Em Seus Braços - Film protuguês
Monday, February 24, 2014
Not a blank slate after all
BreakPoint, February 21, 2014
In his 1689 “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” the philosopher John Locke wrote that if “we will attentively consider new born children, we shall have little reason to think that they bring many ideas into the world with them.”
He proposed that we think of the newborn’s mind as a white piece of paper, “void of all characters, without any ideas.” Ideas, he posited, including the sense of right and wrong, are the product of the child’s experience.
This view, which came to be known as the “blank slate,” dominated the social sciences for the better part of three hundred years, despite accumulating evidence that it didn’t conform to, well, human experience.
Now a recent finding from Yale might just put the final nail in the blank slate’s coffin.
After a series of experiments over eight years, researchers at Yale’s Infant Cognition Center have concluded that “babies are in fact born with an innate sense of morality, and while parents and society can help develop a belief system in babies, they don’t create one.” Now that is amazing!
The most basic of these experiments involves showing a baby examples of good and bad behavior and observing which behavior the baby prefers. In the experiment, “a gray cat is seen trying to open a big plastic box. The cat tries repeatedly, but he just can’t open the lid all the way.”
Then, a “bunny in a green T-shirt comes along and helps open the box.” That is followed by a bunny in an orange shirt slamming the box before running away.
The baby is then presented with the two bunnies. Eighty percent of the time, the baby chooses the helpful bunny over the mean and unhelpful one. Among three-month-olds, the percentage rises to 87 percent.
Paul Bloom of Yale and the author of “Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil,” says the studies demonstrate that babies are born with a “rudimentary sense of justice” that allows them to judge the actions of others.
And even though he adds that this sense is “tragically limited,” the very fact that babies can grasp justice long before they can even speak says a lot about human nature. It also confirms a major claim of the Christian worldview. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, the requirements of the law are “written on our hearts,” and when we violate them, our consciences accuse us, even if we have not been tutored in the law.
This aspect of human nature poses serious problems for other worldviews, especially secular materialism. If we’re nothing more than highly-evolved animals whose instincts were selected for survival value, how do we explain this impulse toward justice, especially when it places our survival in danger?
It turns out that this problem leads us back to one of the most vexing questions all worldviews seek to answer: Who is the human person? The secular, materialistic worldview might be able to explain us at our worst: We’re animals, and no one should be surprised when we act like it. But that view cannot explain why we innately disapprove of such behavior—even from our infancy.
In his 1689 “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” the philosopher John Locke wrote that if “we will attentively consider new born children, we shall have little reason to think that they bring many ideas into the world with them.”
He proposed that we think of the newborn’s mind as a white piece of paper, “void of all characters, without any ideas.” Ideas, he posited, including the sense of right and wrong, are the product of the child’s experience.
This view, which came to be known as the “blank slate,” dominated the social sciences for the better part of three hundred years, despite accumulating evidence that it didn’t conform to, well, human experience.
Now a recent finding from Yale might just put the final nail in the blank slate’s coffin.
After a series of experiments over eight years, researchers at Yale’s Infant Cognition Center have concluded that “babies are in fact born with an innate sense of morality, and while parents and society can help develop a belief system in babies, they don’t create one.” Now that is amazing!
The most basic of these experiments involves showing a baby examples of good and bad behavior and observing which behavior the baby prefers. In the experiment, “a gray cat is seen trying to open a big plastic box. The cat tries repeatedly, but he just can’t open the lid all the way.”
Then, a “bunny in a green T-shirt comes along and helps open the box.” That is followed by a bunny in an orange shirt slamming the box before running away.
The baby is then presented with the two bunnies. Eighty percent of the time, the baby chooses the helpful bunny over the mean and unhelpful one. Among three-month-olds, the percentage rises to 87 percent.
Paul Bloom of Yale and the author of “Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil,” says the studies demonstrate that babies are born with a “rudimentary sense of justice” that allows them to judge the actions of others.
And even though he adds that this sense is “tragically limited,” the very fact that babies can grasp justice long before they can even speak says a lot about human nature. It also confirms a major claim of the Christian worldview. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, the requirements of the law are “written on our hearts,” and when we violate them, our consciences accuse us, even if we have not been tutored in the law.
This aspect of human nature poses serious problems for other worldviews, especially secular materialism. If we’re nothing more than highly-evolved animals whose instincts were selected for survival value, how do we explain this impulse toward justice, especially when it places our survival in danger?
It turns out that this problem leads us back to one of the most vexing questions all worldviews seek to answer: Who is the human person? The secular, materialistic worldview might be able to explain us at our worst: We’re animals, and no one should be surprised when we act like it. But that view cannot explain why we innately disapprove of such behavior—even from our infancy.
How Ukraine’s economic decay fueled protests
By David McHugh, AP, Feb 21, 2014
The battle in Kiev is, in large part, a fight for the country’s economic future—for better jobs and prosperity.
Ukraine’s protesters want to pry their country away from Russian influence and move closer to the European Union. A look at neighboring Poland, which did just that, suggests why.
The two countries emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago in roughly similar economic shape. But Poland joined the EU and focused on reforms and investment—and by one measure is now three times richer than Ukraine.
Ukraine, on the other hand, sank in a post-Soviet swamp of corruption, bad government and short-sighted reliance on cheap gas from Russia.
Per capita economic output is only around $7,300, even adjusted for the lower cost of living there, compared to $22,200 in Poland and around $51,700 in the United States. Ukraine ranks 137th worldwide, behind El Salvador, Namibia, and Guyana.
Protests broke out in November after President Viktor Yanukovich backed out of signing an agreement with the EU that would have brought the economy closer in line with European standards. After violent protests resulted in scores of deaths, the government and the opposition signed an agreement on Friday. But it is unclear whether it will succeed in providing a stable government that can heal the rifts and improve the economy.
It didn’t have to be this way, experts say. Ukraine has a large potential consumer market, with 46 million people, an educated workforce, and a rich potential export market next door in the EU. It has a significant industrial base and good natural resources, in particular rich farmland.
How did things go so wrong? Here are the main reasons.
OLD INDUSTRY: Ukraine did little to move away from Soviet-era industries producing commodities such as steel, metals and chemicals. Former communist state companies, often privatized to politically connected figures, relied on cheap gas from Russia and growing demand from the world economy for their raw materials.
That helped Ukraine’s economy grow rapidly from 2000 to 2008, but reduced pressure to modernize.
When the world economy fell into a crisis in 2008, demand for Ukraine’s materials plunged. Then in 2009, Russia significantly raised the price of its gas supplies, further pulling the rug from underneath the country’s export industries.
