H,
To the great struggles we
have with daily life and daily death we cannot afford to give in to the idea of
futility. The idea that nothing will ever change is silly but the idea that choices
change nothing is dangerous. It is also a lie. The Christian practice is based
on the foundational idea that we can change. In fact, after I have fallen from
one of my numerous high horses and succumbed to some ignoble act, the first
thing that comes to my mind, and I count this as the counsel of the Holy Spirit,
is the idea that I can change. The comfort that I will not be this way forever.
Some say that this sort of thinking means that we are taking grace for granted.
Well, first I think that there is nothing more important than taking grace for
granted; counting on it and expecting it to always be there like oxygen and
gravity. We do not weigh our steps over physical laws. It is silly to do so
over spiritual law.
have with daily life and daily death we cannot afford to give in to the idea of
futility. The idea that nothing will ever change is silly but the idea that choices
change nothing is dangerous. It is also a lie. The Christian practice is based
on the foundational idea that we can change. In fact, after I have fallen from
one of my numerous high horses and succumbed to some ignoble act, the first
thing that comes to my mind, and I count this as the counsel of the Holy Spirit,
is the idea that I can change. The comfort that I will not be this way forever.
Some say that this sort of thinking means that we are taking grace for granted.
Well, first I think that there is nothing more important than taking grace for
granted; counting on it and expecting it to always be there like oxygen and
gravity. We do not weigh our steps over physical laws. It is silly to do so
over spiritual law.
The second thing is realism.
We are constantly falling down. Covertly or overtly we are always breaking some
of the literal law of love and well-being. This is not a consolation it is a
fact. The law is put before us as a mirror of our own grotesqueness. It is a
measuring line for the depth of our depravity and our foiled attempts to love. It
is not futile to love or to make choices to love. It is futile to think that
failure to do so is final and then nothing matters after that. Everything will
always matter. Our struggles are a sign. Our failures, our successes, our
seeming failure and our seeming success. It all counts in the beautiful
progression of love through time that will culminate in the restoration of
everything.
We are constantly falling down. Covertly or overtly we are always breaking some
of the literal law of love and well-being. This is not a consolation it is a
fact. The law is put before us as a mirror of our own grotesqueness. It is a
measuring line for the depth of our depravity and our foiled attempts to love. It
is not futile to love or to make choices to love. It is futile to think that
failure to do so is final and then nothing matters after that. Everything will
always matter. Our struggles are a sign. Our failures, our successes, our
seeming failure and our seeming success. It all counts in the beautiful
progression of love through time that will culminate in the restoration of
everything.
This is the bullion of our
faith. All the evil in us and in the world will be addressed. That is what
judgement is. It is the rising up of the great and eternal flag of justice over
the temporal fever of our present nightmare. The disciplines of God extended
through all of history and put in practice by love and grace.
faith. All the evil in us and in the world will be addressed. That is what
judgement is. It is the rising up of the great and eternal flag of justice over
the temporal fever of our present nightmare. The disciplines of God extended
through all of history and put in practice by love and grace.
My heart breaks over death,
rape, murder, the slaughter of innocents and the general darkness on our patch
of earth and beyond. My heart bleeds when these are in my thoughts as victim
and as perpetrator of the most violating acts. I long for the sword of God. I long
for the new heart in me and the new heart at the centre of all existence. I long
for a world where everything matters again.
rape, murder, the slaughter of innocents and the general darkness on our patch
of earth and beyond. My heart bleeds when these are in my thoughts as victim
and as perpetrator of the most violating acts. I long for the sword of God. I long
for the new heart in me and the new heart at the centre of all existence. I long
for a world where everything matters again.