Asking "what must I do to get into heaven?" is like saying "we've gone to enough movies to warrant sex" or "I have gotten you chocolate, so you should kiss me," or "how many roses does it take to get married?"
Why does our vocabulary for dating contain infatuation, desire, twitterpation, lust, commitment, and love when our religion has only the words wear, hear, go, eat, say, think, have, want, act, be, and do?
Our view of God's love is too much what when it should be why.
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I love the colors here and what they do.
ReplyDeleteThis walks right to the edge of saying something and steps back, I feel. I can make it say two very different, diametrically opposed things. I think the first thing it says is closer to what you mean?
We are better at relationships with other humans than we are in relationships with God? Is that what you mean?
I mean our view of God's love is too much what when it should be why.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it steps back. What it does for me is point out a problem, but not offer a solution. Like many authors I dislike.
But it's very pithy, so I like it.
It is indeed pithy.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what I mean-- the problem without the solution. I can never set down a thing until I figure out a solution for it. Sometimes the process takes years, but it never ends until I am satisfied.
I think our problem is that the whole point of everything is for us to look at God, and we don't want to.
Looking at God means stepping into light (revealing our darkness), letting Him fill us (being burned up, consumed), forgetting ourselves (neglecting number one), realizing our nothingness (becoming obsolete). When Moses came down from the mountain with a face that shone with glory, the Israelites begged him to cover it up.
But it is the only way, and we know this to be true because of the way we love human beings. We see them, then we love them. Or something like that. Yes?
So, if God is our Husband, our Lover, our Ishi . . . the solution is obvious, is it not?
Here's what: I was coming at it from a different angle. We tend to think in terms of how much we've done for God. Just the other day, I asked him why, if I've done the right thing my whole life, I didn't get what I wanted. That's stupid. That's like saying "How many roses does it take to get married?"
ReplyDeleteYou can't quantify love with a person. Why do we try with God?
Probably because we have so little experience having relationships with him?
That makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI think we're scared. I don't think it's about inexperience; I mean, people with absolutely no experience with love still fall in love all the time.
But at Bible studies and in church, the focus seems to be on what we think. We read the Bible and talk to each other about it. We talk about what we want to pray about far more than we actually pray. We decide on biblical truths but rarely does anyone seem to actually want to reach out to God.
If it were only inexperience, I think we'd be getting better results. I think it's fear of having to be vulnerable and open to changing things. I think it's because we'd have to experience the dying daily thing God talks about.
I don't know. I think maybe I am continually saying the same things without real value.
How does infinite repetition make you any different from everyone else in the world?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't. That's the problem. I don't want to be some sort of . . . one-hit wonder.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, this is important to me, and I haven't found the right way to articulate it yet.
Hmmmmmmmm
ReplyDeleteWell, keep trying. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
I think we think that love, if it is real, if it is worthwhile, it has to be between equals.
ReplyDeleteAnd if the love is between two members of the same species, it does. But we know a man and dog can love each other, and a girl and horse can love each other, et cetera, et cetera.
But though God and us are not equals, He loves us and expects us to love Him, and He comes down to our level of understanding. This is, of course, what we do with our animals. When training dogs, we use pack mentality and respect and love them the way other dogs would (more or less). There are obvious differences, but in general, we do.
And God uses human terms that we can understand to relate to us, to love us in a way that we know to be love. So . . . We know why we should love God, and we know how. We have no excuses.
This makes me think of colored power. That is all.
ReplyDeleteDoes it make you think of basics?
ReplyDelete