This is for all of you who have had those thoughts, or who may know someone who feels or has felt this way.... and it is also for those of you who have never considered suicide, but might one day out of the blue be thrust into such thoughts.
I'm not going to list the usual reasons NOT to do so, to take one's own life regardless of the reasons. I am, however, going to tell you one FACT that should deter you from doing so.
Regardless of how hopeless your situation may seem, when you meet God in judgment, you will see how you could have handled the situation with perfectly clear eyes through God himself. In other words, if while alive you felt desperate, like in a maze with no exit, God will show you exactly how the exit would have been shown to you out of your dilemma and despair.
I've blogged about this before, about how if only Judas Iscariot had held onto life for three more days, he would have seen the Resurrected Christ and have sought forgiveness.
When you are judged by God, whether you are taken to heaven or sent to hell, you realize not only that there was a way to cope with your situation, no matter how hopeless or painful and, further, that even if you felt the most worthless person who ever lived, how someone in the present or the future would have needed you very much. Each and every person can save their own physical life and thus, through God, be open to Him saving his or her eternal soul also.
DO NOT BAIL OUT. Trust God and genuinely open your heart to Him and Him alone.
I hope this helps.
Through His Holy Name.
Showing posts with label sadness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sadness. Show all posts
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
So many believe false identities
One of the largest and most spirit crushing ways that the past several generations have been cheated and deluded is the growing belief that people are more than what they actually are. By wanting to believe that one is "more" than one's own individual personality, rather than gaining, one only loses what one actually has.
When I say that people believe they are more than they actually are, I am referring for the most part to three false beliefs: 1) they are reincarnated, since there is, as I've blogged before, no such thing as reincarnation, period 2) they are "aliens," which is also totally false and is nothing other than the human temptation to diminish God's creation, humans and animals, by believing there must be something "better" or "more advanced" "out there," and 3) that one has a divine purpose, role, "channel" to the heavens or whatever, which again is simply a temptation of inflation, of trying to be more than one really is.
What is so sad is that such beliefs take away from, rather than enhance, the glory of the individual true life that is genuinely lived.
For example, when I read obituaries of people I suspect have had these beliefs, I think how sad that it is that anything good they did they attributed at least in part to other forces rather than themselves, living in God's creation. They weren't simply a fine sailor or a great adventurer through their own gifts, talents, hard work and merits, they are "channeling" "space aliens." I cannot begin to explain to you, at least not in writing, how sad this makes me and has for many years, since I first realized how widespread these delusions are. I would say it has contributed to making me, a previously joyful soul, mournful, as I mourn all these false beliefs, which poisoned not only the person's life, but those they taught and raised around them.
Do you not want to feel good after engineering a superb project or machinery that you did it through your own merit (and your team's) using God given reality based resources of this earth, rather than imagine that you are some half backed supposedly reincarnated alien alchemist? And if you make a mistake, or something does not turn out as you hoped, how does it actually console you, since it does not, to believe that you are "held back" because of your own "karma" or blame it on someone else's supposed lack of spirituality or "influence" on you? THAT makes you feel better? THAT makes you more successful? Rather than practicing some more, or seeking help, you believe that evil alien spirits tripped you up? How constructive is that? And what a way to raise the next generation... if being lemmings running over a cliff is your intention, for self destruction, that sure is an effective way to do it.
In the 1960's and 1970's I looked at the world around me and became very concerned about not only the level of sinfulness and loss of faith/understanding in the true only God, and the material world as it actually exists, in all its beauty and potential, but also what I viewed as a wave of global neurosis. During those twenty years I watched large groups of the population, particularly in the better developed "West" become incredible neurotics. That was bad enough, and very alarming.
However, during the 1980's and 1990's I watched the world get much worse, and go from global neurosis to global psychosis. Many of the people of the world today are psychotic, and I do not mean in the classic clinical sense of having an individual psychotic illness or break. Since psychosis is by definition an inability to discern reality from fiction, the true from the false, individuals and society as a whole has become remarkably and I often fear irretrievably psychotic. One of the hallmarks of psychosis is the inability to see the harm that comes from abandoning truth and instead, calling manipulation "reality." I could easily tap my microphone here and say "People of the world, you have already surrendered much of your sanity, and have institutionalized and even become enslaved to unreality and psychosis."
Drugs and alcohol have broken the sanity and discernment of many of the people who with their God given genuine and real caring and talents were supposed to make this a better world, who were supposed to be loving stewards, who were supposed to teach and protect their children, who were supposed to be genuine leaders.
