Chapter 8 & 9
September 19, 2006
Good thoughts on the last Chapters. If you did not read all the comments be sure to check them out. On to the next chapter. I think we are slowly gaining momentum again. I really like the last few chapters in the book. So don’t stop reading if you have not read these yet.
Just a thought as I was reading through chapter 8, the section on safety. I am about to blog about that on my own, so it hit me. We think we want safety, but in many ways my own desire for safety leads me into a life of repression, or dullness, numbness. I don’t want to get hurt, I want to be safe, so I then end up turning my heart over to numbness, no feeling at all.
And that is amost the scariest place to be of all, because numbness is deadness. I’ve heard people reference Yancey in Disappointment with God about how when we are in deep pain it shows us that we are still alive because we still have the ability to feel.
This ties to indifference which can sometimes be the greatest evil in relationships. Indifference towards someone else is in a way to cease to acknowledge their existence. Instead of liking or disliking the person, you choose to not even care that they are alive. I think this can relate to God, where we would rather not even know Him than to live on either side of His world. We do this by shutting down our hearts so we dont care and feel anything.
Good thoughts Michael. I have never thought of how sometimes when I think I can ignore my walk I am really creating an indifference towards God. Scary to think of being indifferent towards God.
Definitely some interesting ideas from chapters 7 and 8… When he talks about us trying to pick the weeds out ourselves in terms of killing the bad guys.. Is that our job? I’m just not sure and also are we doing that because we are sure they are beyond redemption? Have we now made it so that they would not even want to know our God? Some challenging ideas – so much so you wonder where are the Christians that are following Christ and loving everyone as Christ did.. everyone thinks the way they are doing it is right and drawing boundries and brick walls so that what you get is so much pride as he says in both the liberals and the conservatives that we just missed the whole point. What we really need is more grace.. God help us to show each other more grace, love and forgiveness so that we can look at each other through the eyes of God.
Amen to Beths comment. Some great thoughts. When I read this book and Shane points things out like “picking the weeds” I keep thinking to myself wow I really do not process, apply and understand the Bible as I should. It always has been and always will be so relevent to what is going on in the world.
Are we going to finish this book.. What’s the scoop on chapters 10 and 11 – who’s in charge of this thing?
So when we love our enemies, does that mean that we accept how they live? Shouldn’t be that way, but that is what often happens. It is hard for us to love someone and at the same time not agree with a thing that are doing. I think of the gay marriage debate or just homosexuality in general. Loving them definitely appears to be the way to go, it is just hard to love them and disagree with them at the same time. We need good examples of people illustrating what this looks like, cause it is hard to do. Like Beth said when we are in conflict we build up walls rather than work through differences and come to love each other. I think that we all need to be more compassionate and understanding of where we come from. Entering into someone else’s world and seeing their perspective, the context in which they grew up and where they live. Jesus was able to see all of this…a reason why he weeped when he looked at the multitudes of people…he did not judge the sinners, but loved them and was radical in his interaction with them, came for them and not for the righteous. A perfect example.
and sorry I have been dormant for awhile..i will try to get back on track, but are we still continuing this?