Education has no end but school does. When school is done, that’s when reality hits. You begin to wonder why the reality of school has been made so different from the real world. That’s why we all question the relevance of what we are being taught and how it is going to help us in any way in future. Should we, though?
Information & Instruction
There are two things that makes school so great without we realizing; instruction and information. School builds a structure within us. Yes, there are a billion books you can read on the internet without attending school and a billion things we can get to know. However, in school you are tasked to finish 32425 assignments in very limited amount of time you wouldn’t have prescribed for yourself. Thus, school is building a structure within you. In architecture school, you could be given a thousand redoes on a task you don’t even want to do. What it builds within you is a resilience for life. It is on this structure that our formation for going about tasks is built.
Structure vs Creativity
Growing up, it is the ideas you are thought that shapes how you think. Our early school teachers either teach us what to think or how to think for ourselves. Yet, most school systems are stuck with teaching students what to think. School is just about learning only what the teacher taught, memorizing and vomiting it on the exam sheet to show how “smart” you are. Students have been trained to swallow the teacher’s vomit so much that students are stranded with lecturers who leave too much room for ingenuity. Even students of universities want to be spoon-fed, and that is a worry.
Exams is not Needful?
The best law student is not the best lawyer. This is enough reason to change how school assesses students. Is examination even necessary? To me, it isn’t. Examination favors the fool. You can simply be good at writing exams and passing tests without learning anything. This is why many creative students don’t really perform well in school. Students with the best results are mostly teacher’s pets, memorization experts and are pretty much concerned about marks. In the real world, you are not assessed based on marks. This can leave such teacher-pleasing people a little bit frustrated in real life. There is no grand final exam in the actual world. Once you are done with a load of work, another one is piled up on you. Life will always give you new problems as you solve the old ones. If there is any assessment at all, it should add to the existing body of knowledge rather than be a regurgitation of existing literature.
Too Much Theory
Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast“. Theory is needful. Without theory, humans will just be like most animals; each coming in to life to discover things outside of their instinctive nature without prior knowledge of previous lives’ discoveries. Theory enables us to catch up with and come at par with all what previous generations have discovered since existence. Therefore, we don’t start afresh. Theories are developed based on one’s experiences. Once we learn all of such theories, we needn’t need to a thousand lives but simply build up on such theories within our own lifetime for the next generation. Isaac Newton once said, If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. Thus, it is not the abundance of theories in school that is the problem. It is the un-application of it. Once we cannot apply it in our own little way, and the basis for us learning is because “it will come in the exams”, we have failed as intellectuals. Are we in school to produce similar answers in exams or we are in school to make a difference in life?
Let’s not deceive ourselves that school is not needful. You can have all the information in the world available to you via the Internet but the question is, will you even make time for them outside of school? School has failed in
making such information relevant to our societal needs in various fields
making the information the basis (not the replacement) for our own creativity and ingenuity
Nonetheless, school provides us with education and we ought to be grateful for that. Or I’m just saying this so that this write-up ends on a good note? Trust me, if a lecturer tasked me to write this for marks, it would have been copy-and-paste and quillbot. Do you agree with me? Please leave a comment or two.
There is always new medical research that helps us live longer, a brand new technology that changes our lifestyle, and a new software app more interesting than our schooling system. Perhaps, it’s because the school system has barely changed. Let me not bore you with the details of the early formal schools but trust me, there is barely any drastic changes within those four walls of the classroom. The schooling system is slowly catching up with modern-day technology, let’s admit. However, the relevance of the things we are taught – and more importantly, not taught – is where the actual problem is. Oh, this is up for debate!
School is Not so Bad, Trust Me
Count all the friends you have. 80% of them, you met in school. Your acquaintances? Same percentage. School has always been the foundation for our lives. Being together with people in the same age group who are figuring out their lives like you are. Sounds interesting. Your values, perceptions, attitudes, lifestyle, interpersonal relations, opinions. These are things you pick up from school. Children go to school so early in their lives that whatever “foundation” that was laid at home can be made or unmade in school.
Forget about everything for a second. This system of school is responsible for 80% of your life; food habits, social skills, vocal expression, some of your greatest memories, even your most embarrassing moments. Enjoy your first 20+ years in school well. Don’t wait till you’re working a 9 to 5 routine to acknowledge how dynamic school was. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Life is Mathematics
One of the ways people bash school is weaning that they never used y=mx+c – or any other mathematical formula for that matter – in real life. Why is school teaching you calculus and not how to do your taxes? Well, first of all, who said we don’t use mathematical formulae in our everyday lives? Did you cross the road yesterday? Your mind subconsciously did all the necessary calculations. Have you climbed the stairs, kicked a ball into a net, dodged something thrown at you, guessed the time you would be able to reach your destination or put food in your mouth? See, all these were calculations your brains made. It just didn’t “show working”.
