Consolation vs Foundation: Man seeks Help

What consoles you doesn’t get an automatic pass into informing your faith. You’ve gotta discern

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Hey there

Difficult times, huh?

What is your consolation during these times? What gives you that warm smile when you engage in it? Could be when you are sewing that dress or crocheting that masterpiece. Could be when you hear “EA Sports. It’s in the game” or that start-up sound from Netflix. Could be that you are a meme supplier, or that your friend’s dotted-up status means the next few minutes will be spent savouring some good laughter.

What is consoling you during this time?

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It is a beautiful discovery trying to fathom to what lengths God went during creation. Yes, we recall the simple utterances He made to create the complexities that exist all around; like an artist’s exuberance of his virtuoso on a large canvas for all to see. Words that made not only the solar system, sharks and sequoia trees but also made atoms, microbes and the mustard seed. But that isn’t our particular focus today.

Our focus is God’s detail in this particular creation: man. Details concerning not only his seen features, but also the unseen. His heart and mind. His feelings and emotions. His worship and exuberance of the image of His Creator in his creation. We may say that man was indeed God’s finest creation (“was”, because of corruption).

Part of the unseen details in man is an apparent affection for and attachment to each other and to things of significant value. Upon the loss of either (person or thing of value), a forlorn posture is assumed in mourning the loss of that item, animal or person. Yet again, for this particular creation called man, it extends beyond just the “seen”.

Qualities and virtues that are highly valued in mankind’s society, upon infringement or total withdrawal of the right to apply them, will have man decry what would be best termed as ‘injustice’. Loss of freedoms, restriction from expression of rights… man would be sad. Really sad. No one wants to be that. Yet, we oft find ourselves in this unfortunate disposition. What do we do? What does man naturally incline to when some sort of “injustice” occurs to him?

He seeks for help!

When a fellow human reaches out for help, it would only seem proper to help alleviate the poor chap from his troubles. To bring some sense of…

What’s the word?

Oh yes,

Consolation!

For the poor ol’ sad man, let’s abbreviate it as POSM , his options are two: to either seek external help, or be innovative & help himself get through it. For both, the rewards are promising. The risks are intimidating. Which shall it be? The former (seek external help) or the latter (sort it out himself)?

With the upsurge of technological advancements over the last 30 years, the idea has been to make man have an easier time through the challenging course that life is. Seemingly, if we were to draw a curve for the variables “making man self-dependent” against “making things easier”, the projected results should  form a straight line, or an upward curve, tangenting against the y-axis. In layman’s terms, we are living in such narcissistic times, with technology helping push that selfishness index higher up each day. Yes, technology has so much impacted many of the processes one would need sb else for, that one could carry these tasks out quite easily… tasks that previously demanded some expertise or intermediate level of experience. From making a Zoom call, to checking up the definition of “narcissistic” on Google. From switching on a TV to making a phone call. These are tasks that a couple of years back, may have needed an extra hand to do (or a lot more, a way lot more). Technology has come through for us, though, some things never seem to change… like changing a flat tire.

That said, it is becoming increasingly difficult to always depend on someone else because now “we ourselves can do it”. Self-helps, DIY’s and “6 tips on… The 7th will astound you” have flooded our media pages. More and more forwards on the quickest way to do sth have us nudging that self-dependent index up higher. What we don’t immediately realise is a corresponding effect unknowingly results.

We become more attuned to us for us, and we can’t see how anyone else would help us do it better than ourselves. Infact, we see them as liabilities on our pathway to a more stable “us”… or rather, a more stable “me”.

Back to our friend, POSM. His two options still are open and at his disposal. Shall he seek for external help? Or shall he give the DIY a try this time?

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