a skewed thought by itself. We live in a world where truth is beyond what we see and witness and beyond mass supporters. In present times truth is becoming relative and twisted.

Marcus Aurelius puts it beautifully, "Everything is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective not the truth." The fact is, beyond every information, content or situation there is a personal motive or intention. Some are absolutely selfless which are boring to the masses, but some are spurious concealed under a mask of truth, that get people excited. No one bothers to spend time and energy to know if it's the truth. So, they go with the piece of information presented to them. We selectively take what we want and ignore the rest. My point is, truth is not plain and simple as it manifests. It is most often muddled in selfishness to benefit oneself. Without proper discretion it is just impossible to point the truth.

Now, beyond all we see, hear and witness is the supernatural truth, a truth about God and the relationship between God and man. Sadly, many count the story of God as a perspective or an idea. With so much counterfeit in everything, even God is not spared. Today, many assume they are gods because of having power in their hand. They take up weird physical transformations with unique outfits and have a strong following. Deception increases with increase in power and money.  

Truth has to be measured against the truth of God and moral law. You would find Jesus in the Bible unique because the many so-called gods came to build empires, married, disappointed, frustrated, practiced polygamy, were polytheistic and still found appealing to people. Jesus was entirely different because He lived a holy life, spoke so much of truth and tied up everything to loving God and loving each other. He was resurrected, promised eternity and promised His return to the earth once again. Do we care to know the fact and the truth about Him before being biased with our own opinion and perspective?

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Knowing a mistake!

 

It's interesting to note that a person can commit a crime and yet be found "not guilty". The basis of any conviction is the moral law and moral code. The realization that something is bad and sinful is the awareness one gets due to the existence of a moral law. If there was no law, no one would be condemned in this world. That means, the world can be deemed as unlivable as each person would have the freedom and right to do according to his/her wish from murdering, raping, cheating, embezzling, etc.

In one of National Geographic programs, called ‘Banged up Abroad’ is a story of a family getting caught from smuggling cocaine (drugs). They are convicted and sentenced to long-term imprisonment. They break-down sobbing. The police make a poignant statement, which caught my attention, saying, “You are not necessarily a bad person. You committed a crime and we need to arrest you.”. If one is realistic, the matter  goes to the court of law and the particular defaulter will be further investigated to find the intentions and motives behind the crime. Premeditated crimes fetch more punishment compared to other situations. My point is that one cannot actually separate the crime from the person involved because the holy scriptures say, “every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth evil fruit.”. It is definitely about the person involved in the wrong doing. We are first seen as guilty before God.

The Bible rightly points out this staggering truth, “…For apart from law sin is dead.”. Sin becomes noticeable because law exists. The Bible further states that, “..the law is written in their hearts. The conscience confirms this.”. Before the law can pronounce the verdict, the human heart, which God had designed with a conscience, convicts a person. The person feels bad and becomes victim of guilt.

To make matters clear, just because someone is punished does not guaranty that he would never commit another mistake in his lifetime. We are all aware that the law convicts a person when found guilty, imposes punishment and releases a person after the sentence period, but it doesn't have the capacity to release a person from guilt and the effects of sin. This is where people try religion to find a way to smother the guilt. If you make an attempt to read the Bible you will find this fascinating truth which talks about Jesus saying, “…the son of man (Jesus) has authority on earth to forgive sins.”. You need forgiveness from all your sins to be a free person to escape the judgement of God and eternal punishment. Your commitment to follow a living God will help you to live a guilt free life and a life of worth and happiness.

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