Pekka Sutela, an economist at Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology who has extensively studied post-Soviet economies, calls the gas-based export boom “the Ukrainian curse.”
“The economy was able to grow without making the necessary changes,” he said.
GAS FOLLIES: Ukraine’s state gas company, Naftogaz, charges customers only about 20 percent of what it pays for imported Russian gas. That means the government spends about 7.5 percent of the entire economy’s output each year on a massive home heating subsidy aimed at keeping voters happy. That results in large budget deficits that the government must borrow to cover.
The International Monetary Fund tried to help Ukraine through its post-crisis troubles, with loan packages in 2008 and 2010. Each time, the IMF turned off the money tap after Ukraine refused to follow policy requirements including raising gas prices or cutting back sufficiently on generous government salaries and pensions.
CORRUPTION: A recent World Bank study of the economy cited “pervasive” corruption as a major factor holding back the economy. At street level, businesses are subjected to arbitrary treatment by officials and demands for bribes. Higher up, there is widespread public skepticism over the fortunes amassed by the connected, known as oligarchs. In particular, attention has focused on the career of Yanukovych’s son Oleksandr, a dentist who according to Forbes Ukraine has amassed a $510 million fortune through various business enterprises.
Ukraine ranked 144 out of 175 countries in the 2013 corruption perception index compiled by Transparency International, an anti-corruption group, behind Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, and Iran.
RED TAPE: Business advocates say owners sometimes prefer paying bribes to obeying regulations and taxes that are so complicated and burdensome that they would be out of business if they complied. The country’s complex business tax laws require 390 hours a year to comply with and take 54.9 percent of profits. That put Ukraine 164th out of 189 countries in ease of paying taxes in a World Bank survey.
BROKEN FINANCES: Ukraine’s finances now are in such bad shape that it will have trouble paying its debts this year without outside help. With continuing deficits, it faces borrowing needs of between $7 billion and $10 billion this year. Its poor prospects mean it’s unlikely to be able to borrow more on bond markets.
On top of that, the central bank has been spending its dwindling foreign currency reserves, which were down to $17.8 billion at the end of January, to prop up the exchange rate of the hryvnia currency. One reason it is doing so is likely that many businesses and consumers owe money in dollars—a sharp drop in the hryvinia could trigger widespread bankruptcies.
Unfortunately, keeping the currency artificially strong hurts exports.
Russia had promised $15 billion in credit—an inducement to abandon closer ties with the EU and join a Russian-sponsored trade group. Even that money, however, seems to be on hold due to uncertainty about the fate of the Yanukovich government. Ratings agency Standard & Poors said Friday Ukraine would likely default without a significant improvement in the political crisis.
Sutela said that even Russian help would only be a stopgap and couldn’t paper over the need for fundamental change.
“Next autumn, they will go cap in hand and beg the Russians for money again,” he said.
The battle in Kiev is, in large part, a fight for the country’s economic future—for better jobs and prosperity.
Ukraine’s protesters want to pry their country away from Russian influence and move closer to the European Union. A look at neighboring Poland, which did just that, suggests why.
The two countries emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago in roughly similar economic shape. But Poland joined the EU and focused on reforms and investment—and by one measure is now three times richer than Ukraine.
Ukraine, on the other hand, sank in a post-Soviet swamp of corruption, bad government and short-sighted reliance on cheap gas from Russia.
Per capita economic output is only around $7,300, even adjusted for the lower cost of living there, compared to $22,200 in Poland and around $51,700 in the United States. Ukraine ranks 137th worldwide, behind El Salvador, Namibia, and Guyana.
Protests broke out in November after President Viktor Yanukovich backed out of signing an agreement with the EU that would have brought the economy closer in line with European standards. After violent protests resulted in scores of deaths, the government and the opposition signed an agreement on Friday. But it is unclear whether it will succeed in providing a stable government that can heal the rifts and improve the economy.
It didn’t have to be this way, experts say. Ukraine has a large potential consumer market, with 46 million people, an educated workforce, and a rich potential export market next door in the EU. It has a significant industrial base and good natural resources, in particular rich farmland.
How did things go so wrong? Here are the main reasons.
OLD INDUSTRY: Ukraine did little to move away from Soviet-era industries producing commodities such as steel, metals and chemicals. Former communist state companies, often privatized to politically connected figures, relied on cheap gas from Russia and growing demand from the world economy for their raw materials.
That helped Ukraine’s economy grow rapidly from 2000 to 2008, but reduced pressure to modernize.
When the world economy fell into a crisis in 2008, demand for Ukraine’s materials plunged. Then in 2009, Russia significantly raised the price of its gas supplies, further pulling the rug from underneath the country’s export industries.
Pekka Sutela, an economist at Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology who has extensively studied post-Soviet economies, calls the gas-based export boom “the Ukrainian curse.”
“The economy was able to grow without making the necessary changes,” he said.
GAS FOLLIES: Ukraine’s state gas company, Naftogaz, charges customers only about 20 percent of what it pays for imported Russian gas. That means the government spends about 7.5 percent of the entire economy’s output each year on a massive home heating subsidy aimed at keeping voters happy. That results in large budget deficits that the government must borrow to cover.
The International Monetary Fund tried to help Ukraine through its post-crisis troubles, with loan packages in 2008 and 2010. Each time, the IMF turned off the money tap after Ukraine refused to follow policy requirements including raising gas prices or cutting back sufficiently on generous government salaries and pensions.
CORRUPTION: A recent World Bank study of the economy cited “pervasive” corruption as a major factor holding back the economy. At street level, businesses are subjected to arbitrary treatment by officials and demands for bribes. Higher up, there is widespread public skepticism over the fortunes amassed by the connected, known as oligarchs. In particular, attention has focused on the career of Yanukovych’s son Oleksandr, a dentist who according to Forbes Ukraine has amassed a $510 million fortune through various business enterprises.
Ukraine ranked 144 out of 175 countries in the 2013 corruption perception index compiled by Transparency International, an anti-corruption group, behind Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, and Iran.
RED TAPE: Business advocates say owners sometimes prefer paying bribes to obeying regulations and taxes that are so complicated and burdensome that they would be out of business if they complied. The country’s complex business tax laws require 390 hours a year to comply with and take 54.9 percent of profits. That put Ukraine 164th out of 189 countries in ease of paying taxes in a World Bank survey.
BROKEN FINANCES: Ukraine’s finances now are in such bad shape that it will have trouble paying its debts this year without outside help. With continuing deficits, it faces borrowing needs of between $7 billion and $10 billion this year. Its poor prospects mean it’s unlikely to be able to borrow more on bond markets.
