Tag: Christian

Living by Faith and Love: The Power of Trust and Care in Serving Others

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Conceit and selfishness are a type of temporary indulgence that is meaningless. Much of our purpose comes from serving others. We cannot take comfort in our own comfort. For me, my motivation comes from the service and sacrifice of my parents, and this generates my own attitude of service and sacrifice for their comfort. Often, we can be self-indulgent and accountable to no person in particular. But we need transparency. We should be accountable to ourselves and what can beget regret.

To serve with love and kindness requires humility. We have to be careful against pride. The temptation to be kind to ourselves over others is inertia. This temptation has been overcome by our Lord. We must serve others wholly without thinking about ourselves. It has to be love for love’s sake. We shouldn’t seek admiration from others or ourselves. Kindness—true Christian kindness—involves a deep and pure love for others. It isn’t self-referential. It teaches us to stop thinking about ourselves and be benevolent in the proper way.

We should practice kindness at every chance we get. We must look for every opportunity. We exist to serve. Even the secular world is given the moral sense to know that kindness is needed; we see it in toddlers. But as we grow more sophisticated, or perhaps haughtier, we must return to the basic kindness to show to others. The simple idea is to treat others how we want to be treated: with kindness.

We must be generous and considerate. It’s active and merciful. We must go out of our way to be kind. It’s our onus to others to bear the burden of social interactions. To make them feel comfortable and go out of our way to connect. In the same way Paul didn’t care about food restrictions in order to accommodate others, our job is to go out of our way to love others.

It helps us grow. Our mission is proactive and we have to bring a sword. But it isn’t to antagonize; rather it is to fight for souls. We have to teach others with tenderness, patience, and love. The weight and burden are something that a person must bear, and why shouldn’t it be us?

God accommodates us in the greatest and most perfect way. He gives us a bridge and lifeline from his eternal perfection down to our little, dirty world. We can see the perfect example of accommodation. But we also see where we don’t have to accommodate. We don’t have to tolerate sin in itself, but we must accommodate the sin within others as we do ourselves; we see God is perfect, and sin is more detestable but he still loves us.

We have to remember and habituate ourselves to put ourselves in the way of discomfort. It’s nothing compared to the actual harm and danger that Christian predecessors had. We should be considered fortunate that the worst we experience is discomfort or expend a little effort. This is our mission. Our fight is manageable.

The fight for charity and discomfort go hand-in-hand. We need to keep giving so as to not clutch onto anything as an idol. Our giving to others is an act of faith in God. I do not need anything but you Lord. We can be renewed in comfort by laying our heads every night on our beds inside our homes. We must be grateful but also appreciate that others are lacking. We must try to help others always and not lose heart.

In the modern age, we grow increasingly insensitive to private gestures of generosity. We can tip heavy sums to impress our friends but we neglect the homeless and destitute we walk by. It’s such a basic necessity that intersects with all social problems. I remember as a boy, I thought it was a given that everybody had homes. I remember some nights when I desperately wished I was home when I was out late at night.

It’s important to place others above ourselves. It’s a model of service that habituates us to be in the presence of God. When Jesus washed the feet of his disciplines, he did it out of love and care and it flowed naturally from his relationship with God. Those overt acts of service are not the only forms, though. Every step Jesus took and action was in service of us.

We are given a duty to serve. We are told to serve. We might know a tiny slice of why we need to serve others. I’m sure there are countless other reasons why it is good for us, but we need to do it out of genuine love for others or, at the least, love for God. We cannot lose focus from serving others. The sins that might hinder and entangle us can distract us and push us inwards into some navel-gazing. The best we should do is forget about ourselves and just serve. If we can’t reflect in the proper way without becoming self-absorbed, we should instead just serve others. Then we might learn to serve ourselves as we serve others.

We need to go out of our way to serve. Our every action needs to be to serve. With love and faith, we need to embrace every pain and discomfort that comes with service. It makes our lives easier: we have a singular general principle for action. I’m sure there are exceptions, but they are few and clear. The cross can get heavier, but it’s light for now.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Trust others through our trust in God, but not naively. We must be faithful and generous with our trust in others, especially because it’s how we can show our love. We can live in peace when we are able to trust freely. I think about the shrewdness of being selective of who we trust. We fear harm. Some are warranted. We can expose ourselves to most harm except spiritual harm. We need to put our faith in God to have good discernment.

We must live by faith in the Son of God. He loves and gives himself. I think trust is easier for some than others. With empathy and care, trust can come easily. If we aren’t this way, we need to learn.

We need to care. It’s an active process. It requires emotion and thought. Where we often fail is to think that appreciating rights and distancing ourselves is sufficient to fulfill our duty to others. We have to for further and go out of our way to serve. Jesus cared for us. God cared for us. He didn’t have to show mercy and love, but he went out of his way to do so. We have to learn from this and model this.

