An email conversation with a group of friends.
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Subject: altruism sucks, ma Teresa, THAT’S why
INITIAL POST
Jesus was not an Altruist. No wonder you felt empty.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655415,00.html
JDL
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RE: altruism sucks, ma Teresa, THAT’S why
RESPONSE BY *******
What i don’t understand is the before and after aspect of
this story.
For the last 50 years – Mother Theresa felt no ‘presence’ of Jesus/God.
I guess that means that before hand she did…….well……what does that mean…..does that mean she wasn’t happy during the last 5 decades of her life – or she didnt hear voices in her head – or she didnt witness miracles…what does that mean?
I would be interested in hearing someone’s views here. What the heck is the presence of God really?
If a woman who lives her life in service to others – which – contrary to what Josh is saying – is in fact a huge theme of the life of Christ,
toserve rather than be served (Josh quite surprised at your comments – where did you get the idea that Jesus didn’t want his people to serve others to the utmost – that theme is everywhere in the new testament???)
If this woman who lived her life to serve others felt no presence of God……than is the presence of God really just our being happy and content with our lives – and if that is the case why not be more selfish – and if that is the case – then isnt the message of the New Testament is really shallow. I imagine many Christians will
take the story of Job and overlay M. Theresa to skirt this important question.
I read the recent times article about M. Theresa – unfortunately i find itto be evidence of an athesitic or deistic viewpoint.
(name removed out of respect)
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RE: altruism sucks, ma Teresa, THAT’S why
JDGalt3 RESPONSE
I always hear from Christians that we’re
just supposed to love everybody and that our purpose on earth is to serve. “If
you want to be great in God’s kingdom be the servant of all.”
But
I submit to you it’s taken out of context with the rest of scripture, and you
can’t take things out of context and still be accurate! It’s the entire Word of
Yahweh or it’s nothing.
Yes,
Yeshua (Jesus) said to “…love your neighbor as yourself.” That assumes though
that you are capable of loving yourself (and first loving Him), and understand
what that means and why you should do it. Let’s break it down:
– to
love your neighbor as yourself, you first have to love yourself
– to
love yourself, you must know who you are and why you exist, and for what
purpose your Creator made you
– to
know why you were created you have to know your Creator, Yahweh
– to
know your Creator you have to study and read His written Word, which explains
that if you love Him you will keep His commandments
– to
keep His commandments you have to actually KNOW what those commandments are, as
He originally gave them, and for what purpose they were given – and it’s not just
the “New Testament” commandments, it’s the entirety of scripture
– to
know the entirety of scripture you have to extract the Truth from the original
Hebrew
– When
you start doing that you come to the realization that the western Church is
full of
contradictory errors, so no wonder “Christians”
are some of the most miserable people on the planet
Therefore, to love and serve other people without ending up empty,
unfulfilled, and spiritually empty like Mother Teresa (or many Christians),
one must understand the ROOT MOTIVATION for service, which stems from a deep
understanding of the Bible and the character of Yahweh, and from there leads to
a full human understanding of one’s self.
And
I disagree that the overarching theme of the New Testament is service to others
– that’s organized religion putting a spin on things. Remember, wherever
Altruism exists, since every group is made up of individuals, somebody
is on the receiving end. Somebody is getting served. The larger the flock, the
nicer the shepherd’s Mercedes.
Yeshua
did not come to serve other people. He came for one reason and one reason alone
– TO FULFILL HIS DIVINELY APPOINTED PURPOSE. Period, end of story. Look
at how violently He rebuked Simon Peter for suggesting He skip his ultimate
destiny on the cross – He called him “Satan” and basically told Peter to shut
the hell up and get out of His way. Yeshua’s ultimate purpose was to give his
life as a ransom for others, for those who would consciously choose to accept
Life. He came to fulfill the law, not to do away with it.
Did
He serve people during his time on earth? Not in the manner which most churches
today suggest we all “serve”. His “service” ALWAYS had a deeper purpose which
stemmed from His own personal agenda as given to Him by the Father.
Did
He heal people? Sometimes…when they had the faith to believe, when their
actions matched that faith, and when it fit with His plan and that Father’s
plan. Did He wash the disciples’ feet? Yes, as a symbolic gesture of acceptance
that they only understood later (as He states in John 13:7, 8), and only
because of His deep love for them, love which they, through their faith in Him
combined with the action of choosing to follow Him, had earned.
