When I had no r…

When I had no roof I made Audacity my roof.
When I had No supper my eyes dined.
When I had no eyes I listened.

When I had no ears I thought.
When I had no thought I waited.
When I had no father I made Care my father.

When I had No mother I embraced order.
When I had no friend I made Quiet my friend.
When I had no Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made My voice my temple.
I have No priest, my tongue is my choir.
When I have no means fortune Is my means.

When I have Nothing, death will be my fortune.
Need is my tactic, detachment Is my strategy.
When I had No lover I courted my sleep.

Samurai Song by Robert Pinsky

Plight of the Postmodernist?

We believe in Marx, Freud and Darwin.  We believe everything is okay as long as you don’t hurt anyone to the best of your definition of hurt and to the best of your definition of knowledge.  We believe in sex before, during and after marriage.  We believe in the therapy of sin.  We believe that adultery is fun.  We believe that taboos aren’t taboo.  We believe everything’s getting better despite evidence to the contrary.  The evidence must be investigated and you can prove anything with evidence.  We believe there is something in horoscopes, UFO’s and bent spoons.  Jesus was a good man just like Buddha, Muhammed and ourselves.  He was a good moral teacher although we think some of his good morals were really bad.  We believe that all religions are basically the same, at least the one’s we read were.  They all believe in love and goodness.  They only differ on matters of creation, sin, heaven, hell, God and salvation.  We believe after death comes the nothing because when you ask the dead what happens, they say nothing.  If death is not the end and the dead have lied, then its compulsory heaven for all, excepting perhaps, Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.  We believe in Masters and Johnson.  What’s selected is average.  What’s average is normal.  What’s normal is good. We believe in total disarmament.  We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.  Americans should beat their guns into tractors and the Russians would be sure to follow.  We believe that man is essentially good.  It’s only his behavior that lets him down. This is the fault of society.  Society is the fault of conditions.  Conditions are the fault of society.  We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.  Reality will adapt accordingly. The universe will readjust. History will alter. We believe that there is no absolute truth excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth. We believe in the rejection of creeds and the flowering of individual thought.  If chance is the father of all flesh, then disaster is his rainbow in the sky.  When in a state of emergency the sniper kills the child, the youth go looting, or bomb blasts rock the school, it is nothing more than the sound of man worshiping his maker.   (Written by Journalist, Steve Turner)

“Men are born free, but everywhere they are in chains.” (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)

When the famous French statesman wrote this, he was speaking from a purely political standpoint.   “Rousseau asserts that modern states repress the physical freedom that is our birthright, and do nothing to secure the civil freedom for the sake of which we enter into civil society.  Legitimate political authority, he suggests, come only from a social contract agreed upon by all citizens for their mutual preservation.”  Obviously he was referring to a more literal interpretation of his statement, emphasizing the necessity of freedom.

Until very recently, humans have enslaved each other, stripping them of their dignity and right to live freely.  After much protest and bloodshed, human slavery has finally been abolished in the modern world, and seen in a negative and inhumane light.  This is a relief to many people, knowing they are now free to live, eat, breathe, worship and study as they desire.

Sadly, however, slavery has returned.  In fact, it never really was eradicated.  Brave individuals may have won the battle for human rights and freedom, but several have not found freedom with their personal struggles.  Some are bound by a chain formed by links of their past, crippling them from moving on and experiencing the life that is awaiting them.  Others are bound by addictions.

When a baby is born, the parents have high hopes for their newborn.  No parent plans on their child becoming a drug addict.  No parent wants their child to get into an abusive relationship.  No parent wants their child to kill themselves in a moment of hopelessness.  No parent plans on their child becoming a rapist or serial killer.  A newborn, with all its innocence, brings thoughts of hope and plans for success to its parents.

With time, however, that little baby grows up, and at some point is introduced to the first link in a chain that will only become longer with time.  Maybe it’s something small.  Maybe his parents stop being there for him because they have their own problems to worry about, but it leaves a lasting impression.  Maybe her father left her mother, leaving her to value herself less and search for the missing love in illicit relationships.    Maybe he is bullied at school and gets into a gang to “prove himself.”  Maybe she begins starving herself because he thinks being thinner will make her more popular.  Maybe his friends offer him weed, and he smokes it, to retain their approval.  Maybe they both turn to alcohol to drown their feelings of abandonment, loneliness, depression and need for love.

