{"id":338,"date":"2010-11-08T21:32:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/11\/good-enough\/"},"modified":"2010-11-08T21:32:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-08T21:32:00","slug":"good-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2010\/11\/good-enough.html","title":{"rendered":"Good Enough?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
Religious leaders of almost all flavors like to rant against our evolutionary desire for more more more. Unless you\u2019ve been immersed in a \u201cprosperity gospel\u201d church for the past twenty years you know what I\u2019m talking about. Once our basic needs are covered, \u201cmore\u201d material stuff doesn\u2019t make us happier, so our religions teach us to focus our time and energy on things like family, spiritual work, and work to help those whose basic needs aren\u2019t covered. <\/div>\n
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This makes sense, which is probably why it\u2019s been taught in Eastern and Western religions, in conservative and liberal traditions.<\/div>\n
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At the same time, the reality is that most of the advances of humanity (both material and spiritual) haven\u2019t been made by balanced individuals. They\u2019ve been made by people who were driven to discover, create, build and achieve more more more. I\u2019m reminded of Thomas Edison\u2019s famous quote \u201cgenius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.\u201d To me, that is the essence of drive.<\/div>\n
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How many great works of art and literature and religion were created by people who wouldn\u2019t know balance if a seesaw hit them in the butt? The clich\u00e9 of the \u201ctortured artist\u201d is a clich\u00e9 for a reason.<\/div>\n
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And that dichotomy brings me to this: once you\u2019ve got \u201cenough\u201d stuff and you realize it, once your spiritual practice is satisfying, once you\u2019ve achieved a balance in your life (precarious though it may be), how do you walk away from that to seek something more, something deeper?<\/div>\n
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I don\u2019t have the answer to that question, but I know I need to find it. Because the call to something deeper is strong, and I\u2019d rather walk away on my own terms than have it ripped away on someone else\u2019s. <\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Religious leaders of almost all flavors like to rant against our evolutionary desire for more more more. Unless you\u2019ve been immersed in a \u201cprosperity gospel\u201d church for the past twenty years you know what I\u2019m talking about. Once our basic needs are covered, \u201cmore\u201d material stuff doesn\u2019t make us happier, so our religions teach us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGood Enough?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Religious leaders of almost all flavors like to rant against our evolutionary desire for more more more. 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