But
Yeshua didn’t go around washing everybody’s feet at every house He went to.
Usually He was the one being served, and He was quick to rebuke anybody
that had a problem with it. People tend to forget THAT side of Yeshua – He
received just as much as He gave, but if you closely examine His life, you’ll see
that EVERY ACTION HAD A PURPOSE ALIGNED WITH HIS ULTIMATE DESTINY.
He
lived as selfishly as a human can possibly live – He lived ONLY to fulfill the
destiny that His Creator had given him.
My
point – without expounding further – is simply this:
If
any of the Bible is true, then it must ALL be true. If it’s all true, then
Yahweh exists and has created each of us for a specific reason. If I was
created for a specific reason, then my ONLY EARTHLY PURPOSE should be to
fulfill that purpose for which I was put here. In order to fulfill that
purpose, I must forsake all actions which detract from my ultimate goal of
being all that I was created to be. If I am living every moment with
single-minded devotion to my calling, then I will have a sense of fulfillment and
happiness like nothing else on earth will give me.
Ayn
Rand and Yahweh both agree on this, completely. And if that fulfillment and joy
is not the case in my life, then either A) Yahweh does not exist and I’m
attempting to believe a lie and reach a goal that is falsely manufactured or B)
I’m journeying toward the wrong destination because of my own fallibility.
That’s
why I say that blanket altruistic service is a bunch of bull, because everybody
has a different destiny. Thus, with Mother Teresa, if the latest biographical
evidence on her is true, then she epitomizes what happens when a human being
forsakes logic and reason for mysticism.
I’m
not tossing out the Bible or saying that Yahweh doesn’t want to help people in
need, because it’s NOT HIS FAULT that M Teresa was miserable. It’s hers. Yahweh
is a very logical being – just look around, look at the universe, there is
unmistakable order from its whole to the most microscopic level! Everything is
based on order, reason, logic. He does not create chaos, He’s not the CIA. He
creates order.
He
also created emotion. When one is able to filter their emotions through logic,
only then can one truly experience the fullness of human existence. If Mother
Teresa was dry, and empty, and unfulfilled, and miserable, all while “doing
what God told me to do”, logically there’s something wrong, she’s got a
contradiction. Remember the whole “pain vs. pleasure” mechanism we inherently
have built in to us? Yeah. It’s there for a reason.
Either
she was wrong about what she heard or the God she served was evil, because the
God of the Bible doesn’t sentence those He loves to lifetimes of misery when
they are obedient. That’s not scriptural. Everything in scripture points to
“obey Me and I will bless you, break My commandments and there are
consequences.” So logically Teresa should have taken a look at her life and at
her God and seen that one of the two was incorrect.
And
instead of attempting to live a contradiction for 50 years, which will always
drive one to insanity, she should have found the root cause of her error,
either in her theology or in her actions, and she should have fixed it.
All that to say “service to others” is not the highest calling we as humans
and followers of YHWH have been given. Some people are called to that,
certainly, and their lives usually exude a kind of joy that few know or
understand, even if they are living in a hovel in some third-world ghetto. I
personally know quite a few missionaries who are testaments to fulfilling that
kind of purpose, and joyfully. But to cover the whole of Christianity
with an altruistic philosophy and demand everyone to follow it is ridiculous
and ultimately incorrect.
The
greatest thing I can do on this earth is fulfill the purpose *I* was created
for, to live for ME and MY divinely given destiny. Period. Does that include
service to others? Yes, but only in the time(s) and manner in which Yahweh has
planned for my life to give to others! Ultimately His plan for me will serve
the whole or portion of humanity He wants me to reach, because by me fulfilling
my destiny I will be bringing glory to His name, which is the best service to
others that I could live!
It
goes back to an understanding of black and white principles – He’s a deity of
absolutes. Remember how He’d rather have you be hot or cold than lukewarm?
Bottom line is that He wants you to obey Him and that means following His plan
for YOUR life that He has given to YOU.
I
propose that me following the plan for somebody else’s life, whether out of
ignorance, errant teaching in the church, or just because I think it’s a better
plan, is just as much sin in His eyes as if I didn’t believe at all and
went around whoring and breaking as many commandments as possible.
