Realizing Your Human Potential: A Christ Centered Approach to Life

By Carlton Joseph Young

Realizing Your Human Potential weaves spiritual insights with personal beliefs to create a unique narrative focused on sharing applicable principles and truths that will help others discover how to fulfill their human potentialthrough Gods eyes.

Dr. Carlton Young, an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has always kept Christ at the center of his life and relies on his personal experiences as well as credible source documentation and Scripture quotes to delve into the truths about nature, the things that make us human, and the consequences of our actions. As Dr. Young teaches others how to fuse these observations into a personal plan for their lives, he passionately debunks many modern thoughts and viewpoints regarding religions and spirituality while sharing concrete Christian principles that will help others refocus their lives on the things that matter.

Realizing Your Human Potential offers a new way of understanding and relating to God and reflecting the nature of Christ, all while inspiring others to step out of their comfort zones and explore a new realm of personal possibilities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 14, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450215084

Carlton Joseph Young

Carlton Joseph Young, MD is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He enjoys melding his work with the human body with his Christian faith to create a new paradigm for the twenty-first-century Christian. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with his wife and two children.

Book preview

Part I: Foundations

Chapter One: Prologue

I stood helplessly and watched my patient, motionless in his ICU bed, slowly succumb to his illness. Despite my best efforts and the help of numerous consultants, I could do nothing to stop the infection that wracked his body. For the last several years I had cared for him as he had done well from his kidney transplant. However, transplant patients must take immunosuppressive medications that weaken the immune system. This is necessary to prevent rejection, but one major risk of those medications is that patients may develop serious infections.

When he was admitted, I went to his hospital room. He was having difficulty breathing and his face was as pale as a ream of paper. Despite this, he tried to smile and speak, but both were an effort. I moved beside his bed and sat. His wife stood on the opposite side of the bed holding his hand. I knew he was very ill. I told them that going to the ICU was necessary, and that numerous blood tests and x-rays were needed.

Before I left the room, I hugged his wife, and tried to be positive. Her eyes reached toward me with an expression as if she was drowning, and I was in a lifeboat racing to her rescue. As I left the room and walked down the hallway, I prayed that he would get well. I was extremely concerned because I have seen numerous patients over the years have a similar appearance. Unfortunately, many of them died. Once in the ICU, intravenous lines were placed and powerful antibiotics started. Over the next several days, tests confirmed a life-threatening infection.

Despite our interventions, he continued to deteriorate. His lungs filled with fluid and he was no longer responsive. His heart weakened, necessitating medications to bolster his heart function. The nurse assigned to him worked feverishly to ensure his intravenous medications were infusing properly and that all the physician orders were completed. When I looked into her tired eyes, I could see the stress and frustration that often envelop caregivers. I walked over to her and offered a word of encouragement. I then glanced at the rectangular monitor above his head. It displayed his heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen concentration in lines that danced across the black screen in red, green, and blue. Next to his bed stood several light-blue pumps that whirred quietly as they infused powerful chemicals through myriad plastic tubes in an effort to sustain his steadily declining blood pressure. Small beads of perspiration sat motionless on his ashen forehead and from his mouth hung an endotracheal tube connected to a breathing machine. His chest moved up and down with each cycle of the ventilator.

I was in my office when my surgical resident paged me. When I saw the number, I knew what had happened. Early that morning, he had worsened. The ventilator settings and heart-supporting medications were turned to maximum. The night before, I told his wife I was very worried that he would not survive. Yet, she remained positive and faithful. I called the number back and my resident confirmed my suspicions. I gathered myself, stood, and put on my white coat. As I walked to the ICU, I retraced in my mind everything that had happened and whether I could have done something different.

As I entered his room, I stood at the doorway for a moment in silence. I moved next to his bed, touched his hand, and said good-bye. I turned amid words of encouragement and condolences from my colleagues, but what I had to do next was the most difficult. I walked away and headed to the private room where his family waited. I could hear them crying through the door. They had already heard the news. I paused as I peered through the narrow glass window. I knew I had to speak with them, but it was not going to be easy.