Care is focused and devoted. We care deeply about individuals and get to know their needs so that we can properly address them. It tries to parse out people from the masses. Often, through tribalism or indifference, we group people and have a general misanthropic attitude. We need to get rid of it to love people—individual people, with patience and commitment.

We cannot be selfish, but we can show care for ourselves in a holy way. We shouldn’t think that reframing from sim or a good time is failing self-care; rather, it is a sacrifice and act of faith to God that he will take care of us and know what’s best for us.

The Role of God in Self-Control and Endurance

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Patient self-control. Restraint.  It’s often externalized to focus on one’s relationship with others, but here I want to focus on one’s relationship with oneself. Our relationship with ourselves is confusing and a possibly unhelpful metaphor. But the point I want to drive home is that we need forbearance for making decisions that pull us in every way, and it needs to go beyond just being disciplined.

Forbearance is closely related to temperance. One of the classical virtues (the others being prudence, justice, and fortitude).  It looks at abstinence or moderation. We need to withdraw and reframe from certain activities, and it’s important to discern what exactly to avoid and for what reasons. Take fidelity to purity as an example, primarily, avoiding lust. It can seem primal and morph our very reasoning or decision-making faculties. Youth and hormones can be very powerful. We might think we have a right to act on it. That it’s natural and how the body ought to function. The countless rationalizations to act in one way to tip the scales. It takes a special kind of patience and discernment to decide to pull back on our desires.

Self-control is something that I struggle with. I grew up in a generation of distraction and easy fixes. Technology constantly wears down and trains distraction. It’s important to stay focused in order to stay self-controlled. Being self-controlled is something like a muscle. It takes a lot of practice to exercise this level of discipline. Little by little, the smaller decisions put us on the right track to make better bigger decisions. That’s why it’s important to exercise forbearance in even the little decisions and be wary of it. A kind of mind-muscle connection, but a mind-virtue connection. Like a mind-muscle connection, we can be extra mindful of a certain experience and focus on how our mind is affecting virtues just as we might focus on how the mind is affecting our muscles. The analogy is useful because we build our souls and virtues through small acts. The action of repetitions of lifting can strengthen muscles. Acting virtuously can similarly strengthen our souls. We have to practice our virtues.  Age is not a good indicator. We need to regulate every part of ourselves. We do have limits and our self-control can be depleted. We also have our will and have a part in regulating our own actions. This free will cut directly into what makes us human. It’s a profound question of who we are yet it can be as trivial as grabbing a marshmallow when we shouldn’t.

We need more than mental fortitude to endure the trials of life, but we can’t do it by ourselves. We need God. In fact, the less we rely on ourselves, the easier it gets. It’s easy to get overwhelmed. When we do, we have to rely on God; it’s not about digging deeper within ourselves, it’s about letting go and trusting God. Through prayer and meditation on God’s presence. Through the Lord’s perspective, we can work with joy and trust that it pleases our Father. There will be things we must endure—this is an inevitability. We should embrace the discomfort as a good. An opportunity to grow, like a baby learning to walk. I can think of no better metaphor for endurance than a marathon runner. The pain is clear. The goal is clear. It takes mental fortitude to keep pressing on when your body is in pain. But when the pain isn’t physical, and the pain is mental, it becomes strangely different and difficult. The barriers in our minds seem unbreakable.

It is important to identify the times of endurance. A transition into something better. It helps us rely that much more on God. The cycle of life rarely has us enduring pain all the time. There a periods of pain and periods of rest, and our Lord promised us no burden that we cannot overcome. Like a wise coach, we will never have more weight than we can handle. We will receive just enough to grow. With God, we are in a safe environment. We can grow in endurance–mentally, spiritually, and physically. We forget the mental and spiritual, and I have a hunch that they’re just as intimately linked as the mind and the body; the same goes for the body and the spirit. The mind can grow in discipline and focus, and this can translate into spiritual virtues of increased patience and love. Caring for our body can make it easier to be more loving and patient, just as exercise can be good for the body.

There is a Korean word that’s difficult to translate: “Han.” It’s a feeling of internalized sorrow or resentment, and it goes hand-in-hand with longsuffering. Patience in spite of troubles. It’s difficult to endure the discomfort. Especially if you feel some sort of entitlement from being comfortable for a long time. This is why a tough life can be good. This is why it’s difficult for a rich man to pass through the gates of heaven. We can only walk into the fire. Without being melodramatic, the crucible shapes us and changes us into something stronger. Suffering doesn’t necessarily lead to something better. But it’s so often that the road to growth is a rough road. We are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. We aren’t entitled to comfort and every second of comfort is a blessing. We need to shift our attitude to that of a servant: humility. We are unworthy of even the work we are entrusted with, so we should be grateful for the opportunity to do this work. Courage through tough times or discomfort. It’s a part of faith. By trusting in God fully, we have no backup plan. We go forward into the valley of the shadow of death having faith that God will be with us. How trivial is everything compared to that? Our daily trials are meager in comparison.

