A Dog’s Life vs Your Life

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good afternoon everyone. It is Saturday, February the first, twenty twenty five. It is currently one pm Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. So quick question, do you have a dog? Do you have a dog? If you do, For those who do, I need you to call your dog two wherever you are right now, call your dog to you. Have them either get up next to you, if you're sitting on a couch, have them hop up in your lap, have them sit there right there in the floor. Look at your dog. I want you to look deeply into your dog's eyes. Right Okay. I know you think this is crazy. Call your dog to you right now. Okay, look deeply into their eyes now. Whether you want to believe this or whether you don't. According to well a recent book, that dog that you're looking at right now, you're looking to that dog's eyes. That dog loves their life more than you love your life. Yes, according to a book that has been released, a book

1:35 that kind of takes the life of a dog and looks at it philosophically and compares it to well, our lives. According to this, well, dog's inner world is far deeper than you even realize, and they love their lives more than we love ours. So we're gonna talk about dogs. We're gonna talk about their lives. We're gonna compare their lives to us, and we're going to look at something that causes us a lot of problems that a dog doesn't have to deal with. And one of the reasons that dog's life may be better than ours is because something we have they don't have, and as a result of them not having it, their lives tend to be better than our lives, or at least our perception of our lives. Oh, we can't have a long philosophical discussion about this. I know what you're thinking. Wait a minute, this seemed like an odd topic. We'll remember we started twenty twenty five, and I told you I'm basically keeping an empty notebook right here under the microphone as somewhat symbolic of how I'm kind of approaching this year. Right, no real plan, no real strategy. Each day, wherever the podcast takes us, it takes us, and today it's going to take us in. Well, you sitting there looking at your dog, that's where it's taking us. You're looking at your dog. I can't call a dog to me right now, right I can't. I don't have a dog current. I've had multiple dogs in my life. All of them have passed away. It's always been absolutely emotionally just destroyed me.

3:10 Every single time a dog has passed away, it has greatly impacted me. I love animals. I love dogs. I always feel like I have like a connection with the animal. But well, according to what we know, it seems like they well they love their lives more than I've ever loved mine. And I know that some people will just find that as kind of an interesting titbit. Maybe they find it just, oh that's curious, that's interesting. But to me, it points to something far deeper, and that's what we're going to try to get to. So sometimes I hate when I have to stop and explain this. Right. So many times I will take a story it could be about a pastor or about a church, or in this case, about dogs, but I'm trying to get to a deeper issue.

3:57 But some people get hung up on the initial thing, right, and I'm like, no, no, say pass that. So I need you to see, Patty, this is not necessarily about dogs. It's really about us. And again, we possess something that a dog doesn't appear to possess. And because we possess this one thing, and I'm going to explain it soon, it causes us all kinds of problems. So is there a way around this? And we're going to talk about it in greater detail. Now why am I approaching this subject today? Well, I'm going to be honest with you and hopefully I can connect this all together. I have struggled over the last few days about broadcasting. I told you that I was going to find myself in a difficult spot because I feel that what's going to happen right now is that Christianity in large at large is going to become more and more politicized. Christian nationalism, the political hijacking of Christianity, it's going to increase, and it's going to increase. And so you're going to see this mad move within Christianity to talk about politics and to defend basically anything and everything President Trump says and does.

5:12 And we are already watching that take place. Okay, So we're going to see this. Well, on the other side, what's going to happen is you're going to find Christians who try to push back against this politicized Christianity, this politically hijack Christianity, and this basically Trump worshiping cult that much of Christianity is going to turn into. So you could spend all of your time fighting against this other. Well, if you got one side who's become a Trump loving cult, who's political, there God is politics, and you've got the other side that's trying to constantly fight it, well, where does Christianity fall into the fall in? Where does Christianity even go? Where will Christianity be even found? And I said, I'm going to do everything in my power. Obviously I'm not going to be in the Trump loving cult and politics as my God can. So obviously I'm not there.

6:02 But I told you I'm going to do everything in my power not to become just all I'm going to do is speak against this other thing. I don't want to do that. If I do that, I basically have to become a news broadcast and just talk about the news twenty four to seven. So I've been struggling because as much as I don't want to do that. Well, there's been some things that's happened over the last few few days that has gotten to me emotionally in a very deep way, and it's bothered me greatly. When that plane crashed and what sixty seven people perished, and while bodies were still being taken out of the river, we have a president of the United States of America who use that opportunity to blame the crash without any evidence on the very diversity and equality type policies that his administration actually started, like, I mean, we could go that even predates it, and he continued he didn't change them, what and blaming basically, Hey, this crash occurred because of a DEI hire. I mean, come on, it was it was.

7:11 It was horrific. It was it was purely I mean it was. Oh man, it was so wrong in so many different ways. So do I turn on the microphone and talk about that and time and then try to go through all the fact checks and go here? I mean, and I did all of the research. Okay, here's the archive of the website. Even when Trump was under the administration, those same hiring policies were in place. They were right there on the government website. He did not change them, he did not remember, and all the things just proving everything he said was a lie. I do I want to do that, and and and in some ways I want to because well, things like the Christian Post was almost and many of the comments under there was supporting some of the things Trump was saying, even in some cases when it was factually in error. And it's like, I can't, I can't do that, So I just refused to broadcast. So today I'm going to use dogs and their lives to try to get us to this deeper conversation.

