Successful Evangelization…

I talked to a Baptist family member the other day as well… and as I was sharing something withhim a discussion I’d had with Pumpkin (dd almost 16) over the philosophies embraced by our country, particularly during the 20th century through today, how that had impacted our society and what it meant for our future, he brought up Rick Warren’s hosting of a debate for the presidential candidates as an example to illustrate what he thought was my point.  He thought it was so wonderful and spoke to how godly our country had become that it would ask a pastor like Rick Warren to mc such a debate.

Not exactly.  Rick Warren and the debate are a good example but not of how good Christians are at evangelizing.  Those philosophies I mentioned having been embraced by our country were individualism, hedonism, and minimalism.  These have permeated not only the secular culture but have ‘evangelized’ Christians as well… so well  and so subtly in fact, that many Christians who’s lives and attitudes are very much ruled by these philosophies would argue that they are not guilty of holding such anti-Christian philosophies at all. 

The fact that our individualistic, hedonistic, and minimalistic country is so comfortable with Rick Warren hosting a secular debate tells me something… but it isn’t so much about our country as about Rick Warren. 

I am guilty of these sinful philosophies myself and am working at rooting them out of my own life. 

I had no idea that the ‘rugged individualism’ that was held up as a virtue  when I was growing up was in fact a vice more often than not.  I did not realize that the desire to protect the rights of the individual could become such a ferocious and ungodly monstrosity that any godliness in the effort had long been cast by the wayside. I did not anticipate the rights of the individual taking precedent over the good of society as a whole or even over right and wrong.   Freedom to do what is right, that which we once held so precious, has become freedom to live a Burger King life… ‘your way, right away’ no matter who it hurts while all the while buying the lie that (especially if private) it hurts no one.

Christ calls us to die to self. He calls us to give up not just small things but even our very lives for others.  We can not serve two masters.  We can not embrace self and die to self at the same time. There is a place for the individual in that death to self, but not to the detriment of others and not when right and wrong must be redefined in order to satisfy the wants or perceived needs of that individual.

I did not realize that I had bought into the pleasure seeking greed of hedonism… no idea that my tendency to laziness, to indulging in things that pleased my senses, to over-indulging in things that tasted good, were indicators of a philosophy in direct opposition to the godliness I sought in my spiritual life. 

Christ calls us to take up our cross.  He does not call us to health or wealth or pleasure in sensuous (think 5 senses here please – not just or even primarily sexual) things.  He calls us to embrace suffering.  Christ suffered.  He suffered not only in His Passion, but during His life as well.  So too, in being transformed into Christ-likeness, are we called to suffer.  This calls us far beyond the shallow pleasures of hedonism into a deep and lasting joy.

It never occurred to me that the ‘least necessary’ wasn’t ‘good enough’.  I was not only settling for, but SEEKING mediocrity in every area of my life without ever realizing I was doing so.  In fact, I would have argued vehemently with anyone suggesting the Truth. 

Christ calls us to give our very best, to give everything we have.  Even if our work involves changing diapers or emptying bedpans or picking up garbage in front of homes or along the highways, regardless how dirty or anonymous and unrecognized the job, Christ calls us to give our best… We are called to excellence. Our best may not be the same as someone else’s… but we aren’t called to be the best, only to give OUR best. ‘Good enough’ isn’t an option for us.

Rick Warren moderating a presidential debate is far from evidence of how well we Christians have evangelized our society… it is rather evidence of how well some of us have been evangelized by it… and we don’t even realize it.

God have mercy.