Instead they put on their freak show uniforms and pretend to be heroes of epic bull crap that exists only in their own minds, destroying even their own joy in their own genuine achievements. Few things make me sadder than listening to a wonderful piece of music and knowing that it was written by someone inserting depressive and false cult beliefs as he or she mourns or condemns people, actions, events that never ever happened.
Instead of believing in the one true God, the one they will have to face at their time of judgment, they either deny God or appoint themselves as "knowing" the "reality" of "divine forces" and at best they view belief in God or "accepting" Jesus Christ as an insurance policy menu choice.
But this is not a "reality of hell" rant, no, not today, not now. This is sharing some of the decades of mourning that I have in my heart for how people have destroyed their own sanity and thus have no satisfaction in anything in their lives since they attribute it all, good or bad, to false reasons and false influences.
Here's an example, I'm just making it up, of how I've seen this decay happen.
Normal behavior: A kid grows up with some interest, perhaps in sharks, perhaps in model ships. There's no real rhyme or reason why they have that interest, it just is part of how each person has different things and different callings.
Neurotic generations: A kid has interests in sharks or model ships and either he or she or the parents/school system worries about "why" they are interested in such things. Why sharks and not tigers? Why ship building and not farming? Does little Johnny or Susie have "appropriate" interests that will give them lots of money when they grow up?
Psychotic generations: Johnny is interested in sharks because in a past life he was a shark, being "punished" for previous karma imbalance. Susie likes ship building because an alien reincarnated spirit in her years to be free and defeat the forthcoming bad alien menace and usher in the good alien "rescue."
I wish I was joking or overstating, but you know that I am not doing so, by far.
Individual and societal neurosis saps the pleasure from life, and also makes people feel helpless to address genuine failure and injustice where it exists and when it does happen.
Individual and societal psychosis is a total system of slavery that leads to destruction of life and soul, no matter how glistening and gleaming the self delusional world seems because it just simply is not reality. Unthinkable evil is routinely done under the guise of "good deeds." It ends when it is too late and people have ruined their own lives and others, and then are cast into the pit upon their deaths.
When I say that people believe they are more than they actually are, I am referring for the most part to three false beliefs: 1) they are reincarnated, since there is, as I've blogged before, no such thing as reincarnation, period 2) they are "aliens," which is also totally false and is nothing other than the human temptation to diminish God's creation, humans and animals, by believing there must be something "better" or "more advanced" "out there," and 3) that one has a divine purpose, role, "channel" to the heavens or whatever, which again is simply a temptation of inflation, of trying to be more than one really is.
What is so sad is that such beliefs take away from, rather than enhance, the glory of the individual true life that is genuinely lived.
For example, when I read obituaries of people I suspect have had these beliefs, I think how sad that it is that anything good they did they attributed at least in part to other forces rather than themselves, living in God's creation. They weren't simply a fine sailor or a great adventurer through their own gifts, talents, hard work and merits, they are "channeling" "space aliens." I cannot begin to explain to you, at least not in writing, how sad this makes me and has for many years, since I first realized how widespread these delusions are. I would say it has contributed to making me, a previously joyful soul, mournful, as I mourn all these false beliefs, which poisoned not only the person's life, but those they taught and raised around them.
Do you not want to feel good after engineering a superb project or machinery that you did it through your own merit (and your team's) using God given reality based resources of this earth, rather than imagine that you are some half backed supposedly reincarnated alien alchemist? And if you make a mistake, or something does not turn out as you hoped, how does it actually console you, since it does not, to believe that you are "held back" because of your own "karma" or blame it on someone else's supposed lack of spirituality or "influence" on you? THAT makes you feel better? THAT makes you more successful? Rather than practicing some more, or seeking help, you believe that evil alien spirits tripped you up? How constructive is that? And what a way to raise the next generation... if being lemmings running over a cliff is your intention, for self destruction, that sure is an effective way to do it.
In the 1960's and 1970's I looked at the world around me and became very concerned about not only the level of sinfulness and loss of faith/understanding in the true only God, and the material world as it actually exists, in all its beauty and potential, but also what I viewed as a wave of global neurosis. During those twenty years I watched large groups of the population, particularly in the better developed "West" become incredible neurotics. That was bad enough, and very alarming.
However, during the 1980's and 1990's I watched the world get much worse, and go from global neurosis to global psychosis. Many of the people of the world today are psychotic, and I do not mean in the classic clinical sense of having an individual psychotic illness or break. Since psychosis is by definition an inability to discern reality from fiction, the true from the false, individuals and society as a whole has become remarkably and I often fear irretrievably psychotic. One of the hallmarks of psychosis is the inability to see the harm that comes from abandoning truth and instead, calling manipulation "reality." I could easily tap my microphone here and say "People of the world, you have already surrendered much of your sanity, and have institutionalized and even become enslaved to unreality and psychosis."
