Rambling Thoughts: Obstacles to Loving One Another II
Selfishness.
We are often busy because we need to provide for ourselves. We say God is our Father, but it's just aping what particular verses say. We think that by saying something from the Bible or agreeing with something from the Bible that that will in fact create belief in us, or even worse, create the reality we seek. But Scripture isn't a magic book. It's a love letter and a letter of introduction. The Old Testament was a letter of introduction of Christ -- of course the "highest" and the "best" and most "learned" missed that, and didn't see Christ whom it was all about, standing directly in front of them.
The New Testament is a love letter, inviting us into a tremendous relationship, with stories about those in that relationship, with revelations about Who this Person we're in love is.
Okay, enough of that rivulet of thought, back to busyness.
For some, we don't believe Father can nor will take care of us. And that's true for financial, emotional, psychological, and spiritual things. So we work hard on ALL of them.
But our experience says that He has not.
Does our experience actually say that? Or is that our interpretation of our experiences?
Say you find yourself with a relationship with a person whom you believe is manipulative and always has an agenda that leaves you holding the bag. Would you not second guess everything the person does? If the person was doing something that required three steps to complete. Would you not expect and believe evil of the very first step? And that would color the second step, and that would color the third step. Even if the final step was for your own good. You already have a history there in step one and step two.
Perhaps we do the same thing with God in His provision. And we are not taught any different either, even by well intentioned authorities. We are taught God is someone to be played, especially since He plays us.
If our father is someone to be gamed, then we will interact with him, not in love, but in manipulation. And since we assume He is manipulative too, it's a relationship of mutual manipulation. Manipulators don't provide, they only use.
Manipulation also requires a great deal of work to pull off. You have to have all the right plates spinning to keep it going.
We are often busy because we need to provide for ourselves. We say God is our Father, but it's just aping what particular verses say. We think that by saying something from the Bible or agreeing with something from the Bible that that will in fact create belief in us, or even worse, create the reality we seek. But Scripture isn't a magic book. It's a love letter and a letter of introduction. The Old Testament was a letter of introduction of Christ -- of course the "highest" and the "best" and most "learned" missed that, and didn't see Christ whom it was all about, standing directly in front of them.
The New Testament is a love letter, inviting us into a tremendous relationship, with stories about those in that relationship, with revelations about Who this Person we're in love is.
Okay, enough of that rivulet of thought, back to busyness.
For some, we don't believe Father can nor will take care of us. And that's true for financial, emotional, psychological, and spiritual things. So we work hard on ALL of them.
But our experience says that He has not.
Does our experience actually say that? Or is that our interpretation of our experiences?
Say you find yourself with a relationship with a person whom you believe is manipulative and always has an agenda that leaves you holding the bag. Would you not second guess everything the person does? If the person was doing something that required three steps to complete. Would you not expect and believe evil of the very first step? And that would color the second step, and that would color the third step. Even if the final step was for your own good. You already have a history there in step one and step two.
Perhaps we do the same thing with God in His provision. And we are not taught any different either, even by well intentioned authorities. We are taught God is someone to be played, especially since He plays us.
If our father is someone to be gamed, then we will interact with him, not in love, but in manipulation. And since we assume He is manipulative too, it's a relationship of mutual manipulation. Manipulators don't provide, they only use.
Manipulation also requires a great deal of work to pull off. You have to have all the right plates spinning to keep it going.
posted by GBT at
Friday, September 22, 2006
