Beware the Raised Eyebrow: Are Cultural Expectations the Path to the Good Life?

by Mark Johnson

Overview

Assumptions are powerful things. We assume where ‘everyone’ is going is where we want to go, and we want to get there first. We assume that other people are qualified to judge our lives. As we follow the herd, and submit to its scrutiny, though, where are we really going? Perhaps it’s not where we assume. We know ‘the good life’ for us is ‘out there somewhere’, waiting to be found and lived. People even become Christians to improve their own lives and their future. Did not Jesus say, “I come that you might have life, and have it to the full?” Yet, how many people, non-Christians and even Christians, are actually living a life that could be described as fulfilled, gratified, and satisfied, much less full of peace, joy, and abundance? Why is that? Could it be that we have been influenced to embrace goals and to follow a path that will not produce the good life that we desire? Perhaps, in order to ‘make it’ in this world, we have trained ourselves to become something that prevents our experiencing the actual ‘good life’, even if it is right in front of us. To find and to live the good life, we need to embrace the right goals, follow the right path, engage in the right training, and also to understand the influences that are trying to keep us from living this life, and from showing this path to others. Join us, as we consider how to actually find and live the good life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781942587859
Publisher:	Clovercroft Publishing
Publication date:	05/01/2017
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Dr. Johnson is not a credentialed, licensed, academically certified purported expert on life, which may be his greatest strength. He has developed successful medical practices in two different medical specialties, is very happily married, has seven grown children, and architected his own home. Throughout adult life, his main passion has been understanding how people grow and change to live better lives, or why they do not. He would say his greatest accomplishment is learning how to learn—from the Scriptures, from mistakes, from other people, and from God. His most important life lesson is the connection between improving the ‘outer life’, and growth in the ‘inner life’. He has built a life that is truly gratifying and satisfying. While all lives are different, the principles upon which all good lives are built are very similar. He wants to share how such a good life can be built by anyone.

Table of Contents

Foreword 7

Introduction 15

The Power of Social Expectations, Social Standards, and Consensus 25

Human Needs and Their Relation to the Good Life 51

Our Culture's Consensus View of the Path to the Good Life 57

Why Our Culture's Plan to Reach the Good Life Simply Will Not Work 77

A View of the Good Life Based on Character Development: the Goals, the Path, the Outcomes 97

Spiritual Insights That Help Us Understand What Is Actually Happening 127

The Two Spiritual Kingdoms and How They Relate to Day-To- Day Life 143

How Can We Build Mature and Fulfilling Lives In Christ? 167

Impediments to the Good Life in the Body of Christ 197

The Good Life, Revisited 199