I know, for someone like me, great care needs to be taken here. I've been sometimes justly accused of being a "human doing" instead of a human being. Nevertheless, what a simple source of hope action is. One can always take action. We learn this in the military. There's always one more thing you can do. This is why you usually don't hear pilots of crashing planes screaming when the "black box" recording is played back. They've been trained to keep trying to do something. They die working on the problem. Sometimes, too, they don't die. Sometimes the last thing tried works and the plane doesn't crash.
There's hope in the doing.
wow...what a thought provoking post. "There is hope in the doing." You should trademark that. It is all the more interesting that clinical depression, which is notable for its lack of hope, is marked by inaction.
ReplyDeleteYears ago we watched a tv documentary where a maharishi was being carried into a throng of his followers. They were obviously malnourished, poor, essentially in bad shape. Their leader blessed them from his sedan chair but did nothing else. It was stated that he only needed to "generate feelings of compassion" to be considered enlightened. I am sure that there are Christian equivilents to that ("I'll pray for you" and not praying; crying at a missions service and not supporting the missionary through offering or prayer etc..) but how different from our spiritual charge to not just think about feeding the hungry, but do it.
I understand the dangers of busy and of making a god out of the work instead of offering the work to the the One True God. God commands us to be "be still", but that is not in the Taoist sense of "being". Even the acts of meditation, of prayer are still doing. There is a reason why acts of omission are considered a sin.
Great post. I'm copying it and bringing it to work with me to share. Hope that is ok.