Sunday, October 28, 2007

This Week's Thoughts

Err on the side of "God cares"
I give this advice (to myself and others) a lot. We ignore it a lot. What's safer? To believe God wants you to take responsibility here or that he doesn't care?

One day, I will do a grand, 6-week "summer in Scandinavia" trip. Oh, and I also need to get to Australia and New Zealand, go to grad school, and find a job...and win the lottery.

Lack of insight? Nah, not too much. Lack of will? Bingo.

"But it's the only time you get to spend with these friends." Counter-point in my internal dialogue over whether to listen to morning talk-radio or plug in my iPod.

But is it only the manifestation of a psychodynamic structure born of a intrapsychic wound?

So I've got a good idea about how Jesus would act in some situations--but how would he tolerate 8 hours next to a ridiculous and inappropriately chatty woman 3 days a week? I think I prefer martyring persecution. Yes, lions would be preferable to this.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

an apology

Ideologues are weak and often they are hypocrites. But, please, consider first that the ideologue may be all too familiar with this fact. Ideology is of the brain—love is of the heart. The heart is weak, wicked, and unresponsive to Truth. The brain is damned but the ideologue controls it. Most of the time. So he reads, converses, and inquires (all the while constructing the ideology). He cannot say that he has built an edifice as great as the OTHER'S or indeed another's, but he built his own; he knows it. And in the moments when the passions rage and the conscience is silenced—it is the beacons of those mind towers that shine, that argue with the breathy or mocking voices of the Moment. The ideologue’s heart is small and weak and has been so since he was a boy, scarred from the injury of a Stronger. Do not blame him for adapting in the only way available to him.

Yea, there is hope. For congenital goodness remains and the SPIRIT is not away. Ideology is a bandage. In the construction of the towers there is a change—of spires more humble than ever conceived on blueprints. Glimpses of heaven are caught and the drawing table returned to. And when he is ready, he walks away from it all into the open ARMS.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Posing Questions

Thoughts: I've assumed for a few years now that the more evolved a person's self-concept—the more evolved their emotional and spiritual development (especially in the Christian faith)—the more humble and aw-shucks they'd be. I certainly have some finger-in-the-eye favorites, cerebral stalwarts from past and present ages who buck up my ideology, but, for the most part, in my day-to-day relationships, I esteem humility and genuine smiles. Incidents of arrogance usually signal me that someone has more growth to go. However, it was recently suggested to me that healthy, "congruent" people weigh jerk-ness and humility and find a balance. I'm willing to lend this a bit of credence because of the own distressing incongruities in my life that produce a volley of attacks on affable, compassionate Matthew from the passive-aggressive, cynical parts of myself. Still, I hesitate from imbuing this observation with too much suggestive power—interpersonal relationships hardly suffer from too many compassionate, humble people. Moreover, the call to Christ-likeness is cheap and bastardized if it is reduced to a call for psychological healthiness based on the individual's sense of wholeness and getting what they want out of relationships.

What are your thoughts? What's the tension between being an ass and being genial, between humility and steadfastness? What attributes do you prefer in your church leaders?