Sunday, March 05, 2006

Strive for holiness at all comfort.

Thoughts...

Is it a good thing or bad thing that I let my heart control me?
That I care?
That I wonder why?
I don't understand all the time what the deal is, and it confuses the heck out of my soul.

I'm trying more and more to let go of my worries. But working against so much family programming is hard. And working against the very hardwiring in your brain is harder.

My mind thinks to fast and too clearly, it thinks about the meanings of everything, it thinks about why people don't behave the way I expect, don't think the way I expect, aren't concerned with things that logic demands they should.

Why are people so willing to compromise, and why aren't they concerned with thinking if they are? Every person is liable to internal contradiction, thats a result of the fall, but our calling is to be perfect as He is perfect, so why don't people TRY? They have mouths but do not speak, have ears but do not listen.

How is internal contradiction okay? I KNOW it's COMFORTABLE. But Comfort does not make it okay, but should be a trigger for QUESTIONING Why? Is it of God? really? or is it from Satan? Or is it from my defiance of God's will?

And these things make me wonder and worry, and get frustrated with the disconnect between peoples actions and beliefs.

The greatest case for Atheism is Christians.

Why should an Atheist or ANYONE for that matter believe in CHRIST when His followers don't even care that they DON'T follow His teachings? Especially to Love Him above all things, even their own comfort from self-contradiction.

And I can't figure out if my desire to be okay with that is a disconnect itself, in me.

Am I really supposed to be okay with people who lie? Who lie by their actions and words not meeting?

I want to stop worrying, because I want to be sane, but if I stop worrying how much am I not caring anymore? And can I truly love someone if I don’t care?

The answer seems to be that you can not love someone if you don’t care. (Though others try to convince me otherwise). But perhaps there’s a complexity that I’m missing?

We aren’t called to care about people the way would care about a stranger’s dog, we’re called to care about them as if they are family. As if we really do care about their salvation, and not just their comfort.

So WHY THE HELL DO CHRISTIANS BEHAVE OTHERWISE? Why don’t they just stop LYING and tell the truth. They aren’t striving for holiness at all costs. They strive for holiness at all comfort.

At least in being honest you let God work in you. When you lie, you let Satan work.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HI Ed,

I am not religious, so I cannot speak with much authority, but it seems to me that being a true Christian is about simultaneously holding three goals: striving perfection in yourself through God, encouraging others to seek the same, and forgiving others not just when they fail to be perfect, but when they fail to try as well.

So maybe other people ARE complacent, they hear God's call when it is convenient or when it is a solace, but put it at the back of their mind when they feel more comfortable. So, I think it is partly your duty as a Christian to recognize the failing of that way of approaching God, to let them know that radical faith is the only true way of being close to God, but also to be able to love people despite that, to recognize that seeking God at all times in all ways is very hard, and that people are inherently weak and likely to fail at it some of the time. Failing doesn't just mean that people try but get caught off guard, sometimes failing manifests itself as complacency, a desire to stay at the level of holiness they're at, a desire to take a breather.

I guess what I am saying is this: seek perfection in yourself, and encourage it in others, but when you judge others with wrath or without the softer light that love brings, and start to see faults in others that you cannot comprehend or recognize in yourself, then you are treading a dangerous path. Because it seems to me that you see faults most clearly and with the most acumen when you also have the most compassion for your fellow humans.

I'm not saying that's what you're doing at all, it just seems that judging others harshly is one of the easiest pitfalls to get caught in when you are trying to live a moral life.