On top of that, the central bank has been spending its dwindling foreign currency reserves, which were down to $17.8 billion at the end of January, to prop up the exchange rate of the hryvnia currency. One reason it is doing so is likely that many businesses and consumers owe money in dollars—a sharp drop in the hryvinia could trigger widespread bankruptcies.
Unfortunately, keeping the currency artificially strong hurts exports.
Russia had promised $15 billion in credit—an inducement to abandon closer ties with the EU and join a Russian-sponsored trade group. Even that money, however, seems to be on hold due to uncertainty about the fate of the Yanukovich government. Ratings agency Standard & Poors said Friday Ukraine would likely default without a significant improvement in the political crisis.
Sutela said that even Russian help would only be a stopgap and couldn’t paper over the need for fundamental change.
“Next autumn, they will go cap in hand and beg the Russians for money again,” he said.
A Fonte da Verdadeira Felicidade
Compilação
Deus é tão imensamente maravilhoso, total e plenamente encantador, que pode, por Si só, satisfazer abundantemente, até transbordar, as mais profundas necessidades da natureza humana.—Aiden Tozer[1]
*
O ser humano se encaixa exatamente no deleitoso lugar que Deus projeta para ele dentro do Seu grande esquema. Quando ele o alcança, sente-se satisfeito e feliz. É como o alÃvio depois da cura de uma fratura em um osso. Quando o nosso desejo é ser algo além do que Deus planejou para nós, na realidade estamos desejando algo que não nos fará felizes. As exigências divinas que, para a nossa natureza parecem mais comandos de um déspota do que o desÃgnio de alguém que nos ama na verdade vão nos levar aonde desejarÃamos ir -- se soubéssemos o que desejamos.—C. S. Lewis[2]
*
Eu sei o que é preciso na vida de cada pessoa para levá-la à posição na qual pode ver claramente a sua insuficiência, perceber a futilidade da carne e do mundo, e quando a sua necessidade por Mim se torna um fato genuÃno.
É então que se percebe as coisas no espÃrito, pela Minha perspectiva, que é a visão da realidade mais verdadeira e profunda. Nesse ponto você entende que Eu sou o centro, a razão, o sentido de tudo, e que sem Mim não há nada.
O resultado final de permitir que passe por dificuldades é levá-lo a esse estado no espÃrito, quando chega ao seu limite e Eu então assumo o controle. Nessa condição você não é nada e Eu sou tudo. A partir daà eu entro e o possuo completamente.—Jesus falando em profecia[3]
*
Jesus é o meu Deus.
Jesus é o meu Esposo(a).
Jesus é a minha Vida.
Jesus é o meu maior Amor.
Jesus é a minha Plenitude.
Jesus é Tudo para mim.—Madre Teresa
*
Arrependa-se e acredite no Evangelho, Jesus diz. Mude o seu modo de pensar e acredite que as boas novas de que somos amados são melhores do que poderÃamos esperar, e que acreditar nas boas novas, viver com base nelas e as tendo por meta, estar apaixonado pelas boas novas, é a melhor coisa de todas as coisas boas no mundo.—Frederick Buechner
*
Sossegado pensando em Deus,
Que alegria!
Refletir nEle e inspirar Seu nome,
Incomparável sensação de harmonia. Pai de Jesus, recompensa do amor!
Será arrebatador esse dia,
Diante do Trono reverenciar
E contemplar Tua face querida! —Frederick Faber
*
Foi-nos dito como nós, seres humanos, podemos ser atraÃdos para junto de Cristo e nos tornarmos parte desse presente maravilhoso que o jovem PrÃncipe deseja oferecer ao Seu Pai -- Ele próprio e nós a Ele agregados. Fomos criados para esse único propósito; a BÃblia nos dá sinais estranhos e excitantes de que, ao sermos atraÃdos para junto de Cristo, muitas outras coisas naturalmente começarão a se acertar. O pesadelo vai terminar e vai raiar o dia.—C. S. Lewis[4]
*
Para ganhar esta intimidade Comigo, na qual as coisas deste mundo são menos sedutoras ou atraentes, precisa ter as coisas deste mundo por perda — se elas o afastarem de Mim. Você talvez se indague, “Como vou fazer isso?”. Precisa manter os olhos no Céu, na eternidade, sabendo que as coisas desta Terra são como a neblina, que logo se dissipa, elas existem por alguns poucos anos, mas as coisas do Meu EspÃrito duram para sempre. É a visão eterna. A carne e as coisas desta Terra que muitas vezes parecem tão importantes, logo não existirão mais.
Então, avance para as coisas que estão adiante, prosseguindo para o alvo pelo prêmio da sua soberana vocação.[5] Concentre sua mente nos lugares celestiais, pensando no que há de vir, em vez de nas coisas que existem, nas muitas coisas que o rodeiam.
Todas as coisas mudam ou passam um dia, só Eu permaneço. -- Jesus, falando em profecia[6]
*
Mas o que para mim era ganho reputei-o perda por Cristo.
E, na verdade, tenho também por perda todas as coisas, pela excelência do conhecimento de Cristo Jesus, meu Senhor; pelo qual sofri a perda de todas estas coisas, e as considero como escória, para que possa ganhar a Cristo, e seja achado nele, não tendo a minha justiça que vem da lei, mas a que vem pela fé em Cristo, a saber, a justiça que vem de Deus pela fé. Para conhecê-lo, e à virtude da sua ressurreição, e à comunicação de suas aflições, sendo feito conforme à sua morte.
Não que já a tenha alcançado, ou que seja perfeito; mas prossigo para alcançar aquilo para o que fui também preso por Cristo Jesus.
Irmãos, quanto a mim, não julgo que o haja alcançado; mas uma coisa faço, e é que, esquecendo-me das coisas que atrás ficam, e avançando para as que estão diante de mim, prossigo para o alvo, pelo prêmio da soberana vocação de Deus em Cristo Jesus.—Apóstolo Paulo, Filipenses 3:7–10, 12–14
*
Descobrir que Eu basto é uma experiência pela qual cada pessoa tem que passar sem ajuda externa. Ter o desejo ardente de descobrir isso é fruto de Me amar e valorizar a Minha Palavra, de passar tempo Comigo e passar por todas as experiências da vida junto Comigo. E então, como alguém que se apaixonou, você vai querer ter mais de Mim, vai querer saber o que Eu penso, como sinto, como gostaria que fizesse uma determinada coisa. Descobrirá então como sou sábio, cheio de ideias e maravilhoso. Eu passarei a ser tudo para você.—Jesus falando em profecia[7]
Publicado no Âncora em janeiro de 2013.
Tradução Hebe Rondon Flandoli. Revisão Tiago Santana.
