"Post-Racial" State?

Someone recently asked, "...are we really in a 'post-racial' state?" If we take for granted that humanity can be divided into something called "races" (an assertion to which I do not ascribe), then an understanding of human nature, and an honest view of human history and current culture leads one to the conclusion that it is either the height of ignorance or the depths of disingenuousness to assert that we are in a "post-racial state". Racism is simply the human trait of self-aggrandizement generalized to an entire population of people. It will always exist. Even when we have mixed our genes to the point that all physical differences are essentially gone, we will still find some way to distinguish ourselves from each other--whether it is based on the length of our noses, the size of our feet, or the thickness of our eyebrows.
In one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek (the Original Series), the Enterprise encounter the last two survivors of a dead planet. The two races of that planet had destroyed themselves in a global civil war, and the two survivors were the last representatives of their respective races. To the members of the Enterprise crew, they appeared to be practically identical--humanoid, with a very unique skin pigmentation. Their bodies were of two colors, split right down the middle, with one half pitch black and the other half pure white. The one difference between them was that one was black on the RIGHT side and the other black on the LEFT side. Yet this seemingly trivial difference was enough to engender the deepest racial hatred between them--a hatred that led them to seek to destroy each other, even knowing that the war in which they were involved, and that had already destroyed their entire world, was over!
Still, the fact that racism exists, and always will, is no reason to throw up our hands and accept it and its negative repercussions. The best way to combat it is not to deny that it exists, but to confront it, one person at a time, and render it powerless by showing each person whom we meet or engage that we are just like they are--with similar hopes, fears, dreams, ambitions, and shortcomings. And once they begin to see in us what they see in themselves, we become part of their "race" and no longer something or someone foreign to them.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PURPOSE AND DESTINY

pur·pose   [/noun

1.the reason for which something exists or is done, made, used, etc.

2.an intended or desired result; end; aim; goal.

des·ti·ny  / Pronunciation Key–noun

1.something that is to happen or has happened to a particular person or thing; lot or fortune.

2.the predetermined, usually inevitable or irresistible, course of events.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

At different points in our lives, we all become curious about what our futures hold.  We wonder who we will be, where we will go, and what we will do in the future.  Will we make a difference to the world?  Will we be remembered?  Will we be missed once we’re gone?  But what we want to know most usually is related to our fate.  Is there something that we are meant to do?  If so, how can we know what it is?  And is that future a thing that is immutable and set in stone?  Or can we control it– or even change it – by our actions in the present?

PURPOSE VERSUS DESTINY

People often fail to recognize the difference between purpose and destiny.  They use the term “destiny” when they should be using “purpose”, or vice-versa.  Or they use the two terms interchangeably, as if they were identical or equivalent concepts.  But the two concepts are different, though they are related.

Let’s take a minute to examine some of the more important aspects of the relationship between these two concepts.

Destiny should drive purpose, while purpose drives action. 

Purpose provides short-term focus, while destiny provides long-term perspective and direction.

Purpose-Destiny mismatches are possible. 

WHAT DIES IT ALL MEAN (From A Personal Perspective)?

An action must have purpose.  A lack of purpose can result in our wasting time and energy doing things inefficiently, or incorrectly, or both.  There should be a reason (an intent) for every action that we take.  Every action should have an expected outcome—a desired end state that we are trying to achieve. 

A life must have purpose.  A life without purpose is a series of pointless, disconnected actions.  The person without purpose wanders aimlessly from one disappointment to another disappointment because he has no standards to guide him towards success. 

Human destiny comes in two “flavors”.  The first is what I will call “true destiny”, which is that destiny that a person is meant to achieve—what he is meant to do or be.  The second is what I call “consequential destiny”, which is the destiny that a person is relegated to, based on a lack of purpose, lack of action, or lack of vision.  Many refer to consequential destiny by using the term “fate”. 

True destiny doesn’t just happen, it must be sought.  Achieving one’s true destiny requires action.  Though destiny does not depend on what one thinks or does, achieving ones destiny is very much dependent on these things.  Achieving destiny must become the guiding purpose of all other purposes.  In this way, every individual success and achievement becomes a step on the journey towards destiny.

While it is possible to achieve purpose without achieving destiny, it is impossible to achieve destiny without purpose.  This means that it is possible to be working hard towards achieving personal goals and objectives that do not contribute to, and can even be in direct conflict with, your destiny.  As a result, you can go through life achieving things that provide some transitory level of satisfaction and in the end come to realize that nothing that you have achieved truly makes you happy or satisfied. 

