The most important post on the Internet in 2021, so far - pointing in the right direction (which almost nobody seems to be seeing), showing us what has become the only path we have left in order to maintain psychological integrity, and a chance at a life spiritually-well-lived.
I have been troubled for a while by Luke, 14:28-31:
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Troubling because it seemed a rebuke to the man building the tower and I've never been good at counting the cost. But I am inclined these days to read almost the opposite: that the man who counts the cost is the worldly man, and if we are to follow Christ we *cannot* count the cost. In support of that interpretation, I note the penalty for he who fails to complete his tower is mockery. Surely Jesus was not giving us advice on social acceptability in this parable?
@Crosbie - I don't know whether this passage is accurate; at any rate I can't make much sense of it, and it occurs in a section which has several parables in a row that don't seem quite to add up.
My belief is that Luke is a collection of stories about Jesus gathered sometime later and at second or third hand from several/ many people - and sometimes (when judged against the Fourth 'John' Gospel) the message has been garbled in transmission (or includes 'folk tales' that accumulated) - as with the Luke story of the woman washing Jesus's feet with ointment, where the proper interpretation (John) has become garbled.
@Bruce - That's one of several cases where Luke has specific details that otherwise occur only in John (for example, the idea of a man named Lazarus coming back from the dead!) but in garbled form.
Thank you for this. It points to the feeling I've been having that there are literally no living institutions that can assist me much at all. Most are pernicious.
The joyful spiritual journey. I'm coincidentally reading LOTR with my son. It has the same feel: a journey that seems doomed from the beginning, against great odds, but taken with faith and friendship and joy.
This question came to me this morning, and may be related: Is it possible that part of God's plan is the destruction of this current system, because it may have become too evil to save? Even if that is true, we should still act as you have stated, because the journey is spiritual and about eternity. And this spiritual journey is the only path to the creation of something new post-collapse, if there is anything new to be built on the material plane.
I have to admit - things seem grim on the ground here.
17 February 2021 at 14:43
Charlie said...
Thank you for this wonderful post!
17 February 2021 at 14:59
It seems more necessary than ever to live a self-consciously 'heroic' life - if, that is, one is to survive and even thrive - both psychologically but essentially spiritually - in the world of 2021. Christians have had so much removed from them; and the spirit of Antichrist is so strong and pervasive (among the Establishment and the masses); that there must be a new, strong, pervasive, clear and simple inner-motivation to get us going, and keep us bold and active, in face of unrelenting dis-couragement. We need - in short - each to be a hero of faith... A hero of our own spiritual destiny. But not like a hero of the past, who was admired by his community, who accomplished something for his society - and who returned to 'a hero's welcome'. The modern hero will be doing the work of divine creation, not human society; and Men will either ignore him or treat him as a hostile - as stupid, evil or insane. Heroism 2021 will be other-worldly - not this-worldly; and will be something private: between the individual and God - it's fruits only objectively evident in Heaven, or to those on earth who are attuned with the Heavenly. Mainstream culture regards Man as a kind of animal, as a bundle of instincts; the product of arbitrary causes and random accidents. Small wonder, then, that modern Man is such a pitiful creature; such an ignorant, passive, gullible slave to evil. Traditional religion (including Christian) also has an insufficiently-motivating understanding of Man's stature - since the individual was always seen in terms of service to fellow Men - to one or other aspect of human society, human institutions... Yet it is now precisely 'fellow Men', and especially institutions/ organizations/ corporations - including the religiously-self-identified churches - who are The Problem. It is a index of the depth and pervasiveness of our corruption that one's fellow Men do not want to be helped. To be externally guided is (here-and-now) to be on the side of Satan. Men are demotivated because they subordinate them-selves, even their souls, to external guidance. Their motives are secondhand, feeble, insufficient to sustain heroism - which is why Men have being so readily recruited to the side of evil, and their thoughts and actions redirected to demonic ends. In my opinion it is an evasion to try and organize resistance when the problem is in ourselves.What is needed is that we wake each morning to a sense of our personal destiny: our immortal task in mortal life - in order to benefit the society of Heaven. Each of us is