Fulfillment

Theologians used to use the word “accidie” to describe the sin of failing to do with one’s life all that one knows one could do.

Maslow

Capacities clamor to be used, and cease their clamor only when they are used sufficiently. That is to say, capacities are needs, and therefore are intrinsic values as well. To the extent that capacities differ, so will values also differ.

Maslow

I need your patience, dear reader, because I’m fleshing out an idea. Your contribution through the comments will be eagerly embraced. So, for now, as I trundle on…

I’m reading – concurrently – “The Element” by Sir Ken Robinson (a book referred to me by my brother John) and The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van der Kolk. Previously (a book my daughter Sarah told me about)

Also, I’ve read and re-read my favourite book to quote, “Towards a Psychology of Being” Maslow (recommendation by one of my son-in-laws, Andre Fonseca)

Why is that word, “fulfillment” makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit? What ‘ism’ does it most frequently get mentioned in? Is it a useless buzz word? Just a term that gets thrown around by people who are trying to sound intelligent, and maybe that’s the part that bothers me? The apparent insincerity, or at least shallowness of its use?

Well, Ken Robinson mentions it and I find myself having allowed him and his book to continue to exist… Maslow talks about it in terms of Self Actualization… but what about God? What does he have to say about this fulfillment of who we are?

Our calling, who we are in Christ, why God invented ME – the person that I AM – is part of his plan, but not only that, the reason he created me, my purpose. First take a look at our creator. He has a plan, and he works out everything to be in conformity to it,

“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,”

Ephesians 1:11 NIV

Don’t miss that end part:

<<< him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will >>>

So… how does this fit into Listening Obedience? That’s a topic that I’m pursuing, and have been for my whole life, it seems.

God, by way of the Holy Spirit, see John 14, is at work in us to bring us to Christ-likeness. But what was Christ like?

One mix up that occurs, even as we practice, “what would Jesus Do” is that we focus on being Jesus Copy Cats… there are problems with this. Christ himself came to earth with a very specific purpose, and he fulfilled it. He said we would accomplish, “Even greater things than these…” There are attributes of God that are not within our capacity. For example, we are not omniscient, nor capable of being so.

Have you ever heard of this event? A woman who is in the crowd, cries out and praises Jesus’ mother, and one wonders (before we read Jesus’s response) I mean, I wondered, “Wow, I guess the rest of us just cannot compete with THAT, the mother of God?!? But look at Jesus response,

²⁷ As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you. ²⁸ He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Luke 11:27-28 NIV

I’ll leave that with you, if you get the connection, you get it, if you don’t… leave a comment. I’m painfully short of comments. I would like interaction, and a cup of coffee, with a bit of cream, dark roast…

Is the part we are needing to be like Christ better described as “character traits” ? The bible says that Christ’s body is made up of many parts, and therefore the many functions of the body are fulfilled by the collective members. I need to go lay down now, maybe, cuz I’m tangenting. . . so much… stay with me!!!

Christ as the Body, and that body being the Church, and Christ is the head… as each part embraces who they are… they fulfill their calling.

One constant issue that is on my heart is the virtue or use of Psychology in regards to Christians. So, we’re off the tangent, and back to the books I’ve already mentioned. If you forget, I apologize, and for the sake of brevity, scroll back up and see, then come back… I’ll wait here…

At one time I believed that they were/are rivals of one another. The age of enlightenment comes into this… but its possible that at least in part the corruption of the church – way back then – is what gave way to mankind searching for answers…

In the Book “Of Men and Numbers” There is this origin explained. Man’s search for knowledge began, among other areas, with the search for the proverbial fountain of youth. Eternal-ness without the need for God to exist, or to intervene. This collates well with the Tower of Babel, do you see? They tried to build a tower that would reach up to heaven, through human, temporal means… they tried to “go be with God” by physically building a means to get up there to reach him. But religion is no less this same error.

In “Of Men and Numbers” there is also how they discovered the elements, and eventually the periodic table of the elements. There was a hope that they could discover a means by which they could take the un-precious things like rocks and dirt, and mix them up together via some unknown recipe, into precious items like Gold and Silver.

What they ended up finding out is that atomic particles cannot be changed. That they are independently different from one another, distinct, unique, and constantly repeating synonyms won’t help me express any further, so if you don’t understand what I’m getting at, go take a ladle (used to dispense soup) and have your wife/husband smack you over the head with it and say “you’re a waste of space” and yes, that’s cruel. I apologize, but I just wanted to make sure you are listening, and still reading here.

My creative thinking is sometimes hard to follow, I admit it. Can we move on now? Each of us is our own “element” constitutionally, we are who we are, just like Gold is Gold and Carbon is carbon…

Men like Maslow called the discovery of this essence of who we are Self Actualization.

Paul spoke of pressing on to the high calling of God.

In that verse that I’ll quote below, its easy to miss it. IT is that he . . . of that which Christ took hold of me…

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Philippians 3:12 NIV

Not that already I-Got or Already I-have-been-matured I-am-chasing yet if also I-may-be-grasping on which also I-was-grasped by the Christ

OR

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

The reason God took a hold of me… doesn’t this seem to be what the psychologists are talking about?

Maybe in there some place is atheism, and hostility toward God.

But there is also another possibility. That as honest men and women search for the answer… picture coming to mind is a man who puts his shovel into the ground at his feet, to search for answers… Romans 1: says that men are without excuse because creation itself is a witness of God’s existence.

Yes, psychology is in some respect the poor substitute for Faith… an inadequate attempt, just as the Tower of Babel is and Religion is. . . but all that being said, adherent behaviours, that come out of our depravity show us that there is a direction that leads to a continually increasing tumbling down the path of depravity…. See the sin list of Romans chapter one?

I see in Maslow’s work, a book which he wrote and published when he was 62 years old, he lived from 1908-1970. This book was written in the year of his death. It was the culmination of his life’s work, and is filled with his honest observations of phenomena that were both undeniable, and at times unexplainable. He discusses the conscience, for example, and how it defies searching out the origin of.

I guess what I’m getting at here is that psychology in and of itself does not necessarily have to lead us away from God. It is man’s stubborn nature, his rebelliousness that causes him to look away from what is obvious…

Romans 1:

God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

¹⁸ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹ since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

So I’m very far afield of where I began it seems. Yes?

I haven’t even talked about poorly choosing Chickens… hahahaha LOL

Experiments were done, Maslow reports, on chickens, in a natural environment. There were these chickens in a farm yard, with dirt, pebbles, and stuff to eat littering the ground. Some of the chickens chose good, nutritious food, and they called them good choosers… some of them made bad choices… guess what they were called? Twits? No, that’s being ugly and cruel, they were called Poor Choosers. The good choosers grew stronger and healthier, the poor choosers were kicked out of the chicken society and formed gangs, and lived in and out of crack houses, where they ate their own eggs and . . . are you still reading this? The good choosers flourished, while the bad choosers wasted away and died. If the poor choosers were hijacked and ordered to fly to an Islamic country… oh, wait, that went bad… if the bad choosers were fed food that the good choosers would choose, they would get healthier, but still not as healthy as the good choosers themselves.