Still, it’s all about reference points. A splinter can be incredibly painful and the end of the world for a child, yet a warrior faces a spear to the side without fear. We need to grow, but God is patient with us. He will not give us more than we can handle. We must be deliberate in our courage and why we have courage. The tough times and pain are a part of life, but it’s also a part of God’s will. We have courage in God. It’s an act of faith to have courage. The courage to be. We should have fortitude through our desire to be with Christ yet also serve his people. We must have courage through all the pain and adversity of life. We must be brave despite inflictions. It can be what makes Christians the strongest breed.

I can’t figure out the relationship between psychology and virtue, especially with respect to responsibility. What is really within our control that we should be responsible for? The addict might have little self-control, but discrete decisions within their control led them there. Fortunately, we don’t have to figure out this mystery to keep trying our best to build our self-control. The effort and striving are effort. The father is pleased with the effort despite whatever natural limits we might have. We need strength greater than us. We need God. He gives us more power and control, and we need to exercise self-control to serve him. We must give up control. Give it all up to God. For true freedom, we need to give up control.

The Gift of Life: Finding Gratitude and Joy in God

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Vitality is embracing the gift of life. The joys of being alive. Animals seem to embrace it fully, but humans seem to take it for granted. Somehow complexity undercuts vitality or perhaps distracts our minds away from the true joys of life. We need consistent gratitude despite the undulation of the days.

We must always acknowledge grace and make the most of every day, minute, or opportunity. Maybe we can think about death and our limited life. We can take risks knowing that God is with us and won’t let us fall beyond despair. The reminder of death can push us to make the most of every moment. We have to love others as if we can never love them again, and experience life to enjoy as if we don’t have another day. With trust faith and urgency, life becomes so much more beautiful. We don’t have to be afraid of the lion outside, rather we can dance outside and enjoy our life with God.

There is another element of maximizing life: pushing ourselves to the limit and experiencing something new. For instance, in athletics, there is an ineffable feeling of achieving the pinnacle, like winning the gold medal at the Olympics. Or, in feats of the mind, a joy that comes from pushing one’s intellectual abilities and synthesizing something new using all of our capability. In the spiritual domain, I think this becomes the closest thing to the ideal of experiencing the best of life. The perfect harmony of accessing the spiritual in the physical world is somewhat abstract, but those with the eternal perspective know that this is what life on earth is all about.

True vitality comes from doing God’s will. The harmony with our ultimate purpose in life is incomparable to anything else. It’s impossible to explain, but I think this is what many thinkers have believed to be the best kind of life. It encapsulates the physical and mental. It is perfect resonance. Living with the joy of God. Joy is everywhere in life, and this life is a blessing from God. We give thanks for everything—every moment of our life. Even in pain, we can find a glimmer of joy. It is hard to say when others suffer unimaginable pain. To tout our privilege for an easy life seems almost mocking. But from God’s perspective, our easy life can be unimportant compared to the pain. Everything seems so contingent and our idea of significance can be so often misguided. All we can do is give thanks, purely and innocently.

I always look to animals for the purest expressions of joy. They don’t know they are given the gift of being taken away from the wild. They enjoy it all anyway. They look always in the present and enjoy every moment. It’s a kind of freedom that might be impossible for rational humans who are aware of their own existence and mortality. But we need not despair in the same way as the humanist; we have our Lord to free us.

We can derive simple pleasure and announce it to the world. We often complicate joy. The daily miracles of life, the love we are given, and the care we have daily. I see it in my dog. He’s a little poodle with so much energy and lust for life. Every little thing is exciting to him: the entrance of a friend, the simplest meal, and the most repetitive play activity. The repetition and drudgery of life can make us callous and desensitized to the love of life. The constant disconnect through digitization, industrialization, and abstract information can take us away from the thrills of life.

We can lose our perspective on our lives so easily. The value of life. The joy of somebody who almost lost life and was given a second chance. We need to be excited about life. Everything we have and are given and be grateful for it all. Like the terminal patient given a second chance, we need to seize the blessing of life. We always lose perspective when we get into the monotony of daily life, but it’s important to be mindful of how much we actually have.

Every aspect of life can be exciting. We have so much that we have been blessed with. And we need to be grateful for every meal, every person, every joy that we have. We need reminders to be excited about life. Sometimes it comes to us without wanting it, like life being abruptly taken away from us. Seize the day. Think critically about the cliches. Be present and embrace the love of life. We have to dig deep for energy and strength. We need to have vitality and hunger for life. Enjoy everyday moments and have excitement for the mundane. We have to give it all that we have and push ourselves to the limit in this life. There are many aphorisms indicating this: seize the day; you only live once; remember you will die.

