The power of positive thinking?

This post is only possible because of the book that Fran recently lent me. The history of psychology. A light and highly entertaining account of psychology in a concise and clear manner that does not waffle on in an overly intellectual and cynical manner.

No, seriously. Okay it does. Alot.

But aside from that after having read of it what I have, I am now ready to jump into some Plato and some Socrates. It should be fun.

A contention that I would have with Plato (or Socrates, I can't remember which) is that they believe that man has inside him a good and true nature and that it was through internal reasoning that one could become a better person. This is potentially true. But it may not do you any good. Now guys, I know what the Bible says. That none can lay a foundation other than what Christ has already laid and that God has placed eternity in the hearts of men. That we yearn for that perfection which is always a few inches beyond our reach, no matter how far our reach may become. But I also know that there is a sin nature within me, always trying to lead me away from the call of God, trying to sink me in depravity. I can see that you guys understand what I am saying here. What Plato suggested was that man could work it out for himself using his will and his reasoning ability.

Sorry guys, we can't.

I can bet you guys that Plato would have committed sins that he would have hated himself for. Thing that he would have never told another soul about. But he still understood something that we as christians need to understand. That we have will, we have the ability to reason and that we can use these to improve ourselves. Yet these are insufficient. As Paul said in Romans "I do what I will not to do and I don't do what I will to do." Now Paul was a fairly bright kind of guy. If we have a look at his history what we see is a highly educated young man. But even he, potentially one of the most intelligent philosophers (yes, Paul was a philosopher, he was a lover of wisdom) of his time could not ascribe to the lofty ideals that Plato set out for mankind. Indeed, no-one can. So we know that we cannot change ourselves completely through simply thinking things out and reasoning our path. We must also see that if one has a skewed percption of morality this could actually lead one further and further away from the truth. For example, if a man truly believes that he must "Look out for number one." then more than likely his reasoning will only dig him deeper and deeper into his selfishness. Our minds are good but we must keep an eye on them. As Paul also said "Bringing into captivity every thought that tries to exalt itself against God."

John Wesley (see, told you guys I would do some research) tried to change himself by changing his habits. His belief was that through changing what he did he would change himself. He found that he had only limited success in this area, in that he may have changed a few habits, but the desire to sin was still present in him and in some ways, it was even stronger than before. I can understand him. In attempts to better myself I too am changing my habits. Do I notice improvements? Yes, I do. Has this perfected me? No, I still stumble and I fall. But Thanks to God for His Grace.

So what common theme are we seeing here? Simple. We cannot bring ourselves to fruition through our own strength. It is only God and His grace, His redeeming spirit that can change us and bring us to our destiny.

Josh