[1] Em Busca de Deus.
[2] The Problem of Pain.
[3] Publicado originalmente em junho de 2006.
[4] Cristianismo Puro e Simples.
[5] Filipenses 3:13–14.
[6] Publicado originalmente em junho de 2006.
[7] Publicado originalmente em junho de 2006.
Christ in Us: Our Hope of Glory
By D. Brandt Berg
Audio length: 10:09
Download Audio (9.2MB)
You cannot hide a happy, useful, helpful, shining spirit; it radiates on everybody the same light, the same joy. People see it and say, “You have such a light on your face; you seem so happy, you just shine. You’re always smiling!” It just radiates.
Happiness is what you make it. It’s a law of God just like gravity that you don’t get happy by trying to make yourself happy or trying to get somebody else to make you happy, but you get happiness by trying to give it to other people. You don’t find happiness by chasing it. You go around trying to make others happy, then happiness will find you; it will chase you and catch up with you and make you happy.
There is a little saying that love isn’t love till you give it away. What does it mean? Love isn’t real love until you are spending your time trying to give love to others.—Not trying to get love. That’s not love; that’s selfishness and wanting selfish satisfaction.
When you’re down in the dumps and you’re tearful and you’re a sad sack, you want everybody to be miserable with you; you want everybody else to sympathize with you and be sad with you. “How dare they be happy when I’m so sad? How can you be cheerful when I’m down in the dumps? Come on down here in the dumps with me! Don’t you dare be happy when I’m sad!” It’s pitiful. It’s human nature. But it’s godly nature, it’s spiritual nature, it’s the nature of Jesus to try to lift others up and encourage them and cheer them up even when you don’t feel like it.
The trouble is, I've found many people blame all their troubles on somebody else. They go around all their lives looking for somebody to make them happy instead of trying to find somebody they can make happy. It’s a common reaction to try to blame your problem on everybody else. “Why me, Lord? I didn’t do it; they did it to me! It wasn’t my fault. It’s his fault, her fault! They’re the ones to blame! They’re the ones that made me feel like this.” Because you’re sad and you’re unhappy, you may not even realize it, but you’re trying to bring everybody down with you.
My, how we love sympathy when we’re down, when sometimes that’s the last thing in the world we need. Somebody needs to come along to wake us up out of our lethargy and our stupor of self-pity and self-sympathy so we can get our minds on the Lord and His work and others and forget our stinking self! You’ll never get the victory by looking at yourself. There’s nobody that drags me down worse than me and myself, my own foul spirit.
Different denominations have different doctrines about getting the victory. Some believe that everybody’s got a good self and a bad self, and the only way to get the victory is to get the good self on top of the bad self and hold him down. They call it the doctrine of suppression, that you’ll always have that good and bad self, and the only thing to do is to just hold the bad self down.
The Holiness people believe in the doctrine of eradication: “Yes, you’ve got a good and a bad self, and the only way to get the victory is to get rid of the bad self. Go through the process of entire sanctification. Have the bad self cut out and throw it away like a cancer so there’s nothing but good self left. This is the good me. This is my self, the real self, the good self. There’s no evil thing left in me now; I’m all good, just the good me.”
The true doctrine of the Holy Spirit is neither one. You don’t get the victory by holding down that bad self, that temptation, that weakness, by just trying to hold it down by your own strength and by your good self sitting on it. You’ll never get the victory that way. And you'll never get the victory by thinking that you can have God cut out the bad self and just leave the good self.
I want to tell you right now, there is no such thing as good self at all. Your self cannot be good, not any part of it! There’s no good thing in you. The apostle Paul said, “No good thing dwelleth in me.”1 The true victory is not yourself, but His Self, Himself, so that “it is not I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”2 The doctrine of habitation, cohabiting with the Lord.
“There is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”3 You’re no better than me and I’m no better than you. There’s nobody any better than us except Jesus. He’s the only one who can be good, and without Him we’re nothing! We can’t be good without Jesus, we can’t be righteous; we can’t get the victory, we can’t overcome our weaknesses. Don’t try to chase out the darkness; let the light in. Let Jesus in and He’ll take care of the whole problem. Get your mind off self and let Jesus come in and let the life of Christ shine in you.
Let go and let God! Quit trying to be something you aren’t and can never be, and that’s righteous. Only Jesus can make you righteous. Just let Jesus in. As that old song says, “Lift your heart to heaven and His glory will come in. Let Jesus have possession, He’ll save you from your sin. Lift your heart to heaven and His glory will come in.”
“Let go and let God have His wonderful way, let go and let God have His way! He’ll fill with His Spirit and turn night to day, let go and let God have His way.”
None of us are good enough. Only Jesus is good enough, but He’s good enough for us all. So let the light in and the darkness will flee. What is the glory? It’s the Spirit of the Lord. It’s His Spirit, His glory, His Self.
In our school we used to have people complaining about evil spirits and demons and devils. “Oh, the Devil did this and the Devil did that, and he caused me this trouble, and he was the one that delayed me, and I have so much trouble with the Devil.” I’d say, “Your problem isn’t the Devil! It’s our own spirit that we have the most trouble with, not evil spirits.”
Don’t blame it on everybody else and evil spirits and even the Devil. You can be your own worst enemy! You may have conquered all the rest, but your own spirit is the most difficult to conquer, and the only way you’re ever going to conquer it is not to conquer it, but to let Jesus conquer it. He’s your best friend.
“Keep your eyes on Jesus, do not watch the waves. Keep your eyes on Jesus, 'tis faith in Him that saves. Keep your eyes on Jesus, His promises avail. Keep your eyes on Jesus, praise God, He cannot fail.”
So why not quit trying to succeed yourself. Quit trying to have the victory. Just let Jesus come in and let Him win it. Get your mind on the Lord. Get your mind on your job. Get your mind on helping others. Seek their happiness before your own. Have real, genuine, sacrificial, unselfish love. That’s love, not trying to make yourself happy or trying to get others to make you happy. Get your mind on Jesus. Ask Him to help you love Him so much you’ll love others so much you’ll forget yourself, and live for Him, live for others.
Why not get busy and work hard for Jesus, work hard for others, work hard to help other people? You’ll get so busy and so filled with His Spirit and so filled with His joy and His happiness that He gives you as a result of trying to make other people happy, that you’ll forget that self of yours and your own worst enemy and you’ll find that your best friend, Jesus, can do it all if you’ll just let Him.
“Christ in me, the hope of glory. So that the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the grace of God. It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”4
Originally published June 1985. Adapted and republished February 2014.
Read by Bryan Clark.
