Rainy Day Thoughts
The day began ordinarily enough, if more sleepily than usual because of daylight savings time combined with an early choir run-through call time. Things went OK until it was time to go and I found myself feeling physically discombobulated for reasons mostly unknown, and unable to drive myself to the service safely, let alone sing.
I really don’t like it when that happens, but I began reading instead, and then after a while I began thinking about what this blog is meant to be. I don’t remember exactly what I came up with, because then another thought came up — “I need to go back to sleep!” But I have an idea of what it was.
I can’t help but notice what a strange world we live in. Other people think I am strange, and they are right, and the feeling is not mutual, but it is so strange how it all comes together.
I have a total of three other people in my life with whom I can talk about these things at length— up from earlier years — along with whoever cares to join me at this blog. And by the way, conversations are welcome.
What is it about this world of people that, together somehow, developed all this technology and yet still, for the most part, can’t see beyond their noses? What do we even need this stuff for? And yet for many it seems worth sacrificing our health and our lives to it. Somehow. (“Things would have been so much worse if we hadn’t.” Yeah, right.)
But maybe we don’t need to see beyond our noses. Maybe we need to see more clearly behind our noses. Maybe we’ve all got a very big personal problem.
You’ve possibly/probably heard me write about this before, and part of my job is to come up with ways of saying it differently while still saying the same thing. Let’s go in a little different direction this time, as usual.
What does it mean to be deceived?
(Yes, that is what I was thinking about earlier, and well before reading Toby Rogers’ post about Asch Conformity Experiments, but I didn’t want to hit you with it straight off.)
I find that I have been — without giving it too much thought — thinking of people in terms of “deceived” and “deceivers”. Not that any one person is only one or the other, which would be far too simple, but I tend to want to see the deceived overcome and be free, and I tend to want the deceivers to be no more if they aren’t going to knock it off and turn from evil. Implicit in this view is that one person deceives another in a given matter.
In these conversations we have here on Substack and elsewhere about deception, psyops, corporate and government corruption and such, there is more or less always finger pointing. I’ve pointed this out quite a bit.1 I am thinking of discussions where the participants generally have a grasp on reality, and aren’t gaslighting (usually). And of course there are many things we can point to help understand what is happening.
[Cue broken record.]
But in what direction do we point for why it is happening?
Is the deception, at heart, self-deception?
That would kind of muddy up the picture of deceived and deceivers. But things were already pretty muddy, so why not.
This would be a great time for me to break off and go do something else. But I will blunder on, after a stretch break.
[Stretch break.]
If you have seen any of my writing, I hold to a strong but not completely rigid set of beliefs rooted in experience, much of it bad, and in the Bible. I don’t expect readers to share my beliefs, let alone keep up with changes, although you can believe parts that makes sense, if you wish. In the long run, and it is an endurance race, this Way is more about doing than believing anyway. One thing I do is write.
Fundamental principle: we are our problem. Not the only problem or the original one, but we are where our fingers need to point. By design, I guess. I don’t know. The reason for it doesn’t change the problem.
We are incomplete. This would speak for itself in an ideal world, but then we would be complete. Another word, often used by Bible translators, is “imperfect”, as opposed to “perfect”. Another is “immature”, as opposed to “mature”.
Matt. 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect2, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The present bodily form in which we find ourselves offers tremendous potential, along with a tremendous lack of maturity and self-control. In short, a recipe for disaster. And disaster is upon us all, if you’ve happened to notice what’s been going on of late. This may not be the time to point the finger at somebody else over whom you have little or no control. If we start instead with ourselves, this is solvable, in time.
Not so fast, though. The ability to solve our own problem — what I like to call “the problem that is us” — doesn’t come built-in. Have you noticed? We try and try and try, and we fail. So we try again. Now the trans-humanists want us to believe they have the solution (one optimized for them, of course). This suggests to me that trying again and again not only fails but leads to worse and worse failing solutions.
