A colleague and I are seldom on the same page and I thought that going
to lunch together might help us mend a fence or two. He publicly rejected my
invitation saying, “I’m not going to eat
lunch with someone who doesn’t like me.” I have to laugh…my colleague’s
sentiments almost make the Pharisees of Jesus’ day seem righteous. Their
complaint was merely that Jesus and the disciples were eating with tax
collectors and sinners. (Matt 9:10-11)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----That both good and bad composes everything of this present, physical life is one of my most fundamental axioms, because I find it so useful. Humans, animals, plants, objects, situations, ideas, feelings, everything. And, of course, this axiom itself is a thing. So it must be used carefully to avoid its own error. The Bible is a thing. Its having been delivered in languages developed by flawed creatures is a limitation. Some of its Hebrew words are so obscure no one knows exactly what they mean. Having been passed through the ages by the hands of many copyists, it has a few variant readings of which no one knows the original. Even its received meaning has great differences amongst its students, a fact seen in the multiplication of denominations, doctrines, and controversies. But its sent meaning, apart from its text, apart from the language in which it is sent, and apart from the meanings anyone receives, is without flaw. And the Holy Spirit, being in this life by being in the ones who hold and follow the message of the Bible as inextinguishable truth, is without flaw. These two are the solid guides for navigating the mixtures of good and evil in everything else.
-----This axiom supports the Biblical truth that man must live humbly. God’s reasoning with Job was to evidence that man originally creates nothing and completely knows nothing. Therefore man is not a controller of his overall situation, but is a responder from it. So if he desires good in it, his responses must have the good for it as the propriety of what little control he has over his personal particulars. As a non-creator and a non-knower, he does not determine the good necessary for any particular situation. He must discover it, learn it, and do it. But the lines between the good and bad of things get mighty fine in some cases and very blurry in others. Therefore, on the one hand, man must be a practicing thinker (a discovering type thinker; he’s not the Creator.) On the other hand, since the resolutions between good and bad can be indistinguishable to any particular person in any given situation, man must be a practicing forbearer and forgiver. The Bible and the Holy Spirit place the tools for doing these into both hands held out only in humility.
-----Descartes determined the starting line for knowing anything was, “I think, therefore I am.” I scoffed at that until I read the rest of his thinking. Its conclusion was that God is and knowing God requires thinking, since thinking is the only process for knowing any idea. And not just any thinking, but unbiased, searching thinking. Now I like this guy, because I’ve always believed unbiased, searching thinking will discover the Father through Jesus Christ, because He makes Himself discoverable.
-----But many people push off from a different starting line - “I want, therefore I am.” They may think that they think. But thinking is not really thinking unless it is humble. Thinking guided by the arrogance of bias is actually no more than intellectual wanting. It tends towards discovering the self as a center. This is particularly unfortunate in that the self center is neither very sociable nor very lasting. Your colleague wants to not dine with you; he wants not to think with you. So sympathetically extend to him your forbearing hand, knowing that life is difficult just because more people want instead of think.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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