unique and has an unique place in Heaven - it is for that which we need to prepare with heroic bravery and dedication.Since our destiny is unique, we must discover it by intuitive consultation with our innate divinity; reflection, conversation, study; by our innate power of discernment; trial-and-error-and-repentance; prayer and meditation; and guidance from the Holy Ghost... To be a hero of faith in 2021 is simple enough that anyone can start from wherever they are: Now! And complex enough to be a lifetime's activity and excitement. It is a way of thinking, a way of living. A combination of conscious choice, good habits, and a spontaneous upwelling of divine-directed motivation. Traditionalist Christians of the past may have regarded this kind of heroic endeavor as a spiritually prideful fantasy. But that is hardly a possibility in our world where Christianity is so despised - and so feeble where asserted; where mass apostasy is a daily haemorrhage; and where churches are so conformed to the Satanic System that any vividly Christian life-experience receives zero external validation. Nowadays - far from inflation and Luciferic pride - the heroic Christian is likely to be sabotaged by irony, self-consciousness, and mockery. Anyway for Christians of 2021; matters are simplified by the lack of alternatives. The minority of remnant traditionalist Christians and the mainstream liberal pseudo-Christians have alike contradicted their own core assertions (e.g. abandoning sacraments, gathering, or priestly-pastoral service); have willingly and pridefully colluded in their own destruction - and have thereby invalidated their claims. Either we do it ourselves or it won't be done. And if we do it ourselves, we need to have strong inner motivations. And these motivations will need to be positive, high-hearted, joyous, brave and exciting - if they are to be sustainable in such a dis-couraging world as this. To begin must be a conscious choice; and it must start-out as an imagination - a fantasy; with an element of self-conscious play-acting the hero of density (with ones-self as the sole audience). There is no need to be embarrassed about such foolish contrivance! Embrace the absurdity, enjoy the fact of being AFool - for Christ! So long as our motives are genuine (and that is between our-selves and God) - reality will follow our day-dreams.
"A life of heroic destiny in 2021? On finding Christian motivation"
6 Comments -
The most important post on the Internet in 2021, so far - pointing in the right direction (which almost nobody seems to be seeing), showing us what has become the only path we have left in order to maintain psychological integrity, and a chance at a life spiritually-well-lived.
17 February 2021 at 10:56
I have been troubled for a while by Luke, 14:28-31:
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Troubling because it seemed a rebuke to the man building the tower and I've never been good at counting the cost. But I am inclined these days to read almost the opposite: that the man who counts the cost is the worldly man, and if we are to follow Christ we *cannot* count the cost. In support of that interpretation, I note the penalty for he who fails to complete his tower is mockery. Surely Jesus was not giving us advice on social acceptability in this parable?
17 February 2021 at 12:00
@Gary - Thanks.
@Crosbie - I don't know whether this passage is accurate; at any rate I can't make much sense of it, and it occurs in a section which has several parables in a row that don't seem quite to add up.
My belief is that Luke is a collection of stories about Jesus gathered sometime later and at second or third hand from several/ many people - and sometimes (when judged against the Fourth 'John' Gospel) the message has been garbled in transmission (or includes 'folk tales' that accumulated) - as with the Luke story of the woman washing Jesus's feet with ointment, where the proper interpretation (John) has become garbled.
17 February 2021 at 13:35
@Bruce - That's one of several cases where Luke has specific details that otherwise occur only in John (for example, the idea of a man named Lazarus coming back from the dead!) but in garbled form.
17 February 2021 at 13:59
Thank you for this. It points to the feeling I've been having that there are literally no living institutions that can assist me much at all. Most are pernicious.
The joyful spiritual journey. I'm coincidentally reading LOTR with my son. It has the same feel: a journey that seems doomed from the beginning, against great odds, but taken with faith and friendship and joy.
This question came to me this morning, and may be related:
Is it possible that part of God's plan is the destruction of this current system, because it may have become too evil to save? Even if that is true, we should still act as you have stated, because the journey is spiritual and about eternity. And this spiritual journey is the only path to the creation of something new post-collapse, if there is anything new to be built on the material plane.
I have to admit - things seem grim on the ground here.
17 February 2021 at 14:43
Thank you for this wonderful post!
17 February 2021 at 14:59