I've been working on a lot of things lately, and have much to reveal in the future, but there is something that has been nagging at my mind recently that I have to cover here. I just find it very odd to observe the way people interact with facts, truth, and their own mind and shortcomings. Every last person on this planet is imperfect.
What's interesting to me is that, the new mentality of society today, which is supposed to be "progressive", is to question all that is. Which is fine. Perfectly fine and appropriate, if that were the actual case. But the funny thing about that, is that all of those who claim, and think themselves to be doing that, really aren't. I've had the opportunity to share scriptural thoughts and topics with a few associates in the recent past, and have gotten different responses and reactions. A few have been curious to look into truth itself. One or two others have reacted extremely volatile. Sometimes the volatility is indirect, where they will have disdain for me and comment about such feelings to friends. In the end, lets analyze what I did.
Let's paint a scenario. You have 3 friends who live in a neighborhood. They hang out, get into trouble together, etc. There's a market that's in the center of town, that they all shop at for years. One day, one of the friends finds out that as good as the products seemed coming out of the market, they are actually laced with poisons. Another friend also finds out the same thing. The third, hasn't heard about it yet at all. The first friend just continues to take the third one to the market when he goes. The second friend, when he sees the third tells him about what he learned, and agrees that it sucks, but it's the truth. Which friend is a friend, and which is not? The sad thing, is that today, that is actually not only up for debate, but turned completely inside out. "Are you religious?" That's such a funny phrase that has become like a metal detector device in today's world. And with it's connotation and colloquial meaning, when analyzing me you would have to say no. You see, today, it has come to mean fanatical in a negative way. That isn't the behavior a believer would exhibit, despite what you've heard, and it isn't the way prophets of old behaved.
Notice in the scenario I just used, the malicious friend is actually the one that learned the situation first, and that he and the second friend both knew it. This is to make it abundantly clear that this is not to be misconstrued as a pushing of conjecture, or baseless facts.
Some of the people I shared information with, attribute their change in attitude towards me as "discovering how I think." I laugh at that. If you know me in the slightest, I'm far from a zealot, and I'm very transparent. People think that for you to be a truth seeker, and someone who adheres to the truth in the scriptures, you can't be a straight talker, or approachable and realistic. Try reading about the apostle Paul. Truth is truth. It doesn't exist only in the bible. It's also the bible's legal representation. It's a fact of life. If the bible says you're going to grow old an die, how am I a zealot who crazily clings to that as my little truth, when you're dying right now, even not believing that? In the example that I mentioned earlier, does it make sense that the third friend hate the second, and accuse him of pushing his ideals on him? What does the second friend have to do with a store maliciously choosing to sell bad products? The problem, is that people are caught up in inaccurate word association, and negative experiences with people who claim to be religious.
In the beginning of this blog, I mentioned those, meaning most people today, who think they question all things established. But I'm going to give you a mirror check right now. And this includes myself, and everyone I've spoken to. What is your routine? What do you practice? Those 2 questions can go very deep, and in reality we all have layers to work on. But the point is about recognition. A lot of times, people get defensive when you bring something to their attention. But who does that hurt. In my example, who does the third friend hurt, by shunning the second one for his warning, and going with the first one? If I bring out a scriptural truth about world conditions, and prophecies that foretold it, some give me a weird look, like I'm delusional, even if and when, they allow me to show them a correlation. I wasn't born knowing what I know. And if you know me at all, I've never been a simple "tell me" guy. So it's stupid to attribute that to facts that I share. I'm one of, if not the biggest cynic at times. And that's facts. Yet, each month and year, when do you ever question why you observe the celebrations that you do? Why do you say "bless you" after someone sneezes, or tatoo and deck yourself out in various symbols? Where do theses symbols actually come from? What does the bible say? What is truth? These are questions that most won't dare ask, yet they consider themselves inquisitive. If you truly are, question all of those things, and engage facts as they are presented. Otherwise, you can't call yourself intellectual. You amount to someone who is truly controlled, and scared of having your conditioned delusions rattled.
