I've been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged for longer than I care to admit now. It's one of my husband's favorite books and he's been asking me to read it for at least 10 years. So, once I exhausted most of the other books we owned and needed a new book to read I finally picked it up. It's not my favorite book, by any means, but I am now in part 3 and have roughly 350 more pages to go. I understand Rand's reasoning for her version of utopia, but have serious issues with her principle statement, "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." My husband and I have argued this out several times, once on facebook, until we deleted it all because it got too private for the world to see. In fact, when I read this sentence a couple of nights ago, I felt compelled to write out how I saw things. These four statements are what I came up with:
1) I believe that my words and actions have consequences far beyond my understanding, thus it is my aim that in each word spoken and each deed done I would consider this.
2) I believe that I am called to serve humanity with love and honesty because we are all created in the image of the Father.
3) I believe that I cannot do this on my own, it is the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, who is in me, that allows my hands, feet, and mouth to do this work.
4) I believe that serving Christ, and thus people, is a calling to which I am privileged and not worthy, but by God's grace.
My point of view, of course, will be more honorable and closer to the truth to me simply because it is my point of view but I am curious what others will think? Feel free to comment. :-)
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