John Chrysostom as a predecessor to Tony Robbins

Who knew this would be true?? As I am reading about how the earlhy church fathers dev leoped their theologyt, the inevitable comes up. What do we do with pain and suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people? Theologians and others have asked this question for thousands of years.

Jophn Chrysostom approached the problem with the idea that it is not what happens to us that is important but rather how we react to it. People can view or experience the exact same thing and what is important is not that it happened but rather what we do with it. As a primary example, he uses the crucifixion of Christ. The event happened. How will we deal with it? Many in the crowd were happy that it happened, bloodthirsty for more and perhaps angry at Jesus. But the thief on the cross? His reaction was different. He saw and unjust murder and committed himself to Jesus right before death. The same event and different reactions. For Chrysostom, the correct way to deal with pain and suffering is to focus on how you will react to it, not on the event itself.

Flip forward 1500 years or so. Tony Robbins (the guy on late-night infomercials before the FLobee guy shows up) teaches the same thing. How we make progress in life and make things better is in how we deal with the events of our life, not in the event itself. For example, if you get laid off from your job, what will you do? Mope around or get your resume out there? Is it an opportunity for self-pity or self-advancement?

Conclusion...Chrysostom had it right. We need to look beyond what happens to us to see how we will reqct frrom a Godly perspective. We look for the hand of God in our lives. Robbins, using the same basic principle, focuses instead on the self. What will YOU get out of it rather than how can you hear the voice of God? Age-old wisdom doesn't change, but seems that the d=focus shifts from God to the self, from divine providence desiring for us to become more Christlike to how can I be a better person on my terms and according to the world's model.