Fellow humans,
A progressive lifestyle is not supposed to be comfortable. Twelve years in the military has taught me a valuable lesson — learn to operate outside of my comfort zone on a regular basis. In other words, when something scares me or makes me feel uncomfortable, I’ve learned to embrace that thing immediately.
In life, all of us have invisible barriers, force fields that scare us away from doing something. The idea that made me think of this is how most men won’t approach a woman at first sight. Men know how terrifying this can be. Women, you are blessed, because there is no pressure for you to approach men, although it would be awesome.
How can this type of challenge be overcome? There’s only one way — practice. I don’t mean practice in a traditional sense, like rehearsing in the mirror or with friends, although that might work, I’ve never tried it. I mean practice, like approaching the next attractive woman you see in public, and starting a (respectful) conversation.
Although this is one example to highlight ours fears, hitting on women will not be the topic today. This idea is much larger than that. I want you to focus on the underlying emotions and thought patterns in this type of situation, which are fear and doubt. I don’t know why, but humans are naturally afraid of new and challenging things.
Maybe a fear of failure is the reason behind all of this. People simply don’t want to put themselves in an uncomfortable situation, especially if they have doubts about the outcome. Here’s a new perspective though — not doing something we want to do is automatic failure.
It’s ironic — the thing we are trying to avoid (failure), is actually guaranteed if we don’t try. We learn nothing if we don’t try. If we try, and then fail, at least we can relive the situation (no matter how painful), and then learn how we failed.
The point of writing about this today is to redirect your attention to the Holy Bible. I cannot even count how many different ways the Bible can be interpreted. In the book of Genesis, Jacob was sleeping with four different women, had eleven sons, and he wasn’t hiding any of it!
Now my question to you — how are we supposed to learn from the Bible when it’s this confusing? Although Jacob’s story is at the very beginning, this behavior is not encouraged in the Bible. In the new testament, Jesus actually discourages sexually immorality on various occasions.
The more I read and understand the Bible, the more I realize that many people might avoid a religious lifestyle because it can be a lot of pressure. They might feel like if they try, they will quickly fail, because the Bible has so many rules. Again, there’s only one way to solve this problem — practice. Practice understanding the true meaning of the Bible by reading it.
2020 is a perfect year to start reading the Bible on a regular basis. Churches have been closed, and we are spending more time at home. If you’re interested, I recommend the New International Version of the Bible — not much confusing language.
I know awesome people who are not religious, and I don’t interrogate them about it. I’m only speculating some of my ideas today. Maybe people don’t read the Bible for another reason. Feel free to let me know by leaving a comment or replying to this email.
I believe God is calling us to an uncomfortable situation — understand the Bible. I don’t believe there is anybody on this planet who fully understands the Bible or God’s plan. This means only one thing — we should never stop seeking to understand Him.
John 21:25
Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.
Until next time,
Salvatore Norge