Theology Meet My Personal Life

Something in my mind has been bothering me. It is the encumbrances that have this tight hold on me--my usual struggle. I've tried to find some means to cut it off, but the more I try I find myself in it all the more proximate, holding me if you would in a tighter grip. Then I came to a text by Augustine of Hippo, a 3rd century Christian philosopher. He said, "The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord must be understood as follows: grace is the only thing that delivers human beings from evil; without it, they do absolutely nothing good, whether in thought, or in will and emotion, or in action. Grace not only makes known to people what they ought to do, but also enables them to perform with love the duty that they know." Here he was merely explaining grace and what it does, nothing more and certainly nothing less. How is it that the great minds of religion and philosophy make living a virtuous life seem so docile and easily attainable? Maybe living is simple, as the song by Switchfoot purports, but living meaningfully isn't. Is indifference better than living in this tumultuous yet dejecting life? I have mentioned this to some of my friends, that living indifferently is a far cry to living meaningfully. I've always seen indifference as a great threat to living a goodly life. After all, it was Socrates who said that living an unexamined life is not worth living. Why? Because it is the soul's pursuit to find a meaningful life in examining self in order to find it. So that brings me to this text. A true examination of myself only further explicates my meaning as a human being, a person who is created by something--no, someone--that gives me, and I would further stress "us," meaning. I can know myself, and further, I can know the reason I am here; to live and love God in it. How do I do it? Grace is the means.