8:07 But my awareness of everything going on around me, well, it's all going to fit together. So let's talk about dogs first, and then we'll talk about us. Let's talk about dogs first. All right, this was published. I've got an article here that was published at eight am this morning. Eight am this morning. Here is the headline, A dog's inner world is far deeper than we realize. Right, Okay, that's just interesting. That means maybe we should up look at our dogs in a different way. If there's something deeper going on inside of them, maybe we should have a better understanding of what that is. Okay, may make us better dog owners, maybe make us have more empathy or simple and Okay, it may change the way we see our dogs. Okay, that's interesting. But then the next line they speaking of dogs, they love their lives more than we love ours, And I'm like, well, wait a minute. Okay, if the dogs love their lives more than we love ours, then I wonder what the secret is. Well, probably the first secret is they're not aware of the of the crazy things happening in our country and the politicized nature of the church. Maybe all these things that bother me, the dog is not aware of. So I need to have the life of a dog because it'll be better than what I'm currently experiencing. Okay, well maybe maybe that's

9:38 the case. Well let's let's try to find out what's going on here. Right. The article begins with this, chew on this. Well, that's kind of funny. Chew on this. It's it's about dogs, and they chew on that. Okay, ha ha, that's funny. All right, never mind, right, chew on this. A dog's life, even if that means joyfully and endlessly chasing squirrels, is more meaningful than a dog owner's life. Wow. So the dog. They love their lives more than we love ours, and their life is more meaningful than ours. So if a dog has more enjoyment, and if a dog has more meaning than I have in my life, then there's something we're doing wrong. Why do we not have the same level of joy and meaning as a dog has. Even if a dog just spends all day long just chasing squirrels, they're still happier and they have more meaning. Okay, so maybe the answer is I spend my life chasing squirrels. I mean, come on, what's the answer here? Well, this idea has been put forth by someone by the name of Mark Rowlands R O W L A n DS Mark Rowlands. He is a professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Miami. In his latest meditation on the Inherent Happiness of Our K nine Companions, so he has

11:13 spent some time, as this is referred to a meditation on the inherent happiness of our K nine companions, our dogs, our K nine companions, they have an inherent happiness. I don't think as humans we have an inherent happiness. I think we have an inherent dissatisfaction. I think we have an inherent lack of happiness. I think so. I mean, you could argue whether that's the case, but at last, in this case, he spent some time studying this. So the next paragraph, a dog loves his life with everything he has because it's all he has. That's a profound statement.

12:06 A dog loves his life with everything he has because it's all he has. He loves his life with everything he has because it's all he has. That was rather profound when I read that. Okay, let's just take this. Let's kind of start bringing some of this philosophy over to a Christian perspective. We're supposed to love God with all of our heart, mind, body, and soul. Can we ever truly love God with all of our heart, mind, body, and soul? If God is not all that we have?

12:47 As long as we have other things? Can we ever truly love God with all that we are? So you can't. Can you truly love God with all that you are unless God is all that you have? Let me state it this way. Can you love God with everything you have until God is all that you have? It seems that maybe I'm not saying that this book is obviously going in this direction. But it's at least putting forth the idea that the reason the dog loves its life with everything it has is because it's all he has. Well maybe, I mean, I think when we see the commands, still love God with all of our heart, mind, Boddy, and so again. I don't believe we will ever obey it in any way, shape or form. We cannot. I believe we're incapable. Why are we incapable of loving God with everything inside of us? Well, I would go, I would point to human depravity, But maybe there's another reason, because God is not all that we have. I'm just curious.

13:46 This raises a lot of philosophical questions, right, I'm just curious if your life was stripped of everything, stripped of everything, right, no spouse, no hu, no wife, no boyfriend, no girlfriend. So no romantic relationship, right, we're fast approaching Valentine's Day? Right, no relationship, no romance, no intimacy, no person. Would you love God more? Or would you love God bless or because you were missing it? Would you become so preoccupied with getting it that it would actually be more detrimental to your Christian life? Or is it good enough to have it? Enough to meet some of those emotional and physical needs to such a level where you can focus on God. I don't know which way would it go.

14:38 You have your job, you have hopes, you have dreams, you have expectations, you have likes, you have dislikes, you have all these other things. If you were to have everything taken from you and all you have is God, would then we would truly love God. So again, the the quote is, and I'm quoting directly here, this is a direct quote. A dog loves his life with everything he has because it's all he has, writes Rowland's And this is the name of the book, The Word of Dog, What our canine companions can teach us about living a good life. So you may want to look up speaking I hear a dog barking in the background right now, Say that dog barking in the background right now loves his life more than I love mine right now, because that's all he has. But the name of the book is the Word of Dog, What our canine companions can teach us about living a good life. You may want to look up the book right now, see if you're interested in purchasing it. The Word of Dog, What our Canine companions can teach us about living a good life.

15:49 Maybe maybe the philosophical thing you need to focus on. Maybe the philosophical thing you need to meditate on right now is your dog. Maybe your dog is there and it's around you all the time, and you ignore your dog. You don't pay any attention to it. But maybe your dog is a walking, living philosophical lesson. It's an object lesson right there in front of us, and we don't pay attention to it. Now, let me continue next paragraph here. Rowlands, whose previous book was The Philosophy of the Wolf, offers not so much revelations of the inner workings of our faithful companions, but a philosophical message on how we can live a more fulfilling life inspired by the unselfish joy dog's experience, even in repetitive tasks such as chasing a ball.