Sometimes we can be weary because of our bodily limitations. But we can push spiritually and be vibrant in the mind. We should count our blessings on our bodies. We must take up the cross and use every ounce of energy to move it. It matters where we derive our energy from. It has to come from humility and fear of the Lord. We need energy to serve the Lord, not to serve ourselves. The energy to serve ourselves can sometimes be an easier pool to take from, but it’s cheap and doesn’t last; even if it lasts longer than we think, we are met with emptiness when it finally does run out, for whatever reason it may be. We often have more energy than we think, we are just limited by our minds. It’s not to say our minds aren’t important. They preserve our health and well-being; yet, they can often be too conservative. We have to push harder, especially in this comfort-driven society.

The secular view tells us to live our lives to the fullest because our life is limited. The Christian view is similar but perhaps goes even further. Although some think the Christian view is escapist because there is life after death, the life we have here has eternal consequences. It’s all the more important that every action is directed towards our true, everlasting purpose. The littlest move matters and has eternal significance.

Embracing Meekness and Servitude: The Role of Humility in Christian Faith and Spiritual Growth

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Humility is the prime virtue to battle against the only sin. Fighting pride is part of our purpose in life, but it’s not clear we can ever be completely free from pride in this life. It’s an aspiration that we continue to strive for every day. We have to commit ourselves daily to align ourselves with the light of the Lord. Humility puts us back into the right relationship with God.

We cannot have a relationship with God with pride in the way. It disables us and blocks our relationship with God. Through humility, we can be our true selves as it gives a clearer mirror to shine God’s glory. Pride casts us down and distorts us into the masses of sin, and it taints us into little devils.

Every step we take must be towards becoming little gods like Christ. It’s the Christian aim. We have to push forward to incrementally lay down our pride, always striving to grow nearer and learn more from Christ’s example. It’s a sin and human nature to think that we can have power and claim our own self-sufficiency. Complete dependency and commitment is the only path, and it is paradoxically the most difficult and easy thing to do.

We might have fantasies about being the center of attention or being the main character. It’s easy to seek this immature form of pride that is tied to insecurity, vanity, and want of validation. It’s a special trap for me—maybe it’s the way I grew up, maybe it’s the things I was influenced by. In any case, I need to step back and realize I’m not the main character. This part of humility can be tough because our culture is so tied with the idea that being special means we’re above somebody else. We are special because we don’t deserve to be yet saved by grace. God picked us to be special but it gives us no special status above anybody else. We need to take this to heart and be gracious in all that we do. We must humbly serve in the background.

Look at our pets. They are meek and loyal, but to us, they are more special than any other. We can learn from them to not compare but just act in servitude.  I have a dog that teaches me so many lessons of living life with vitality, humility, loyalty, courage, and commitment. We must direct all focus to others and outward attention instead of trying to ruminate on ourselves and our relation to the world. If we need to think about ourselves, we should think about our relation to God. Meekness can be incidental and a label to describe someone in a certain situation. The primary focus can be the fruit of the spirit. Who are we? We are nobody. We are sinners. But through mercy and by God, we can be saved. This is why we should be meek.

We have reminders all the time of humility that make our lives harder. Shame, inadequacy, and feelings of insecurity remind us to reflect on our haughtiness, pride, and narcissism. We must pray that our hearts can be enlightened. God has called us but our pride blocks our ears. The journey to cleanse ourselves is difficult, but, once we take it, we realize the work is all being done by God. We are just handing the tools to the master; the weight of the tools is insignificant compared to the work, but even the tools feel heavy to a novice. To want to be with God is to be humble; to be humbled is to be loved.

Balancing Work, Meaning, and Faith in Modern Life

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It’s easy to get myopically caught up in a demanding job. We mistake business for meaning. Or we distract ourselves with business to avoid the question of meaning. But a meaningful life is our responsibility, and it will always be our responsibility despite any distractions. This is a great lesson from the existential philosophers for our modern world.

But we cannot be defined by our profession or our status because it is all too insignificant. This perspective on the significance of work becomes clear on our deathbeds. Sacrificing so much for our work or perception is a dangerous trap. There has to be something more. A greater meaning. Mere approval from others might be attractive and give us a temporary buzz, but when we’re alone and left with our thoughts, we know that there must be something more.

Of course, Christ is the answer I am alluding to. The priority must be kept in mind. Christ wants us to work, but we must always work in virtue of Christ, and only for Christ’s glory and not our glory. The meaning is centrally Christ and our work is just the steps we take with him. I often fall into the trap of engrossing myself in work. But a singular type of work. The work that gives me status, approval, and comfort. We have to be careful of the idol of work. In modern life, we can worship business, productivity, and achievement. For this to take the place of Christ is absurd. It can be important to branch out into other kinds of work or leisure as an act of faith.

