More of the Same
I have been linking to some of the blogs of those leaving comments regarding the Harding/Coulter issue and other similar discussions and I am amazed by at least some of what I am finding. Actually, I suppose I am not all that amazed since it is in line with some of my recent thoughts, but I am sometimes caught off guard when people accidently prove my point. The other similarity between some of the legalistic conservatives and the current liberals is the joylessness they both share. By share, I mean they really want everyone to be in the brotherhood (and sisterhood) but it is the brotherhood of miserableness. Everything is awful and sinful to the core: the cars we drive, the stores where we shop, the flags we fly, the entertainment we choose. All parts of our our crappy little existences. The pathetic nature of Everyman and his efforts only has momentary flashes of mediocrity brought on by our exposure to the enlightened thoughts bestowed upon us by the spiritual elite or, if we're really lucky, professional atheletics. Never mind that both elevate certain people above others for profit in embellished arenas of plastic reality.
If it is all the same to you, I want to seek joy. None of us can escape the fact we live in a fallen and imperfect world. But there are wonderful things about how we have been blessed by God that make me even more eager to give myself over to His care and greatly anticipate just how amazing the next world will be. My hope is because of my joy and my joy is because of my hope. Sorry, but the two go hand-in-hand. If I am not Christianing properly by not complaining about how horrible everything is, look on the bright side: I have made someone's day by giving them one more person to look upon with disdain. Just trying to do my part.
If it is all the same to you, I want to seek joy. None of us can escape the fact we live in a fallen and imperfect world. But there are wonderful things about how we have been blessed by God that make me even more eager to give myself over to His care and greatly anticipate just how amazing the next world will be. My hope is because of my joy and my joy is because of my hope. Sorry, but the two go hand-in-hand. If I am not Christianing properly by not complaining about how horrible everything is, look on the bright side: I have made someone's day by giving them one more person to look upon with disdain. Just trying to do my part.
4 Comments:
I think I have read some of those, too. Complaints about zoos, about 5 passenger SUV's with poor mileage by people who drive 5 passenger suv's with poor mileage, Then again, you're griping about the fact that people gripe. Maybe you have a message from Mr. Kettle, too.
Yeah. Ironic, huh? Actually my message is from Mr. Pot. I am Mr, Kettle.
Howdy!
As the authors of one of those "Everything sucks" blogs, I wanted to leave a comment.
While I don't feel personally attacked by your message here, I do feel that it might be unnecessarily harsh. No, harsh isn't the right word, but I can't think of a better one.
Having attended Highland for a while, I'm sure you're familiar with the "Already-Noy Yet" dichotomy concerning the Kingdom. There are those who do find, are capable of seeing, the joy in all they do.
Then there are those of us who, for whatever reason (be it study and interpretation of Scripture, personal experiences, etc.) who can't help but look around and see how crappy things are. Granted, that sometimes sprials down into cynicism, and that's not good, but I don't think that our negative thoughts are illegitimate. Perhaps they are not as constructive as the positive, joy-seeking thoughts, and perhaps we should keep them to our selves, but I don't think we should force ourselves to look on the bright side all the time...
I'm sure this is coming out wrong, and because it is on a blog it will more than likely be misinterpreted and whatnot, but know that it was written in love, just trying to explain where some of the crappiness comes from.
And hey, I do blog about how much I love my Braves and my Macs!
Though I still do not understand levels of hardship that some people have had to endure, I have endured enough loss and pain to punch my ticket on the "Already But Not Yet" train. But I still don't want to focus exclusively on the pain inside the train. I want to be hopeful about where the train is headed or some of the joy in that journey (wow, I carried that analogy pretty far). Don't worry about your comment coming out wrong. I still don't think (at least in most cases of the "everything sucks" blogs) that there is any inherent vitriolic hatred intended toward people. But I wonder what is productive about griping soley about people who are trying? Is there joy in everything we do? Absolutely not. It takes a lot of effort sometimes not to be hacked at the whole world all the time. And if I get to the point where I am acting hacked all the time, I hope I am called on it. Especially if I am tearing down other Christians while the world looks on and wonders why they would ever want to join our ranks (so to speak- we don't really have ranks, do we?). Sure things are crappy. But in the grand scheme of things, I think the Braves do more to make things crappy than our zoos (sorry- nothing personal). Professional sports elevates things that we should not be about and deals in sums of money that are absolutely disgraceful and corrupt but fueled by us. Is that what our money is for? Apple is an avid donor to causes that are certainly questionable at various levels. But Harding is institutionalized evil? I guess I just think the Father of Lies has had a unified front against believers for so long that it seems sad when we divide and fight AGAINST each other instead of being unified FOR Christ. By the way, I don't mind so much if the words seem harsh even though I did not necessarily intend them to be. But I definitely do not want you to feel attacked. Though I barely know you, I think I would like you too much to want that. So for now, (and I am giving you the ABNY Club salute) have a great week.
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