| Faith and Epictetus |
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Well, I thought that I had spilled out my last thought on faith, but, I guess not. More and more thoughts seem to come... "First say to yourself, what you would be, then do what you have to do.
Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle.
Somethings are within our control, and somethings are not."
Understanding the above statement by the Greek Stoic Philosopher Epictetus, has had a profound impact on my understanding of faith, and not only my understanding, but also the way I exercize my faith. Think about what Epictetus said, for a minute. Do you have a clear understanding of what is and isnt in your control ? How often do you find yourself worrying about the things that are not in your control ? What is the logic of worrying about the things that you cannot control ? Jesus did say "Do not worry..." The advantage of knowing what is and what is not under your control is that this bit of knowledge helps you to sharpen your faith. It helps to sharpen your faith, by helping you to focus on 1) the things that are in your control, and 2)focus on God. I walk into class this morning. The teacher pulls out a surprise quiz. The quiz covers subjects that you know for a fact the teacher has not covered in your class thus far. What should you do ? Well, is the fact that you were going to have a surprise quiz something that you could control ? No. So then dont worry about it. The unfair questions on the exam - Under your control ? No. So then what should you do ? You do the only things that are under your control: 1) pray and 2) simply take the exam. Later on after the exam, tell the Prof, what was wrong with the questions. The point: The things that are not under your control, are not your responsibility. They are God's responsibility. "Give unto Ceasar what is Caesar's, and give uto God's what is God's." By taking your mind on what you cannot control, you free yourself up to have faith in the task at hand. You dont try to have faith in the wrong things. You dont try to have faith in that you'll become a NBA player in one week. Something else needs to mentioned. For the Christian, and really for the theist of many a persuasion, there can be a lot of grey areas as to what is in our control. For example, you see on T.V. the spread of a famine in some 3rd world country, and you wonder "What can I do ?" "Is that situation is under my control ? - In a sense No, right ?" "So should I just drop the issue and not worry at all?" "If I pray, then do I really believe that I can help ameliorate that situation." "So is it under my control or not ?" The answer, in situations like this is that, for the most part, there is only one only ONE thing that you can do. And that is PRAY ! Nothing else. I mean unless you are really an Albert Schweitzer type. End... I dont feel that I've written the above well. I'll be back to do a rewrite.
*Additional Note: I was in a situation at work. The powers that be, dumped this unreasonably difficult project on me. I mean I had no idea how to do this. I did not have the proper training. For quite a while, I did nothing but just complain, complain, and complain to myself. Ultimately, I realized that I had better sit down, do some thinking and figure out what was in my control, and what was not. And then raise the issue with God("Come now let us reason together" Isaiah). Well, what I discerned was that if I was not in control, of any of this, then God HAD to be. This was His situation. He allowed it to happen deliberately. So then, I did the only things I knew to do. I did what work I could do. It was done improperly, but I still did it. Then I went to my Bosses to show them what I did, and leave the reaction in Gods hands. This required active faith on my part, since I was nervous about approaching my boss. My boss looked at my work, and lo and behold it turned out to be 90% right.
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