1 Romans 7:18.
2 Galatians 2:20.
3 Romans 3:10,23.
4 Colossians 1:27; Galatians 2:20.
Audio length: 10:09
Download Audio (9.2MB)
You cannot hide a happy, useful, helpful, shining spirit; it radiates on everybody the same light, the same joy. People see it and say, “You have such a light on your face; you seem so happy, you just shine. You’re always smiling!” It just radiates.
Happiness is what you make it. It’s a law of God just like gravity that you don’t get happy by trying to make yourself happy or trying to get somebody else to make you happy, but you get happiness by trying to give it to other people. You don’t find happiness by chasing it. You go around trying to make others happy, then happiness will find you; it will chase you and catch up with you and make you happy.
There is a little saying that love isn’t love till you give it away. What does it mean? Love isn’t real love until you are spending your time trying to give love to others.—Not trying to get love. That’s not love; that’s selfishness and wanting selfish satisfaction.
When you’re down in the dumps and you’re tearful and you’re a sad sack, you want everybody to be miserable with you; you want everybody else to sympathize with you and be sad with you. “How dare they be happy when I’m so sad? How can you be cheerful when I’m down in the dumps? Come on down here in the dumps with me! Don’t you dare be happy when I’m sad!” It’s pitiful. It’s human nature. But it’s godly nature, it’s spiritual nature, it’s the nature of Jesus to try to lift others up and encourage them and cheer them up even when you don’t feel like it.
The trouble is, I've found many people blame all their troubles on somebody else. They go around all their lives looking for somebody to make them happy instead of trying to find somebody they can make happy. It’s a common reaction to try to blame your problem on everybody else. “Why me, Lord? I didn’t do it; they did it to me! It wasn’t my fault. It’s his fault, her fault! They’re the ones to blame! They’re the ones that made me feel like this.” Because you’re sad and you’re unhappy, you may not even realize it, but you’re trying to bring everybody down with you.
My, how we love sympathy when we’re down, when sometimes that’s the last thing in the world we need. Somebody needs to come along to wake us up out of our lethargy and our stupor of self-pity and self-sympathy so we can get our minds on the Lord and His work and others and forget our stinking self! You’ll never get the victory by looking at yourself. There’s nobody that drags me down worse than me and myself, my own foul spirit.
Different denominations have different doctrines about getting the victory. Some believe that everybody’s got a good self and a bad self, and the only way to get the victory is to get the good self on top of the bad self and hold him down. They call it the doctrine of suppression, that you’ll always have that good and bad self, and the only thing to do is to just hold the bad self down.
The Holiness people believe in the doctrine of eradication: “Yes, you’ve got a good and a bad self, and the only way to get the victory is to get rid of the bad self. Go through the process of entire sanctification. Have the bad self cut out and throw it away like a cancer so there’s nothing but good self left. This is the good me. This is my self, the real self, the good self. There’s no evil thing left in me now; I’m all good, just the good me.”
The true doctrine of the Holy Spirit is neither one. You don’t get the victory by holding down that bad self, that temptation, that weakness, by just trying to hold it down by your own strength and by your good self sitting on it. You’ll never get the victory that way. And you'll never get the victory by thinking that you can have God cut out the bad self and just leave the good self.
I want to tell you right now, there is no such thing as good self at all. Your self cannot be good, not any part of it! There’s no good thing in you. The apostle Paul said, “No good thing dwelleth in me.”1 The true victory is not yourself, but His Self, Himself, so that “it is not I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”2 The doctrine of habitation, cohabiting with the Lord.
“There is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”3 You’re no better than me and I’m no better than you. There’s nobody any better than us except Jesus. He’s the only one who can be good, and without Him we’re nothing! We can’t be good without Jesus, we can’t be righteous; we can’t get the victory, we can’t overcome our weaknesses. Don’t try to chase out the darkness; let the light in. Let Jesus in and He’ll take care of the whole problem. Get your mind off self and let Jesus come in and let the life of Christ shine in you.
Let go and let God! Quit trying to be something you aren’t and can never be, and that’s righteous. Only Jesus can make you righteous. Just let Jesus in. As that old song says, “Lift your heart to heaven and His glory will come in. Let Jesus have possession, He’ll save you from your sin. Lift your heart to heaven and His glory will come in.”
“Let go and let God have His wonderful way, let go and let God have His way! He’ll fill with His Spirit and turn night to day, let go and let God have His way.”
None of us are good enough. Only Jesus is good enough, but He’s good enough for us all. So let the light in and the darkness will flee. What is the glory? It’s the Spirit of the Lord. It’s His Spirit, His glory, His Self.
In our school we used to have people complaining about evil spirits and demons and devils. “Oh, the Devil did this and the Devil did that, and he caused me this trouble, and he was the one that delayed me, and I have so much trouble with the Devil.” I’d say, “Your problem isn’t the Devil! It’s our own spirit that we have the most trouble with, not evil spirits.”
Don’t blame it on everybody else and evil spirits and even the Devil. You can be your own worst enemy! You may have conquered all the rest, but your own spirit is the most difficult to conquer, and the only way you’re ever going to conquer it is not to conquer it, but to let Jesus conquer it. He’s your best friend.
“Keep your eyes on Jesus, do not watch the waves. Keep your eyes on Jesus, 'tis faith in Him that saves. Keep your eyes on Jesus, His promises avail. Keep your eyes on Jesus, praise God, He cannot fail.”
So why not quit trying to succeed yourself. Quit trying to have the victory. Just let Jesus come in and let Him win it. Get your mind on the Lord. Get your mind on your job. Get your mind on helping others. Seek their happiness before your own. Have real, genuine, sacrificial, unselfish love. That’s love, not trying to make yourself happy or trying to get others to make you happy. Get your mind on Jesus. Ask Him to help you love Him so much you’ll love others so much you’ll forget yourself, and live for Him, live for others.
Why not get busy and work hard for Jesus, work hard for others, work hard to help other people? You’ll get so busy and so filled with His Spirit and so filled with His joy and His happiness that He gives you as a result of trying to make other people happy, that you’ll forget that self of yours and your own worst enemy and you’ll find that your best friend, Jesus, can do it all if you’ll just let Him.
“Christ in me, the hope of glory. So that the life which we now live in the flesh, we live by the grace of God. It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”4
Originally published June 1985. Adapted and republished February 2014.
Read by Bryan Clark.
1 Romans 7:18.
2 Galatians 2:20.
3 Romans 3:10,23.
4 Colossians 1:27; Galatians 2:20.
Sunday, February 23, 2014
The Rape of Portugal!
