At several points during life, especially those that are stressful and/or require a lot of decision making, I like to think a person will wonder what their purpose is in life. They might even think that their life is lacking direction or meaning; what could possibly be the good out of all the suffering that he or she is putting his or herself through? They might even feel "lost". Personally, I've found that this feeling passes, however. When you again realize that purpose or meaning, whether it be to help others, making a friend or family member proud, or simply because the satisfaction of accomplishment brings me joy, that panic goes away and you regain focus and direction.
This "need for salvation", however, could possibly be either something created by the church to take advantage of moments of weakness as I just mentioned, or something generated by the follower amongst their moment of panic and weakness. Judging by how the concept was brought up by the "speaker", Reverend Cantrell, one would have to guess it was the former. By discrediting everything that the listener has done up until that point in his or her life, the reverend is able to present this single notion of God, and, with it, a type of deeper meaning that couldn't have been offered by any experience the listener had been part of beforehand. Yet, I don't understand, how with a single sweep, I can be "emptied, stripped of all vestiges of personality and uniqueness". By the nature of my being after death being brought into question, someone cannot simply deem all of the endeavors taken by another to be without meaning. Also, it escapes me how someone could be so thoroughly convinced of such a notion.
No comments:
Post a Comment