"You’re the men and women, individuals made in the image of God, who stumble up the hill toward the Jerusalem on the hill, the shining city on a hill.” . . .“It’s the call to divine responsibility.”
You may want to hear some words of encouragement from Jordan Peterson as he addressed the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, four months ago.
This Rubin Report youtube video brings the message online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mTS57hkAUk
In his message, the world-reknown psychologist addresses the issue of each one of us finding a place of effective family and/or societal service, even in the midst of today’s culture and identity conflicts.
Dr. Peterson makes allegorical use of the inspirational and motivational power of an ancient story.
“Simple stories scale upward; that’s Jacob’s Ladder, the eternal link, a vine that unites our material, proximal realm with the eternal realm of heaven."
First, he poses a fascinating question: How do we construct and climb Jacob’s ladder? How do we even comprehend it?
The explanation begins with something as simple—yet as lengthy as—training a child. He explains how teaching a child how to clean his/her room is an effective beginning, then moving forward to setting a dinner table and other chores. Then we extend our instruction and training further and further as the child grows up. . . into the realm of co-existing with other people, accepting responsibilities, learning courtesy, generally progressing forward in personal behavior in a manner that opens a place in human society instructing us how to ascend into roles of service and responsibility.
Teaching the child a hundred “microvisions” of helpfulness, proficiencies, skills, courtesies constitutes a “glorious vision of how to unite (the purposes of) heaven and the ways and means of this earth.
In so doing, we “scaffold ourselves upward from the finite to the infinite” purposes for which we humans were created. . . ultimately, if you’ll permit me the metaphor. . . to a heavenly, communal arrangement of what we do on this earth.
As we mature past childhood, we expand step by step into a lifestyle that encompasses not only personal well-being and responsibility, but also community and societal well-being and progress.
So we are building, metaphorically upward, a ladder on which we ascend to a life of personal and societal responsibility and progress.
The ancient, biblical image of this challenge and its subsequent ascent was presented to the ancient patriarch in a visionary dream: Jacob’s Ladder.
To illustrate, here’s the image that I used on my musical album cover, “Revelation 5:9” a long time ago:
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