--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Black Focus Inc." group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/Black-Focus-Inc?hl=en
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
--- Begin Message ---
Forward this email to a friend
http://www.payh.org/site/R?i=tdxzPF05cxP-0B4Wqm6foA..
Zeal, Knowledge, and Folly in the Election
by Stephen Leonard
Scriptural Basis:
"It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the
way. A man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord."
Proverbs 19:2-3
Anderson's Applications:
In his book Into the Wild ( now a major motion picture), Jon Krakauer, briefly
tells the story of Gene Rosellini whom he met in Alaska while researching the
life and death of one Chris McCandless, the primary subject of his fascinating
study on human nature. Rosellini was born into means, the stepson of a wealthy
Seattle restaurateur, Victor Rosellini. He was also the cousin of a popular
Governor of the State of Washington from 1957-1965, Albert Rosellini. As a
young man, Gene Rosellini, had been a good athlete and a brilliant student. He
maintained a perfect 4.0 grade-point average through High School and College.
He was an obsessive reader and immersed himself in the study of anthropology,
history, philosophy, and linguistics. He accumulated hundreds of hours of
credits at several universities, but never earned a degree. He did not see a
degree as a necessary validation of his personal pursuit of knowledge.
Rosellini left academia in Seattle and drifted north through Canada into
Alaska. There he decided to invest his life in an ambitious anthropological
experiment. He was convinced that humans had devolved into progressively
inferior beings, and so he set a goal of returning to a natural state. He
sought to live as he believed man lived in the Stone Age. Living in a hovel
built without benefit of saw or ax, he survived on roots, berries, and seaweed.
Dressed in rags he endured the bitter winters. His severe experiment stretched
on for 10 long years, until at the age of 49, he was finally convinced his
hypothesis was simply false; man is unable to live off the land in such a
primitive manner. He then decided to pursue another goal: walking around the
world while living out of a backpack. This experiment never even got off the
ground, for Rosellini was found facedown in his shack in November 1991 with a
knife through his heart. The coroner determined it was self-inflicted. There
was no suicide note.
Pretty depressing isn't it. This was a man who possessed a great amount of zeal
in pursuing and living out his ideas, eschewing wealth at his fingertips, and
apparently accumulating a great deal of "knowledge." But where did it take him,
and what did he accomplish? While Gene Rosellini is perhaps a hyperbolic
example, one which would cause many to label him as crazy, he is all too much
like so many people who are passionately zealous about their ideas, accumulate
a vast amount of "knowledge" concerning them, and yet expend tremendous effort
and much, if not all, of their life accomplishing exactly nothing of real
value. What an absolute waste!
Yet when we evaluate the lives of some we know and even our own with these
verses from Proverbs, are they or we "missing the way?" Is our own folly
ruining our life? If things do not pan out as we anticipate, do we rage against
the truth, and the God of truth?
In this political season passionate zeal is apparently in great supply. So is
self-proclaimed "knowledge" of what is best for the country. Statistics,
"facts," numbers, statements, opinions are coming at us in torrents. A man like
Rosellini had both, yet his life was a bust. What was missing? The book of
Proverbs equates real knowledge with wisdom and understanding. It, as well as
all of Scripture, presents a specific world-view. Without a Scripturally based
world-view, one cannot use knowledge properly, possess wisdom, or attain
understanding. Rosellini's world-view was seriously flawed and it led him into
a folly that ruined his life.
If you do not desire to succumb to the warning of ruin and waste in Proverbs,
you must acquire its view of life and the world. Likewise if you want to
discern truth in the political morass before us, you must view it through the
spectacles of a Biblical world-view. Proverbs says, "He who cherishes such
understanding prospers." (19:8) Right now I cannot think of a better primer for
this election season than the book of Proverbs; or for understanding those who
have all kinds of zeal, but lack true knowledge.
Encouragement:
"Heavenly Father, keep me from the folly of zeal without a Biblical world-view,
seeing the world as You see it. May I gain a heart of knowledge and wisdom
through applying your Word to myself and the world around me."
If you have received this email from a friend and would like also to receive
the Strength for the Day email devotional, please use this link:
http://www.payh.org/site/R?i=i8VS31qL-6ZvpWU0uk_QMQ..
To learn more about purchasing the Strength for the Day devotional book,
please use this link.
http://www.payh.org/site/R?i=WnY-9xTPnGU3q02ul8qM8A..
P.S. If you are interested in learning more about making a gift of support to
the Paul Anderson Youth Home, please visit our website or contact us at (800)
559-PAYH (7294).
www.payh.org
To contribute to Paul Anderson Youth Home
http://www.payh.org/site/R?i=K3Lx-6_MqOk2vTqdzYwjyw..
To unsubscribe from all future email, paste the following URL into your browser:
http://www.payh.org/site/CO?i=go2D6PsntWI7CrPzud8GlyoGcq1CGoSR&cid=1005
--- End Message ---