Drugs and alcohol have broken the sanity and discernment of many of the people who with their God given genuine and real caring and talents were supposed to make this a better world, who were supposed to be loving stewards, who were supposed to teach and protect their children, who were supposed to be genuine leaders.
Instead they put on their freak show uniforms and pretend to be heroes of epic bull crap that exists only in their own minds, destroying even their own joy in their own genuine achievements. Few things make me sadder than listening to a wonderful piece of music and knowing that it was written by someone inserting depressive and false cult beliefs as he or she mourns or condemns people, actions, events that never ever happened.
Instead of believing in the one true God, the one they will have to face at their time of judgment, they either deny God or appoint themselves as "knowing" the "reality" of "divine forces" and at best they view belief in God or "accepting" Jesus Christ as an insurance policy menu choice.
But this is not a "reality of hell" rant, no, not today, not now. This is sharing some of the decades of mourning that I have in my heart for how people have destroyed their own sanity and thus have no satisfaction in anything in their lives since they attribute it all, good or bad, to false reasons and false influences.
Here's an example, I'm just making it up, of how I've seen this decay happen.
Normal behavior: A kid grows up with some interest, perhaps in sharks, perhaps in model ships. There's no real rhyme or reason why they have that interest, it just is part of how each person has different things and different callings.
Neurotic generations: A kid has interests in sharks or model ships and either he or she or the parents/school system worries about "why" they are interested in such things. Why sharks and not tigers? Why ship building and not farming? Does little Johnny or Susie have "appropriate" interests that will give them lots of money when they grow up?
Psychotic generations: Johnny is interested in sharks because in a past life he was a shark, being "punished" for previous karma imbalance. Susie likes ship building because an alien reincarnated spirit in her years to be free and defeat the forthcoming bad alien menace and usher in the good alien "rescue."
I wish I was joking or overstating, but you know that I am not doing so, by far.
Individual and societal neurosis saps the pleasure from life, and also makes people feel helpless to address genuine failure and injustice where it exists and when it does happen.
Individual and societal psychosis is a total system of slavery that leads to destruction of life and soul, no matter how glistening and gleaming the self delusional world seems because it just simply is not reality. Unthinkable evil is routinely done under the guise of "good deeds." It ends when it is too late and people have ruined their own lives and others, and then are cast into the pit upon their deaths.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Understanding God: His "emotions"
God does not have emotions in the way that humans think of emotions, where emotions are defined as strong feelings. God has what one needs to think of as perfect appropriate responses to human activities. God is beyond complete understanding, but it is important that you be on the right path toward understanding him truthfully, rather than think you understand him and are on a completely wrong path of supposed insight. So I thought of this analogy (of course!)
When I say that God has "perfect appropriate responses" this is what I am trying to say. Since God is total perfection, his "emotional" response to anything that a human does (or anything else) is perfect for the situation. God "feels" only what is entirely truthful and authentic and correct to feel, regardless of the situation, since obviously there is no situation in heaven or in the God created universe, all of which were created by God, that he does not already have complete insight regarding. Thus God has "emotions" that humans sometimes observe, but what they are is the perfect appropriate response that God give to a situation, even if the humans who observe God's response don't fully understand it. But do not kid yourselves. If you read the scriptures you will notice that people are rarely actually "puzzled" or "dumbfounded" by God's reactions... people can pretty much understand in advance when God is wrathful or when God is pleased, since Biblical people pretty much knew full well what to expect. So here is the analogy I thought of to help modern people understand God's "feelings" better.
Suppose that you lived in a city that had one courthouse and one judge, and that judge always rendered perfect justice. In other words, the judge never made a mistake in any case brought before him. Here's how to understand God's wrath. Imagine that a person drags an innocent person off the street, into the courthouse, and right in front of the judge shoots the innocent person dead. The judge would be wrathful but not with the tinges of human anger. That perfect judge, who has already rendered perfect judgment to all types of cases would not be, like a human, "angry," "shocked," or "scared." The judge's reaction would be wrath. Wrath is also called "righteous anger," because it is a combination of indignation at unjust behavior combined with the perfect comprehension of what happened, all the implications and having the perfect "final say" in what happens to punish that person.
Because God is all knowing, whenever a person sins or is unjust, it is as if that sinning or unjust person dragged a innocent person in front of God the judge and shot the person, and one better be prepared for God's wrath, either immediately (on the spot justice, which means during one's life) or deferred wrath (which means upon the person's death and judgment).
