November 11, 2010
Graffiti – Part 4
I’m more than a little grateful the contractor was able to repair the damage done in the cement. Had the girl’s last names been permanently incased in my driveway I’d have been irked every time I saw it. The old adage to ‘forgive and forget’ is so much easier to accomplish when there isn’t a constant reminder around.
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2 comments:
Gail;
-----I love the Hebrew concept of the soul. It is the whole package of what you are, from the body and all its chemistry and chemical reactions to the living being of your spirit. When I think of the soul, I think of a package that can be viewed as having four containers of interacting activity: the body and its physical interactions with the material existence; the feelings of emotion; the intellect with its comparisons, contrasts, measurements, and calculations; and the spirit in its interactions with the spiritual existence. The interplay of all their activities is so blended we often do not perceive their separate effects upon the things we do, think, feel, and are. But there is indeed a perceivable causation each container lends to our habits and actions and a definite responsibility God expects of us for the content of each.
-----I cringe at how commonly Christians speak of letting God love through us. I never fail to recognize that our ability to love comes from God. We love because He first loved us and His love has been poured into our hearts. But this common expression intimates a passive position for us within the equation of love going out to others, as well as back to God. Our position in that equation is definitely not passive. The overwhelming number of imperatives the Word places upon us to love come with ‘you’ as the implied subject. That is to say, “You love.”
-----When I think of love’s equation I envision the simple biology of a tree. It has a root end connected to the ground like we in the Lord have a spiritual end connected to God. Like the roots of the tree pick up minerals from the ground, our spirits pick up essence from His Spirit. But the minerals in the tree do not stay in the roots. They are passed up through veins to the leaves which develop nutrients for making fruit to distribute into the world on one hand, and for delivery through veins back to support the vitality of the roots on the other hand. The tree’s veins and trunk and branches and leaves and the chemical interactions within all these are like our bodies and minds and emotions. They must have actual and real involvement in their respective processes to produce fruit for the world. God does love through us, but that ‘through’ is also by us. The dispensing of God’s love into the world does not happen without us actually generating our love for others within emotions, thoughts, and actions of our souls’ containers. And without this generation of love on our part, there is no spiritual nutrient to feed back to our root for its vitality.
(continued...)
-----Love is the most general aspect of God. It is the willing of and making effort towards the real good of others. Since it is His love poured into our hearts, the love His Word commands from us towards others has that same sense of focus upon good. It is left for our minds to determine what is good, to the best of our abilities. And that is why the Word is imperative about knowing God - it is He who defines good. It is for our emotions to desire good, then, we also must desire God. So for our love to be real, it must both be picked up from God through the roots of our spirits and processed by our hearts and minds into both the nutrients of our souls and our souls’ fruits for distribution into the world.
-----But sin is caustic to love. The thoughts, feelings, and actions generated within us by the effects of its being done to us are often not good. You, then, can reason those effects upon both our spiritual roots and actual fruits. Since love is basic to God, it must be basic to us as well. That is why Jesus expressed forgiveness as being such an imperative that if we do not do it towards others then we do not receive it from God. So forgiveness can not be considered only a spiritual concept. It must actually become part of the interplay of all the containers making up our souls. That means forgiveness must actually effect the way we think, feel, and behave towards those who have sinned against us and the damages they have done for the processes of the tree to stay healthy. Then you can also reason the effects of forgiveness upon our spiritual roots and actual fruits.
-----When someone damages me or something of mine, I change the way I think and feel about what has been damaged. It is kind of a mental, emotional, and physical detachment so that I can maintain a true and good attachment to whoever caused the damage. That is the love God commands. If what I had is destroyed, then I detach from it completely. I just throw it away with all the plans, feelings, and utility I had in it. That changes me, which is a part of my daily dying. The only attachment I then have left is to the one who caused the damage, which is part of my new life. Every time I think of the damage or mourn because of it, I think of my love for the one who caused it and how much more important that one is than what I had. For in the end, what we have will be destroyed with all other things in the fire. Those to whom we maintain attachment through our will, desires, and efforts towards their good may or may not make it through that fire. But their chances of making it might be increased by the effects of our love towards them. Forgiveness’ repairs to love are kind of a gospel thing to those who know not the Lord, and kind of an edifying thing to those who do. Forgiveness is as integral to love, and therefore to us who must abide in love, as sin is to the world.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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