Random Thoughts on Being Human
holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict. Titus 1:9 NASB
Holding fast – In the past we discovered that Hebrew has no word for possessing. In Hebrew, the basic thought pattern is about usefulness, not acquisition. So when Paul uses the Greek verb antecho, we must read it with Jewish eyes. “Holding fast” does not mean “having something securely controlled.” It means acting with full devotion to the intended purpose. With this shift in mind, I have a few thoughts about what it means to act with full purpose.
I want to be human. That means I need to be in conversation with You.
I want to be fulfilled. That means I need to be obedient to You.
I want to be joyful. That means I need to be used by You.
Does this seem too selfish? After all, it’s all about what I want.
No, it’s not selfish because it is also exactly what You want. You chose me. You want me to be human, to be fulfilled and to be joyful. In order for that to occur, You know that I must converse with You always, I must be obedient to You and I must be used by You. My desires and Your desires converge. All of this brings up the issue of motivation. We are actors in the life drama “Driving Miss Daisy.”
What drives you? What is the passionate core of who you are? Discovering our driving force is the key to understanding how we are designed to become who we are. God made us with the stamp of His image built into our very existence. If we are to become all that He intended us to be, we must grow along the line of the image He designed. To do anything else is to move away from our true humanity. We can follow our instincts, but that probably won’t get us in line with our purpose. After all, we are capable of sin. Creatures who act on the basis of instinct alone are not.
Animals have instinct. They behave according to the automatic inner voice hard-wired into them. They do not act of the basis of free choice. They are not capable of turning away from that inner voice and doing what is contrary to instinct. They live in direct response to the divine will within. If sin is knowing what is right and not doing it, then it seems impossible for an animal to sin. In the world of instinct, there is no right and wrong. There is only desire and fulfillment.
David Fohrman points out that it is possible for human beings to mimic this animal intelligence. Human beings also have an inner voice. That inner voice connects us to animal behavior because it also operates on the basis of desire and fulfillment. We recognize this reality when we talk about the instinct to survive or the “herd” effect of conformity without conscience. Men can be animals. They can live exclusively on the basis of desire, but when they do, we are repulsed and ashamed. We recognize the difference between “human” behavior and animal instinct even when we see creatures like us acting like animals.
In order to be human, desire must be domesticated. When it is not domesticated, animal instinct reigns. While instinct is perfectly appropriate for animals, it is not adequate for human beings. In the sense that humanity is linked with the rest of the animal kingdom, human beings share this common inner voice of instinct. But we are not merely a higher form of animals (as Darwinians would have us believe). The Scriptures teach that we humans are also linked with the divine. We carry the breath of God in us. That breaks the chain of desire and fulfillment in a very special way. We could listen to the inner voice that connects us to the animal kingdom, but we are asked to listen to something else—the voice of God. We are uniquely equipped to decide to act according to a voice that is outside of our being. To become human is not to cultivate and refine the inner voice of passion and procurement. To become human is to enter into an active, decision-making conversation with the other link in our existence; the link that depends on the breath of God. To become human is to listen to the external designer and be obedient to Him in spite of our connection to animal instinct.
Topical Index: holding fast, antecho, being human, Titus 1:9
Humanism tells us to look within for purpose; it assumes that we are the private center of a private universe. The Bible reminds us that purpose is about a larger design.
Instinct in plants and animals hardwires them to that external purpose. The instinct to survive in everything except us is still obedient to this external purpose. Nature continues to curb individual survival with continued obedience to the command “be fruitful and multiply”. I think we are the ones guilty of projecting our selfishness and cruelty upon creation, and, in effect, accusing either it or its Creator of a flawed design. “Animal instinct” is still obeying its Creator just fine, albeit now hobbled to the curses we superimpose upon it. For example, there is a certain species of parrot in New Zealand that became meat eaters – attacking and eating sheep, of all things, and started tearing apart peoples’ cars, too. Very destructive. People finally decided to study what it used to eat and realized that its exclusive diet was the roots of a certain tree that had all been cut down to make pasture for the sheep. Well, they replanted the trees and the parrots went back to eating roots.
The meaning – the purpose – of life is about contributing to the whole (and all the rest of creation is still doing this), but humans have perverted the meaning of life to be about contributing to ME. The problem, then, is not about instincts per se, but about instinct (the yetzer hara) that has been hijacked to another PURPOSE. I don’t think God created us to be focused on ourselves. He did not pervert the yetzer hara; we did. The fact that we need desire to live has not changed. We have just decided to change WHAT we desire. What we do not notice, however, is that perverted desire has lost the connection with life (um, that would be that larger purpose). Details.
I believe that when I submit to obedience to the correct purpose I do not lose obedience to the instinct I was created to have; I merely repent for perverting it. Desire is supposed (designed) to work WITH the desire of the Creator, and human desire (the yetzer hara) is no exception, as I believe Skip had taught very well. In agreeing with this teaching, I beg to differ just a little with the statement “IN SPITE of our connection to animal instinct”, for I believe that there is nothing wrong with animal instinct. A person with no desire is a walking dead person, too.
Humans, also, were commanded to “be fruitful and multiply” – to contribute to the larger whole in all our multifaceted ways. I think WE are the ones guilty of perverting that purpose to mean “eat the fruit and divide”. Just sayin’.
“Let us reason together” says the Lord. Let us interact, let’s us commune. These are not the abilities of animals rather of a higher form of creation. A creation specifically designed for relationship, interaction, actually one created as a representation of the creator. One with a wholeness yet a longing an empty that wants filling from another source of life. One with a passion for interaction. The question in my mind are we being, doing choseing to participate in our intended purpose. What are we filling our empty with? Regretably most of us fill ourseves with lesser lovers. The animal kingdom was not given free will it was programed for its purpose. We humans must choose to align our behaviors with our intentions. It’s that easy and that hard. I have been difining for some time now integrity as the alignment of intention and action. Are we living an integrated life, one with integrity -allowing ourselves to be filled with grace and truth being. Are we chosen to be filled with the Rauch Ha Kodesh ? Those are my random thoughts thanks friend for greasing the gears to get them rolling…
I wrote a poem or three on the dis-union created by following our animal program. I define it as the “circle game” and they can be found at worksofwords.live
I have often said that the Mark of the Beast is simply being beastly. It is the seal of instinct’s ownership, and opposed to the seal of the spirit–the breath–of the Holy One.