that we swim in a culture where we are constantly surrounded by messages that tell us one thing “Your feelings are the source and measure of validity.”
In school, on the TV, all around us, often even in church we are reminded in one form or another that if if feels good at the moment then it must be right. Don’t think, just do. Forget the larger picture and savor the moment. The urge itself is the proof that its true.
Why?
Our emotions are one of the most malleable, least stable, and easily conquered part of who we are. Move them, change them, shape them and you can often control the person, especially if you’ve already worked hard to erase the potential for critical thought and wider horizons. There is money to be made, power to be had, influence to be exercised to the person who knows how to shape the human emotions. You may not realize this but our society is often really about making you compliant drones depositing money, time, and even the energy of your life into a corporate/government matrix where the whole purpose of your existence is to be a consumer, a rat in a race to constantly acquire and in doing so please the person or entity on the next level higher than yours.
That’s in part why Christian faith is the ultimate counter culture in these times. Christian faith calls us to the widest horizon beyond consumer self interest that exists, namely eternity. Christian faith challenges us to live its values, these eternal realities, in the here and now and directing our lives beyond ourselves. Gain by losing. Get by giving. Live beyond the lies. Because of this Christian faith is often considered by those most likely to profit from a world of “Just do it” as the ultimate heresy.
Yet for those who understand, it’s the ultimate truth, and the ultimate freedom.
The Beautiful Path 