What drives the darker natures found in us humans? What drives us to do things that are not only counter to our God-given good natures but also cause us self-harm?
What drives someone to do something that would harm themselves?
That is the question.
I feel that deep down inside of all of use there is a dark swirling pool of what one might call “stuff”.
This stuff is made up of so many different things. It is made up of memories. It is made up of biases and emotions.
Into this darkness we have to add our surroundings. The state of our physical bodies. Are we tired? Are we hungry?
Our emotions are added into the mix. Are we angry? Sad? Lonely?
I used to think that at any given time in our life we could be being influenced by some invisible outside force. Some “being” whispering in our ears and telling us to do bad.
While this may be possible I think that we might have enough of our own motivations and things swirling around in the dark pit that is deep down inside ourselves that we are perfectly capable of finding ourselves lead down any number of paths all on our own.
We don’t need a “devil” out there tempting us to do things. I think we’re more than capable of many things all on our own.
So, does that leave us victims to our own whims? Does that mean that by the nature of human nature we are left as slaves to our own inner self?
Are we simply automatons following what ever screwed up programming that has gotten shoved into our “hard drives” over our years of existence?
I also don’t think that this is the case.
I think that over time (and indeed I think this is the ultimate destiny of those who are able to come to a understanding of the true nature of man and why we were put here) we can, with the help of someone outside ourselves, learn and grow into a being who learns to control and bridal our natures into something that is ultimately a more refined and better version of ourselves.
In the scriptures is talks about seeing “through a glass darkly” but some day we will see clearly.
I think that the act of self improvement, if undertaken with a true knowledge and assistance of God, can help us start to wipe away piece by piece the substance that obscures our vision and understanding.
As we study and learn the true nature of things we will start to be able to understand the reasons that underly much of what we see and experience in this world.
This understanding will be very beneficial to us and will start to lay down doctrinal moorings that will serve us well throughout our lives.
These moorings will anchor our understanding and allow us to start to see through the wrong motivations of people as well as see the imperfection inherent and common to this mortal experience.
But this increasing understanding isn’t enough.
Ultimately it is only through the power of the Almighty that we will be able to come to not only a truer understanding of the nature of our experience and existence here in this life but we will be able to partake in His grace, forgiveness, and love.
While we can sit and ponder why we are the way we are an why we do the things we do a faster route to happiness would involve direct communication with God and swift repentance for the actions that offend our natures.
If we find ourselves stuck in a repeating patterns of actions that we know to be against our God-given natures than along with our petition for forgiveness from Deity (powered by the Atonement of the Lamb of God) we should also ask for understanding of the underlying reasons why we might have fallen into that particular action.
Indeed this may provide not only that required and needed psychic relief as we are forgiven for our actions by God but also help us continue the process of slowly cleaning the “glass” that is darkened.
The glass that makes it difficult to see the true nature of things.
Most of all we have to listen to the Lord in his continual entreaty to come unto Him and learn of Him and allow him to guide and enrich our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment