Lord, help me to distinguish righteousness from scruples.
The Holy Spirit ≠ spontaneity. The Holy Spirit ≠ awe at nature. The Holy Spirit ≠ frissons, feelings, or warm fuzzies. The Holy Spirit’s presence and activity may sometimes be coterminous with these phenomena. But He is not them, and the presence of these phenomena does not mean He is at work. Thinking otherwise can be quite misleading. Look instead for the fruit.
Lord, grant me a good, true, and beautiful sense of what is good, true, and beautiful.
You have heard it said, “Hate has no home here.” But I say to you, make a home for hate your heart. Hate heartily that which is hateful, including, yes, hate itself of any human being.
This is, I admit, merely a prescriptivist’s kvetch, since at some point somebody certainly did sneak a definition into the word “hate” that appears to mean “hostility and aversion based on category of human, such as skin color or sexuality.” But this new definition must not be permitted to elbow out its very useful precursor, that is, simply, “intense or passionate dislike.” Hate, defined as such, is, like trust and guilt, a very good thing—a virtue, even—when its is justly pointed. (I don’t need to point out the same about love, although the inverse is worth saying: Love is a very bad thing when it is unjustly pointed.) And there are plenty of things good and right to hate: ecocide, betrayal, unjustified violence, selfishness, and so on.
Bet your scruples have some loopholes ✏️ 🎤 🎵
Ain’t no room for hobbyhorses
In the stables of the Lord ✏️ 🎤 🎵
Note to self: When you find yourself reflecting unhappily about your job being helping make truck bed covers when you wish automobiles had never been invented, remember that these words of Paul were addressed to slaves: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23). Whatever you do. And besides, DiamondBack is easily the best manufacturing company (and one of the best companies period) to work for in central Pennsylvania. Everything about working there pretty much couldn’t better.
An elaborated 1 John 2:15-16 with some eye toward Ecclesiastes 11:9: Have desires of the flesh, but do not love those desires. Have desires of the eyes, but do not love those desires. Possess things, but do not love the pride of possession or estate.
Have desires of the flesh. Have desires of the eyes. Possess things. But do so lightly. Instead of loving them, love YHWH your god, and love your neighbor as yourself. 🧘♂️
Self-efficacy. To be virile and know it (without being haughty).
The CEB reads: “You have this faith and love because of the hope reserved for you in heaven” for Colossians. So the vision of heaven enables us to be faithful and loving! Fear of death be gone! You see this in stories of the original Christians.
“Mr. Casaubon, indeed, had not thoroughly represented those mixed reasons to himself; irritated feeling with him, as with all of us, seeking rather for justification than for self-knowledge” (George Eliot, Middlemarch).
Isn’t this true for all irritations! We don’t seek the deep reason. We simply want to know we’re right in feeling!
When you marry, you relinquish unilateral control of your self-sacrifice. Most of it is automatically dedicated directly to domestic relationships. And even what remains is subject to a bilateral decision with your wife.
What could I be doing now in theory that I’m not doing because Carla thinks I would be overextending myself in light of family life and my involvement with house church (which is true):
- singing in a small, tight-harmony musical group,
- Big Brothering,
- raising funds for College Avenue path to campus, and
- writing songs (as if).
Now, maybe once I finish the Cross essay, I can start singing again.
I should be more strategic with how I spend my time. Wait. More strategic? Oi vey.
“Years ago my mother used to say to me, she’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be’—she always called me Elwood—‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.”
The word of the year for 2024 is “commitment,” as in an actor committing to a role, having no hesitation or second thought.
The word of the year for 2024 might be “whim.”
I am acquisitive. I am sorry, Lord.
Take your time, Scott. Just the next right thing.
It’s making more sense to me today, which is convenient as Thanksgiving approaches: We give thanks for spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit, as well as miracles, yes, when we have identified them. Beyond that, are thanksgiving is general, as sure, we cannot thank God directly for putting food on our table, it being seed suppliers, farmers, distributors, and markets, along with our own trade with our employers of our labor for money, that have put the food on our table. But all of that is part of a system, a system we call Creation, in which such things are possible and indeed, such things bring pleasure. Since we are addressing the Creator of this Creation, it is right and good to give thanks! It is the kind of thanksgiving that results in the delight of the Giver because He is able to observe the joy and peace that His creation has engendered in other creatures.
Finally!
Don’t complain. There is no such thing as suffering. Only refusal to accept things the way they are. By the way, Buddhists have defeated the problem of evil. I just need to find a way to cogently combine it with Christianity.
I just read in Jeremiah that God accused Judah of chasing after hevel (“mere breath”) and thus becoming hevel—just like Ecclesiastes! Anything you chase after, you become.
Give and receive. Don’t take.
“Love is never any better than the lover.”
Even in his biggest triumph, Gideon is deflecting the glory (Judges 8:1-3).
Do what you’re doing. Don’t worry about the rest.