VBS or *Don’t* Skip Verse 6…

So I’m teaching the 5th grade class at VBS this summer.  We’re using a Protestant product called Rainforest Adventure. Our seminarian had told me that they were planning modifications to add more depth among other things.  Someone else had given me this little booklet of five pages that covered each of the days, one leaflet per day.  I took one look at that and said whoa, this can NOT be it.  There is NO WAY I can make this last 30 minutes, there’s nothing here! So I spoke again to the Seminarian and asked if the VBS planning meeting had been held and if there were more materials. (Please oh please oh please…) He said there had not yet been a meeting but that he could give me the packet of materials they had prepared. *Que the Hallelujah Chorus*

As he briefed me on the packet he showed me a page which detailed the rearrangement of the topics on subsequent days and the added materials recommended for our use.  He pointed at the first day which covered love using John 15: 1-17.  Beside this was an admonition in all caps, bolded, and underlined, which stated “DO NOT SKIP VERSE 6!”  He took care to point that out to me.  I said to him that I was not in the habit of skipping verses when I read scripture.  He said yes, but don’t skip verse 6.  I said WHY would I skip verse 6?? He said well, the original materials tell you to skip verse 6, but we do not want the teachers to skip verse 6.  I said ooooooooooooh ok then, thinking to self ‘not a problem because I DON’T SKIP VERSES WHEN READING SCRIPTURE.’

Today I sat down to work on VBS lesson plans and, remembering the ’skip this verse’ exchange, dug out my little booklet to see if that verse was skipped on what I had.  Sure enough, it was.

With the lovely new packet of materials the Priest and Seminarian had put together, I started my prep at the top, opening my Bible to the scriptures in John.  As I began to read, I looked forward to that verse with great interest, wondering what on earth needed to be ‘cut’ from the scripture being studied by the children.  Then I began to laugh and thought, ‘Of. Course!’ What can I say, it was either laugh or cry.

Remember now, this is a verse in the gospel of John.  In fact, if your Holy Bible has the words of Christ in red, THIS verse would be in red.  In fact, there are red verses before it and red verses after it so THIS verse being in red wouldn’t be a printing error.  So WHY would we be advised EVER to ’skip and not read’ the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, let’s take a wee peek at what those words are and see, shall we? (I’ll even give you a little context.)

5

5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

6 Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.

7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.

That verse might be kind of hard to reconcile with the Once Saved Always Saved theology to which so many Protestant denominations adhere. Still, wow.  It’s one thing to know that people have stripped out scripture that they don’t agree with (ie the Deuterocanonical books and those pesky bits in Daniel and Esther).  It’s one thing to know that people still strip away and deny the truth of the scripture they’ve kept by twisting and misrepresenting the teachings therein. After all, it’s somehow detached from us, historical or theoretical.  It’s something else entirely to see it done so blatantly, in practice, and in order to deceive children. 

What was that Christ said about letting children come to Him?  I think He said something about causing children to sin and a millstone as well (Luke 17:1-2) or are we skipping that scripture too? Skipping scripture is a dangerous thing… sort of like giving a mouse a cookie… skip one and you have to skip another… and another… like this one in Matthew (4:4)…

4

He said in reply, “It is written: ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’

(Emphasis mine.) Interesting how all those scriptures you’d have to skip to be comfortable skipping the first one are ALSO straight from the mouth of our Lord (and in a Holy Bible those are all in red). Wonder if that is why so many Protestants I talk to quote Paul more than they quote Christ.

Dunno about you, but I don’t skip verses when I read scripture… It isn’t life unless it is lived by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God… and He came that I might have life, and that more abundantly (John 10:10)!

Oh, and about not having enough material? Not a problem anymore… Now I don’t have enough time!

My Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis

Such a small book… I’ve had it for over a year… and yet I have not been able to complete it even once.  I keep reading a bit and then having to put it down so that I can meditate on the contents of those few pages.  The next evening, I pick it up again and find that I need to reread those passages and feel I can not go on until I have internalized the message and made better headway in  its practice.  So much wisdom, so much Truth… I need to get copies of this little book for my children.

A few excerpts…

Chapter 1

What doth it avail thee to discourse profoundly of the Trinity if thou be void of humility, and consequently, displeasing to the Trinity?

In truth sublime words make not a man holy and just: but a virtuous life maketh him dear to God.

I would rather feel compunction than know its definition.

These sentences particularly resonated… (but then you’ll find so much of this little book does with me) and especially that last line.  As much as I have studied to learn the faith, doing so still, I would rather experience it than know it intellectually. I would rather BE penitent than know its definition.  Not that the two are mutually exclusive by any means… just that so often we err in thinking that knowing is equivalent to doing. 

