God provides us with opportunities each day to: Give - Serve - Love
I'm not necessarily good at this... but (with God's help) I DO want my heart to be shaped and conformed to become more like His.
I've been married 25yrs, and have 5 amazing kids... my goal for this channel is to post content that can potentially help my kids/family/friends/others, learn more about God's amazing love for them... for you... for me... for everyone.
"When you are offended at anyone's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. By attending to them, you will forget your anger and learn to live wisely." -- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor
Everyone tells their children think before you act well why so you can't do stupid things so what do you think so you don't do stupid things why not do stupid things so your life isn't any more miserable than it has to be
"You may say it is very different for God because He could, if He pleased, alter people’s characters, and we can’t. But this difference doesn’t go quite as deep as we may at first think. God has made it a rule for Himself that He won’t alter people’s character by force. He can and will alter them - but only if the people will let Him. " Is that really so though?
I disagree with the statement if you truly forgive a person things should go on as usual,you can forgive a person but things don't necesarily has to be the same, suppose someone steal frm a person,things can't go on as usual because there has been a breach of trust,.
Our priest referenced The Problem with X recently, which led me here. Recognizing the truth of my role in my complaints and disappoints is hard to swallow but brings life.
But Mr. Lewis, I already blamed myself until I felt unworthy to heaven & ashamed that I chose hell. Why would life be better even when I know I'm wrong & that neither Jesus likes to make robot out of people's crazy sinful spites? I just don't get it over your lectures.
I've been through this and for many of us who have been very cruelly treated in our lives and have been very heavily conditioned by Christianity to always blame ourselves for everything has done HUGE DAMAGE to me and my life even to this day where I still feel pushed by Christians to blame myself for things that are simply unfair to blame me for. But I still do. Repeatedly. This conditioning is EVIL because we all know that the atheists and more comfortable Christians who are self-righteous NEVER hold themselves to the same standards that have been brutally imposed on me. Contrition is to easily exploited by predators. This something something....that still gives me pause....about "returning to Faith" because I am not just some dummy who reads CS. LEWIS and "buys" it without thought.
Great comment Chris… I feel like that a lot when I’m reading/listening to CSL - he does a great job of “bringing things down to the lower shelf” for me 🤓
@@HughesJay Great expression about the “lower shelf” which I’m definitely on. Bless you both you and CSL for having long arms… or perhaps standing on those “shoulders of giants” I keep hearing about. Peace!
I thought about that line of thoughts. The problem is that it is basically the same as crying in the desert: "All you Xs, repent" Or sometimes blaming the victim, which can be terrible. The main reason people don't change is not because they lack introspection, it's because they think they are right, and sometimes they are. Take two people, one is industrious, the other is lazy. Both are playing a different game. The industrious might think he is reaching excellence in so domain of life and would want others to do the same. The lazy might think there is a good enough place, do what is necessary and no more and also wants others to do the same. So nobody is wrong here, and nobody is right either. Both have their flaws and good sides. The problem mostly comes when one wants to force the other to do something, to play the same game. Like in this case, mostly it will be the industrious that will try and force the lazy to play his game under his own rules, and failure to do so will seem like an injustice, because the lazy is leeching off the product. So in this case, it's pretty much up to the industrious to stop pushing, but also for the lazy to give his fair share which will inevitably less, so there needs to be an agreement. I think understanding those games is more important than trying to blame one party over the other. Sometimes one will be unreasonable and/or there can be no agreement, in which case, you have to recognize it, but first and foremost, you have to understand the game being played. I don't think Lewis fixes the problem at all, he is still in the blaming game, he just switches the focus from X to Y, but it makes no difference. I've heard plenty of couple troubles, and almost all the time, inevitable, the person complaining about X refuses to look at their own desires and behavior, and yet, they want to stay with X for some other reason. They won't say: I will compromise and not seek perfection in this or that, in order to get better on this or that. They want it all. Then there are those that take on everything on themselves, which is usually self-pity. They are victim of X, but yet stay because they leech off X, but won't admit it. That's between equals obviously, when children come into the equation, dependents, it's a different ballpark. I find that in those cases, Lewis' thought often end up in psychological abuse. Because if you think you are introspective yourself and focused on yourself, you will expect it on the child, who does not have the same power you do. It's up to you to be industrious in this case, there is no ifs and buts, its a duty, and you have to admit the leech if good as well. Same goes with other type of dependents, and even those you force into dependence. So yeah, it's complex problem, but beware the easy solutions. Focus on the game, not the people, that's what I would say.
The problem i have is not not caring. It always matters to me because they always matter to me. The only way for them to hurt me less is to stop caring. But you dont have to stop. It just means they need space and you do too. Its hard to let go but its just a moment that will be forgotten to them and you in a month. Endurance is proof of caring, not overburdening them with favor.
