“God is Love.”
Great! It’s the richest philosophical/religious proposition possible.
What it means to us Christians, though, is that (what with our being made in God’s image, and all) we, too, are supposed to be All Love All the Time.
Not so great. Instant fail.
Because who can be about love all the time? Life is hard—and when it’s hard, it’s either frightening or angering, either of which tends to cancel out love like a famished shark cancels out Charlie the Thermometer Tuna. People behave like animals. They doink you just because it’s the easiest thing for them to do. Your boss wouldn’t know a good idea from a python around his neck. Your coworkers seem to think “cooperate” means “shirk and blame.” Driving home from work at night is like being stuck playing “Let’s Make a Squeal!” Lying morons trash the economy. Nonsense wars are started by men and women who wouldn’t know a battlefield from a tennis court.
Point being: bad stuff happens all the time. And when it happens to us, the immediacy of that emotional impact is less likely to leave us filled with love than it is filled with thoughts that make Satan giggle and snort.
Not so good. Common, but not so good.
And things critical to the human experience that aren’t good need to be made better. That’s the Rule of Life.
So we need to figure out the nature of all that stands between us and our conscious, daily experiencing of God’s direct, unqualified love. If we can grasp What’s Hindering Us, then we can squeeze the life out of it.
Cool. We can do that. Understanding something just means thinking about it until you do. We can think. God didn’t give us brains just so our heads wouldn’t sag in. We’re supposed to use our Giant Brains to enhance our understanding of Him. (Atheists! You can do this, too! It doesn’t have to be the Christian God you’re trying to more richly and consistently experience. It can be … The Goodness of the Universe! You can try to buff up your Cosmic Integration! Graduate to the next level of Karmic Fulfillment! Become more harmonious! Whatever you call it, or however you conceive of it, you, just like we Christians, have no choice—you’re actually morally obliged—to try and become the best person you can vis-a-vis that particular version of The Big Picture to which you subscribe.)
God (or The Force, or whatever you might happen to call it) is always fully present in our heart and mind. But too often something or other interferes with our fully apprehending that most glorious truth of all.
I think it’s time we got busy thinking about what some of that Enemy of Us stuff is—of what exactly that troublesome “something or other” is made: how it works, where it comes from, how it can be made to go back to where it came from.
And chalking up all Bad Things to Satan doesn’t get it, by the way. Blaming Satan for what you can fix is like blaming Ronald McDonald for your high cholesterol. Ronald McDonald doesn’t control what you eat. He’s just a front man, a shrill shill of a pill filled with ill will. (Sorry. Bad timing on the rhyming.) Satan can point you toward what works against you—but he can’t make you partake of it. That’s where you have to kick in.
Anyway, I’d like to start writing on the relationship between Us and that which stands between Us and God.
I’d like to actually write a book on that. And I’d like to do it right here, everyday, one post at a time.
Then, when it’s done, I could make the whole thing available on Amazon as an e-book for about seven bucks.
I like it! Using your blog to serially write a book!
Shades of Mr. Dickens!
Except it wouldn’t work, since it would so quickly leave behind those who haven’t beeen reading the posts all along.
Shoot.
Well. We’ll see.
Additional Reading in Christian Issues...
- From hell to Crazy Town
- They’re here; they’re queer; they’ve plenty to fear: LGBT students form secret club at conservative Christian university [now including updates]
- When evil is serious, it reaches for a Bible and cross
- Guest post: “A Good Week to Hate Christians”
- From gay-hating fundie to righteously angry lesbian. Now what?
![John Shore on The Huffington Post](http://johnshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/huffpost.jpg?w=120 "John Shore on The Huffington Post\")
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candace, what kind of job do you do? just curious.
Some say science and religion cannot coexist. I say that if there is a god, why would it be so hard to believe that it created the big bang? It created evolution? It created the beautiful process by which DNA and the building blocks of life get transfered from parents to children.
Christianity has been correcting itself and apologizing for its mistakes regarding science for a long time, just add the above to the list.
Understanding the principles behind science isnt hard. It just takes an open mind. Question everything, including religion.
