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?