I have been watching the situation in Ukraine with much sadness. Is the uprising taking place really a spontaneous reaction of the people? Or is this crisis being provoked by International financial interests trying to pull Ukraine into the Western hemisphere’s influence or divide it into two pieces? There is no simple answer. But I will share my experience in Portugal to propose what could really be happening.
When Portugal, Greece and Spain joined the European Union financial aid poured into those countries. In the time before 2004 much money came in as financial help toward the building of roads and stadiums. Portugal and Spain had won the bid for the Euro football games while Greece would provide the summer Olympics. So in order to build the stadiums and roads and infrastructure to support those stadiums loans were granted. Everything was great and dandy. Jobs were abundant. Foreigners poured into the country from Eastern Europe, especially Ukraine and Romania, and from Brazil. I am specifically talking about my experience in Portugal, but Spain and Greece have parallel stories. At the same time, new shopping malls were built and Portugal at one time had the newest and biggest shopping mall in all of Europe, the Columbus Shopping Mall in Lisbon.
At the same time, European agreements with China allowed the Chinese merchants to also enter the country with many tax benefits. It was a great time of financial bubble. Portugal and Greece also went to the final of the European Cup. A great euphoria and optimism existed both in sports arena and in the psychology of the people. The government encouraged business to invest in new technologies to stay competitive. Banks were loaning money with easy access to credit and encouraging people to take more. Many thought the new financial explosion would last forever. They unwisely borrowed expecting all things to continue as they were.
Meanwhile corrupt politicians were pocketing money. The Chinese imports started affecting the local clothing and pottery industries. When the bubble burst the small industrial base had already been eroded. The pottery industry collapsed and almost completely disappeared. The clothing industry collapsed, also. The new shopping malls with the international names imported clothing from China, Morocco, Turkey, Pakistan, India, and Thailand. Many Portuguese companies went bust as Portuguese lost their family fortunes. The new free motorways made access to the larger commercial center easy and assured them of clients. While the traditional local business dribbled to a trickle.
The European quotas on milk and fish further squeezed the traditional Portuguese economy. Farmers were paid to stop raising so much dairy or fined if they exceeded their quotas. Fishermen were encouraged to retire early to bring down the Portuguese fishing catch beneath the new European quotas. The traditional Portuguese economy was being decimated. The new supermarkets aided by the free motorways led to the movement of money away from the local small business toward the big internationals whose products were from either outside of Portugal or outside of Europe completely.
During this time, the socialists were in power and busy spending. They pushed through two amendments on abortion that failed to gain the necessary votes. The third amendment did not get enough votes to be counted as a legal reflection of the will of the people as fewer than 50% of the population participated. Therefore they used a new method. The Congress which was strongly socialist passed a law approving abortion. When this law went to the Conservative President for his signature, most believed he would veto it. However, just the week before the Polish Prime Minister, a friend of the Portuguese President, had been killed in a mysterious plane crash. The Portuguese President’s wife confessed they were afraid for their lives and so her husband did not veto the abortion bill as expected. How strange that the members of the Polish government died in one stroke. The Polish Prime Minister was against the European agenda of abortion and gay rights being strongly Catholic. His Central Banking president had kept Poland debt free. The Health Minister had refused to buy the Gripe A vaccine which kept the government from being in debt to the pharmaceutical industry. These important anti-European agenda ministers were all gone in one smooth stroke of “bad-luck.” What a coincidence?
In the meantime, here in Portugal, the financial bubble was building. The Socialist government offered free computers to the children of poor families to help to become computer literate. At the same time, mobile phones and internet and cable and disk multi-channel television were opening up the culture to new influences. Before this flood gate was opened the traditional Portuguese television was strongly Portuguese. Then came the new SIC TV program which promoted gay personalities and humor. But now the door has been opened and the traditional Portuguese culture is under heavy attack and slowly being corrupted and eliminated.
Some time ago the strongly socialist congress passed a bill in favor of gay marriage. Again the President did not veto it as he said a veto would only be overturned by Congress. Last week, the Congress passed a bill to allow gay marriages to adopt children. The bill went to the President to sign into law. The President did not veto it, but sent it on to the Constitutional Court to see if it was constitutional. The Constitutional Court voted that the bill was unconstitutional. The socialists and communists protested that the Court was standing in the way of democracy and the will of the people. The war goes on. The Antichrist forces in Europe are slowly and surely destroying the strongly Catholic and Christian beliefs of the people of Southern European. Poland and Ukraine could be their next objective. Ireland and Iceland may have already been their targets. Romania and others are also in their sights.
That’s how I see it from Portugal. The new wealth that the Portuguese experienced enabled them to buy the machines that were needed to slowly erode their faith away and embrace the European Union’s agenda of abortion and gay marriage. The Bible says the love of money is the route of all evil. Portuguese lusted after those things that money could buy which they thought would bring them happiness. They have more things but have compromised their values. The international bankers burst the financial bubble and left Portugal with debts to pay. In order to pay them they have had to sell off their state owned businesses. They have had to make those free motorways pay roads. Their children cannot find jobs in Portugal as the factories have closed and the youth have had to move abroad. The traditional family unit has been destroyed. Internet and computer games dominate the lives of youth. Traditional Catholic morality no longer exists. And no one stands up against the wake of destruction.
Will similar methods be used in Poland and Ukraine to bring them in line with the New World Order agenda? It only remains to be seen. Jesus said, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” But the meek and poor countries are being offered the riches of this life and many are falling for it. The Portuguese are poor once again. Eighty percent of the people do not have money to survive for a whole year. Thirty percent are living day by day. Sixty percent of the people receive minimum salary or less per month. The financial bubble helped put into the homes of the Portuguese people these new gadgets that the internationalists are using to erode away the faith of adult and youth alike. The debt to be paid to the Central Bankers will take many years of economizing. Pensions have been cut. Age of retirement has been raised to sixty-six years. The workday has been extended to eight and a half hours a day. The European Union promised the Portuguese everything, but it indeed has been the rape of Portugal, as well as, Spain and Greece and Ireland. Will your country be next?
Woman Defies Doctors Who Told Her to Abort Unborn Baby
By Leonardo Blair, Christian Post, February 19, 2014
A 30-year-old British woman who was told by doctors to abort her unborn baby while she was pregnant because it would die, defied their expert advice and gave birth to a healthy baby boy she is now calling a “miracle.”
According to Mail Online, from the moment first-time mother Rachel Collins discovered she was pregnant she began keeping a diary.
“I decided to keep a diary from the minute I found out I was pregnant, to show our baby how much we wanted him,” she said.
During the pregnancy, however, doctors diagnosed Collins with oligohydramnios which meant that the baby would have too little amniotic fluid to survive the pregnancy.
