Confidence, Commodification, and the Economy of God
How being a Christian gives a man unwavering confidence, and how it can be used to break free from the most strong of worldly chains.
There’s a certain psychological phenomenon I have experienced post-acceptance of Jesus Christ as my Lord. It is a sense of certainty that I never had before. Not just about where I am bound, but the journey of getting there.
Confidence has become an integral part of my mindset and any advancement towards my own goals is solely due to the fact that either what I am doing is right and in the name of Eternal Truth and I will succeed, or what I am after is not spiritually fruitful and I will be corrected in my path (probably in an embarrassing way). Anything that isn’t in the Lord’s name is not just fleeting, but damning. That’s why I try to not get too excited about anything egotistically-gratifying that indulges me any power or influence or pleasure. If it isn’t for what is Good, then it is for nothing.
You see, though, that sureness is probably the most positive impact that recognition of the Holy Spirit gave me. I see it in other Christians as well. They are not lost in what decisions they should make because they know what their duties are (if they are dedicated to something more than vain middle-class social hierarchy titles and stats). The idea can be easily proportioned to the “shoulders back, back straight” philosophy of Jordan Peterson. When you walk around with the mindset that you are on a mission to do what is right, and you know that such a mindset is integral to keep your Christians brothers and sisters safe, then the conclusion you should make is, “I must be confident, and I mustn’t let bullshit get in my way.”
No other way of thinking, nor any other philosophical tool has been more productive and elating for me than this phenomenon. Regardless of what legal hurdle gets in my way, what annoying prick wants to make me stumble, and whatever spiritually lost people want to do to my movement or me I know I will either fail at being amalgamated to God’s Greatness, or I will succeed.
I think the nagginess of modern government and corporate bureaucracy has made people at a very young age think any path to success is done in a step-by-step, verified, regulated process. Once again, the modern mindset is commodified. We think in permission, in licensure, in qualification, and the more such pieces of paper become less and less applicably valuable, the more the average credentialed person has less drive to be productive - spiritually productive. Without God, there is no confidence, because what you do is in vain. Everything becomes an arduous journey that requires every percentage of your human spirit’s blood vessel-constricting vigor.
Commodification leads to gleaming man’s word, and not The Word, for your own self-confidence, your own abilities, your own assumptions, and lack of convictions. Man’s word is like shifting sand, but God’s Word is stone. That being said, anyone who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord lacks the level of self-confidence and unwavering conviction that goes along with being saved. When you are not saved, and your eschaton is not unity with God, then you outsource your ability to stay guided in the leadership of men. This is so plainly seen in modern politics and the plethora of antispiritual scientism movements and spiritual pagan movements. These people worship a Big Man, whose ability to maintain loyalty must be recycled and reused in different disappointing promises. These people will never know how to trust, and so they must be constantly wooed. The big men or bureaucracies they worship will never have eternal codification, nor founded in a fellowship of love.
This is what leads to human sacrifice, and we see it so plainly in the modern political machine’s absorption of every aspect of life. It must eat nature, and subsume responsibility for maintaining eternal life (healthcare and transhumanism) in order to keep man under hypnosis. If you keep people unsure about reality, and your shifting sands of “truth” are their only way towards salvation; their only meaning is in desire and falling into deeper levels of commodification. What a way to break a man’s spirit, by putting him on a conveyer belt, turning his skills into cold digits that equate to economic value, making him so reliant on the economic for harvesting personal value, and making his own abode and family into diffident economic units. Want to know how to break a man’s confidence, that is how. By hooking a bypass from his soul to a cold, unfeeling, bureaucratic machine that views his spiritual needs as a liability, and his skills as assets for them to exploit.
The modern world’s evil is reliant on men having no ability to feel self-assured and confident. They need men to think that taking entrepreneurial risks for their family and their people is unrealistic. They don’t want you to buy land, to raise a farm, to homeschool your kids. This would mean releasing your skills from the economic and back to the spiritual - they hate that! Evil hates Good!
And this is what I mean when I walk around with knowing what my duties are. It doesn’t matter how the world might scold me. I know my goals, I know my duties, and I don’t really care what gets in the way. Not recognizing your deeds store either treasures in Heaven, or manure in Hell is where you will start realizing all you have left is time, and you must use it wisely that distances you from what is evil, and brings you closer to what is Good. The earning of money or things or power without God is fruitless. To bring Glory to your Lord means you should walk with a knowing stride that you are meant for something greater than being a cold, commoditized machine.
This is where distributism has become so important in my mindset. If what I earn and create only leads to paper in my own wallet, but benefits no Greater, then who am I? If I rise myself up, but no Other, then what am I? If all I deal in is money and things, and all I see are dollar signs and spot prices, then what am I? I am my enemy. I am building up a tower of babel. Glory must be brought in the form of favors, friendship, and love, and if I am not working in the language of love, nor the economy of God, then all I do is a chasing of the wind.
“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 19:24
There is nothing more pertinent than maintaining a working relationship with your Lord, so that also means having the confidence to know your Lord wants you to be your best. It is only through Him that you are capable of doing Good, of being unstoppable and filled with pious determination and ability.
In order to experience the fruits of community formation that you want, it takes a spiritual conviction that knows no barriers. Without Jesus Christ, you will not have access to that conviction. Therefore, without Jesus Christ, you will not have confidence, and what confidence of the human spirit you do have, will not be fed the fruits it needs to persist in doing whatever attempts at achieving Goodness for an Other that you want.
This is why I plead to those out there, Jesus will bring you the Kingdom that you seek. Without seeking the Kingdom, you will not achieve whatever visions you see as Good. For those of you who are my Brothers in Christ, it would suit you to think in terms of how powerful God’s Infinite Love is in you, and that your Faith and Hope should never be broken.
“So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
Matthew 10:26-31