When purpose and destiny are at odds with each other, it is destiny that should take precedence.  You should never ransom your tomorrows for today.  History usually remembers where we end up, not how we got there.  This does not mean that a good end justifies any means employed to achieve it, but it does mean that when there is more than one way to achieve a particular purpose, then you should choose the one that contributes most to achieving your destiny.  You may, at times, have to forego possible immediate gains or pleasure, but the future rewards of focusing on destiny more than outweigh any short term negative consequences.

 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.(Romans 8:28 (KJV))

Knowledge Versus Wisdom

The average adult believes that the level of human knowledge has increased many times over, just within the last hundred years or so.  We think that the human race is much smarter today than it has ever been – we know more information about more things than we have ever known.  This is what we believe, but is it true?  We probably can prove that we, as a race, have accumulated more facts than the ancients were able to discover.   And we can say with some level of confidence that due to easy access to books and magazines, electronic information transmission media such as television, and especially the internet, any one modern individual has at his or her fingertips more raw information than anyone would have thought possible prior to this modern age.

Yet important questions remain.  Are we really smarter today than we’ve ever been?  What is “smart”, anyway, and how does it relate to knowledge?  Are they the same thing?  And what about “intelligence” – how is it associated?  And where does “wisdom” fit in?

 Knowledge, intelligence and wisdom.  In common usage these three terms often are used interchangeably.  Though they are clearly related, they are different.  Knowledge is about how much you know – about the accumulation of individual facts.  Intelligence is about how much you can know – about your capacity to acquire and store new facts.  Wisdom, on the other hand, is about how you apply what you know – about the utilization, application, and extension of what you know in new ways and to new situations.  Put another way, knowledge and intelligence are quantitative concepts.  If you were to think of your brain as a child’s sand pail, and facts as the grains of sand, then intelligence could be thought of as the size of the pail and knowledge as the amount of sand that is in it.  Conversely, wisdom is qualitative.  Using the previous analogy, it (wisdom) would equate to your skill in using the sand in the bucket to, for instance, fill sandbags, build sand castles, or make glass.  This skill is independent of the size of the bucket or the amount of sand in it, just as wisdom is independent of the type or amount of knowledge that one possesses.

What potential pitfalls might result from a failure to understand or appreciate the difference between these three concepts? 

 If we confuse intelligence with knowledge, then we confuse potential with possession.  This can lead to the mistaken belief that the mere capability to get knowledge is as important as the actual getting.  And this, in turn, can lead us to minimize the value that is ascribed to those who have, or are perceived to have, less potential to learn, in spite of any evidence to the contrary.  Such beliefs have been used in the past to deny education to Black slaves and other minority groups, to justify providing sub-standard educations to newly freed Blacks, to institutionalize the physically handicapped, and to limit the mentally handicapped to “special education” programs geared to their limited abilities.  This type of confusion also can lead us to accept educational institutions that don’t educate, teachers who don’t teach, and students who don’t learn.  We become satisfied with providing the potential to learn, and forget about presenting a real education.  This happens when we expend great effort and spend massive amounts of money to guarantee that every child has access to free public education, but do little or nothing to guarantee the quality of that education.

If we confuse intelligence with wisdom, then we confuse the capacity to get information with the capacity to use information.  A potential consequence of this is that we may believe wrongly that someone who performs well in training or an educational environment should perform as well in real-life situations.  Conversely, we can assume that someone who does poorly in school will do poorly in life.  Yet seldom is the capacity to absorb individual facts directly related to the ability to use those facts.  The ability to memorize hundreds of recipes does not make one a gourmet chef.  The ability to memorize the components and operating parameters of an internal combustion engine also does not make one an expert driver.  And the fact that Albert Einstein was a poor student whose math teacher said he would never amount to anything did not prevent him from becoming one of the most influential physicists of all time.

If we confuse knowledge with wisdom, then we confuse facts with ability.  This can lead to the mistaken belief that someone who has gathered information on a subject automatically knows how to apply that information.  If this were true, then reading a book about economics would be enough to make one an expert economist.  This is clearly absurd.  Yet we can still find ourselves assuming that someone who has taken a course or undergone training should be, if not an expert, then at least a skillful practitioner of the discipline addressed by the course or training.  A related false assumption is that greater education automatically translates to greater skill—someone at the doctoral level is assumed to be more skillful than someone with only a bachelor’s level education.