So that is how to understand in Biblical times and in present times God's "anger," which is really wrath. It means that it is punishment time, either immediate or delayed, for the sins and injustice that God, as judge, always observes since he is all knowing. People who think God does not see and know all sins and all injustice are like the person in the analogy who drags an innocent person before the perfect judge and shoots him right in his presence, doing so either for shock effect, terrorism, or because he actually thinks he is better than the judge and is showing the judge "how to get things done." God is always present and God already knows all the circumstances around every thought and deed of humans, and thus there is no defiance or shock value one can manipulate before God. Further, God, like the judge in the analogy, is going to render perfect justice regardless if the crime is done in an anger inducing way by a human or not.
When you understand that, you can more fully appreciate how often God holds back his wrath, deferring it, allowing some time (but not as much as you think) for repentance and conversion of the heart and soul back to God. You also can understand why God "doesn't seem angry" because "he allows the wicked to flourish," but then those wicked find out just how "angry" God "really is" because they all wake up in hell when they die.
So God does not get "angry" like humans do for imagined or real slights, out of fear or shock, or vengeance, or jealousy, or even what some imagine to be good reasons to be angry (like being in war, for example). God is only "angry" when a person sins or is unjust (and that includes sins of neglect, meaning they are not doing the honorable things in service to God and in charity that they should be doing.)
You can also use this analogy to understand how God can be "sad," "grieved," be "aggrieved" or have a "grievance." You see how flexible the root concept of grief/grievance is, because it means both grief as in sadness, and grievance as in having a complaint. Complaint is a similar word, where one may complain over an inconvenience, but to be "plaintive" is to be sad (as in plaintive music). God cannot be sad in the way that humans are because humans are sad when they are in a situation that cannot be changed, while God is the source of all help and so he is never in a situation he cannot "change." So God can grieve but he is not sad. Here's how to use the analogy to understand it.
Suppose that after the shooting is done in the analogy courtroom, the bystanders suddenly realize that the innocent person who was dragged in front of the judge and shot was the child of the judge himself. A human judge would of course feel unbelievable sadness and grief at having his child murdered in front of him, because that child is now dead and gone. God, though, receives that child "on the other side," in heaven, and thus God is not sad the way the human judge would be because God "fixes it." God is not stuck with being "without" the child because of course the child is now in heaven. The human judge would be remaining stuck in sadness, however, because he is now without his beloved child. So for a human sadness is added to anger, while for God sadness is not added to his righteous wrath.
However, both God and the human judge in the analogy would both feel grief. How to understand grief? Grief is what happens when one has to now tell the grandparents, the mother, the siblings, the cousins, and the friends that the child has been killed. Grief is seeing the sadness that others must endure because of that action. This is why St Paul in Ephesians warns not to grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not made sad, but feels grief.
Now, to expand on the analogy to better understand God and especially grief, which he manifests, for lack of a better word, through the Holy Spirit. Suppose the innocent person who was murdered was not a child and perhaps not even a good person. Suppose the innocent person was a sinner or an evil doer, or an unbeliever. God would still feel grief for that person even though that person does not count among those who are saved and going to heaven. Why? Because only God takes no joy in injustice, whether against good people or "bad" people because it tarnishes in the darkness of sin both the person who performs the injustice and it cuts short the chance for the so called "bad" person to be redeemed. I say "only God" because just about every person I know succumbs to temptation to gloat at injustice if that injustice happens to someone "who deserves it." Some of the most unspiritual people I know like to post "karma is a bitch," because they are already gloating at a hopeful injustice happening in the future to catch up with an unjust person. In other words, the Bible warns that one will "reap what one sows," but that is different from an almost pagan hope that something bad will "happen" in the future, unrelated, to "make up for" something "bad" the person did in the past. That is trying to justify injustice with another injustice, a very unspiritual and incorrect take on reaping what one sows.
Anyway, remember, God knows the future, not only what will happen but all that could have happened. God knows if, for example, the innocent but sinful person who was killed in that analogy would have someday repented his or her ways and had been converted in heart and saved. But due to the injustice of the murderer that person's life ended and he or she receives perfect judgment, resulting in hell, if that be the case. The Holy Spirit grieves 1) at any injustice because it is against the good ways of God that God has enjoined upon humans 2) at the person who is not saved and goes to hell and 3) at the besmirching of the soul of the person who perpetrates the injustice. The Holy Spirit is not "sad" because as I said, God dispenses all perfect justice (both comfort and punishment) and thus is not ever in the helpless situation of sadness. The Holy Spirit of God does, most assuredly, feel deep grief (hence reference in scripture to the groaning of the Holy Spirit). It is not "sadness," it is grief... grief at the wrong road taken by humans, grief at the dirtying of their own and others' souls by humans, and grief at the unnecessary and avoidable chastisement that humans who perform and/or enable injustice must endure.