“The doctor didn’t mince his words, he said: ‘This baby will die, the best thing you can do is terminate it,’” recalled Collins.
Collins details her experience in her inspirational diary she calls “Alfie: born to fight, ready to battle—our miracle baby boy.”
In it, she reveals how she and her partner, Tyler O’Driscoll, were shocked when her 20-week scan showed that baby Alfie only had a 10 percent chance to live.
Even if he lived, according to doctors, Alfie was likely to be born without kidneys and no lung function.
The couple, however, refused to give up hope and carried on with the pregnancy.
“I could feel my baby was alive, he was moving, how could I get rid of him? There was no way I was terminating my baby, I thought if he’s not meant to be, I will miscarry—but I knew I had to try,” said Collins.
But it wasn’t an easy decision. Just a few weeks before she became pregnant with Alfie, Collins suffered an ectopic pregnancy.
Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham took her on as a patient and helped her through the pregnancy.
“They told me it was going to be tough, that he might have a squashed face or a club foot, but they said they would give him a chance,” said Collins.
“It was hard; I was at hospital more often than I was at home, but I just had to keep going,” she explained.
And the determined mother did it.
Baby Alfie was born prematurely at 30 weeks last October.
“He came out screaming—he defied them all,” said Collins. “He is a little miracle. He is now 6lb 14oz and has no health problems.
A 30-year-old British woman who was told by doctors to abort her unborn baby while she was pregnant because it would die, defied their expert advice and gave birth to a healthy baby boy she is now calling a “miracle.”
According to Mail Online, from the moment first-time mother Rachel Collins discovered she was pregnant she began keeping a diary.
“I decided to keep a diary from the minute I found out I was pregnant, to show our baby how much we wanted him,” she said.
During the pregnancy, however, doctors diagnosed Collins with oligohydramnios which meant that the baby would have too little amniotic fluid to survive the pregnancy.
“The doctor didn’t mince his words, he said: ‘This baby will die, the best thing you can do is terminate it,’” recalled Collins.
Collins details her experience in her inspirational diary she calls “Alfie: born to fight, ready to battle—our miracle baby boy.”
In it, she reveals how she and her partner, Tyler O’Driscoll, were shocked when her 20-week scan showed that baby Alfie only had a 10 percent chance to live.
Even if he lived, according to doctors, Alfie was likely to be born without kidneys and no lung function.
The couple, however, refused to give up hope and carried on with the pregnancy.
“I could feel my baby was alive, he was moving, how could I get rid of him? There was no way I was terminating my baby, I thought if he’s not meant to be, I will miscarry—but I knew I had to try,” said Collins.
But it wasn’t an easy decision. Just a few weeks before she became pregnant with Alfie, Collins suffered an ectopic pregnancy.
Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham took her on as a patient and helped her through the pregnancy.
“They told me it was going to be tough, that he might have a squashed face or a club foot, but they said they would give him a chance,” said Collins.
“It was hard; I was at hospital more often than I was at home, but I just had to keep going,” she explained.
And the determined mother did it.
Baby Alfie was born prematurely at 30 weeks last October.
“He came out screaming—he defied them all,” said Collins. “He is a little miracle. He is now 6lb 14oz and has no health problems.
The Most Valuable Word In The Economy Of Human Interaction
My first “real” job was sitting across from people convicted of DUIs. After a series of questions, I would write recommendations for judges who would sentence them.
I now work with executives and entrepreneurs to determine where they are heading, I make introductions, organize teams, and facilitate conversations for a living.
Even though these groups of people are vastly different, the questions and the methods are very similar.
In all of this, there is one word that I have found to be the most valuable in the economy of human interaction: Hello.
This word has allowed me to build meaningful connections with people around the world. Whether in Dubai or Denver, I’ve wielded this greeting to disarm, acknowledge, and invite. “Hello” has enabled me to confidently visit multiple countries and several major cities in a span of months.
I’ve said “Hello” to thwart a potential attacker. I was walking on an empty street when a man tried to get me into his car. My response was filled with so much poise and purpose, he sped away.
I’ve said “Hello” to a man being held in jail before trial. The fact I recognized him as a human being and not as an “offender” established instant rapport for the duration of our interview.
I’ve said “Hello” to a friend’s father who was feverish with typhoid. It was our first meeting; he couldn’t speak English, I couldn’t speak Nepali, but the respect and reverence our initial interaction contained set the tone for a beautiful relationship. He would come to call me his daughter.
Today I said “Hello” to a complete stranger in the grocery store. She was evidently frazzled, and her eyes were filled with exhaustion. But our brief interaction had a visibly positive effect on her.
“I believe every single person deserves to be acknowledged, however small or simple the greeting.”—Howard White, VP for Nike’s Jordan Brand
From the company’s founder to the employee serving lunch, White makes it a point to care. He is a former professional athlete, founded a youth motivational program, wrote a book, and serves as VP for Nike’s Jordan Brand, but you won’t hear him say he’s “too busy.”
White recognizes that when we separate ourselves from others, we limit our own potential and that of those around us. When you say “Hello,” you extend yourself. It’s an offering, a giving.
In a world of frenetic behavior and evident signs of pain and struggle, “Hello” paves the way towards connection. Yes, it can be a cursory pleasantry, but it can also be an entryway into something much more.
Whether you like it or not, judgments are made about you before you say hello. In as little as one tenth of a second, a stranger can make assumptions on your competence, aggressiveness and likeability. From the way you’ll behave during an argument to how you present yourself in a meeting—all sorts of opinions are being formed. With a single photograph, viewers were able to make fairly accurate assumptions of complete strangers. Your “Hello” can confirm or deny their predictions.
Whether meeting a new client or assessing a potential partner, your first moments have the power to direct your relationship. The manner in which you engage and approach can dictate how the rest of the experience is going to unfold. If you enter a situation meek and afraid, that’s the response you’re going to get in return. But if you enter with confidence and step towards a person or new experience, it’s going to come back to you with equal force.
Think carefully how you say “Hello.” Put some effort into your greeting and see where it takes you.
I now work with executives and entrepreneurs to determine where they are heading, I make introductions, organize teams, and facilitate conversations for a living.
Even though these groups of people are vastly different, the questions and the methods are very similar.
In all of this, there is one word that I have found to be the most valuable in the economy of human interaction: Hello.
This word has allowed me to build meaningful connections with people around the world. Whether in Dubai or Denver, I’ve wielded this greeting to disarm, acknowledge, and invite. “Hello” has enabled me to confidently visit multiple countries and several major cities in a span of months.
I’ve said “Hello” to thwart a potential attacker. I was walking on an empty street when a man tried to get me into his car. My response was filled with so much poise and purpose, he sped away.