His death was particularly difficult because I had grown close to his family. He was a gentle, soft-spoken man with the will of a lion. His wife was an ebullient woman of great faith and dignity. Following his transplant, he and his wife would come to the transplant clinic for routine visits. Each time they came, I was always greeted with a hug and smiles. It was always rewarding when I would review his laboratory values and see that he was doing well. This time, all those good times had faded in an instant.

I entered the room. Everyone looked at me with reddened eyes and tear-streaked cheeks. His wife stood up first; she came over to me and fell into my arms. After a few moments, she gathered herself, and despite her grief, she thanked me for all that I and my colleagues had done for her husband. I thought it was extremely ironic that in their greatest moment of pain, they thanked me. To be honest, I felt as if I had let the family down.

While I know that I am not God, I never like to lose a patient. The nature of medicine and of life, however, is that people die. Oftentimes this occurs despite our best efforts. After a few more minutes, I excused myself and left that wonderful family to their grief and prayed that God would comfort them. I fought back tears myself as I returned to his room. I looked at my friend once more as the nurses began to remove the breathing tube and his IV lines. I stood there for a moment and thought about his life, my life, what had been, what could have been, and the ultimate plan God had for him.

He was not the first patient who had died while under my care. Over the course of nearly three decades, I have seen patients die while many others thrive. I have done my best to heal people’s bodies as well as strengthen their souls with words of encouragement. I practice medicine in this manner because I firmly believe that physicians are a direct extension of God and have an obligation not only to heal the body but also to minister to the soul when allowed.

As a physician I have had the privilege to care for thousands of people. Being a physician remains a high calling because we are entrusted with the welfare of people. I always do my utmost to encourage patients to correct bad habits so that they may live healthier lives. Yet regardless of what I might be able to accomplish with surgery, medications, and encouraging words, I am still an imperfect being trying to do perfect work.

On many occasions throughout my life I have pondered the nature of life, death, and our reality. Being a physician, I face the extremes of life nearly every day. There is nothing more stirring than the sight of a brain-dead child or adult lying on an operating room table prior to the procurement of his or her organs. I always say thank you quietly to myself before I proceed. While neither the family nor the donor can hear me, I know that God can. The wonderful gift of their loved one’s organs gives the hope of life to many other families who are enduring a life-threatening illness. I truly believe there is no greater gift a person can give to another than the gift of an organ or organs from a living donor or from someone who has died.

Transplantation surgery is unique because it straddles the border between life and death every day. As surgeons and physicians we are blessed to transform death into life, despair into hope. While we will always have undesired outcomes, the vast majority of patients do extremely well.

As a person who was reared in the church, I always held to my faith in all of life’s circumstances. That faith sustains me to this day, but a part of me, and I am sure every human being, wonders about our existence. While I work to repair patients’ physical bodies, I constantly wonder what God thinks about their souls and the lives they have led. I have no doubt that God wants all His children to live productive lives, but just as a disease can decimate a kidney, liver, or heart, so too, a person’s life can be altered and influenced by the simple act of daily living. Aside from our physical needs that will end one day, we are encouraged by Christ to fortify our spirits because none of us knows when our end will come. Our lives are more than our birth or our death. The true definition of a man or a woman is the life that is led between the cradle and the grave.

My hope is that this book, Realizing Your Human Potential, will help you discover who you are in light of what God wants you to become. Such a discovery will reveal that the attainment of temporal goals—money, societal position, building a family—while important, are not an ultimate end. When God occupies a preeminent position in your life, you will not view your life through your own eyes, but through God’s eyes. As a result, your perspective will change in ways that you once thought unimaginable. That mysterious transformation is nothing short of miraculous because it takes the traveler on a journey into the mind of God where there is unlimited potential.