I hope that you have found this useful to think about and ponder. You can think of God's perspective of "joy" and "satisfaction" also in the way that "sadness" and "grief" were analyzed. Because God is the source of all joy and satisfaction, he does not feel per se those feelings which depend on fluxuating circumstances and processes required to reach those feelings which God already is (not "has" but "is"), but he does feel them, like grief, on behalf of humans in various situations. The one exception is creation, which God as Creator feels indeed as pure satisfaction, not self-satisfied the way humans are, but when God creates because all is good, and thus God is pleased with that. This is why God is able to appreciate a beautiful sunset alongside humans but of course from his perspective of its goodness, not only the aesthetics.
I just thought of a quick way artists can relate. Think of your favorite work of art and the time, either short or long, it took you to develop it. Part of your satisfaction with it is not just the aesthetics of it, which pleases you, but the method and time by which you achieved it. God created the entire universe with less than a sentence of speech, ha, so you can understand how God's aesthetic appreciation is pure as it is centered on its goodness, and not in the effort or cleverness or talent that went into its making. God didn't have to "work hard" to "paint" a perfect sunset. I hope that helps you understand! And "Hi" and "hey" to all the young people. God is not emo :-)
When I say that God has "perfect appropriate responses" this is what I am trying to say. Since God is total perfection, his "emotional" response to anything that a human does (or anything else) is perfect for the situation. God "feels" only what is entirely truthful and authentic and correct to feel, regardless of the situation, since obviously there is no situation in heaven or in the God created universe, all of which were created by God, that he does not already have complete insight regarding. Thus God has "emotions" that humans sometimes observe, but what they are is the perfect appropriate response that God give to a situation, even if the humans who observe God's response don't fully understand it. But do not kid yourselves. If you read the scriptures you will notice that people are rarely actually "puzzled" or "dumbfounded" by God's reactions... people can pretty much understand in advance when God is wrathful or when God is pleased, since Biblical people pretty much knew full well what to expect. So here is the analogy I thought of to help modern people understand God's "feelings" better.
Suppose that you lived in a city that had one courthouse and one judge, and that judge always rendered perfect justice. In other words, the judge never made a mistake in any case brought before him. Here's how to understand God's wrath. Imagine that a person drags an innocent person off the street, into the courthouse, and right in front of the judge shoots the innocent person dead. The judge would be wrathful but not with the tinges of human anger. That perfect judge, who has already rendered perfect judgment to all types of cases would not be, like a human, "angry," "shocked," or "scared." The judge's reaction would be wrath. Wrath is also called "righteous anger," because it is a combination of indignation at unjust behavior combined with the perfect comprehension of what happened, all the implications and having the perfect "final say" in what happens to punish that person.
Because God is all knowing, whenever a person sins or is unjust, it is as if that sinning or unjust person dragged a innocent person in front of God the judge and shot the person, and one better be prepared for God's wrath, either immediately (on the spot justice, which means during one's life) or deferred wrath (which means upon the person's death and judgment).
So that is how to understand in Biblical times and in present times God's "anger," which is really wrath. It means that it is punishment time, either immediate or delayed, for the sins and injustice that God, as judge, always observes since he is all knowing. People who think God does not see and know all sins and all injustice are like the person in the analogy who drags an innocent person before the perfect judge and shoots him right in his presence, doing so either for shock effect, terrorism, or because he actually thinks he is better than the judge and is showing the judge "how to get things done." God is always present and God already knows all the circumstances around every thought and deed of humans, and thus there is no defiance or shock value one can manipulate before God. Further, God, like the judge in the analogy, is going to render perfect justice regardless if the crime is done in an anger inducing way by a human or not.
When you understand that, you can more fully appreciate how often God holds back his wrath, deferring it, allowing some time (but not as much as you think) for repentance and conversion of the heart and soul back to God. You also can understand why God "doesn't seem angry" because "he allows the wicked to flourish," but then those wicked find out just how "angry" God "really is" because they all wake up in hell when they die.
So God does not get "angry" like humans do for imagined or real slights, out of fear or shock, or vengeance, or jealousy, or even what some imagine to be good reasons to be angry (like being in war, for example). God is only "angry" when a person sins or is unjust (and that includes sins of neglect, meaning they are not doing the honorable things in service to God and in charity that they should be doing.)
