I'm trying to find a balance between being "So Heavenly Minded" while still being "Earthly Good". This title refers to a saying throughout the Christian church that addresses a person who lives their whole life waiting to go to heaven but has not put forth any effort to contribute this earth/life/society.
I was reading an excerpt from one of my psychology text about a soldier and the gruesome things he had seen, especially in his first weeks in combat. He suffered from nightmares and during combat he was unable to control his bodily release functions. I wonder how he is expected to come back home and be able to stabilize into normal society. As we know or can assume, sometimes veterans have a difficult time readjusting to their home society. They develop psychological disorders and who can blame them! I was thinking that they would have to lessen their value for human life to be able to cope with seeing their comrades' head blown off, etc. But if they reduced their value of life-what the hell would they really be fighting for?
This got me to thinking about figuring out a balance between "not getting all bent out of shape because of death" and still having a purpose that acknowledges "the priceless and precious beauty of everyone's life".
This led me to looking forward to heaven but caring enough about others so that they could experience a piece of heaven here on earth-at least until they got to go upwards. Hopefully, each person who experienced a piece of heaven could do their best to help someone have that same experience. Layman's terms...I'm not sure but I think getting a piece of heaven on earth is about enjoying God's creation as close to intended as possible.
Now, with the whole fall of man and death and hell stuff-earth hasn't been as great as God intended, hence the whole "looking forward to heaven" thing. OK. We still need something to do in the meantime. Religion and faith is such a big deal because we are trying to make sure we are doing the right things to secure our afterlives. Now, as a Christian, I'm confident that my "heavenly" afterlife is on lock. What else should I be doing down here? If I just focused on "going to heaven" them I feel that I would start to lead a very boring and selfish life. That's lame and with all the drama we go through-that mindset could make someone suicidal. You get what I'm saying?
That brings me back to enjoying earth down here, as much as possible and as safely as possible as to preserve our mental and physical health so that we can help others enjoy/find heaven-down here and up there. BTW::::I don't condone reckless behavior as a way of "living life to the fullest. Doing 145mph on the West Side highway in a rented BMW after done-ing off a bottle of Ciroc from your man's 29th birthday bashment is not living life to the fullest-it's endangering countless others and could change many families lives in the unfortunate event that you crash/kill someone. Just wanted to clarify my take on "life to the fullest". Partying responsibly and/or any other enjoyment that doesn't selfishly put you at risk is dope.::::
I now understand why others fought for civil rights, why troops still enlist in the military and martyrs die for their faith. They all must have had some form of heavenly mindedness, even if it wasn't my idea of heaven. They were willing to sacrifice their life to help others enjoy this life as close to perfect as possible. It must have been to help others experience the love they felt in their being, which resonated from a higher calling or sense of peace. (What about terrorist? They must have received a much lower calling...unfortunately.)
There is much to be said about valuing life so greatly without not being too afraid of dying to help others experience the greatness that you know is possible.
Why do we rejoice in other people's failures? Why do we "sometimes" find joy in other people's demise? Some would just call this hateration, my family would say "Bad Mind" and so on and so forth.
The process:
- Observe unfavored individual's situation
- Analyze it
- Relate it to ourselves
- Choose to happily think condemning thoughts
Step 3 says a lot about our reaction found in step 4. Let's consider the process for reacting to someone's well fortune. - Observe unfavored individual's situation
- Analyze it
- Relate it to ourselves
- Become threatened by their success
A terminally ill cancer stricken atheist, Christopher Hitchens, once wrote a book "God is not Great".... I was infuriated when I saw the title at Target a couple of years back. I got over the anger and prayed that he would change his view one day (cause honestly, God is so FARESSHH). Now that he is sick, some Christians would delight in saying "Good, that's what you get". Others have declared a prayer day for him. Hitchens has no intentions of taking part in the prayer but appreciates the well intentions from those who genuinely care about him possibly recovering.
Those who replied with the "Good..." were threatened by the author. They may have felt that he would be leading many away from salvation or just straight disrespecting God. Those that held the prayer day were probably more grounded in their faith. They knew how Christ reacted to others who were not historically nice to him. They knew how God views all of mankind, not just Christians. 1 John 4: 8 says "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." So we see that God is more prone to reply with a loving response and that is expected of his followers. I don't doubt that these Christians were also a little upset when they heard of the title for the book. They are not compromising their beliefs to accommodate another's view. They just know that God likes good things and not when someone dies (Ezekial 18:32). They also understand that no one is truly a threat to the God they serve.
Does this say that we condone foolishness? No. What it encourages us to do is to extend the same mercy to another as Christ has done for us, even if it is just in thought. Try empathy from time to time. Realize that there are conditions beyond our knowledge that may have contributed to someone's folly. If you were up against the same odds, would you have triumphed? Are you sure? Look at the person for what good they could be. Their current, previous, and possible future mistakes do not annihilate the greatness in them. It may distract it a bit but it doesn't kill it.
Finally, distinguish yourself from others. Be confident in your greatness. "Real recognize real." The closer you are to your "true" greatness is the more you want to see sincere goodness in the world around you. You should know that I don't mean seeing a taker bragging and roaring through town in a ripped off BMW. You should want to see that thief transform his/her life for the good, and maybe even switch the emphasis in his/her "taking" skills to becoming an automotive technician. See how this benefits you? You don't have about that particular "taker" taking your _________________. This should ease any threats you may have had.
Again:
Don't be afraid to be happy for someone ::initially unfavorable::. Don't feel like someone ::unfavorable:: is capable of taking away your shine. Don't break down others to build yourself up. We were all supposed to be stars, just in different capacities...
