As Dr. William Lane Craig once put it, the purpose for human existence (including my own) is not merely happiness or fulfillment in this life but rather to know God. Why is that so important? Because how one understands his/her underlying purpose for living and attempts to answer that question, is going to affect what avenues he pursues to make sense of that crucial area in his life. When asked what the greatest commandment was in the law of Moses, Jesus answered the man with these solemn words: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Some important considerations come to the surface when one ponders this question, that are worth being addressed. First, it is vitally important that a person derive his ultimate sense of purpose from something or someone beyond himself. Moreover, this purpose, which is the grounding foundation in life on which he plants his goals, dreams, ambitions, and so forth, has to be real to the point of not being determined or dependent on himself in all aspects. This is highly important because many souls are able to testify on how certain purposes in life, that they've tried to build on, have inevitably failed. Why is that the case? Because our purposes in life must not be contingent but rather objective or necessary. What do I mean by that? By contingent, I mean that which is dependent on something else for its existence or reality. By necessary, I mean exactly the opposite of contingent and which always stands fast no matter what the circumstances or situations. Second, a purpose that can be relevant for his life in not just the general scheme of things but even in the detailed aspects of his life, is a purpose he ought to pursue. A purpose in life that in some way gives me insight on the general considerations of life but doesn't offer or even command certain actions that can affect my every relevant decision, is quite frankly an unwanted purpose.
I cultivated a model, on the areas relevant to me, for prayer to God. The model is not a word per se but consists of different letters which correspond to a particular part of my body and my self. The model is entitled. For the remainder of this post, I will explain each aspect revealed by each letter, identify what they are, and then offer an account on how knowing God is able to be made sense of, in light of all these areas. TEEWAAT
T - Thoughts (Head) E - The things I look, observe, & notice (Eyes) E - The things I hear, listen, and focus on (Ears) W - The words I say (Words) A - The things I do generally (Actions) A - The kind of spirit I have when doing things (Attitude) T - The ways I go about managing my use of time (Time).
How does one incorporate knowing God into each of these seven areas of one's life? When we incorporate the understanding of knowing God into each of these areas of life, we'll begin to understand that we're looking for ways to see or detect areas where certain attributes of God become evident to us and then cause us to make an affirmative decision. It's important to note that certain things we, in light of those areas, are looking for positive indicators in which we can deepen our understanding of God; not merely saying that if we cannot find a way to do that, then that particular area is therefore ungodly. For example, we may not learn anything meaningful about God when taking a bath, playing volleyball, or even attending a concert. But does that therefore mean we are participating in ungodly activity? Not at all. What denotes godly activity and ungodly activity is a qualitative notion, not a quantitative notion.
With that being said, let's get the show on the roll!
I will cover, for this post, the T section and then gradually move onto each section throughout the post series. T is the section of our thoughts or what we think about. Now I think there are some aspects of our thoughts that need to be clarified so as to avoid any confusion or ambiguities. Let me mention a few. First, we have the object of our thoughts. The object of our thoughts indicates what our thoughts are directed at. In other words, about what are we thinking about? So in light of knowing God, how can this purpose for our lives help us in this area in keeping Paul's command to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1)? First, in purposing to know God, we ought to direct our thoughts purposefully at things which correspond to His nature. Let me repeat that again. We ought to direct our thoughts to things that uplift or bring out God's nature. There are two aspects of God's nature: Divine/Infinite and Personal. We should take the time to think about God being omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal, uncreated/uncaused, and necessary. Moreover, we should also take the time to think about God being loving, just, merciful, gracious, forgiving, compassionate, wise, and holy. When we take the time to reflect and direct our thoughts towards these attributes of God, we'll start to see not only a deeper understanding and intellectual grasp of God's nature, but we'll also see a change in the things we think about on a regular basis. Moreover, the tendencies and actions of our thinking about sinful things will incredibly decrease over time. A verse that brings out the importance of thinking about the right things is Philippians 4:8 which says: Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable - if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise - dwell on these things. This verse captures the essence of my thoughts up until this last sentence. The second aspect of our thoughts would be content of our thoughts. That is, the quality and what makes up our own thoughts is what I call the content of our thoughts. Let me give an example: Ben thinks that epistemology is a rigorous and boring philosophy to study. Now, using what we just defined, what is Ben thinking about? Obviously he's thinking about epistemology (the subject of the sentence). Now what would be the content of his thought? Well, the content would be his perspective or attitude about what epistemology is. To put it simply, it's the predicate part of the sentence that can indicate the content of the sentence itself. So in light of that, how can we know God better? Well, in knowing God as our purpose in life, we can orchestrate the ways we go about trying to understand what we're thinking about. That is, when we try to understand God's nature, we can go about it asking questions and making observations about God's divine and personal attributes. Let's talk about God's holiness as an example. Since I want to understand and know God, I'm going to reflect on His holiness. Second, I'm going to specify my questions about God's holiness as follows: to what extent is God holy, what does it mean for God to be holy, what implications does that show in my life, etc.
The last aspect of our thoughts I want to mention would be the extent of our thoughts. By this I mean the depth and shallowness which characterizes our thoughts. This can be seen by the depth of words that makes up the words we use when we think about God in who He is. For example: Ben thinks that going to the water park is an extraordinary and unforgettable adventure. Ben is thinking about the water park, his thought content is on what describes his experience at the water park: extraordinary and unforgettable. The extent of his thoughts would be his choice of words. For example, why did Ben pick the words "extraordinary" and "unforgettable" and not other words? In applying this to God, when we are reflecting on God's nature, we ought to be selective in certain words that will affect our understanding of a certain attribute of God: His omnipotence.
So when we come back next time, we will look at understanding on how to know God deeper in virtue of what we look at and observe. So see you next time!
www.facebook.com