Well said, Odgie. Good job. (Not that it'll matter, of course…)
Ross,
It's still not a new one for "us folks". We go to the same public schools and study the same scientific disciplines. I reccomend visiting some majority atheist sites and boning up on your put-downs so that you can come back here with some original material.
And no, it's not odd that they teach science in public schools and not religion. There are plenty of believers who recognize that the separation of church and state is blessing for both the state and the church. Stop trafficing in stereotypes and cliches and you may learn something.
Regards,
Odgie
Ross, I make my LIVING in science, and have for more than 30 years.
I did not trade. I did not leave behind. I added. Or rather, God added. And if you are fortunate, one day He will do the same for you.
Odgie, thanks. You can be sure I'll visit frequently
Thank you Candace, your words clearly explain that you have left behind rationality. There is nothing mysterious about how mountains form or how the continents shift. You are simply trading an understanding of the world around you for a cozy feeling that a creator loves you. But you should know that the proven evidence is there in case you wanted to clear up the "Mystery" that clouds your vision.
You can find the answers in any 8th grade science book. (Isnt it odd that they teach science and not christianity in public schools? Wait thats not odd, thats thinking rationally, If you wanted to teach christianity, you would have to teach Judaism and Islam too, just to give a full understanding of the desert faiths)
Odgie, I meant a new one for you folks. Do you really think that im that full of myself to come up with that one on my own? im not familiar with the story of genesis, i wasnt forced to learn it as a child. Is that the story that says "god made heaven and earth….etc, etc.
Wheres the proof? Wheres the evidence?
I dont get how people can just accept thing without asking how they came to that conclusion.
I am a rational thinker because i weight the options, i study the evidence. I dont claim to know everything about everything either. But the way to understand the world around you is to study it.
Dont just accept what other people tell you because they are part of some group.
Thanks Candace, and don't be a stranger over there.
He claims to be a RATIONAL thinker, Odgie, not necessarily an original one
Checked out your blog, btw. Excellent. Bookmarked it.
Ross,
Sorry, chief, but your question hasn't been a "new one" for more than a century. And for Christians who accept the premise of the Genesis account of creation without taking it as a literal step-by-step account, there is no need for spin.
Easy for me to answer as regards myself, Ross, but it won't satisfy you in the least (and I know because for decades I was, like you, firmly attached to my notion of human rationality as the end-all and be-all.)
I decided that I was never going to know enough (in this world) to understand everything about everything. My intellect understands (most of) what science tells me, but there remain and always will remain questions.
My entire being, right to the very core, knows and loves my Lord and Savior. He (personally) has reached out and touched me, and I have taken him up on his invitation and his gift. I know this (and him) with a certainty far greater than the intellect can ever hope to accomplish.
So I accept and live with some mystery and ambiguity. The love and joy and peace I experience in relationship with God makes it easy not to care that to some it seems "irrational".
Ive got a new one for the believers taking part in this blog. Do you understand how tectonic plates work? If you do, how can you still think that the world is only 6,000 yrs old. How have you spun the scientifically proven fact that the continents have been slowly moving for millions of years?
What an exceptional way you have of explaining those things, John. Thanks for that. See, I learn something every day by visiting here–how NOT to be a reflection of those folks' toxic light. Wow.
Oh, and my personal answer as to what is the Enemy of Us (or Enemy of Me, in this case) is … Me. I am that which most gets in my way, especially in the way of me being all love all the time. There really is no other answer. Just Me. That's why life is so very, very much better when "it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me."
I'd get to be the first? No kidding! Will bring the book to work with me tonight and do a review. Since all of you simply refuse to stay up all night with me while I work and keep me entertained with pithy commentary.
Candace: The publisher of BC will love it if you review it on Amazon. No one has yet. I know that bums them a little. So thanks.
Oh, and DUDE, write a book serially on your blog, wouldja?? Please? 'Cuz I'm almost done with Being Christian (which is awesome. Love it. I am determined to move past my inherent mega-mucho-laziness long enough to post my first book review ever on Amazon).
Wow, John. Look at all the fun I missed by not being online for a while.
