“What seems to have happened in our culture is a falling apart, a  disconnection between the subjective and the objective poles. We have  on the one hand the ideal, or shall I call it the illusion, of a kind of  objectivity which is not possible, of a kind of knowledge of what we call  the “facts” which involves no personal commitment, no risk of being  wrong, something which we have merely to accept without question;  and on the other hand a range of beliefs which are purely subjective,  which are, as we say, “true for me,” are “what I feel,” but which are a  matter of personal and private choice. To suggest that these latter beliefs  ought to be accepted as true for all is to be guilty of the unforgivable  sin-dogmatism.”

From The Gospel in a Pluralist Society by Lesslie Newbigin

“The curiosity which is always seeking to discover   more seems to be one of the necessary conditions of life. But seeking   is only serious if the seeker is following some clue, has some intuition   of what it is that he seeks, and is willing to commit himself or herself  to following that clue, that intuition. Merely wandering around in a clueless   twilight is not seeking. The relativism which is not willing to speak  about truth but only about “what is true for me” is an evasion of the serious   business of living. It is the mark of a tragic loss of nerve in our  contemporary culture. It is a preliminary symptom of death.”

From The Gospel in a Pluralist Society by Lesslie Newbigin.

Father asks a lot.  He begins by calling us to a particular path in life.  Particular actions and habits clustered in themes.  Occasionally he is generous enough to explain where it all is going.  Often enough we are left with a simple command: study Latin, for instance.  it is not enough, however, to simply obey this command.

If I study Latin, soon I find myself needing motivation.  To accomplish a task, like learning another language thoroughly, one needs to commit himself to often boring labor over a period of years.  Motivation is needed to commence study every morning.  The form that this motivation takes can become a sort of idol.  Although I began my study of Latin because Father told me to, I study it every day because I am driven by the fantasy of my own intellectualism.

If this is my heart, I have not truly obeyed.  Father does ask for obedience in action, but he goes further and also asks for obedience in motivation.  Why should I study Latin today?  Because it makes my Father smile.