Fear based living

A friend of my recently posted a note entitled "Fear" on Facebook. In it, he rightly pointed out our improper obsession with fear. It's a topic I consider often as I see myself alternate between moments of great faith and moments of great fear.

Of course I want to live by faith and I'll continue to grow in that direction. I know what faith looks like and I know how to live it too, but that doesn't make it easy.

But then again, is it supposed to be?

And then I came across the text of a speech by Charles Murray that can rightly be called brilliant. Delivered to the American Enterprise Institutes Annual Dinner on March 2009, the speech builds a case for "American exceptionalism, in which individuals freely unite to construct a civic culture."

Read it here, it's well worth the time. But my purpose here is not pro-Americanism, it's pro-faith-FULL living.

Mr. Murray's assertion is built upon the dual premise of "a life well-lived" and "deep satisfaction."

"To become a source of deep satisfaction, a human activity has to meet some stringent requirements. It has to have been important (we don't get deep satisfaction from trivial things). You have to have put a lot of effort into it (hence the cliché "nothing worth having comes easily"). And you have to have been responsible for the consequences.

There aren't many activities in life that can satisfy those three requirements. Having been a good parent. That qualifies. A good marriage. That qualifies. Having been a good neighbor and good friend to those whose lives intersected with yours. That qualifies. And having been really good at something--good at something that drew the most from your abilities. That qualifies. Let me put it formally: If we ask what are the institutions through which human beings achieve deep satisfactions in life, the answer is that there are just four: family, community, vocation, and faith. Two clarifications: "Community" can embrace people who are scattered geographically. "Vocation" can include avocations or causes."

I don't know that I've read a better description of life. Or more exciting.

Continuing:

"Put aside all the sophisticated ways of conceptualizing governmental functions and think of it in this simplistic way: Almost anything that government does in social policy can be characterized as taking some of the trouble out of things. Sometimes, taking the trouble out of things is a good idea. Having an effective police force takes some of the trouble out of walking home safely at night, and I'm glad it does.

The problem is this: Every time the government takes some of the trouble out of performing the functions of family, community, vocation, and faith, it also strips those institutions of some of their vitality--it drains some of the life from them."

I don't know that I've read a better description of what we've done to life. Or more sad.

It's a perfect description of what I see in far too many people. More precisely, what I don't see: life.

It all makes sense of course. I mean, how can you know if you're living a "life well lived" if there's no challange to living? And how can we live if all we do is fear?

We can't.

...to be continued...