Can We Ever Know?
Over the past few weeks, I've been more introspective about life, asking myself core questions like "Who am I?" and "Why am I here?". However, lately, the more I ask myself these questions, the more I feel like they can never be answered for sure. Below are questions that have come to mind:
- Is there innate meaning to anything (i.e., to life)?
- If there was, is it ever possible to know this innate meaning? How would one know? Senses? Feeling? 'Knowing' we can't voice? Gathering evidence and making an hypothesis?
- How is it possible for us to know that something is on the tip of our tongue yet not remember it? Is this a same kind of 'knowing' that we have about answers to core life questions?
- Can the meaning one interprets from a situation ever be wrong? For example, if I create an object with a specific purpose, and somebody uses it for something else, are they wrong? In other words, can the purpose one chooses for one's life every be 'wrong' (especially if it goes against a creator original intention)?
Lately, my sense of meaning in the world, has come from the humility and sense of wonder I feel. I live on a planet with over 6 billion people. There are billions of other planets in this galaxy and billions of other galaxies. Many of these galaxies have been around for billions of years. In the past the idea of this scared me. How could I ever be significant? How could I ever do something new. But on nights like tonight, I'm happy to be an observer and participant of a process that I will never be able to fully understand. Ahhh...the human condition.
Posted at August 8, 2004 12:15 AM
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Michael, Check out the Daily Motivator at www.greatday.com. It is one of my favorite web places to go for daily inspiration. Don't hesitate to ask any and all questions you may have regarding faith. God Bless, Jim Cooke
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
-- Ephesians 3:20-21
My Source of Strength
For a variety of reasons, I do not normally use any religious references or terminology in writing The Daily Motivator. This one page is an exception.
The Daily Motivator is written so as to be accessible and valuable to people of all faiths, and even people with no religious faith at all. The messages are intended to be appropriate for use in the workplace, in schools, and in other environments where there may be people of widely differing religious beliefs. I make every attempt to express ideas and concepts for positive, successful living in ways that do not detract from anyone's spiritual faith and in ways that do not presuppose any particular metaphysical or religious belief system.
My reason for doing it this way is most certainly NOT to deny the existence of God or to avoid giving credit and praise to God as the creator of the universe and the source of all blessings. Furthermore, it is absolutely NOT my intention to imply that anyone can live successfully apart from the grace of God.
On the contrary, I personally know and experience on a daily basis the infinite love and grace of the living and eternal God, who is so completely awesome and unfathomable that words cannot begin to describe, yet who is also completely accessible to all who seek Him. I know, with no doubt in my mind, my heart or my soul that God is the infinite source of all that is and all that will ever be. Everything I am, everything I do, everything I write and experience and think and express, is possible only because of God's infinite, everlasting love and grace.
Though I absolutely and with the most profound gratitude give God full credit for all I do, that does not mean that I claim to speak for God or that I have any kind of special insight into God's truth.
The things I write about are based on the things I've experienced, the things I've learned from others, things I've thought about and carefully considered. I do make every attempt to live each moment in obedience to God's will as I know and understand it, yet I am far from perfect.
Many people find value in The Daily Motivator and want to know where my motivation and my positive outlook come from. There are many things which have caused me to be this way, including my wonderful parents, my beautiful wife and her loving family, my children and the rest of my family, the place where I live (Austin, Texas, USA), the places I've been, my friends, and all the things I've been fortunate enough to experience.
Yet the most fundamental and enduring reason for my positive outlook is my faith in God and Jesus Christ.
Though it is very much my intention to live each day as a disciple of Christ, I have no intention of "converting" anyone to any particular religion, faith or belief system. The witness of my faith is through my life and my work, not through religious pronouncements, not through admonishments, not through indoctrination, or arguments, or debates or through any kind of disrespect for anyone else's beliefs. I know that those latter things will not lead anyone to God and may in fact lead people away from God. Rather, I strive to live each day expressing God's love and joy in my life as sincerely as I know how, and I have complete faith that God will take care of the rest.
So, if you're wondering where I'm coming from, what my spiritual orientation is, and where my strength comes from, I hope this answers your question.
If you're concerned about my writing having a negative influence on your own faith or beliefs, please know that I completely respect whatever religious beliefs, or absence of belief, you may have. Please be assured that it is my sincere wish to respect your beliefs, whatever they may be, while at the same time offering you the powerful, practical, universal, everyday values that flow from my own faith.
Sincerely,
Ralph Marston