If thou didst know the whole Bible by heart, and the sayings of all the philosophers, what would it all profit thee without the love of God and His grace?

 (from a long list of vanities) 

… It is vanity to follow the lusts of the flesh and to desire that for which thou must afterwards be grievously punished…

Study, therefore to withdraw thy heart from the love of visible things, and to turn thyself to things invisible.  For they that follow their sensuality defile their conscience and lose the grace of God.

Chapter 2

The more and better thou knowest the more heavy will be thy judgement unless thy life be also more holy.

Be not, therefore puffed up with any art or science: but rather fear because of the knowledge which is given thee.

If it seem to thee that thou knowest many things and understandest them well enough, know at the same time that there are many more things of which thou art ignorant.

Be not high-minded, but rather acknowledge thy ignorance.  Why wouldst thou prefer thyself to any one, since there are so many more learned and skillful in the law than thyself?

If thou wouldst know and learn anything to the purpose, love to be unknown and esteemed as nothing.

This is the highest science and most profitable lesson, truly to know and despise ourselves.

To have no opinion of ourselves and to think always well and commendably of others, is great wisdom and high perfection.

This rings so true.  It is so common for people to think well of themselves… all we hear about is ’self-esteem’ anymore, even from Christians… whatever happened to being like Christ? LIKE Christ?  Did Christ consider himself above others? Did he send those who came to him off to study the law or did he send them out to sin no more? 

It isn’t easy by any means… but just the attempt to consider others better than myself, to see where I am sinful and despise that in myself as our Lord does has been a worth while exercise to say the least.  Still, it has been amazing to me how many of my other sins and failings, that list that could be xerox’d from confession to confession with a set of blank lines for the changeable things, have been curtailed or made better in the attempt.  Anger, impatience, and other such sins that come from pride and selfishness… all rooted in valuing myself above those around me whether I realize it and intend to do so or not.

Chapter 3

He to whom the eternal Word speaketh is set at liberty from  multitude of opinions.

From one word are all things, and this one all things speak; and this is the beginning which also speaketh to us.

Without this word no one understands or judges rightly.

…

Learning is not to be blamed nor the mere knowledge of anything which is good in itself and ordained by God; but a good conscience and a virtuous life are always to be preferred before it.

But because many make it more their study to know than to live well, therefore are they often deceived, and bring forth none, or very little fruit.

Oh, if men would use as much diligence in rooting out vices and planting virtues as they do in proposing questions there would not be so great evils committed, nor scandals among the people, nor so much relaxation in monasteries.

Verily when the day of judgment comes, we shall not be asked what we have read, but what we have done; nor how learnedly we have spoken, but how religiously we have lived.

Tell me where are now all those great doctors with whom thou wast well acquainted whilst they were living and flourished in learning?

Now others fill their places, and I know not whether they ever think of them.

In their lifetime they seemed to be something and now they are not spoken of.

Convicting indeed. I do not spend nearly enough time in rooting out vices and planting virtues as I should… I am just as guilty of reading more and acting less.

Chapter 3 cont’d

How many perish in the world through vain learning, who little care for the service of God!

And because they chose rather to be great than to be humble, therefore they are lost in their own imaginations.

He is truly great who is great in charity.

He is truly great who is little in his own eyes and holdeth as naught the pinnacle of honor.

He is truly prudent who looks upon all earthly things as nothing that he main gain Christ. Phil 3:8

And he is very learned indeed who does the will of God and renounces his own will.

Amen.  I have much work to do… it is work, after all, cooperating with God’s will and allowing Him to do the necessary bits.  I am hardly a willing sacrifice and rather wish He’d just lash me to the altar instead of having to hang onto it myself. I keep praying a ‘trump’ prayer… Lord, no matter what I say later, I want Your will in my life and to be transformed into Your likeness, regardless of what it takes… and then try not to whine too much when He takes me up on it.

