How To Be

The ques­tion is not “to be or not to be” but how to be where you are. It is all about style. Each gen­er­a­tion lives in a uniquely crazy world. You are not going to reshape the world into a giant com­fort zone. You are going to have to come up with a phi­los­o­phy of life that gets you through the crazi­ness of the world you now experience.

The Bible is a series of dis­as­ter sto­ries. Char­ac­ters within it show how they were cre­ative or incom­pe­tent in deal­ing with the hand they were dealt. Job’s life went crazy, but he phi­los­o­phized his way through it by hav­ing a most unusual set of con­ver­sa­tions with “friends” and with God. You can add David, Sam­son, Abra­ham, and the prophets to the list. The Bible is a series of sur­vival sto­ries. Some accom­plished it with style — oth­ers were bungling idiots.

Jesus faced a really weird world. It was filled with intri­cate pol­i­tics and social pres­sures. He made his way through it by liv­ing out the great spir­i­tual prin­ci­ples in his own way. Actu­ally, he was the embod­i­ment of the Ser­mon on the Mount itself. He was and is an exam­ple of some­one cre­atively putting together a phi­los­o­phy of life for the times. He lived the “how to be” and thus walked the path through the tomb itself. Way to be!

Noah was cool. He knew how to fill his days (after he was told what to do). His world was immersed in com­plete mad­ness, so he spent decades build­ing an ark. He and his fam­ily sur­vived an apoc­a­lyp­tic event — one that had never been seen before. He pre­pared. He lived.

“How to be” in the cur­rent world of your imme­di­ate life is the issue you face. What you choose to do about the “how to be” is up to you. Be cre­ative. Be wise. Learn from those that did so suc­cess­fully. How you are is how you will be. Adjust your approach and see if you do not arrive at a bet­ter place. The most pow­er­ful weapon you have against a world gone mad is not in your efforts alone but in your cho­sen style.