Anhedonia

It’s amazing what happens when we try to shake things up.  I was listening to a broadcast from Focus on the Family, because it was playing while I did some dishes.  It was speaking about the condition of anhedonia, albeit speaking about it as symptomatic of pleasure overload, distraction and distortion overload.  I had to look it up, to see if it was being used correctly.  Turns out it’s the medical name for the condition of the victim of depression when they are unable to obtain normal or even abnormal joy from commonplace activities.  Now, this got me thinking about shaking things up, mostly because I’m in a sort of transition time myself.  Anhedonia does not allow for people to be shaken up.  They are melancholic and joyless, adrift in a world that seems to have nothing for them.  It’s the world’s name for spiritual depression, and it eliminates the quest and the boon of the Joy-Giver Jesus when it’s given that categorization.  I believe to the utmost that it is important to see Bible playing out in practical, real, and daily life.  So I call it spiritual depression when I detect it.

It’s hard to be told to become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know when a) you know a lot of people b) your temperament is melancholic c) You are looking for a reason for the joy you are told you should have.  Or, to rephrase, to have reason for the hope that we have.  That’s the Biblical version of what I’m saying.  I’ve been in a place of being demonstrative of all three of those…still am on many occasions.  But then it gets overcome with thanksgiving for the blessing of, for example, a beautiful day with a comparatively large amount of freedom from that which depresses.   Here’s hoping for beauty from the ashes, then.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

The Wolves

In Matthew 10:16, it says “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”  In 2 Peter 2:1-3, the Bible declares “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.  And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.  And in their greed they will exploit you with false words.  Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

I’ve been guilty of allowing some of that to come into this blog.  In an effort to redeem what I can of the world’s focus on self-help, I sought to use H. Jackson Brown’s 21 Suggestions for Success as material to blog on and trace Biblical foundations for.  I also sought to be a teacher in it.  That would have led to some deadly consequences if I had carried through on it, because it would have started me down a path of trying to justify some lies that are insidious in their movement.  I’m stopping now, because I don’t particularly want to stand under that condemnation.  I may take bits and pieces of it and look at it in relation to some entries, but only in the capacity of reverse-engineering to see where the heresy can unfold.  I’ve tried to be cautious so far, but even in that caution I may have opened up some troubling doors.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Simplicity

H. Jackson Brown’s third suggestion for success is this:

Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

I’m not going to write about this specifically this post, but I realized I’d forgotten to attach it to the end of my last post. So here it is.

What I am going to write about is a prequel to that particular bit of knowledge, but, strangely enough, it’s going to approach it rather obliquely. What I want to look at is simplicity of heart.

I’m not sure where the best place to start is. Certainly, one needs to bear in mind that we are all given the ability to love. We do not all choose to use it, however. And much in the world prevents us from it. But we do have that capability in us, and it is from the heart that serving others springs. And it is in simplicity of heart, truly, that the key to the gift of service is to be found.

We add complexity to the heart by launching the meditation of reason against it. As a result, we lose the simplicity of heart that gives rise to unflinchingly loving people – living in innocence. Or we find ourselves in situations where we don’t want to love people, and forget that we’re all broken. Regardless, I’ve been thinking recently that being simple in heart, as a child is, really is as important as the Bible says it is.

To recover this is not a work that we undertake often or without trepidation. But it is sometimes necessary to return the heart to something approaching innocence in order that we might be of the greatest service to others.

Something to think on, anyway.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

When Work Becomes Toil

Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.

So says suggestion 2. In the life belonging to the world, working at something you don’t enjoy because it may pay better wages is often seen as acceptable. As is choosing ‘fallback’ career paths that bear little fruit and leave one exhausted while trying to live up to the grand dreams we’ve all had. Work becomes toil for a number of reasons; but the predominant reason is that we are simply not seeing what we do in the light of bringing glory to God. It’s taken me a few years to realize this, but thank God that He’s patient enough to wait while I’ve tried to figure it out.

Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 serves as the point of introduction I’m going to use here. It reads as follows:

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanities of vanities! All is vanity. what does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns. All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again. All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ’see, this is new’? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.”

A rather depressing start to a point that’s rather far from that. Ecclesiastes, if taken on its own authority, is the very personal record of a man trying different approaches to finding the meaning of life and ultimately resolving that this is the case: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecc. 12:13). Solomon, in all his riches, in all his wisdom, did not have the advantage of knowing that man’s chief end is to glorify, rather than to fear God. Included as a large part of that is the work we do daily.

