A conversation yesterday caused me to rethink my primary supposition that playing "with" the rules is a superior mode of behavior than playing "by" the rules.
I'm a much better boundary pusher and game designater than player. I find it more fun to alter games with more interesting rules than to play by someone else's pre-defined rules.
I'm talking of course about social interaction, rules of engagement, unspoken rules, rules of etiquette.... that sort of thing. Purely the abstract and unsaid norms that are picked up by culture and mimicry alone.
What Clint forced me to note is that there is a chord of discongruency between a Machiavellian approach to social orders with moral values. This may seem obivious to most, but being a bit of an elitist and rebel and having grown up under the air of suspicion that everyone and everybody's basically hiding some kind of original intent - I can't help but being this weird Machiavellian Christian paradoxical misanthrope.
I don't trust the world but I trust in some ephmeral omnipotent Good.
So I'm changing my way of thinking.
I see that there is a fundamental "rightness" to "playing by the rules" and a fundamental "evil" and arrogance to "playing WITH the rules."
Systems themselves sustain the individuals. Thus any system resists subversion (by making rules, and punishing rule-breakers) to sustain itself while the individuals who "play by the rules" sustain themselves by sustaining the system.
(some of this has to do with the science of "emergence" - guess or google it.)
The conclusive moral of the story for me is to:
FIND THE FLOW
.... and GO with it.
This "emergence" of yours is very interesting. To have an epiphany after years of paranoia and devious thought and behavior, is impressive but not surprising. For someone who knows you, this entry is quite enlightening - it's sort of the other shoe for me. It's pleasing to me that you have been set free of this burden and I for one have made a similar change years back and continue to do so. Ironically it started after reading the book "The Road Less Traveled" which you recommended to me many years ago. But I hope that you do not follow "the rules" blindly and I'm almost certain that you wont but going with the flow can cause as much trouble as not. Just recall Nazi Germany or any other unsavory political structure. God gave the Holy Spirit to guide you through this corrupt world and I'm certain that His good is not ephemeral but everlasting.
ReplyDeleteLiving in balance with this world is not possible. Because if one is in balance than they are lukewarm - and we know what God does to them. A follower must continually live for God and never for man - the world. The rules for engagement are God's rules and none other - for God's rules encompass all others and for the ones they don't should be obvious to the believer through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And there is no need to look for the Holy Spirit, it is within you. What is better is to learn how to listen to it. There are many chapters and verses that instruct us but there is one that is concise - James 1:19-27 - and it may help. Another is 2 Peter 1:3-11
ReplyDeleteI'm not here to judge or to boast but be careful and sure that you are not the seed that takes root in the briar which is able to grow but becomes stifled and choked by the world.
We all live with hope and faith however, we are much more than creations with instinct. We are created in God's image and are perfectly able, through God's Spirit, to tame and control our instinctual desires which will better suit us for this world and for our time when we come face to face with our Creator and Lord.
That's a powerful word. Thanks. I'm taking it to heart and consider it as a word from that same Holy Spirit I earlier called an "ephmeral omnipotent Good". Thanks for being willing to follow the leadings you get from this Spirit.
ReplyDeletePeople listen.
I am flooded with joy to hear your words because they prove to me that God is at work in you! And I take no credit for the good I speak of God and His awesome power because He is the one who guides my tongue. And I am so happy to serve our Father with all my capacity.
ReplyDeleteYou have known me for many years and if you were able to be close to me as we were many years ago, you would surely recognize that God has lovingly molded me into a different being. And it is only because I have faithfully asked God to do so.
How else can you explain why the person you once knew has become what you see today. I will give you hint - it didn't just take effort on my part.
I love you, Adena and your family very much and I will always pray for your continued growth in the Lord. May peace, love and grace be with you always.
Awesome. Thank you.
ReplyDelete