An Awful Christian…

The forum… it often starts there.  A friend stated in passing that they were an ‘awful Christian’.  Someone seemed not to understand that and began a new thread.  The discussion was rather… interesting… with one calling those who use such terms ‘dramatic’ and asserting that instead it would be better to give sordid details such as…

“I’m struggling with not yelling at my children” or “Bible study makes me fall asleep.” or “P*rn is a huge issue for me” or “I had an affair.”

I took issue with that suggestion and disagreed and was called, albeit indirectly, ‘overly dramatic’ as opposed to honest as I suggested such comments were intended.  Many others rebutted the entire assertion saying that  there are no ‘bad’ Christians, that it was a misnomer.  These also brought out the doctrine of  ’all sin being created equal’, that we are all ‘covered’ (the blood of Jesus you know) and so on. 

A friend on the forum posted after some encouragement some strong thoughts on the matter that really resonated with me.  I requested permission to share the post here so as to comment on it, which was granted provided it was done so anonymously.  No attribution is given in honor of that request. 

A friend speaks…

“Church-speak” is a perfect term for it.

The egomania and narcissism are phenomenal: when we say that all sin is equally significant we mean that all sins are equally insignificant until we encounter one we dislike. That one is serious.

We set ourselves up as arbiters of what matters and what doesn’t matter in the place of Christ. We assure ourselves and one another that we are all sinners, yanking scripture out of its context and far from its intentions to prove our point. We tell ourselves we are being loving and humane by doing this, as though it didn’t give us a pass for doing things that Christ says fit us for hell.

And so we comfort ourselves by twisting scripture until “it isn’t our righteousness but his” that matters, by which we mean now not only are we absolved from the discipline of disciples but we are excused from the guilt.

We posit a judgment in the future, in which we will be covered by saving blood, and in which we will have only the very flimsy excuse that we didn’t judge others for offenses we ourselves were prone to commit, like murderers who protest to the judge that they never condemned any other murderers.

But we break command after command after command: we hate our enemies; we call a brother fool; we commit adultery in a zillion ways; we manipulate each other; we use one another in more ways than any of us could count for our own satisfaction; we refuse to serve the least of these; on this very board we PM one another like catty little children to mock those we think are in the dark; we would pull out every irony and flippancy and scripture in the book to defend our self-importance rather than count another person the greater brother or sister; we excuse ourselves from going the extra mile; we admit that the meek will inherit the earth, but we mean to keep it in trust for them until they do; we cram our heads full of self-righteous tripe about the sins of others and fixate on it until we go blind; we demand our just desserts; we protect our sloth with every device known to modern psychology, science, and consumerism; our gluttony comes in every kind; we neglect the poor; we turn aside from the hungry; our prayers and fasting are quietly self-congratulatory, and we find the subtlest ways to make sure they become known without actually telling anyone; we abandon the widow and the orphan… I could go on like this for quite a while, and I’m only in Matthew 9.

And when I look at my life and the death and destruction I’ve sown, when I consider the mistakes I’ve made and the sins I’ve committed, and I am shown the consequences of my actions, and I look at the bleeding corpses of love all around me that are dying by my hand (and no, this isn’t drama, this is real), and I hear the twaddle about none of us being perfect, and all of us being redeemed by blood, I want to tear this building down.

I want to say, do you have no fear of God? Do you have no self-knowledge at all? Have you got the tiniest conception of what you’re saying? Have you looked in the eyes of the child you’ve wounded, the spouse you’ve abused with your petty stupid game-playing, the trust you’ve shattered, and the lives you’ve ruined, and then looked in the eyes of Jesus?

Because if you have, you would never be able to say “There’s no such thing as a bad Christian. You would be ashamed to open your mouth on the topic. You’d sit quietly until the topic changed, and you would wonder why death wouldn’t come more quickly for you so you wouldn’t have to keep crushing the things you touch.

