Who ya foolin'

I once read an article titled "Who's fool are you?"  Great article about how we all follow some belief or doctrine.  It started out with the verse I Corinthians 4:10, "We are fools for Christ's sake" and explained that it meant that we might look like fools following Jesus.  And it's true in many ways.  Christian belief is very different from typical culture or human character.  Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you.  If that doesn't make you look foolish, then maybe try expecting the meek to win out in the end. 

Fortunately for many of us, we've grown up in pro-Christian cultures and the concepts of love and humility will now typically inspire honor.  In many cultures it was pride and dominance, power and plenty that inspired honor.  And that still remains even in pro-Christian cultures.  It's hard to get away from that pride.

The article went on to say, that if you weren't a fool for Christ, then the only alternative was to be fooled by the devil.  Since Christ leads us with the truth, to not follow Christ means to not follow the truth.  The devil is the father of lies, so you'd just end up following him, which would be very foolish.  So, who's fool are you?  Obviously the article went into a lot more details about following Jesus and what the alternative means, but that's the gist of it.

But why would we want to follow anything?  Do we need to follow?  Can't we just lead our own lives and be done with it?

I don't think you can get the right answers by asking those questions.  Seems strange but I really believe that some questions just don't lead to real answers.  "Are we there yet?"  "Why does Tommy always get the bigger piece?"  A big part of advanced math is finding the right Questions, the right formulas to get the already known answers.

I think the better questions would be:  What do we want?  What do we want out of life?  What do we want after death?

Trying to answer the questions about "following" probably won't give you the same answers as the questions about our true inner desires.  The questions on "following" will lead you to defend your pride, to compare yourself with others, to judge others.  Ultimately leading to answers that are all about you and your pride versus everyone else.  Not good answers at all!

Asking questions about what you desire in life may also sound selfish.  And it's true, that if you are an extremely proud person, your answers might also maintain a lot of pride.  You can try to fool yourself into believing that you desire certain things.  A very proud person is simply fooled by his or her pride. A very selfish person is simply fooled by their selfishness.  So the trick is to try to answer those questions as honestly and humbly as possible.  What do you really really want from life?

If you are truly honest with yourself I believe your answers will draw very close to just about everyone else that's ever lived on this planet.  We all want to be loved and respected.

You can see where that might be slanted somehow into believing that we all want the world to revolve around ourselves, but that's not the case. Well, okay, yes, that is the case...  Too many people do slant it.  And it is probably the type of answer that many people would give.  That's the problem!  They are so close to the truth, but they've been fooled into believing a slanted view of the truth.  So close, yet so far!  It almost fulfills the desire to be loved and respected.  Almost, but not quite.

So, in the end, what we all really really want is to be loved and respected.  And if we are honest with ourselves we will be able to see that.

And now we have the correct answers to the questions about "following" and "leading our own lives."  How's that? 

Well, why would we ever want to follow anything.  If it just happens to be the only way to be truly loved and respected.  Then of course we would want to follow it.  Why not?

Do we really need to follow?  It depends on what you mean by follow.  The truth is the truth whether you believe it, follow it, or not.  To follow the truth will actually set you free.  Doesn't sound exactly like following. 

It just turns out that where ever you go, your nose will be leading you there.  In other words, you will always and forever be following something! Even if you refuse to follow, you'd just be following some belief that you must refuse to follow!  Now that's really foolish! ha!  So the answer is simple.  Yes, you need to follow.  You have no choice in that matter.  You have to follow something.  You do, however, have a choice about what to follow.

Now, what about leading your own life?  Well that would by definition be the same as following yourself.  Think about it.  Do you really think that you, of all people, know the best way to go?  Maybe you do, maybe you don't.  So let's just for the sake of argument consider that you do just happen to know the best way to go.  Wow!  You're pretty awesome to say the least!  I think it's time now to pat yourself on the back. 

So if you know the best way to go, where did you learn that?  Did you always know that?  Have you ever changed your mind about what you think is the best way to go?  It's beginning to look a little suspicious right now...  It's beginning to look like you are just following something you learned.  Was it all by your own experimentation and experience?  or did you pick up knowledge from other people, too?  And your experience, did it not include other people?

