Originally published as a Facebook Note April 2nd, 2009
I've worked in the receiving department at a local Wal-Mart now for over a year and a half. Ever since I was hired the department was considered well below where the Corporate powers that be wanted it to be and what it was supposed to be accomplishing. Don't get me wrong, I and the other unloaders work hard, really hard to fight to get the freight unloaded and out to the floor on time to be stocked by the next shift of stockers. But somehow we never quite seemed to make the cut.
The standard management response to this continued under performance is to locate the problem employees and weed them out, replacing them with employees who will or at least might perform according to expectations.
In over a year and a half, I am the sole unloader left from the original receiving team when I was hired. The average size of a team is supposed to be eight people on any given night. The average length of service in receiving is about 4 or 5 months. In the time I have been there, we have undergone a complete turnover in personnel. We have changed supervisors three or four times. We have had four or five Assistant Store Managers in succession overseeing the backroom and we have had two store managers at the store's helm.
I'm reflecting on this recently, because the underperformance continues seemingly uninterrupted, the internal problems, complaints, and attitudes are exactly the same as when I was hired, the greivances between employee and manager continue to be identical, and yet it's not the same set of people.
It got me thinking. We're not the same set of people at all, and yet in some way we are. We have our own lives, our own personalities, our own sets of strengths and weaknesses, and yet we continue to perpetuate the same cycles of performance as those who came before us. It is likely that after I leave Wal-Mart, it will continue on uninterrupted still.
We do tend to carry on the ideas, attitudes, and ways of thinking of those that came before us whether we're conscious of them or not. When someone who is racist has a child, and they teach that child racism and hatred, that child, if he does not choose a different path, continues that cycle of racism and hatred. It becomes re-incarnated from parent or teacher to child or student. Racism is just one obvious example, but there are other things which get passed on. Some of them, like prejudice, are harmful, some of them, like ways of dressing or speaking, are benign, and still others, like faith and compassion, are beneficial. But they get passed on and re-incarnate into the next generation, just like the attitudes and ways of thinking have re-incarnated from unloader to unloader and manager to manager.
I've heard a lot about generational curses and how these are passed down from parent to child. I'm sure there are such things in this line of thinking as generational blessings as well. One generation seems to be reborn in the next.
The soul or psyche is unique to each individual; being a combination of the material and immaterial parts of the human being just as each physical body and life experience is unique to each individual. It does not, and really cannot transmigrate. But we do suffer the consequences of the thoughts and actions of those who come before us as they transmit those to us, either by taking on their suffering and ignorance, or by reaping the benefits of their blessing and enlightenment, or at times a mixture of both.
As I look at my children and interact with them, I see myself and my wife in them as well. We are in turn reincarnated in our children as we pass on our traits, physical and psychological, natural and learned, to them. At times it's like looking in a mirror. And yet they are themselves, unique individuals all three of them. My children both suffer for and reap the benefits of the consequences of our thoughts and actions as well more acutely than anyone else I come into contact with.
In this we also have choices to make and can make the choices to move past our generational and experiential programming. These are hard choices to make, but they can be made. My son can make the choice to react as I do to different circumstances, or he can choose a different path if he is willing and able to see it.
The choice to be a Christian is the choice to allow a single Person to override all of our physical and experiential programming and to re-incarnate Himself into us. His traits imprinted over ours, everything that He is being reborn into us. The scripture says "for you have died and your life is now hid with Christ in God." Everything which came before us and reincarnated intself into us suddenly has a death certificate signed on it, and the only real input that matters is that of Jesus Christ.
But this reincarnation takes place upon a choice which we must make on a decision by decision basis. Do we continue to dwell in our own selves, the combinations of biology and experiences which form who we consider ourselves to be, or do we abandon this self to death, pursuing Jesus Christ and who He is.
We know that this self, one way or another will end in death. This is unavoidable. We know that those who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been joined to His death and died with Him already, so that when this person physically dies, it is no great loss. It is only the finalization of what already is. And as we were joined with Him in His death, so we are also joined with Him in His resurrection. His thoughts, and actions, and who He is overrides who we are or were, as the case may be. He breaks the cycle as we are united to a single, immortal Being.
With this in mind, it could be said that the true Christian life is the practice of re-incarnation, as we choose to practice the re-incarnation of Jesus Christ in us.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
A Ramble about Faith
Originally published as a Facebook Note on March 28th, 2009
"There is no spoon." I watched the Matrix the other day. I don't know why, it's been a while since I'd seen it, but I just had this urge to watch it. I remember my philosophy professor telling us in class one time how ecstatic all philosophy professors were that this movie had been made. It's always been one of my favorites.
As I was watching, I got to the scene with the kid in the Oracle's apartment who was bending spoons with his mind. When Neo asked him how he did it, he said to try and remember the truth, that there is no spoon.
