/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

God doesnt care about your """skills""", He loves and will love you always.

>>664940

Dude, I fell into drug use and other assorted degeneracy in my 20s. I haven't started turning my live around until the past few years and I'm in my mid 30s. Trust me, you've got time to turn your life around.

>>664940

>>664951

I'm not in despair, I know that is a mortal sin but I just feel like a disappointment sometimes.

>>664953

I know. I feel like that too sometimes, but it's not always about us. Take that disappointment as a cross and offer it up to the Lord. If people despise you because they think you are dumb or slow or unsucessful? Thank the Lord for it and offer it up too.

But just always try to remember St Mary and St Martha around the Lord. Try to remember the one thing necessary.

>>664953

Everyone does. But God loves us always, remember that.

>>664940

Hm (first time posting here for me) I'm actually replying because the title of this thread is very relevant from the homepage. Meet me: Atheist(majority of life), no job, unsuccessful, degenerate, etc. I'm a f***ing loser. Main takeaway is that religion alone is not a predictor of success.

You ever wonder why you feel it necessary to go out of your way to downplay people of religion? Because deep down you feel like shit or are losing control of your own life and you want to take other people down with you- not for the sake of "logic". I know this because I've done this before, and ever since I stopped life has slightly improved… (although morality wise it is a roller coaster living with a guilty past).

You religious folks- I don't know what you guys have that makes you tick but I am envious of it. My wife is the same way and she is my role model :-) I wish I could find some magical source of power I can utilize but I don't seem to have it.

>>664940

Hmm never mind I read your post wrong. But what I said.. is still relevant to context?… hang in there. I'm in the same boat even on the other side

>>664940

>>664947

*Stop comparing yourself to others, start to analyze how you could live up to Christ. The goal of life is not to make yourself happy - that is shallow and makes your life empty.

As Thomas de Kempis says (in Imitatione de Christi, not literally):

>Whatever it is you're doing, do it to glorify God. The "fun", the joy and the happiness will come by itself.

I.e., by comparing yourself to others in jealousy (that is, on material things), you will destroy yourself because your inherent life goal becomes "to be richer/more successful/more beautiful/[…]" than these other people. Of course that doesn't mean that money, health etc. are not good for you - after all you need them to exist, to function in society (at least in 99.99% of cases) and it also doesn't mean that you could (beside Christ) choose a role model and try to pursue that [but obviously it must be able to be considered "ok" in the Christian environment].

On a different note, you don't need to be the smartest and you don't need to most awesome skills. Apparently you can learn any skill with dedication. It's not a joke when people say

>the difference between successful people and non-successful people is not the IQ, not the starting cash, not the friends. It's persistence, dedication and the ability - not even the ability but the absolute will - to go further than you thought you could go to pursue your goal

That goes for material success, studying, trying to become like Christ by rigorously enacting the Gospel, you name it.

So get your ass up and do something. And do it for the glory of the Lord. Because God doesn't reject you or anything just by "not being super successful" (maybe that's what Joel Osteen would tell people, but mind me, that's utter nonsense) or whatever or by not being good at "anything". The only thing that COULD (and I'm saying that from my perspective) be disappointing to the Lord is when you fall and don't get up again.

>>664965

>>664970

If you are genuinely seeking, remember that there is no saint that didn't have a past, and there was never a sinner that didn't have a future.

I won't be so flippant as to say you will always have time (which is a demonic deception which breeds complacency) but genuine repentance can be instantaneous. In the words of Kathatine Tynan

<Betwixt the saddle and the groud was mercy sought, and mercy found

That said, penance is also invaluable.

>I don't know what you guys have that makes you tick but I am envious of it.

I'm just going to post Chesterton's consideration of Joan of Arc, because it neatly and easily explains why I keep coming back to this faith that I and countless others have been called to.

>Joan of Arc was not stuck at the cross-roads, either by rejecting all the paths like Tolstoy, or by accepting them all like Nietzsche. She chose a path, and went down it like a thunderbolt.

>Tolstoy only praised the peasant; she was the peasant. Nietzsche only praised the warrior; she was the warrior. She beat them both at their own antagonistic ideals; she was more gentle than the one, more violent than the other. Yet she was a perfectly practical person who did something, while they are wild speculators who do nothing. It was impossible that the thought should not cross my mind that she and her faith had perhaps some secret of moral unity and utility that has been lost.

>>664965

So first post eh ? I ask you to refrain from swearing and cussing so much. That's not alright around a Christian community - no matter what you see others doing on this page.

Your "magical source of power" is God. Alright, you're an atheist - but you can bet on that when I say that even though you don't believe in God, He believes on you.

The reason for the emptiness is that your life indeed is empty. Now don't get me wrong, not in a nihilistic sense or in that you're somehow "worthless" or whatever. Far from that. But since you violently try to cut out God of your life, you have nothing to work towards. No reason to be kind, to help people, no reason to defend the weak, sick or unborn, no reason to … well, to do anything. You see, "atheism" in and of itself will inevitably lead to nihilism. And don't be mistaken - there's no such thing as "yolo"-type nihilism. That's a meme. Nihilism is always inherently self-destructive and the reason not every nihilist has off'd themselves (and gladly so, because that is just wasted lives, wasted opportunities and wasted potential to live up to God) is that they still have enough to daze themselves. But there will inevitably come the moment where they do realize how empty life is when you life in an entirely materialistic framework.

So what's the solution ? Well, believe. Of course easier said than done for someone that is, as mentioned already, trying to violently cut God out of their lives for whichever reason.

Let me introduce you to Pascal's wager: What do you win or lose from believing in God and keeping His commandments ? Either

1) you believe in God and do as He commands so you might go to Heaven, eternal bliss, or

2) you believe in God and He does not exist, still lived a tremendously good life with compassion towards yourself and others, or

3) you don't believe and He doesn't exist, nothing lost in the long run but life full of emptyness and suffering (as you experience), or

4) you don't believe and He exists, well - same thing as before plus you have a reasonable chance of being damned eternally (especially when you mock people all day

1) is all "win", 2) is "win" in life but nothing lost in terms of eternal life so neutral good, 3) is a "loss", tho formally nothing lost in terms of eternal life so neutral bad, 4) is outright loss. You see, not believing (or even trying to believe) is always bad for you - in any way. Of course you don't need to be the muslim type and try to behead everyone. But enjoying life in measure is not that bad, isn't it ? After all unregulated "yolo"-style living will just bring suffering in this and in the next life. You know that. You see it. You experience it.

>>664984

*(or not even trying to believe and repent)

>>664940

>there are atheists that are more successful than you

Just because people who happen to be atheists are successful in this world doesn't mean you're a failure. Don't strive to be better than others, strive to be better than your past self.

>>664940

You have plenty of options, stop paying videogames and go to to uni/trade school.

>>665040

>Implying reincarnation?

It would take PhD in "bizarre interpretation" to get this from that post