Readers of my blog know that I am preparing for a move to Seminary. They also know that I have been honest and have said that I am frightened. Now what better place is there to worry usually than home in bed at night. However, my mind thought to the apology of Socrates where he chides the audience for fearing death.
Socrates has great logic there. He says that it is either something neutral like non-existence, or that it will be something good, or that you will suffer. The odds then are against suffering and in light of Socrates’s views of the good life, such suffering would be unlikely in the next life. (Remember, this was a pre-Christ thinker without the aid of Scripture.)
This has got me to thinking about something that I call the Multi-Response theory. I see multi because although we normally think of two responses, I realize that in some cases, there could be more. However, we normally think of just two. Consider our idea that adrenaline prepares one for fight or flight.
Thus, my idea is that the events in our lives do not control us. It is how we respond to them that has the most effect on us. We will internalize some message at every event. It will either spur us to Christ or spur us away. We will either give a response in accordance with the truth or a response that isn’t.
Which means we simply should be looking at what messages we are telling ourselves in response to life. Are they true? Then let us listen to them. Are they false? Then let us ignore them. Unfortunately, we are more prone to believe lies than truth. We find it easier to trust the father of lies in our world than the God of all truth.
Let us suppose for instance, that someone wants to undertake a venture that will cost a great deal of money. (I have already heard about being prepared for Seminary costs so I can relate.) They can say “I don’t have that much! How will I make it?!” or they can say “My Father has wealth beyond measure and he is capable of providing for me. I will do my work and trust in him.” (I will state this is not prosperity gospel. The Proverbs instruct us on ways to handle money properly and there is no wrong with making money.)
One can see this event then as something that cannot be handled (Which goes against Scripture) or a challenge. It can be seen as something to spur us on to the path that we desire to follow. If it is seen in that light, it will become an exciting adventure and God is surely the God of adventures.
Let us suppose we receive some criticism and it is true. We do not like it, but we have to accept that it is true. What do we do? We can say “I see that this criticism is true. I suppose that puts an end to that idea.” My suggestion though is instead to say “By the grace of God, I see that I am off from the image at this point and I shall pray for God to change me and work on changing myself.” Again, this leads to adventure.
Thus, all of these little inconveniences and hazards do not spoil the adventure. On the contrary, they make the adventure. This means that anything in our lives can be used to bring about adventure and what greater adventure can there be then trusting God and wandering into the unknown?
It has been said to choose this day who you will serve. That can be shown by choosing this day which response you will take to life. Fight or flight?
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