It’s a blessing to be able to create or engage in creative work. Creative work can be understood as something broader than something artistic or using our hands, such as creating a community, creating a small process of efficiency, or creating a better world for somebody. We must use this opportunity to work hard and create work to the best of our ability. In the same way, Mozart must develop his talent, we have a duty to do our best and hone our craft. If we can, we can have a little piece of creating beauty that reflects divine glory. In this vein, we have to use every second of our time on earth to work. Doing less than what we’re capable of or being lazy and slothful is a sin. We must cut out all the fluff of the opiate of media, easy pleasure, and anything taking away from true happiness. We can get distracted by easy pleasures that pale in comparison to the true joy of genuine happiness. In the same way, classical music requires a finer and finer ear to enjoy; even more, the rapture that a performer feels at their finest performance.

It’s important to be alert and sober. It’s not always about substance abuse but anything that can intoxicate us. Our minds can be intoxicated by people, technology, or any other distractions. We need to peel these distractions off of us in order to access the correct view of life. The mission we have in our life is our mission for God. We have to stay lucid and embrace the discomfort. It’s a part of life. To try and escape life as soon as it becomes uncomfortable misses out on something. It takes out the pensive confrontation of the thoughts we avoid and the things that rise out of boredom. We must process things in sobriety. Another aspect of sobriety is purity. We need to get rid of all distractions like taking off dirty clothes. We need to purify our minds and what we consume with our attention in order to be completely sober. This isn’t some sterile life that’s in store for us. It’s about maintaining control and knowing our boundaries. It’s about having the clearest mind in order to have fun.

In developing more mature skills, we become more efficient and economical. We need less effort and it becomes more refined in delivering happiness. The mature happiness that goes beyond novelty. At higher levels of skill, there are new planes of enjoyment that only a few, those who have achieved equivalent mastery, have properly attained and experienced.

Christian Forgiveness in Daily Life

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Forgiveness is the ultimate mercy we are shown by God. His grace is undeserved and an act of pure mercy. It is ineffable, completely incomprehensible why he would come to us; the only answer we are given is love. We have to remind ourselves of the significance of this every day. It’s easy to forget about it because it’s so incomprehensible. The magnitude is hard to grasp. Still, a part of our daily meditation is to tap into the immense gravity of the meaning of forgiveness.

We all go through hardships of different degrees and taken with different temperaments. It’s easy to forgive ourselves for acting out from hardships, but we can’t seem to access that sort of empathy for others. We assume the worst by assuming everybody has easy circumstances and that we are the only ones suffering. It’s through empathy we can forgive.

In our own forgiveness, we must forgive others and ourselves. Forgiving others may come easy to some, but it is a monumental challenge to those who have been dealt lasting harm from others. It’s an act of obedience to forgive others. We have to look to God to understand others and to show the same overflowing love to others. In forgiving ourselves, we must not be flippant and let ourselves off the hook too easily. Repentance cannot be taken for granted. We may sin the same sin again, but we should know that it becomes increasingly painful and we cannot make forgiveness a transactional blank cheque.

A part of being generous and giving is being forgiving and bending for people. Obviously, there are boundaries and lines drawn by principle that we should not cross. But there is room for discretion, especially when it’s for the benefit of others instead of ourselves. We can often fool ourselves into thinking that we’re being selfless when it’s actually for our own pride. The example by C.S. Lewis is an overbearing woman who insists on having a tiny piece of toast and perfect temperature tea in an attempt to show modesty or the like; in actuality, it’s their own need for control and wanting things just their way that’s at play.

God shows leniency towards us. He could punish us or turn his back on us, but he always shows love and care. We have to use that example. Underlying lenience should be trust in God. There’s a time for everything. One way to understand Genesis and the forbidden fruit is to trust God in our growth. We can’t attempt to have things our way or control the timing of things; in this sense, we should not prematurely taste the fruits. We have to be patient and trusting of God and know that one day we’ll grow enough for God to serve us the fruits when it is allowed. The permission for our own good. It’s not an arbitrary rule; rather, it is like restricting the big boy’s bicycle until the child masters the training wheels. 

We have love as our breastplate and hope of salvation as a helmet. Through this, we can be lenient towards others and understand the relative insignificance of our tribulations. We can forgive others and glean over slights. Lenience can be understood as essentially interpersonal, but we should also be lenient towards ourselves insofar as not worrying about our own abilities and instead leaning on God.

