Maybe it isn't just me, then....
So I just read this post from Confuzzled. It was an interesting flipside sort of view point for me. I've been emailing back and forth with a friend of mine here and there over the course of the past few weeks talking about how sometimes God directs people in paths that seem illogical, but, because He invariably knows best, it's always better to trust Him and do what He says. Today in my Book of Mormon class, we talked about stepping out into the unknown and not hoping to know the end from the beginning.
It's an interesting balance. Confuzzled's twiddlebugs learned that it isn't always best to strike out into the unknown; me and my friend have each learned (in very different ways from each other) that sometimes stepping into the unknown is required. It's hard to know what's right. It's generally easier to stay put, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's generally better to strike out; just because something is hard doesn't necessarily mean it's right. I fear that one day I may work really hard to do something that turns out to be nothing but hard; the hope in doing hard things is that some sort of payoff comes later on.
How do you know the difference, then?
I dunno. Pray, I guess.
You extrapolated something unexpected from that. Either that means I'm much better at writing than I'd assumed. Or much worse.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, this is what I figure about what I shall term the Twiddlebug condundrum: you have to venture out into the unknown to be truly content with the known.
If you become content in the unknown, then it becomes the known, and then the cycle starts over.
Does that make sense? It's one of the gauges I use . . .
Ohhhh... INTEResting....
ReplyDeleteYeah, that makes sense. I suppose the Twiddlebugs wouldn't have known that what they had was better than what they thought they wanted if they hadn't ventured out. And, come to think of it, disappointment can be a great teacher; if we never go out and fail--yes, that makes sense.
Thank you.
Oh. Also, "If you become content in the unknown, then it becomes the known, and then the cycle starts over"--very insightful.
ReplyDeleteHowever, "you have to venture out into the unknown to be truly content with the known"--yes, true, but somethings HAVE to be taken on faith. I mean, to use a simplistic example, if your favorite flavor of ice cream is rocky road--well, you can never really know that that's the best flavor until you try every single flavor in the entire world, which is an obvious impossibility. Same idea as You don't have to sin to know that living righteously is better.
But, even so, you're probably right--you gotta try several things to know that what you're doing is best.
Actually, I don't think that trying all of the ice cream in the world would be such a bad idea. In fact, I think I shall attempt to eat every flavor of ice cream readily available to me. (Although not all at once!)
ReplyDeleteAnd I stand by what I said. I think you can have a facade of contentment if you never venture outside the known, but I think there will always be a niggling question about whether or not you could have more if you never acted on it.
Such niggling questions have a tendency to grow and fester--thus, not true contentment. Per my view, anyway.
Ergo all the dissatisfied people in the world--I hear ya.
ReplyDeleteA great connundrum that... I have no idea what the answer is, or even if there is an answer... But yeah, Pray. Prayer=good.
ReplyDeleteAnd huh... Not being content with the known without trying the unknown... Yeah, I can see some truth to that. That's probably a lot of the reason teenagers (and others, but teenagers mostly) rebel against their parents. They know how to do what their parents tell them, but what else is out there??
An interesting thought, both of you.