quote:

---

Then all of a sudden, you go, "So it doesn't really matter if I'm not great. And if I don't have to be great, that means I can fail. And if I can fail, that means I can try. And if I can try, that means I'm gonna have a good time." You know what I mean?

---

What we have to understand is that, for some people, the mistaken sense of one's inflated self-importance can lead to a type of paralysis in decision making or action taking. Some people think that ONE LITTLE MISTAKE that they make is either somehow going to cause some type of global disaster or make them look like complete failures. And what do they often end up doing? Not making any real decisions of consequence at all, for fear. Ah, but when this type of person realizes that their significance is NOT that high, now they realize that they have the ROOM to make mistakes. And that gives them the impetus to TRY without feeling that the world is at stake with every choice. Notice that if they person were truly some type of nihilist, the whole idea of "trying" would be kind of stupid. This person's melioristic link of "try" and "fail" presupposes that this person DOES believe that they CAN impact things. She is just not exploding this power to influence to insanely high levels.

I think the whole "emptiness of life" and "futility of life" ideas make her ideas more grim sounding then they really are. Basically, she is recognizing and acknowledging the serious FINITUDE of her existence in many dimensions in the face of Creation as a whole, and the psychological freedom that this grants her to do things. I think this is tight.

My two cents,



"Smile. It could be worse." --from a good friend.

• Taking prayer and evangelism seriously (and, writ small, the CV view of theodicy) can lead to the syndrome you described. I call it the Hamlet syndrome--paralysis of action due to thinking too much.



• Because I'm not a full fledged adherent to OT, I'm prone to have a "bigger God" than the CV view generally allows. I do trust God to do His will and work out amazing things despite my failures, inaction, lack of love and lack of prayer.



• This view takes the wisdom literature seriously, especially Ecclesiates, but also half the Psalms that are whining and somewhat fatalistic about who we are in ourselves. I prefer not to throw out 100 pages from my Bible because it doesn't match the tenets of the Self Esteem culture.



• Every time I lead a Sunday School class, I'm a bit nervous. I know that the Bible says teachers are held particularly accountable for their words and what they teach. People attend my classes because we honestly and humbly tackle the gray areas (and aren't there an awful lot of gray areas?) rather than the Essentials of the Faith. In such a setting, my words have the potential to lead someone closer to or farther away from a Godly life. I have to trust God to keep my students from living out any errors I teach.