We are more than flesh and blood
Maslow’s pyramid is more popular than the Egyptian pyramid. We all must build it. It is a five-storey building. On the ground level there is our need for food, water, and a place to live. On the first level there is our need for safety and security. On the second level there is our need for intimate relationships, love belonging and friends. On the third level there is our need for esteem, achievement, and sense of accomplishment. On the fourth level is our need for self-actualisation, which is to realize our potential.
This is the order we take to fulfill our needs. However, many have learned these do not guarantee happiness and fulfillment since we are not animals who are content with our essential needs met. We have more needs than food, shelter, and security.
Leo Tolstoy was on the top of Maslow’s pyramid. His physical needs were generously met. He had a wife he loved, he belonged to the high-class society, he was loved by many, much esteemed, and was the best version of himself he could be at that stage of his life. He was a writer and an influencer. He wrote the best books of his life, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, which are still loved and admired. Both books are on the top 100 Britain’s best loved books of all time, as compiled by BBC. Yet his life felt meaningless. He was depressed and suicidal, not because of a chemical imbalance or pain but because of the lack of meaning in his life. Though he had all he could desire, he had little desire to live that he said:
“If a fairy had come and had offered to carry out my wish, I should not have known what to say… I, a healthy, happy man, felt that I could not go on living”
He was afraid of committing suicide; he avoided ropes and being by himself in some places that facilitate suicide, just in case. It seems the silent force of hopelessness was wrestling him to death. Luckily, Tolstoy went on to discover Jesus and Christianity and lived thirty years more of meaningful life. The Bible says about Jesus, “In him was life, the life was the light of men”. Life is not only about how wealthy and healthy you are.
You can lose hope while having all the world can give. It seems Leo Tolstoy was experiencing that before he found Jesus. For him and most people, life has to have more meaning than meeting our needs and self-actualization. Often those who have met their needs in all other areas of their life seem to struggle with the meaning of life.
It is not always about what you have but what you believe in. It is your beliefs about things and life that dictate the joy of your days. As Jesus warned His disciples, “Life does not consist in the abundance of things”, meaning more does not equal happiness. At another time He added, “What profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul”. You can get where you want by selling your soul, identity, and values but when you get there you are changed so much your true self is no more there to enjoy it.
Celebrities and others have committed suicide at the peak of their success. Many were despaired of life and had midlife crises, losing hope and faith in the things they once loved and enjoyed. Comfort, entertainment, increased wages, abundant food, clothes and the standard of living have increased through the decades, yet our happiness and fulfillment haven’t.
We are spiritual beings. We are not only bone, flesh, and blood who are content with what we eat. We need emotional, psychological, and spiritual input to be happy even to survive. If not so we should have been content with food and drink but having it all only exposes the hidden need that is clouded by our need to make ends meet.
After Jesus fasted forty days, the devil tempted Jesus to turn the stones into bread. Jesus replied, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And again the devil tempted Him to bow and worship him for the prize of giving Him the whole world. Jesus told the devil, “Get lost Satan. It is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only serve.” It seems the world system and the devil are offering us Maslow’s ladder at the expense of our deepest spiritual needs.
Of course, we ought to aspire as high as to the moon and back, live our best life and change our world by realizing our potential but we should not sell our souls for it. However, that doesn’t guarantee happiness and fulfillment. There is much more than the ideal materialistic life- the spiritual life. It is the spiritual and richer life that gives us joy and prosperity in most areas of life. The spiritually prosperous are also prosperous in their mind, soul, and body.
Meeting our emotional needs is necessary to our survival. Love and emotional connection are vital for the survival of humanity. If one of these is missing humanity goes extinct. Babies need emotional support to survive. Men and women must desire to love one another to procreate to say the least. A study shows people who are lonely have shorter life spans.
We live in a spiritual world
In the book of Joel, around 2,800 years ago, God said,
"And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” (Joel 2:28)
We are much more than flesh and blood. There is a spiritual dimension to us. This is manifested in various ways. There are people who saw a dream that came to pass in reality. Mark Twain had seen the death of his brother in a dream with precision weeks before it happened. As he described it:
“In the morning, when I awoke, I had been dreaming, and the dream was so vivid, so like reality, that it deceived me, and I thought it was real. In the dream I had seen Henry a corpse. He lay in a metallic burial case. He was dressed in a suit of my clothing, and on his breast lay a great bouquet of flowers, mainly white roses, with a red rose in the center … before it suddenly flashed upon me that there was nothing real about this–it was only a dream.”
Weeks later his brother Henry was killed when a boat's boilers exploded at Ship Island. His body was placed in a metallic case, for they ran out of the wooden ones because many people had died. Mark Twain writes:
“I recognized instantly that my dream of several weeks before was here exactly reproduced, so far as the details went–and I think I missed one detail; but that one was immediately supplied, for just then an elderly lady entered the place with a large bouquet consisting mainly of white roses, and in the center of it was a red rose, and she laid it on his breast.”
Mark Twain was given knowledge of what would happen weeks ahead. Someone who travels time to the future showed him what will happen to the smallest detail, such as the color of a single rose. Only someone who can foresee the non-existent future showed it to him. Only a supernatural being can see accurately what will happen before it happens.
For those who know God this was a sign to prevent it by praying to God or seeking more clarification on how to intervene. Often God speaks to those who are open to Him through visions, dreams, burning convictions and compelling thoughts to prevent disaster or do good. We lose out much when we ignore God and stop being attentive to Him.
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