Title: Patience for a Better Life
Patience for a better life
Text/ Genesis 31:40-41
1. Introduction
In this world, all living things seek "a better life - a more meaningful life - a happier life". All the people in the Bible - our ancestors in the faith - and all of us living today. However, a “better life” requires strict patience. There are no exceptions!
* In this way I have endured the heat of the day and the cold of the night, without even having time to close my eyes. During the twenty years I lived in your house, I spent fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock. I served you, but you changed my wages ten times, and if the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the God whom Isaac feared, had not been with me, now you would have sent me back empty-handed. Seeing the hard work of your hands, you rebuked your uncle last night (Genesis 31:40-41) * Go and get wisdom from the ants, you lazy ants prepare their food in summer, and gather food at harvest time. When will you wake up from your sleep? Sleep a little longer, sleep a little longer, put your hands together and lie down a little longer, and your poverty will come like a robber, and your poverty like a soldier (Proverbs 6:6-11).
2. A “better life” comes only from perseverance, not by chance, luck, and ups and downs.
life is to be lived
Life is to be lived well.
Life should be better.
Life is, after all, one great-great process.
(Life is to live-Life is to live well-Life is to live better. Life, after all is a process.)
-American process philosopher Whitehead
This great life - the driving force that moves this great life is the power of perseverance. There is no room for deceitful tricks such as luck, luck, coincidence, ups and downs, good luck, good luck, three hundred stones, asking for money. Sima Qian, who lived around 100 B.C.E., in the 史記 (Sagi) 日者列傳 (The Chronicles of the Illumination), says something that is very surprising even now
“Heo, good-natured, wealthy, good-natured, good-natured Go In-rok Myung-yeol or Cheon-eun fire-fighting idealistic Confucianism Ghost Lee Jin-in-jae Post-graduate sarcasm: Most fortune tellers are talkative and exaggerated to capture people's emotions. They openly raise people's fortunes and make people happy, They arbitrarily proclaim that there is a disaster, frightening and hurting people's hearts, and using the pretense of demons to take away other people's property, and to increase their own weight by demanding a lot of wealth.)
3. What do you need to endure for a “better life”?
first. The first priority in “a better life” is to be good at your job. This means that everyone should be a professional in their own work. The Bible says, “Have you seen a man skilled in his work? Such a man will stand before kings, and not before the lowly” (Proverbs 22:29). Build it, and trust those who are entrusted with it” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2).
In a nutshell, it means that you have to be like a London Olympic athlete in your field (ministerial-business-arts-sports-academic-political-military, etc.). I want to achieve my dream - there is nothing I can do but this - I have to do it in order to make a living - I have to do it for a living, etc. The purpose and reason can be many, but one thing is clear: You cannot become a professional without perseverance (sweat-blood-tear), The fact is that you cannot survive. As I watch the Olympic athletes train, I think they will be able to live a “better life” enough to win medals or not, no matter what path they take in the future. Why? Because they are people who know what patience is through experience, not theory.
second. In my view, all people who have had a “better life” in this world have one thing in common. What is it? It is the fact that they studied hard. What is study? It is to learn-read-practice. In particular, it is the fact that he liked to read books. In the old days, nobody could study. Why? This is because study was the basis for social advancement, and the privileged classes of society systematically blocked the opportunity for ordinary people to study. However, today, anyone can study as much as they want through the Internet-public library. Therefore, the old man said, "男兒欲遂平生志 六 勤向窓前讀 (Reading the six sutras of the life of a man as a chieftain: if you want to achieve the will of a large man, lay out the six sutras in front of the window and read them diligently)."
However, reading this book is not easy. I admit that I like reading books, but I don't read books with various excuses because I don't have the time - because the money to buy them is burdensome - because I am not interested. If you want a “better life”, you have to be patient and read a book.
third. Man is a being of intellect, sensibility, and will - of cognition - logos, pathos, and ethos. Look carefully at car advertisements these days. Previously, the car's performance and function were emphasized, but now it is emphasizing style-atmosphere-friendliness. In other words, in the past, intellect-reason-logos was emphasized, but today, it is an era where emotion-emotion-pathos is emphasized. The flow of the times is clear! has changed. If you want to live a “better life”, you have to read the times - breathe the times. This isn't a good thing either.忍耐 (patience) is required.
Therefore, the old man said, “The old man said, “The old man is barren, the infertility of the world, It is like the waters of a valley flowing into the sea. Therefore, sages do not stick to the old things, do not remain in the present, but change naturally with the times with the world.”