An Excellent Read
There are a number of blogs I follow outside of our "circle." Many of them are women who talk about the church. This lady writes sporadically, but when she does I always look forward to hearing what she has to say. Today I wanted to share her post with all of you. It's well worth your time. So, click on this link and here's a small taste:
I want you to trust my community of friends. I don't want Pastor Bob in Iowa or Becky in Massachusetts passing judgment on my life, nor do I think it is a particularly good idea for me to pass judgment on theirs. They don't know my story, and I do not know theirs. I am fortunate enough and have chosen to have a small circle of friends who know me, my life, and my story. I know theirs, and in that context of people who truly love me, I ask questions and tell my story and figure out what to do next. They do the same. We are all messy and in process, but if I get too crazy, I'm pretty sure someone will tell me.
I want to know that the first truth about me is that I am created in the image of God and infinitely loved, NOT that I'm a "sinner". The last thing I need to know is that there is something wrong with me. I know that one all the way down to my bones. I want someone to call out the good in me, not root out all the perceived badness.
Make sure you go and read the rest of the post ... it's really, really worth the time.
posted by Sonja Andrews at 6:53 AM
2 Comments:
Her feelings sound like they come from her heart, a truth that was communicated to her directly from God. Too bad most folks never pay attention to their own personal link with the divine. It is more the rule that folks believe what they're told to believe and listen to other mortals explaining God. And quite often this equates to dwelling on evil more than good. What I mean by that is simply that some religions, Christianity for example, have created for themselves a 2-god pantheon: one that has a God of Good (almost solely personified as Jesus, pretty much everyone forgets about his "old man" nowadays...) and a God of Evil ("The Devil") that wage this big battle over our souls like they're some ectoplasmic poker chips. The thing is most "Christians" seem sooooo preoccupied with all the evils in the world, and damnation and pain and sin, that they have lost sight of the beauty of the world, and lost their sense of hearing when it comes to listening to God. God is Love. God is all. There is no more.
Frankly I don't really go for organized religion, think religion gives God a bad name. To me a great deal of the evil that is being done in this world stems from religious beliefs.
I'd have checked out the rest of the article but the link ( http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/4601813 ) doesn't work. Perhaps you need to edit it.
Sorry if I rambled and got too, eh, "preachy". lol
Hey Scott ... thanks for the tip about the link. I fixed it.
Yeah ... that's what really spoke to me too. And that's what I really like about the church we're in now ... we really try to focus on calling out the good (the God image) in people ... because we really all do know what's wrong with us. Most of us have a pretty good idea of that and spend a lot of time telling ourselves what's wrong ... we need to spend more time focussing on the good.
Good to see you being preachy ... hahaha ...
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