Seth’s World View

All of life is a struggle, which we all cope with in different ways. Selective perception is common. We choose what to acknowledge, what to think about, what to believe. After all the effort I have poured into life, my paradigm has finally shifted. How do I know it will last? With a paradigm shift, one just knows. Thus, most of the struggle I’ve written lately no longer applies. Though I’ve believed the truth before, I haven’t always accepted it, and what I really saw as true drastically affected my life. I see now that God created the world, and when he looked upon it, he called it good. After the fall, people became self-centered and separated from God, in need of grace. I can’t believe that Satan so derailed the world that the world became evil though. That sounds more like gnosticism than Christianity. God created people, and said they are good, and after the fall, I can’t believe that his image was so maligned as to not be good anymore.

While I have often recognized my faults, I often haven’t recognized my strengths, and the inherent beauty of who I am. For me to put myself down is to slap God in the face. For me to tell myself that I can’t is also to slap God in the face. True humility sees myself as a child of God, created with certain qualities, created to perform good works, and recognizing the good and the bad inside me. My identity is as a child of God, and that is good. While imperfect in many ways, I now realize that I am a good guy, who deserves good things. Do I have a right to ‘demand’ these things? No, but I’m worthy of blessing. What sin lies in me is destructive. Sin, however, gains it’s foothold through fear and lies, despair, lack of imagination. Hope is to be able to imagine a better future, and to know that Christ in me will prevail. There is nothing to doubt. As Larry Crabb has said, “real change comes from the inside out.” If the core of my being is partially based on a lie, my actions won’t make up for that, nor will they bring fulfillment. If my identity is based on truth though, and I believe it to the point where I know it to be true, suddenly I don’t have to look to others to be what they can’t be to me. Then I can be who God created me to be, because people’s rejection or dislike of me can no longer define me. Surely this is nothing new to anyone, but as Morpheus says, “there is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.” I am now in the subway, the running has stopped, as I stand firm, ready to turn around to face what assails me. Let the battle begin.