The Relationship between Desire and Reason
A week ago at our Sunday night Lab gathering I shared about the need to be constantly cultivating within ourselves a desire for more intimacy with God (you can listen again here). As part of preparing my thoughts for preaching, I often end up with lots of off-cuts of material that didn’t quite make the cut. I thought I’d begin to share some of this extra, bonus material on the blog.
Here are some thoughts on Desire that didn’t make it into the final cut - how classical and modern philosophy has tried to make sense of the relationship between reason and desire.
Be quick to listen and slow to speak…
…but not too slow because you might miss your chance.
There’s no such thing as ‘sustainable’
Had a couple of interesting conversations over the last week or so about the idea of sustainability - about what it means to be self-sustaining, particularly in terms of financial stability.
I don’t like it.
I don’t like the idea of being self-sufficient, self-sustaining or independent - either as a person, a project or a community.
Why?
1. Because I don’t believe it’s the best God has for us.
I don’t believe the Kingdom of God is a group of people who are all self-sustaining and independent. I believe the Kingdom is a radical picture of interdependence - demonstrating a radical dependency on God and on each other.
2. Because I don’t even believe it is possible, on a philosophical level, to ever be self-sustaining.
If there’s anything that can be said to be true about this life, it is that it is transitory. Stuff comes and goes. Sh*t happens. As the writer tells us in Ecclesiastes, everything under the sun will fade and die - even the sun itself only has another 5 billion years.
We are so reliant on God for everything, and our lives are only held together by his continuing grace. The only thing that is sustainable is God himself.
So I’d like to see us dare to be un-sustainable, in-sufficient, and interdependent, trusting God and each other to provide for us and to keep us going. Let’s grow projects which are designed to be unsustainable, and build interdependence and un-sustainability into our business plans. Let’s nurture community which demonstrates a radical dependancy on each other and on other communities outside of ourselves.
What do you think?
Open discussion doesn’t exist
There is no such thing as a free debate or an open discussion. In their purest form, they simply do not exist. There will always be some subjects which aren’t up for debate, or some values which inhibit and impinge on others.
More importantly, there will always be some voices which are louder or more confident than others.
What I mean is that in every group, there will always be a small group of voices who feel they have more to contribute, or are in a better position to contribute, or are simply better at thinking on their feet, than the other voices in the room. This is the big flaw in the ideal of free debate, and in the discursive method.
So often, discussion is utilised over monologue with the justification that it is a more equal, fairer way of learning. I’m not sure that this is true.
Let’s discuss - but not because it is any more free, fair or open.
Doing just enough.
The ultimate in efficiency? Or the ultimate in laziness?