Unconditional Commitment: Embracing Kierkegaard’s Philosophy for Christianity

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“Unconditional commitment” is the term Hubert Dreyfus used in explaining a core concept in Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy. It is a risky leap of faith that overcomes nihilism and gives meaning to our lives and our every action. All other commitments are flimsy and can fail, so we need some ultimate commitment to prop up our lives and use as a lens to see our lives through. The example Dreyfus uses is Martin Luther King and his civil rights movement—King wakes up every day knowing all his actions are directed towards his cause, and this is what gives his life meaning. Every moment was around social justice and civil rights, and all of his choices or value in life is guided by this single source of purpose. For Dreyfus, his unconditional commitment is teaching, which engrosses him entirely and he puts everything into it. And it truly made Dreyfus one of the greatest teachers and made his 87 years on this earth truly meaningful. However, the opportunity costs, the incomplete knowledge of the decision, and the complete devotion are some of what make an unconditional commitment an inherently risky decision to take.

What is the application to the Christian life? It’s straightforward and what Kierkegaard originally intended, that is, Christianity is the proper unconditional commitment. We have to see our entire life through the lens of Christianity: every action, decision, and plan. Deviating from this leads to inauthenticity, existential anxiety, and a failure to be ourselves. To stick to a commitment is a truism. For a commitment to be unconditional means that it is ultimate. To become and be a Christian is to live a life based on an unconditional commitment to Christ.

Eternal priorities are the ultimate priority. It gives everything else meaning. They are the priorities that prioritize everything else in life. Eternal priorities are related to the purpose Christians are put on earth for: spiritual growth, serving others, and, above all, serving God. As we take every step, make every action, choose every decision, we must always remember our ultimate priorities. The priorities that transcend time. Past and future are insignificant in comparison, and, in the present, we must reflect and reorganize our priorities to match the eternal priorities.

Every morning we must take on our new life. We have to enter the perspective of eternity to know our true selves. How we forget so easily is beyond me. Perhaps our animalistic side is somehow primary and we have to deliberately enter into more sober thinking. Even beyond the human, we have to try our best to reconnect with the Lord and ask for forgiveness of our sins. We can be grateful for everything by virtue of the light the Lord provides. Nothing can shake this core of faith.

Why are these priorities of infinite importance yet so easily forgettable? Is it because we believe it’s a part of our private lives and it crumbles as soon as the public knocks on the door? If so, we must integrate our beliefs into all areas of our life. We have to remind ourselves every day we wake up. If we look through the lens of eternity properly, we can enjoy our lives and appreciate the insignificance of our day-to-day to enjoy it. Like a stroll through the garden, even war and plague are nothing in the eternal perspective.

We are not meant for this world. But we are not prepared for the eternal either. We struggle awkwardly to have a glimpse at the eternal. The gap between eternal priorities and what we have here on earth is so vast that it seems impossible to apply. How do we apply eternal priorities to everyday practical priorities? Aren’t they insignificant compared to the eternal? In a sense, yes. But our day-to-day can contribute minutely to the eternal and have lasting compound effects.

We should remember the new covenant in contrast with the old. We have been saved eternally and made anew to obey the command of God in each situation rather than through legalistic laws. The knowledge of God is readily accessible to us through the Holy Spirit insofar as spiritual purity and morality, but we also have intellectual confidence that the experience of the Holy Spirit is more real than anything here on earth.

Freedom is often the central topic for existentialist thinkers. Radical freedom is a trait specific to humans and the experience of being a human. Freedom leads to uncertainty, anxiety, and all sorts of life’s complexities. We may choose to ignore our radical freedom, but this too has consequences. Ignoring our freedom is also a choice. Perhaps not as deliberate, but this can be all the more toxic. Kierkegaard diagnoses this neglect of our own freedom as the chief source of existential anxiety. It is interesting that secular thinkers also neglect freedom as the ultimate sin.

For the Christian, the freedom we have is a gift from God. Perhaps it is our ultimate gift. We have to nurture it and exercise our freedom wisely. We must use it to grow and make choices that align with God. This is our true purpose and the reason why we are on this earth at all; truly, all of our choices need to be deliberate and informed by our commitment to Christ. Through prayer and meditation, we can slow down and be more aware of our choices. We cannot let the world distract us and usurp this power of choice. We cannot use our freedom for ourselves and dig our empty cisterns. We need the spring of living water and set God at our core. An unconditional commitment to God is the only way to be truly free.

By taking on a conditional commitment, one becomes what Kierkegaard calls, “a knight of infinite resignation.” The knight of infinite resignation deliberately makes the choice to resign everything in life to focus on one source of value. Infinite resignation is a movement whereby one gives up what is most precious to them, and, in relinquishing the finite, gaining an “eternal consciousness” so that only love for God remains. The idea is to resign ourselves to God. With pure faith, we can go beyond the ethical realm and the norms of our community or self-authorized morality. We are weak thinkers; we need God’s infinite wisdom for our partial wisdom to be perfected in us. We must take every step with reference to Christ. We must give up everything—approval of others, value from others, or any animalistic, selfish desire—and instead, we must make reference to the only purpose.

