TRANSCRIÇÃO 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.160
Now, one of the great problems are the thoughts that are going on inside my head.
00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:10.400
Um, I'm not a particularly good golfer at all, but I enjoy it when I hit a shot right.
00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:16.719
Folks that talk about golf very much will say, when you go to swaying, what you're thinking ends up being really important.
00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:20.559
And very often what happens is my default thought will be don't slice.
00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:26.800
And invariably, if my thought is don't slice, I will do things with my body that will cause me to slice.
00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:31.440
So having a swing thought, something real simple, could just be timing.
00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:36.079
You take it back, there's a beat, go forward one, two, three, something like that.
00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:37.520
Could be a good swing thought.
00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:38.880
I need a swing thought for my life.
00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:40.079
That's where we're gonna go.
00:00:40.960 --> 00:00:45.439
But I want to start by talking about the history of the seven deadly sins.
00:00:45.600 --> 00:00:49.679
We are dealing with the seven deadlies, and they are the primary obstacle.
00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:56.240
It's not what's going on outside there, it's not my job, it's not my situation, it's not money, it's not that hard person in your life.
00:00:56.560 --> 00:00:58.399
It's the sin inside my life.
00:00:58.640 --> 00:00:59.840
That's the problem.
00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:12.079
And the seven deadly sins is the uh very ancient uh summary of wisdom around the challenges that we face as we try to move towards the person that we want to become.
00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:20.159
We all know uh that's what matters most in life, to have a life that's characterized by love and joy and peace.
00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:26.719
So I want to say, as we get ready to walk through the seven deadly sins, I want to say a word about where this list came from.
00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:33.599
And it goes way back uh 1700 years or so uh as a list.
00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:38.319
The sins themselves go right back to the garden in Adam and Eve as long as people have been around.
00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:45.120
There is a man named uh Evagrius who really wanted to pay attention to Kiesol.
00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:51.280
In our day, we would think about this as psychology, uh, but they incorporated the moral and spiritual dimension of life.
00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:56.400
And he found these particular thoughts uh led to lots of other problems in other areas.
00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:00.799
And so, as the result of years of reflection, he wrote them down.
00:02:01.040 --> 00:02:10.319
Uh, a century or two later, one of the popes, known as Gregory the Great, he didn't give himself that nickname, by the way, if you're wondering if he had some pride issues, uh, actually wrote them down.
00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:13.199
And then I want to say a little bit more
Load full transcript
about the history of this.
00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:15.199
And this may take a few minutes, but it's worth it.
00:02:15.360 --> 00:02:18.560
This is from Peter Jones' book, Self-Help from the Middle Ages.
00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:24.479
Uh, over the centuries, people devoted themselves to thinking about this.
00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:34.479
And at one point, it became a um uh a guideline, a rule for the church that people had to uh confess to a priest at least once a year.
00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:37.439
So then priests need to know how do we help people do this?
00:02:38.080 --> 00:02:39.280
Jones Wright.
00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:44.080
Uh, how was this civilization in the Middle Ages geared to understanding the human mind?
00:02:44.240 --> 00:02:48.719
For one thing, a passion for analyzing thought and impulse dominated the top professions.
00:02:48.879 --> 00:02:57.120
The brightest and best of brains, as sharp as the sharpest today, didn't dream of becoming entrepreneurs or headfunge managers after they got their education.
00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:59.599
Hmm, what a weird world.
00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.120
Instead, the first university students traveled to Paris or Oxford to study theology.
00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:10.479
This is our history, which was then the most prestigious subject on offer.
00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:26.319
Armed with this degree, the best of these graduates competed to become bishops or cardinals where the job description involved analyzing the triggers of temptation and desire, giving lectures on fear and doubt, healing the anxieties of people in crisis.
00:03:26.639 --> 00:03:28.319
The whole point of the university.
00:03:28.560 --> 00:03:29.360
Ever wonder about that?
00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:35.039
As Pope Gregory IX announced in 1231, was to create self-aware citizens.
00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:44.080
So priests in those days were very thoughtful and they were in training to be very much like what we think about therapists today, helping people to pay attention to their interior life.
00:03:44.639 --> 00:03:54.560
By the mid-13th century, as universities began to expand across Europe, thinkers developed a deep philosophy of what this system, these thoughts about the deadly sins, were really about.
00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:00.879
Before then, people tended to see the sins in a harsh, one-dimensional way, cause and origin of all evils.
00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:03.599
But now writers find a more forgiving angle.
00:04:03.759 --> 00:04:11.599
Each of the deadly sins, according to the Parisian master of theology, Jean de la Rochelle, is a form of distorted love.