16:49 So the book is not so much there to help us understand dogs more. It's more about helping us maybe, or challenging us that, or at least trying to show us how you and I, as individuals, how we can live a more fulfilling life inspired by the unselfish joy dog's experience, even if that just means just doing over and over and over here chasing a ball, just over and over and over. A dog finds unselfish joy deep me, just if it finds all the things that sometimes we're lacking, even if it seems like a meaningless thing. That because well, the dog loves its life with everything it has, because it's all it has. Well we'll be like, well, whatever, well whatever, well whatever whatever whatever we I mean, I mean so many times, I mean there is there is there is a I'm already being able to see some truth in this, right. When you have a million movies available to you, do you find yourself now being much I don't like that. Don't like that, don't like that, don't like that. But if you only had a few available to you, don't you find greater joy when you have fewer things than you do when you have many things.

18:11 I think most people find themselves having less enjoyment and less contentment the more they have available to them. I think there's some truth to that, all right, The article continues, If I can speak correctly, the lesson to be learned from dogs and the Professor's deep dive is the love of life and the action a dog experiences in his uncomplicated life. According to Roland's, dogs love their lives more than we love ours. That is why their lives are more meaningful than ours. So again, once again, it's just restating what's already been stated. A dog loves their life more than we love our lives, and a dog finds more meaning than we find So you look at your dog.

19:02 That dog right there loves it's life more than you love yours, and that dog has more meaning in its life than you have in yours. That's somebody. It's like, come on, now, come on, I feed you, I take care of you. Come on, give up your lesson here show me why tell me how you figure that. I know your dog's not gonna be able to tell you this, but you're like, come on, if you've got this great secret, I need to figure it out. It goes on. The article goes on. It is clear that in this two hundred and forty nine word treatise that one could benefit from a crash course in philosophy one oh one to comprehend some of the author's thinking. So, even though it's only two hundred and forty nine words, this book about the word of dog, it may require kind of a philosophy one oh one class. I don't know if you've ever taken a philosophy one oh one class in college, but I mean, I think everyone needs to have a basic understanding of philosoph I do because I believe so many times Christians don't approach things with some philosophical questions, and when they are, when they're confronted with philosophical questions, they tend to fall apart. I'm not saying philosophy provides us the answer, but philosophy. I mean it used to be.

20:17 If you go back into history, you know the two major areas of academic study with philosophy or with theology and philosophy. I mean the two went hand in hand to some level, but we could have I think that's missing in a lot of Christians minds. They don't have a philosophical approach. And the article continues, and fair warning, there are no cuddling puppy tails or tips on how to interpret answers to typical K nine owners questions such as whether their dog really loves them or whether their four led companion is really happy. So, in other words, this book is not there to show you, hey, when your dog does this, It means this when you this book is not about any of that, right, this book is about dogs, but it's really about us and our approach to life instead. So this is what the book does. Instead.

21:13 Roland leans on the deep and our philosophy. And here's here's the name of the philosopher. Here right, here's the name of the philosopher. Are you ready? Because this book is very much based on the philosophy of this particular philosophy philosopher. His name is Jean Paul Sarta Sarta. Some may say Sartre, but I think it's sorry now, not sorry sor tu. I think is how you would say the name Jean Paul Sarta or Sartre that I always want to make it the heart Sartra, but I think typically, especially the French French pronunciation, we kind of keep that final r, probably more subtle, so it would be Jean Paul sorta, I think is how it would be. I want to say Sartra, I almost want to say sor, I almost want to shar Tra, But sorta, I think is the correct way to say it. Now if I'm saying his name incorrectly, Those who have taken philosophy and you learn how to remember the names of the philosophers and state them correctly. You can correct me, okay, but I would say Jean Jean Paul Sarta. That's the name of the philosopher this book is borrowing from the philosophy of this particular philosopher. I cannot stress that out if you if you don't know the if you know the philosophy, and the main thing you need to know about this person's philosophy is that he was a key figure in

22:43 existential philosophy, and he discussed reflective self awareness. That's the key reflective self awareness. Just keep that in mind, right because when you if you were to look at this book about dogs, and I still think you need to look at it, this idea of self awareness becomes the key issue. So why is a dog happy? Why is a dog's life more meaningful, more happy than you? Why does a dog love its life more than you love your life? Possibly because the dog may not have something that we have and it may deal with this idea of self awareness where the philosopher Jean Paul Sarta focus is focused on this idea. Now, the Dog book takes a slight detour from this philosophy. Let's go back to the article, because I think this is very important, all right.

23:42 So the book leans on the deep and our philosophy of Jean Paul Sarta to answer those questions and to decipher the unspoken wisdom that dogs exhibit. Rowlands himself is a serial dog owner and had far more than a decade. He had far more than a decade when he actually lived with a wolf. He maintains that a dog can experience more joy and more human and more than a human. Okay, let me read this again. So he maintains that a dog can experience more joy than a human because man's best friend is not burdened by what the philosophers are to referred to as reflective self awareness reflective self awareness.

24:37 The philosopher mentions this reflective self awareness, but Roland says, dogs don't have reflective self awareness. And it's reflective self awareness which cripples us, which has such a profound impact on your life. In my life, we have this reflective self awareness which literally just it's lays to waste our life. If it tears it apart, it cripples us, it hinders us, it's detrimental. So a dog doesn't have crippling self awareness. So therefore a dog's life, they're more happy, they have more joy, they love their life, they have more meaning than we have because we have this thing called self awareness, crippling self awareness. Just keep this in mind, now, get in the name of the book is the word of dog, what our canine companions can teach us about living a good life. And the cover has a picture of a dog.

25:40 Right there again, Mark Rowland's R O W L A N D S. You may want to look up the book. I'm assuming it's available on Amazon. I typically I go and check, but I did not. Now, he goes on to say, so I just want man now, once I got to that part in the article, Hey, the issue between dogs and people is dogs do not have this crippling self awareness we do. That's why the dog enjoys their life more and all of those things. Once I saw that crippling self awareness, and that's that almost made me leave the article and leave the book and start pursuing that way of thinking, which we will circle back around too. So I will I will go here in the book. I will at least read a little bit more.

