Tag Archives: evil

Ep100 The Most Consequential Decisions in Life

April 18, 2024UncategorizedArthur Brooks, Bishop Robert Barron, Catholic Church, Christ, Christianity, CS Lewis, Daniel Goleman, David Foster Wallace, evil, God, Gospel of Mark, Harry Potter, Hebrew, Jesus, Joy, Lord Voldemort, Meditation, Old Testament, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Peace, Power, Regret, Religion, Richard Dawkins, Self-Sacrificing Love, Soul, Wealthwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:10 — 30.4MB)

Father Len helps us recognize and grapple with decisions we make that control the trajectory of our lives and determine our happiness.

Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

The Most Important Decision in Life – College commencement speech by Bishop Robert Baron that inspired this episode
The most important question in this life is what kind of soul you will have.
“To love is to be vulnerable.” – CS Lewis
“What you do with your soul really is a map to your future.” – Father Len
Your soul is not your mental ability or your psychological profile. It’s a thing that contains all the virtues of God and the spirit of God.
The Old Testament describes heaven as a place of true relationship where people relate to each other soul to soul.
From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life by Arthur Brooks
Happiness comes down to care of your soul, not success in the world.
“Everybody worships something. Everybody adores something. Everybody has something that gives their life meaning and worth. Everyone lets something capture their imagination. That thing will control the direction of your life. If you worship money and things, then you’ll never feel like you have enough. If you worship your body and beauty and sexual allure, in time, you’ll be resentful because you’ll never be beautiful enough. You’ll feel ugly. And, as time and age starts to show, you will die a million deaths. If you worship power, you’ll end up feeling threatened and afraid. Read any biography of a dictator. You will need evermore power to numb you against the fear of being afraid. If you worship intellect, being seen as smart, you’ll end up feeling stupid and a fraud and on the verge of being found out. The most insidious thing is, that for most people, it will remain unconscious, but it’s their true religion.” – David Foster Wallace
Whatever you worship shapes your soul and controls your life.
Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body by Daniel Goleman
Meditation is one of the best ways to care for your soul and good for your health.
Not all worship is good. Worshiping or calling on the name of God can be a way of manipulating evil.
Good worship is supposed to lead you to self-sacrificing love.
What will what you worship do to your soul?

We welcome your questions and comments:

Email: irish@wwgproductions.org
Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738

Links to More Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions

Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org
A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

Ep93 Encore: Sex before Marriage

June 23, 2023UncategorizedCatholic Church, Commitment, evil, God, Love, Passion, Pleasure, Promiscuity, Selfishness, Sex, Sexually Desirable, St. Augustine, Theology of Desirewrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:51 — 9.0MB)

A high school listener asks, “Will I go to hell if I have sex before marriage?” Father Len offers some sober, surprising, and humorous answers and insight about passion, sex, and promiscuity.

Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

There’s nothing wrong with sex. It’s so natural. Nothing could be more natural. It’s part of the drive of life that God gives us.
Sexual passion is good. It drives us to seek each other out. It brings us together, but there’s something better.
Augustine’s highly promiscuous life taught him what was missing in his life.
Sometimes things are wrong, not because they’re evil, but because they’re not good enough.
Promiscuity is wrong because it can train you to use and hurt other people and not be committed.
Being sexual is part of what it means to be a human being, but the best part of being human is something greater. Commitment and love.
Passion and pleasure can be blinding, but also be very enlightening. True passion opens you up for God.

We welcome your questions and comments:

Email: irish@wwgproductions.org
Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738

Links to Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions

Wrestling with God Show: http://WWGShow.com
Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org
A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/

Ep20 Good and Evil Are Hard to Define and Fully Understand

July 24, 2020UncategorizedBook of Job, Book of Wisdom, Coronavirus, evil, Faith, God, Heaven, Humility, Jesus, Moral Contagion, Religion, Satan, spirituality, Suffering, The Biblewrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:48 — 21.8MB)

Father Len explains why defining and fully understanding good and evil is pretty much beyond our ability as humans.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

The only wise reaction to evil is faith in God.
The mystery of what seems like evil to us may actually be something used by God for our good.
Father Len explains why we shouldn’t settle for cheap and easy answers for why evil and suffering exist in the world and instead humbly ask questions and more questions.
We will not understand evil until we can have the same perspective as God.
There might not be answers about good and evil that we can see and understand until we get to heaven and can look back in time.
Real wisdom is acquired through intimate experience with suffering.
What we proclaim as good may actually be bad for us.
What we proclaim as evil may actually be good for us.

