Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Significantly Why.

It’s not that I need to know what.
How has already been figured out.
Where could be anywhere.
I am simply apart of the collective who.
The when is behind me, ahead of me, and now.

We certainly spend a lot of time teaching and learning. How is it that children must be incessantly taught the answers to a myriad of dilemma but quite clearly come to questions all on their own? We force them to become masters of facts, formulas, equations, and essentials while they respond with their remorseless quest into the unmapped pursuit of why.

Why?

Why not.


I wonder if somewhere along the way, and in the name of maturity and mediocrity, we have abandoned this merciless quest and left it in the hands of the few brave martyr’s of thought and discovery? I wonder how many people have traded in this mischievous delight of pursuit for the cold calculated predictability of fact – whatever that means. True, the ordered world is alluring; alluring and artificial at best, alluring and comatose inducing at worst.

It may very well be that the most significant thing that you do with your life corresponds directly to how significantly you pursue why.

14 comments:

Boomer said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Jeffrey said...

mandeep spoke about why

interesting....
mawahaha/
its really weird i just wrote an entry on this.. well... on why.
but yah.. my blog isnt working or something.

so. cool.
jef.

jeremy postal said...

Yeah I know - I was trying to get to your blog yesterday but no luck. I was going to go try out my translating skills.....

Boomer >> the missing great comment maker.......

Boomer said...

Careful what ya wish for...lol.

I removed the last post because I felt it was a raw emotional discourse that portrayed a side I wasn't necessarily comfortable with. The jist of it was Why scares me. I spent a be of time trying to think about why that is...ironic. I went to a leaders house tonight after youth and came up with an answer on the drive home. I think the why scare me because in order to embrace the why, we must be willing to loosen our chokehold on our current perspective. Someone once told me that you're never really listening until you're willing to admit you could be wrong. We'll I suppose that I just need to trust my logic and loosen the grip on my foundation in order to "ride a thought out" to quote some close to home quottables. So I fear the why, but I choose to pursue it...

...thoughts?

Andrew said...

man, i like that.

you could parallel that to the love of a stray puppy. we have these foundational reasons for doing whatever we do, believing what we believe, but when we ask why, it's like taking this stray puppy that we don't want to let go and punting it out the back door.

the cool thing is that if that puppy comes back, we can keep it! :D after letting go and challenging whatever it is we question, only to watch it come back, proven, stronger, and more foundational than ever.

i'll bet by the end of the gospel, that the faith doubting Thomas had was more unshakable than any of the other disciples, because he challenged it so feverantly.

i've often heard my generation called the "why" generation. this is supposed to be slightly humourous, following the "x" generation. it also captures the inquisitive, perhaps challenging nature of the people who refuse to accept "because i say so", yet preceeds the information technology generation, or the internet generation, whose habbits are to quench the question "why" before it can settle.

why is a good question to ask.

Andrew said...

man, i like that.

you could parallel that to the love of a stray puppy. we have these foundational reasons for doing whatever we do, believing what we believe, but when we ask why, it's like taking this stray puppy that we don't want to let go and punting it out the back door.

the cool thing is that if that puppy comes back, we can keep it! :D after letting go and challenging whatever it is we question, only to watch it come back, proven, stronger, and more foundational than ever.

i'll bet by the end of the gospel, that the faith doubting Thomas had was more unshakable than any of the other disciples, because he challenged it so feverantly.

i've often heard my generation called the "why" generation. this is supposed to be slightly humourous, following the "x" generation. it also captures the inquisitive, perhaps challenging nature of the people who refuse to accept "because i say so", yet preceeds the information technology generation, or the internet generation, whose habbits are to quench the question "why" before it can settle.

why is a good question to ask.

Anonymous said...

There is no possible way to accept why until we are willing to accept the who what and where, and how! Why is an admission by us to accept we are not worthy of our salvation, our ability to fellowship with God, and our eternal place with God.
Why is the same question asked 10, 20, 30, 40 yrs ago, probably 2000 yrs ago, we are not unique to this quest, we just want to think so.

jeremy postal said...

I'm not sure I know anyone who would make the claim that "we are the first to ask why"...

Boomer said...

Do you think why is a question one could start pursuing, and then stop or is it a life long thing? How deep into it does one need to get? Is it something you pursue or is it inherent in life?

Unknown said...

It is inherent... WHY do you think it's the questions kids ask? :P

jeremy postal said...

Yes...inherent; but very well could be one of the few things that humanity has been able to take control of and hide from for the purpose of convienient living. I think that "we have abandoned this merciless quest and left it in the hands of the few brave martyr’s of thought and discovery."

Boomer said...

Is convienient living a world thing? Is it possible to settle for convienient living in the church? How do we identifiy convienient living?

I understand what you're saying, but I'd like to discuss it.

jeremy postal said...

I would say that convienient living may be negatively described as lazy living and positively described as efficient living.

Anonymous said...

Mark and Jer thanks for the feedback on the message, it was very helpful. So what does it take to cut through the efficiency and laziness to call a generation to embrace the why? Are they interested? Are they scared? Do they not think about? Do they not see the need. Why don't they reach out to the church? Does the church embrace why? I'll end with this, at COTM some gave this statistic, 80% of people surveyed said they would go to church if they felt it was worthwhile.