00:04:12.159 --> 00:04:16.079
So now I'll think about this as I look about sin and temptation in my own life.
00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:22.959
We all desire good things, Jean said, but this desire turns into sin when we feel it too strongly.
00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:27.360
Gluttony and lust are when we love lesser goods, food and sex to excess.
00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:34.480
Avarice and anger come when we love exterior goods, such as material objects or winning a fight too much.
00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:44.079
Our excessive love for two interior goods, the talents that bring us success, the joy of the success itself, is what produces pride and envy.
00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:58.240
And then this system goes on to inform things like The Divine Comedy by Dante, the landmark poem of the Italian language, arguably the greatest literary work of the medieval millennium, Jones writes.
00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:06.480
This was a trilogy that encouraged readers to confront their sins and reconcile themselves to the darkness inside us all.
00:05:06.959 --> 00:05:15.120
And as you may know, if you know that story, there is this mountain of purgation, and it's arranged around the seven deadly sins.
00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:21.839
And it's only as Dante's pilgrim uh learns to recognize all seven of the sins within himself.
00:05:22.079 --> 00:05:25.920
And the point of that, of course, is you and I, the reader, are to do that.
00:05:26.720 --> 00:05:35.600
Uh, and we've made peace with our interior life that we're able to reach the pinnacle of the universe, to feel the love that moves the sun and all the stars.
00:05:35.839 --> 00:05:39.600
Dante's template was one of compassionate confrontation.
00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:45.199
So this is the great history legacy of the wisdom of the seven deadly sins.
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:57.040
But over the last century or so, they first got uh superficialized and uh uh moralized in real simplistic ways.
00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:01.839
Uh, and then eventually in our day, pretty much just dismissed.
00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:13.360
Uh you can now indulge them in seven ice creams, uh uh ice cream flavors, uh naming the seven deadly sins, were launched in 2003.
00:06:13.839 --> 00:06:24.319
Uh Martin Marty, Rebecca De Young writes it about this in her book, says that the French actually sent a delegation to the Vatican to get gluttony off the list.
00:06:24.560 --> 00:06:27.279
Because they felt like they had confused it with feasting.
00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:29.279
They didn't understand what it was really about.
00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:47.839
In the second decade of the 21st century, uh the spirit of the desert, where Evagrius went and reflected on the seven deadly sins, began to be resurrected in Silicon Valley as the California tech community braced the insights that understanding the seven deadly sins can bring.
00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:49.040
I'm not making this up.
00:06:50.000 --> 00:07:00.480
The resurgence began when Reed Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, made his speech claiming all his successes were thanks to his knowledge of this medieval system.
00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:03.759
Think of any top tech company, Hoffman said.
00:07:03.920 --> 00:07:09.439
Wasn't it true that they were only popular because they exploited at least one of the seven sins?
00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:20.319
Tinder Thrives on Lust, Yelp on
Gluttony, LinkedIn on Greed, Netflix on sloth, Twitter on anger, Facebook on envy, Instagram on pride.
00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:37.040
Many people in Silicon Valley, like the investor Tim Chang, believed Hoffman was onto something and began using what they called this 7DS system, seven deadly sins system of commercial development to build their products with those seven impulses in mind.
00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:45.199
All this might sound like just another ice cream style gimmick, but Hoffman at least seems to have been serious.
00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:54.079
He argued that the deadly sins identified the deep universal psychological structure of the human mind.
00:07:54.959 --> 00:08:00.560
And like John Cassian or Gregory the Tech, Gregory the Great, he wanted to be evangelical about it.
00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:04.480
Good tech companies shouldn't just feed the sins, he said.
00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:06.319
They should try to reform them.
00:08:07.040 --> 00:08:16.079
They should harness the urge for envy or anger and find a way to plug it into something that's better for society, better for the individual.
00:08:16.879 --> 00:08:18.959
Where would this design lead?
00:08:19.199 --> 00:08:27.360
Uh he later founded a company called Inflection AI with the stated mission of developing a more compassionate digital mind.
00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:36.000
It's possible he wanted to use the seven deadly sins as a guide for programming a new generation of artificial intelligence.
00:08:36.080 --> 00:08:47.440
And you notice we do not yet have a form of AW, artificial wisdom, or AV, artificial virtue, because we have to pursue that ourselves.
00:08:47.679 --> 00:09:04.879
So this is a very rich uh uh framework of thought looking at the human condition developed by the brightest minds of century after century after century, that has unfortunately been superficialized, largely lost in our day.
00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:09.200
This is what we explore as I look at myself and you look at yourself.