Ep18 Politics, Religion and the Slogan “Black Lives Matter”

July 10, 2020UncategorizedBlack Like Me, Black Lives Matter, Blaise Pascal, evil, George Floyd, John Howard Griffin, Politics, Religion, spiritualitywrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:37 — 18.0MB)

Father Len and Irish grapple with the difficulty of having a spiritual, moral, and meaningful conversation about the slogan “black lives matter.”

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

Father Len explains why he is reticent to make statements about political slogans.
It’s cowardice for religious leaders not to lead and speak out about spiritual and moral issues.
People have to come to the truth by themselves, but religious leaders can and should help lead them there.
“We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.” – Blaise Pascal
We have become so politically rigid, polarized, and hell-bent on winning in the United States that the search for truth gets lost.
There are good people and evil people. The line between good and evil cuts through every human heart.
Father Len is reading “Black like Me” by John Howard Griffin to become more compassionate and feel the pain and suffering that can come from discrimination and being a minority.

Ep5 The Good of Coronavirus and Other Evils

April 13, 2020UncategorizedAdam & Eve, China, Christianity, COVID-19, Darth Vader, Enkidu, Epic of Gilgamesh, evil, Garden of Eden, God, Jonah, Judaism, Lord of the Rings, Luke Skywalker, moral evil, natural evil, St. Irenaeus, Theodicy, Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, Tree of Lifewrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:47 — 22.7MB)

Father Len helps us wrestle with evil. What is it? Why is there evil in the world? How can the consequences of evil help us mature and become better and more complete human beings?

Highlights, Ideas, & Wisdom

Father Len explains why the Corona virus crisis demands that we wrestle with God about what is evil and why there is evil in the world in hopes that this pandemic will become a species changing event.
Father Len introduces us to theodicy, the theology that grapples with evil and why an all good and loving God permits evil in our world.
Father Len shares “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” The story of a man whose pain, suffering and loss from the death of his best friend cause him to look deep into the purpose of life and how to become a complete human being.
Father Len explores the theology of St. Irenaeus that looks at evil to find the ultimate goodness of God.
Humanity is born innocent, but immature. We have work to do to become mature and complete human beings.
We don’t get to define goodness for ourselves. Only God can define what is good.
Maturing is a complex process. It requires that we experience the pain we inflict upon ourselves by going after the wrong things to make us happy. We must come to understand what is evil, evil’s consequences and die to our selfishness.
God did not cause the Corona virus, but God can use it to make us better people.
The coronavirus demonstrates how interconnected we are in this world. What happens in China affects us no matter where we are in the world. A problem in one part of the world becomes a problem for all of us. We’re waking up to the fact that either we survive together or we fall apart.
There are two types of evil. Moral evil and natural evil.
Moral evil is the things we do to each other. Often, without knowing or thinking about it. A good example is texting while driving. We’ve trained ourselves not to care about the accident it might cause and the pain, suffering, and loss it can inflict on other people.
Natural evils are things like the coronavirus, earthquakes, and floods.
St. Irenaeus would say the coronavirus itself is not evil. What is evil is the way we respond to it. If we deny its danger and existence, think only of our own well-being, endanger others, or be unwilling to come together as a community to battle the virus, that’s evil.
The coronavirus offers us a source of bane and enlightenment. For some of us it will be a source of spiritual enlightenment and help us to become more mature human beings. For others, the experience will be dismissed or quickly forgotten.

Ep2 Sex before Marriage

March 12, 2020UncategorizedCatholic Church, Commitment, evil, God, Love, Passion, Pleasure, Promiscuity, Selfishness, Sex, Sexually Desirable, St. Augustine, Theology of Desirewrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:49 — 7.2MB)

A high school listener asks, “Will I go to hell if I have sex before marriage?” Father Len offers some sober, surprising, and humorous answers and insight about passion, sex, and promiscuity.

Support Wrestling with God Productions: https://www.GiveSendGo.com/WWGProductions

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

There’s nothing wrong with sex. It’s so natural. Nothing could be more natural. It’s part of the drive of life that God gives us.
Sexual passion is good. It drives us to seek each other out. It brings us together, but there’s something better.
Augustine’s highly promiscuous life taught him what was missing in his life.
Sometimes things are wrong, not because they’re evil, but because they’re not good enough.
Promiscuity is wrong because it can train you to use and hurt other people and not be committed.
Being sexual is part of what it means to be a human being, but the best part of being human is something greater. Commitment and love.
Passion and pleasure can be blinding, but also be very enlightening. True passion opens you up for God.

We welcome your questions and comments:

Email: irish@wwgproductions.org
Text or voicemail: 208-391-3738

Links to Podcasts from Wrestling with God Productions

Wrestling with God Show: http://WWGShow.com
Life Lessons from Jesus and the Church He Founded: http://LifeLessonsfromJesus.org
A Priest’s Life: https://idahovocations.com/resources/video-podcasts/