It’s been intense. It’s been interesting. I feel myself growing and stretching in new ways as never before. You would think that by 40-something you would have grown into what you’re going to be by now and have things figured out. But I feel like, in the middle of this decade somewhere, I am just experiencing the unfurling of my butterfly wings and coming of age in a powerful and exciting way. With that comes challenges I haven’t had to face before. Harder ones than ever before. But I feel so up to the task and so capable to rise to any occasion, because God is leading me through this…
I’ve always been one to have a prophetic gift, though I generally don’t share it with anyone, sometimes even my husband. At times I have had vivid end-time dreams, see visions of people in the future or in heaven, and seem to know things I shouldn’t about people when I meet/see them. Many of those things come true or prove to be correct. Strange. Well, along with that goes an insight into the future at times. Kind of a “big picture,” like the way things are heading. There’s something that struck me recently…
The world seems to be dividing into two classes of people. Ok, maybe you’d say that’s oversimplifying things, but hear me out. There is a movement out there by those who have unlocked human potential and know how to rise up and achieve. And I mean really achieve! They know how to motivate, take responsibility, set goals , have authority, take possesion of themselves, and rulership of their lives. More and more, people are coming to understand how to push human limits and achieve higher and higher goals. Getting crap done is easy now, and so much more of it. No challenge is too big, or even perhaps big enough. There’s a science to setting goals, pushing limits to new heights and achieving them, no matter what it is: physical, mental, financial, health, you name it. If you can dream it, people are finding ways to achieve it. From goals at the gym that lead to super-bodies, to the creation of personal flying machines to every day Joe’s being able to produce any style of music they want. Learning any skill you want to have or acquiring new languages is easy… the software is there, the access is at your fingertips, the human ability once left dormant is tapped into, and people are discovering that human beings are capable of far more than we ever dreamed possible. It reminds me of the days of the tower of Babel. Language is no longer a barrier. Thanks to amazing learning platforms and instant translation apps, we don’t even have to worry about that. And by God, people are doing whatever the heck they set their minds to. Technology is becoming more and more advanced. Learning is quicker and easier than ever in history. Inventions, improvements, technologies that are sky-rocketing us into astronomical capabilities are flying out of not only laboratories, but the common man’s garage and college drop-out cliques. Trace back Steve Job’s beginnings and that of all the mega-mind industries of today if you don’t believe it! Adler’s pyschology is triumphing over Frued. You are not an accumulation of your past experiences. You have a choice today to triumph.
Human beings are becoming true Ironmen and Captain Marvels, taking human achievement to unprecedented levels. Soon, these minds will come together and world will be a different place.
…But then there is another group.
Just as fast as the human race is progressing, there is an even more vast number of people atrophying into despair. They feign inabilities that they truly believe hold them back from all they onced dreamed. They don’t get out of the bed, groom themselves or their children; and the moments (hours!) spent on social media tick off the days of their meaningless existence. They are on Facebook or WhatsApp responding to any and every message or comment that lights up their inseparable screen. They lay in bed or sit on couches exhilarated by the mini-dopamine hit with every “like” and “comment” that appear. all. day. long. -Even late into night hours when they ought to recharge their brains for the next day’s work. Their children see nothing but a face implanted in a hand held device in a world they cannot see or understand. The kids run amuck, are filthy, uneducated, unprotected and under-nutured. These are the people who do not go to a daily job, take a daily shower, or look in the mirror to style their hair in the morning. Their clothes are purely utility or whatever isn’t in the laundry pile yet. They live in conditions below what any person in a developed country should accept as appropriate. Even in the poorest developing nations, cleanliness is upheld regardless of income status. But this is not an income crisis. It is not an ability crisis. It is not even an opportunity crisis. It is a crisis of the mindset alone. This defeated mindset percipitates an avalanche of undesirable events into their lives. Their lack of motivation, desire to pull themselves up by the bootstraps because they BELIEVE it cannot be done, leads to countless careless errors. Car troubles, income deficits, health degeneration of their entire family, and not to mention the severe negelect of their children leads to intense health and emotional unwellness and disorders, can all be symptoms of a defeated mindset. Theses can normal occurances for anyone from time to time. But with this mindset, they feel unlucky and that the universe is out to get them. But they never see that it’s their acceptance of a defeated mindset, and choice after choice, that puts them in the dungeon of their own creating.
