Questioning Perspective

           One aspect of human perspective that has been weighing on my mind quite heavily lately is the origin of action. Do you know exactly where the desire to act originates from within you? If you do, do know what elements make up that place of origin? If you know the answer to that, do you know where those particular elements that make up that place of origin came from?

            I feel that these questions are crucial ones to be asking in the effort to truly know one’s self. I see too many examples of people doing things out of desire to satisfy urgings that arise from somewhere within themselves that is as hidden to them as it is to me (the outside observer). I feel that for anyone to adequately go about acting upon an urge that wells from within, they should at least be able to pinpoint the origin of those urgings and ideally the elements that make up that origin rather than simply focusing on the urgings themselves and acting without question. When one acts without question the situation becomes messy very quickly. When the decision to act is made, there are factors that are relied upon in the ‘acting’ process. If one is Christian we would hope that the predominate factor relied upon is trust in God alone through our faith. However, if there are no questions to the legitimacy of an urge I assure you that faith is not apart of the ‘acting’ process.

            There could be at in a singular moment of becoming aware of an urge to act a myriad of different elements bringing about that urge. How do you know it’s not the American element of you? How do you know it’s not the Republican or Democrat element of you? How do you know that it’s not even the male or female element of you that brought about this urge to act? All of these elements are legitimate within this finite reality that we live in, but as Christian human beings, are we not to strive to be fully like Christ who exists wholly in the infinite reality? Are we not to strive to gain such knowledge of Christ that the fact that we are American, Male/Female, (insert random political stance here), affected by a physical or mental ailment, a certain sexual orientation, shouldn’t these factors of ourselves all become secondary in comparison to that knowledge of Jesus Christ?

I feel this is what Paul is pointing out to the Church of Philippi with such passion. Notice the first verse how he lovingly alludes that this is not the first time he has written to them concerning this issue. 

            Philippians 3

No Confidence in the Flesh

 ¹Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you.

 ²Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. ³For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— ⁴though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
      If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

 ⁷But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead

                So Paul counts everything as rubbish in comparison to the knowledge he has found in Christ, putting no confidence in the flesh. Not just some things but all things as rubbish, garbage, trash, waste. I feel like this is something that we miss because of our culture. This age in America the individual is elevated to the highest in our society. Having confidence and taking ownership over who we are as an individual is not only taught to us at a young age but praised beyond measure in our adult years. It is this type of infection that I see to be so dangerous. This mentality shapes how we go about getting to know ourselves on an intimate level. We get to know ourselves and then the person we find and familiarize ourselves with becomes the lens in which we view the world and influences how we act in it. Isn’t that the role Christ should play through the Holy Spirit? Shouldn’t He be the lens through which we view this existence?
              This is so important to me because once we begin to fallow the urges that originate through the elements that create our identity through this finite flesh we all inhabit, our salvation becomes solely dependent on how we think and feel. I feel that scripture is very clear that the way to salvation is through Jesus Christ. So shouldn’t salvation be talking and walking like Christ? I would be confident in saying that if we do not seek the true origin of urges to act and the elements that make up that origin, my fear is then that our theology becomes a theology of unaware narcissism. If you think about it, you act upon urges that may originate from yourself, those actions then define who you are, if you are a fervent follower you give glory to the god for whom you acted for, the god you acted for is simply an urge that originated from yourself, then the logical conclusion is that you worship yourself.

This fear has been mounting for quite some time. I would like to hear some feedback.

Thanks for reading.