Thursday, December 08, 2005

Impulse vs Stability vs Passion

If I look at my life I see hobby after hobby gone by. I find myself switching hobbies/passions very frequently. I've never been to sure what to make of this. I find when I'm into something I tend to get way too into it, and then a few months later I'm switching hobbies. Maybe I just like to be learning something new - or perhaps I develop unsustainable behaviour over my hobbies? hmm

Anyway my latest project was completed last night, at least the first phase. The 1st year med students this year are taking part in an fundraising project for HIV/AIDS relief in KwaZulu-Natal, a province of South Africa where 36% of adults are HIV infected! Yikes - anyway I got onboard to design and make their website. Just finished it last night at 6:30am... lol maybe that answers my question about "unsustainable behaviour". Take a look, I'd like some feedback/suggestions. http://simunye.webhop.org. I was mostly aiming for something with a pretty clean look.

So yeah maybe sometimes I pursue too many things, which leads me to want to understand impulsiveness vs passion vs desire. This question started after reading a particular devotional by Oswald Chambers (whose teaching I hold in high regard) which basically said that impulsiveness goes against everything a Christian disciple is trying to become. That Jesus was never impulsiveness, but there a calm strength that might result in doing very "loud" and passionate things, but that it isn't impulsiveness. This can get into semantics, but he seems to define impulsiveness as "thoughtless action", which it probably is.

I get a lot of impulses - I think we all do. I guess the true mark of a mature disciple is restraint and reflection too. Then on, sometimes we may know the right thing to do right away, in which case we should just do it. Come to think of it, "impulsiveness" is a pretty good term to describe children. Here's to growing up *raises glass*

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

there is a sense of the natural in impulsiveness. i think as Christians, if we grow more and more in Christ's likeness and assume more and more of His character as detailed by the fruit of the Spirit, then we get better at acting and being Christlike. hence, we are developing our impulsiveness - it's a Christlike impulsiveness. c'est bon, n'est-ce pas?

hmmm... i guess we are getting into semantics again - that good ol' "what-do-we-mean?" thought process.

why do we avoid semantics; or try to soften an issue or try to leave an issue when we start approaching a level of semantics?? this happened during a discussion at a Bible study this past week... i'm not quite sure why we had to "move on" and leave the issue hanging...

thoughts?

N.J. said...

Oh yeah? Well I played ultimate with your cousin Janet all summer. HOW'S THAT FOR SMALL WORLD?!

Allan Tan said...

Yeah semantics are tricky... I think Chambers is saying that according to his definition of impulsiveness as "thoughtless action", then that is completely unChristlike. I hear what you're saying though, that as learn to be led by the Spirit I think we would be more sensitive and "quick" to act accordingly. But I see what you're describing as something different than "impulsiveness"

Ah.. time to turn to the dictionaries.. lol. Compact Oxford says "impulsive" is "acting or done without forethought". So I suppose as Christians there should be forethought, not just thoughtless action.

I think semantics can leave issues hanging, perhaps we're just not well educated in the english language.. lol. Its a toughie though.. in my philosophy classes I find an overemphasis on semantics.. its important.. just not ultimately important? lol yeah something like that?? haha

Neil - haha a small world indeedy ^_^