"Who is writing the script of my life? Who's to say what is right?"

Whenever I read the question, “Who is writing the script of my life,” I immediately think that God is. I grew up in a baptist church, so this is something I have been taught since I was young girl. Beyond being taught this, I also believe this to be true. I believe that God has a plan for my life, and that he is guiding me through it. Although, I believe that God gives me options and choices that I can make throughout my life, yet he is still in control. As humans, God gave us the ability to make our own choices. We do mess up and we do make the wrong decisions at times. But overall, I still believe that God is in control even when you feel like your life is out of control. Now by saying this, I do not know the reasonings behind events that happen in my life. I also believe that it is okay to not know the reasonings behind things. For me that the hardest part about this is trusting where God leads me. Like I said before, you don't know the reasoning behind things that happen in your life, because of this it can sometimes be hard to trust God. Especially when thing just are not going your way.

To beginning figuring out this question, I will need to read through the Bible and find the verses that apply to it. I also think that sermons and devotionals will be great resources for figuring out this question for my life. Sometimes God does not want us to know everything, so I need to be content when I do not find all the answers.

“Who’s to say what is right,” is a very interesting question. Disobeying the Ten Commandments is something I know is considered wrong. There are various behaviors that some people consider to be okay, but there are also people who consider those same behaviors to be wrong. This question is challenging because there are a lot of other grey areas associated with it. Due to the fact that we are all human and have all sinned, we are not fit to determine what is right and what is wrong. This is determined by God. Jesus was perfect. Jesus never sinned; therefore, he is the only one who is capable of saying what is wrong and what is right. As a Christian, I strive to be like Jesus and to never sin, but I am a human and I fall short.

The question, “Who’s to say what is right,” is one that I believe we, as humans, can never fully answer. For us, there are so many grey areas in life because we struggle with seeing the bigger picture. The Bible is also an excellent resource with many examples of right and wrong choices. We can always try to understand what is the right choice, but we will never be perfect. God is the only one who can determine what is right and what is wrong.

Blog Post Religion Online January 29, 2016

Blog Post Religion Online January 29, 2016

            There are many aspects of life that influence the path of your life, these can be religion or a calling for a talent, or perhaps a family expectation to do something with your life that generations past have done. Everyone has a different starting point, which can be important in defining your opinions on life and your path. This can be better broken down into two preconceived ideas about two perennial questions.

Who is writing the script of my life? And who’s to say what’s right?

There are a few things that I assume to be true when thinking about who is writing the script of my life. I assume certain aspects of my path that are inherent due to where I’m placed in society. For example, I’m born into a family that lives in the north-east that is fairly well off that acts a certain way and brought me up in a way that they found to be best for my character. For this reason, my parents and past generations play a significant part in defining the start of my path. While this is something I assume to be a significant part of the script of my life, the people around me also play a significant role in the writing of the script of my life. They influence me and remind me of the thing that is right and wrong, guiding me on the path that they believe to be the one that I want to follow. Along with the general population swaying my path in different directions comes the most important aspect of the script, which is of course myself, the person making the calls everyday, deciding what kind of a person I want to be. This is something that I also assume to be true. I believe that I have free will, meaning I can choose to take different paths good and bad, and that it’s the people around me that propose the questions in the changing of my path.

Then comes the question of, who’s to say who is right? I believe that many people would agree with what I have to say about the very tangible aspects of our human lives that influence our path are right, with exception to maybe what I have to say about free will. Regardless, this then brings the question of whether or not there is an intervention of higher power into the path that we choose to take in our life, or whether there is any higher power at all. This is the aspect of our paths that tend to differ. I personally feel as though if there is a higher power that it’s more passive when it comes to our decisions. Our decisions are our own to make good or bad. In my opinion everyone’s views  on this are as good as any other as long as they live a life that is good.

Perennial Questions

Who is writing the script of my life?

This is a question I’ve struggled with since I was in middle school.  I’ve grown up in church with a firm belief in God, although the transition into college can make keeping that personal relationship with Him more challenging.  I used to ask my Sunday School teachers why prayer worked if God already knew what was going to happen.  I wondered why we weren’t all born already believing in God, why we did things to hurt other people.  Wouldn’t that make everything easier?  Wouldn’t the world be a better place?

I was always given vague answers on how no one can understand the will or plans of God.  And while I believe this to be true, it didn’t answer my questions, and it certainly didn’t strengthen my faith.  God is good, so why does He let bad things happen?  And isn’t that the universal question we all have, whether or not we are believers?

One day someone finally gave me a straightforward answer: free will.  God didn’t create us as mindless servants, forced to obey him and walk around as robots in a predestined, unchangeable storyline.  He gave us the ability to make our own choices, be our own people.

