Introduction to frustration cont’d
Many great minds throughout mankind’s history have come to the same conclusion: there is something wrong with us. Aristotle is one such great mind. He figured out there is something wrong with us. But he was not able to figure out why. Across the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, the Jews knew why, but not through their philosophy. They knew why because of divine revelation. They had been told of the original innocence that mankind possessed at the beginning of creation, before disaster struck.
One modern-day philosopher summarises it this way: when man rebelled from his Superior (God) and disrupted that initial order or hierarchy in creation, everything else that was subject to a superior took cue and followed that example. Plants and animals rebelled against man and were no longer subject to him for which reason we now have wild animals. Nature’s forces were also no longer subservient to man: natural disasters begun. These all happened outside of man. The inside of man was not spared the effects of that great rebellion. Everything within man that was originally subject to a superior, similarly rebelled and went after its own pleasure. The passions for example no longer followed reason (their superior); they went (and continue to go) each in its own direction. And this, gentlemen, is where our internal disquiet (and frustration) begins. This is why left unbridled, our insides run wild. This is why, without a counteracting effort, we naturally tend towards chaos, towards evil. Both physical chaos and spiritual evil are disorders: they exist when things are out of place. Without putting effort, without working, things tend towards disorder. If you don’t believe me, have a look at your wardrobe :) Without applied effort, your wardrobe gets more disorderly, not more orderly! Without effort you get fat and weak, not buffed and toned. Without effort you get retarded and confused, not educated and perceptive. Because of that first rebellion, we in a sense have the odds against us. Fortunately, through prudent human effort and the overabundant grace of God, these odds are very easily conquerable.
Many ancients have consequently summarised man’s life on earth as a continuous effort to tame and train all the natural powers within us of body, of mind and of soul.
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