Friday, February 18, 2005

[transmission start]

thoughts: success? says who?

Was attempting to write my philosophy 1500 word essay when i hit this supreme stumbling block - i had to define success on my own terms. it's not as easy as you think.

Note: please bear with me for this. usually i try to segregate religion and personal thoughts in the blog but this time, it's not really possible.

right. so in order to kick start my essay i had to define success. on my own terms. what in my opinion, does it mean to be successful. and you know what? i couldn't give an answer. there are so many right? material wealth, good human relations, knowledge etc. but none of them would fit anything into my own idea. because it detached God from the whole concept. which is sort of impossible. I realised that on one hand i could not define success WITHOUT God in the picture. and yet to put Him in my definition would be to open myself up to more criticism and spend more of my essay defending a perhaps topically unrelated point of view.

i mean, for someone who's whole life is meant to be dedicated to the higher purpose (of God), when you take the purpose out of the equation then there is no grounds for success right? when you learn that there is a deity higher than self, to whom you are supposed to submit, thus implying you are NOT a self-made person, then... you get the picture.

then you may ask, 'why not be the best person that God wants you to be? wouldn't that qualify as success?' to that i would reply that no matter how good you are, you're never quite good enough. 'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23). i'd launch into a whole background thing on salvation but that'll be up to someone else (probably 'The Wondering Christian').

then the next question: ' if you don't know what success is to you how can you achieve it?' (aha. 1 part of Meno's paradox, analogically speaking. it just boils down to: if you don't know what you're looking for how do you know you've found it?) well, i guess it's entirely up to you. everyone places emphasis on different things, which help define success to them. that's why i was told that i had to define success on my own (thanks Eugene). because in the things you do, what others may consider success may not neccessarily be what you consider it to be.

i was thinking of writing somewhere about what i consider to be 'someone else's miracle'. but that's for another time. i think i've given you enough of a headache.

till next time...

[transmission end]

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chr1s0ng put the word on the street at 9:11 AM
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