This phrase, this concept, keeps repeating itself in my mind. "There is no spoon." Of course what he meant was that in reality, the spoon itself was only a construct of the Matrix's program. He said bending the spoon itself was impossible, but rather it is your own perception of the spoon which bends.
Jesus said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, which is ridiculously small, we could tell a mountain to uproot itself, and replant itself in the sea, and it would obey. Of course, attempting to uproot a mountain just by telling it to is impossible. I'm sure many have tried faithfully.
But let's look deeply at that mountain for a minute. It's largely made of of rock and stone. That rock and stone is made up of various elements which have combined chemically to form granite, basalt, sandstone, etc. Those elements in turn are made up of certain combinations of protons, neutrons, and electrons. These sub-atomic particles are themselves, in the case of protons and neutrons, made up of quarks. Quarks, and electrons in turn have been revealed to be energy vibrations of a certain frequency and spin. That energy is of course derived from the only Source of all energy who used the energy of His own Existence, all that truly Exists as such, as the building blocks of all created existence.
Like all else created, the mountain relies on God for its very existence, for its very foundation. It, in reality, is no different than we are. It is only our perception of the mountain which we derive from our senses and experiences which makes it so much bigger, so much stronger, so much more solid and massive than we are.
When God asks us to trust Him, when he asks us to do something by faith, what He's asking us to remember is that there is no spoon. He isn't bound by our senses or perception. Should He choose it, the mountain can cease to exist instantaneously, as all He need do is cause those certain energy vibrations which form the mountain to cease vibrating. As it is all the energy of His own Existence at play, ultimately, it is as simple for Him as me to breathe in or out, or to flex the muscles of my finger.
If this is true, then why doesn't He always move those mountains when we tell them to move? I believe first that it is because we don't ask Him, we tell Him. Never a wise idea. At best it causes a good round of laughter. At worst...
Second, do we have that relationship with Him, do we keep that relationship with Him to where He would? All relationships take work to maintain. All friendships must be renewed periodically, and all marriages must involve a great deal of emotional, psychological, and physical intimacy to stay healthy. This takes action on the part of both parties. Both parties must spend quality time with one another. an old friend might accede to a request based on your past relationship with them even if you haven't seen them for ten years, but if you've repeatedly blown them off for ten years after they've tried to get together with you, how likely are they to be agreeable to it?
Third, think about Him as your Father. My kids ask me for stuff all the time. When we're at Wal-Mart they ask for toys, or drinks, or candy, or shoes, or what not. There are times when I accede to these things because I know they enjoy them and I enjoy watching them enjoy them. There are more times when I don't because I know that if I do, they will get more spoiled and cease to appreciate what they have. When they ask for lunch, or dinner, or just basic every day provision, do I withhold it to make them appreciate it more? No, of course not. They need to eat. They need clothes to wear. They need certain daily provisions, and it's my job as Daddy to see to it that they get them. Then there are times when they ask for something in their own childlike way not understanding all the implications of what they're asking. Then, a lot of those times, I know that they don't have the knowledge base for me to explain all of my reasons for saying "no." And I just have to ask them to trust me on it.
There's been plenty of times like this last thing, where I've prayed for something that seemed perfectly reasonable to me at the time, and would seem to be what He would pray for, and then He doesn't do it. But as the time passes by He has me reason through some of the ramifications of what I was asking. It's not that the request might be bad, it's just that it isn't the best for everyone involved. And sometimes, it really isn't the right time for it.
But when he asks us to trust Him, He's asking us to remember that there is no spoon. When He asks us to walk up to the mountain and tell it to move out of the way, He's asking us to remember that there is no mountain irregardless of what our senses are telling us. There is only Him.
He tells us to get out of the boat and walk on the water. We respond back and say, "what about the hurricane and the fact that water can't support my weight?" His response, "what water? All there truly is, is Me." He tells us to feed five thousand with five loaves of bread and a couple of trout. Are we feeding them with bread and fish? Or are we feeding them with Him?
He is the One who does not move through space and time, but space and time move through Him. He is the One who does not exist in creation but all creation Exists in Him.
It is our perception which must change, not the world around us. Do we perceive rock and stone and sea and sky, or do we perceive being surrounded by Him? In the Matrix, all most anyone can see is what their minds are telling them is real. Such as Cypher who in the end didn't care that the steak wasn't real, as long as his mind told him it tasted good. But then there was Neo who in the end didn't see the walls, the floors, the people, the buildings, all he could see was the Matrix code underlying everything and through this change in his perception, His experience was changed and thus his world was changed completely.
God asks us, by faith, to not see the rock and stone and storms and sea. He asks us to see the Code, Himself, which underlies it all. And by this change in our perception of the world to go forward trusting Him.
Is there a mountain in your life He's asking you to trust Him to move? Is there a sea He asking you to walk through on dry ground? Is there a raging storm He's asking you to get out of the boat and walk on the water with? Remember, there is no spoon.
