For now, we are the meaning makers. Who can blame us for defending our own obscurities?
For Those Who Hate/Think
Should not there be source of
...Opinion, for those who hate other people's opinions ...Christianity for those who hate "Christianity" ...Poetry for those who hate "Poetry" ...Philosophy for those who hate "Philosophy" ...Humanity for those who sense that simply learning to "love myself" can be a fatally simplistic outlook
Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your strength and with all your mind -and- to live your neighbor as yourself."
It is now far too common to hear folks - even Christianish preachers - turn those "two greatest commandments" into three greatest commandments, and then, of course, list hers own addition to the top of the list, as in:
"First you have to learn to love yourself."
If you hear that, RUN. And if you hear it from a Christianish pastor, RUN HARD, FAST, AND FAR AWAY, in terror.
And then make sure to keep asking God to help you understand how ALL PEOPLE AT ALL TIMES, (especially those who can't escape the pathetic hellish bondage of "I need to learn to love myself") already love themselves in the ways Jesus intended here.
Two examples (this is just to get the door slightly ajar):
1. You routinely seek to improve your experience of life: to have food, money and other resources, to protect yourself from various dangers, to rest when weary, to gain comforts and pleasures, to hang out with people who affirm you, and on and on.
2. If someone speaks harshly to you or about you, your first and deepest response is to find a way to defend yourself.
Start out by seeking to love God and those in your sphere of influence in similar ways. That's not a bad beginning.
“Seek first and always the startling management style of the One True God (that is, the One that Jesus referred to as His Father); and inseparable from that, seek first and always His unconventional approach to right(eous)ness.”