Ugh!  It all resonates. It all convicts. It’s excellent and I am guilty as charged on so many levels… but then I KNEW THAT and that is why I agreed when said friend made the ‘awful Christian’ statement in the first place.  So often I look at myself and agree with the apostle when he said that he does that which he hates, and does not do that which he should love…  I agree with Chesterton…

The London Times once asked a number prominent people to write essays on the topic, What’s Wrong with the World. G. K. Chesterton reply is the shortest and most to the point in history: Dear Sirs: I am. Sincerely, G. K. CHESTERTON

… and I mourn being a bad Christian, resolving yet again to be better than I am, to die more fully to self… only to yell at my kids one more time (though I think the provocation great at the time… what homeschooling mom wouldn’t after having a 9 yr old walk up to them on day one of a new school year, point at the x between two numbers and say stupidly ‘what is that’ as if they hadn’t been proficient at multiplication just two months before) and have my failure arrest me mid-rant as though a third cock had crowed. 

I want to be so much more for Christ each day than I am. I see my failures clearly before me. I resolve repeatedly to conquer these besetting sins and yet they persist… an appalling lack of charity (to borrow a friend’s phrase), an appalling lack of humility, an appalling lack of mercy, an appalling lack of wisdom, an appalling lack of self discipline, an appalling excess of self… I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea. So many faults I am struggling to conquer under His direction and with His help….

Many seem to think that such a harsh assessment of myself (and I might add inadequate as I’m sure I am sugar coating this substantially and ignorant of most of my sins) would deny any understanding of God’s mercy and love, especially as directed towards myself.  They could not be more wrong.  It is in drawing closer to our beloved Lord, in experiencing His mercy, His love, His grace, more completely that I begin to see myself more clearly in the reflected Light of His Glory. It is as a result of His illumination of my faults in order that I might cooperate in their removal, or at least, their remediation.  It is a GIFT! How on earth could I ever be willing to have Him remove faults of which I am unaware? How willing could I be if I did not see them as repulsive as He does?

Yet, this gift can be a difficult one to unwrap at times… and at such times when yet another ‘layer’ of the ‘gift’ is revealed in all its filth and decay I can’t help but despair of His ever being finished with me and I have to ‘gird my loins’ yet again and launch once more into the fray… racing, walking, stumbling, crawling, clawing my way toward a finish that ends successfully only with my lips on His feet.  At such times, I cling to the thought that it is those children He loves that He chastises, even the bad ones… and I am thankful….

Temptation Also Reads…

I was on the phone with a friend the other day discussing the Temptation issue.  She was sharing with me something she had been given in her own struggles with that issue and it resonated in a very deep way.  I forgot to mention it in the Temptation post and was going to just do another one when in chatting with her on the phone TODAY she mentioned having blogged it…  *insert angelic alleluia chorus* …which of course makes my desire to share EASIER!

So, if you got anything out of the Temptations post, please visit Red Neck Woman over at Postscripts From the Catholic Spitfire Grill  and read Stigmata. 

Not only that, but she has another post just under that called Arrogant Humility.  It is a very good read for a number of reasons and if you are reading in the ‘Temptations’ and ‘Stigmata’ mindset there is much good insight in this one as well that might otherwise be missed in favor of the main ‘humility’ theme.  The quote from C.S. Lewis’  The Great Divorce ties it all up rather neatly.

This evening, I’m holding onto heaven moment by moment, one foot in front of the other…  I long for the ability to physically lash myself to the Cross lest my own strength should fail. These two posts have helped to ‘hold up my arms’ a bit and the help is much appreciated.

Suffering…

SUFFERING
I wonder what the world would be like
If there were not innocent people
Making reparation for us all…?
Today the passion of Christ is being relived
In the lives of those who suffer.
To accept that suffering is a gift of God.
Suffering is not a punishment.
God does not punish.
Suffering is a gift- Tho,
Like all gifts,
It depends on how we receive it.
And that is why we need a pure heart-
To see the hand of God,
To feel the hand of God,
To recognize the gift of God
In our suffering.
Suffering is not a punishment.
Jesus does not punish.
Suffering is a sign-
A sign That we have come so close To Jesus on the cross,
That He can kiss us,
Show that He is in love with us,
By giving us an opportunity to share
In His passion.
In our Home for the Dying
It is so beautiful to see
People who are joyful,
People who are lovable,
People who are at peace,
In spite of terrible suffering.
Suffering is not a punishment,
Not a fruit of sin,
It is a gift of God.
He allows us to share in His suffering
And to make up for the sins of the world.
~~ Mother Teresa

Imperfections…

One of my dear friends is a pastors wife.  They are a protestant homeschooling family.  This friend recently posted a letter written by her husband which was to be published in their local paper and asked for thoughts on it.  

