Meaningful Conversations With Delicious Beverages
As they continue looking at the Silmarilion, AJ and Brandon look at the relationship between good things and jealousy and greed that they seem to bring with them. Are the good things to blame? How do we appreciate what's good without being consumed by them?
Sure, it's dangerous for people to believe the wrong things about who God and Christ are, but when we take the effort to ponder the mysteries of God, we're going to get some wrong ideas as well. It is only through the willingness to risk wrong answers and dialoging with those ideas that we can come to the deeper, truer understandings we're looking for.
I realized a while ago, but failed to connect it to my actions, that the only real goal for my life is sainthood. Everything else that I aim for, I do because I think it will help me move closer to sainthood. That is an eternal goal, one that can't be completed, at least perfectly, in this life. Instead of trying to start over every year, I need to be trying to build on the progress I've made.
This week, Brandon drags himself from the depths of illness to talk with AJ. They start with a conversation about Brandon's entry into Tolkien's Silmarillion. After that, they find that they keep coming back to the Valar and Melkor when discussing their own struggles with selfishness and answering God's calling.
As human beings, we like our successes to be clear, identifiable, and well defined. The truth is that we have no idea what the rest of the puzzle was supposed to be, so we have no real idea what our part is needed for.
This week, AJ and Brandon talk about one of the main obstacles to carrying out our mission, the fear that it won't work, and what that failure may mean for us.
This week, AJ takes a turn talking through his journey to his call in teaching. The journey isn't complete, but every part of it matters.