26:25 In the book, he argues that dogs have no capacity for reflection, but they do have pre reflection. They know they exist relative to other objects in space, blissfully unaware that it may be anything more than a moving ball they are chasing. Keep this in mind. So a dog does not have the capacity for reflection, but they do have pre reflection. They know they exist relative to other objects in space, and they are blissfully unaware that it may be anything more than a ball they are chasing.

27:08 They see the ball, they're chasing it. They're blissfully unaware of anything else. And at that point, that's that's I mean, that's crazy to even think about, all right. Roland writes that his distinctively dangerous German shepherd Shadow, who basically that his dog. Because of kind of how aggressive he is, he is typically banned from peaceful dog parks. He has no awareness of the impact on his environment when he starts fights with every male dog, assaults females, or marks on occupied park benches. His lack of reflection keeps him out of polite society. So because this dog has no ability to reflect well, in some cases, it leads to problems for everyone else, but he's blissfully unaware of it, he says. According to the author, because this, this dog Shadow, and there's a picture of shadow here has the ability to experience pleasure in the smallest acts, chasing, chasing some bathing iguanas on the banks of a canal in Miami.

28:13 He finds complete pleasure and the smallest thing in the smallest thing, because at that point it becomes unaware of anything else. He never the dog, never actually catches one but the dog. But the big dog is willing to repeat the game every morning, all right. And then he goes on, gets into some Greek mythology. Here goes on, Uh, now I'll skip down. Finding meaning in life is hard for us, but it is easy for dogs. The happiness of his dog shadow, the happiness that originates and erupts from his from his deepest nature. Meaning for us is hard, one achievement and one rarely attained. It is judged in the judged in the terms of meaning. It contains shadows.

29:07 Life eclipses mind. So when it comes to just meaning, the dog finds meaning easy. It's just it kind of just comes from inside and just finds meaning. Where we try to find meaning, Maybe we try to find meaning in something outside of ourselves. Maybe we and so as a result, the dog's life has more meaning than us because meaning is something elusive that we are chasing. It goes on to say that dogs are both actors and authors of their lives, and not spectators or critics, unlike humans, who are creatures of reflection and doubt that in time can possibly riddle one with cancer. The author interprets meaning and life as authentic happiness, and that the lives of dogs are typically more meaningful and filled with more love than the lives of humans because they are not burn by reflection and have only one life to live. So it gets deep into this concept. Whether whether you agree or disagree, it brings up some radical points. So I can go on here and I could read more about it.

30:19 But yeah, the last paragraph says meaning in life exists wherever happiness erupts from nature. If you want to know the meaning of life, get a dog, because dogs lead more meaningful lives than we do. Working out why this is so is what the book is all about. So why do dogs have more meaning in their life than you do? Well? The book again, the name of the book is entitled The Word of Dog. It's about that. Now you you may think this is just philosophical nonsense. You may think it's ridiculous, and I understand, especially many Christians are going to say this is stupid, this is stupid, But you're missing the point. It's not about whether you agree about dogs having a mean life. If they're more happy, you can disregard the dog. It's about the fact that we possess something that all of us, at least will We can all agree on this. We possess self awareness.

31:14 Because we possess self awareness, that's the very thing that cripples us, that's the very thing that can be detrimental to us. And that's why dogs, according to this philosophical perspective, their lives are ultimately better than us and our lives because they don't have this self awareness. So I started doing a little bit of work on this subject, right, I started doing a little bit of work. So I spent some time looking at Jean Paul Sarta his discussion about self awareness. He has a work called Being in Nothingness, and he distinguishes between two modes of consciousness. I'm not going to get into all of his philosophy here, so I'm just going I'm just gonna skip past all of that because there was a lot of work. I did that.

32:07 But in the book The Word of Dog, it is argued that self awareness is a thing that cripples us. So I had to do a little bit of work here, all right. So in the Word of Dog it appears to explore philosophical themes related to human self awareness and how dogs by contrast. No, please note this, all right. So it's this idea of self awareness that's what we're really talking about, right. The dog discussion just gets us to our self awareness. When we consider self awareness, dogs, by contrast, embody a more immediate and unburdened way of living. Rowlands, a philosopher known for his work on animals and consciousness, has previously argue that human self awareness can be a source of suffering. It leads to existential anxiety, regret, and over analysis, where dogs live more instinctively in the present moment. So, once again, the whole philosophy this writer brings to the concept of self awareness. Let me listen to it again.

33:24 That self awareness is the source of suffering because self awareness leads to existential anxiety, leads to regret, and it leads to over analysis where a dog just lives instinctively in the present. The dog doesn't live in the past. Dog doesn't live in the future, lives in the present. Now see, now we can start moving past the dog. Now you're like, wait a minute, this is sounding I think I can see where this is going. All right, now, so let's look at this idea of how self awareness.

34:14 So I want to I want to go into more detail there about the book and about the philosophy. But let's move past the philosophy. Let's just now forget everything else, right, that's that's that's just the car that drove us here. Now now we can get out of the car, all right, the whole discussion about dogs and all of that that gets us to where we are. Now we can get out of the car and we're gonna pull over at at a rest stop here on the highway called self awareness. Let's spend some time looking and considering self awareness, all right. Self awareness is often seen as one of humanity's greatest cognitive abilities, but it can be absolutely crippling, especially from a philosophical perspective, from a psychological perspective, and from an uh and from many, maybe many other perspectives. More so, from a philosophical and psychological perspective. Self awareness is this amazing ability that we as humans possess that dogs may not.

35:22 But because we possess this, and we we would argue, I think from a believing that we're created by God, that we were given self awareness. That's the idea that we became a living soul. God breathed into us when we became a living soul. That self awareness is a part of that that makes us distinct from animals. And we may say this is an amazing thing. But when you have something that can be amazing you, sometimes we may not. We may overlook all of the problems that it can cause us. Jean Paul Sarta if I'm saying his last name, and other philosophers I could go, I could go name a number a number of philosophers. They tend to argue that self awareness forces us to confront our own freedom, responsibility, and mortality. See, unlike animals, we don't just act. We typically reflect on our actions. We typically reflect on the meaning of those actions. Sometimes we reflect on the consequences of those actions. And when you all of this reflection leads to paralysis by analysis. We overthink, we overthink our decisions, we fear regret, and we become stuck and an action. We tend to overthink, we tend to overanalyze, we fear, we don't Oh if I do this,

36:52 I'm gonna regret it. Don't do this? Oh wait wait, and sometimes we get stuck. Indirection or inaction I should say probably not in direction and action would be the exact word. I said. Indirection and action would be the right word. Correct. I think that would be correct. I think we can agree with that. We can become paralyzed. What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Because you're because you're over analyzing it, you're overthinking it. I do that a lot of times. I Mean, I always try to be very transparent with the podcast, right, I'm constantly like, so do I keep doing the podcast? Do I not do the podcast? Well? Why do I? Well? If I don't stop the podcast, I can regret stopping the podcast. Well, what about this?

37:33 What about this? What about that? What do why do I do this? Well? How would it impact me this way? What about do I broadcast today? Well? If I broadcast today, say I'm so preoccupied with this Trump situation and I don't want to do this, and I don't want to do that, and I don't want to become this, and I don't want to become that. And well if I talk about this, and I'm going to tick off people, and do I want to find myself in the middle of controversy where everybody's getting ticked off? And then what if I do if I offend the remaining audience that I have, Well, what about this? And what about Oh? Just just like boom boom boo, boom boom, slap myself fifteen times and say stop. That's all because of self awareness. Dread of mortality. Being aware of.

38:14 Our inevitable death can create anxiety or even a sense of nihilism, right, being nihilistic, just being like nothing matters. I'm going to die anyway. Okay, if you've been listening to the podcast, you know, you know I've been talking about that. I probably have maybe ten years left of my life, maybe maybe getting close to nine years. Maybe because if I look at the history of my family line and when everyone died, I've already outlived my way outlived my mother, way outlived my mother because she died so young. Okay, I mean I say, hmm, I don't think I get past this. I don't, and if I don't, I could go through all the other things that I looked at. My one of my daughters was looking at my family life. She's like, you're not going to get past this age, right, So that's being aware, right at some point in life. It may not you may not be there yet, but one day you're going to wake up.

39:12 I don't know what day it's going to be, and you're going to kind of look and go, hmm, well, if I look at the calendar, I got fewer years in front of me than I do behind me right now now, because when in some stages of your life, you're just looking at moving on to the next thing, right, you're not considering how you're moving towards your death. Now. Of course we could pass away at any time, but I'm saying, you become very aware because of our self awareness. Right. I'll never forget. I was I was going to the uh VA Hospital in Big Springs, Texas, and I was listening to just a number of podcasts on the on the way there, and I was listening to a lot of podcasts about reading and books, and it was this mother and daughter right talking about how many books they read a year and how they read together, and the mother made this like profound statement that was so depressing.

40:09 She was like, you know, I've kind of made the list of books that I want to read, and I kind of realized these are probably going to be the last books I ever read. Based on her age, based on about life expectancy, that her list. She may never even get to that list, but if she even was to get through that list, that's probably it. Those are going to be the last book she's ever going to read. And she got somewhat emotional because she loves reading. She's like, this is probably it's that's a profoundly, like, you know, depressing thing. I mean, if I take my love for music and I'm like, if I was like, I'll probably like this is going to be the year where these will be the last albums I will ever hear Like that, that's self awareness. So we can become paralyzed with over analysis, and we can begin to develop a sense of dread over our mortality or maybe kind of just a nihilistic kind of just like it's all coming to an end. Oh, and then because of our self awareness, we can develop a fear of meaninglessness. We begin to feel maybe there's no inherent meaning to life. Maybe we then feel the need that we have to create that meaning. Then this can become overwhelming. You become overwhelmed. Well, I think there's meaning in this, But am I just creating this meaning?

41:30 And if I'm the one to create the meaning, then does the meaning really have meaning? Oh? No, so then that can become overwhelming. Now I think the more self aware one is, the more problematic these things become. You see psychology and psychology, it would be argued that if you have an excessive self consciousness, if you really have a self consciousness that's kind of kicked into high gear, it can ultimately detrimental. See, when you become too focused on yourself, we may feel constantly that we're being judged by everyone. Right. This can lead to social anxiety, can lead to shame, It can lead to a distorted self perception.

42:19 If you're constantly thinking everyone thinks this, and everyone thinks this, and everyone thinks this, and everyone thinks this about you, you're gonna feel constantly judged by everyone. Even if you're not being judged, you're just gonna constantly think you're being judged because you're such You're kind of your self consciousness has been kicked into high gear. Your self awareness been kicked into high gear. You can begin to develop unrealistic standards for yourself, you begin to compare yourself to others, or you have kind of an idealized version of yourself, and it will I mean, you can say, here's what I want to be, this is what I should be like, this is kind of the idea, your ideal, idealized idea.

