How to have a congregation full of Sybils with major mental illnesses."Trust me, climb in my lap and call me Abba. But if you don't bow down to my giant ego in the prescribed time, I'm gonna fry you forever."
Right. Sounds like child abuse to me by a writ-larger-than-life human.
Pass :)
Not, of course, that I don't think God is going to judge things. But I don't think it's going to be in a cold cold courtroom with someone who used to be our Father but who has now suddenly become institutionalised and whose laws and rules and regulations are larger than he is, and which cause him to have to move in prescribed ways.
I went back to bed and just woke up and now it's already lunchtime. Me and Jane have a date with Gandhi so I don't have time to write my usual Saturday morning rambling blog post. It'll have to wait till Sunday.
Still, happy Saturday, bloggers :)
What is there to say? They are bringing all they've got Sue. Somehow this wonderful Father uses it all.
ReplyDeleteYes, you're right. Your response reminded me of Julian of Norwich's "Sin is necessary, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."
ReplyDeleteI think I get angry at this kind of church abuse because it touches me, as a badly fathered woman, and I think those who were emotionally abused by distant fathers would be drawn to this kind of god and stuck in all of that by fearmongering people.
But yes, he shall use even that. Which is where your focus is lying today.
You rock, Kentster.
I understand the anger about things like this first hand. I just came to a place where I realized that it was wearing me out and my kicking against it didn't seem to be moving anybody.
ReplyDeleteAs you were reminded of Julian of Norwich, St Francis comes to my mind. I try to remember this all the time. I learned this of St. Francis from Richard Rohr's book Hope Against Darkness. "The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better. Just move to the side and live differently."
It's been a big help in transforming that thing that used to rise up inside me.
Yes, the non-violent approach to your inner wounds. Instead of bouncing up and down on them and drawing anger from them, just "move to the side and live differently"
ReplyDeleteWhich is challenging, of course, for all the standard reasons - fear, being vulnerable, etc. Anger and violence are hard taskmasters, but you can still wrap yourself up in their cloaks nonetheless.
Thanks, Kent. I can understand this from the point of sexual abuse. There is nothing about that which "rises up inside me" anymore. It's all been quelled and healed by His touch. There are still things with my father that haven't, I think.
Thanks for tomorrow's blog post topic :)
Sue,
ReplyDeleteHmmm, that is a rather confusing sign. Michael Card has a song called Jubilee that has one line that reverberates through my mind sometimes.
The line says, 'you look into your judges face and see a savior there.."
I recall a homily in which the priest described a heavenly banquet at which all the guests were enjoying themselves. Only Jesus stood at the door looking out into the distance. Someone asked him what he was doing. Jesus responded that he was waiting for his friend Judas to arrive.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is its a very temporal view of a supposedly eternal god. One day he is this the next day he is that. I would imagine that if God is saviour and judge then he judges in his savation and he saves in judgement. I doubt he is compartmentalised in the way that we can be.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, Barbara, and Stu - I think you all said the same thing in different ways. The end result ends up being that we are free free free
ReplyDeleteyep - in one sense they are "doing the best they presently can" - but at the same time sometimes we all need to hear "dude! what the flip?!" what a journey.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Rob, I agree. I guess it's hard to do that right though, isn't it?
ReplyDeletehard? that's what she said...
ReplyDeleteseriously, i totally have it mastered - not!