I can't say I entirely agree with Lewis, but I can sort of see his point. I tried to think of an example, but I couldn't come up with one until I stopped thinking of people. I could only think of one individual that consistently annoys me. Our dog barks, and barks and barks the exact moment I wake up every single day. But still, why does he do that? Well, people made dogs to bark and bark and bark on purpose. He does it because he isn't allowed in the bedroom while we are sleeping, and he doesn't understand why I have to put pants on before I can take him out or play with him. That isn't his fault. I'd also prefer him to drive me insane every morning to not have him to pet once my pants are on. So he didn't make those rules. I made those rules, and humans bred that into his nature. I've never met a human that I thought had a fatal flaw. Silly, annoying, and often dangerous, and certainly some that seemed to incapable of learning some basic task or habit, but never one I thought was fatally flawed. That might be the difference in opinion. I know there is a reason, and I know all too well that the reason is either out his or her control and out of my control, and if I cared enough to do something about it, I probably cared enough to live with it anyway. I suppose that's my own fatal vice. One I see as a virtue called patience. Maybe vice and virtue in some cases are the same? And maybe sometimes our fate isn't entirely in our own hands? Food for thought. I certainly wont be sending our dog to the pound for doing what he believes do to circumstances outside his control is his job.
Thus, when referring us human beings, in general, “we” is more appropriate than “me” or “I” or “they”. We are the problem. Each of us. We are insufferable. Each of us, in some way, to someone, in regards to some thing….
Thx for your comment Renia - I agree that (usually) when critiquing groups of people, utilizing “we” language can help lower the built-in defensiveness most of us have… giving us “ears to hear.”
So timely, I had saved this video for weeks. Now I see it. after a bit of an argument with my wife yesterday night, I see how my flaws are affecting her and her plans to change, just because it’s not the way I’d do it. I’m at fault here. It’s my x she is dealing with here as I’ve seen some x of her own. Terribly interesting, thank you Lord for bringing this topic to me.
This is a good presentation, but unfortunately he assumed way too much! For example your evaluation is dependent on conditions which are out of control ( you can think of examples) but for illustration we'll use the assumption he presented: 1 given intelligence so it may be used and consciousness on how it ought to be used 2 problems ( as x In his mind) are less than the characters they act on, if so his whole rhetoric of God being a wonderful perfect concept in reality would not fail to evidenced by great examples of the perfect ideal: health prosperity midefullnes, add your own as it'll fluctuate. The point is we have the opposing issue( the absent of those in huge groups of people- otherwise commandments to love, I'm assuming used typically of material context, would be an empty concept like the idea of nothing. But we have great issues. Not everyone is like Einstein but science can get you close ( principle discoveries are creating a correction of the "wonderfully designed world") discovery of new innovative ideas are fostering health where nature( exclusively God's domain usually deconstructs it's perfect creative planners and causes thinking of philosophy and debate. I couldn't go on probably because it's not an essay but being a former believer, and technically a anecdotal believer in the biblical god I'm here to say he isn't as the ideal you would tend to think. His critical aspects eventually get exposed and greater philosophers ( Nietzsche, in my opinion the most rigorous and tangible to understand from experience) shows this super easily. The points here are dismissing the fact that with billions who belief (God is stationary with clear perfect realization of the implications) he cares but doesn't act* cancer? Disease? War on people who adore him rightly or wrongly? What type of faith does he require to receive his worthy worship ( your demanded to be perfect when dealing in imperfections you mostly have never contributed to) but his escape is holiness and justice ( but unfortunately they are cognitively distanced from attributes like mercy and understanding and tolerance, wherein the modern world hell even Voltaire pointed it is reason which elevators man not god or his spokespersons ( genius descion btw) have scandal to be placed on your city in the hill amoungst the filth you look down upon ( i.e secularism ( not just atheists) but people who help others bc of they're HUMAN nature(secular humanistic; I think poorly named but it is what it is, it's slowly producing substance theists mock when in it's infancy, they were dying to god's providence. Where doesn't the idea of original sin corrupting them show up here? Why has God raised these and not his devotes? Who is your perfect example of holiness, Jesus yes? Where is his continued works of love? Equality and generosity in the world void the inception of rational science? How is he lauded but the people ( godless people) you take advice from I'm going to say this God is against the world and it's principle because of one reason, pride in his selfishness towards his glory. Everything else falls below this( test it and see how it explains a great deal) I hit those I love, what kind of shit is that? 😘 😂 Seriously hitches said God is not great he is though by majority of theist to be burning as similar to the richman in Luke's gospel look at the evidence with no bias and your beliefs will erode( if you have any) but if they persistence you are a hypocrite and you follow the architect of all hypocrisy.( Why bc you can't live to his standards and neither can he)
After 40 years of futiity, I have come to realize that now, I am not the problem in the relationship with my dad. Not at all. HE is the problem. He has always been the problem, and I no longer want to try. I just want him out of my life. Sometimes, a person is just a broken, useless asshole.
A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.