There were only a handful of things I remember in my undergraduate classes that have made a big impact in the way I think. It was from my honors philosophy class, and I actually participated in the arguments a few times in class. Go figure. I never was one to speak at all 😛
Anyway, the first topic was happiness. The meaning of it, whether or not it was attainable, whether or not it was an appropriate goal in life, and the perspectives of different classical philosophers.
The second topic was the act of doing good. Similar to happiness, the definition of it, what our motivations are and whether it was something that society as a whole should aim for. And of course, different philosophers’ takes on it too.
Wow, deep.
* I’ll save you the nosebleed and just get straight to what I got out of the discussions. *
HAPPINESS – my perspective? Subjective. Only you can decide on what makes you happy and by that, I mean you control your attitude and perspective on any and every situation that you get through. You will never ever be in a constant state of happiness, and even in a happy state of mind, there will be varying intensities of that feeling. Nevertheless, my first statement stays true, you will control that feeling. How? Staying positive and by keeping faith that God truly wants you to be happy too.
My second pearl of wisdom that I got out of this? Happiness isn’t a goal in life, it never is. If I were to stay true to biblical fundamentals, then it’s very obvious that our earthly desires, which include being happy, are not what God created us for. Our purpose in life is to love God. That is a pandora’s box in itself because it then begs the question of what it then means to love God, how do we show it, how does that direct our life, so on and so forth. However, in the end, it must be realized that even though I believe God loves us and that He desires happiness for us, happiness should not guide our motives or our purpose, but instead, serving God, loving Him and loving others.
DOING GOOD – Now this, this is what guides my personal philosophy more than anything. Why do I want to do good? Who am I doing this for? It took me some time before realizing that doing good was a type of validation for me. Ahhh, yes. She is such a good girl, she helps everyone, she supports her parents, she is even-tempered and is kind. She does chores and tries to cook, she serves her family well. Why? Why do I do this? It’s because I liked it when people noticed. I liked it when I was recognized for working extra hard or going the extra mile to do something for someone else… because I connected the recognition with the validation of my existence… that I need people to know that I do good things and that was a part of my identity.
In class, I had an epiphany. I was trying to counter-argue that doing good isn’t really doing good if the motive for doing good stems from selfish motives. Like what I was doing. I was doing good because ultimately it made me feel good. You don’t even realize what kind of downer that was on me.
Anyway, doing good. What I am getting at here.
This, this isn’t even for yourself. You do good because it’s the right thing to do. You do good because it benefits others more than it does for yourself. You do good, because ultimately, that’s what God wants you to do. You don’t need recognition, you don’t need validation. God is your validation. The stronger your relationship is with Him, the more you spend time with Him, you come to realize that there is a type of responsibility to do good, not for you, but for God.
I can go on and on about this. I will argue about this too 😛 But life, it’s such a short period of time if we think about the eternity we’ll be spending in heaven. Why are we going to waste our lives here serving ourselves. Why are we going to spend time on negative things and being selfish and unkind. Why are we going to dwell on things that we can not change.
So the challenges I call myself to everyday? Be positive, do good, and reflect the love that God has graciously given you in everything you say and everything you do. You’re not perfect and you won’t get it every time. But you have to aim for it. You HAVE to aim for it.