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Building an Empire of Hope

Zamperini's Sacred Optimism - Part 2

Emily FleischerJune 19, 2017

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Emily FleischerJune 20, 2017

Jereme DittmerJune 16, 2017

Ben Courson

Ben Courson is founder of Hope Generation, host of a global TV and national radio program, and is an author and speaker based out of Applegate Christian Fellowship.

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Because Paul says we are masterpieces and Genesis says we are God’s image, we are reflections of the Creator and consequently we, too, are all artists at heart! We are given a craft to hone, and it’s our calling to steward the song inside us well. I don’t know if your vibe is helping unfold (rather than mold) a child, or if your jam is being a rock star, if your “ikigai” is to be an electrician or to teach astrophysics, if your destiny is to play pop or jazz, to work at a biscuit factory or to strategize policy in the White House. The world needs your gift. We were all created for excellence. The word “glory” in the Bible means “excellence” and “weight.” When you do things with excellence God puts all his weight behind you.
So when you’re on a stage living the dream in the bright lights, or crushing mocha artwork with your cream patterns as a barista, and pharisees ask you, “Are you doing this for the glory of God, brother?” You can simply respond, “If by that you mean am I doing my craft with excellence in the knowledge that God will put all his weight behind me, then yes! That’s what it ACTUALLY means to glorify God: I do things excellently and know God will put his weight behind me. So excuse me while I keep being a rock star. Am I doing this for the glory of God? I AM the glory of God.” Psalms says we humans are crowned with glory and Isaiah said we are God’s crown of glory.

So instead of asking, “Are you glorifying God today?” Just ask, “Am I being myself today?” The Bible says who you are is the glory of God.

Nothing brings God more glory than just sending it and absolutely blowing everyone away with our talents. #hopeisdope #hopegen #godofhope

There is, according to no uncertain research, a genuine linkage between social media and anxiety and depression.

While I am all about the whole “rage against the machine” vibe, I’m no Luddite. I‘m a far cry from a Quaker, because I know that every generation seems to decry technology, as if progress were the problem when, in fact, it isn’t... Socrates warned against writing since it would create forgetfulness in the learner’s souls in place of them being able to use their memories. Folk bemoaned the printing press, believing that it would overload the world with data and information that would be harmful to our brains. In 1936, “The Gramophone” (a music magazine) reported that kids had developed the habit of dividing attention between the humdrum preparation of their school assignments and the compelling excitement of the loud speaker, describing how radio programs were disturbing the balance of their excitable minds.

But the problem isn’t journals or the printing press or radio or Facebook. All technology does is expand already present human capacities. And all social media does is mirror the humans who use it. Or maybe social media is more of a funhouse mirror, as it warps our humanity, distorting the vitriolic bitterness we FEEL but would never say in person reflected in our gleefully mean tweets. Distorted mirror though social media is, the clear reality remains that computers reflect the users. Maybe the answer is not speaking out so much against technology (which is like speaking out against humanity). Maybe joy is more about knowing how to fast from the Internet for half a day to let God and squad love on you as you go on friendventures! Instagram can be a good thing...but even a good thing becomes a bad thing when we idolize it as a god thing. And what we idolize now we will demonize later. So let God love the heavens right into you, and depression will make like a baby and head out. #joy #hopeisdope #hopegen
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#instagram #instagramers #hope #love #dailyhope #dailyquotes #hopetour2018 #hopeforall #hopefortheday #hopeonthestreet #hopeforthefuture #deppression #technology #tech #adventure #adventuretime #authentic #author #jacksonvilleoregon

A lot of people don’t think they can be chill with the Almighty and besties with the Creator. They find themselves utterly unworthy of being a house for God. They don’t believe God loves them.