Isaac Newton said it better, “every problem – and for that matter, every solution – is mathematical in nature”. In other words, everything can be mathematically expressed. A formula can be derived for everything. Google it, there is a mathematical equation for gravity, motion, love, even music. You never knew you had a brain till you learnt about it in school. Mind you, you wouldn’t have ever known you had one because you can’t see your brain and be alive at the same time. What’s the point? School taught you what you knew without knowing you knew. Must have been interesting for your brain to understand what a brain is and what it does.
the Real Essence
Even though you’re not going to apply half of the things you learn directly in your life, trust me, you’ll apply them indirectly all the time. Especially the ones that stick with you. All knowledge – applicable or non-applicable – is important. School has expanded our brains in ways no other societal body could have. In school, we are exposed to more opportunities and aspects. Eventually, we discover what we really resonate with and understand the most. Though we may rather choose to go into a field that earns us more income instead of a field we love – another dilemma of life – it was a school that exposed us to them all.
So the question now is, why do we need to bash school? The theory is too much? The stress is overwhelming? It’s too much hard work, which is meant to be an archaic concept? Let’s talk more about this next weekend. Do you agree or not? Let’s hear what you think in the comments section.
Everyone has an inner child that we’d never lose as long as we live. No matter how old we grow, we’d still be someone’s child. But the expression of our child-ness is very important in every relationship. There are certain aspects of our inner child that certainly must grow, and then there are those aspects that we must never let go no matter how old we get.
Adulthood is crowned with complex reasoning that leads to needless worry. As long as we don’t lose our child-likeness, life’s journey will be nothing short of amazing even in the most bizarre moments.
CHILD-LIKENESS
Child-like wonder
A child will always ask the simplest of questions that have complex answers. According to a study in UK, curious kids ask a staggering 73 questions every day. “Why do people die?”, “how are babies born?”, “why is the sky blue?”, “how was I made?”. These questions are so simple that we think we have answers to them, but we usually don’t. Children are fascinated with the world around them and have all the time in the world to at least notice the minutest of details even though they cannot comprehend it.
When we lose our child-like wonder, we think we basically know the answers to everything. We explain everything away instead of simply letting ourselves be amazed by it. We miss the simplicity of fascination and the acknowledgement of a mysterious beauty that leaves us in awe. Sometimes we feel we have so many things to worry about than to be fascinated by nature and our surroundings. Remember, God is in the detail. It is the little things that do count. If we overlook the little things and focus on the “big” things, we’d be disappointed more times than necessary. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Child-like trust
Like children, we usually don’t know what’s best for us even when we think do. God wants us to trust him like a child trusts the parents. Even as parents, we generally don’t know what’s best for our kids. But we do know much more than kids do. We do know the consequences of their little actions – eating soap, playing with the kitchen knife, not doing their homework; the list goes on and on – and we try as much as we can to direct their paths and instruct them. God, on the other hand, knows all things. He is the only one big enough to see the bigger picture. The only way to trust God is with child-like trust.
There’s going to be a lot of mess, shortcomings, failures, heartbreak, division and misunderstandings so difficult and unending on our individual journeys that we don’t see how it’s gonna get any better in the end. There’s gonna be times when we think God’s promises are simply outrageous and that His decisions are questionable. It’s only by child-like trust – “It is so because Mom says so: It is so because God says so” – can we continue to trust God in the midst of the storm.
Child-like joy
This world is so full of troubles, trials, tribulations and torments. Life is hard. Life has a way of throwing new problems at us while we solve the old ones. We can all relate with how tough life can get no matter who we are. Some situations are clearly out of our control; there is nothing we can do about it. Those are the situations we worry about the most. Worry is not a sign of care. To understand the main differences between worrying and caring about something, click on the link to read Caring Too Much Without Worrying.
Not being worried also doesn’t mean pretending not to care. Having joy in the middle of the circumstance only comes after establishing your child-like trust in God. Happiness is based on the happenings of life, but joy can only be within. Once you have child-like joy, you stay true to yourself regardless of what happens.
It’s been said time and again that it’s not about what happens to us that matters, – what happens to us is nothing new; it happens to other people too – it’s our reaction to what happens to us that really matters. Joy comes when we trust in something bigger than the circumstance. Joy is not pretending to be happy; joy is knowing that all things work together for good.
What is more beautiful than being child-like; you’re innocent in thought, humble at heart, joyful in spirit and fascinated with nature. I believe life is not so much becoming who we are than unbecoming what we are not. We are all born a child and must remain like a child in order to be teachable, love fully, live freely and laugh wholeheartedly.
We may all not be adults yet but we’ve all been a child before (or we still are). Children are such cute and adorable little Homo sapiens. They ask the most bizarre questions and say the most interesting things. Their smile is so warming and their countenance is flawless. Not to talk of their sweet-smelling and super soft hair.
