reply to post by slymattb
You have everything you need already. You are a picture of my nephew from the sound of it and I give him the same advice. The only thing you do in
this life falls under these two categories:
1) You Think
2) You Move
You don't do anything else and either do I. The quality of these two is possessed by all of us equally. So, what makes the difference? Choices.
You express choices to move and think by your will. All of what you express that makes you what you are will reflect these two actions into the
reflection of your image. You created that image by choosing according to will.
As you note in your post, the will to take shows up in the world all around you. This is because objectivism says that taking is the right thing to
do for self. In reality, it is the reason for suffering. What happens if you smoke? You get cancer. Why? You took something that you did not
earn. This makes you a thief. We are all thieves. Taking reward ends in suffering. What if you reverse the will to take and give instead.
What happens if you don't smoke, but instead, you go to the gym and workout? You produce health from suffering. All reward that is worth possessing
is the result of suffering for the gift that is earned. I say gift because all things that are earned must be given away. Unless you give them away,
you are taking them and taking leads to suffering again.
It's a direction
R = S = R
Reward taken leads to suffering. Suffering first leads to reward. You are in the state you are in because you have an imbalance between suffering as
a cause and suffering as a result. You are suffering heavy on the side of taking reward. The more you open yourself up to opportunity, the more it
becomes available to you. This works in opposite. It all depends on whether you are suffering forward for the opportunity or missing it by being
absent from the process.
How do you overcome the debt that you have created? The secret is in your will.
God shows us that our will must be giving and receiving only. A gift that is given must first be earned. Suffering is part of this. Once it is
earned, it multiplies when given away. Work a job and your family gets the reward. Giving it to them becomes your own reward in the end. A loving
family will care for you as well.
If you live as a thief, the reward you take becomes the debt you pay later. You are paying the debt now. Simply reverse your will and suffer to
give. This will fix your situation quickly.
Consider this:
In mathematics, if you owe three people $10, then you are negative $30 (3 X -10 = $-30). If the lenders then say, "We forgive you for this debt
because we love you," then you are free from that debt by another negative. You have just had three subtractions of -10, making you three positives
of $10 (-3 X -$10). Your debt is -30 + 30 = Zero. Jesus died a horrible death to pay our debt, walking us back to a positive value. Only two
negatives multiplied can make a positive. Debt must be paid, yet Christ offers to pay it for you.
The second way you get out of your mess is tied to the first. Express the will of God to take the name (Character) of Christ. When you do, you
instantly drop the debt and begin to see the reward of taking the name. If you take the name but not the character, you take the name in vain.
Christ must give you that name first. You receive it. Did he give it to all of us? Then you must give it away by your own suffering for others.
It's the way of the cross and the cup we bear.
Suffer and you will see reward, but not until you give it away. How did I earn the gift I give you now? You can't see the fault in another without
seeing it in yourself first.
edit on 28-10-2012 by EnochWasRight because: (no reason given)