Into life's depths
8 September 2010
So recently I’ve been reading The Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. It starts out saying, “Superficiality is the curse of our age.”
It was one of those lines that I read over and over again – brain buzzing – along with the few lines that followed:
“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”
It’s scary to think of myself as superficial. Sure, I can point to others who are more superficial than me, but them being more superficial doesn’t make me any less superficial.
Until I read that quote, I had this mindset of, “Some people are extra intelligent or discerning or deep, and I’m just not one of them.” I felt like I was average, and it was smarter to just be content than to frustrate myself by wrestling with big questions. To say, “I don’t know the answers, and I’m going to be okay with that.”
I’m now disgusted with this attitude and have decided to no longer put up with it. I’m forcing myself on a spiritual journey, and if you read my blog semi-regularly, you’re coming with me.
Here’s why the idea of blogging about my spiritual insights terrifies me:
1. I hate confrontations.
It really freaks me out. I’ll do almost anything to avoid it. But if I’m pushing myself to ask questions and form opinions, and if I’m posting it on the internet for people to see and disagree with, then I’m guessing we might have a breeding ground for confrontation. Although this is assuming that anybody reads this. Which leads me to number 2.
2. This idea sounds like blog suicide.
Blogging experts tell us to keep posts short. Like 200 words, and already this post is 393. And it’s hard to cram big subjects – what does God say about taking care of the environment? is the Sabbath relevant to us here and now? – into 200 words. Heck, it’s hard to cram talking about future-big-subject-talks into 200.
Also we’re supposed to know our audience and talk to them. As a YA writer, my blog audience should be teens. (Although I’m pretty certain my blog tends to primarily reach those with the last names of Morrill or Hines.) When I was a teenager, growing spiritually interested me … but not so much that I really wanted to read about it. Or think about it. Or put effort into it. But:
3. I’m taking a stand – yikes!
I was recently asked in an interview, “If you could change the minds of 100 teenagers about one thing, what would it be?” And I thought of tons of responses, but finally came back to this idea – that the world needs deeper people. And so this is me trying to help with that.
And we’re not going to be sitting around thinking about deep thoughts just for the sake of thinking deep thoughts. Those are the types of people who frustrate the heck out of me, because it’s like they don’t even live in the real world.
We’re going to wrestle with questions that our relevant to our lives, that will help us to be more engaged with the real world, not less. I’m new at this, and I’m not really sure what I’m doing. All I know is I’m tired of being afraid of wrestling with big issues.
So let’s dig in…
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Comments
I love that, Roseanna! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Stephanie Morrill on 9 September 2010
My junior year of college I came across one of Pascal’s Pensees that so struck me I wrote it down in my notebook. I decided to live by it—and now I pass it along to you:
“Think with deep motives—but speak like an ordinary person.”
I think this is exactly what you’re tackling with this, and I’m with you 100%. Let’s get the journey started!!
Posted by Roseanna White on 8 September 2010