Focusing your life on glorifying God, through a spirit of humility, assures spiritual health. Consequently, earthly achievements have new meaning when your priorities are properly ordered. God must be the catalyst of all your efforts for His glory; otherwise you risk the attainment of goals becoming the focal point of your life, usurping God’s rightful position. This is a noble endeavor, yet it is impossible to achieve a state of balance between body and spirit without a plan.

This book delves into truths about nature, what makes us human, the consequences of our actions, and ultimately fuses these observations into a personal plan for your life. In the end, I pray that you will better understand and relate to God, reflect the nature of Christ, and become empowered in all aspects of your being.

Realizing your human potential is a difficult task because human beings are a fusion of body and spirit, dichotomous creatures in perpetual turmoil. We exist temporally, but we seek the ethereal and the metaphysical. We are unsatisfied with our five senses, so we explore our sixth sense to peer beyond the physical boundaries of our existence into an unseen and untouchable world. Our restless journey through life compels us to understand our inner being. We seek our Creator and strive for earthly success as well as spiritual enlightenment in an attempt to improve our world and ourselves. Our mortality fuels this quest: we know that our physical bodies are not eternal, yet we do not want to die. We worship and believe in God because we hope there is something beyond ourselves, a better place than the world humanity has shaped. We are compelled twice over: to explore our spirit nature, as well as strive to live as complete, physical human beings.

Shelter, food, companionship, accomplishment, and a sense of belonging to a broader community are needs inherent in all human beings. The attainment of these universal goals, along with personal goals, instills within us a sense of worth. We derive satisfaction from being challenged with a task and completing it. Many have mastered the physical components of life; if, however, they have attained its treasures without cultivating their souls, they will at times honestly admit that something is missing from their lives. Too often, for many of us, we focus on feeding our physical natures while neglecting our spirit. This state of altered being—physical satisfaction coupled with spiritual destitution—is unsustainable because of the contradictions it brings out in our twofold nature.

Though possessed of a quiet voice, our spirit is a whirlpool of unrelenting desire that longs for a relationship with its Creator. Amazingly, we have the ability to ignore that voice, even if we suffer for doing so. We exist in a tenuous balance between body and spirit, but we have the ability to strengthen the balance. The price of equilibrium is intense self-reflection, explored through rigorous honesty and humility, driven by a willingness to change who we have become into what God wants us to become.

If I am a creature born of flesh and spirit, I cannot, by reason, achieve my highest potential if I do not nourish both phases of my existence. By denying the power of God, I divorce myself from an unseen force that infiltrates and energizes the world. I have settled for less than what I can become. By virtue of my self-imposed ignorance, I have become a one-eyed wanderer who is incapable of exploring the world completely or interacting fully on an interpersonal level. I am unable to recognize that, to achieve my human potential, I must expend energy to move beyond my mediocre existence to achieve greatness.

Just as hormones drive us through puberty and coax us to find a mate and reproduce, God has endowed each person with a desire to seek Him. It takes a concerted effort to ignore that desire, yet regardless of one’s belief or unbelief in God, every human being faces the transient nature of life and the death sentence under which we all live.

I know what I have written may make you feel uneasy, but that is my intent, as I do not want you to be comfortable with your present condition. I want you to be uncomfortable but inspired to step out of your comfort zone and explore a new realm of personal possibility. I will not coddle you in your shortcomings by explaining them away as human frailties. I cannot because Christ never did that with anyone with whom He came in contact. Multiple examples in the Gospels demonstrate that Jesus, though loving, challenged people to be better human beings. He expected people to improve their lives, put aside the things that impeded them, take the high road rather than settle for mediocrity, and become all that they could become.

A fundamental assumption of this book is that human beings operate within the parameters of inviolate physical laws that act upon our biology. When we attempt to apply relativism to our lives, we fail. Our physical reality is absolutely not relative. For example, if I believe I can fly when I step out of an airborne plane without a parachute, the absolute law of gravity will override my irrational belief. As I reach terminal velocity and see the approaching ground, I will realize that my assumption was incorrect. By then, it will be too late.

