The reason I want to answer this question in particular is that I find it so relevant to where we are today. The American mindset is currently to get a good job, have a family with the average two-and-a-half children, and retire with a large fortune. Right now, I want to show to the best of my ability how this idea is faulty.
From a young age, children are constantly asked what they want to grow up to be. Some want to be firemen, some want to be doctors, but they all have some dream of becoming a famous hero of the human race. This on its own is not necessarily bad, but as the child matures and reaches high school, their dreams often fade away under the quest of deciding on a well-paying career. This idea carries the student through college, all the way to adulthood, and even though at that point such a person has already found a career, their goal in life remains the same: make a fortune, live in paradise, and die with the most fame.
Of course, very few Americans ever actually reach this status. They try and try again, but often encounter setbacks. But even if they don't, and they eventually reach their goal, they will end up making yet another, more difficult goal for themselves. This kind of person is never satisfied with what they actually have, since riches are worth nothing in the end, when everyone must eventually die and leave behind all his or her accomplishments. When people deny that something exists beyond death--beyond humanity--their main recourse is this mindset.
Christianity presents an idea vastly different to this, and much more hopeful. Essentially, we have our identity in Christ, not in our own abilities. Christianity acknowledges that we are all given unique abilities, but these also pass away like a puff of smoke as soon as we die. So it is not our abilities which shape us, but rather what shapes us is what we choose (or choose not) to do with them. Our choices can take us in one of two directions: towards becoming more Christ-like, or becoming less human.
What do I mean by becoming more Christ-like? I mean, simply, that we should love others as Christ loved us. After all, the golden rule is to love others as you love yourself. And how do you love yourself? To take a page from C.S. Lewis' book, Mere Christianity, we do not love ourselves by always thinking good things about ourselves. The way we love ourselves is by always wanting good for ourselves. Therefore, we should always want good for others, whether we think good things about them or not. So in a way, our actions shape our identities, because we have to respond in some way to Christ's love for us. If we accept it and act towards becoming more like Christ, that takes us in one direction. But if we reject it and try to forge our own path to greatness, we don't have a strong goal and are merely stuck in our own desires, which in the end make us more animal than human.
This latter option is what Americans today seem to have chosen. Instead of choosing to want good for others, they merely want good for themselves, and get so caught up in this that they lose sight of the big picture and only find out their fault too late. Without Christ, we have no hope of anything after death, and are stuck in the pain and despair of the present. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). In the end, all of the horrible things we know in this life will be obliterated, and we will be with God in eternal glory.
From a young age, children are constantly asked what they want to grow up to be. Some want to be firemen, some want to be doctors, but they all have some dream of becoming a famous hero of the human race. This on its own is not necessarily bad, but as the child matures and reaches high school, their dreams often fade away under the quest of deciding on a well-paying career. This idea carries the student through college, all the way to adulthood, and even though at that point such a person has already found a career, their goal in life remains the same: make a fortune, live in paradise, and die with the most fame.
Of course, very few Americans ever actually reach this status. They try and try again, but often encounter setbacks. But even if they don't, and they eventually reach their goal, they will end up making yet another, more difficult goal for themselves. This kind of person is never satisfied with what they actually have, since riches are worth nothing in the end, when everyone must eventually die and leave behind all his or her accomplishments. When people deny that something exists beyond death--beyond humanity--their main recourse is this mindset.
Christianity presents an idea vastly different to this, and much more hopeful. Essentially, we have our identity in Christ, not in our own abilities. Christianity acknowledges that we are all given unique abilities, but these also pass away like a puff of smoke as soon as we die. So it is not our abilities which shape us, but rather what shapes us is what we choose (or choose not) to do with them. Our choices can take us in one of two directions: towards becoming more Christ-like, or becoming less human.
What do I mean by becoming more Christ-like? I mean, simply, that we should love others as Christ loved us. After all, the golden rule is to love others as you love yourself. And how do you love yourself? To take a page from C.S. Lewis' book, Mere Christianity, we do not love ourselves by always thinking good things about ourselves. The way we love ourselves is by always wanting good for ourselves. Therefore, we should always want good for others, whether we think good things about them or not. So in a way, our actions shape our identities, because we have to respond in some way to Christ's love for us. If we accept it and act towards becoming more like Christ, that takes us in one direction. But if we reject it and try to forge our own path to greatness, we don't have a strong goal and are merely stuck in our own desires, which in the end make us more animal than human.
This latter option is what Americans today seem to have chosen. Instead of choosing to want good for others, they merely want good for themselves, and get so caught up in this that they lose sight of the big picture and only find out their fault too late. Without Christ, we have no hope of anything after death, and are stuck in the pain and despair of the present. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). In the end, all of the horrible things we know in this life will be obliterated, and we will be with God in eternal glory.
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