September 16, 2015
Surrogates
I’ve had multiple
interviewees point out the fact that in yesteryear businesses, banks and stores
were locally owned and the owners had a strong voice in the community. Today big
boxes and national chain stores are operated by managers who are invested in
climbing the corporate ladder, but not necessarily invested in the community. One
man observed that elected officials and their administrative staff have now replaced
business leaders and they have become the voice of the community. He said, “…
we’ve defaulted to political people making all the decisions.” I’ve seen
something similar occur in the church when believers default to the staff to
make all the decisions. Paul reminds us that the body is a unit, though it is
made up of many parts, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is
a part of it” (1 Cor 12:27 NIV).
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Gail;
-----From the missionary team to the football team, from the craft club to the secret order, from Dad’s Grocery Store to Wal-Mart, from the family to the society, from town hall to D.C., from your stream of thought to your oncoming emotions, dealing intimately with the particulars always seems to get bundled into universal principles. These bundles become fads, trends, rules of thumb, then laws, all subjecting the particular -the point of intimacy- to becoming a victim of the general -the way it gets treated. The process works most noticeably amongst the thoughts and information of the individual’s own mind, but rarely is any notice paid. This is human nature as God created it gone awry as sin infected it.
-----So we should become ever more intimate with God, others, and our surroundings. And I think we all who know Him do that some. A few do try hard to be appropriately intimate. But inside the self where knowledge and wisdom must be certain in order for sense of security to be assurance for the job, we bundle thoughts and ideas into concepts and then give these bundles labels, sometimes words, but mostly mental imagery truly unique to our own, individual minds. Without occasionally re-exploring the thoughts comprising such mental images, the intimate meanings of individual thoughts fade from their resultant imagery. Only cold clinkers remain to represent once warm and interactive ideas. In a very, very metaphorical way, interacting by generalization instead of intimacy is the image of the beast's ability given to speak.
-----The mind of Christ is the most blissful-in-all-ways mentality because it does not ride over the surface of things like does Ben Hur’s chariot. When its chariot approaches a need, it stops and gleans all the particulars possible from that need’s situation. From the need’s own particulars a real solution becomes known to the mind of Christ. That is intimacy working. Ben Hur’s chariot approaches the need knowing the solution it has developed from running over numerous similar needs in the past. It heroically flies over the need while celebrating the ease of its powerful fix. It has no time to review the tire rut left across the need’s belly, because it is too busied with fixing the rest of world‘s needs according to its own imagery. The image of the beast.
-----I don’t mean to get political, but politics is the inevitable result of the human mind. By discussing the intimacy of the particular and the juggernaut of the universal, we are talking about the human mind, therefore politics. And where there is politics there is religion and economics. The mind of Christ makes its stitch for the situation’s need, then leaves it for God to incorporate into the tapestry. The mind of the Antichrist has made the image of its tapestry for controlling the stitch, the needy be darned. From Mommy’s kissing the ouie on sweet daughter’s finger to Dad’s grunted, “Oh, stop your damned crying; you‘re not hurt,“ from the scant picture of the New Testament church to the political picture of today’s church, from the “I like it so I’ll buy it” of the free-market, to the “We like it so you’ll buy it” of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, ObamaCare, and Islamo-fascism, we’re talking about the intimate being more telling of the solution than the principle, the heart of the matter being more important than the law, and a soul being of far more consequence than any perception of it.
-----Always re-examine the thoughts having formulated your conclusions and feelings. It is a process of meditation which keeps your mind intimate. Know that intimacy is the only square foot of rubber grasping the highway preventing your car from skidding into that oncoming Mack truck. True your own square foot with intimate measure. Leave everyone else’s square feet for them to true. Any benefit you attempt or think or pray for them goes out through intimacy, else it’s a detriment.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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