A lot of people have got the wrong idea about God.
Our view of God is often predicated upon our immediate surroundings. Culture eats ideology for lunch. In Germany God looks like a police officer. In Switzerland God looks like a banker. In America God looks like a capitalist businessman. Our view of the Creator is reflected in the zeitgeist of our country...and even the atmosphere of the home. As “Fight Club” (the book) claims, every son models his image of God on his earthly dad. Maybe that’s Freudian, but calling God “Father” probably rings psychic cherries somewhere in the subconscious (IF the subconscious exists. Though I’m with Sartre and the existentialists here and question whether the subconscious is even a real thing at all! But I digress). Regardless of what country you live in or dad you have, God isn’t subject to your socioeconomic environment or your land’s body politic. Like the speed of light - the only stable element in existence - God is light and in Him there is no shadow of turning. He’s stable. He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever!

God
Is

Love.

And no policy or campaign or daddy issues or extenuating circumstance can ever change that.

God is not the creature of circumstances but the Creator of them (and He’s called us to be the same)! So don’t box God into your home-life experience or your political persuasions. Because whenever you try to box God in, it might sorta work at first... But boy does he have a nasty habit of bursting out of boxes three days later.

And...He’s taillights!

No matter your tribe or tongue, gender or father, God loves you. I know this seems self evident. But a lot of people still carry shame as though they’re not worth God’s blood. The cross literately speaks to a God who loves you to death. And His lovingkindness is better than life.

Game over.

#lovemydad👍🏻

Let’s talk Insta stories. They can be loads of fun, but they also have a dark underbelly. Watching stories may entertain us when we feel like the mayor of Yawnseville, but there is also an inherent undercurrent of corruption on social media. Have you ever thought about WHEN we watch other people’s stories? It’s at the most boring lull in our day when we pick up our phone to watch the most exciting part of someone else’s day. It’s a trick and a trap, comparing timeframes at unfair intervals.

Don’t get me wrong. The Internet can be a very good thing. However! Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing when we exalt it to a (lower case) god thing. All technology does is expand preexisting human capacities. But if you turn up the nob too much, technology folds in on itself and collapses.

A microphone is technology that just amplifies what’s been around a long time - i.e. the human voice. A car accelerates the already preexisting reality of locomotion - i.e. man traveling from point A to point B. But if you exalt technology to too high a place, the thing collapses upon itself and becomes less efficient than the primitive human capacity it was supposed to expand upon. Case in point: if you turn up a microphone TOO loud, you get feedback, so the human voice becomes HARDER to hear. It would then be easier to hear a person WITHOUT a mic. Or if you have TOO MANY cars, a man can walk faster than a corvette caught in a snarl of traffic. In the same manner, the Internet can expand our capacities of connection with each other, but too much of it can actually destroy our linkage. Because social media quantifies people and objectives them into a number (followers, views, likes, etc) it becomes almost impossible not to compare my engagement with yours. Thus the very mechanism designed to link us can now destroy the very connection it was supposed to exptand upon.

The problem is, comparing yourself with others is the quickest shortcut down a rabbit hole that will hurtle you towards nihilism and despair. Comparison is the surest thief of our joy: it robs the happiness in our heart and says to our peace, “Let’s make like Capone and mob out.”

Do you have no self worth?

Maybe the poet, waxing lyrical, rings psychic cherries with you: “what is this numb hurt that enters my heart?” You feel the dull thud in your spirit. Depression. Like you’re the dregs of society and the scum of the earth. Sometimes we feel we are not worth God’s attentions or affections. This occasions a misperception of our identity and a dearth of self worth.

Like the psalmist who felt like a worm, we can say with Churchill: I may be a worm but I dare say I am a glow worm. We feel we are the king of the beasts and the light of the worms. We feel subhuman.

If I’ve got my finger on the pulse here, and am touching on something personal to you, let’s work on your self perception in this post.

Let’s fix this with one fell swoop of identity activation:

God thinks you’re worth his blood, and He would go to the ends of the earth, even a cross, to prove it to you. That’s the beatific poetry of the whole narrative arch of Scripture.

You are loved.

So loved, in fact, that David wrote that God’s thoughts toward us outnumber the grains of sand! How many is that? The Earth has roughly (and we’re talking VERY roughly) seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains of sand.

In other words, God thinks about you a lot.

In that same poem, David said we are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are no common muggle. You’re a magnum opus, a piece de resistance, a tour de force. You are God’s finest work. A masterpiece.

According to God, you are so worth dying for. 🌅@brightong

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