Either
hot (following His plan for ME) or cold (reject Him completely, because then at
least He doesn’t have to contend with my hypocrisy soiling His name), but not
lukewarm (saying I believe in Him and yet by my actions of not being solely
who He created ME to be, being disobedient, and thus being a hypocrite)!
There
is peace in obedience, as there is joy, and confidence. And it’s all the more
powerful when you know its root cause, and when you can examine the whole of
your existence logically and find that there are no contradictory holes in your
worldview.
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RE: altruism sucks, ma Teresa, THAT’S why
RESPONSE BY *******
Written with confidence.
My take away from your email is that the most important thing in a christians
life is to obey God – and that if you are miserable – chances are you are not
doing what God wants you to do.
So, my question remains – how do you know what God wants you to do – how do you
recognize his presence and will.
You are saying that m theresa was miserable because she was misinterpreting God
or perhaps disobeying God.
Well if you are to live your life solely to pusue God’s divine purpose for
yourself – than are we to read the bible and then apply what we learn to create
our own goals and just hope that such goals overlap with Gods, and if we become
miserable than just change around your life/goals and try again?
You email has admirable passion and confidence – are you living your life for
your divine purpose – is modeling, river boarding, consulting what God wants
you to do with your life. I am not demeaning you I have plenty of respect
for you. But it seems that you – like me and many others – are pursuing
your own agenda and are hoping that is the right path – I imagine that you
trust God that if you follow what you have learned through studying the bible
and through introspection and apply that to your life – then you are doing
God’s will.
Right?
Or am I wrong and that there is a more certain path to doing Gods will.
In summary – if the most important thing in this world is to obey God – how do
we hear his commands…is the only way we can do that is through our human /
fallible interpretation of the Bible?
It just seems so static.
I would be curious to hear what everyone thinks is God’s divine purpose for
themselves? I have plenty of goals, they don’t conflict with what is
written in scripture – but I do not know if such goals are congruent with my
divine purpose as given by the creator of the universe. Maybe if I was as
good looking as Josh I would be able to
model and follow my divine purpose :).
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
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RE: altruism sucks, ma Teresa, THAT’S why
JDGalt3 RESPONSE
Modeling is not my divine purpose – God has simply used it
as a vocation to pay off my debt in less than a year and provide a means of
income which takes up a very small amount of my time and pays the bills,
allowing me to quit working on meaningless projects for other people and to
focus entirely on the things which I AM supposed to be doing. Riverboarding is
not my purpose either but He has used it to teach me valuable lessons which
have already proven very useful and will definitely be useful in the next stage
of my life, among other things.
Yeshua was not called to be a fisherman but God
provided tax money through a fish. He was not called to be a carpenter and yet
he did that for the majority of His earthly life. Without riverboarding I would
never have made the movie last summer and thus would never have met the late
Jeff Scott and thus would never have gotten into modeling and thus would not
have my debt paid off and thus would not be being able to fully pursue the
things He has for me right this moment. Call it coincidence if you want. I
don’t. Not when I could name numerous things in my life just like that.
Trust me, when He starts blessing me through other means you will no longer see
me modeling, and I have long said that were He to provide a way for me to focus
exclusively on the things I’m called to do I would bag riverboarding [as a vocation] as well.
Right now I am simply being a good steward with Face Level until I’m otherwise
notified…I’m
not clinging to anything except what I KNOW in my spirit and mind and those
things line up with His Word and promises to me. Everything else, it’s only a
matter of time before they become history and leave nothing but the lessons
learned and memories of His faithfulness through my obedience.
As for hearing His voice, it’s just like any other person. The more time you
spend with Him the more you’ll know his voice. If you call me you don’t have to
identify yourself as (your name), I know your voice from years of talking to
you. If I haven’t talked to you in a long time it might take me a half-second
longer to recognize your voice but I will still know it.
The Bible says the
sheep know the voice of the shepherd. Same thing with us. If your heart is to
serve Yahweh and not live to please the flesh then your conscience will convict
you if you are going astray. My calling was not to be a pro football player,
despite my dad’s ridiculous wishes. I don’t have the genetics or the correct
brain type (Nature). But because my heart was and always has been to serve Him,
He used my error to lead me to Montana where He had my full attention, stripped
me of football, and started a work in my life of self-discovery and becoming to
person I am supposed to be, among many other things that will blow your mind
which you can one day read in my authorized autobiography. =)
Now, some might say "why didn’t He just skip the football part it could
have saved many years", and I have asked that too. But my timing is not
His. Does the clay pot say to the potter "why have you made me this
way?" No. Maybe what I’m here for is a certain time, and any earlier or
later I will be worthless. So maybe in His wisdom He has orchestrated my life
on His timeline, not mine, using my imperfection and worthless, irrational
desires to achieve His results without stripping me of my free-will.