These people weren’t born broken individuals.  They were born free.  As life began wrapping its tentacles around them, however, the chain grew longer and tighter until the only thing they could do was add more links, hoping something would snap.

What is the solution?  For those who believe in God, Jesus sought to bring freedom from sin by offering himself as a substitute for the punishment we were sentenced to endure.  John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may gave life, and have it more abundantly.”

There is hope.  No matter what  you’ve been though, no matter what you’ve experienced, no matter how tightly the chains are wound, no matter how many links are on the chains, no matter if you even have the energy to break free—there is hope in the sacrifice of Jesus and the gift of God’s love.

The Essence of Success

Success is a powerful and positive word.  Who doesn’t want success and all that it promises?  Many college students are especially driven to attain this through pursuing a major that promises a lucrative or prestigious career upon graduation.  As a junior in college, I myself have thought about success in my own future, how to accomplish it, and worried about it actually happening.

What exactly is success?  More importantly, what does it mean to you?  As I thought about these questions, I came to the conclusion that for me, success must be synonymous with happiness.  Unfortunately, true happiness isn’t something that is a guarantee if one pursues it in forms of a career, prestige, acquisition of monetary goods, houses, investments, and so forth.  Happiness rather, is attained through memories–memories made with family, friends and acquaintances.  While a career and the benefits thereof add a nice plus to life, true success/happiness will come in mastering the relationships with those around us; thus, it’s a never-ending process.

Everyone has values that make up a part of who they are.  For me, the two things I value most are genuineness and peace, which inevitably leads to happiness.  First and foremost, one must be honest with themselves.  Providing that you can admit to yourself when you are wrong, that you can admit to yourself when you are disappointed, and that you can admit to yourself what your real intentions are, will set the foundation for you to be genuine with others.  You will be able to resolve your conflicts maturely, you will be able to make decisions that you can stand by, and you can own up to your faults because you don’t deny where you went wrong.

I believe this type of transparency will lead to peace (as much as is possible in a messed-up world).  For me, true success will happen when I can genuinely be at peace with God, myself and those around me.  Whatever benefits that come with that, whether it be a prestigious career, money, or a nice house, will only add to the experience; yet if I never make it “big” in terms of worldly wealth, I will still have something that will survive all of life’s hurdles.  To me, this is the definition of success.

10,000 Hours

My favorite technological corporation is Google. I find them fascinating because they have revolutionized the internet and are consistently introducing products that make the web experience useful. Yes, I have a Gmail account, have my homepage set to Google.com, chat with my friends on Google Talk, manage my schedule on Google Calendar, follow the Google Official Blog, and currently am reading The Google Story (a biography about the company and its founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page). In one of their recent blog posts, they mentioned a series on You Tube called “Authors @ Google.” Because I love Google, and I love reading, I decided to check it out.

The video quality is not too terribly professional and the production style is dry, but the presentations are epic. “Authors @ Google” just aired their 1,000th show, and their selection is phenomenal. They have interviewed famous modern-day celebrities and authors from Conan O’Brien, Thomas Keller, Tim Keller, and Noam Chomsky to political figures like Ron Paul, Hillary Clinton, and Barak Obama. I scrolled through until I found my favorite author, Malcolm Gladwell, and clicked on the link. The episode lasted about an hour and featured him in an interview, discussing his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, where he discussed his popular “10,000 hour rule.”

According to Gladwell, nobody really becomes successful at something until they have put in 10,000 hours of practice which turns out to be 3 hours a day for 10 years. He then pointed out case studies of renowned classical musicians like Mozart and Beethovan who didn’t produce their greatest work until after 10 years of practice. According to his research, this is true for most of the people who have carved a name for themselves, in whatever area.

His thoughts on this had me thinking all day. When one thinks of the factors that make a person successful, they often name opportunity, resources, hard-work, determination and privilege. He says all of those definitely have their place, but is built on a foundation and tied together with patience and practice. He proposes that most people are too impatient in the development of talent.

I used to think that successful people knew a lot about everything, and naturally excelled at something in their life. In all reality, however, this mindset is what causes the production of so much mediocre work. If one spends their life learning the basics of everything, and only relies on their natural talent to help them, in say, their career, it’s rather unlikely they’ll master anything grand. Of course, it’s okay to have a general knowledge of many things, but choosing that one area, skill, or subject and dedicating yourself to it, is the secret of success.

Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen to Good People?