But if we can’t solve it, who can? Here we arrive at that age-old question, “from whence did we come?” Well, being moderns we could ask The Science™, but how’s that been working out lately? Or ever, for that matter.
I like to start by noticing things, things like that we live in a world of extremely advanced, intricately engineered technology that has been around for a long, long time, longer than us. We are built of technology.
“Intelligent design” apologetics aside, doesn’t this suggest something to our overpowered, immature minds? Like maybe we’re not alone, in spite of feeling that we are? I have spent a large part of my life discovering that when you decide that you are indeed alone and dependent upon your own resources, it becomes true. If you don’t decide that, other possibilities can reveal themselves.
But wait, there’s more.
What would you do if you were a designer and you came up with a great design that, unfortunately, had a tendency to self-destruct? Give up? Toss it and start over? Fix it? All are possible, but let’s say that you foresaw the possibility of this tendency.
If you happened to be designing something that was sentient and had the potential for living in relationship with you, that could be high risk. How many science fiction stories have explored the possibilities? But if that’s what you wanted, might you proceed even if it would cost you personally?
This example is speculative, but it bears a certain resemblance to the biblical story of creation, fall, and redemption. There would be problems trying to make it fit exactly, but often we humans must work with approximations, at least at first.
Here’s something less speculative. What if this already-technological world of ours came with a “help system”, accessible by those willing to admit their limitations and actually ask for help? My experience, now, says that it does. Yours may say otherwise. This could be a place where it is important to see that the deceived and the deceiver can be one. The refusal to try things can be extremely limiting. Jumping off a cliff to see what happens — no. Trying out the “help system” — yes.
Admission. The first step toward the solution that we do not possess but which is available to us. Toward completion, maturity.
But admit what? That I can’t solve my own problems? That wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially if you have reached a point where you can actually see that it is true. But the fundamental truth is that all of us are, by nature, out of harmony with creation, and prone to destructive behavior. Behavior that ultimately destroys us. And while it has been abused in so many ways, the biblical term for this is “sin” or, as an admission, “I am sinful”. Sin is destructive disharmony. It is also our starting point. If this is inadmissible, there is no hope. So try admitting it?
The evidence for this principle is everywhere, if you have eyes to see it. This relates to “belief”, but not exactly in the ordinary sense of the word. Through the appropriate kind of belief and through a change in you that results from it that you don’t make, you can be taken to a different place, where you still have the problems that you do but you are also on a path toward completion, and you can begin to accurately see what is going on and why. It’s all part of the design. It makes sense, like nothing else in this world.
So if this option is available, why isn’t it all the rage? It comes with expectations. As you discover what your destructive behaviors are, you begin to turn from them, with help. You keep asking, all the time. Your course in life changes, along with your interests and priorities. That seems to be a major obstacle for a lot of people.
The change parallels that of growing up physically. As you mature, in either sense, you leave behind childish things, although there are good childlike traits that are to be treasured. You are changing, but you are not giving up anything up worth keeping — you are growing.
What I have been writing is “edited for public consumption”. There are no secrets, but there are personal interactions that must take place for these things to happen, and a blog post is not ordinarily the place. I will say, however, that having another person in your life that already understands these things and shares them with you, though very helpful, is not an absolute requirement. I know this from personal experience. Those who haven’t experienced it might not agree. There is always someone there and available, though not always a person.
Whatever the setting, change begins with taking an interest, asking questions, and seeking answers. There are many ways that can come about. Again, our problem is solvable. Much has been done for us to make that possible.
Related: Ask, Seek, Knock.
Irony intended.
The adjective here is τέλειοι (teleioi), “complete” or “perfect”. Translators divide over the verb in the first clause, some going with something resembling future tense, while others go with something present-tensish. It’s future in the Greek, but taking a form known as the “cohortative indicative”. Translating tenses is not always simple. Personally, I fall short of perfection and go with the futuristic tense. And Greek verbs confuse me to no end.