The letter is as follows…

I’m A Christian…Please Forgive Me
Some of you may be offended or confused by what we’re saying. Others may react by thinking, “It’s about time somebody said that.” Some of you may think it’s just a gag. I assure you, I am serious. This is a sincere apology for all the harm that has been done to Jesus and His movement of revolution and life-change by those of us who call ourselves Christians.

*I’m sorry for neglecting the poor and not loving people the way Jesus did.
*I’m sorry for being slow to notice the 25 million dead in Africa from AIDS and the
40 million infected including millions of women and children who had no say in the
matter.
*I’m sorry for all the people protesting outside the funerals of our soldiers “in the name
of Jesus”.
*I’m sorry for televangelists & churches that give the impression that Jesus is more
interested in getting your money than He is in having your heart.
*I’m sorry for those who’ve given the impression that God’s love is dependant upon
what you do or don’t do instead of sharing that God loves you just the way you are.
*I’m sorry for those who’ve made you think that to be a Christian you have to act like
they do, dress like they do and use the “spiritual lingo’ they do.
*I’m sorry for the times when people in the church have been the first to judge and
condemn instead of offering Jesus’ embrace of grace and restoration.
*I’m sorry for the way many in the church have given people the idea that God hates
homosexuals.
*I’m sorry that for too long the church has treated women like second-class
citizens and acted as if their gifts are unwanted and unusable.
*I’m sorry to those who’ve given up on the church because of the infighting, back-biting
and rivalry that’s gone on by people who are supposed to be Jesus’ representatives
here on earth.

I want to ask for your forgiveness and tell you that Jesus loves you more than you’ll ever know. Please don’t allow our mistakes to drive you away from Jesus. We’re not perfect and won’t ever be as long as we draw breath. But it’s time we acknowledge the damage that’s been done, the pain that’s been inflicted and then do everything possible to change the adjectives people use to describe a Christian. Hopefully by at least acknowledging our past we can begin to change the future.

 Mixed in with many positive reactions was the following reponse by another protestant…

I think the major thing that threw me off in original post was the list of things and the implication that all Christians are guilty of those things. That’s just not the truth; and frankly, I find it insulting when it’s implied that we are – especially from a fellow Christian who knows it’s not true.

I’m ashamed to say that I once felt this way.  I was prideful and arrogant, oh-so-sure that  I wasn’t guilty of much sin I saw in others… and I sure as HECK didn’t want to align myself with them… bearing my own sin and shame was bad enough thank you very much.  Yeeeeeeeeeah. Real proud of THAT. **sigh**

That didn’t last long.  God began dealing with sin in my life that I had NO idea I was guilty of… and it wasn’t just ONE thing… and even when I thought I had some sin ‘beat’, it would rear its ugly head a year or two later like some evil specter that needed further exorcism.  I began to learn that I was guilty of all KINDS of (and a great deal more) sin that I wasn’t aware of… and that ignorance did NOT mean I was any ‘cleaner’ than Tom, Dick, or Harry… rather, just like all those on whom I sat in judgement, I was not only guilty of sin, I was even more offensive in my ignorance and false self-righteous pride than I ever was in the sin itself.  During that time, I ran across a quote in my reading that said basically…

‘when someone tells me something they find wrong with me, I am not surprised and it doesn’t hurt nearly so much as it once did… God has shown me how sinful I am in His eyes and that is MUCH worse than anything anyone else can point out… so I’ve learned to accept and appreciate the reprimand so that it can be dealt with.’

That’s a rough rendition of a much more concise quote which I unfortunately do not have the attributions for.  However, I’ve never forgotten it’s essence and that attitude is one that I have embraced more and more over time.

