looks like somebodys got a bad case of the Mondays...
I'm usually all about having deep philosophical conversations...just not at 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning after a 3 day weekend drinking extravaganza....but like it or not my job does sometimes require some counseling or at the very least a ear to listen...needless to say this was one of those "sometimes" as I approached my office this morning I could see one of my residents waiting outside my office looking rather lost. I smiled, handed him the coffee I had just bought downstairs and unlocked my door. I won't get into the details but like most people he was having doubts about his life and the path he's chosen. Did he really want to be a Doctor at all anymore? Was he really cut out to be a surgeon? As I was listening and occasionally adding in my thoughts and experiences I realized just how much of a common denominator this is among human beings...
Why are we here? Why do we exist? Why do we care so much?
Only a sentient being could create something as wildly imaginative, humorous, and occasionally appalling as the universe; only one with absolute power would dare create other beings with Mans unique combination of intelligence, creativity, stupidity, free will, and ignorance, then sit back and allow them to do as they pleased. If God (this creative, omnipotent, intelligent being with a sense of humor) wanted us to know, with any certainty, the reason for the existence of Man, He'd have thwapped us all over the head with our own burning bushes by now. He'd have posted a neon billboard in the sky, spelling it out in terms we could easily understand. Instead, He allows us to struggle with our infinite curiosity on the subject to devise countless philosophies and religions, to wage our holy wars and protest against them in His name.
It is said that Man was created to glorify God. According to Websters New World Dictionary, glorify means to exalt and honor (God) as in worship. There are those who seem to confuse honoring God with playing the sycophant. Surely God does not need a constant stream of flattery from our lips, or ludicrous acts of devotion, such as blowing oneself (and a few unbelievers) to bits with C4, to feel good about Himself. And how can mere Man exalt the Almighty? Isnt He already about as exalted as a being can get? If to glorify God is indeed part of Mans purpose in life, then surely it means we are to give thanks, and to live in such a way that would bring honor to the Creator rather than to spend life making a public display of groveling and masochism to see who can outdo whom in piousness.
It is said that God created Man to have a relationship with Him perhaps because God was lonely. But beyond loneliness, God must have been bored. Creative geniuses need an audience. How many painters labor away day after day, only to cover their canvases with cloth and hide them in a cellar? How many writers truly write only for themselves, keeping their words under lock and key? How many musicians compose notes in silence, to be heard only in their heads? God wanted someone with whom to share His creations. Of course that someone had to be Man a new kind of creature, similar enough to God to appreciate (and perhaps even dare to critique) the universe that God had made; limited enough that he could not presume to take over Gods place in it. (Maybe God was too generous, even there.) It seems reasonable to assume that the primary purpose of Man was to entertain God. If God had truly wanted Mans company, on the other hand if He had been merely lonely then wouldnt He be walking among the people of the world on a more regular basis, conversing with us, dropping by for dinner on occasion? Instead, He moves in mysterious ways, unknown and unknowable, yet never failing to pique Mans curiosity and make him believe that it is somehow his job to know God.
Why are we here? Why do we exist? Why do we care so much?
Only a sentient being could create something as wildly imaginative, humorous, and occasionally appalling as the universe; only one with absolute power would dare create other beings with Mans unique combination of intelligence, creativity, stupidity, free will, and ignorance, then sit back and allow them to do as they pleased. If God (this creative, omnipotent, intelligent being with a sense of humor) wanted us to know, with any certainty, the reason for the existence of Man, He'd have thwapped us all over the head with our own burning bushes by now. He'd have posted a neon billboard in the sky, spelling it out in terms we could easily understand. Instead, He allows us to struggle with our infinite curiosity on the subject to devise countless philosophies and religions, to wage our holy wars and protest against them in His name.
It is said that Man was created to glorify God. According to Websters New World Dictionary, glorify means to exalt and honor (God) as in worship. There are those who seem to confuse honoring God with playing the sycophant. Surely God does not need a constant stream of flattery from our lips, or ludicrous acts of devotion, such as blowing oneself (and a few unbelievers) to bits with C4, to feel good about Himself. And how can mere Man exalt the Almighty? Isnt He already about as exalted as a being can get? If to glorify God is indeed part of Mans purpose in life, then surely it means we are to give thanks, and to live in such a way that would bring honor to the Creator rather than to spend life making a public display of groveling and masochism to see who can outdo whom in piousness.
It is said that God created Man to have a relationship with Him perhaps because God was lonely. But beyond loneliness, God must have been bored. Creative geniuses need an audience. How many painters labor away day after day, only to cover their canvases with cloth and hide them in a cellar? How many writers truly write only for themselves, keeping their words under lock and key? How many musicians compose notes in silence, to be heard only in their heads? God wanted someone with whom to share His creations. Of course that someone had to be Man a new kind of creature, similar enough to God to appreciate (and perhaps even dare to critique) the universe that God had made; limited enough that he could not presume to take over Gods place in it. (Maybe God was too generous, even there.) It seems reasonable to assume that the primary purpose of Man was to entertain God. If God had truly wanted Mans company, on the other hand if He had been merely lonely then wouldnt He be walking among the people of the world on a more regular basis, conversing with us, dropping by for dinner on occasion? Instead, He moves in mysterious ways, unknown and unknowable, yet never failing to pique Mans curiosity and make him believe that it is somehow his job to know God.