Belief in the Bible means that the believer accepts the laws of God as defined and codified, differences between right and wrong, and the need for human beings to follow these tenets to improve their lives. They are concrete principles that clearly show us how to conduct our lives. To do otherwise invites calamity, because just as physical laws cannot change merely because I wish them to change, I cannot exist healthily outside of what God has determined best.

However, some societies, individuals, and even ministers of the faith have sought to interpret and modify these tenets depending upon the current societal and cultural prism through which they are looking. This has led to confusion within the body of Christ, causing what was once unacceptable to become acceptable. Controversies have raged and continue to rage on various topics, but regardless of human debate, the fundamental truths that God has given us do not change, even though we may try to change them. While such a debate may seem progressive as humanity becomes more sophisticated, it is clear that the moral development of humanity has lagged significantly behind its technological advances. Accordingly, a sinful man remains sinful regardless of his computing capacity. Therefore concrete tenets are necessary to bridle undesirable behavior that often leads to detrimental consequences.

God gave us laws to help us live productive lives. Those laws keep the fabric of society cohesive. However, if I reject the belief that there is a difference between right and wrong and prefer to hold that the Bible is not the ultimate moral authority, then I truly do not accept the God of the Bible. Instead, I am soon bogged down in the quagmire of moral relativism. That is, I believe that, through my conscience, I can create my own variable morality based upon what I believe is right or wrong. With this state of mind, every situation I encounter leaves me incapable of expressing cogent, concrete, moral principles consistently or of acting upon those ideas with lasting conviction.

If I contend that I can deny the authority of the Bible yet still have a solid moral framework, I am intellectually dishonest. Despite my passionate beliefs, my convictions are devoid of an absolute standard. I am liable to change my core beliefs when challenged by a seemingly more viable position. However, when my morality is rooted in the absolute tenets of God, I remain steadfast regardless of the opposition, because there is no higher moral authority than God. Living your life absolutely devoid of relativism, you become empowered in your convictions and capable of withstanding adversity. This character trait is essential to achieve your human potential, because obstacles will arise along the path to enlightenment.

A necessary requirement to make substantial changes in your life is the ability to be brutally honest with yourself. My mother taught me to identify my strengths and my weaknesses. It is a difficult, continuous process, but it taught me that even though I was not perfect, I could focus on my weaknesses and convert them into assets. With my mother’s guidance, the emergence of opportunity, diligence, and hard work, I succeeded athletically, academically, and now professionally. However, all my success had its foundation in my belief in Christ and the principles He espoused.

My Beginnings

Any discussion concerning God and the human condition must begin with the writer’s perspective. The Judeo-Christian tradition constitutes the foundation of my faith. If I had grown up Hindu, I would interpret life through the eyes of Vishnu, or if Muslim, with the thoughts of Muhammad. Since I am a product of Western civilization, where the predominant faith is Christianity, my interpretation of life and reality is based upon the God of Abraham revealed in the Bible. If I contend that my comments are not biased, then I am not truthful. As a Christian, I firmly believe that the tenet of salvation through Christ is God’s only plan for salvation; and, while other faiths may have useful tenets, the only path to a deeper understanding of God is through Christ.

This book does not attempt to explore every question concerning humanity and Christ from every perspective as it relates to achieving one’s human potential. It will, when appropriate, look at opposing viewpoints and discern and solidify counterarguments, while formulating a paradigm that will hopefully move you closer to achieving your human potential.

The process for me has been long and at times difficult; it is far from complete. Keeping the teachings of Christ as my foundation has allowed me to endure and to succeed.

For many, any discussion of Christ as an answer to our postmodern personal condition rankles twenty-first-century sensibilities. In the ascent of humankind from the caves of France to the skyscrapers of Hong Kong, we believe we have outgrown a religion born on a barren hill called Golgotha.

In a nation that claims to be Christian, the mention of Christ often brings incredulity or indifference. This is bewildering, since a profession of faith implies that one practices that faith. Many modern, Western people have deluded themselves into believing that the keys to a better life exist solely in money, material possessions, and societal position—in fact, almost anywhere but in the Bible.

