Roots of Flourishing

The Good of Play

We look at the basic good of play.   There are three reasons why people play games.  1) to win, 2) for the love of the game, and 3) for the love of the people we play with.  As long as we value the love of the game and the love of the people above the desire to win, we will have a good gaming experience, avoid being a "sore loser" or "prideful victor", and promote our own virtues.   Playing games entails valuing something that is unnecessary.  In a way, God's creation is a sort of game where God made something that was unnecessary to Him.  He did it for the love of His creation.  Additionally, our reactions to the outcome of games can also increase our faith or show us where we may still have room to grow.    Hoping that you will have a great gaming experience next time you play ... win, lose or draw.   E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

A Biblical Understanding of Flourishing

This episode looks at a Biblical view of flourishing through the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-5:  "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." The understanding of the heart according to Professor Scott Redd "refers to the general cognitive and volitional capacities of the person.”  In other words, our thoughts, emotions, and desires or the psychologic aspect of our humanity.  The challenge is to recognize that our thoughts, emotions, and desires can be self-serving and frequently counterproductive to our own flourishing while harmful to others around us.  Replacing those with Godly thoughts, emotions, and desires is the pathway to flourishing. Soul is not just spiritual but according to Professor Redd “speaks to the person, the self, perhaps the whole of the person as a person including the body.”  Thus, we have to love God with the wholeness of our being to include our bodies.  Viewing our bodies as God's gift to us should remind and challenge us to use our bodies wisely and with gratitude, and not to misuse or abuse them for our own self-centered desires.   Finally, strength as Scott Redd says “should be thought of as ‘worldly effect’: the consequence of a person’s life, their relationships, influences, transactions, property, investments, and the like.”  This is the social dimension of our humanity which includes everything outside of ourselves in this world.  Work is an important part of our humanity that God placed us here for.  Work can either be creative echoing God's creative work in Genesis or redemptive (making things whole) as with Jesus' work where he healed bodies, restored relationships amongst people, and ultimately reconciled our relationship to God.  We must view all work in this world both chosen and unchosen as within God's will and useful for our growth and the building up of the Kingdom of God.  However, our emotions and desires get in the way, and need to be changed so that we see all things as an opportunity for God's Kingdom rather than an obstacle to our kingdom.  God's Word and short prayers such as the Jesus Prayer can be powerful for us to realize the situation in our lives as God sees it.   References The Wholeness Imperative: How Christ Unifies our Desires, Identity and Impact in the World [https://www.logos.com/product/223303/the-wholeness-imperative-how-christ-unifies-our-desires-identity-and-impact-in-the-world] by Scott Redd The Treasure Principle [https://store.epm.org/the-treasure-principle-revised] by Randy Alcorn E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

Identities Part 5: The Ultimate Identity ... in Christ

This last of a five-part series on identity analyzes an identity in Christ.  This identity answers the three fundamental questions:  who is my God (spiritual dimension), who is my neighbor (social) and who am I (psychologic dimension).  God is the trinitarian God proclaimed and embodied in Jesus Christ.  Our primary duties and obligations lie in the first two questions through the two greatest commandments … love of God and love of neighbor.  These loving relationships then answer the question of who I am with the answer that I am a child of God and an apprentice or disciple of Jesus.   An identity in Christ best answers our five clarifying questions. 1.     How much is it based on truth?  Jesus stated that he was truth.  God’s holy word is both internally consistent and externally validated through various truths and historical facts.   2.     How unifying is it?  The ethic of love transcends any ethnic, racial, or gender lines.  This identity is open to any who put faith in, trust in, and follow Jesus.  Ultimately, there will still be a division between those who follow Jesus and those who follow their own self-invented identity and desires.   3.     How competitive is it or willing to harm basic goods?  The ethic of love along with the definition of love (willing and taking actions to promote another’s good) means that it is antithetical to be in Christ and intentionally harm another’s good.  Jesus challenges us to not only love our friends and family but also our enemies.  4.     How meaningful is it?   And #5, How permanent is it? Since this identity will be an eternal one that cannot be taken away by anyone, it is then very permanent.  Also, the eternal nature of this identity means that its meaning will impact not just 70 or 80 years of a life, but forever.  This meaning will be manifested in the treasures we store up in heaven from our faithfulness to God and our good works.   References Practicing the Way [https://www.practicingtheway.org/book] by John Mark Comer Renovation of the Heart [https://dwillard.org/resources/books/renovation-of-the-heart] by Dallas Willard The Treasure Principle [https://store.epm.org/the-treasure-principle-revised] by Randy Alcorn E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