00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:14.639
Here's what I want to say today as we're thinking about how do I go through today?
00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:16.639
So today, what do I do?
00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:25.039
And I mentioned at the beginning that in golf, it's real important when you're when you're playing the game that you have a good swing thought.
00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:40.639
It's gotta be real simple because if I'm just trying to avoid um slicing or shanking or you know, whatever, uh inevitably those thoughts will lead me obsessively to doing the very thing I don't want to do.
00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:41.919
Kind of like Romans 7.
00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:44.960
Golf is a great example of Romans 7.
00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:46.480
Why do I do what I don't want to do?
00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:52.879
So I need another kind of thought that will bring God into the picture with me because I can't, he can, I think I'll let him.
00:09:54.240 --> 00:09:59.679
And there's a little thought that I have been living with and practicing for a while now.
00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:02.000
And it couldn't be simpler.
00:10:02.159 --> 00:10:12.879
Um, Brother Lawrence practicing the presence of God as a kind of mantra, very often in his letters or his thoughts about the human condition, he will suggest this.
00:10:13.039 --> 00:10:16.000
Just our life presents itself to us as a series of tasks.
00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:21.519
I get up, I get dressed, I fix breakfast, uh, I write emails.
00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:27.679
He says, at the beginning of each activity, here's one, at the beginning of each activity, invite God into it.
00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:33.759
You know, God, I'm gonna try to answer these emails right now right now.
00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:35.039
And I'm kind of irritated.
00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:36.320
I wish I didn't have to have them.
00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:38.240
I wish I didn't have to do this.
00:10:38.559 --> 00:10:46.080
So instead of approaching it with a sense of irritation or impatience, God, would you be with me and would you be working in my fingers to help me type just the right words?
00:10:47.279 --> 00:10:52.879
And then while I'm engaged in the activity, uh I keep asking God for help.
00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:54.480
God, could we do this together?
00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.879
Not sure what to say right now, not sure what to do right now.
00:10:57.039 --> 00:10:58.080
God, would you help me?
00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.360
Right now, right now.
00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:00.799
I'm talking into this camera.
00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:01.759
God, would you help me?
00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:09.919
And then when I get to the end of the activity, pause, thank God for a salp, offer it to him.
00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:24.799
And of course, this is all mirroring way back to Genesis 1, what God does with creation when he has an idea for something, and then he speaks, and it is so, and then there's a moment of reflection, contemplation where God looks at it and sees that it's good.
00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:32.720
So if I'm gonna defeat sin, uh I don't go through my day thinking I can't sin now, can't lust now, can't be angry now.
00:11:33.039 --> 00:11:35.200
It doesn't work any better than don't slice.
00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:37.279
Just one, two, three.
00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:42.080
I began this asking for God's help, do it, asking for God's help.
00:11:42.320 --> 00:11:43.679
Now it's done.
00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:44.879
Thank God.
00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:46.639
Go after it.
00:11:49.440 --> 00:11:58.559
Okay, did anyone else have a wow moment when John was talking about the correlation between some of our biggest tech companies and the seven deadly sins?
00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:02.240
I'm gonna have to go back and listen to that again.
00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:06.000
But here's the takeaway for today as you go into your day.
00:12:06.159 --> 00:12:10.240
Remember before each activity to invite God in.
00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:14.240
During the activity to ask for God's help in real time.
00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:16.080
He stands ready to help you.
00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:24.879
And then when that activity is complete, remember to just thank God, thank God, to bring him with you into each thing that you face this day.
00:12:25.200 --> 00:12:28.240
At Become New, you can spend 10 minutes every weekday with Dr.
00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:46.399
John Orberg to receive a clarifying, grounding perspective and thought on life in the kingdom of God, to get a scripture to take with you into your day to renew your mind with, to meditate on, and a practice to apply to your life as you grow in Christ's likeness one day at a time.
00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:56.000
The best way to never miss one of these teachings from John is just to text the word new to our number 51504, and I'll send you a link every time we drop a new video.
00:12:56.240 --> 00:13:07.039
Also, if you have a prayer request, you can text that specific request to that number, and one person from our team will write you back a prayer, and we will spend time praying for you out loud.
00:13:07.200 --> 00:13:08.559
We would love to pray for you.
00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:12.159
Uh you could also email it to us at connect at become new.com.
00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:17.200
All of our resources are free, so if you want to find more of those, you can head over to become new.com.
00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:21.519
I'm Tim, the channel host, and I'm so glad you stopped by today.
00:13:21.759 --> 00:13:22.879
Bye for now.