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All those roads leading straight to RomeMonday, January 4, 2010
1 John 4:4 Not "sins" but "sin." It's in my fallen nature to seek and find my place in the stack and then push for more, whether in noble silence or by intimidating tantrum. There is no sense pretending to love other people while I'm doing this (although I do). Everyone else exists only in the context of Me. John's words call me back to reality. God is in me. And He doesn't concern himself with comparisons. He made the world and everything in it. He knows me from before I was born. When the world ends whether by bang or by whimper, God carries on. He made all of it, He contains it all. On December 31, George Will described part of "it" this way: "Hold up a penny at arm's length and you block three galaxies from your field of vision -- billions of stars and other things -- 350 million light-years away, which is right next door in our wee corner of the universe." * This God lets me call him Father? I lose track of myself in light like this. Jesus tells me to love my Father will all my heart and strength. Then love my neighbor and myself ... as myself. We lost Eden when we failed to maintain this sweet and simple sequence. Without the love God is, it would have been the death of us. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Or Manhattan, or Kansas, or Oz. Why should we do that? Who among us claims closer kin to God to lead the rest toward light? God reminds me often that I have the "option" of thinking and feeling as He does instead of the way I do, since he made me in his image. Jesus waits without end for me to find him in the clutter of my life. His warmth draws me, his love beckons, his arms are safe and sound. Your refuge is blessed and eternal, Lord, and your invitation stands forever. You call me son and let me call you Father. Even in fear and trembling I will serve you all the days of my life. * http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/30/AR2009123002188.html?sub=AR |
I think about my weekend and count up the time I spent comparing myself to heroes, fools and regular folks. Too much. Those moments took me out of contact with God and with myself. Call it unconscious thinking, as does Eckhart Tolle. Call it self-talk. Call it "what-if-ing" and "if-only-ing." Call it sin.