Stagnation: a Form Of Death
Stagnation is a miserable stage for one to be in, if he or she desires to have a continuing growth process in every aspect of his of her life. Some people become stagnated intellectually, while others become stagnated spiritually. Most, however, are stagnated physically. Stagnation, is a process of one failing to develop, progress, or grow. When one fails to grow or develop physically, it can have a great deal of negative consequences, and, I am not talking about moving from an infant to a child, from a child to an adolescent, or from an adolescent to an adult. I am talking about people who do not workout, and keep their bodies’ fit and develop, so, that they can be productive beings within our society. When individuals are excessively overweight, they become not only a burden to themselves, but to society at large. Obesity, is a major health problem in our society today. People who are overweight, have all type of health problems, such as high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and lung and heart problems, just to name a few. What such individuals need to do, is to start a workout program, which should consist of exercising three times a week, for about a hour and a half a day. Their workout program must consist of four major elements, strength training, muscular endurance training, cardio, and, better eating habits. People who are overweight, usually are always complaining about how their bodies’ are aching from this and aching from that. Much of this is due to the fact that excessive fat, causes our bodies not to function properly. For, example, too much fat makes it difficult for our bodies’ to absorb insulin produced by the pancreas, thus, causing high levels of sugar to build up in our bloodstream. Being overweight causes one to feel fatigue most of the time. This was definitely the case with me, when I was overweight. The solution to this problem, is not to be stagnated with one’s health. Instead, one must work to develop a body that is healthy, so, that it can function properly, like it was designed to do so. Intellectual stagnation takes place when one stops doing things that would cause him or her to grow or develop cognitively. This is the person who use to keep up with the latest scholarly material in his or her respectable field of study. Not only this, but, this individual at one time was very well- rounded, because he or she would read materials outside of his or her discipline, such as newspapers, magazines, journals, and other popular materials within our culture. Now, this individual, seldom reads anything, except maybe a text message on a cell phone. This person’s career, has now turned into a job, because he or she no longer sees growth in the current area from which they dwell. Most people think that white collar professions cannot become dead end jobs, but, they can if a person is constantly reaching for a higher level of intellectual and spiritual development. The individual who is experiencing intellectual stagnation, must begin to look for a higher calling in his or her career, change to a new career, or find something outside of his or her profession, that brings them a great deal of joy. Spiritual stagnation can take place, for a variety of reasons. One may feel that he or she is not growing spiritually, because their are not any major changes in his or her life. Going to church on a regular basis, singing in the choir, or being on the usher board, just does not cut it anymore. Running to this conference and running to that conference, to hear Joyce Myers, T.D. Jakes, Joel Osteen, Tony Evans, Beth Moore, and, other great individuals of the Christian faith, seems to be a bore. Especially, since after doing all of this, an individual’s life is still similar to that of the children of Israel, wondering around in the wilderness for forty years. Or, going around the same mountain over and over again. The solution to the stagnated Christian is that, an individual must know Jesus Christ for his or herself. One can buy this book and that book. Go purchase this DVD, and that DVD, but, until a person knows Jesus Christ for his or herself, he or she will always have to piggyback off of another person’s testimony. When an individual is experiencing stagnation, whether it be spiritual, intellectual, or physical, there needs to be some type of positive change. If a person is experiencing all three at the same time, then he or she may raise the question, ” why do I get up in the morning ” ? Stagnation makes people alienated from their families, friends, church, and the workplace. It is like a dead person walking around, who is just merely existing within space, matter, and time.
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Tags: Logical Thinking
This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2010 at 9:55 am and is filed under Politics And Education, Religion and Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Stagnation is indeed a form of slow progress and in most cases a form of no progression at all. But I ask myself what was the purpose of writing ( typing in this case ) this article. What did you conclude? That people must look for a diet plan to lose their weight ? That people are slowing down in their life, in their career ,in their spirituality ? That seems to be the case of many individuals its common in this society . In a society where progress and information moves much more quickly than life itself; if you do not kept up life will leave you behind leading to stagnation , but if you move too fast you will past life by and forget of the things that brought you happiness this being the case of many rich business men( Goldman Sachs type of fellows).
Overall I think your article was mainly an analysis of the word stagnation.
Yes, stagnation is a miserable stage to be in. But, sometimes it’s hard not to stagnate. For example, take the college student who has to spend all day studying, or the office worker who spends all day in front of the computer. Although they may not necessarily stagnate in their education or career, they could stagnate physically or spiritually. Since they have to spend most of their time studying or working, they don’t have much time to get up and do some type of physical activity or go to church. If the office worker leaves the desk for a few minutes, they’re boss might get mad at them for not doing any work, and they could get fired. If a college student leaves the classroom, they could miss important information, and some teachers consider missing class a serious thing. And, when they get home, they either are too tired to want to do anything, or they have more work that needs to be finished at home because it is due the next day.
I’m sure that this doesn’t apply to everyone; I know that I am able to have some spare time to do what I want. However, during the Fall and Spring semesters, free time seems to be difficult to come by. I guess the solution to this is to find a time for everything. There should be a time for work and there should be a time for leisure. If you spend all your time stagnating, you won’t be able to enjoy life. By the same token, if you spend all your time working, then you will also miss a lot of things in life.
I see some form of stagnation on a day to day basis. I see the morbidly obese people riding the electric scooters when they shop for fattening foods at Wal-Mart when they should be walking to the salad isle to begin their healthier life. I see those same people emotionally stagnant wanting a pity party for the sad state they’ve let themselves get to. I see those same people waiting for their monthly government check also being financially stagnant in their lives. This sad group of people sit in front of their TVs feeling sorry for themselves, eating the chips they purchased with that same monthly government check at the Wal-Mart that they were too lazy to walk around because they let the electric scooters do all of the work they need to do. This is a sad circle of stagnation that seems to become more and more prevalent and acceptable by society.
In this article you define stagnation into three categories. I however define it with one word, LAZINESS. All three of your categories can be contributed to laziness. Too lazy to exercise, too lazy to read and educate one’s self, and too lazy to get involved in meaningful ministries within their own church.
I feel that this laziness (stagnation) is brought on by the ever advancing culture of today. Kids no longer go out and play games or ride bikes, which gave them the exercise that they needed, today they sit on the couch and play video games and eat convenience foods (unhealthy). Today the media is not as reliable as it used to be, with internet bloggers and tabloids not checking and re-checking their facts before putting it out there for ALL to read. Too many Americans take what they read at face value without any thought as to the legitimacy of its content. When it comes to spiritual stagnation, I blame this on today’s society expecting the church to be the one that steps in and helps the needed, without realizing it is them, the people of the church, that need to step up.
I do not have a fix for these problems, but my suggestion is to turn off the cable service, throw away or sell the video games, subscribe to reputable newspapers, get involved in your family’s lives, and get your family involved in the church. It may not fix the problems, but it will help much more than doing nothing.
I totally agree with the assumption that stagnation is a form of death. Stagnation is the result of laziness and or cowardness. When one becomes too comfortable with the progress of their lives, they will ultimately begin to deterriate. Often people reach a certain goal in their lives and decide that now they have made it, not taking in the fact that “yes, you are good, but you cud allways be better. Whenever one feels that they have accomplished all things sought after or wanted, they begin to loose focus of the bigger picture and may begin to suffer because of this. After becoming comfortable with where you are in your life you feel as though now you can relax, leading to failure, snd possibly death.