The one thing which matters most in our human existence is conviction.
The model of human nature to which I subscribe assumes human nature is a trio: flesh, mind and spirit. We can’t really separate them very well in actual practice, but it permits academic discussion. Further, I posit not every human has a living spirit; most are dead spiritually. We were designed for it, but the default condition right now is no operative spirit. God alone can awaken it, and He has chosen not to reveal the hows and whys of that. Nor are we permitted to know whether another person is alive or dead in the spirit, only how we should respond to them. We are constrained to remain open minded about it, and work off the cues He has revealed. Academically, I can’t say whether the spiritually dead possess convictions, but it seems there is something which operates that way for them.
The word conviction in this sense refers to a body of belief which drives us, seems to have a life of its own, and does not necessarily respond to reason. It is as if we were programmed somewhere below the conscious level, and can only counteract that program at risk of suffering mental instability, or at the very least, neurosis. It’s roughly equivalent to the concept of conscience.
What’s the difference between dogged determination and hard-headed foolishness? Only our internal evaluation. The mechanism inside another human soul which drives them beyond any hope of “success” is conviction, functionally labeled. Whether that conviction is good or bad depends on who is looking at its effects. What’s more important is for us to make a place in our cultural understanding of this world.
Armed agents of the government tend to say someone is good or bad based on whether they can persuade someone to obey their mandates. Ask any cop, and they will seldom admit the people they’ve had to threaten and coerce might have possessed honorable motives. It’s the orthodoxy of “modern policing” — resisting the will of the cop, which is presumed to be the will of the state, cannot come from a clear conscience. The hive mind of human government cannot permit the acknowledged existence of something “good” which is contrary to the policy of the state. Thus, the state is God in the sense of defining what is good and evil.
This over-simplification leads to the current descent into Police State misery. An obvious conclusion I ask you to make is realizing what you are told is “the law” or legal requirement is not necessarily just, and certainly not necessarily righteous in God’s eyes. Whether you believe in that third element of human nature, my message to you is: The starting point is Noah’s Laws, and God Himself has promised you can understand it well enough to please Him when you are forced to decide whether any particular demand of human government is justified. The mere existence of human government is not sufficient cause to obey as if God had spoken.
For those of us who believe our spirits are alive, we sense the certainty a core of conviction was planted within our spirits by God Himself. We might not have a clear grasp of the contents, but the presence is undeniable. The task for life is clarifying what conviction requires of us in the broad sense, as well as specific application. At some point, regardless of consequences, you’ll find there is some internal demand from which you cannot walk away; you simply have to do what you have to do. Your best hope is having some idea what your convictions demand.
