{"id":1767,"date":"2012-10-23T05:52:32","date_gmt":"2012-10-23T05:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/?p=1767"},"modified":"2012-10-23T05:52:32","modified_gmt":"2012-10-23T05:52:32","slug":"motivation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/?p=1767","title":{"rendered":"Motivation"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>\n<!--\n\/* Font Definitions *\/\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"?? ??\";\npanose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;\nmso-font-charset:128;\nmso-generic-font-family:roman;\nmso-font-format:other;\nmso-font-pitch:fixed;\nmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:\"?? ??\";\npanose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;\nmso-font-charset:128;\nmso-generic-font-family:roman;\nmso-font-format:other;\nmso-font-pitch:fixed;\nmso-font-signature:1 134676480 16 0 131072 0;}\n@font-face\n{font-family:Cambria;\npanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;\nmso-font-charset:0;\nmso-generic-font-family:auto;\nmso-font-pitch:variable;\nmso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}\n\/* Style Definitions *\/\np.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n{mso-style-unhide:no;\nmso-style-qformat:yes;\nmso-style-parent:\"\";\nmargin:0in;\nmargin-bottom:.0001pt;\nmso-pagination:widow-orphan;\nfont-size:12.0pt;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"?? ??\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;\nmso-fareast-language:JA;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n{mso-style-type:export-only;\nmso-default-props:yes;\nfont-size:10.0pt;\nmso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt;\nmso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;\nfont-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-fareast-font-family:\"?? ??\";\nmso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;\nmso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;\nmso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;\nmso-bidi-font-family:\"Times New Roman\";\nmso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;\nmso-fareast-language:JA;}\n@page WordSection1\n{size:8.5in 11.0in;\nmargin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;\nmso-header-margin:.5in;\nmso-footer-margin:.5in;\nmso-paper-source:0;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n{page:WordSection1;}\n-->\n<\/style>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">One of the benefits of the Christian Church in the world, or<br \/>\na benefit that we should provide but in these days often don&#8217;t, is that we call<br \/>\nsociety and culture to higher standards of discourse, politics, education,<br \/>\nethics, and culture, and call individuals to their better selves.<span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>God desires us to live life to the full &#8211; in<br \/>\nsane, healthy, altruistic, and responsible ways that are beneficial to not only<br \/>\nourselves, but to all of society. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In times past, if people wanted to be educated they went to<br \/>\nthe Church. If you wanted to be cultured, you came to the Church.<span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>If someone wanted to help &#8220;the least of<br \/>\nthese,&#8221; s\/he went to the Church.<span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>Not so much, anymore.<span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>And, of<br \/>\ncourse, there are plenty of examples throughout history where the leadership of<br \/>\nthe Church exploited, tortured, killed, maimed, impoverished, etc., people and<br \/>\nsocieties.<span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Yet, the negative exploits of<br \/>\nthose who used (and continue to use) religion for their own gain does not<br \/>\ndiminish what the Church is supposed to be and do and what we as Christians are<br \/>\ncalled to be and do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">In these days, we tend to align ourselves with the<br \/>\nprevailing culture that too often wants to dumb things down &#8211; because that is<br \/>\nwhat people in the general culture have come to expect. The banal, the lowest<br \/>\ncommon denominator, the most profane or perverse, the most demeaning, the most<br \/>\ndictatorial, the most arrogant, the most selfish, and so forth, has become the<br \/>\nnorm.<span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>We make little effort to truly teach<br \/>\nand to call people to move beyond and above the crass, sterile, and<br \/>\nmanipulative norm that invades all of life.<span style=\"mso-spacerun:yes\">&nbsp;<br \/>\n<\/span>The perception many younger people have of the Church is that it is just<br \/>\nyet another cooped institution or group of people that wallow in the cultural<br \/>\nmorass and that offers no real escape and alternative way forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">As a Christian, I take upon myself to be educated, to seek<br \/>\nunderstanding and wisdom, to be forgiving, to be giving of myself, to be<br \/>\nrespectful, to love beauty, peace, and freedom. I also understand that in order<br \/>\nto do all of this in God&#8217;s economy of things, my first and primary motivation<br \/>\nand goal is to love God with all of myself &#8211; my intentions, my devotions, my<br \/>\nperceptions, and my thoughts. It is tough to do in our culture, but we in the<br \/>\nChurch must stop giving into or aiding the dumping down of everything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the benefits of the Christian Church in the world, or a benefit that we should provide but in these days often don&#8217;t, is that we call society and culture to higher standards of discourse, politics, education, ethics, and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/?p=1767\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,9,25,24,26,5,6,20,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-faith","category-foundational-principle","category-generations","category-imagodei","category-personal","category-politicsculture","category-post-modern","category-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hypersync.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}