43:04 You're you're kind of like you're I almost want to say the idol of what you create, an idol of what you think you should be, which is whatever you may be, perfect or whatever the case may be. And then you're never gonna get there, so you're gonna result in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction. You may have kind of an idealized way of how you should look, Well, guess what, no matter how you think you should look, no matter how you want to look, here's the inevitable reality. Life age is going to radically transform that idealized way that you think you should look, that that ideal way that you it's going to destroy that, it's gonna you're gonna wake up one day, look in the mirror and go, what happened? Well, now what do you do? You've got to you are confronted with a reality that never will live up to the ideal of what you want to look like and the way you want to be. You may, in your mind, want to always be this way, and you can go all kinds of things about your physicality or height, whatever they do, whatever, and you may and you'll live in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction. I think in the same way this can happen religiously. You have this ideal idea that this is the way you're going to be as a Christian, and you're going to be, and when you don't ever get to that level of perfection that you think you want to be, you're going to find yourself becoming perpetually dissatisfied. And that's why I think the Gospel is very key here, the actual Gospel, not this you know, corrupted gospels that still become about

44:40 self and your performance. I think what happens when you have this excessive self consciousness, this excessive self awareness, I think you begin to struggle with being authentic. You try to construct an acceptable self, and it can make you feel completely disconnected from who you truly are. You try to create this idea of what you should be, and you're no longer becoming authentic to who you are. You're trying to always be something you're not. Again. I think this is very I think this is a problem in Christianity.

45:21 We can't ever be authentic. We always got to pretend to be holy and righteous and God because we can't be like, well, I really feel this way, and I really desire this, and I really think this, and I really because this self awareness it cripples us because it gives us the burden of anxiety. And we talked about the paralysis of over analysis or paralysis by analysis, this dread of mortality, this fear of meaninglessness. We talked about almost this tyranny of the self. I think we could refer to it as that the successive self consciousness which leads to feeling constantly judged, developing unrealistic self standards, and we begin to struggle with being authentic. This leads to emotional suffering and regret. See, unlike an animal, humans, we relive the past. We relive past everything over and over and over, and we typically begin to anticipate future failures, future problems. So we relive past and we almost anticipate negative future. Well, this is going to lead to a lot of suffering and regret. This temporal self awareness contributes to guilt and regret. We dwell on past choices, often unable to move forward. We have a fear of the future.

46:50 We anticipate failure or hardship. That makes us hesitant to act. And then this leads to what many refer to as an imposter syndrome. Well, we question whether we truly are competent, even when evidence suggests otherwise. We begin to question, well, am I really? Am I really this? Am I really that? And we begin to question everything. See Jean Paul start to He describes how self awareness is shaped by others perceptions. Well, that's oh see, I don't I'm not a fan of this. See.

47:35 When we realize that others see and judge us, we may start experiencing a couple of things. We may experience a loss of freedom. We begin to act not for ourselves but to fit into societal expectations. So I can't stand that, right, No, other people's perceptions, other people's thoughts, other people should not impact my freedom. In fact, I almost want to rebel and people or expect that I'm not gonna do what you want. I'm not gonna do what you think. I'm gonna do the opposite. I can't stand that. But a lot of people experience that, and we The same thing happens within christiendom. You enter into christiandom, there are these expectations placed upon you, so you begin to act for them as set of for you. We deceive ourselves, typically into thinking we are defined by our roles.

48:27 I must be this kind of person, or I must do this. But because we want to be defined by something and think, so we look for something to give us a definition of about ourselves. And so then what happens is we become disconnected from our true self. Because we're playing a role in society. We become we almost become so disconnected with our true self. I don't ever know if we even know who our true self really is, because we're so preoccupied by because we become so self aware, and then we become self aware of other people. And then now, oh see, dogs don't have any of these issues. Now you contrast this with animals and the book The Word of dog. It suggests that animals, specifically dogs, are free from the burdens of reflective self awareness, that don't agonize over past mistakes, that don't worry about an abstract future. Instead, they live directly in the moment. Now, this fits perfectly with philosophies. Basically, Buddhism is the first one that comes to my mind. I probably could, I could probably think of some others, but I think there's a Christian connection here.

49:38 Now I could go look at some philosophical and psychological ways to deal with this, but I want to look at it from a philological perspective. All right, I want to look at it from a philological perspective. Now we've taken a lot, so we pulled over. We spent some time on the side of the road dealing with a self awareness. Now we get back in the car. We drive down a little way. Oh, there's an exit, and it's philological consideration. Let's stop here at this building called Maybe we'll say as a church. Right, I know churches don't really do theology, but we'll pretend that this church does. So we're gonna walk into a church and say, hey, self, Now, dogs got us to that stop on self awareness. We spend a lot of time talking about self awareness and all the problems it can cause. Now, let's consider things from a philological perspective. All right, When you look at Biblical theology and it comes to the subject of self awareness, all right, Biblical theology would address both the burden and the redemption of human self consciousness. So I think the Bible would acknowledge the burden self awareness has self consciousness has, but it would also talk maybe about the redemption of it.

50:51 The Bible, I think, recognizes that self awareness is crippling. Now, is self awareness crippling just as self awareness alone? Or is self awareness crippling because of our sinful nature? That's a question we have. I haven't even bothered to even begin to scratch the surface on that. I think Biblical theology provides a framework for overcoming the negative effects of self awareness, and I think the key is identity in Christ. Let's let's consider all of this, right, Let's consider the burden of existential anxiety. Existentialists like the philosopher that we've talked about. They argue that self awareness forces us to confront our to confront our freedom, our mortality, and meaningless.

