Posted on by Abe Austin

Ascend, Decline, or Plateau- Different Ways of Being

Ways of Being)

In my experience, we tend to be in one of three states in our moral development. The first is ascending, which means that we are progressively becoming better and better people. We are overcoming our bad habits, extending roots of determination and commitment, and moving forward to the sort of man or woman that we want to be.

The second is to be descending, where our bad habits are becoming more pronounced, and new ones are starting. We are willing to go to greater and greater lengths of immorality in pursuit of self-satisfaction. We either have no intention to improve or are declining in spite of our wishes to be better.

The third is to be on a plateau, where we are maintaining a certain level of morality. We may have some virtues, but we are not increasing in them. We may have some vices, but we are not increasing in those either. Perhaps we want to be better but aren’t able to make the change, or perhaps we’re just fine with where we’re at.

Of course, just because a person is in one of these modes of being on a particular day does not mean that they will always be so. There are many who have sought moral improvement, made some changes, then stagnated, then reverted back to previous failures. There are many who have started out a sinner, then paused when the toll on their soul became too much, then committed to a life of improvement. Thus, we can move up and down through these phases, and many of us do so many times throughout our lives.

How to Be)

With this study I want to consider how we find ourselves in each of these phases, why we move from one to the next, why we fail to improve when we really want to, and why we find success when we aren’t even looking for it.

These are no small questions. Psychologists have long noted the great divide between how people mean to be, and how they actually are, which is a very conflicting puzzle. Hopefully this study will be able to shed some light on the matter.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 31:15-17

15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

God states that observing the sabbath will be a sign between Him and the Israelites, and gives as a reason that He, too, did His work of creation in six days and rested on the seventh. Thus, for the Israelites this was an opportunity to pattern themselves after God, to be like Him all the way down to the level of how they conducted their weeks.

This speaks to our natural tendency to emulate those we most admire. We go far beyond just accepting their principles as our own, we try to use the same sorts of words and wear the same sorts of clothes that they do. There seems to be an intuition that if we can immerse ourselves in the surface behaviors, something will seep deeper into our soul to make us feel and think like our model as well.

While that doesn’t seem like it could be physically true, it may be true psychologically. When we feel ourselves in the shape and pattern of another, I believe we really do start acting and thinking differently. We should be careful who we start to look like, being sure it is someone that we really ought to act like. Certainly, there is no greater model than God Himself, so it makes sense to set aside the sabbath day in imitation of Him. Perhaps in following His pattern of weeks we will gradually develop His qualities.