Nonetheless, they can be very annoying. They run all over the place and mess the whole place up. They break the glass, dirty the sofa, stain their clothes, spill the milk, pull your legs and scream on top of their voices.
Inasmuch as we wanna just whack the shit outta them and make them sit still for just one minute of their lives, we love them wholeheartedly because their energy and vibes are so pure and rare. I believe there are some vital unconscious behaviours – what I call childishness and child-likeness – we can learn from them to make us more mature and live from within.
Childishness
People’s opinions of them mean the world to them
As a child growing up, people’s opinions – especially about them – come together to form their perception of the world. Every word from someone who means something to them is swallowed hook, line and sinker and is believed without thought. Every further reality is built on this, and this reality, be it true or false, can be believed for decades.
What can we learn from this? If you let people’s projected reality and flawed opinions get to you, you’re simply being vulnerable. It is okay to be vulnerable. Truth is, choose to believe yourself over everyone else. But in order to keep your ego in check so you don’t see yourself bigger than you really are, it is important that you surround yourself with people who believe the best about you and will enable you to see your own blind spots.
Dependence on others for literally everything
Children spend a lot of their time crying for toys and sweets. They worry their mothers to get them almost anything bright and colorful they see. Usually, it will be of no use to them but they want it. They are not the ones paying for it. When you don’t give them what they want, they throw temper tantrums and make you look really bad in public.
What can we learn from this? Impulse buying fails to leave us even when we start to pay our own bills. Everything all of a sudden seem attractive within the few days of receiving salary. We feel we have a lot of money to spare – which is usually not the case – and go in for stuff we’ll feel stupid later for buying. It is costly to make an important decision based on mere impulse. Planning beforehand raises our chances of making the right decision at the right time. Otherwise, we’d have to depend on others every time we need something important.
Lack of urgency
Infants lack the ability to even notice how dicey a
particular situation is. The infant can see danger coming and may face it
head-on. They will never be able to know how urgent Mummy has to go to work or
how important it is for her to complete some tasks. All they do is that they
make sure that they are the centre of the universe.
What can we learn from this? Urgency is very important for beginning and completing a task before deadline. Truth is, if one lacks a sense of urgency, one will procrastinate everything that looks like work. Urgency helps us to put our shit together. Without it, we’ll shit immediately we feel like it like infants do. Infants lack a sense of urgency because they lack the capacity to understand the situation, unlike us. Once we sit down to comprehend what is at stake, a sense of urgency kicks in so as to get everything organized and to get things done. Thus, the vital need for retrospection.
Truth is timeless. It is consistent and constant. It does not vary. It is the same yesterday, today and forever. The Love of Truth is the Truth of Love. One beauty about Love is that it relates to all things like no other. If there is a connection that is infinite, it is Love.
The Love of Truth is the Truth of Love
The only thing deeper than truth is love. Love and truth are the most misunderstood, most controversial, most misinterpreted yet the most needful. There can be differences between anything and everything because of truth. In the same vein, there can be similarities between anything and everything because of love. Both are the web that ties and chains all things as unending and complex as the universe itself. Both are the most unknown, yet the most searched for.
Love rejoices in truth. Truth remains in love. Both are the essence of our highest deepest self. You cannot know one without knowing the other. Once you encounter Love, the truth of it encapsulates your heart beyond description. Without the love and desire for truth, you are bound to be led astray and tossed to-and-fro by the wind.
Love is The Greatest Truth
It’s not that there are two sides of the same truth, but there’s the complementary side of it that makes the whole truth look contradictory. For example, Grace gives us what we don’t deserve and Mercy doesn’t give us the demise we deserve. Yet, we ought not to be deceived, for we reap whatever we sow. Contradictory? Not! Complementary.
Truth is One, but not all truths are the same. Some truths are greater than the others. Therefore, it is necessary what we emphasize. The truth is One, but within truth, there’s an order. This order of Truth is as important as the entire Truth itself. For example, prosperity is important but not as important as salvation. Therefore, if prosperity becomes the foundation upon which salvation is built, the essence of the Truth of both salvation and prosperity is lost.
Love is the Ultimate truth. It is the beginning and the end. It is the author and finisher. It is both the source and the focus of truth. Therefore, truth outside of love ceases to be truth. Just like everything else in the natural order, truth has boundaries, not limitations. The boundary of truth is love. Love is what protects the cell structure of truth. Love is truth. If there was no love, there wouldn’t be a need for truth.
Speaking the Truth in Love & Loving to speak the Truth
There is a difference between speaking the truth in love and loving to speak the truth. If Truth cannot be spoken out of love, then it’s not true. People normally offend others with their words and justify themselves by saying, “but that’s the truth”. The truth is never meant to hurt. It’s meant to heal. Disappointment hurts but Hope restores. And that’s the Truth.
