The question was why.
Why did we do things the way we did them? Why were things the way they were? Why did we think the way that we did? Why?
I was conversing with my brother and we were reflecting on the role television played in our upbringing. It played a big part. There were certain programmes I watched a lot of and a lot of the factors and aspects of them shaped my thinking. Ironically programming my life wasn’t just something that television did. My parents, the church that I spent a considerable amount of time in. The schools that I attended and what made up my social life beyond school. My approach to them and their absorption by me shaped my thinking. As it did so, however, there was an ongoing current of questioning why.
That did not ease up as I got older. The situation ramped up during the university years. After university life changed a great deal over the course of seven years. Those changes again got me thinking about that question – why. Why did I choose her to marry? Why did I get married at that time? Why did we have a child at this stage? Why were we doing church the way we were? Why was I in this job? In as much as I asked these questions and pursued answers to a degree, as someone who enjoyed avoiding confrontation and being a hindrance, I didn’t want to be disruptive. I felt comfortable conversing about these questions with only a small number of people. I didn’t want to be disruptive, I didn’t want to upset the way things operated for others. My idea of going for the peaceful life was to be as co-operative and compliant as possible.
When I finally explored the reasons for that idea of the peaceful life, I acknowledged that it involved a resistance to change in the light of the answers to the questions why. I didn’t want to change if I could avoid it. Even though a lot of the reasons for the way things were demanded a change. Indeed the understanding about following Jesus necessitated change – change of thinking. Change of thinking to be more aligned with His and see how that affected every avenue of life. How that change of thinking revealed the programming that shaped me and how that programming in places went against the kind of thinking that pleased God. When that wrong programming was highlighted it demanded change. Change to programmed anew to follow Jesus’ kind of thinking.
That’s very tough to get to grips with. To see that the question why would lead to the challenge to change and establish new programming. Yet until that is taken on board, there are crucial elements of the journey that I’ll miss out on. Other people have thier programming which they’re keen to impose on me. They’re eage to suggest that the programming should be shaped by values of organisations and institutions in which they have been successfully programmed, but do not always align with Kingdom programming. It’s all the more important, then, for me to check the programming. Check the source. Check what’s going on and what’s behind it and endeavour to commit again to being conditioned by Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. Acknowledge that this takes place through different people and experiences, but also acknowledge that there is a way of discerning how that takes place.
It is a lot easier to just accept the conditions you’re in and the programming that keeps it going. It is a lot easier, but not wiser. It is a lot easier, but not better. It is a lot better to check the programming and ensure that the thinking is aligned properly. It is a lot better, even if it comes with necessary adjustments.
This is not something worth just taking my word for. It’s something worth your while asking the question about it:
Why?
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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