The Coronavirus quarantine kicked millions out of the work force and plunged employment numbers down to the Great Depression Era. I believe 40 million was the magic number. The Great Depression conjures images of transients riding box cars and shanty towns outside major cities. People in fraying clothes and fraying souls shamble into soup lines. And now we know that could be us.
A paper-thin line between you and disaster.
What about when this shocking aspect of our lives is applied to individual development? You see a homeless person sleeping in a shop doorway and know something went wrong. No human being was supposed to be cut off from the essentials of life. Or you hear of a teen suicide and see photos of them smiling from earlier days, looking radiant. Something went wrong.
But what should be different?
What’s this big sticky web we call life?
When you see a laughing infant or a child breathless from play, you know they’re meant for greatness. So much life pouring out their pores. Dreams, desires, laughter. When you see how they can end up, though, you know that a lot of energy in grade school is not enough. There must be the right coaching, and the right parenting or friendships. The right person or opportunity at the right time. There are the wrong influences to avoid, which can be like a minefield at the Somme in some areas.
And that needs to happen many times, usually, not just once.
In philosophy, it’s called the argument between Nature vs. Nurture—how much of our destiny is built-in, like a plant blossoming in sequenced stages, and how much is the tending of the farmer?
The only answer that makes sense is—both.
But our self-serving culture pitches things dangerously towards Nature as the solution for everything. Whatever you feel is right. Do whatever you want. Be good to yourself. Live your best life. It suits the obsession with self of a consumer society, so you’ll get insecure in your own little bubble and look for ways to fix yourself. Then you’ll buy-buy-buy more products.
Nurture becomes the neglected cousin of Nature, and what does Nurture mean? It means that a positive, organized influence must come from the outside to guide you to fulfillment. That’s pretty familiar, most people know the importance of a mentor or redemptive focus. It still presents natural questions. Each person is so unique, so which influence is the right one? A college degree? Varsity sports? What?
You need an inspired blueprint to graft onto your childhood dreams. Maybe it will be along the same lines as you thought, or maybe it will be a total departure.
The Bible describes an opportunity called being Born Again, where you experience your own private, in-house revolution. Your youthful drives become a liftoff for an eternal destiny. As you dig into scriptures, you get your head realigned to a cosmic reality and adopt principles that always win.
Eventually.
Because God schools every newborn spirit in a journey not meant for every whim, but to fulfill a more substantial destiny of everyone. You put aside certain selfish desires so that we rise together. With the acceleration of a rocket leaving orbit, the redemption of many builds when you embrace the redemption of your own life.
It takes that new blueprint, though, that transcendent Nurture. You need data entry in your soul from the Divine. It’s the cure to the Black Hole of Self and the key to your real destiny.
So everyone can win.
T. D. Freitag 