So, in the end, trying to lead our own lives is really just following what we believe.  And so, again, by definition, any following of any doctrine is the same as leading our own lives.  There is no difference.  We always make the choice about what we will follow.

Now, does what you are following provide you with your deepest desire to be loved and respected?  And if people do love and respect you, do you believe they should?

Jesus taught us that He loves and respects each of us.  And that we should love and respect others. 

He didn't say anything about striving to be loved and respected.  I guess I was wrong!  What a fool I am!  So while it may be true that we all desire to be loved and respected, the only way to fulfill that, the only way to be loved and respected is to love and respect others! That's what we should desire the most. To love and respect others. 

Not sure I can understand all that, but if Jesus says it's so, then it's true.  It may seem foolish to follow, but it's still the truth. And the truth will set us free.

So, who's fool are you?

I am, therefore I think... sometimes not

"Cogito ergo sum" is Latin for something like "I think, therefore I am" expressed by René Descartes.

There's been a lot of discussion about that phrase. Probably too much. One argument by Søren Kierkegaard is that the phrase is not logically sound because it relates the "am" to the "think" without any proof. I think he just missed the whole meaning. That if "YOU" can relate to the "I" then "YOU" exist. One simple way to relate to the "I" is to think, therefore if I think, then I exist, that something that thinks has to exist!

When Moses asked God what His name was, God replied: "I am" - He didn't even need to say anything about thinking. He knew already! Ha!

Anyway that's not what I really want to write about.

In Genesis it says that God made man in His image. This has been thought about and discussed ever since then. How are we created in God's image? Chances are he's not fat or bald like some of us. Or even tall and skinny like others. So it's not what we look like. Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." And God said His name was "I am" so maybe it's because we can think. Many have said it's because we can love. I like that one.

But there's a lot of opinion that animals think and have the capability of love and that they would then have to have been made in the image of God as well. Maybe they have been. The Bible doesn't specifically say they haven't - we just sort of imply that because God said it about us. There are also verses that say that God is Love (Check out 1 John 4:8) and other verses that say that God is "in" everything and can be seen in everything. So maybe animals can love and it's because of God.

I've heard that many believers in God don't believe that animals "go to Heaven" or won't be in the Heavenly Kingdom. Revelation 19:11 says: "Then I saw heaven opened and here came a white horse!" I thinks it pretty clear that there are animals in Heaven.

But that brings us back to the "made in God's image" statement. The Bible is meant to be read and understood and followed. I don't think God intended to trick us with the statement. I think He wanted us to realize that we are different, that we are like Him in ways that the animal kingdom is not. But in what way?

In the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verse 11, in the King James Version of the Bible, it says:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 

I think that is the clue. We have eternity in our heart. We can think about eternity. We can ponder life after death. We can relate to God and worship Him as God. I think that's what makes us different.

We love Him because He first loved us, but I expect animals (at least Godly ones) would love Him as well. What makes us different is that we can understand that He is God, Eternal. I would not expect animals to be able to understand that. They might recognize His authority, much like a child will recognize their mother. But they cannot understand or comprehend its significance. And I don't really think animals concern themselves with eternity, with the afterlife. We are definitely different than any other creature.

So we can ponder eternity and that makes us like God. It does not make us as smart as God, though. That's clear from the rest of the verse: "yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Fathom means to understand in depth. So it says no one can truly understand what God has done from beginning to end. No one, not even Stephen Hawking, can understand how God created the beginning of time.

Nor can we truly understand where we are headed. In fact, none of us actually really truly knows where we are! Or what we are like.

I do that all the time. I think I'm doing okay, being nice and all, but it turns out that some people just think I'm a jerk or something. We can't both be right. And since I'm the jerk I get to assume that I'm the one that's right... ha! And yet, I can ponder eternity and I can worship God because I have been created in God's image. It's amazing! I am so thankful for God's love and mercy. I'm guessing that I give Him a chance to put His mercy into practice just about every day. I have a feeling we all do.

I'm also glad that he didn't put eternity in our hearts just to tease us. He plans on taking us there some day, some how. Or maybe because it's eternal it's more like we'll always be on that journey there. I don't know. I don't really understand. But He does. And He's promised to take us there. In John chapter 14, Jesus promises us:

Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.