You can also use this analogy to understand how God can be "sad," "grieved," be "aggrieved" or have a "grievance." You see how flexible the root concept of grief/grievance is, because it means both grief as in sadness, and grievance as in having a complaint. Complaint is a similar word, where one may complain over an inconvenience, but to be "plaintive" is to be sad (as in plaintive music). God cannot be sad in the way that humans are because humans are sad when they are in a situation that cannot be changed, while God is the source of all help and so he is never in a situation he cannot "change." So God can grieve but he is not sad. Here's how to use the analogy to understand it.
Suppose that after the shooting is done in the analogy courtroom, the bystanders suddenly realize that the innocent person who was dragged in front of the judge and shot was the child of the judge himself. A human judge would of course feel unbelievable sadness and grief at having his child murdered in front of him, because that child is now dead and gone. God, though, receives that child "on the other side," in heaven, and thus God is not sad the way the human judge would be because God "fixes it." God is not stuck with being "without" the child because of course the child is now in heaven. The human judge would be remaining stuck in sadness, however, because he is now without his beloved child. So for a human sadness is added to anger, while for God sadness is not added to his righteous wrath.
However, both God and the human judge in the analogy would both feel grief. How to understand grief? Grief is what happens when one has to now tell the grandparents, the mother, the siblings, the cousins, and the friends that the child has been killed. Grief is seeing the sadness that others must endure because of that action. This is why St Paul in Ephesians warns not to grieve the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not made sad, but feels grief.
Now, to expand on the analogy to better understand God and especially grief, which he manifests, for lack of a better word, through the Holy Spirit. Suppose the innocent person who was murdered was not a child and perhaps not even a good person. Suppose the innocent person was a sinner or an evil doer, or an unbeliever. God would still feel grief for that person even though that person does not count among those who are saved and going to heaven. Why? Because only God takes no joy in injustice, whether against good people or "bad" people because it tarnishes in the darkness of sin both the person who performs the injustice and it cuts short the chance for the so called "bad" person to be redeemed. I say "only God" because just about every person I know succumbs to temptation to gloat at injustice if that injustice happens to someone "who deserves it." Some of the most unspiritual people I know like to post "karma is a bitch," because they are already gloating at a hopeful injustice happening in the future to catch up with an unjust person. In other words, the Bible warns that one will "reap what one sows," but that is different from an almost pagan hope that something bad will "happen" in the future, unrelated, to "make up for" something "bad" the person did in the past. That is trying to justify injustice with another injustice, a very unspiritual and incorrect take on reaping what one sows.
Anyway, remember, God knows the future, not only what will happen but all that could have happened. God knows if, for example, the innocent but sinful person who was killed in that analogy would have someday repented his or her ways and had been converted in heart and saved. But due to the injustice of the murderer that person's life ended and he or she receives perfect judgment, resulting in hell, if that be the case. The Holy Spirit grieves 1) at any injustice because it is against the good ways of God that God has enjoined upon humans 2) at the person who is not saved and goes to hell and 3) at the besmirching of the soul of the person who perpetrates the injustice. The Holy Spirit is not "sad" because as I said, God dispenses all perfect justice (both comfort and punishment) and thus is not ever in the helpless situation of sadness. The Holy Spirit of God does, most assuredly, feel deep grief (hence reference in scripture to the groaning of the Holy Spirit). It is not "sadness," it is grief... grief at the wrong road taken by humans, grief at the dirtying of their own and others' souls by humans, and grief at the unnecessary and avoidable chastisement that humans who perform and/or enable injustice must endure.
I hope that you have found this useful to think about and ponder. You can think of God's perspective of "joy" and "satisfaction" also in the way that "sadness" and "grief" were analyzed. Because God is the source of all joy and satisfaction, he does not feel per se those feelings which depend on fluxuating circumstances and processes required to reach those feelings which God already is (not "has" but "is"), but he does feel them, like grief, on behalf of humans in various situations. The one exception is creation, which God as Creator feels indeed as pure satisfaction, not self-satisfied the way humans are, but when God creates because all is good, and thus God is pleased with that. This is why God is able to appreciate a beautiful sunset alongside humans but of course from his perspective of its goodness, not only the aesthetics.