Speaking the truth in love is not the extreme too, where the truth is sugarcoated and made to lose its essence. But there’s the place of pure genuine integrity where the truth is expressed perfectly in Love. That place is Abba’s heart. In fact, that’s where all people are; in Abba’s heart.
It is of no wonder that the Trinity of the Godhead is defined as the embodiment of Truth and Love. In your quest for love or truth, don’t ever forget that love is what ties all truths together, and truth is what makes love essential.
Truth carries weight. It occupies space. It is important in every matter. The fundamentals of understanding boils down to truth. Where there is no truth, there is no trust. In fact, it connects the dots of seemingly unrelated ideas and sits at the core of things known and unknown.
Subjective Truth & Objective Truth
Subjective truth puts us in a box and in bondage; objective truth sets us free. Sometimes what you think you know stops you from knowing what you need to know. When it’s subjective, it blocks our minds from understanding the full picture. We tend to fill in the potholes of our false ideologies because it is frustrating to not know the truth. Truth is complex. Assumptions make it all simple though assumptions are not entirely true.
Sometimes the lie sounds more truthful and the truth sounds like a lie. Those are instances where we choose to lie to make another party understand because the truth is too complicated. Let us be honest; sometimes it is easier to believe a lie because the truth is too hurtful. Thus, we choose to not accept it. Does the truth hurt? Truths hurt in the short-run and brings healing in the long-run. Lies bring a false sense of understanding in the beginning and hurt in the long-run. Yes, the truth may hurt but not as deadly as the lies can.
The Validity of Truth
The truth is true, no matter who says it, believes in it and/or knows it. Majority will always carry the vote but barely will it carry the truth. This is so because truth does not need external validation. Truth is its own validation. 2×2=4, not because the entire world decided to believe it to be so. Mathematics, for instance, was not invented. It was discovered. The numbers and signs were invented and popularly accepted so as to make our understanding of Mathematics easier. However, 2×2=4 no matter where you are in the universe.
As a result, you cannot invent an objective truth. You can only discover it. Once it is invented, it becomes subjective. Truth can neither be created nor destroyed; it is only interpreted in one way or the other. The truth is not about what everyone believes. It is not about what everyone thinks it’s true. If you believe the earth is flat, it does not change the fact that it is not flat. You can’t invent it based on what you believe. If you believe trees don’t exist, trees don’t all of a sudden disappear in thin air because you believe it to be true. The same applies to the person of God.
If anyone asked me what Truth is, I’d say, “the Truth is true, no matter who believes it to be false or true”. Are you searching for Truth or you’re settling for assumptions and lies because it is less complex?
There are simple concepts in life that are so beautifully complex. To define them as concepts is even controversial. To call them the fundamental is widely accepted but does it even need wide acceptance to validate its identity? Love, Truth, Light; these are everyday words spelt with just a few words. Yet, in them lies an endless depth of meaning lying to be discovered though they can never be ever fully discovered.
No wonder these “concepts” are tantamount to God. To search for them is to search for God, and to discover them is to encounter the person of God. To define them to the point where it halts you from searching deeper into them is an error in itself that leads to further errors. It’s embedded in our innermost most innate self to search eternally for these.
Everything exists in truth. It is not a subset of it, it’s the identity of any real entity. Thus, for something to be real, it must derive its source from Truth, including lies. Confused? Darkness only exists because light exists. Darkness is not the presence of nothing, it is the absence of Light. Coldness is the absence of heat. Coldness has no S.I. unit because it derives its identity from heat or – put in a better way – the absence of heat.
If truth did not exist, there would be no need for lies. Within every lie is an iota of truth, because a lie must be based on a certain truth. The Truth is One, and based on that, an infinite number of lies can be derived from it. Therefore, there is a surety in the former, and endless opportunities in devising the latter.
In an enlightened world full of devising lies based on already existing truths, the concept of truth being absolute and having that surety is easily becoming an archaic mindset. “Everyone has their own truth. This is mine and that is yours. This is what works for me and that is what works for you.” Is that always even true?
First identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, coronavirus was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in January 2020, and a pandemic in March 2020. This virus put the world at a standstill (and many parts of the world still are) for about a year.
However, the good news is that coronavirus is not nearly as deadly as it is contractable. In other words, it is easier to contract coronavirus than to die from it. Though coronavirus disease has killed 2.06 million people, the fatality rate still stands at 2.1% since there has been 53.1 million recoveries from 96.2 million cases worldwide. In fact, though coronavirus was the most feared cause of death in the world, it was only the 49th cause of death in China for the entire 2020.