Not only that, but God has been teaching me about communal life during and since my reconciliation to the Church and I have come to understand how so much of the time He deals with us corporately. When He allowed His people to be taken into bondage for four hundred years, He considered the promise to bring them out again fulfilled, even if it wasn’t the exact same people who went in four hundred years before.  Look at David, Daniel, and the prophets… how often they cried out and interceded to God on behalf of their people… and how did they do it? ‘God, forgive your wretched people… THEY are horrid sinners?’ No, it was always Lord, forgive US.  They took upon themselves and attributed to themselves and all members of the body, the sins of the people. If such godly men were willing to do this, how can we do less?

Lastly, what a selfish thing to say ‘no, I am INSULTED by the idea of having to bear someone else’s sin’ and ‘no, I am INSULTED that someone else would claim to bear mine’.  HELLO?  What else did Jesus DO but that?Are we not to be LIKE Him? Does sacred scripture not say that we are to bear one anothers’ burdens? Then how can we for one moment be insulted to be thought worse than we are for the sake of healing another, reaching another, loving another. Simply, we cannot.

I, too, am guilty. God forgive me for my selfishness, my unwillingness to fully embrace the cross, my refusal to join Christ in His suffering for the sake of the world. I repent that my own pride in being *spit* clean *spit* kept me from being willing to get dirty in service to others. May I never again be too *good* to be like Christ.

Instead, I have been learning what Saint Therese of Lisieux describes here…  learning to rejoice in my imperfections, in my weakness, in being small… because in them is God revealed. In them is He most glorified.

“Ah! lord, I know you don’t command the impossible. You know better than I do my weakness and imperfection… Now I am astonished at nothing. I am not disturbed at seeing myself weakness itself. On the contrary, it is in my weakness that I glory, and I expect each day to discover new imperfections in myself.”                                

       ~Saint Therese of Lisieux

There is a dramatic paradigm shift in this view of oneself as opposed to the earlier one… and it is a great gift indeed.

Basic Sin…

Yet again from Thomas Merton: Spiritual Master by Lawrence S. Cunningham 

The basic sin, for Christianity, is rejecting others in order to choose oneself, deciding against others and deciding for oneself.  Why is this sin so basic? Because the idea that you can choose yourself, approve yourself, and then offer yourself (fully “chosen” and “approved”) to God, applies the assertion of yourself over against God.  From this root of error comes all the sour leafage and fruitage of a life of self-examination, interminable problems and unending decisions, always making right choices, walking on the razor edge of an impossibly subtle ethic (with an equally subtle psychology to take care of the unconscious). All this implies the frenzied conviction that one can be his own light and his own justification, and that God is there for a purpose: to issue the stamp of confirmation upon my own rightness. In such a religion the Cross becomes meaningless except as the (blasphemous) certification that because you suffer, because you are misunderstood, you are justified twice over – you are a martyr. Martyr means witness. You are then a witness? To what? To your own infallible light and your own justice, which you have chosen.

This is the exact opposite of everything Jesus ever did or taught.

Gollum – The Mirror of a Man by Father Longenecker

This is, quite simply, a MUST READ blog entry. I’ve been back to it twice now and have finally decided that a recommendation and permanent link is necessary.

Gluttony…

I think I may have blogged on gluttony before – and personal struggles with it, but someone posted about whether or not gluttony is really a sin on the homeschool forums I frequent and in an effort to answer a question, came across the following quote on a site discussing gluttony…

St. John of the Cross, in his work “The Dark Night of the Soul” (I, vi), dissects what he calls spiritual gluttony. He explains that it is the disposition of those who, in prayer and other acts of religion, are always in search of sensible sweetness; they are those who “will feel and taste God, as if he were palpable and accessible to them not only in Communion but in all their other acts of devotion.” This he declares is a very great imperfection and productive of great evils.

I’ve worked my way through “The Dark Night of the Soul” a couple times, mostly superficially and in bits because it’s so heavy for me at this point, which is probably why I never caught this tidbit that today happened to hit me like a Mack truck.  This is SO true… and so incredibly pervasive in our society today!  Very powerful quote which has really stuck with me and upon which I have been meditating quite a lot.