aristotle, you rock my world

i entered my social ethics class and when the female professor entered, she immediately caught my undivided attention. she wears the same black dress and black heels to each class and i believe this is in order to detract attention away from her visual appearance - even though she just might be the classiest female professor i've ever had. more than just aesthetics, this individual has good things to say and never has a philosophy class been more engaging. our class is currently going over Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and even though I probably understand only around 60-75% of it, it has been extremely refreshing.

Aristotle distinguishes between descriptive laws and normative laws; the first set of laws can be something as simple as gravity making a ball drop to the ground - it is something that simply happens and something that just is, the latter set of laws are laws that say "I ought to [fill in the blank]". For instance, I ought to be more patient, I ought to help someone in need.

Now, Aristotle says that habits are tools that takes normative laws, those laws that say "I ought to do something" and turn them into descriptive laws for us that become an essential and integrated part of us. It's not good enough to simply say that you are a "just" or "good" person - these states of being should be descriptive laws for us that produce natural responses from us in the face of injustice, in the face of evil. For instance, I cannot call myself a disciple of Christ when the marks of the cross are not on my palms. Being a follower of Christ has to be an essential extension of my entire being - it ultimately involves my entire being: my heart, my soul, my spirit, my physicality and spirituality, my intellect. Following Christ should be a descriptive law, not a normative one. Not I ought to follow Christ, but I do follow Christ and following him has beautifully and wonderfully turned me inside out.

Perhaps dying to myself means allowing Christ to smash normative laws and turn them into descriptive laws. He is the catalyst and I surrender myself and yield my heart to Him.

So God, I pray that I would habitually turn to prayer and your Word. I pray that following you would involve my entire being and that you would take me into greater depths of intimacy. I pray that there would be no turning back.