One thing about me you must know, is I'm not dogmatic. I'm a person of honesty and direct information. I'm not going to share anything with you as a voice-piece or a drone. If you can look at my career and life story and even think drone, there are more mental problems at hand that need to be tackled first. What many people don't know, is that many of your precious iconic "worldly" thinkers, like Einstein and Darwin, knelt to the factual truths in the bible, including those about creation, agreeing with them on the record. Because as realists, and factualists (new word), they had to. What separates them from people today, is that today, you have an abundance of non-intellectuals, who are more concerned about staying with the flow and the pack, regardless of where it's going. I've been a person who questions every single thing at every turn in life. What gravitates me in general, is when I see consistent facts proven and stability of concept. Part of maturity, is learning to focus on that, and push aside agendas and butt-hurt feelings about one person or another. If my faith in truth itself, was controlled by mortal people that surrounded me, or specific ones that I've come in contact with, I'd be in a whole other, horrible place. That doesn't define me.
It's very upsetting that people who have conversed with me at length, could be capable of painting me as some kind of wide-eyed zealot, who is narrow minded and dogmatic, simply because they feel pressured by information that they feel I know. I don't own truth. If I was an oncologist, who understood some of the early signs of cancer, and we happened to be friends, why the heck would you grow to despise me and question my motives, when I list some early signs in a casual conversation, and you go home and examine yourself and realize you exhibit some. That is the most backwards way of thinking. I wouldn't even know if you had or hadn't. I really hope some of those who I have in mind, do somehow get around to reading this in some form, because I mean it with love. I have no animosity, but I also understand that pride is something that can tend to be a noose for people. It can take a long time, and ripping through countless layers, before we sit in our room one day years later, looking at the wall, and say, "You know what; that was a true."
No one is reinvented overnight. I am far from perfect. When ever someone levels with you like I'm doing right here, the first natural reflex is to thing they are an arrogant, delusional perfectionist. But go back and read this again, and try to find where I was out of line, or off, and please let me know. Sharing information is how people grow. I had a discussion about teachers with a few friends a while ago, and I remember mentioning that a teacher's foundation is facts. Traditionally, you don't become a teacher of anything, until you have removed doubt about what you know. And why is that? Because you aren't doing anyone's kids or any student any good, by guessing along a curriculum to pass on knowledge to them. If they fail, you would be painted as malicious. Just like, if I called myself your friend, but didn't tell you that someone is looking for you to harm you right now, you would not consider me an actual friend. Even though we all say, "Of course," to these examples I listed, you'd be surprised how people contradict them on a constant basis.
And to take it even deeper, I don't have to be your friend. I could mean you harm, and guess what, facts remain where they are. I was training in my profession years ago, and my instructor was a very arrogant person who didn't want to train me or anyone. He was immensely knowledgeable. I went to my administrators seeking to leave training to rid myself of the poor evaluations I was receiving and the atmosphere. My administrator pulled me aside, and told me words I'll never forget, "Don't forget. No one can take knowledge from you. So get it while you can, and forget everything else." He made it clear that regardless of how my instructor was towards me, he was giving me a great gift. If I'm telling you something that you weren't aware of, and you come to see it's of benefit to you, but unfamiliar to you personally, don't even bother reassessing how much of a friend I am based on how you like the information. Just analyze and look into whatever benefit it can server towards you.
Truth is one thing. People tell themselves that it's a matter of perspective. The only thing you can manipulate is how much you benefit or not from truth. Many say, "I don't want to listen to what this person of that person says. I'm my own person." That's correct. Truth has nothing to do with what a person says. It has to do with what is actual fact. Do you think it cares about how much you do or don't approve of where you discovered it from? It all comes down to how we analyze ourselves in the mirror. Yeah, I look in the mirror, and I want to tell myself I'm not jaded and gullible and I make my own decision. But how much am I blindly allowing myself to follow and be decided for me, completely contrary to my assumed nature, simply because I like and feel familiar with others who are doing that. If you tell me something today that sounds completely new to me, but I can't find anything inaccurate about it, yet it makes me uncomfortable; you know what- I'm going to find out about it, and verify it. I'm a fitness person. I've been doing it for almost 20 years now, at a high level. When someone comes along with a workout or nutritional tip that I haven't used or heard of, I may naturally tense up, not wanting to change or be "taught" by someone. But in the end, if it is new and beneficial information, I'd be childish and ignorant to not bother confirming it and growing from it, stuck in an offended state because of how uncomfortable it made me.
PLEASE READ THIS AND GROW
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