Prompt: Sallade talks about students feeling the need to control every aspect of their lives and future. Discuss whether or not control is a good thing. Furthermore, discuss whether the lives and lifestyles that Sallade describes (and we often live) are actually Biblical. Explore a few key concepts in the text such as busyness, accomplishment, value, success, rest, work etc., and deeply evaluate your personal position on these things.
Americans are wrong.
Americans are wrong.
The ideas encountered in Sallade's essay are, to the mind of an American-raised, Christ-confessing college student, revolutionary. Because of our culture (whether it be our parents, our schools, or our religion), we trained to, as Wendell Berry says in a poem, “love the quick profit.”
Guilt rises when we are not doing something. The practice of rest is ancient and barbaric; this is the modern world, and it moves quickly. Participate in seven extracurricular activities, or you will get left behind. To change the world, and your own life, you must plan, plan, plan, or nothing will be accomplished. Hurry, they say.
Slow down, cries the Ancient God of our fathers. I watched your ancestors build a golden cow upon which they could depend. You have erected an idol more foul. The clocks of your world are ticking, they mock Me. You wear them upon your wrists, and pencil in their language on your calendars. They stand tall in your squares. Have they the victory?
Have I lost you to them?
He has cared for us forever. He has sent manna from heaven; He has enriched the earth so it can grow food. Water falls from the sky. He has defeated our reasoning with this comfort, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matt. 6:27).
He loves us. We are who he created us to be, so there is no need to find ourselves. There is not a time limit.
No comments:
Post a Comment