Identities Part 4: Victimhood

CRITICAL THEORY IS A WAY OF LOOKING AT HUMANITY THROUGH POWER IMBALANCES THAT MAY HAVE HARMED A PERSON’S HUMAN FLOURISHING AS CURRENTLY DEFINED BY ECONOMIC AND/OR SEXUAL EXPRESSION.  CRITICAL THEORY'S ACHILLES HEEL IS THAT IT IS UNCLEAR ABOUT THE FUTURE INSTITUTIONS AND VALUES THAT THE REVOLUTION IS AIMING TOWARDS.  THUS, THERE IS A FAITH IN REVOLUTION FOR REVOLUTION SAKE. POWER IMBALANCES WERE INITIALLY DEFINED AS ECONOMIC ONES BETWEEN BOURGEOISIE AND THE PROLETARIAT.  CRITICAL RACE THEORY BUILT UPON THESE ECONOMIC DISPARITIES THROUGH RACIAL LINES.  LASTLY, POWER WAS INTERPRETED NOT ONLY ECONOMICALLY BUT IN ANY POWER STRUCTURE THAT CONSTRAINED BEHAVIOR.  WITH FREUD, SEXUAL EXPRESSION WAS POSITED AS FUNDAMENTAL TO WHAT IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN AND THUS SEXUAL CONSTRAINTS AND THE POWER WITHIN THEM MUST BE ELIMINATED. NOW OUR HUMANITY IS INCREASINGLY SEEN THROUGH AN ECONOMIC AND/OR SEXUAL EXPRESSION LENS.  HOWEVER, INCREASING FREEDOMS IN THESE AREAS ARE NOT ACHIEVING HAPPINESS.   CATEGORIZING AN ENTIRE GROUP OF PEOPLE BASED UPON RACE AND/OR SEXUAL EXPRESSION IS A VERY BLUNT AND INCREASINGLY INEFFECTIVE WAY OF APPROACHING INDIVIDUALS.  THIS TURNS PEOPLE INTO OBJECTS.   THIS OPPRESSOR-VICTIM DICHOTOMY RESULTS IN UNTRUTHS ABOUT INDIVIDUALS AND A GREAT UNTRUTH OF THE GOOD VERSUS BAD PEOPLE.  THIS WIDENS GAPS AND DEEPENS DIVISIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE.  FIXING POWER IMBALANCES BY REVERSING POWER IMBALANCES APPEARS TO BE MERELY THROWING KEROSENE ON A RAGING FIRE.   VICTIMHOOD IDENTITY MINIMIZES PERSONAL AGENCY OR MORAL RESPONSIBILITY WHICH LEADS TO FATALISM AND A SENSE OF LACK OF CONTROL.  FURTHERMORE, IT ALLOWS "VICTIMS" TO DO WRONG WITH LITTLE RESISTANCE LEADING TO INJUSTICE.  VICTIM CLASS IS INCREASINGLY NOT APPLICABLE FOR MANY INDIVIDUALS WITHIN THESE HISTORIC GROUPS AS ECONOMIC PROGRESS AND COMMUNITY APPROVAL CONTINUE TO MOVE MANY PREVIOUSLY DISENFRANCHISED PEOPLE FORWARD THUS BECOMING LESS GROUNDED IN THE TRUTH.  CRITICAL THEORY MINIMIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF TRUTH WHILE ALSO HARMING THE BASIC GOOD OF WORK BY HIRING PEOPLE WHO ARE LESS THAN FULLY QUALIFIED WHILE ALSO CHANGING THE PARAMETERS OF WHAT GOOD WORK IS IN VARIOUS CATEGORIES SUCH AS SCIENCE OR MEDICINE.  INTERSECTIONALITY PROVIDES A PECKING ORDER OR BRAGGING RIGHTS FOR VICTIM STATUS WHICH CONFERS ON THESE INDIVIDUALS EVEN MORE POWER AND EVEN LESS MORAL RESPONSIBILITY.  EXERTING POWER AND LORDING IT OVER OTHERS IS NOW WHAT THE NEW POWER BROKERS DO OVER EVERYONE DEEMED INFERIOR (PRIOR OPPRESSORS).  REFERENCES: TO CHANGE ALL WORLDS BY CARL TRUEMAN  THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND BY GREG LUKIANOFF AND JONATHAN HAIDT HOW IDENTITY POLITICS IS HARMING THE SCIENCES [https://www.city-journal.org/article/how-identity-politics-is-harming-the-sciences] BY HEATHER MAC DONALD E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com

Identities Part 3: Three Identities

This is the 3rd of a five-part series on identity.  We analyze the identities of a Mandalorian (Star Wars series), a physician, and a member of the profession of arms.  We analyzed all three identities through our 5 questions.  All three identities were or are being challenged.  The first two (Mandalorian and physician) are challenged from within as to what are the core elements or what really defines the identity.  The challenge to the profession of arms is different as other identities rise up against the warrior identity for priority.   The Mandalorian resolved the tensions by adhering to a deeper common identity that anchored all Mandalorians even those who did not ascribe to prohibition against any living being to see their face that was a requirement in his group. Physician identity is currently in tension.  This tension stems from what is the goal or end of medicine which then drives differing duties and obligations to patients.  Sexual expression and sexually based identities require active participation from the medical profession that is increasingly turning healers into body engineers.  This turn has negative effects to the answers on all 5 of our clarifying questions.   The profession of arms or the warrior identity is also in tension, but its difficulty lies in rival identities to the warrior identity.  Identities based on race, ethnicity, sex, or sexual expression are increasingly valorized and celebrated which inevitably competes with and sometimes supersedes the warrior identity.  This tension results in decreased unit cohesion and degraded combat effectiveness.  Exchanging merit for racial or sexual based promotion degrades the good of the work of war further leading to decreased combat effectiveness.  These trends have also resulted in downward trends to all 5 of our questions.     References Preserving the Warrior Ethos [https://www.hudson.org/national-security-defense/preserving-the-warrior-ethos] by H.R. McMaster Irresistible Revolution [https://www.amazon.com/Irresistible-Revolution-Marxisms-Conquest-Unmaking/dp/1737067323] by Matthew Lohmeier E-mail for comments and questions at: Rootsofflourishing@gmail.com