Ever since that conversation, I’ve based my faith and how I talk about it around that principle.  I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each of us.  Jeremiah 29:11 tells us, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

However, it’s pretty clear none of us are anywhere close to perfect.  We make our own decisions.  When we’re rooted in faith, they can take us on the path He has for us.  Other times, we mess up.  But another thing I’ve always believed is that everything happens for a reason.  God can use every mistake and every wrong choice to guide us through life, and bring us - and others - closer to Him.  We are working together with God to write the script of our own lives, and each of our scripts intersects with one another’s.  I believe that’s all a part of His plan.

Who’s to say what’s right?

This has always been an easier question for me to answer.  For me, it’s always been God.  If none of us are perfect, who are we to decide?  The most we can do is to follow what we know He tells us.

It seems simple to me because this is what I’ve grown up believing.  However, that’s not everyone’s situation.  Everyone has different interpretations of the Bible and different experiences with God.  Some are newer to a personal relationship with Him, and some don’t believe He exists.  Despite this, there are still fundamentals of human decency.  There are laws and debates and controversial articles written on what is right.

Regardless of what we as a society believe, we have to trust what is right based on our own consciences, because we all have different faiths and upbringings.  For me, my conscience is communication from the Holy Spirit.  It’s also human nature.  Because of the variety of human opinion, our consciences don’t always line up.  The most we can do, then, is to believe what we believe, and treat one another with kindness.

Throughout all religions is a principle we’ve all learned, no matter our faith.  In the Bible, it’s expressed in Matthew 7:12.  “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.”  All in all, this is the most basic idea of what is right.  We may all differ on whether God or man created this principle, but it’s something we can all strive towards together.

Restlessness

In the beginning, prior to Pakhon being a landowner, he never had the idea of even owning land until the elder sister mentioned it. This initial thought of having land for himself was just the beginning of Pakhon’s restlessness. Restlessness can be defined in many ways, but in this story it can be defined as not being satisfied with what you have. In other words, restlessness is when someone is not content with his/her possessions or with his/herself.

Pakhon originally said he would buy 20 acres from the mistress, but when he actually purchased the land he bought “40 acres and a small piece of timber land.” His decision in this moment shows that he is already unhappy with what he planned on having. Once Pakhon and his family settled in to their new home they began to feel cramped. Then a traveler came along explaining how there was better quality and cheaper land elsewhere. The higher quality of land allowed for higher quality crops, which in turn created a higher profit. The people that inhabited this land were also much kinder than the previous community. Each time as Pakhon was beginning to feel cramped in his new land, a traveler would come along. This traveler would describe land of even better quality and Pakhon would immediately be interested in it. Pakhon would back up his family and move to where ever the traveler described. After moving, Pakhon would begin to feel cramped again, and this whole cycle repeated itself. Pakhon never realized that he was already better off than what he first started off with, which was no land at all.

Pakhon never appreciated what he had. This behavior can be described as restless because he was always looking for more. He was unsatisfied with the quality of his land and the amount of crops that could be harvested on it. Every time he upgraded his land, he was making more money than he even had before, yet he was still unsatisfied. He could never settle down and enjoy what was given to him.

Another interesting point of this story was the Devils role in basically everything. He was there hiding behind the oven in the beginning, and he was there in the end when Pakhon died. The Devil was the traveler who was sparking Pakhon's interest in having more land. The Devil always wanted Pakhon to have that drive to be of a higher class with the most land he could own, and Pakhon kept falling for it. The Devil was the cause of Pakhon's restlessness.

Restlessness is also shown in the time leading up to Pakhon's death. Pakhon's final day on Earth was spent setting the perimeter of what he thought was going to be his new home. The whole time he was walking out into the fields, he was continuously changing his predetermined plan of changing directions at certain times during the day. Every time he saw land that looked of better quality, he wanted it. He never appreciated the offer of "1000 rubles a day." In the end, Pakhons greed, ambition, and restlessness took control of him, which ended up killing him. If Pakhon had just sat back and realized that every time he upgraded his land, he was still living much a much better life than what he was originally living.

Greed "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"

At the beginning of How Much Land Does a Man Need? Pakhom is the humble Peasant with everything he needs to live his life in comfort. However, he becomes consumed by his greed disguised in ambition. What he did not realize was that greed and evil are passive and subtle. He’s welcomed with the choice of going the humble and righteous path that is best for all people. However, he continued to be tempted by the devil with more land. He says how he has had, “No time to get any foolishness into my head”( Tolstoy, 2). What Pakhom did not realize was that greed is not a product of having many things, but a lack of appreciation for what one has, with a desire for more.

