Quiet quitting

Before I answer your question let me ask you something. What gives your life meaning? What are you doing or working towards that inspires you? I think that’s the crux of your question and may give you insight.

~bella

Christ lets you see the "thou" instead of "it" in all of existence. Everything is sacred. His love is in you and around you, there is never nothing.

Isn’t that what you experience in meditation. The destruction of the maya. The stretching out into space. We get stretched. Learning to handle things that look like we can’t. Jesus sees us through hard work and feeling it is not what it seems. We don’t have to do that in our own strength.

This sounds like depression, at least my ability to understand it is due to my own experiences of major mood disorder. Though there could also be a spiritual malaise, an expectation of excitement and purpose from being in Christ that isn't manifesting itself. For me, it comes down to obedience and trust....recognition that emotions can only take us so far, and just as anything in this fallen world can lead us astray. To combat it requires discipline to keep pushing and engaging with God even when it feels like there's no reason to push on. The only way out is through.

All the nonsense that is taught as Christianity now, you will find all kinds of feelings connected to Christianity.

So many that have absolutely no assurance of where they are going and to much is focused on feeling and what the person is doing. So if they are doing good things, more than likely they are going to feel good about themselves and vice/versa.

There can be a sense of nihilism that can creep in to one's thinking today, especially if they have been to college. Up until 100 years ago most people grew up lived and died where they were born amongst numerous siblings and cousins. One married fairly early and it was with one already knew intimately having grown up with them. One became so integrated into family and village life, that consideration of other paths seldom went beyond the abstract.

Modern life offers several alternative trajectories. One can be career oriented such that one becomes one's job. One can follow a path of self-indulgence to its usual addictive end. One can find in a creed or cause, that which can consume a life. One can still try to build a traditional life, but can face numerous obstacles. For some, many of the modern trajectories seem empty and pointless leaving one feeling almost suicidal.

The basic problem is that all humans are born helpless, ignorant, and selfish. While good parenting can improve the first two, selfishness is a real problem. It is the reason that drives us apart and the dilemma of the human condition is that we need each other and at the same time can't stand each other. The harshness of the natural world and the demands of parenthood in the past forced people to give up some of their selfishness.

Christianity offers a solution in that the selfish nature can be changed in the transition from walking in the flesh to walking by the Spirit. What makes this seem unlikely is that s few Christians are even aware of this much less take advantage of it.

What’s wrong with effort @Tellyontellyon . Nothing worthwhile is easy. You need to be loved and to love but the universe doesn’t do it. Jesus loves you.

Love is what binds things, people, the universe to gather. From outside.

Tellyontellyon said:

Do you Christians experience feeling empty and sometimes terrified of nothing? Like your atoms are drifting away from each other.

Or, did you used to feel like that but Christ closed the gap?

It feels like hanging in a gap sometimes with no sides. Sometimes this is very very difficult.

Do you still sometimes feel this, even though you have Christ? Or is it just life. That's what life just feels like. Not Light or Dark or even bland.. just suspended and disintegrating.

Or is it just some people sometimes. I really really don't care about salvation or what comes next. What about now, what about this. Has Jesus helped you, can he?

If you had a job, and you really didn't care for it. Would you quit? Or quit quietly slowly withdrawing so gently that it's not even noticed. Just stop trying.

Anyway, I hope my questions make some sort of sense to somebody?

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From my experience as an unbeliever and a believer, I know that when I was unsaved, I had some fairly weird experiences, like one time I felt like I was going to die my body felt like it would explode, and a voice said to me "I am your watcher", it was a very unsettling feeling. I know looking back that it was a demonic entity. As a Christian these "entities" still try to unsettle me, but they have no power over me. I can command them to leave, and they do. So nowadays my mind is at peace. The entities can give all sorts of feelings, they try to tell me they are God, encourage me to sin, but that is for me. For others, they torment with feelings of sadness. Still others with fears, or doubts. But they are very real feelings.

But if nothing is worthwhile..

A consumptive life can find a world weariness in which a jaded soul finds little to excite it.

Alternatively, a life lived for others can find satisfaction. What is "worth" the while is the joy in giving.

giving = light
taking = darkness

Tellyontellyon said:

But if nothing is worthwhile..

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I like your reference to being like a 'paper cut-out'. Here is my two cents worth, it is a little long yet I hope it is relatable.
Nothing's worthwhile; you're absolutely correct in how you're feeling. If you read the Bible and speak with others, you'll hear a familiar echo from the "paper cut-outs" themselves: "Why? Who? And what for?" A shower on your skin reminds you of being alive, and yet the sensation doesn't really tell you anything, just a feeling you think. Once the tap's off, that sensation's quickly forgotten, and the "paper cut-out" must somehow go into the world, as one might say, "go around and around looking for its creator." There's a deep sense of not knowing who or what you are, how you're shaped into who you are, and why.

The questioning then becomes: How does God initiate the mind and help it find its Creator? It's as if these "paper cut-outs" are eternally and forcefully shaped into what they are, much like your life at the moment. You're not depressed, nor are you even seeking answers; you're simply wondering how to keep it all going. This isn't about finding inspiration in the things around us. Instead, God is guiding; the One who created you is calling you to view things as meaningless. Yet, in time, He'll help you see that "everything" He created is for His glory, honor, and praise. Paper cut-outs are flimsy; in fact, they truly find it hard to support their own weight. There's no real strength in them, at least not in the conventional sense.

Take comfort, "paper cut-out"—you're not alone in wondering if your very "atoms" are drifting away from each other. Most, if not all, genuine followers of Christ have a deep sense of something not quite right, just bland, empty, or worthless. This isn't depression or crying in a corner, but more of a "pause" in the direction the Lord is leading. Many, if not all, believers reach a point where they ask, "Jesus, where are you?" And for a time, "nothing" will be the response. Until one day, a few questions that don't need answers are put out into the worldwide Church—that being the body of Christ.

Someone very powerful in human history once said, "chasing after the wind is what life is all about—meaningless." God showed him what life truly means. I'm sure you'll know this man's name, and if you don't, I'm sure the body of Christ will certainly help you to know. You're among friends here. Keep asking questions, keep seeking meaning, and keep looking to Christ, even when you can't even understand who Christ really is. He will cause your mind, your heart, and your life to mean everything for the glory of our Heavenly Father.

Have a wonderful day/night even if you have know idea what 'wonderful day' means today, tomorrow you may. God is good.