For those who read my earlier posts on spiritual gifts, you’ll remember that I believe in the presence of spiritual gifts in the lives of believers, and I recognize the presence of these gifts – at least the natural gifts and aptitudes – in the lives of non-believers. The purpose here is to be active in ministry with these gifts, and that’s where suggestion 2 comes in – Work at something that you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent. If the gifts are given as ministry aids, and if one’s job is missional and a ministry, then you are to be working at something for which you’ve been given the gifts, in order that you might more effectively honor the Lord who gave you those gifts. You will not find such employment toilsome, because you’ll be doing those things for which you’ve been fitted to do.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

What “The Impressive Clergyman” Had to Say

For those of you who haven’t seen The Princess Bride, do so. You will not regret it. For those of you who have, you’re going to recognize the allusion. Prince Humperdinck’s bishop was played by Peter Cook, and his speech still sends people into gales of laughter when they watch the show. Here’s the relevant point to today’s Brown post.:

“Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togevah today. Mawwiage…that dweam wivvin a dweam, that bwessed union…etc.”

I thought I’d start off on a little bit of a tongue in cheek note, because the first suggestion for success is a pretty heavy subject to get into, and some of the stuff I’m going to say is pretty controversial. It states, once again:

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.

It’s a true thing. It really is. I have seen marriages both successful and unsuccessful, and those who are really right for each other make it plain by their actions, by their character as others see it, and by what they highlight about each other to each other. Let me take you through some passages just to get some ground under us:

Genesis 2:18-25

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

So two things become clear here. First, that it is not good for man to be alone…marriage is an essential part of life. Second, that a man will leave his family to start a new one, and in doing so he is to hold fast to his wife. That is, he is to consider her worthy of any sacrifice necessary for the preservation of the marriage.

This understanding of marriage is expanded upon in the Song of Songs or Song of Solomon. In 2:7, 3:5 and 8:4, that book declares this thing:

“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.”

The whole book is an illumination of the point and privilege of marriage. In 3:11, this is written: “Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon, with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.” In 5:16b, this is written: “This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.” There’s more, but my time is limited in this one. Suffice it to say with regards to the aims of marriage in Song of Solomon that marriage is meant to bring delight to the bride and the bridegroom both, delight such that anything else is incomparable, that each is to be lost without the other.

What becomes clear throughout the Old Testament (and there are hundreds of illustrations regarding marriage and family) is that marriage is meant to be a source of joy and hope, not misery and despair to those privileged enough to be married. The New Testament gives illustrations of marriage in a much deeper way, likening the union of man and wife to be the closest earthly reflection of the fellowship of God to reconciled man, to pre-sinful or post-redeemed man.

Just as an aside, two of the essential reasons, I believe, why Jesus never married is to preserve Himself as the righteous Bridegroom but also to indicate that His fellowship with the Lord did not need to be reflected or found in marriage, but that His relationship with his Father was complete without it. This would be a very different can of worms, and you may see a meditation on it at some point later on.

The matters of Christ as Bridegroom are a related topic, but I can’t get into it here because it would take you far too long to read the post. There are also some gaping holes to fill, because to articulate a theology of marriage would be almost an academic paper in length. I’ll return to this topic when I get to suggestion 21, but for now, here’s the next one. You’ll see this in a few days.

2. Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.

Where ‘Self-Help’ Comes From

H. Jackson Brown has suggested 21 ways by which we can achieve success in our lives. I’m going to take issue with my own use of the word ‘we’ here, but I’m also going to take a brief look at the Biblical foundation for every one of these principles over the next little while. And, I’m going to be rather vocal about the frightening roads these ways of thinking can lead you down, and why these steps need to be carefully tested and approved in application. You can find the suggestions here. And I’m not going to spend 21 posts on these things alone, but rather, I’m going to alternate between these and some insights I’ve been having over the past few dry weeks.

First, my complaint about the use of ‘we’ is that it can be taken to imply that we are the only operative parties in acting towards the fulfillment of these parts of our lives. This is patently not true, and so I preface my remarks on Brown’s suggestions with this: It’s not in ourselves that we can find the fulfillment of these things – please, make no mistake, they are valuable points to consider and they do truly offer beneficial suggestions- but in Jesus Christ, His teachings and His life. And it is by looking towards Him that we are given a proper perspective on their value.

I also want to make it clear that the tile of this post is itself a comment on what I’m trying to say. ‘Self-help’ is impossible. It’s not within our abilities to save or to sanctify ourselves, though we have every possibility of damning ourselves to Hell if we try. Neither is it possible to fulfill the righteousness within which these things fall. Biblically, Christ lived a fully righteous life and that life is what provides redemption for our own unrighteousness in arrogance and pride. So I’m going to say it plainly. I believe that ’self-help’ is arrogance beyond belief. We cannot make ourselves ‘good people’ any more than we can pull the moon out of the sky. We can’t remedy the darkness in ourselves by ourselves.

I’m not going to go into the first of the suggestions for success tonight, but I will put it up for you to think about:

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.

Blessings;

Christ-bearer.