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In His Image...One God, One Image

This is the third, and final, installment in my series on Man's creation in the Image of God. Up to this point, I have focused primarily on reviewing how the creation story shows that Man was created to resemble God (i.e., in God’s likeness) in seven specific characteristics. Now I will spend a bit of time examining the other side of the coin—being created in the image of God.

As was stated earlier, being created in the image of God means that Man reflects Him and represents Him. While being created in the likeness of God can be considered a great honor and blessing, being created in His image is just as great a responsibility. If we are supposed to reflect God to the world, then when they see us they should see the attributes of God in us. If we are to represent God to the world, then our every word and action should be consistent with the intentions, instructions and nature of God. For those who don’t know God, if the image that we present to them of God is flawed, then their perception and understanding of God will be flawed as well.

To present a true image of God requires that we first have a personal understanding of the attributes of God. Then we have to make the conscious decision to live our lives in a way that reflects those attributes. We have to choose to exercise sovereignty (dominion), self-sufficiency, creativity, intelligence, and power.

The First Contract

The verses beginning at Gen 1:26 can be considered to be the very first contract or covenant ever entered into in history. The verses demonstrate all the elements of a typical contract:

• Agreement between two or more parties. In Gen 1:26, God says, “Let us make Man…” The “us” mentioned here is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was necessary for God to enter into this contract with Himself because there was no one else for Him to agree with.

• Proposal and Acceptance. The proposal (or offer) was to make Man in God’s own image and likeness. The acceptance can be implied from the fact that there was no dissention or counter offer, and that the three members of the Godhead set out in the very next verse to perform the very act that was proposed.

• Consideration. This term refers to the concept that all parties to a contract must “bring something to the table”. There must be an exchange of something from each party to the other(s). Otherwise, if only one party provides or offers to provide something of value and the other party(ies) are only receivers, then what exists is simply a gift or promise of a gift. In the creation of Man, consideration is satisfied by the fact that all three members of the Godhead contributed to the act of creation. The Father provided the plan and blueprint for what man was to be. The Son was the actual agent of creation (see John 1:1). The Holy Spirit imparted spiritual power.

• Intention to be Bound Legally by the Agreement. Probably the most important part of what makes a contract a contract, and not simply a promise or mere friendly agreement is the intention of both parties to be bound by the conditions of the agreement, and to submit to legal sanctions should any conditions be violated. All of scripture from Gen 1:27 forward provides evidence of God’s intention to be bound by His agreement with Himself. This becomes even more evident after the Fall of Man and his expulsion from the Garden of Eden. At this point a heavenly plan of action was set in motion to return the fallen Man, who still displayed the likeness of God but no longer presented the image of God, back to his original, pre-Fall state of perfection. Two of the most important and significant elements of that master plan are the Son’s death on the cross as the payment for sin and resurrection on the third day as the promise of eternal life, as well as the in-filling of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. These and other acts throughout the Bible are evidence that God has bound Himself to do what is necessary to ensure the perfection of His image and likeness in Man.

Epilogue: Two Wounds and Two Brides

Within the story of the creation of Man is the story of the creation of the Woman from one of his ribs. This story has interesting parallels to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Adam was the first created son of God, and had no earthly mother. Jesus was the firstborn Son of God, and had no earthly father. In order to create a bride for Adam, God caused him to fall asleep and then opened a wound in his side from which He took a rib that was used to form the Woman, Eve. While Jesus hung on the cross, a wound was opened in his side to speed His falling asleep (i.e., His death). His resurrection on the third day (His awakening from sleep) marked the birth of His bride, the Church.

Second Epilogue: “Like” or “As”

Students of English may be familiar with the controversy over the proper usage of the words “like” and “as”. In common usage, the words are often interchangeable, but in the most formal usage there is a subtle difference in their meanings. “Like”, in this formal usage, indicates a similarity in character or quality, where “As” indicates equality. This distinction has applicability to an understanding of the story of creation. In Gen 1:26 God decides to make Man in His image and after His likeness. In other words, He decides to make Man like (or similar to) Him. But in Gen 3:5 Lucifer, through the serpent, deceives the Woman by telling her that if she eats of the forbidden fruit “…you will be as gods, knowing good and evil…” So the Woman was convinced partly because she believed that the fruit would make her equal in wisdom to God. This desire to be “as” God, and not just “like” Him was, in fact, the very sin that caused Lucifer to rebel against God and be expelled from heaven.