Posted on by Abe Austin

A Great Majority of Good

The ancient Israelites were commanded to perform their labors for six days, and then rest on the seventh. Given the nature of the universe, on that seventh day all their enterprises would deteriorate. Weeds would grow, trade opportunities would pass, and perishables would become closer to spoiling. Apparently, though, even in those harsher ancient times, six days of restoring order was more than enough to account for one day of entropy.

Six days out of seven is nearly 86%. Such a high percent would be necessary, as it is the nature of the universe that chaos spreads more quickly than order. 51% of correcting will not keep up with 49% of undoing.

I’ve seen this personally as I have tried to establish a regular sleep schedule and diet back into my life. Getting to bed a little early allows me an extra half hour of sleep to pay back my sleep deficit, and a 500-calorie deficit will let me lose one pound in about a week. But just one day of indulgence will erase multiple days of toeing the line, so I can’t improve myself by only being disciplined 51% of the time. I have to have a great majority of restoring order, much like God prescribed.

To scale our mountains, we must climb upward for much longer than we slide backward. We must be committed to progress as the rule, not the exception. We must be the best version of ourselves for many more days than we are the worst version. To become great, we must be primarily good.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Virtue is Greater Than Vice

Performing a virtue is always more challenging, and requires greater strength of character, than to perform its counterpart vice.

If I were to tell you that one man killed for his cause, and that another man died for his cause, which man would you say held the greater commitment and resolve to his cause? Obviously, the man that was willing to die.

So, too, it is more impressive to admit the truth than tell a lie, more inspiring to give away a fortune than to amass it, and more meaningful to restore peace than to start a feud.

We do not applaud the vice because we know it is very easy to do, whereas the virtue is always accomplished by walking upstream, against one’s own nature, and thus truly extraordinary. Any man that lives by virtue is forever greater than the one that lives by vice.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Paradoxical Gospel

One of the most intriguing elements of the gospel is its reliance upon seeming paradoxes. The only way to save your life is to lose it. Christ overcame the world by letting himself be defeated by it. We only find the strength to overcome our vices when we admit defeat and surrender to Jesus. We are saved by grace, but that salvation is then evidenced by our works. In our relationships with our fellow man we are supposed to return good for evil.

It is a fascinating concept, and perhaps one day I will do a more in-depth study as to why this pattern of paradox is so prevalent in the gospel. One reason that is apparent to me now, however, is that it allows God to hide His path in plain sight. Consider the last example in the above paragraph, which is that we are to return good for evil. Jesus was absolutely clear on this point. Here are his words in Matthew 5:44:

But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

Returning kindness for cruelty goes against our human nature. It seems completely illogical. It only seems consistent that we would do good to those that do us good, and evil to those that do us evil. In the spirit of fairness, we would at least need to hurt our enemies just as much as they hurt us, and then perhaps we could build a new, more positive relationship since we were back on even ground.

But that isn’t what Christ commands us. He commands us to love even while we are the one at a disadvantage. It isn’t logical and it isn’t natural, but it is a surefire way to experience a slice of heaven here on earth. Genuinely forgiving an enemy brings a buoyancy and cheerfulness to the heart that defies all reason. And so, the evil suffered was actually the potential for good, a beautiful blessing in disguise.

And this is no secret. All of these counter-intuitive, paradoxical behaviors that unlock the greatest joy have already been laid out before us. The proliferation of the Christian gospel has made it so that all of us know that turning the other cheek will make us walk hand-in-hand with God. We all know the way, but few there be that take it because it requires us to go against our own nature and embrace the paradox.

This combination of free knowledge, but paradoxical requirement means that no one will join God by accident, but everyone that sincerely wants to join God may do so. It is an ingenious solution that allows God to save every soul that really wants it.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Blasphemous Anger Fantasies

A Smug Fantasy)

One of the most common fantasies is imagining someone who has upset us finally having to eat crow and admit that we were right all along. Here are the two most common forms of this fantasy:

  1. Picturing those that have wronged us having negative consequences for their own flaws. The very qualities that they used to hurt us end up hurting themselves, and it is so profound of an experience that they realize their entire life philosophy was wrong.
  2. Picturing those that doubted us watching on as we succeed in every measure where they thought we would fail. They wonder how they could have been so wrong in gauging our worth and they regret the missed opportunity to be a part of our success.