Because
He’s not on a linear timeframe, He knows the end from the beginning. But it’s
only possible because to the best of my sinful human ability I have held on to
my goals loosely enough that He has been able to pry them away from me when not
productive and / or edit them to line up with the plan He has for my life. I’ve
got free will but I have chosen to seek His perfect will for my life above my
imperfect desires.
It’s not shooting in the dark. Part of why I am so passionate about
brain types
is that if you know yourself, which very few people actually do, then
you know
your motivations, your strengths, your weaknesses, and can look
objectively at
your talents and gifts. By me knowing all that I am able to see if I’m
off base
when I hear something that I believe to be from God. If I were to say
that
modeling was my end-all-be-all from God then you SHOULD say I’m on
crack and
mock me for it. I can look at myself objectively and know that I am
moderately
good looking, but I am no Aston Kutcher, I’m no Tyson Bedford, I’m
definitely not Brad Pitt (well, except we’re the same brain type ;-) ).
Is it fun? Sure. Is it productive? Not really from the posing side, but I have
learned an incredible amount about things which are and will be productive for
me in the future, because being a model has allowed me to be a "fly on the
wall" as it were and observe many places and things I wouldn’t have ever
gotten to otherwise. Is it something I’m going to be world-class at? Absolutely
not. I’m not stupid, I know where I fall on the looks scale of 1-10, and it’s
not nearly as high as my photos might portray (which really isn’t all that high anyway!) – I see myself when I wake up
with wrinkles and dark circles under my eyes looking like I got hit by a truck filled with rabid clowns.
But I felt led to do it and things have happened which have nothing to do with
me, and the timing has not been "coincidence". God has used it. There
has been nothing immoral about the shoots which I have been paid to do, nothing
that anyone could point at and say "there’s no way in hell God’s behind
that." And it most certainly is not my identity. Same thing with
riverboarding. I’m not going to argue with how He wants to do things.
I do know
for a fact that there’s no other way I would have ended up in Montana were it
not for a bunch of "coincidences" with football, and yet if for
nothing else I would not trade those 4 years for anything because of the
lifelong friends I made there, people who Yahweh has also called and I am proud
to inspire and be inspired by. Sometimes He uses me for other people, and
sometimes other people for me. But the bottom line is He ONLY uses willing
vessels, even if they’re imperfect.
At the same time I’m not just setting goals and hoping that He’s cool with
them. That’s ridiculous and would be completely illogical considering my
previous statements about Yahweh being the divine Creator who has given me life
and has the master Plan for my life. Neither modeling nor riverboarding have
ever been in my list of "goals" until He opened those doors. Both are
for a time and a season.
Scripture says that "whatever you do, do it with
all your heart as unto the Lord and not unto men" so that’s what I’m
doing. If I’m wrong, I give Him full reign to put up a wall I smack into so I
wake up and change direction. But if He gives me something to do I’m going to
do it 100%, I’m not going to be apathetic about any part of life. Period.
And frankly it’s not in the vocation, anyway! God can use a supermodel to bring
glory to Himself just as much as He can use a missionary in the remote corner
of Africa. That’s not to justify earthbound, fleshly goals
as being somehow spiritual if they are not given of Yahweh, but "you will
know them by their fruits". There are no "more godly"
occupations than others in the grand scheme of things.
If "all" I am
to be is a catalog/sports model and a riverboarding dude but somehow He uses that to
bring glory to His name, or to introduce me to someone that for whatever reason
only I could touch for Him, then who am I and who are you to question Yahweh?
Again, it comes down to motivation and the fruit of ones life. I am proud to
say that to this point – by grace through my foibles – I have left a trail of
goodness behind with everyone I have come in contact with through both modeling
and riverboarding. If "a good name is better than riches" I have been
blessed with both in these "fleshly" occupations.
My dad’s a great example of impure mo
tivation though, and I run the risk of
"judging" him but I will do it anyway, based on the fruit of his
life. He wanted to be a great evangelist. He believed he was called to do that.