Almost daily, a new religious fad arises that promises to bring enlightenment to the soul and peace to the troubled heart. We have seen the rise and fall and now rise again of yoga, a fascination with far Eastern religions and mysticism, and we may even watch on television someone who supposedly talks to dead people. For my part, I have no desire to bother people who have died, as I suspect they are in a bad mood.

For those who think religion is mumbo jumbo, geared to those of a weak mind, or opium for the masses, the chapters on physical laws and biological complexity challenge belief in the god of science and technology. In those chapters, I attempt to reveal the original engineer and architect of the universe, a Creator who has not abandoned His creation.

Why should a biased individual think others would care about his presentation of an esoteric and metaphysical journey into the nature of life when so many other matters press for their attention? The question is valid, but the answer lies in the fact that the expression of these ideas adds to the human experience by putting another piece of the puzzle in place. Moreover, such an exploration better defines our existence and improves our lives.

Admittedly, some of my pieces may be askew, but by placing them upon the collective table of human thought and experience, I might spark someone else to add to them or set them in their proper place. This discussion is necessary since human beings, wrapped and ultimately trapped by daily activities, often forget that they are part of a large collective called the human race, as well as an unseen spiritual realm.

Through this mental exploration into the realm of the metaphysical, we do not waste time but rather gain a greater understanding of the universe and ourselves. Ultimately, we formulate an understanding of our place in the universe and the laws that govern the inorganic as well as the organic. As your level of understanding grows, you will be better equipped to tackle the unpredictability and contradictions of life. Although every human journey is unique, there is a commonality shared among all earthly travelers. This congruency of purpose, to live, to procreate, to interact with other human beings, and eventually to die, is derived from and inherent in our collective humanity.

Humans are the highest created beings on this planet. Our intelligence and the fact that we are created in the image of God set us apart from all other creatures on Earth. Yet intelligence alone does not distinguish humanity from other species. Our ability to think and act beyond instinct in the context of free choice, driven by our conscience, makes us human. Our divinely ordained ability to think metaphysically empowers us not only to contemplate God but also to seek God.

The act of seeking God, and the assimilation of godly characteristics into our lives, within the context of divinely inspired wisdom, constitutes enlightenment. This noble quest is difficult to achieve because our humanity is constantly in conflict with divine traits. Nevertheless, far from an impossible undertaking, the quest for enlightenment is a necessary endeavor, a conscious and deliberate act that embraces, defines, and ultimately enhances our humanity.

The tenets of enlightenment, when operational in a person’s life, filter our human behavior and thought processes through the sieve of a godly standard of perfection. This process enables a person to see clearly, crisply, and cogently all the manifestations of this earthly reality. We see the world as it truly exists, once the cataract of corporeal blindness dissolves.

The enlightenment sought by the inhabitants of Western societies is based on the Judeo-Christian heritage that acknowledges the God of Abraham as Jehovah for Jewish people, and Christ as God for Christians. In those traditions, people cannot achieve their human potential unless they have an understanding of the will of God in their lives. By assimilating the principles that lead to enlightenment, a person gains insight into proper behavior toward other human beings and God. More important, that transforming understanding of God allows one to define oneself and, through that process, make it possible to achieve one’s full human potential.

The Architect

Imagine you are an ant looking up at a pebble that sits at the base of a mountain. In your diminutive state, the pebble looks like a boulder as it inhibits your view of the mountain behind it. Similarly, we seek to know God from a finite vantage point that cannot perceive the entirety of His being. We boldly attempt to understand the infinite with a finite understanding, but God is beyond our temporal thought. For me, it is akin to understanding every aspect of quantum physics, Einstein’s general theory of relativity, all the knowledge of humankind, all multiplied by billions. At best, I might understand a fraction of it, and any attempt to piece together and understand the entirety would be a monumental task far beyond my capacity.