51:46 I think I think that they acknowre that we are confronted because we're self aware. We are confronted with the concept of freedom. Can I do what I want? Kind of act? I gotta worry about other people, et cetera, et cetera. Mortality, I'm going to die meaningless to have any meaning in life? Do I create my own meaning? All of those types of things. The Bible seems to at least acknowledge some of this anxiety. Mark Chapter eight, verse thirty six. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Well, that seems to argue, Hey, look, look what's more important. All of these things are your own soul. Well, that seems to now be pointing you in a specific direction.

52:27 It deals with mortality. P. One hundred and forty four to four. Man is like breath, His days are like a passing shadow. The Bible acknowledges the futility, the vanity, the shortness of life. It's here and it's gone. Okay. The Bible seems to acknowledge these things. Hebrews nine twenty seven would then add a different thing. It is appointed for man to die once and after that the judgment it adds this new thing to be concerned with right judgment. The Bible seems to not just leave humans alone and this awareness. Right. The Bible doesn't just say, hey, these are things that we are aware of. These are things that we deal with. Here's some realities. Right, do you go after all of this lose your own soul or do you focus on your soul at the expense of all of this? Life is short. Oh, there is death and then there's judgment. But the Bible seems to not just leave us with this awareness of these things. Ecclesiastes twelve thirteen seems to show that meaning is found in God, not something that we can construct. Ecclesiastes twelve thirteen. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. That if you look at the book of Ecclesiastes, which is basically a journal when someone is attempting to find meaning, Ultimately the meaning is found in God, not in self, not in a self something that we have to construct meaning or create meaning. It's found in God.

53:54 But again, can we ever truly find meaning in God unless God is all that we have, Because as long as we have everything else, you're going to find some sense of meaning, some sense of identity, and all of these other things. So I think that's always going to be a problem. Obviously, the idea of mortality is addressed in Christianity. Jesus said, I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live John eleven twenty five. So mortality so meaning is supposedly found in God. From a Christian perspective, mortality is answered in eternal life, which is found in Christ. Freedom is not terrifying, but directed by God's sovereignty. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. So we don't worry about our freedom.

54:40 We surrender it to God's sovereignty. But that still leads to lots of questions. Now if we look at it from a philological perspective, this idea of the tyranny of self, which we've already discussed see modern psychology and modern philosophy, suggests that an excessive self consciousness leads to anxiety and security, and being an authentic the Bible seems to acknowledge this problem. The heart is deceitful above all things and is desperately sick who can understand it as Jeremiah seventeen nine. So the hardest, deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked, according to some translations, and who can understand it? Roman seven twenty four. Wretched man that I am? Who will deliver me from this body of death? The Bible seems to state that there's this additional problem. It's just not this excessive self consciousness, excessive self awareness, it's this depraved nature inside of us. The Bible argues that rather than defining ourselves by personal achievement or our societal roles, the Bible tells us to find our identity in Christ. We are not our own. You are not your for you were bought with a price on Corinthians sixth nineteen through twenty.

56:04 You don't your identity is no longer found and who you are, what you are, what you look like, what you do, what you don't do, whether you fail, don't fail. It's not even Your identity is not even found in how good of a Christian you are in the eyes of other people. None of that really matters. Your identity is found in Christ. We Again, this is positionally speaking, we are new creations. We are not defined by our past. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the oldest pasted away. Behold all things that become new Sewo Corinthians five seventeen. That is positioned. Practically, I'm still the same old person, but positionally I'm completely new. That's a completely different identity. Our worth is found in God's love, not human approval. See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God? And so we are first John three to one. Existentialists may we say we must create meaning.

57:04 The Bible teaches that meaning is given by God. This liberates us from the tyranny of self invention. We don't. We're not bound by self tyranny because we give all of that up. And what do we find? Well, everything is found in Christ. Everything is found there. Our identity is there, Meaning is there, eternal life is there. Everything is that, purpose is there. The philosophy leads us to this idea of emotional suffering and regret. Humans uniquely relive past mistakes fear of future failures, and it leads to guilt, regret, and anxiety. But what does the Bible say for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long Psalm thirty two to three. Who can say I have made my heart pure, I can clean from sin Proverbs twenty nine. The Bible acknowledges this guilt.

57:57 Bible acknowledges this shame. The Bible presents forgiveness as far as the east is from the west, So far does He remove our transgressions from us Psalm one three twelve. God removes all of our sin as far as the east is from the west. We find complete and perfect forgiveness in Christ. Philippians four sixes. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer as supplication, with thanksgiving, Let your requests be made known to God. So future anxiety is done away with. We don't have the burden of our own redemption. We are redeemed by the work of Christ, not by what we do. So and our guilt is completely removed. So a lot of these things that self awareness should lead to we find the answer in Christ. Got pages and pages of notes here. Existentialism, which is kind of the philosophy that we're kind of dealing with here, tends to leave humans with freedom but no comfort. That because we must end up creating meaning in a meaningless world, where biblical theology presents a completely different solution. The Bible would say self awareness is crippling, but this is because of sin and our broken relationship with God. So how the Bible tends to approach us is, yes,

59:33 we have self awareness. The reason it's crippling is because of sin. Sin is the reason that make self awareness crippling. That's interesting. The answer from a Biblical perspective is not to escape self awareness. We don't leave it, we don't abandon it, but we read direct a self awareness to God. We become God aware instead of self aware. And meaning is not something we construct. It is revealed by God and fulfilled in Christ. So we understand we have self awareness and we see the impact of sin upon self awareness. We then move from a self awareness perspective to a God aware perspective, and then we do not construct meaning.

