J.P. Moreland was here for Thursday and Friday and talked about the kinds of knowledge, a case for christianity, happiness and depression, and also the true and false self. Though interesting discussion came from the kinds of knowledge and the attributes of God (after which Moreland invited me to come and get a masters at the university he teaches at), two things in particular came to surface from the talk that definitely interested me and may also interest you.
I've been more or less obssessed with beauty and a fitting definition thereof for quite some time (those around me can attest) and I've even written a research paper on it (a very poor paper I might add). I asked Dr. Moreland what he thought of beauty and whether us, being temporal finite beings have the ability to posses a universal objective view of beauty. I was expecting a deep solid definition or a concrete syllogism by which I could contrast objects and determine whether they were truly beautiful or not, as well as for an answer that would finally allow me to rest my head on this subject. JP said that we can understand beauty by ostensive definition. This means that we understand the attribute of beauty by perceiving things (not just through sight mind you) that embody beauty in their form. Waking up and smelling the roses is an ostensive definition of beauty, smelling the roses, seeing a sunrise, feeling happiness, and such all represent what beauty is. Hence my favorite answer, that I have just found as well fits into the actual style of beautys definition, is "You wonder my friend what beauty is? Open your eyes to your sweetheart and there it is."
The second thing that Moreland exposed our minds (not our brains, by the way) to is this idea of the true and false self. When we try to be something outside our nature that God created us as - loving, caring, graceful, redeeming, filling, forming, etc, and instead we encompass hate, envy, strife, and the like all ultimately centered on our self, we are shouldering the false self. The false self is inherently selfish and conceded. It is not God glorifying but in fact self promoting. A major problem in our culture these days is that we shower oursevles with drama, both from the media and within our own lives that encourages the false self and it's longings. Gossip, self-indulgence, arguments, brawls, all come from our false self and our culture is feeding the mucky soup like it's thanksgiving dinner. God calls us to be true-faced, to be completely vulnerable with our brothers and sisters in God. God created man and woman naked, completely vulnerable and open to each other. We have come to cover ourselves with so much clothes of lies, deceit, and selfishness that no one truly knows our true selves beneath the mask of our hard heart. After hearing this, I have been thinking and am trying with vigorous effert to make it my goal (or rather one of my goals) this year to become truefaced with people. To let them know who I am and to put my other facets or masks of myself in the trash or at least in the drawer.
Today is the 1 year anniversary of dating/courting my first, one, and only sweetheart Hannah Davison. It has truly been an adventure and God has truly moved in my heart and I believe also in hers to change, move, and mold us to his plan for our lives. I am gripped with anticipation to see what God has in store for the next year for us. What failures, victories, struggles, victories, tears, laughs, and hugs he has for us is up to him. Please please please pray that we do only what God has for our lives. The last thing I want to do is get in the way of what God has planned for her life. Pray that we both hear from God clearly what he wants us to do and to have the guts to say yes, and that we care enough for each other to frankly let what we want to happen fall down the drain and what God wants to happen HAPPEN. We are both convinced though that God has a plan for us and that we are doing what he wants us to do right now, being at two different experiences. We talked recently and we are in agreement that, as ironic and paradoxical it may sound that our separation from each other with grow us closer to each other because if God is for us, the us both running towards Him, we are bound to bump into each other, err poke each other. ;) Hannah I thank God for every victory and success he has blessed us with but I also sincerely thank Him for the struggles, the tears, the absolute, utter, and epic failures we did as well. Failure is not the enemy but instead it's how we approach a failure that can define us as followers of a redeeming savior or a fake mask.
I just skyped in my fam a few minutes ago. They are awesome. I can't say how everything my mom has taught me, my siblings have shown me, and my great dad has grown me through, are influencing me right now. I am a better man (not young man) because of them and am in complete gratitude and debt with them.
"Live a life such that Satan sighs a great sigh of relief when you finally die."
Stay strong.
C.
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