Both forms of the fantasy include the same central component of enjoyment at the groveling penitence of those that have wronged us. I have always felt intuitively that there is something wrong with entertaining this sort of fantasy. It’s too smug, too self-congratulatory, and too judgmental to be a good thing.

As I’ve thought about it further, I’ve realized there is something even deeper amiss with it, something about it that violates a fundamental commandment. It is, in fact, blasphemous.

Making Oneself God)

I’ve come to realize that this fantasy is all about making myself a god over the people that wronged me. Common elements in the fantasy are that the person who committed the offense:

  1. Comes to a recognition of his sin.
  2. Approaches me to ask forgiveness.
  3. Acknowledges that my philosophy and intentions are the correct ones.
  4. Submits unquestioningly to my perceptions of reality from that point on.

This goes far beyond just wanting to prove myself right. This is me wanting to be the very identity of rightness, the deliverer of its word, the voice of truth that the wrong-minded must surrender to. This is trying to claim godhood for myself, and ironically, I show what an unworthy and petty God I would be in the way that I imagine it.

These fantasies are more than unwise, they’re downright dangerous. They seduce us into a state of self-idolatry, which shuts ourselves off from being able to connect with the real God. To overcome the toxic effect of these fantasies we must surrender judgment and justice for those that have wronged us to God, and God alone.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Great Forgiveness

Great forgiveness is not passively forgetting your pain over the passage of time, but actively surrendering it while it still burns bright. Obviously, forgiving over time after the pain has died down is better than not forgiving at all, but it is only a step towards greater, more active forgiveness.

Jesus gave an incredible standard for forgiveness when he declared, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He was not only forgiving those who tortured and killed him, but he was doing it in the very moment that they were carrying out that torture and execution, not after he was resurrected and impervious to their pain. Perhaps we will never get all the way to being able to match such great forgiveness as that, but that is the ideal that we are meant to move in the direction of.

Great forgiveness is not passive, it is active.

Posted on by Abe Austin

True Forgiveness

True forgiveness isn’t about trying to minimize the wrongs of others, or to trying to justify their flagrant offenses away.

True forgiveness is knowing that what the other person did is objectively condemnable and that you would be absolutely within your rights to demand justice, but turning it all over to God anyway. It is letting God be the judge, letting Him choose justice or mercy according to His will.

True forgiveness is not excusing, it is releasing.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Need for Hope

I used to believe that I needed to make my faith so unshakeable that it would stand even when there was nothing left to hope for. Even if every promise had been broken, every desire withheld, and every ambition laid waste, I would still need to do what is right just because it is right.

Now, though, my feelings have shifted. From a pragmatic point of view, I’ve just never seen any good behavior come out of me when I am hopeless, nor have I ever heard of anyone else living a morally fulfilling life while totally devoid of hope. Hope is a virtue, after all, so it is wrong to assume that I could fill the full measure of my life without it.

What matters, I think, is what that hope is in. I need a hope in something that is transcendent, something for which there is no earthly possibility of failure, something that isn’t terrestrial. My original thoughts that I needed to have faith even without hope came about because terrestrial hopes were just about the only hopes I ever had, so surrendering those felt like surrendering hope entirely.

Even my hopes for good things like to improve my marriage, or to have my children secure in their faith, or to be secure against the storms of the world, are terrestrial hopes that will let me down sooner or later. They are terrestrial because they are based on other mortal people and resources. My marriage, my family, and my earthly foundation can all betray me, and at one point or another each will let me down.

I need to have a hope that remains even if my marriage fails, even if my children go astray, and even if my preparations fall short. I need to have hope in something that is now and forever assured, something greater than anything in this world so that nothing in this world can tarnish it. I need to have hope in the divine, in a Savior, in a redemption that has already and forever been won. A true and abiding hope in these, and these alone, will see me through every trial and tribulation.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Too Much Certainty

As I observe all of the angry discourse in our society today, I am left with a sense that we are much too certain of ourselves.

If the other side is wrong, we are certain that then we must be right, even though in most cases that is not necessarily so.

We are certain that we know causation, when all that has been demonstrated is correlation.

In the domains of definite uncertainty, where neither God nor science has spoken, we are nonetheless certain that our opinion is ultimately right.

I do believe that some things we can be certain of, and should be certain of, and should live with passionate conviction to those certainties. But I think that those are only a few, core things, and we should be nuanced enough to call all the rest a hunch, a belief, and an assumption.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Control You Give to God

The control you give God over your life
When times are good
Is the control God has to save your life
When times are evil