Now the worldwide concern of many is this; when will it all end? Supposedly, many are even beginning to think that it will be like this forever and cause permanent changes in our lifestyle. Are we going to be forever wearing masks as part of our fashion and are alcoholic-beverage factories going to start producing drinkable sanitizers? Let’s jump right in!
Can Isolation Solve the Problem?
There is a difference between isolation and quarantine. Isolation is separating a person or a group of people known to have contracted a communicable disease. Quaratine, on the other hand, is separating a person or a group of people who have been exposed to an infectious person. One fundamental feature of a virus is that it can dwell in your body like it’s not an alien organism and reactivate long after. For instance, people with HIV will never know they have HIV and symptoms will never show up until after a long period.
Thus, there is longevity of time between when you contract a virus and when your body finally identifies the virus and informs you via a symptom. 80% of coronavirus spreads from people who don’t know they are sick. Since it is increasingly difficult to have everyone tested, not knowing who has the virus makes it difficult to know who to isolate. Everyone totally isolating themselves from everyone else is almost near impossible. It makes sense to isolate those who have the virus. Yet, since it’s difficult to identify who has it in order to isolate them, quarantining simply fails. By the time we contact-trace you, you have hugged and kissed about 5 people already.
What about self-quarantine? As social beings born with inherent need for companionship and a sense of belonging, self-quarantine is a joke. Unless you’re depressed or have OCD, a day never goes by without touching someone, being touched by someone, touching your face and/or touching surfaces that could potentially carry the virus.
Can Vaccine solve the Problem?
Vaccines are not cures. There are no cures for any form of viruses, and coronavirus is no exception. In fact, vaccines are imitation infections. There are various ways they go about it. Your body is either given subunits of the entire virus, a weeker version of the full virus, toxins that kill the virus and a few more other ways. Once the vaccine, an imitation infection, is inserted into the body, the immune system fights it. When you recover, the body is left with a supply of “memory” T-lymphocytes, as well as B-lymphocytes that will remember how to fight that disease in the future.
The reason why coronavirus sent a shocking wave throughout the world was because it was a novel virus, a new disease altogether. New diseases where many of the population haven’t been exposed to and therefore have no antibodies are likely to be transmitted faster. A disease is easy to fight off once your body has already developed antibodies against it. Once a vaccine is found, it is going to take 18 months for everyone in the world who have never contracted it to be vaccinated. However, nature can create its own vaccine;
So What Would?
Earlier in the pandemic, some governments considered allowing herd immunity to develop on its own, without a vaccine, by letting the virus spread through their populations. In its wake, the coronavirus would have left millions of recovered people with antibodies — but a trail of deaths would have followed, too. Experts warned against this path, yet that is what many governments allowed to happen when they went loose on enforcing social distancing. Individuals could gain immunity to the new coronavirus if they develop antibodies; that can happen through vaccination, or after they get infected and recover.If enough people become immune, that can confer “herd immunity” to an entire population. This protects even people who aren’t immune, because so many others are immune that they prevent the virus from spreading within a community. Herd immunity would effectively end the coronavirus pandemic.
So that is how coronavirus will be long forgotten in a few years to come. We are not going to be wearing masks forever. Coronavirus came to meet many air-borne diseases and yet, we never wore masks. I’m not saying that the world will suddenly record 0 new cases of coronavirus. It will remain an epidemic after a while and still record new cases. All I’m saying is that its transmission rate will drop drastically.
“Lord, I thank you that I am still alive. Many people died last year but I’m still breathing. Thank you that I am not sick. Some are at the emergency hospital with their legs in the air. I’m not a human being more than they are but you have shown me mercy”. Is this how to be grateful?
If you don’t have a problem with the prayer above, it’s simply because you heard it many times. Our brains can believe something based on how frequently we hear it. That is why it’s important to step back and question whether we’ve been doing it right all along or we are stuck in a wrong status quo.
Don’t thank God by comparing yourself to someone else. Thank God by comparing your current situation to the previous times. There is one funny thing about comparing ourselves to others because they died and we didn’t. Some dead people may also be rightly thanking God for taking His breath from their lungs. Imagine being so old and having every joint in your body ache 24/7. After dying, you are now as young as a flower at the beginning of spring.
Yet, someone on earth thinks they are in a better situation than yours because you’re dead. Meanwhile that someone on earth has to pay school fees for his 4 kids, work 6 times a week on 2 different jobs and make time for his wife. What’s my point? The person you’re comparing yourself to in your attempt to be grateful may even be in a better situation than you are. This leads me to be the 2nd point.
You think God is good to you because you think you are better than them. Truth is, they are more and truly grateful than you are.