However, my effort to understand as much as I can has merit, and it makes the attempt worthwhile. I am comforted in knowing that somewhere beyond that vast amount of knowledge is an infinite God who understands my limitations and accepts me despite my finiteness.

While this book is a compilation of what I have learned and applied to my life, I hope that within its pages you will find elements that will assist you on your personal journey toward achieving your goals. I make no apologies for my faith, since without my faith I would not have succeeded. I will leave it up to you to judge the merits of this book. I can only speak from my life experiences, and if I exclude this vital aspect of my faith, then I am not being honest with myself or with you.

My ultimate temporal goal was to become a surgeon. I achieved that goal, but I constantly remind myself that God does not respect the social or professional rank of a person within society. Being obedient to His word is most important.

Then Peter began to speak: I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right (Acts 10:34–35).

My ultimate goal is to be Christlike in all my actions. I have much further to go to reach that objective, but the world can offer nothing in exchange for my journey to achieve that goal. This is the only logical conclusion drawn by a finite being, since our temporal existence is an insistent reminder of our finality. I am constrained to admit that, being dichotomous, I must seek to enrich that part of me that is eternal.

Your journey through this book will focus on assimilating concepts that will help you attain not only temporal achievement but, more important, spiritual enlightenment. Without growth of the spirit matched by the attainment of goals, we remain less than what we might become. For many, the attainment of a long-pursued dream is a victory, but at what price? If I violate some or all the laws of humankind or society to achieve my goal, or if I believe the end justifies the means, have I truly attained anything? For some, the answer would be an unequivocal yes, but I prefer to suggest that she who gains the world by these means has built a beautiful castle and filled it with the bones of the dead.

On the contrary, the one who attains a balance between temporal success and spiritual enlightenment has reached the highest pinnacle of human achievement. No other task is as difficult or as rewarding as the fusion of personal accomplishment with compassion and humility. The ability to perform at a high level, yet seek to bring others along the path, is the mark of an enlightened human being.

I do not pretend to have all the answers, nor do I believe that I have attained an ultimate state of enlightenment. What I do know is that together, we will walk that path, explore the nature of our hearts, identify and vanquish those things that hinder our journey, and seek a state of being beyond what we could have imagined. The journey to achieving your human potential is a lonely road most of the time, an arduous task sometimes, but a glorious quest always. Nothing valuable in life comes without a price. Just as a woman must endure labor to bring a child into this world, you must be willing to endure the labor of your new beginning.

You are the architect of your destiny, the facilitator of personal change, but to maximize your efforts, you must follow the guideposts made clear within the Bible, as well as adopt moral tenets that will keep your thoughts focused upon Christ. Even though my journey is unique to myself, I learned lessons from my mother that prepared me for the long journey to become a transplant surgeon and a world-class athlete—lessons that are universally applicable. Ultimately, not only will your triumph be personal, it will be a triumph for humanity; every soul that grows deeper in knowledge about itself and its Creator brings humanity closer to God.

The socio-scientific theology laid out in this book is the product of years of biblical study, interactions with many people of differing views, and practical experiences as a scientist and surgeon. The melding of those experiences in the crucible of my life is narrated in the ensuing pages. I hope you will find there a philosophy that will prompt you to ask questions not only of yourself but also of the reality in which you live. May you, by doing so, find the path God has designed for you. I assure you that if your life and actions reflect Christ’s teachings, and if you adhere assiduously to His high standard, you will realize your human potential.

Chapter Two:

First Thoughts

Why do human beings entertain a notion of God? Why do we try to improve our current state of being? Where do we turn for guidance? What intrinsic force leads us to ponder our existence, our circumstances, let alone what awaits us once we die?

Some philosophers contend that human beings created the concept of God in response to the evil present in the world. In such a deity, we could displace our anxiety about life, justify our existence, hope for a better tomorrow, but ultimately delude ourselves about the nature of our reality. Such a belief is cynical because it not only denies the existence of the one true God but also debases our collective human experience by rejecting that we are ultimately a part of God. If I create within my mind such a philosophy, a god of my own design, then I render my existence incomplete. I cannot see the fullness of reality when I only look inward.