I just thought of a quick way artists can relate. Think of your favorite work of art and the time, either short or long, it took you to develop it. Part of your satisfaction with it is not just the aesthetics of it, which pleases you, but the method and time by which you achieved it. God created the entire universe with less than a sentence of speech, ha, so you can understand how God's aesthetic appreciation is pure as it is centered on its goodness, and not in the effort or cleverness or talent that went into its making. God didn't have to "work hard" to "paint" a perfect sunset. I hope that helps you understand! And "Hi" and "hey" to all the young people. God is not emo :-)
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The illness of "complicated grief"
Just read a NYT article about it, as it's being considered for inclusion as a defined mental disorder in the DSM. OK, need to get on with some things but quickly, here is a case study to think about, especially young people.
Complicated grief: prolonged grieving after a loss (death in the family) that robs the survivor of their ability to live or their genuine participation in life.
How to cure? First, you need to understand the challenge, about why it is such a real phenomenon, in the human biological, cultural and spiritual (Biblical) context.
Remember what I have explained that romantic love, per se, and the modern parent-child bond is a fraction of what it used to be. Let me explain. When humans lived hand to mouth in subsistance existence, every member of the family had to work for the daily food AND the only way families prospered was to build families with many children. So humans are biologically and spiritually programmed to want to be in stable marriages with lots of kids. Just because much of western society is now prosperous, this does not mean that all those thousands of years of biological and spiritual adaptation now changes.
Bible reference: Reread the short but very powerful passage where Jesus encounters a funeral procession, where a widow has lost her only son. I explained in previous blogs that this could well have meant death for the widow, as only a husband or a son could provide for her. This is one reason Jesus felt such pity for her and promptly raised her son from the dead and restored him to his mother.
Large families and obligations to feed many children are not the "burden" that modern free spirited people seem to think they are: they are a safety need, against too much grief, too much morbidity, too much dead end. Generations of women have emotionally survived the dead of a child, or a spouse, because one had to "keep going" for the rest of the family, and this indeed would bring them out of their deepest grief, even if nothing could of course ultimately heal it. The problem is that a person with complicated grief is not the sick person: the society that no longer has the entended support AND obligations that provide this safety net is the entity who is sick.
So I resist the idea that complicated grief is a person's individual burden; it is the result of society no longer supporting, as it did before, the large stable family AND the necessity of "keeping on or we all suffer" mentality, as both of those heal complicated grief. This is why the modern somewhat manufactured thought of giving the griever "a new purpose in life" (usually through a job or more education) has some merit, but it's a shadow of what actual real life in less prosperous but more populated/per family times offered, not a "new purpose" but continuity in the need to go on. Most families DID suffer the loss of a baby or child in the old days. That's one reason why previous generations did not have "complicated grief," they had reality, which is many families had four or more children, and often one was stillborn, died in infancy or during childbirth, or of illness or poverty at a young age. One suffers less when one is part of what is the normal life experience and with many in the family who are indeed still alive and who need you.
The second thing to think about is that in un-believing, weak faith, or totally God-less times, it is very hard for complicated grief people to move on if they do not at some point embrace with joy, not with sorrow, that their child is with God in heaven and would not come back even if he or she could. Faith is not a sugar pill: it is reality. People with complicated grief have often been robbed by society or in their individual upbringing of not only really believing in heaven, God and their child being their (or their spouse or loved one having hope of being there), but even those who do still believe have a lukewarm perception of the joy and bliss their loved one has in the eternal presence. You must understand that heaven is mind blowing beyond what anyone can imagine. Generations of grieving parents or spouses before were not making lame excuses when they comforted saying "He (or she) is in a better place." The old time believers understood that it is really, really, really, REALLY true. Understanding that reality is the ultimate survivor guilt and other symptom reliever. Again, it is not a sugar pill. It is acknowledgment that heaven, guaranteed for children, hoped for by believing adults, and even those who can only rely on God's mercy as they had rejected him in life, is a place that is so amazing and eternal that no one would want to come back regardless of how much they loved a person who is not there with them at that time.
So complicated grief is another illness of not the individual (though they are suffering the very real pain and symptoms.) It is the illness of society's destruction of large families and of mainstream genuine faith in the reality of God in each person's life and after life in eternity. It's like society has the illness but the complicated grief person is suffering all the symptoms.
I hope you have found this helpful.
Complicated grief: prolonged grieving after a loss (death in the family) that robs the survivor of their ability to live or their genuine participation in life.
How to cure? First, you need to understand the challenge, about why it is such a real phenomenon, in the human biological, cultural and spiritual (Biblical) context.
Remember what I have explained that romantic love, per se, and the modern parent-child bond is a fraction of what it used to be. Let me explain. When humans lived hand to mouth in subsistance existence, every member of the family had to work for the daily food AND the only way families prospered was to build families with many children. So humans are biologically and spiritually programmed to want to be in stable marriages with lots of kids. Just because much of western society is now prosperous, this does not mean that all those thousands of years of biological and spiritual adaptation now changes.