We recommit ourselves every day, moment, and second. We can forget momentarily but all of our meaning must return to God. All decisions, every step, and every thought. All we can do is have faith in his grace. Life becomes simple. The busyness of life and the many distractions become noise. The correct perspective aligns all your decisions to a singular point, and all else is resigned. In other words, we give our all to the lord; we lift it all up to him and faithfully resign our will to his.

“That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.“

  • C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

The Christian Perspective on Honor: Rediscovering the Lost Virtue for Modern Faith

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Honor is a lost virtue. Honor, defined loosely as living up to the expectations of a group through keeping faith, promises, and truthfulness, is traditionally linked to free, adult males and is difficult to justify against universalist ethical theories. Honor has historically been central to political and commercial life, especially in a social context where individuals can bind themselves.

Modern philosophers often view honor as superficial compared to consequentialist and deontological ethics, yet some, like Aristotle, considered it the pinnacle of virtue. Honor’s commitments are socially contextual and non-contractual, relying on individual capacity and varying by society. It is seen as a measure of one’s ability to fulfill promises and display power. The concept faces challenges, such as its association with status and reputation, its misattribution to groups, and its alignment with the moral standards of its social context. While adaptable to enlightened concerns, honor’s non-universal nature may conflict with modern ethical intuitions like international human rights.

Despite its perceived primitiveness and association with questionable principles, like lawless gangs or vigilantism, honor remains significant in various forms. Honor cultures were much more common in the past, and it has grown to mean many things. Some relate it to valor, chivalry, and honesty; others connect it to a quality of worthiness and respect in relation to social standing. Socially, it has been connected to a code or a code of honor, or a kind of social norm that is understood and respected, and obeyed. It can cut to the core of what defines the elevated status of humanity: the dignity and respect owed to humans in virtue of being human. Of course, this dignity must be upheld and deserving through one’s actions.

The honor however does not come from our own pride, historical legacy, or honor of our tribe. The honor of the tribe is closer. We must remove ourselves completely from the equation. We must be honorable because we are a representative of Christ. Our honor is also not motivated by domination and superiority; rather, it is motivated by love and aligning ourselves with God. If anything, we seek to attain superiority over sin, but not over sinful people—this is an important distinction.

Through the Christian lens, honor is a duty. We must honor God, honor strangers, honor our intimates, and honor ourselves. We must align ourselves with the code of conduct worthy of Christians. Obedience to commands, while it is a small part of our relationship with Christ, is crucial and must not be taken lightly. Obedience and honor flows naturally from a loving relationship, but sin corrupts and we must always be conscience of honor to algin ourselves properly with God again.

Honor is closely related to holiness. We have to maintain holiness and strive to go beyond our sinful nature. The principles we follow from our relationship with Christ must be as important to us as the chase for glory is important for the warrior. We must enthusiastically uphold righteousness and high standards of Christ.

The lost virtue of honor must be on the minds of contemporary Christians. Drawing hard lines and doing things out of obedience is forgotten in this age of liberalism and self-reliance. To think that we are the arbiters of the code of conduct and that we can prioritize our desires over being honorable is hubris. We must humble ourselves. We must act honorably. 

Christian Meditation: Exploring the Unique Dimension of Relationship with God

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Meditation has been in the attention of empirical studies and its positive effects have been readily proven. Still, there is more to uncover, especially in relation to more abstract ideas of religiosity, mysticism, and sacred ideas of enlightenment, the divine, and so forth. It is difficult to connect to Christianity without casting Christianity in the box of just another religion. I will try to tease this separation out and argue for what is unique about Christianity and meditation.

Christian meditation can include other readily studied elements of mindfulness, peace, or whatever else is in popular jargon, but the unique dimension is its focus on the relationship with God. Christian meditation seeks to strip away all the distractions of the world and focus on a deeper reality of, as coined by Martin Buber, I and Thou. This is characterized by mutuality, presentness, and ineffability. It is a direct relation to God, who is ever-present in us and the awareness of the relationship is triggered by many sublime resemblances—music, nature, or other forms. We disconnect from this awareness of God so easily, and it becomes difficult to reconnect to this ideal view.

Being present is another widely used term in religion, particularly in Eastern traditions. One adage suggests that obsession over the future leads to anxiety and obsession over the future leads to depression; as such, the proper way to live is to be in the present. Meditation is supposed to help with this. A key takeaway is the ability to control one’s thoughts and control one’s ruminations on thing out of our control. It’s tempting to self-flagellate over our past or go through hypotheticals of the future, but resistance and focus on the present experiences is the healthier way to live our lives. Enough navel-gazing and paralysis through our catastrophizing.

