Ideas Have Consequences
Posted by: forthrightmag <forthrightmag@...>
http://www.forthright.net
Going straight to the Cross
Be selective, very selective, because ...
Ideas Have Consequences
by Barry Newton
In the playground, a child might start to believe,
"since I cannot run as fast as other kids, I am
not as good as them." Through school or watching
television, a young person could begin to accept,
"I have evolved from lower forms of life." Certain
young adults might draw the conclusion that what
is most important for their lives is whether they
have the right clothes, the right car, or perhaps
the right friends.
Our lives are awash with notions which we have
picked up through the years. All of the ideas we
embrace as being true will have consequences for
our lives. The prison walls of feeling inadequate
and inferior can be slowly built up by thoughts
such as: "because I don't have ___, I am not
really an important person" or "because ___ has
happened to me, others are better than me."
The stale suffocating dungeon of living a
meaningless life can be the ultimate conclusion
which comes from embracing the belief that we are
here as the result of blind naturalistic forces.
Along the way, the idea of naturalistic evolution
becomes an uncontainable acid eating through one's
concepts of truth, morality, and meaning to leave
the individual with nothing more than the belief
that such things are social conventions and
personal preferences.
Chains of compulsiveness can have their origin in
many different types of thoughts. Believing that
life is measured by what I have or the conviction
that in order to be somebody I must prove myself
can drive a person into the doomed effort to
generate genuine success based upon this world.
These paltry examples do not even being to scratch
the surface of the varied consequences which arise
from the vast continuum of ideas. All of the ideas
we embrace will have consequences for our lives.
What is important for us to know is that Jesus
came from God to testify to what is true. That's
right -- real truth which will always be true
regardless whether people agree with it or not.
Through his teachings, Jesus has sought to free us
from those lies which would debilitate and destroy
us.
Consider, for example, the liberating power of the
truth, "your life is not measured by what you
have." (Lk. 12:15) Also, through his death and
resurrection Jesus destroyed the chains of sin and
death to set us free from our sinfulness in order
that we might serve God in truth. Through Jesus we
can know the truth and it will set us free.