Bible reference: Reread the short but very powerful passage where Jesus encounters a funeral procession, where a widow has lost her only son. I explained in previous blogs that this could well have meant death for the widow, as only a husband or a son could provide for her. This is one reason Jesus felt such pity for her and promptly raised her son from the dead and restored him to his mother.
Large families and obligations to feed many children are not the "burden" that modern free spirited people seem to think they are: they are a safety need, against too much grief, too much morbidity, too much dead end. Generations of women have emotionally survived the dead of a child, or a spouse, because one had to "keep going" for the rest of the family, and this indeed would bring them out of their deepest grief, even if nothing could of course ultimately heal it. The problem is that a person with complicated grief is not the sick person: the society that no longer has the entended support AND obligations that provide this safety net is the entity who is sick.
So I resist the idea that complicated grief is a person's individual burden; it is the result of society no longer supporting, as it did before, the large stable family AND the necessity of "keeping on or we all suffer" mentality, as both of those heal complicated grief. This is why the modern somewhat manufactured thought of giving the griever "a new purpose in life" (usually through a job or more education) has some merit, but it's a shadow of what actual real life in less prosperous but more populated/per family times offered, not a "new purpose" but continuity in the need to go on. Most families DID suffer the loss of a baby or child in the old days. That's one reason why previous generations did not have "complicated grief," they had reality, which is many families had four or more children, and often one was stillborn, died in infancy or during childbirth, or of illness or poverty at a young age. One suffers less when one is part of what is the normal life experience and with many in the family who are indeed still alive and who need you.
The second thing to think about is that in un-believing, weak faith, or totally God-less times, it is very hard for complicated grief people to move on if they do not at some point embrace with joy, not with sorrow, that their child is with God in heaven and would not come back even if he or she could. Faith is not a sugar pill: it is reality. People with complicated grief have often been robbed by society or in their individual upbringing of not only really believing in heaven, God and their child being their (or their spouse or loved one having hope of being there), but even those who do still believe have a lukewarm perception of the joy and bliss their loved one has in the eternal presence. You must understand that heaven is mind blowing beyond what anyone can imagine. Generations of grieving parents or spouses before were not making lame excuses when they comforted saying "He (or she) is in a better place." The old time believers understood that it is really, really, really, REALLY true. Understanding that reality is the ultimate survivor guilt and other symptom reliever. Again, it is not a sugar pill. It is acknowledgment that heaven, guaranteed for children, hoped for by believing adults, and even those who can only rely on God's mercy as they had rejected him in life, is a place that is so amazing and eternal that no one would want to come back regardless of how much they loved a person who is not there with them at that time.
So complicated grief is another illness of not the individual (though they are suffering the very real pain and symptoms.) It is the illness of society's destruction of large families and of mainstream genuine faith in the reality of God in each person's life and after life in eternity. It's like society has the illness but the complicated grief person is suffering all the symptoms.
I hope you have found this helpful.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Decades of my "would have been" Twitters
If Twitter existed through my life and I had been using it, here is what I would have tweeted every hour of every day of every year for decades.
First, for young people, and those poor in history and facts, look up "Josef Mengele" in Wikipedia, so that you understand my "cultural reference."
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day thus far through 2009)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2008)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2007)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2006)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2005)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004...)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999...)
and so on and so on and so on, every hour and every day throughout my years of simply hanging on.... even throughout the 1980's, with perm big 80's hair and all
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
And now this morning as I'm wakened after another short night of unrestful so called sleep, as I was urged to Twitter this by the Holy Spirit, who knows what people need to hear in order to have even a chance of understanding and being saved from hellfire:
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
6 am local time 24/9/2009 posted from my virtual Twitter account on blogspot
First, for young people, and those poor in history and facts, look up "Josef Mengele" in Wikipedia, so that you understand my "cultural reference."
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day thus far through 2009)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2008)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2007)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2006)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2005)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004...)
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
(every hour of every day through 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999...)
and so on and so on and so on, every hour and every day throughout my years of simply hanging on.... even throughout the 1980's, with perm big 80's hair and all
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
And now this morning as I'm wakened after another short night of unrestful so called sleep, as I was urged to Twitter this by the Holy Spirit, who knows what people need to hear in order to have even a chance of understanding and being saved from hellfire:
Sad that thousands more have gone to hell, while I am stuck as the cult Mengele family's laboratory rat.
6 am local time 24/9/2009 posted from my virtual Twitter account on blogspot
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