I’ve said “Hello” to a man being held in jail before trial. The fact I recognized him as a human being and not as an “offender” established instant rapport for the duration of our interview.
I’ve said “Hello” to a friend’s father who was feverish with typhoid. It was our first meeting; he couldn’t speak English, I couldn’t speak Nepali, but the respect and reverence our initial interaction contained set the tone for a beautiful relationship. He would come to call me his daughter.
Today I said “Hello” to a complete stranger in the grocery store. She was evidently frazzled, and her eyes were filled with exhaustion. But our brief interaction had a visibly positive effect on her.
“I believe every single person deserves to be acknowledged, however small or simple the greeting.”—Howard White, VP for Nike’s Jordan Brand
From the company’s founder to the employee serving lunch, White makes it a point to care. He is a former professional athlete, founded a youth motivational program, wrote a book, and serves as VP for Nike’s Jordan Brand, but you won’t hear him say he’s “too busy.”
White recognizes that when we separate ourselves from others, we limit our own potential and that of those around us. When you say “Hello,” you extend yourself. It’s an offering, a giving.
In a world of frenetic behavior and evident signs of pain and struggle, “Hello” paves the way towards connection. Yes, it can be a cursory pleasantry, but it can also be an entryway into something much more.
Whether you like it or not, judgments are made about you before you say hello. In as little as one tenth of a second, a stranger can make assumptions on your competence, aggressiveness and likeability. From the way you’ll behave during an argument to how you present yourself in a meeting—all sorts of opinions are being formed. With a single photograph, viewers were able to make fairly accurate assumptions of complete strangers. Your “Hello” can confirm or deny their predictions.
Whether meeting a new client or assessing a potential partner, your first moments have the power to direct your relationship. The manner in which you engage and approach can dictate how the rest of the experience is going to unfold. If you enter a situation meek and afraid, that’s the response you’re going to get in return. But if you enter with confidence and step towards a person or new experience, it’s going to come back to you with equal force.
Think carefully how you say “Hello.” Put some effort into your greeting and see where it takes you.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
How iTunes Radio is bad for your soul
| Jonathan Merritt, Religion News Service, Feb 18, 2014 Apple’s answer to Pandora hasn’t produced a spike in music sales like some predicted. According to a new report by Music Forecasting, iTunes Radio listeners use the service for a “lean back” listening experience and don’t want anything—even purchasing a song—to interrupt it. Having recently relocated to New York City—the earbud capital of the world—I’ve learned to “lean back” with regularity. Walking to the coffee shop where I write. To and from the subway. Even standing in my kitchen making a sandwich. Apple’s curated tunes have become a ubiquitous presence in my life, helping me block out the world by flooding my head with something more melodic and presumably more gratifying than noises I might otherwise encounter. That’s why I’ve come to believe that iTunes Radio is actually bad for our souls. Dutch sonographer Floris Van Manen argues that noise is a drug that modern society is feverishly addicted to. It stimulates, distracts, whisks us away to another place and time. From commercials to street sounds to 24-hour news channels blaring in every airport and doctor’s office waiting room, we’re almost never without it. When we open the app, select a genre, and push play, we’re able to take the reins and dictate the sounds we’re subjected to. One overlooked spiritual consequence of our noise addiction is a failure to hear spontaneous sounds. By tightly controlling and curating what we hear, we may block out everything else and muffle the God-messages sewn throughout the fabric of the world. As I shuffle through the city bobbing my head to the latest hits, I rarely notice the sounds of chirping birds or cooing pigeons as I pass a park. But I’m also avoiding the feathery reminders that I serve a detail-oriented God. If God notices when a single fowl falls, how much more does that God watch over me? The autumn leaves fall and rustle as the wind whips, but I’m unaware of their presence. I’ve got Local Natives blaring in my head, stiff-arming a spiritual lesson about divine rhythms: God uses death to bring life. When I’m forced to release a self-centered aspiration or unhealthy habit, it hurts. Maybe the pain would be mitigated by receiving the spontaneous sounds swirling around me. This works in the opposite direction as well, chasing away the undesirable sounds. Thanks to Apple’s Top 50 playlist, I don’t have to hear the cries of that woman at the table next to me who needs someone to stop and listen. I’m not subjected to the barrage of homeless people asking for money or food. If I don’t hear their pleas, I don’t feel guilty for not helping. Goodbye, inconvenience. With the push of a button, I’m able to live a day free from conviction and obligation. But perhaps the most significant spiritual side effect of our noise addiction is the growing fear of silence. According to a recent study of nearly 600 young people conducted over six years, the constant exposure to “intentional sound” has created “a mass of people who fear silence.” No one needs to tell us this is true. We feel it in our fingers, as they tap a desk frantically. Or our vocal cords, humming to fill the air with something of our own making. When silence floods a room, it brings with it an eerie discomfort. So we drive it away by self-medicating with noise. In my forthcoming book, “Jesus is Better Than You Imagined,” I decided to explore the value of spiritual silence. So I trekked to a Benedictine monastery in the New Mexican desert and took a 60-hour vow of silence. Reflecting on the event, I wrote these words, Inhabitants of the modern world often fear silence and solitude. Having bathed in chaos, these spaces become a kind of wilderness or uncharted frontier. We run from soundlessness because it makes us most uncomfortable….[But] for the Christian, silence is more than an effort to retreat from noise. It is an opportunity to lean into God. To sense His presence in life, to notice the contours of His intervention, to express our reliance on Him. Jesus knew importance of intentional quiet when discerning God’s voice, and we have a record of Him seeking it out more than half a dozen times. Isaiah prophesied, “In repentance and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and trust.” After Paul was converted, he went to Arabia for a quiet retreat of his own. Christian history reveals that generations of Jesus-followers have practiced silence often. How many of us take time regularly to flee the noisiness of life? To embrace the discomfort of silence? To listen for the voice of the Holy? Thomas Merton once remarked, “Just remaining quietly in the presence of God, listening to Him, being attentive to Him, requires a lot of courage and know-how.” It’s a strange thought that silence requires courage; that we’d have to muster guts to enter the absence of noise; that offering a temporary “no” to the clatters and clamors of life requires the same emotion needed to jump out of a plane. Listening to music can also be spiritually uplifting, so I won’t be throwing my earbuds away anytime soon. I won’t be deleting my iTunes account. And I don’t want to institute another rule Christians have to live by. (Lord knows we have created enough of those already.) But I think Merton is right. I think Jesus and Isaiah and Paul were onto something. Learning to embrace silence or even the spontaneous sounds of life is as difficult as rowing upstream. But it is worth it, and we should try it more often. |