Maybe you’re not that far into a defeatist mindset. Maybe you keep it together for your family and friends, but your not living your dreams or using your God-given talents. Maybe you feel stuck in a dead-end job, making a small income. Maybe you’re a mom who can never conquer the laundry pile and have time to take the kids out. Maybe you have a calling you haven’t found yet, so life is not fulfilling.
These two diametrically opposed people groups stand in stark contrast to each other, and their trajectory is moving in separate directions at the speed of light.
…Or is it at the speed of human thought?
I see a world of rulers and servants; masters and slaves; lords and serfs - all of their own making, and the dichotomy has never been so stark in history preceeding it. It’s the result of the free thinking, online world in an Information Age. People are either drawn to Growth Mindset and use the VAST resources of our new world to create a super-human existence; or they use it for hedonism -whether that’s deep, grotesque world of sexual fantasy, or the constant pleasure of a ding announcing another comment on social media. (Pain always seeks pleasure. So usually hedonists are simply trying to mask their pain.) Either way, it’s a tool or it’s an escape, and it has accentuated and accelerated the divide of two opposite groups of people: The Achievers and the Victims. (And note that I do not mean victims of the Achievers, but of their own mindset.)
Yes, some circumstances may have put them on their trajectory… but not without their choice to succumb to it. Maybe those growing up in good homes with hard working, loving parents found the path of betterment to be more tasteful than the path of hedonism and accepting despair. They have tasted success before and prefer it to laying in bed all day feeling miserable. They prefer the endorphin rush that accomplishment brings, to the pain-numbing of alcohol or drugs (legal or illegal). On the other hand, perhaps a person who grew up always in want with parents who gave little time and energy to them, feel that they have legit wounds that sap the energy out of them to make choices that grow them. Perhaps their parents taught them to think as a victim, and wait for a hero is all you can do. In the meantime, why not eat, watch TV, or lay around, and pop some pills to make yourself “feel” better to cope with the negative feelings and health problems that come from this lifestyle?
What will become of our society when we have duly divided into rulers and slaves? (And I mean slaves to self: self-pity, entropy, trying to get by, wasting away in despair and a slave to survival.) Perhaps the servants will rise up and try to steal all that the rulers worked for? Perhaps the rulers will get more leery of the servants and go to greater lengths to protect the rewards of their labor and further ostracize them? Perhaps it turns out something like the French Revolution? Not sure, but it’s all so alarming.
Welcome to the 21st century. The first 20 years are just setting us off on this new race for an unprecedented finish line.
I have a challenge for you and me in all of this.
What if we put our Babel-like, achieving focus on getting our PURPOSE done? Getting the rights wronged, the injustices dealt with, seeing human beings treated with dignity everywhere, and the message of Jesus’ hope out to ALL, not just in our comfortable American/Western communities, but really going out there and doing it?
What would happen if the achieving side of humanity focused on education and lifting up the fallen half of our brothers and sisters? They may not want it; but what if there is one more chance extended, as given by God? What if we put our improved heads together, solve some big world’s problems, and usher in the return of Christ because ALL have heard His message? That means reaching those living in remote jungles of the Amazon. That means finding the natives in near the Arctic Circle. That means navigating out to the most remote islands.
But what if? What if it’s all for a purpose that God means to use for GOOD? And the Serfdom crowd? It must be chalked up to Free Will. What is love and life without it? But hasn’t it always been true? There have always been TWO paths. Good and evil. Wide and narrow. Goats and sheep. Those who do and those who don’t. “Pig Will and Pig Won’t” (kids’ story). The hen who baked the bread when all the others said, “Not I” to helping her. The question remains, which side will you and I be on? What will we do with the side we choose? Will we squander our success on ourselves (getting richer, more comfortable, fatter)? Or will we rise up to the LAST commission ever given to mankind by God: “GO.” Change the world. Make Him known. Be the change. …You know the verbiage. It’s almost time. Either we become the Capable and DO the job of righting wrongs and proclaiming the Good News of Christ so God’s KINGDOM purposes are ACCOMPLISHED, or we are just achieving Serfdom Hedonism on a new level.
The choice is ours.
“The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slack hand will be put to forced labor.”
““It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.” ”
