August 17, 2008
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I had another dream the other night. I was in a place where some men were enjoying themselves while eating bread. I did not recognize these people in my dream, nor I recognized the bread they were eating. The pieces of bread looked small in the plastic bag and the bread did not look unusual to my sight. It seemed like when they eat the bread, these men become very loose, all their guards down. They seemed to look joyfully drunk. I started to get curious and I wanted to try the bread, too. When I openned the package of the warm, fresh bread, the bread expanded and got bigger. I tasted the bread and it did not have the usual bread taste. The taste was sort of bland, but the more I ate it, the more I wanted it. And I started feeling euphoria, like I feel nothing matter except what I was feeling. It seemed like I lost touch of reality. I saw a friend of mine in my dream, but why she was there, I can't recall anymore. There are more to my dream, but I can't remember the rest of it. What stood out in my mind was the bread and how people reacted to it. The production of this bread keeps on coming and as they come, the people keep on eating them and they also keep on getting laxed and they totally lose sight of the danger coming on board.
The way I interpreted this dream was that a person can't recognize danger brought by sin. We could delve into things that look attractive and seem harmless without realizing that we are getting deeper into sin and separation from God. If we are not hurting anyone, then everything is okay. But is it okay with God? That is the big question. But since sin is not recognizable to people who are living with it, they don't have the care in the world. They live for the moment and for them what matters is what they enjoy and desire now. They are totally oblivious to God's moral instructions to them. Unbeknownst to them, they are living in the curse of God. But since they did not know that and they do not have God in their hearts, they are destined to where God did not want for them to end up in the first place. Their choices bring consequences that would snap the daylights out of them in the later years of their lives, or maybe sooner.
PROVERBS 9
v7 Do not stop someone who is insulting other people! He will only insult you.
Do not correct an evil man! He will attack you.
v8 Do not correct someone who is insulting other people! He will hate you for your interruption.
Show a wise man how he is wrong! He will love you for your correction.
The Message:
7-12 If you reason with an arrogant cynic (nonbeliever), you'll get slapped in the face;
confront bad behavior and get a kick in the shins.
So don't waste your time on a scoffer (mocker);
all you'll get for your pains is abuse.
But if you correct those who care about life,
that's different—they'll love you for it!
Save your breath for the wise—they'll be wiser for it;
tell good people what you know—they'll profit from it.
Skilled living gets its start in the Fear-of-God,
insight into life from knowing a Holy God.
It's through me, Lady Wisdom, that your life deepens,
and the years of your life ripen.
Live wisely and wisdom will permeate your life;
mock life and life will mock you.EUPHORIA:
The French novelist, Michel Tournier, believed that euphoria carried within its etymology the key to a fundamental transformation in the Western conception of the self. The word, which is now interpreted as little more than a feeling of light-headedness or a general sensation of well-being, originally occupied a much more moral position. Its Greek root of eu, meaning goodness, happiness, or contentment, and phoria, signifying the act of carrying, reveal a more effort-bound situation in which the individual supports happiness or bears themself with joy. The etymology suggests that contentment and joy are states demanding a persistent and active engagement. Tournier draws a parallel with the coterminous etymology of Christopher, from the martyred giant who achieved his sainthood by carrying Christ.
This idea of euphoria as a state achieved through effort and activity has now largely disappeared. With the advent of Christianity and the rise of Calvinism, in particular, a more passive view of the self and its emotions has emerged. Euphoria is now regarded as a state which overwhelms the personality. In medical terms euphoria is defined as a form of mood elevation inappropriate to circumstances, brought on by diseases of the nervous system such as syphilis or multiple sclerosis. In religious terms it connotes the epiphanies and awakenings of passive soul. The American psychologist, William James, described the state as one ‘in which the will to assert ourselves and hold our own has been displaced by a willingness to hold our mouths and be as nothing in the floods and waterspouts of God.’ James offered his own explanation for this connection between euphoria and passivity, arguing that the emotion emerged only when the self gave up its struggle with the world and instead surrendered to the uprushes of the subconscious life.
In recent years, a middle way has emerged between the active and passive models of euphoria. The growing use of euphoriant drugs such as MDMA (‘ecstasy’) and MDEA (‘eve’) has encouraged a new perspective in which the emotional life is seen as the passive product of the brain's biochemistry whilst the self maintains the familiar control and discrimination of the modern consumer.
In medical terms, as well as its association with such drugs, euphoria, defined as mood elevation inappropriate to the circumstances, may accompany mental illness and diseases affecting the nervous system, such as syphilis and multiple sclerosis.— Rhodri Hayward
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