Moreover, if I pray to a god that I have created, then I fool no one but myself. I have not made my reality any better. In fact, I have made my reality worse because I have lied to myself and have failed to make rational sense out of my existence. If I were to create a god in my mind, I would opt for a god with low standards, because I know I have failings. Conversely, the God of the Bible is perfect, and He desires me to be the best person I can possibly become. This is the challenge set before us by Christ. I am asked to become more than what I am presently.

When faced with the sobering reality of life, any self-created belief system falters, and there is no fail-safe. I cannot escape the evil of the world, and I am at a loss to explain what I witness daily. I am confounded because I cannot explain the good that I see, because I do not know its source; or if I believe it is a random event, then I find no solace because the chances of an evil or good event occurring are equivalent. A god of my own creation will ultimately fall short, because I cannot deny the fact that I created that god in my mind. He is not real because I cannot intellectually justify what I created, something for which I established the parameters, something that arose internally rather than externally. This is one reason why the gods of the Greeks and Romans ultimately failed.

If I am honest, I must admit that I am an intelligent being, and therefore reason must direct my thoughts. Logical cause and effect synapses operating within my brain will eventually reject any faith I have created because I know that such a god is not real. It is a belief with no concrete foundation. It is relative, fallacious, specious, and dangerous because it undermines my humanity.

Conversely, the Bible tells us explicitly that God exists and is not a fanciful creation from the fertile mind of man. Moses, a gentle man of great faith, raised in the house of Pharaoh, had a close encounter with God. His encounter with a Being external to his existence, beyond the capacity of his mind to conjure, transformed him. Moses’ own words reflect his state of mind that struggled to comprehend what he was experiencing. He asked thoughtfully what he was to tell the people of Israel when they asked for God’s name.

God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you’ (Exod. 3:14).

The miracles that preceded and then followed the release of the Israelites from Egypt testify to the existence of God. Moses had faith in what God told him. Belief in the God of the Bible requires faith. However, that type of faith is different from faith in a god of my own choosing, because I can see evidence of God in nature as well as the tangible changes in a Christ-centered life.

In our skeptical age, proof of principle has become dogma. Although many cannot see God in the world around them, their blindness does not nullify God’s existence. Moreover, if someone chooses to create his or her own god or rejects the God of the Bible, his or her disbelief does not obviate the existence of the God who is perfect, has a perfect standard, and though forgiving, expects people to try to live up to the standards promulgated in the Bible to improve their personal existence.

At some point in your life you must decide whether the God of the Bible exists or not. If you do not believe, then continue your search for truth in whatever manner you choose, but if you seek elsewhere, seek honestly by questioning all aspects of that truth to see if it is internally consistent. If you do believe that the Bible is inspired, given to proclaim the life of Christ and His teachings as well as to instruct people how they are to live their lives, then I believe you have taken the first steps toward true enlightenment.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16–17).

Our ability to ponder the nature of God is God-given, but this ability was given to humanity for a reason. As we learn more about the nature and will of God, we can fully define who and what we are, as well as our place in the world. It is the responsibility of every person to seek after God, since in that search, we become more human. Our humanity, our corporeal being, is temporary, yet modern man exalts the body, the creation, more than the spirit. We ignore the health of our soul while we paint, pierce, and sculpt our bodies into what society deems beautiful. We inject ourselves with botulism toxin in an attempt to stay forever young, while our lives and personal interactions fall apart because we have neglected our spiritual health.

Enlightenment does not come from glorifying or altering the flesh, but rather by mortifying the flesh. Our bodies are a temple to house our eternal soul. As such, we must take care of our bodies.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body (1 Cor. 6:19–20).

Society has accepted a lie that the form is more important than the function, that the body is more important than the soul. This is a fallacy since no one can deny that everyone ages and dies. No one gets off the earth alive. Since this is a fact of life, and if you believe your soul is eternal, then your journey to the Godhead is paramount.