The point about comparison is that you’ll always look for and find someone in a worse situation than yours. One of the easiest ways to be stagnant in life is to compare yourself to someone lower than you. No, it doesn’t make you grateful. It makes you proud. Imagine if all males thank God that He didn’t make them females. It’s an insult to those God made as females. Can’t you simply thank God without making someone else feel less of a person? The prayer in the very first paragraph is no different from this Pharisee in Luke 18:11;
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ What did you notice? It was a prayer of thanksgiving. What again did you notice? Though a prayer of thanksgiving, the prayer was more about how he was better than someone else.
You are not better than someone else just because you’re a Christian. Sorry to burst your bubble. Our prayer gives the insinuation that God gives His special grace to a special group of people. It sounds nice when you see yourself as a part. The day you’ll hate it is when you end up in the emergency hospital with your leg in the air as described in the first paragraph. Funny enough, since we keep finding someone in a worse situation than ours, we think we are privileged.
You would find some people at Golgotha thanking God that they are still alive and did not die like Jesus did on the cross, shamefully hanging totally naked and dying non-peacefully. You would have found some people for sure. They don’t even want to know God’s bigger picture. All they are concerned about is how special they are. The Bible states clearly that God shows no partiality (Romans 2:11, Acts 10:34). In fact, Jesus taught us to be good to all people like the Father is, for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Find a better way to be grateful and stop arguing. Are you saying if you were the only living thing in the universe you wouldn’t have a way to be grateful? If this post rid of all your approaches to be grateful, then it’s time to search the Scriptures for prayers of thanksgiving. Don’t thank God that others are dead. Thank God you’re alive. Don’t thank God others are sick. Thank God you are in good health.
If someone’s worse condition is what makes you appreciate your life, you’ll hate to see them having a better life than you are
God doesn’t need any comparisons to know how much He has done for you as compared to “less privileged” people. If you want to compare, compare your current situation to how it used to be. Gratitude flows from a source. Make sure that the source is contentment and not selfish comparison.
Can you imagine an athlete in the middle of a 200-metre race not sprinting as good as she wanted, thereby deciding to restart? That’s what we do all the time. Restart whenever something goes wrong. As if everything is supposed to be perfect. As if nothing could possibly go wrong. As if failure is not part of the journey. There is a difference between restarting from scratch and restarting from experience. You’re restarting from scratch if you keep making the same mistakes. You’re restarting from experience if you keep making new mistakes.
The Illusion of Restarting
The truth is, restarting is really an illusion. We’ve just decided in our minds that we are restarting when you and I know that we cannot rewind life. Life is like an online video game. You can’t pause it. As you throw all previous progress out the window and start afresh for the 1000th time, know that time itself never started afresh. It simply kept moving as you while it away.
Perhaps, that’s what we ought to do. Keep moving no matter what. Always remember this; there is more progress sticking to something worthwhile – not matter how long it takes – than hopping from one thing to another, starting from scratch every time. Try the same core idea from different angles, approaches and procedures. It’s better to try one thing 1000 times than try different things 1000 times. Persistence is key, so stick to one core idea.
You Don’t Need To Figure It All Out
The good news is that you don’t need to figure it all out before you start. The Western world popularizes the idea of figuring it all out right before you start. They tell you to write down your goals for the year and have a detailed plan on how you’ll achieve it. Thus, people write to the utmost detail what they will be doing each day for the entire year. That is too rigid, my dear.
Looking back over the year, we don’t even remember into detail what happened each day. If our past is that blurry, how much more the future? See! Live one day at a time. It’s the days that add up to make a year. Don’t count the days; make the days count.
Don’t Restart; Rejuvenate
The reason why we keep restarting is not just because we want it to be perfect till the end. It’s because there’s a rush of enthusiasm whenever we start something. Restarting gives us fresh energy, vitality and optimism. Subject to the law of diminishing returns, the energy from the beginning slowly fizzles out till we are back where we last stumbled.
As a matter of fact, it is easy to get addicted to the idea of restarting. Feeling too cluttered? Let’s clear everything and restart. Why not simply organize them and continue? Stuck in old bad habits? Let’s clear everything and restart. Why not consciously create new good habits and move on with life? If you need a new zeal and ambition, don’t restart. Rejuvenate. You gain new strength to overcome the situation you’re in at the moment. Rather than running away from it by restarting.
So instead of quitting the marathon only to start over again, why not face your insecurities? For some of us, this is the message we ought to hear. You don’t need to wait for another year to put your life together. Don’t quit, yes. But quit restarting if you really want to make it to the finish line. Perhaps, it is by quitting this restart that you’ll break your cycle of failure and face your real underlying problems and weaknesses.
Because we are in the 21st century, we can subconsciously assume Mary and Joseph took a motor ride to Bethlehem and arrived only to realize the entire village was full, including their family home; the 3 wise men saw the star as soon as Jesus was born and came in their limousine to see the baby. I’m obviously exaggerating but you get the point.
