i had a conversation with a dear friend on sunday and said,
they'll string me up if they found out what i'm reading.
she replied,
a lot of good people have been strung up.
i guess i took the challenge. and may get strung up for it.
who are we talking about here?
the staunch traditionalists.
being in this liberal environment has made me rethink a great many things. not change my positions, but reconsider from another vantage point so much.
things i never thought controversial, things i never considered, all of it, now fodder for examination.
i'm not jumping on the liberal bandwagon, if i can help it. but i am listening. i am trying to hear. not be so convinced of my own rightness that i am blind to truth.
when someone more liberal than hilary says, the mythological section of the bible (meaning the creation story), i shake my head in disbelief. just because they believe lies, doesn't mean i will. i won't ever give up on God, or He me. that has given me a fearlessness which is probably a bad thing.
i am no buddist. i am no believer in anything other than the God of Heaven. do i need to convince anyone? do i need to be safe or honest?
there are so many ways we as a church live in fear. i've found those ways mostly in our unwillingness to let people speak their hearts. even if it is the worst possible words that come out, i want to hear it. i always want to hear a truth than what someone thinks i want to hear. truly. not just the pre-approved churchianity phrases that pass for soultalk.
and that others take what i say and dub me buddist because i've read a book, sinner because i've confessed to reading a book. well, ain't much can be done about that. i don't mean to change my reading habits because of a few christians who have "been there, done that."
3 comments:
sooz,
grace speaks both ways.
mary
A hawk spoke to me once as a child, I saw the hawk kill a rabbit, a small helpless thing i thought to be sacred as a child, a animal that harmed nothing, it only tried to exsist. I was angered at the hawk, i spoke hateful words to him, and the hawk spoke, "We agree to dissagree" and are great freinds to this day. I hope you can understand the words of the hawk.
Suz,
Please do go back and re-read the comments I made on MA. I hope that you are not referring to me in your post today, and that you don't think that I accused you of "being a buddhist," or that "you are a sinner because of what you read."
We're all sinners.
I'm not sure what you mean by saying they "string me up," and "drive me away."
I think that you're making much more of the comments that were left on the post, if that's what you are referring to.
I certainly wasn't attacking you personally. I merely disagreed with what you said.
We are all sinners, Suz, saved by grace.
And we are all entitled to our opinion. Sometimes, we have to ensure that the forums we use to voice our opinions are the appropriate forums. That's not censorship. That's just selectivity and being careful to glorify God. These days it's so easy to give glory to other people, other things, ourself. We always have to be diligent to be careful of this. As a sisters in Christ, we are there to come alongside each other, and sometimes we have to be the critical person.
My problem with your post (not you, your post) was that I didn't think that it was particularly appropriate for the MA blog. You've already read my two comments, so I'm not goiong to repeat them here.
Why can't we agree to disagree in love and harmony? Why can't we point out things to one another without perceiving it as a personal attack and use words like, "strung me up?"
I never intended to upset you or hurt you in any way.
As a Christ follower, I simply pointed out that one really does not need to use eastern philosophies or techniques to deal with failure, and to point people to these things is not really appropriate.
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