When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul’s call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers. We’re doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth. Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work, we simply consume a product.
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art, Page 26
Hello Readers, hope all’s well. Time for another #shorts post.
In the previous post I wrote about the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. And today I continue with one more topic inspired by this excellent book.
If you read the previous post, you’ll remember The War of Art is about how to defeat Resistance. This is the creative block that so often stops us from finishing any creative work.
Resistance is internal; it exists in every person trying to do something creative. It’s a self-sabotaging, self-defeating inner force that stops us from doing what we were meant to do. And too often, it succeeds.
The previous post was on the importance of defeating Resistance, no matter what our goals are. Because Resistance isn’t only there to stop us from writing a best-selling novel (etc.). Resistance doesn’t care so much about that. What Resistance is really there to do is to stop us from following God’s Calling for our lives. If Resistance defeats us, then it stops us from living out God’s Plan for our life.
OK, we know the importance of defeating Resistance and tackling our creative work (check the previous post). Now let’s look at some other ways Resistance works against us in our lives. And also at how the world, the society we live in is a major contributor to the Resistance we struggle against.
How the World Works for Resistance
We fight a new battle against Resistance every day—we’re bound to win some, and lose some. When we first start fighting Resistance, we’re going to lose more than we win. But as we keep fighting, we get stronger, and we’ll be winning more often. But we have to respect Resistance, creative block, and understand it can defeat us if we aren’t careful. So what happens when we lose??
When Resistance defeats us, it hurts. We know we’ve defeated ourselves, and aren’t doing the good, creative works we were created to do. We know we aren’t following the true desires of our Soul. And we know we aren’t following God’s Plan for our life.
It hurts when Resistance wins. And this causes a whole host of problems for us; physical, mental, and Spiritual problems. When Resistance is winning it affects all aspects of our life.
Let’s hear from Steven Pressfield:
What does Resistance feel like?
First, unhappiness. We feel like hell. […] We hate our lives. We hate ourselves.
Unalleviated, Resistance mounts to a pitch that becomes unendendurable. At this point vices kick in. Dope, adultery, web surfing. […]
What makes it tricky is that we live in a consumer culture that’s acutely aware of this unhappiness and has massed all its profit-seeking artillery to exploit it. By selling us a product, a drug, a distraction.
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art, Page 31
So Resistance keeps ramping up, the effects getting worse all the time. The longer we neglect our creative work is the longer we ignore God’s Calling on our lives. The longer we ignore God’s Calling, the more internal guilt and disappointment we have. Before long we turn to drugs and other vices to numb this inner pain.
Even if they don’t know the cause, society is well-aware of the general misery caused by Resistance. They know most people are unhappy and looking for something to numb their inner pain. So they swoop in “to the rescue” (but it’s actually to our demise) with a product, a drug, a distraction, like Pressfield says.
Since this is so profitable, our Mammon-serving society is only too happy to continue exploiting the pain caused by Resistance. It fuels sales of drugs, alcohol, pills, and other vices, quick-fixes, and distractions. The end result is all these temporary, short-term fixes keep Resistance going strong by keeping us distracted from fighting Resistance … and distracted from our own feelings of guilt too.
We have an uphill battle to fight here, for a few reasons. One, we have to live in this society, so it will always try tempting us with the quick-fixes it offers for our inner pain. We’re surrounded by this temptation, we live in it. If we aren’t strong in the LORD, we’ll fall for the quick-fixes.
Second, society has been programming us since birth to believe in this materialist culture. This leads us as adults to chase material pleasures to soothe our inner pain. When we pursue the pleasures of this world we live out the programming our materialist culture infected us with rather than responding to the higher Call from Heaven. Responding to the higher Call from Heaven moves us to a new level in life, while following the temptations of the world keeps us exactly where we are right now. Nothing meaningful will change; our life will revolve around consumption. And that’s the way world society wants us to be: Good consumers.
When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul’s call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers. We’re doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth. Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work, we simply consume a product.
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art, Page 26
Remember that succumbing to Resistance means not fulfilling God’s Plan for our life. The way society tempts us to indulge in worldly pleasures to distract ourselves from our pain—with drugs, alcohol, and other quick fixes and emotional band aids—is a massive boost to resistance and keeps it going strong.
To defeat Resistance in our life and fulfill God’s Plan by bringing forth our creative work into the world, we have to ignore the siren-song of the world and the pleasant distractions it offers. The inner pain we feel when we aren’t fulfilling God’s Plan is a warning for us that our Soul isn’t happy we aren’t doing what we’re meant to be doing: Good works, including creative works, for God’s glory.
So instead of relieving this inner pain with the products society offers, we need to follow the Call of Heaven rather than the world, and keep working.
That’s it for #shorts #21. Stay tuned for more #shorts all this month.
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Until next time, be strong and do good!
Your new best friend in Christ,
99:9
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