1:00:18 We find meaning in what Christ did. Now this has a historical setting. This has a historical context. But I think these words speaking of God God, or you keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you because He trusts in you Isaiah twenty six to three. That has specific connotation, but the principle still there is applicable if we could really put our mind on God and keep it there. But all these other things. Self awareness draws our attention towards self, and the more we felcus on Solf, the more all of these problems that we have outlined begins to arise. Now I'll stop right there.

1:01:14 I wish I had some profound way to wrap this up. You're sitting there looking at your dog and you're like, Wow, I didn't know you could teach me so much. The dog loves its life with everything it has because it's all that it has. The dog does not have crippling self awareness. It lives in the moment. It finds pure joy and whatever it's doing in that moment because it's not aware that anything else is even around. It only has focused on that the dog. This concept of focusing on the dog brings us to these bigger issues self and everything around us. Ultimately, I don't know the right words cripples us, destructive. I think it depends on your life.

1:02:21 For some people, they I think you can look at this a couple of ways. For those who have a lot, they got a family, they got a great relationship with their spouse, they have intimacy, they have all of these, you know, the hierarchy of needs. Their needs are being met. They have to have food, shelter, they have intimacy, they have this. I mean, okay, I mean you still may find some way to not be happy with it and be but you really probably should find yourself being pretty good. Other people they're not. They don't even have those hierarchy of needs being met. They're they're they're not. It's not even being met. And I think that I think very few people live with a hierarchy of needs being met.

1:03:01 I think a lot of people live lives without that, and and that can be very difficult. And how to then survive those hierarchy of needs that we've talked about before. Maybe we'll talk about them again some point. What do you do? Well, it's it's easy for the people who have most of it going. Well, you should just find it in God. You should just find your contentment in God. Why did this person do this? And why did this person do that? Just find it in God. Well, it's great when you hop in your car with your little family, go back to your little house hold hands seeing kumbaya, it kiss and and everything is wonderful, but it may not be that way for everyone else. But whether you have it or don't have it, I don't know. Again, I don't I think it's an unreachable. I think it's a reachable in one hand, to ever truly be like, well, all that I have is God, So God is all that I have. So then therefore it's easy to say that you can. But because you have this self awareness, See, it's one thing to say, well, God is all that I have. Son, then you love God and you're committed to God with all that you have. As long as you're self aware of all of these other needs, wants, desires, and you are aware that other people around you have some of those needs and desires fulfilled and that you

1:04:32 are left without many of them, it's going to be hard for you just to look to God because you're you would have to completely lose your awareness of all that. Well, you would have to lose your self awareness completely. You would almost need your self awareness to be removed, and it's never going to be removed. And because you have self awareness that is also influenced by sin, you see why then our only hope. Really, this is why I know everybody wants a Christianity. There's so true transforms us in practical ways. But the reality is our hope is not in a practical transformation. Our hope is in a positional sure security, a positional security where hey, I'm a mess practically, but in Christ perfect content, everything is perfect.

1:05:24 But the name of the book, let me go back to it. That sparked this bizarre some may see it as bizarre is the name of the book. I'm opening up here the word of dog. What our canine companions can teach us about living a good life? Now, what I think it should do is I think when you look at your dog today, you're like, man, you got it really good your life. You're more you're happier with my life. You are you're you're happier with your life. You have more joy in your life, you have more meaning in your life. You're you've got it good. But you can say, well, what does that say about us? And when that gets us into these philosophical issues of self awareness, which then raises all of the issues we've discussed.

1:06:07 And I tried to compare that to how some of this can be fulfilled in Christ. I did not leave us with a lot of good answers. But it's now been sixty six minutes and we've had this lengthy discussion all started with a book about dogs. All right, I'm going to stop there because one, I've been going for an hour or two. It's seven hundred and fifty seven degrees up here in the studio, because it's like ninety seven degrees in West Texas today. I've got a little bit of hyperbole. And because I have things I want to do today, things I want to do for fun, things I want to do to be entertained, things I want to do because well, we have all these wants, needs and desires because we are aware of everything else. See, a dog would just be like, oh, I'm broadcasting. That's all I care about. That's all I care about, because not aware of anything else. Hey, just catch that ball now.

1:07:09 Once it moves on to the next thing, it already forgets about the last thing. Well, we're not very good at doing that, are we. So I'm aware right now that I'm sitting here hmmm, right over here to my right. Oh, I got all my stereo equipment. See, before I even started this, I really wanted to be listening to music. That's what I really wanted to do, and I thought in my mind I would end this at just the right time that I could give myself an hour of pure music before I go do other things that's going to take up the rest of my afternoon and evening. See. But then when I'm doing the things that I want to do this evening, I'm going to be like, well, I do need to be And now I've got response. See, we're so aware of so many different things, and your dog is not going to be worried about any of that today. But the answer is not becoming like a dog.

1:07:56 The answer is found in a philological approach, which I did try to explain there at the end, even though I had to move through it at one hundred miles per hour. But maybe we'll return to this in some way. See, this is what happens when you have a podcast and you just have an empty notebook underneath the microphone. Everything goes to the dogs. Waitn't that funny? Come on, wasn't that funny? No, nobody thinks that funny. Everything just goes to the ducks. Get it? Because we're talking about a book called The Word of You. Okay, well, I'm gonna go tell that joke to a dog. I'm gonna leave my house, go next door and tell that joke to a dog and see if the dog thinks it's funny.

1:08:41 Dog will think it's funny because dogs are better than people, right, maybe Okay, I don't know. All right, thanks for listening. That's a lot to think about. God bless