How do we understand this through Christianity? God commands us not to ruminate on our sins; we must learn from it, ask for forgiveness, and move on. God also commands us to trust him for our futures; we can make prudent plans to some degree, but we must not overly commit to our future. This latter point needs explanation. We are not in control of our future and we tend to forget this. We think we have the power or control to direct our steps, yet we have brief glimpses of our helplessness. We do not know what to do with our ultimate helplessness so we naturally try to believe ourselves out of this. To delude ourselves into thinking we have control is the ultimate poison when things do not go our way. This is why faith and reliance on God is liberating.

The eternal perspective is best understood as a continual present. It takes faith and dependence on God to move forward this way. By staying in the present, we become free from everything else in the world. The daily scurry that is motivated by an uncertain future and the push of regret from a turbulent past—all those elements dissolve in the present. We can enjoy life by enjoying our walk with the Lord.

We also do not know what our past leads up to. As our past grows, it can become increasingly unclear how it all fits together. The trajectory of the past into the future can be so unclear to us. As the saying goes, things can change overnight. In this vein, the monotony of our day-to-day present can be upsetting. But we have to understand again that any second anything can happen and change can be drastic. We have to be faithful in our day-to-day for our master to call us. We must be ready.

The metaphor for me is the walk with Christ. As we live our lives, we are in constant walk with Christ. He never leaves us, and there is nothing outside of the walk; that is, our very steps into the future are our walk with Christ. Meditation allows us to tap into the reality above our day-to-day life: the presence of Christ by our side walking with us.

This is particularly lost in the modern world and meditation becomes that much more important. We get swept up in the distractions of the world and almost forget completely about the reality that is much more real than our day-to-day. The very mode of thinking becomes stuck. We do the most unhuman and unnatural thing for humans: forget the relationship with Christ. We can remember Christ through our inundated lens, but this forgets the relational aspect of fully experiencing the indescribable presence of Christ.  

I often meditate on the past in order to understand the present. I looked at an old photo album today and saw my parents. I meditated on their position as recently arrived immigrants—poor, scared, and working all the time. I felt so ungrateful for my current position and I felt like I had an infinite debt owed to them. This taste of being truly loved is a fraction of what God feels for us and what he’s done for us. The true depths are unfathomable.

Embracing Weakness and Finding Strength in God’s Power

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But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

  • 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

God’s power is often shrouded in mystery because it isn’t obvious to us in our daily lives. We read about it in the Bible, through miracles and various acts, but experiencing it firsthand is rare. This elusive nature makes it challenging for us to fully grasp or understand God’s omnipotence.

Omnipotence is an abstract concept that is difficult for us to comprehend. It is a philosophically complex topic. We might think of strength or power in terms of our everyday lives, but these are imperfect glimpses of true omnipotence. The power to create nature, the universe, and even our own minds and bodies is so far beyond our understanding; its magnitude renders it ineffable and we cannot get our minds around this infinite power.

God’s power is seen directly all throughout the Old Testament. Miracles provide a tangible example of God’s power. They represent God’s ability to interrupt the natural order with His divine will and breaking the very laws we consider immutable. This is why miracles can be hard to believe; they defy the logic and understanding of the human mind. For Christians, recognizing this power should inspire reverence and guide our daily lives. Forgetting God’s power means missing a crucial aspect of who God is which leads to an incomplete worship.

However, in the New Testament, we mostly see them through the miracles of Jesus. There are a few exceptions. Notably, the blinding of Paul, which led to his conversion. Arguably, this is also through Jesus, as he was the one he met on Damascus road and received censure for persecuting Christians. The giving and taking of his vision led to the conversion of Paul.

Thinking about what Paul experiences is revealing. Being blinded is a traumatic experience and undercuts whatever status Paul believed he had in persecuting Christians. God’s power shattered his worldview and it all changed in a moment. God’s power also restored his vision and, symbolically, helped him see the world clearer through his conversion.

We also see God’s power through the ultimate miracle of the resurrection of Christ. It’s the most supernatural event. Conquering death and sin. It destroys all of our anxiety, doubt, and angst. We can confidently move forward under the authority and strength of God; we know he is our ally so long as we have faith. This is the ultimate gift. God’s power is always there and it has the potential to change everything at any moment. Understanding this can bring us out of thinking we have things under our control or that things are hopelessly beyond our control. Faith in God’s power is what motivates and moves us.

When we meditate on God’s power, we become acutely aware of our own weaknesses. However, it is through these weaknesses that God’s power is perfected. We can take solace in knowing that our limitations are part of a greater, infinite power. Any strength we perceive in ourselves pales in comparison to God’s power. When we see others wielding power, we must remember that it is insignificant next to God’s omnipotence. We should not fear but respect human power, always keeping in mind its insignificance compared to the divine. God’s power is always with us.