The Post-Modernism Blog and Thoughts on Something I'm Not Sure How to Put Into Words

It's not that it's such a grandiose topic, nor any great truth, but rather, a lack of knowing exactly what I'm talking about. I guess personal conviction and it's involvement with love is the topic I'm after. How does one stay humble, while being sure of his personal convictions? Moreover, how does one interact with another with different personal convictions in love? These aren't rhetorical questions, they are what's on my heart right now.

While Haylee's blog seems to be one of having figured out things, mine seems to be of things I've figured out that I haven't figured out. To clarify, I know now that I don't know much. Knowing that I don't know much leaves me reluctant to say anything definite. I think that people take the principle of having personal convictions, which can be clarified as one person feeling a certain way about something whereas another may feel the opposite, and take it too far to the point of truth being personal and relevant to the person, which would be Post Modern thought. (Hey, looks like I didn't put that blog off!) Whenever two people feel different ways about something, a lot of times, they are both right on various points, but neither is the sole winner.

Where I stumble lies in the interaction with people of different convictions. It's really easy for me to think that my way is the sole right way and everyone else just hasn't figured it out yet. Trying to be consciously humble can easily lead to being prideful, I've noticed. I know logistically that the way to do it is to talk calmly and explain your side without discounting the other person's as wrong, but doing so is dang hard. Even then, balancing that with staying away from the "everybody has their own truth" bullcrap is even harder.

I suppose a definition of Post Modern thought is needed. I define Post Modern thought in the phrase "truth is relevant" meaning there is no ultimate truth, but rather, each person has an individual version of the truth and that there is no greater form to it. People see things through their own filter and act accordingly, therefore ignoring the greater truth, unhindered by their filter, so in a way, the Post Modern mindset is self-fulfilling. The problem lies in the fact that the single actual truth is not changed by people's perception of it. Let's say there was a story being told by a person to a group of people. The people in the group will mishear parts of the story and when they relate the story to others, they repeat what they thought they heard, which was incorrect. Their retelling of it affects their life from that point, but doesn't change the events that actually occurred. This is where those of the Post Modern mindset and those who don't ascribe to it diverge. (I'm getting sick of typing out Post Modern all the time, so I'm going to shorten it to PM now.) PM thinkers think that if the perception is changed, the original event then becomes irrelevant because it no longer has the proper bearing on proceeding events. Non-PM thinkers still value and search for the truth, finding it to still have value.

I'm not a PM thinker simply because PM thought leads to chaos. If everything is relative to the person and if everyone is different, there soon becomes a lack of order. With no ultimate guiding light, any number of conclusions can be reached and unity becomes unattainable. On the interpersonal level, or even at the Church level, we need unity. It's not hard to figure out that humans are social creatures and the one thing that any social structure needs to work is unity. PM thought does propel us to think outside ourselves and make us realize that there are more viewpoints than our own, but that's where the pros end.

There is really only one answer to any question posed here tonight, whether it be how to deal with people who think differently or the debate on Post Modern thought. "Jesus answered, 'I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" John 14:6 NIV. As cheesy as it sounds, Jesus is the answer to everything. If we turn our eyes to Jesus, whether we were right about anything or what we were right about becomes irrelevant.

Love,
Colton

P.S. Were this a persuasive paper, I would have done this differently, but this is a blog written by a guy who likes to border on stream-of-consciousness writing. That and this is just the truth as I see it. (insert sarcasm emoticon here)