And I am not here to say he wasn’t, he very well may have been called. But he
refused to give up certain sins in his life and refused to love himself, and he
desired "greatness" because the praises of men helped him to overcome
his innate insecurity. I don’t care how great your calling, Yahweh will not use
you if you refuse to reject sin and are incapable of accepting yourself as He
made you (and I am nowhere near 100% perfect in this area yet, I’ll admit to
still having work to do there!).
My dad’s demise was the final wake-up call for me to get myself squared away,
to stop hating myself, to love the person Yahweh created me to be, and to let
Him cleanse me of all the sins that so easily attach to my life. Not to
mention, examine my motives to damn sure that I am not doing anything because I
need attention or the accolades and praises of men. And that’s a basic tenant
of both the Bible and Objectivist thinking – doing anything to be accepted or
praised by others, or to manipulate or control others (love of power) is the
most vile, disgusting motivation for human behavior that there is.
And God is not concerned about our fallibility. He’s interested in us
submitting our will to His. Period, end of story. Pursuing perfection is not
about being sinless, it’s about being dedicated to learning, growing, evolving,
and the only way to do that is to follow the plan that He has set up on how to
learn / grow / evolve into His image and likeness.
Hearing His voice is more a heart issue than anything. Yahweh’s not out blinding
people like He did to Paul in order to get their attention. If people want to
hear Him, they’ve got free-will. The desire to honestly hear and know Him flips
a switch in a way. If you want to hear Him you will. Unmistakably clear.
Just like everything else He’s not out to create confusion. He’s about order.
Restoring order, restoring people. I find that confusion with hearing His voice
is caused by my own clutter in my mind heart and life. It’s one of the reasons
I have really found that keeping the Sabbath is important, because it has begun
to really instill a sense of discipline in me to actually rest and take a break
from all the hubbub of my life in general. It’s inspired me even more to not
only be minimalistic with design, but in all areas of my life, including and
especially in my mind. Nothing of value is ever accomplished without focus.
So then it depends on what you’re focused on. I cannot expect to hear Yahweh’s
will for my life if I am never focusing any attention on Him, never bothering
to seek to know Him more through His word. And yeah, I’m fallible and prone to
misunderstand or draw my own conclusions, but THAT’S THE BEAUTY OF LOGIC. The
more I study and learn His Word the more logical sense it makes, leading me to
have more confidence in understanding it, because it’s not all mysticism, I
don’t have to just hope I’m getting it right, it all lines up, the meaning all
ties together.
I’m not saying I know it all, either, so there’s no need to
accuse me of that. I’m learning and will probably be still learning till the
day I die. But the point is I’m not wading through a bunch of gibberish and
confusion. His character is written into His Word. "In the beginning was
the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God". The more I learn
it the more I know OF Him and thereby know Him directly and thus I am able to
more clearly hear His voice, in everything from the big-picture overarching
goals of my entire life to the little moments of each individual day.
He will speak to you if you truly desire to hear Him. I think many
peoples’
fear is that if they submit their lives to Yahweh then He’s immediately
going
to sentence them to a life of misery in some rat-infested jungle in
Africa where they eat bugs and shit in a hole the rest of their days.
So they learn to
tune out anything that might even possibly sound like His voice. That’s
asinine. If you’re called to that you will have peace about it and absolutely
know without a doubt that it’s your call, and there will be a joy about it. But
few are called to do that. He doesn’t create people with certain talents and
then call them to use talents they DON’T have and reject the ones He gave them!
Hello! He’s given everybody gifts / talent / looks / brains / speech / etc FOR
A REASON! TO BE USED!
Objectivism states that there is a happiness that the rational, logical,
productive person has from his / her work that other people cannot understand.
I can relate so much to Howard Roark and other characters who are
"creators" in Rand’s books. But it wasn’t her
who first told me that I should just be proud of my work because I did it well,
it was a very godly man whom I respect a great deal. Rand just brought the
concept to life for me, something which subconsciously I had wanted to believe
all my life, that *I* was the only one I had to make happy with my
creations…but growing up that was never an acceptable way of thinking, even
in the church (or I should say "especially" in the church). Then I
found that the Bible says the same thing, only how much greater is that joy
when you are not only being productive with your talents for yourself, but for
and according to the plan that was given to you by your Creator?!
Yes…sign me up.
He who has ears, let him hear…
J