Why then do we so often ignore the most important part of our humanity, the part that lives forever? Greed, jealously, envy, hatred, and avarice have fueled wars and caused untold misery. It is a sad truth that human beings have a great capacity for beauty but a terrible proclivity for personal and public destruction. However, through your private, conscious journey, your enlightenment will transform how you live your life. In doing so, you draw closer to God, and when others see the changes in you, you will have an impact upon them. If enough people change, then the entire world can change, but world change cannot happen with forced indoctrination. Change must begin with the individual heart, one at a time, until the entire world sees that love is the key to our continued survival.

Regardless of your beliefs, it is an inescapable fact that those who are honest with themselves realize they can be better than their current condition. However, where did that desire, that ability to reflect upon one’s life, originate?

Preprogrammed

Why do we seek that which we cannot see, and why is greater understanding of that presence so crucial to fulfilling our human potential? There is little debate as to whether human beings are both temporal and spiritual. Religions from the dawn of time have espoused a belief in the hereafter and a supreme being that is the creator of the universe. The Judeo-Christian heritage is no different. Countless biblical scholars have pondered the dual nature of humankind and have written extensively on the topic.

However, faith and science have not always meshed, at least not in a parallel, linear fashion. Sometimes biblical truths, by faith, are not proven by science until centuries later. The converse is also true. With the exponential growth of scientific knowledge over the last hundred years, the number of skeptics has risen. Today, many scientists as well as laypeople refuse to believe in the presence of God because God cannot be defined by the experimental method. The scientists’ conundrum arose because, though they cannot prove that God does not exist by the scientific method, they also cannot disprove that He does exist.

Leaving the atheists and secular scientists behind for the moment, let us assume by faith that God does in fact exist. Part of this belief arises from an innate longing for something greater than us. If we were to adhere strictly to evolutionary thought, why would we have these desires if we were the product of a random event and indiscriminate mutations? A creature born of a mistake in nature would have no need for a god, since that creature’s existence would be an accident, meaningless in an uncaring universe.

I believe there is order in creation and that a Creator foreordained the presence of the universe, as well as human beings programmed to seek that deity. If I were creating a universe, I would want to commune with the beings I had made, but I would logically have to provide the means for that to occur. I would want those beings to be endowed with rational thought, to discern right from wrong, and to seek me for guidance and comfort.

Far too often, God is portrayed as a malevolent entity waiting to send people to hell. For centuries, people have been scared into believing that God exists. This is not the God of the Bible. In fact, the God of the Bible is a God of love. If the sacrifice of your only child is not the ultimate act of love for a world that has rebelled against you, then I am open to suggestions.

Therefore, I seek something beyond myself because I must. I believe God instilled within us the capacity to be introspective if we choose to exercise that trait. The act of introspection, set against the godly standard present within the Bible, can propel individuals to be better than their current state. Fortunately, we have a template, Christ, by which to measure our lives.

The hedonist does not try to be better because she worships pleasure, but the soul cannot survive on earthly pleasure alone. Only the Spirit of God can feed our spirit. It takes a conscious effort to turn our backs on the truths that God has given humanity, but our carnal desires often override what appears inherently correct.

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want (Gal. 5:16–17).

The ability to choose a destructive behavior, without the influence of drugs, despite the consequences, is characteristic solely of human beings. Only human beings can understand the consequences of their actions and choose a detrimental path despite the consequences.

We have free choice. God created us uniquely among animals on this planet to commune with Him. No other creature has this ability. Our DNA, programmed by God, enables us to ask questions about God. He placed within us the desire and ability to seek Him. That is our gift from God. We have the capacity to actively and consciously seek what seems unreachable.

As I grow spiritually and move to higher planes of spiritual awareness, I am able to cast aside things that hinder me from realizing my human potential. The attainment of my physical potential is inexorably linked to my spiritual growth. God ordained this construct. He