My dad told me he loved Vietnam and I found that disturbing. Thanks for helping me understand better (still not sure i understand…but i am no doubt not wired this way. I would die of panic attacks in combat)
I am absolutely addicted to purpose too. But I'm enlisted in a permanent army that will never go off deployment.
I am a card carrying Christian. But I'm the kind of Christian who was a lot more excited about MLK Jr and CS Lewis, and JRR Tolkien, and absolutely allergic to Donald Trump.
We Christians have a concept of vocation—over a period of years God gives us a mission, a purpose, and every breath becomes meaningful.
I hope you will get your sense of lifelong purpose back, bro. Your need for purpose is not a bug— God installed it in your software.
Kathleen, I'm happy that you've found your purpose. Now let's take Will's writing above and your reply to his words and twist it up. Make his towards Americans, and your reply, a card carrying Muslim. Do you see where that could lead to?
My guess is there are millions of Muslims who are led to a great vocation by Islam. Catholicism teachers that God is speaking to every person in the depths of their heart— "the light enlightens every human being." There are crazy **** in every religion. Unfortunately, due to the profound defects in human nature many human beings practice religion in a ghastly and twisted way and teach others to do the same. One of my priest mentors taught me: “Aways judge a religion by its best adherents."
Religion is not foolproof, and God knows there are plenty of fools.
Yet, IMO ultimate fulfillment does not come apart from religion. Here's another maxim: “Inside every human being, there is a god-shaped hole.”
Thank you for an adult answer. It's not often that I'm able to discuss things on social media without the individual finding new lows for humanity.
I'm inclined to believe that your one of the good one's. Remember though, your god made humans as he saw fit. We only have the capacity for love or hate that we were enabled with.
Have a fantastic week and again thank you. As an atheist, capable of deserning between good and bad, it's disheartening whenever certain theists believe humans aren't aware of right and wrong, no matter their specific beliefs.
I guess it's not so strange to talk about killing them tied to purpose. Not being in close combat, I felt a far lesser version of what you describe. I enjoyed the "climax" from the time and work we put in leading up to the moment to kill, and when we take them out, that payoff, a kind of warm euphoric feeling, lingers around after. A bug contributing factor to that is also knowing that we protected our folks downrange. Then you get to a certain rank, the players on the world stage changes out, you watch your ship sail. It was a sort of grieving period on the inside to come to terms that you gotta move on, find purpose in something else. I try to find that now in helping people grow, help them towards their goals, those sorts of things, and turn inward towards family, bring baxk time to that after focusing on work for so long. I don't know. I feel the parallels you speak of. Thank you for sharing your raw thoughts.
My dad told me he loved Vietnam and I found that disturbing. Thanks for helping me understand better (still not sure i understand…but i am no doubt not wired this way. I would die of panic attacks in combat)
I am absolutely addicted to purpose too. But I'm enlisted in a permanent army that will never go off deployment.
I am a card carrying Christian. But I'm the kind of Christian who was a lot more excited about MLK Jr and CS Lewis, and JRR Tolkien, and absolutely allergic to Donald Trump.
We Christians have a concept of vocation—over a period of years God gives us a mission, a purpose, and every breath becomes meaningful.
I hope you will get your sense of lifelong purpose back, bro. Your need for purpose is not a bug— God installed it in your software.
Kathleen, I'm happy that you've found your purpose. Now let's take Will's writing above and your reply to his words and twist it up. Make his towards Americans, and your reply, a card carrying Muslim. Do you see where that could lead to?
PS: So many of the allies he fought alongside for so many years are Muslims!
My guess is there are millions of Muslims who are led to a great vocation by Islam. Catholicism teachers that God is speaking to every person in the depths of their heart— "the light enlightens every human being." There are crazy **** in every religion. Unfortunately, due to the profound defects in human nature many human beings practice religion in a ghastly and twisted way and teach others to do the same. One of my priest mentors taught me: “Aways judge a religion by its best adherents."
Religion is not foolproof, and God knows there are plenty of fools.
Yet, IMO ultimate fulfillment does not come apart from religion. Here's another maxim: “Inside every human being, there is a god-shaped hole.”
Thank you for an adult answer. It's not often that I'm able to discuss things on social media without the individual finding new lows for humanity.
I'm inclined to believe that your one of the good one's. Remember though, your god made humans as he saw fit. We only have the capacity for love or hate that we were enabled with.
Have a fantastic week and again thank you. As an atheist, capable of deserning between good and bad, it's disheartening whenever certain theists believe humans aren't aware of right and wrong, no matter their specific beliefs.
"...being part of something bigger than yourself. Woooooo, baby that is something else." - That's a BINGO!
I guess it's not so strange to talk about killing them tied to purpose. Not being in close combat, I felt a far lesser version of what you describe. I enjoyed the "climax" from the time and work we put in leading up to the moment to kill, and when we take them out, that payoff, a kind of warm euphoric feeling, lingers around after. A bug contributing factor to that is also knowing that we protected our folks downrange. Then you get to a certain rank, the players on the world stage changes out, you watch your ship sail. It was a sort of grieving period on the inside to come to terms that you gotta move on, find purpose in something else. I try to find that now in helping people grow, help them towards their goals, those sorts of things, and turn inward towards family, bring baxk time to that after focusing on work for so long. I don't know. I feel the parallels you speak of. Thank you for sharing your raw thoughts.