Greed is the path that Pakhom chose to take, not the path that he was given. You have a choice in the decisions you make, but they are not given to you in a convenient way. One must make the decision of the path they choose to take. Unfortunately, for Pakhom the differentiation between greed and ambition in his path was confused. It’s clear from the story that greed was a clear drive towards the end of the story when he kills himself out of greed for more land that was no longer even a pursuit to offer more land for his family. At that point he desired nothing more than the material object of land itself. However, it seems unclear in the beginning whether or not it was the devil that provoked greed into Pakhom, or whether it was something that was inherent in his character. One of the first mentions of land he says, “ give me land, and I fear no man” (Tolstoy, 2). This I imagined to be the introduction of the characters weakness, and therefore his most vulnerable temptation.  He lived a humble life up until this point, so I interpret this temptation as something that that provokes the weaknesses out of you. For that reason, I would say that greed is inherent in all people. However, it’s people resistance to temptations in greed that define their righteousness. Greed is something that comes out of weakness.

Greed is blinding in the eyes of Pakhom, he continues to go down the path of more greed by taking out more loans in order to acquire more land. He is even welcome by a dream that presents him as the devil in it and doesn’t even blink an eye. While Pakhom cannot see this greed that has consumed him, the people around him are very aware of it.  At the beginning of the story the peasants complain saying how the, “overseer gets the land he will badger us with fines even worse than he did under the retired soldier”( Tolstoy, 3). However, he was to blinding to see that he inflicted this same pain amongst the peasants, fining those same people.

Tolstoy wanted to make clear the tempting nature of greed and its subtle nature. It’s something that can be tempting to anyone, even a simple humble peasant such as Pakhom. We all must be aware of our weaknesses and always be sure to know that we are doing what is best for the most amount of people, while also appreciating what we have.

Group meeting on January 20th in Starbucks on campus!

Prideful Ambition

            Ambition is commonly seen as an admirable quality; in fact, it is defined as, “a strong desire to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.”  Ambition discourages laziness and encourages motivation and perseverance.  However, a key component of ambition is one’s judgment.  The ability to judge whether the cost of something is worth the following circumstances is crucial.

            Tolstoy’s character Pakhom is characterized by his greed, ambition, and restlessness, each of which lead to his eventual death.  His lack of judgment is one of the key components to his inevitable downfall.  Unable to think logically about the potential outcome of his infinite ambition, he is never satisfied with his current situation.  He has to have more land, no matter the cost.

            Pakhom values his land too highly, determined to have more, regardless of the consequences.  At first, the cost is rather small: money.  Although money is what most often comes to mind at the word “cost,” it is the least valuable thing he has to give.  Once he grew and sold enough crops, he could easily buy more land.  The higher quality the land he sought was, the more he is willing to give up for it, whether he realizes it or not.  Isolation is another cost of his search for land and secondly, power.  He and his family live separately from their community.  Finally, when Pakhom goes to the Bashkirs, all he can think of is exactly how little the land would cost: a simple day’s walk.  However, as he begins to realize that he is running out of time, he trades his life for his pride.  He was so concerned of what these strangers would think of him if he gave up, so determined to keep the land, that he loses his life in the process: the greatest expense of all.  Pakhom’s ambition was an admirable quality on its own, but once combined with his greed, pride, and restlessness, it had snowballed into a deadly combination.

            One point that stands out is the devil’s minor participation in the matter.  He manipulates and tempts Pakhom with more and more land; it’s true.  But each successive purchase is Pakhom’s own decision.  He is unaware of any outside influence, so the responsibility lies on his own shoulders.  In the end, he alone allows the opportunities presented by the devil to warp his perception of his own reality.

            It’s difficult to comprehend how one who had lived such a poor life in the beginning could never appreciate the better circumstances he continued to achieve.  With each purchase of new land, Pakhom and his family are better off than they had been before.  He is able to grow more crops and pay his debts, but continually considers himself “poor and cramped up” when he compares himself to others.  His ambition blinds him to what he had before.

            It’s easy, seeing how his story ends, to judge Pakhom, and think him an overly ambitious fool.  But even today, we can see that humanity is plagued by the same prideful characteristics.  It may not be as obvious as the physical manifestation of the devil sitting behind our stoves to push us along, but each of us have potentially unattainable goals that we would go to any length to achieve.  The temptation of further achievements, through our own hard work and ambition, can corrupt even those who were once satisfied with their situations.  This newfound pride can cause us to think too highly of ourselves, and make us believe we deserve more than what we have, even if it is “just enough.”  This is justified through the ironic foreshadowing in the very first scene of “How Much Land Does A Man Need?”  What Pakhom’s wife threatens will happen to her boastful older sister ends up happening to her own family.  The unending search for future happiness and success can often leave us blind to the fact that we are already happy and successful.  Ambition truly is a wonderful quality, but we cannot leave it unharnessed, or it can lead us to our own destruction.