Rationalizations

Every good thing (like family) in our lives is dogged by shadows that can distort the good thing (like family) to something bad (like family).  We need to remember that everything bad is not bad-bad.  Much that is wrong is mild, even humorous, except that the accumulation adds up to unsatisfactory results – sometimes serious to life.  I just finished a conversation in which my caller reminded me that he had remembered the principles of effective debate we had reviewed long ago.  He was thankful that we had reviewed the difference between rationalization and being rational.  To rationalize was to take good rules of discovering the best thought and action, and distorting them to find what we wanted in the conclusion. Recent public articles have deplored that even some scientists do it. Instead of seeking rational conclusion they manipulate the rules to fit a predetermined conclusion.  Even geniuses may distort.  A noted archaeologist filed the bones of a prehistoric skeleton to fit his theory of the development of homo-sapiens.  Such events may be unforgiveable in the opinions of honest researchers.  When such occurrences are exposed there is a bit of numbness in the lives of persons following rules and values related to honesty.

When a student of mine followed me from one college to another, then went on to the University where I also enrolled for doctoral study, he met with me one day to unfold his story of the loss of his Christian faith in the course of his secular studies.  We highly respected each other, and that included exchange that might even be disappointment to the other.  In short, I told him he had to follow the course of his own mind, if he was careful to be rational and was not rationalizing. (I was later told that the honesty of my statement in the light of my disappointment was helpful to serious consideration of his faith.)  It is common for students to rationalize to believe what their teachers believe without adequately testing the course that led to this or that conclusion.  Persons may rationalize whether they are well educated or unlettered in any way.  Ultimately he worked his way through the maze and emerged with a stronger faith than he had formerly.  We continue exchange between his family and mine after more than fifty years.  The Apostle Paul cared about his colleagues.  Demas walked away, having loved this present world.  John Mark recovered with Paul so that some years after his drop-out, the Apostle wrote: Take Mark, and bring him with thee; for he is profitable to me for the ministry.  John Mark had been cause for the break-up of the Paul/Barnabas team many years earlier.  (Acts 15:37-39)  In the same passage Paul refers to Demas.  In a note to me, a college classmate and friend of mine, Jack Drake, became a sacrificial and intently dedicated missionary for decades – to the Navajo people in Arizona until his death.  On a day of disappointment for him he wrote to me that he appreciated that I had maintained our mutual commitment to Christian life and service, and that gave him a lift in the loss of some former Christian laymen and workers who had retreated from faith.  Such loss is one of the most hurtful of experiences for those in Christian ministry.  It is the fall of faithfulness.

The solution is, for the thoughtful person, in seeking evidence that will lead to truth.  If there is no presupposition of God as a person, no presupposition of meaning for faith (truth not seen in nature), and the understanding of natural and faith evidence, there isn’t much hope for spiritual outcome.  Awakening the meaning of faith both in nature and super-nature, there are possibilities in the expanded horizon.  If there is some feeling of hope in following a sensible story of mankind and the part that God plays in the course of human existence, there is reason for increasing confidence.  The birth of spiritual hunger, the wooing of God to mankind, the awareness of the explanation of Jesus Christ, and the witness of faith persons may bring closing of the meaning of faith in God.  In following that light, the individual experiences God through prayer, through insight, through the education of the soul/mind, and the victory of faith that leads to the biblical meaning of hope – life prepared for immortality.  Freely given to the believer the gospel of good news that Christ has covered the needs of those who believe, and follow his lead will have his blessing – the aid of the Holy Spirit.  Taken together these factors fulfill us.  Citizenship in God’s kingdom is rather clearly defined.  Becoming effective in it requires life formation experience.  Life is evidence of God.