Our imagination only makes sense in our current context, and until you learn the historical context, you’re likely to picture the story in a wrong way. Forget about the movies. This is 2000 years ago, not 20 years ago. Here are 5 widely known misconceptions about the birth of Jesus;
The Bible Didn’t Say…
1. …That It All Happened in One Night
“Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,” Luke 2:4 NKJV
Perhaps, because we live in a fast-paced world – or we may have picked that assumption from the movies – we read the Christmas story and over-simplify the story. There are no cars and aeroplanes, remember? To give a bit of context, it was a 90-mile journey from Nazareth to the south along the flat lands of the Jordan River, then west over the hills surrounding Jerusalem, and on into Bethlehem. It takes about 10 days to make such a journey.
With a pregnant woman, the journey would have taken longer. Now imagine the wise men travelling all the way from the East! Even a Christmas movie isn’t likely to be shot in one day.
2. …That There was no room in Joseph’s family house
“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7 NKJV
Why are we trying to make Joseph’s family and the entire neighbourhood look bad? Why are we assuming that literally nobody had the common sense to give their space to a pregnant woman? Except, of course, that it’s not true and only an assumption. The Bible never said that Joseph’s family house was full and that they were looking for another place. Just like the other assumptions, the misunderstanding comes from just one word; inn. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the Greek word translated as “inn” here is kataluma.
Typical architecture of 1st century Israel villages
This is better translated as “guest room” as the NIV does, and is different from pandokheion, also translated as “inn” – in the Good Samaritan story in Luke 10:34 – which rightly means hotel. What the Bible said is that the guest room was full. Simple! It’s like all your uncles travel home and one of them sleeps in the living room because the guest room is full. The place was full of people and wouldn’t be so comfortable for a woman to give birth there.
3. …That Jesus was Born the Very Night they Arrived
“While they were there [in Bethlehem], the time came for her to give birth,” Luke 2:6 AMP
They arrive and Mary is in labor. Joseph runs from place to place, asking insensitive hotel owners if they have any suites available. They don’t get any but one kind old man said he had a little stable he could rent out for free. Mary is rushed in, where she gives birth to a baby boy. Such a fast-breaking epic Hollywood scene! Read Luke 2:6 in a different version think about this whole scene again and watch it slowly fade away. Truth is, Mary was in Bethlehem for days, long before she gave birth.
4. …That Jesus was Born in a Stable
“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” Luke 2:7 NKJV
Pictures of Jesus’ birth are filled with animals staring at a baby in their manger. Yet no, no Bible version ever insinuates that it was a barn or a coup or a stable. The only word to suggest that is “manger”. A manger is not a place where animals are stored; it’s simply a long trough in which the food of livestock are put and they fed.
This is not to say that there weren’t animals around. I’m just saying that when someone says he put his books on a shelf, don’t be quick to assume that he has an entire library room. It could be a simple bookshelf in his living room.
5. …That There Were Only 3 Wise Men
“Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem,” Matthew 2:1 NKJV
Because they presented three gifts and many movies, plays and pictures portray three old men dressed to kill, the most famous assumption in the Christmas story is that of the 3 wise men. If someone came to your house and presented you with a couple of gifts, you wouldn’t count the gifts to assume the number of people behind the gift, would you?
Matthew 2:1 simply says “Wise men”. In fact, with men of such calibre, they are probably travelling with an entire voyage. Plus, they presented gifts to Herod too – since it was the culture – when they went to inquire of him about Jesus’ birth. The three gifts they presented Jesus were mentioned in detail to draw our attention to their utmost significance to Jesus’ ministry.
Surely this doesn’t take an inch away from the humble birth of the King of Kings. What it certainly takes away is the vilification of Joseph’s home and the neighbourhood of Bethlehem. It also allows us to meticulously meditate on the story of the first Noël, instead of assuming every year.
Mind you, this wasn’t written so you could argue out your newfound knowledge with your paddies. Just like the Scriptures, this was written so you could appreciate the birth of Jesus; the greatest of kings, born in the humblest of places.
Happiness is an emotion that takes its root deep within our being. The human body secretes and circulates about 50 different hormones. These hormones include growth hormones, male and female hormones (hormones that produce secondary sexual characteristics in our body), stress hormones, sleep hormones and many others. In fact, hormones are chemical substances that are important in every activity within the human body. Consider hormones to be the magic spell that can change the physiology and behaviour of a person once released into the bloodstream. Happiness is no different.
There are 4 main hormones responsible for our happiness;
D for Dopamine
O for Oxytocin
S for Serotonin
E for Endorphin
Dopamine – the Reward Hormone
Also known as the pleasure hormone, dopamine is released when we achieve a goal or accomplish a task. That’s why women love shopping. Even drinking cold water on a hot day releases some level of dopamine. It is released while having sex, when we eat the food we crave and when we partake in an activity we love so much. It is the feel-good neurotransmitter, an essential part of the brain’s reward system.
