There was a time when I wanted to save the world. I remember being eight and wishing I could be superman. My brother liked spiderman at the time. When I finished college, I thought I'd get into research studying cancer or Duchesne's Muscular Dystrophy. After a while, I just wanted to save myself.
Someone said that people who aren't liberal when they are young have no heart. I have always been liberal. I just don't believe I have any right, power, or errand to FORCE a liberal way of life on other people. Yet, most liberal behavior is on display so that they can be seen of men to care, and therein they have their reward. As a matter of philosophy, I believe that it's part of the adult transition to want to matter, to want to 'save the world'. Eventually, most of us realize that we can do something to help someone, and that it will most likely go unnoticed by those who are not directly affected.
People who really know me know that I'm a Christian. People who know me also know that I have been subjected to some of the most un-Christian behavior by people who claim they are better Christians than I. What did Christ really do? He 'went about doing good' and 'increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man'. Christ didn't do what he did to get noticed. As a matter of fact, he repeatedly admonished his followers to keep quiet on the matter. He went and did what he did because it was the right thing to do, 'yet we esteemed him as naught' and he was 'smitten and afflicted' until ultimately with his stripes we were healed. When he had 'free time', he prayed, studied, and spent time with friends. He just lived a good life and took time to improve himself so that he would be of more use to his Father.
If you want to save the world, first make yourself a better person. If your religion has not made you a better person, then it matters very little which Faith you adopt. And if you are a better person to be seen of men, well, that is your reward. Remember that superheroes attract supervillains.
As a final thought, I take this scene from "A Man For All Seasons". When Richard Rich begs Thomas More yet again for an appointment at court and More tells him to be a teacher, Rich complains that nobody would know what difference he made.
Someone said that people who aren't liberal when they are young have no heart. I have always been liberal. I just don't believe I have any right, power, or errand to FORCE a liberal way of life on other people. Yet, most liberal behavior is on display so that they can be seen of men to care, and therein they have their reward. As a matter of philosophy, I believe that it's part of the adult transition to want to matter, to want to 'save the world'. Eventually, most of us realize that we can do something to help someone, and that it will most likely go unnoticed by those who are not directly affected.
People who really know me know that I'm a Christian. People who know me also know that I have been subjected to some of the most un-Christian behavior by people who claim they are better Christians than I. What did Christ really do? He 'went about doing good' and 'increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man'. Christ didn't do what he did to get noticed. As a matter of fact, he repeatedly admonished his followers to keep quiet on the matter. He went and did what he did because it was the right thing to do, 'yet we esteemed him as naught' and he was 'smitten and afflicted' until ultimately with his stripes we were healed. When he had 'free time', he prayed, studied, and spent time with friends. He just lived a good life and took time to improve himself so that he would be of more use to his Father.
If you want to save the world, first make yourself a better person. If your religion has not made you a better person, then it matters very little which Faith you adopt. And if you are a better person to be seen of men, well, that is your reward. Remember that superheroes attract supervillains.
As a final thought, I take this scene from "A Man For All Seasons". When Richard Rich begs Thomas More yet again for an appointment at court and More tells him to be a teacher, Rich complains that nobody would know what difference he made.
Sir Thomas More: Why not be a teacher? You'd be a fine teacher; perhaps a great one.
Richard Rich: If I was, who would know it?
Sir Thomas More: You; your pupils; your friends; God. Not a bad public, that.
By their fruits, they shall be known, and by good fruits, however small, the world can, will be, and was saved.
1 comment:
I love the thought about going about doing good. Christ was the perfect lesson of someone who did that and yet was never treated the way He ought to have been. Thanks for the thoughts!
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