July 30, 2007

It's Alive!

Because of a family crisis my Mormon friend hasn’t attended church on a regular basis and now she’s in no hurry to get back into the groove. “When I start again there won’t be anything new, it’s always the same thing. I already know what I need to know. And I just don’t feel like having a calling right now - even though it’s good for me [to be involved].” I find it interesting that she feels her church has nothing new to offer and she already knows everything she needs to know. Not to put her down, but with Christianity I’m always finding something new and I’ll never know all I need to know. “For the word of God is living and active…” (Heb 4:12 NIV).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Gail;
-----I have an uncle who once was a very devout Christian. Then his seven year old son died, his relationship with God died as well. He became bitter and did his best to deny God’s existence, because his experience did not square well with his standards for his life.
-----We get caught up in the idea that our purpose is to experience our lives. It is broadcast at us from every side of this commercialized society that we must not only experience life to the maximum, but we need to choose all of our experiences as well. It is just what freedom is about, we are led to believe. So when we lose a loved one, or fail at some critical objective, or are rendered an invalid by disease or accident we blame God for having ruined our lives.
-----Experience is inevitable, but it is not the purpose of life, it is the means of life. The purpose of life is easily losable because it is not physically or emotionally tangible. It is to know our God. There are no ought-to-be’s or ought-not-to-be’s about an experience, it just happens. The ought-to-be is about bringing the experience into the our growing knowledge and understanding of the truth to find our proper position relative to it. And when experience, whether good or bad, is poured through the filter of truth, God’s effects eventually become visible. So, as we establish our minds upon the truth and continue through our lives to humbly choose the good experiences when we can and accept the rest that happen regardless, knowledge and understanding of God becomes inevitable. And there will always be something new, even in the mundane.