LLLV18 5-10-2018 George Orwell on Cognizance as Death
Pastors are often called upon to deal with the end of physical life and give hope concerning the new beginning in a new form. This meeting is often painful, and even the most eloquent among us is a little tongue-tied as to just how to approach this event to the loved ones left behind.
Browsing on the above, a statement by Eric Blair, more widely known as George Orwell, author the book 1984, caught my attention. Here’s Blair’s thought on a living death.
“Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops when he loses the power to take in a new idea.” George Orwell.
Orwell defined “brain dead” quite differently than do we moderns. Has anyone ever enjoyed ordering “pull the plug?” Orwell was dealing with the hardening of the brain concerning feelings, acceptance of new, but good ideas. The inability to process the reality of living, which is the ability to think, feel, and act.
Aside from an inactive brain due to illness, this stoppage of the mind is dealt with as a lifestyle by the Apostle Paul here:
Ephesian 4:17 “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (NKJV).
The passage sums up much of the Bible’s description of the world at large and reads like a modern political scandal! In our time the phrase “dark and stormy” has taken on new meaning. The above passage does affirm the human heart to be the same at all times; in need of redemption, and redemption is possible in Jesus Christ!
Copyright © 2018 Larry Lilly
Active IT work. Oral Deckard
Pastors are often called upon to deal with the end of physical life and give hope concerning the new beginning in a new form. This meeting is often painful, and even the most eloquent among us is a little tongue-tied as to just how to approach this event to the loved ones left behind.
Browsing on the above, a statement by Eric Blair, more widely known as George Orwell, author the book 1984, caught my attention. Here’s Blair’s thought on a living death.
“Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops when he loses the power to take in a new idea.” George Orwell.
Orwell defined “brain dead” quite differently than do we moderns. Has anyone ever enjoyed ordering “pull the plug?” Orwell was dealing with the hardening of the brain concerning feelings, acceptance of new, but good ideas. The inability to process the reality of living, which is the ability to think, feel, and act.
Aside from an inactive brain due to illness, this stoppage of the mind is dealt with as a lifestyle by the Apostle Paul here:
Ephesian 4:17 “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (NKJV).
The passage sums up much of the Bible’s description of the world at large and reads like a modern political scandal! In our time the phrase “dark and stormy” has taken on new meaning. The above passage does affirm the human heart to be the same at all times; in need of redemption, and redemption is possible in Jesus Christ!
Copyright © 2018 Larry Lilly
Active IT work. Oral Deckard
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