Checked out those sites you linked to (post # I-haven't-a-clue-where-did-that-neat-feature-go?), and all I have to say is — I never, ever seriously consider arguments proffered by those who won't, a) "own" their stuff and, b) engage in an exchange as opposed to a monotribe. Notice how both of those cowards fail to sign their names to their drivel or allow responses.
Can you say "egomania"?
I've seen the second one before. It's too bad such a beautiful dog is on such a nasty site. Nice face covering up a big load of hatred…hmmm…guess that's happened more than once.
I dunno John, I think you've REALLY arrived when they spoof you on SNL. Maybe by spring…
A lot of such hyper-snark sites are run by people who USE the vitriol they spew as a means of bringing attention to their own … products. It's just a … thing people do. Let's just say, for instance—just for instance—that the people who put up hereseywatchdog.com just so happened to also run on the side a …. oh, I don't know … let's say, off the top of our heads, a business where they sell coffee cups and mugs with all kinds of sayings on them along the lines of "Repent or Burn!" and "12,345 Unsaved People Go To Hell Every Minute!" and so on, with the flames all over everything and all that. Now, see, THOSE people can latch onto a book like "I'm OK," and bomb Internet and publisher sites with how heretical and evangelically offensive the book is, and under the guise of Righteous Indignation serve their own practical needs.
They torch others so the light will shine on them. It's a dim light off toxic flames—but it's all the light and warmth they know how to get. So they stoke that fire a bit—and then move onto the next shiny kindling that looks flammable, that's vulnerable that way.
Saving people through hatred. That's … their modus operandi.
wow, they have watchdogs for heretics? do they bite?
Those were just ugly, ugly sites. I would never go there willingly again–how can people not get your humor? and read about how much Jesus has changed your life?
(((tsk))) some people…..
You should totally do the snarky comments blog. It would be hilarious.
Thanks, Morse! You're a good guy.
Wow…those guys are scary!
Don't worry John. I will definitely not lend them my torches and pitchforks.
Wow, Dan. I had no idea you had cancer. I’ve read some of your blog posts about your wife having it, but I don’t think I realized that wasn’t in the past. Well, that’s not great news, obviously. We’ll pray for you and your wife. I certainly do appreciate the way you’ve always left such kind, open, clear-thinking, and good-natured comments on my blog. Thanks, as ever, for that. (Lemme know what you think of “I’m OK.” I wrote it entirely too quickly, and used a style and tone I’ve since come to see wasn’t really ideal for that message [it was my Magazine Voice, which I now see risks running wearisome over the course of a whole book. Anyway. Be curious to hear your response to it.) Thanks again for all.
GROUP HUG!
Thanks, you guys.
Now watch. If they check it, those guys will see that they got hits to their site from this one. Then they'll rush over here to spray their bile everywhere. I know these guys. That's what'll happen.
Sigh….
I could not figure out how to comment on either site John… apparently they don't want to hear from me. I suppose Odgie's take is best, look at it as you've arrived. It is so absurd that you John would be the target of this scorn. Proof positive that (some/many?) people do not read. I have read your blog for about a year now and I know you earnest want to lead people to desire and seek a deeper relationship with the love of Christ. I also know your personal view on money and wealth and really wanted to snark the snarker …
John,
Sometime, you ought to do a post specifically on the really stupid and mean comments you get, complete with samples (questionable words bleeped out, of course). That would be funny.
you certainly have arrived! An entire website…wow!
hahaha… so write a book! you can’t comment on a book! (:
Okay, I think that the first one is insane, and the second one is just funny. People devoting entire websites to attacking you–you've arrived, John!
i was really wondering, instead of bashing other christians up.. those guys should spend some time really speaking with them.
Learn why we believe what we believe. take out the element of fellowship and bash the other brother simply because you felt you proved him wrong isn't helping the church or the sad world out there..
if guys like those from the watchdog site spend less time bashing books and stuff…and work together with the people who wrote those book… spreading the gospel wouldn't be so hard…
'i'm ok and your not' is really secondary to 'I'm right, you're wrong, stop sharing your beliefs'…. gosh it's a house divided.. brother against brother…
what's your take John.. correct me if i'm wrong.. im open to correction (:
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