1) that there is no right and wrong only choice and consequence and need and thought and evaluation and feeling.
2) that I own nothing not even the breath that I breathe but it is all given to me from above and all I do have is who I am.
With these I can set aside two whole areas of distraction and focus more on what matters.
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked I shall return there
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD."
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Friday, July 07, 2006
Judgement
"all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
What a statement. What a quote.
When did you first hear it? How did you feel? What memories does it provoke in you now? What's the context of the passage? Was it used fairly, manipulatively or encouragingly?
For me the quote fills me with depression. It is the archetype of harsh judgemental thinking – a philosophy of beating down another and exerting total control. For me it is steeped in unreasonable judgement. It is used as a proof text to establish a problem that I am not certain really exists objectively outside of human ego – the problem that we are with total certainty deserve to be utterly annihilated in complete pain betrayed by a so called loving God in the most grotesque way imaginable. Then having convinced us that we are only fit for the rubbish heap we are offered a way out if we yield our God created freedom to a controlling task master who is unconcerned for our real wellbeing. At least that’s the way I extrapolate the attitude and logic of many "Christians".
I look at the whole context now and wonder what it says about the writer and their ability to relate to judgement. I wonder what it says about me.
Apparently mercy triumphs over judgement. And yet the Christianity I encountered was steeped in judgement. I think that passage says more about the one who wrote it and those who quote it than it says about the Divine. I think it reveals more about the hearts of men not the heart of God.
What a statement. What a quote.
When did you first hear it? How did you feel? What memories does it provoke in you now? What's the context of the passage? Was it used fairly, manipulatively or encouragingly?
For me the quote fills me with depression. It is the archetype of harsh judgemental thinking – a philosophy of beating down another and exerting total control. For me it is steeped in unreasonable judgement. It is used as a proof text to establish a problem that I am not certain really exists objectively outside of human ego – the problem that we are with total certainty deserve to be utterly annihilated in complete pain betrayed by a so called loving God in the most grotesque way imaginable. Then having convinced us that we are only fit for the rubbish heap we are offered a way out if we yield our God created freedom to a controlling task master who is unconcerned for our real wellbeing. At least that’s the way I extrapolate the attitude and logic of many "Christians".
I look at the whole context now and wonder what it says about the writer and their ability to relate to judgement. I wonder what it says about me.
Apparently mercy triumphs over judgement. And yet the Christianity I encountered was steeped in judgement. I think that passage says more about the one who wrote it and those who quote it than it says about the Divine. I think it reveals more about the hearts of men not the heart of God.
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