As humans, each moment we make choices to engage in various thoughts, speech, and actions.  We justify those choices by using a set of data, values and logical connections that we consider relevant to the current situation.  The ultimate purpose of our choice is to act and react in a way which we believe maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain over the short or long term.

In making decisions for action, we all use a complex set of conscious and subconscious factors.  The decision factors may include:

None of us purposefully makes foolish choices in selecting the data, values, and logical connections that lead to conclusions.  Nevertheless, we judge foolishly when we:

All people, at all times, try to choose relevant data to include in making decisions.  We try to properly evaluate the effect of the forces operating in the situation.  And we try to accurately project and predict the effects of those forces as they act on objects and people.  In short, we try to accurately judge the current conditions of life, the forces operating in it, how life will move because of those forces, and the relative payoff in each alternate scenario as we adjust the applied force.

Problems arise because we inaccurately judge the forces operating in life in terms of their relevance and effect.  When we get different results than we expected, we may judge our failure as due to a number of different causes:

The fact is that the world is too complex for us to accurately judge every force and the trajectory of every object in life.  The complexity of the force-trajectory evaluation is multiplied immeasurably by the fact that some of the forces of life at intangible.  People have a sovereign will, and men often irrationally chose their next move.   The state of the universe continually shifts due to momentum, collisions, reactions, and conscious choice.  The complexity of the interactions makes measurement and accurate computation of future configurations impossible beyond very short distances.  Thus, an important part of maturity is recognizing the inherent limitations of men properly preparing, predicting, and responding to future events.  

Even though rationality informs us of the futility of accurately predicting the future, we often engage in counterproductive self condemnation upon our failure.  Likewise, pride can prevent us from admitting the fact of our inability to properly prepare and respond to all things.  In response to these errors, we should resolve to remind ourselves of the fallibility of man in computing life’s trajectories, actors, objects, and forces.  We will necessarily err in our deduction of the future, and we should neither be excessively proud about our  successful predictions, nor excessively self punitive over our errors.  If we grow to think of ourselves as always accurate we can become proud, judgmental, prejudiced, stubborn, conceited.  If we consider ourselves as always wrong, we can become depressed, submissive, insecure, and fearful or angry.  We should simply take failure and success as lessons for possible future application.  We may become better at watching the signs that precede future action this way.

The mature man should evaluate life realistically.  This includes accepting the fact of the limitation of knowing another man’s motivation and logic.  Embracing one’s own finite and fallible perspective leads to humility.  An open minded inquiry allows new perspectives to influence the current mix of data and forces, which in turn allows us to be flexible in our computation of predictions.

We must use logic to navigate life, but it should be recognized as a fallible tool for defining forces, structures, and future organization.  There is no sure tool for prediction of the future or knowing another man’s mind.  But, the limited tools we have were intentionally supplied by God, and are adequate to server effectively in His world.  

The limitations of logic, intuition, feeling, and perception place us in a dependent relationship with God.  But, He does not want us to remain children.  He wants us to learn His ways so that we can be powerful and effective agents for bringing His kingdom on Earth.  As mature agents we must rightly judge and balance the complex forces and factors of life.  We must properly balance between independence and dependence, love and rationality, as well as certainty and confusion.  All the polarities represent spiritual forces acting on the soul, with each seeking to exert dominance.  We must master the spiritual forces using the tools of faith and works, and grow toward adulthood and putting on the mind of Christ.  

The question is how to have the mind of Christ?  How do we develop our own True sense of guidance?  Such is the goal of life, but the intermediate steps require faith and works.  A miracle is required to reach the final goal, but small miracles of growth come at each step as we work toward developing that mind.

Having introduced the concept of developing the mind of Christ, I wish to make the distinction between being secure in knowing Truth in its application to one’s direction in daily life and tasks, and knowing the mind of another person.  Christ knew all things by revelation from the Father, and by grace such a gift may be given to any one of us.  But, until that gift is secure and certain, we should avoid the presumption of mind-reading when confronting another.  

Man was created in the image of God, and likewise has the need for love, a mind that computes, and a will to have and create the objects of desire.  God desires that we put on the mind of Christ and create life on earth as it is in Heaven.  

Life requires that we find the appropriate balance between many polarities, and until we put on perfection, our limitation in computation leaves us limited in our ability to correctly choose the optimum solution for each moment.  Still, we are always being called to put on the full measure of skill and adult responsibility.  We continually face the temptation to proud self-sufficiency, while alternately falling into powerless insecurity.  Mastery comes as we hold the polarities in a dynamic tension while staying in a peaceful observation of the choices of life while taking deliberate and purposeful action.  

We have been given God’s promises and desire for our success in this world.  God’s will is for man to overcome the forces of the world.  As humans, we struggle against the seduction of pride and self-sufficiency.  It is not easy to hold the true perspective of our dependent, co-creator, love-relationship with the Almighty.  One aspect of this struggle is the tendency to believe we accurately and fully know another man’s mind, heart, and soul.  Such is a common problem in marriage due to the familiarity with habits and the close contact.

Humility is a skill, perspective, habit, and heart we need to develop to truly love neighbor and God.  When we dethrone self from the position of infallibility in our opinions and predictions, it allows others to have a perspective that contradicts, expands, or contracts our own perspective.  When our opinions are flexible, we can open our hearts to hear, feel, and be compassionate for their life and circumstances.  

To live life most fully, we must develop a deference to God and be willing to live His will and way.  We have been given free will, so we can choose to follow His way, or choose another.  We are given the freedom to be different, separate, and individual, but the only real satisfaction in life comes from a well balanced relationship with self, other, and God.

Loving God is difficult initially because we cannot perceive Him with our senses.  But, by practicing with serving our fellow man, we obtain an initiation into the experience of affinity.  Giving and serving is the key to developing love.  When we sacrifice for another, and become invested in their welfare, we grow.

In summary, use logic, but recognize the signs of its failure.  Emotions, and the affective experience of life provide more data about life, and should be included in the computation.  Retreat to the safe refuge of an open mind, information gathering, and an expanded reference frame when errors occur.  Be slow to judge another man as wrong, and instead strive to see and know the data set he uses to compute his reactions to life.  Each man has within his computational data banks a set of people, objects, forces, and that lead him to judge the world and react in a habitual or reflexive manner.  As humans, we are creatures of habit, and many of our reactions in the present have been programmed by past experience.  Thus we respond inappropriately to many of life’s situations.  Understanding how and why a man may react allows compassion to naturally rise.  And if compassion is mastered, she introduces us to her more fair sister – Love.