Post a Comment On: Bruce Charlton's Notions

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Many people feel they need help and guidance, but do not know where to turn - do not known whom to trust.

Many people know that they need to change, but they do not know how, or in what direction change should go.

And what should they do about it - what help, guidance and self-knowledge is, in principle, available?

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There may be nobody, actual, in your life that can give the help you need - you may need to depend on what you know about other people.

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If you are on the wrong track, travelling in the wrong direction - you will know, you do know.

Although the toughness of the right track may be deceptive, the difference between surface pleasure and deep joy is impossible to conceal - at most you can train yourself to focus on surface pleasure and ignore your need for deep joy - but surface pleasure will never satisfy and the need for deep joy won't go away.

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IF you are alert to your need, then guidance of the kind you need will come to you, sooner or later, but in-time - somehow.

(God loves you: which means you, personally, specifically; he hears your call, he always responds to the call: he is working on it.)

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And when you encounter good guidance, you will notice it; and even when it is a counterfeit or fake guidance that you notice, then you will know this too (although not necessarily instantly, but after testing and feeling, 'chewing and tasting'); because it is impossible for anybody or any-thing to sustainedly-impersonate your loving Heavenly Father if your heart is loving, warm and open - but you are free to choose whether or not to accept any guidance, you will not be compelled.

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(Why not help now, instantly? Because God's purposes must be and always are achieved by indirect intermediaries and via human choices. Patience is a virtue because it is a necessity.)

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Note added: How is all this possible? It is possible because each of us has the flame of God in us: we are God's children and made in His image. The flame of God is not the only thing in us, almost always there is an accumulation of sin as well - and we are weak, and prone to error as well as wickedness. So discernment (knowing Good from evil) is not easy: it is, however, always possible. It is God's flame in us, however tiny, which makes discernment possible; and which means we can never be overcome by sin - unless we choose so.