Well, first of all you need to know an addiction is anything you do to reward yourself when you’re not in the mood. Our bodies release stress hormones whenever we are low on dopamine, thereby increasing the edge to do something pleasurable. Thus, choose your addictions wisely. Simple ways to increase your dopamine include eating healthily, sleeping well, listening to music, getting a massage and going shopping. Also, learn to reward yourself appropriately when you accomplish tasks.
Oxytocin and cortisol (stress hormone) oppose each other in our bodies. When one rises, the other falls. Thus, a deficiency in oxytocin has the same effect as an excess in cortisol. Signs of high cortisol include not sleeping well or waking up tired, weight gain (especially around the abdomen), cravings for unhealthy foods, backaches and headaches, low sex drive, anxiety, and depression.
Do you feel tired even when you’ve not completed any task? Do you feel disconnected in your relationship? You don’t even feel like yourself recently, right? Do you suddenly don’t feel like talking to anyone anymore? It’s like you just don’t have the energy to socialize, n’est pas? Have you walked by people you know and didn’t say hi, not because they annoy you but because you didn’t want to interact? That’s why sometimes when we feel this way, we just hug someone close for no reason.
How to increase Oxytocin levels
Oxytocin is a bonding chemical. Spend time with the ones you love, be goofy with your friends, share something valuable with someone, have a fruitful conversation with another. Laugh, share, help, touch, spread the love. Oxytocin is controlled by a positive feedback mechanism where the release of the hormone causes an action that stimulates more of its own release. It is nature’s way of passing on the love. It is making someone happy because you find happiness in that. At the end of the day, everyone’s happy.
Serotonin – the Calm Hormone
Serotonin is the hormone that is responsible for our emotional stability. It is considered the natural mood stabilizer. It is also present in animals, plants, and fungi. Thus, food is one good source of serotonin. You can’t directly get serotonin from food, but you can get it from tryptophan, an amino acid that’s converted to serotonin in your brain. Serotonin can be produced in the digestive system independent of the serotonin produced in the brain.
Function
Serotonin is associated with mood, sleep, digestion, blood clotting, bone density and sexual function. It makes us feel calmer, happier, more focused, less anxious and more emotionally stable. This hormoneis also influencing when, how much, and how well you sleep. It can also influence the frequency and intensity of the sexual feelings you have due to its effects on the body’s libido.
Excess Serotonin Effect
When people use certain recreational drugs, such as ecstasy, the body releases large amounts of serotonin. This can lead to serotonin depletion. Fluctuations of serotonin levels in the brain, which often occur when someone hasn’t eaten or is stressed, affects brain regions that enable people to regulate anger. The old adage was true; a hungry man is an angry man.
Do what you would usually do to lighten up your mood. Go for a walk, listen to your favourite music, opt for a massage, eat some good healthy food, especially those rich in fibre and protein, remember the fun times; those old happy memories, and most importantly, pray. Do you ever feel the burden suddenly lifted when you down on your knees in prayer? You sure have! All such activities calm you down and uplift your mood.
Endorphin – the Willpower Hormone
Contracted from endogenous morphine, endorphins are chemicals produced by the body to relieve stress and pain. It produces a feeling of euphoria that is both healthy and safe, without the risk of addiction and overdose. As an anti-anxiety hormone, it blocks discomfort and makes us excited. When endorphins are released in your body, it gives you the ability to power through any form of pain. That explains the name.
Function
Since humans naturally seek to feel pleasure and avoid pain, we’re more likely to do an activity if it makes us feel good. Endorphins alleviate pain even during childbirth, reduce stress and anxiety, boost self-esteem and reduce excess weight. It is the happy feeling produced when we exercise and feel good about ourselves and our bodies. This phenomenon is known as the runner’s high.
Excess Endorphin Effect
With high endorphin levels, we feel less pain and fewer negative effects of stress. Endorphin is the body’s naturally produced pain killer that is released in relation to the level of pain it’s feeling. Without endorphins, the pain of labour and childbirth would have been practically impossible to bear since such pain exceeds a human’s threshold of pain. In such cases, the female body still produces high levels that are both healthy and safe, without the risk of addiction and overdose.
What are your coping mechanisms to get through the pain again? Yes! Eat chocolate, eat your favourite food, create art or music, laugh out loud, watch your favourite show, do what you had always loved to do. This adage was also right. When you do what you love, though it may be really stressful, your body will release just the right amount of endorphins you would need to get through it.
I believe everything in nature was purposefully designed to keep us happy. The beautiful sunrise, drinking water, the cosy weather, having a conversation, the bright flowers, laughing, eating your favourite food, walking out to soak it all in simply make us happy. It’s the simple things in life, to be honest.