I just spent this past week in Alberta on a student leadership retreat where I received an answer to a very important question.   The second day of our stay we took a break from the workshops, seminars and general assemblies and drove out to Banff National Park which is located in the Rocky Mountains.  We spent most of the afternoon hiking through Johnston Canyon, astonished with the beauty hidden in the little crevices of the mountain.

It was snowing and the trails were slippery therefore I had to be careful not to slip and tumble down the sides into the valley below.  Despite this, the demand for careful attention did not inhibit me from relishing in the picturesque scenes enveloping my environment.  My thoughts wandered to how all this beauty was a result of a flood used to wash away sin from the world.   I then noted that, despite the flood happening because of sin, God still pulled something beautiful from the situation.  It made me think of how much love God has for us—He can even turn a destructive situation into something grand and glorious.  I hiked ahead of the rest and then took a moment to pray while looking over a bluff, watching a waterfall cascade into several sub-waterfalls and tumble down the mountain side into water so crystal clear that you could plainly see the rainbow of rocks beneath.

The thought has often crossed my mind, “Why doesn’t God just answer so many of my prayers and just make people behave?”  I often pray that God will change people’s minds and help them do such and such because He’s supposed to do anything.  At that moment it dawned on me that God’s capabilities to answer my prayers are limited by his love.  He cares for everyone so much and wants the best for everyone involved, however his capacity to intervene is prohibited by the ultimate gift of love: free choice.  Because he gave each of us free choice he cannot force someone to behave in a way that we demand.

I used to ask why God allows bad things to happen to good people.  Questions regarding poverty, starving children, homeless people, physical violence, rape, random car accidents and the sudden death of people have often plagued my thinking.  Ultimately I figured that either God is powerless to intercept or that He doesn’t care about what is happening.  Surprisingly the answer to this question came while contemplating His power that was displayed throughout the canyon.  As much as He wants to prevent people from doing horrible things to others, it happens because He has given them the power to choose either one of two ways.  Ultimately the way they choose will determine if the love they have for God is real or not.  God could have forced us to love Him by restricting our power of choice, but He risked it and hoped someone would realize this and reciprocate.

While resting my head against the tree I looked around and realized that our lives are comparable to the mountain.  It’s believed that there were no mountain ranges before the flood and they were caused through the shifting of the tectonic plates during that time, therefore Johnston Canyon is here today because of sin.  There are often mountains in our lives because of sin, because people have used their power of choice and decided against God.  God wasn’t going to let a few mountain ranges ruin the world however—instead he took those massive misalignments of rocks and turned them into something breathtaking.  Likewise God doesn’t allow the mountains in our lives to distort our courses.  In my own experience at least, bad things have happened but there was never a time where God didn’t turn a tragedy into something beautiful.  This is the biggest testament for me that God is present in my life and takes a personal interest in what happens to me.  He might be limited by our power to choose, but He nothing is limiting him from taking our decisions and turning them into masterful lessons that not only shape our character, but teach us lessons about who He is as our personal God.  God is a God who gives His followers both the freedom of choice and the grace to make their lives beautiful despite the circumstances that affect them.

Misplaced Confidence

I am currently reading an autobiography, Walking from East to West by Ravi Zacharias.  Half way through the book he recounts some of his favorite authors and quotes a statement by G. K. Chesterton, that is very astounding.  ”Chesterton says, in essence, that there is a dislocation of humility in our times.  We have become more confident in who we are and less in what we believe.  Our pride has moved us from the organ of conviction to the organ of ambition, when it is intended to be the other way around.  In short, our confidence should be in our message and not in ourselves.”  (Walking from East to West, pg. 114)

When I read this, my mouth dropped open because this is exactly the plague facing society today.  Popular culture places a large emphasis on us as individuals and the external features one has: the car we drive, the job we hold, the clothes we wear, and the money we make.  Even in terms of our spiritual nature we are defined in terms of “how in-touch we are with ourselves.”  And the belief and practice of this philosophy is supposedly displayed in our confidence.

While I agree with this to an extent, I think our core values in what we believe in terms of the worldview we hold, our thoughts relating to God, and the philosophies we use to explain our purpose in society are key elements in gaining true confidence.  When we know what we believe for ourselves–beliefs that aren’t defined by those around us, then we can be truly confident in the message we’re delivering to others.  If we focus merely on the external factors, than we have great advertising, an attractive package, and great performance, but we’re lacking internal integrity, which is the core of confidence.