"There is no spoon." I watched the Matrix the other day. I don't know why, it's been a while since I'd seen it, but I just had this urge to watch it. I remember my philosophy professor telling us in class one time how ecstatic all philosophy professors were that this movie had been made. It's always been one of my favorites.
As I was watching, I got to the scene with the kid in the Oracle's apartment who was bending spoons with his mind. When Neo asked him how he did it, he said to try and remember the truth, that there is no spoon.
This phrase, this concept, keeps repeating itself in my mind. "There is no spoon." Of course what he meant was that in reality, the spoon itself was only a construct of the Matrix's program. He said bending the spoon itself was impossible, but rather it is your own perception of the spoon which bends.
Jesus said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, which is ridiculously small, we could tell a mountain to uproot itself, and replant itself in the sea, and it would obey. Of course, attempting to uproot a mountain just by telling it to is impossible. I'm sure many have tried faithfully.
But let's look deeply at that mountain for a minute. It's largely made of of rock and stone. That rock and stone is made up of various elements which have combined chemically to form granite, basalt, sandstone, etc. Those elements in turn are made up of certain combinations of protons, neutrons, and electrons. These sub-atomic particles are themselves, in the case of protons and neutrons, made up of quarks. Quarks, and electrons in turn have been revealed to be energy vibrations of a certain frequency and spin. That energy is of course derived from the only Source of all energy who used the energy of His own Existence, all that truly Exists as such, as the building blocks of all created existence.
Like all else created, the mountain relies on God for its very existence, for its very foundation. It, in reality, is no different than we are. It is only our perception of the mountain which we derive from our senses and experiences which makes it so much bigger, so much stronger, so much more solid and massive than we are.
When God asks us to trust Him, when he asks us to do something by faith, what He's asking us to remember is that there is no spoon. He isn't bound by our senses or perception. Should He choose it, the mountain can cease to exist instantaneously, as all He need do is cause those certain energy vibrations which form the mountain to cease vibrating. As it is all the energy of His own Existence at play, ultimately, it is as simple for Him as me to breathe in or out, or to flex the muscles of my finger.
If this is true, then why doesn't He always move those mountains when we tell them to move? I believe first that it is because we don't ask Him, we tell Him. Never a wise idea. At best it causes a good round of laughter. At worst...
Second, do we have that relationship with Him, do we keep that relationship with Him to where He would? All relationships take work to maintain. All friendships must be renewed periodically, and all marriages must involve a great deal of emotional, psychological, and physical intimacy to stay healthy. This takes action on the part of both parties. Both parties must spend quality time with one another. an old friend might accede to a request based on your past relationship with them even if you haven't seen them for ten years, but if you've repeatedly blown them off for ten years after they've tried to get together with you, how likely are they to be agreeable to it?
Third, think about Him as your Father. My kids ask me for stuff all the time. When we're at Wal-Mart they ask for toys, or drinks, or candy, or shoes, or what not. There are times when I accede to these things because I know they enjoy them and I enjoy watching them enjoy them. There are more times when I don't because I know that if I do, they will get more spoiled and cease to appreciate what they have. When they ask for lunch, or dinner, or just basic every day provision, do I withhold it to make them appreciate it more? No, of course not. They need to eat. They need clothes to wear. They need certain daily provisions, and it's my job as Daddy to see to it that they get them. Then there are times when they ask for something in their own childlike way not understanding all the implications of what they're asking. Then, a lot of those times, I know that they don't have the knowledge base for me to explain all of my reasons for saying "no." And I just have to ask them to trust me on it.
There's been plenty of times like this last thing, where I've prayed for something that seemed perfectly reasonable to me at the time, and would seem to be what He would pray for, and then He doesn't do it. But as the time passes by He has me reason through some of the ramifications of what I was asking. It's not that the request might be bad, it's just that it isn't the best for everyone involved. And sometimes, it really isn't the right time for it.
But when he asks us to trust Him, He's asking us to remember that there is no spoon. When He asks us to walk up to the mountain and tell it to move out of the way, He's asking us to remember that there is no mountain irregardless of what our senses are telling us. There is only Him.
He tells us to get out of the boat and walk on the water. We respond back and say, "what about the hurricane and the fact that water can't support my weight?" His response, "what water? All there truly is, is Me." He tells us to feed five thousand with five loaves of bread and a couple of trout. Are we feeding them with bread and fish? Or are we feeding them with Him?
He is the One who does not move through space and time, but space and time move through Him. He is the One who does not exist in creation but all creation Exists in Him.
It is our perception which must change, not the world around us. Do we perceive rock and stone and sea and sky, or do we perceive being surrounded by Him? In the Matrix, all most anyone can see is what their minds are telling them is real. Such as Cypher who in the end didn't care that the steak wasn't real, as long as his mind told him it tasted good. But then there was Neo who in the end didn't see the walls, the floors, the people, the buildings, all he could see was the Matrix code underlying everything and through this change in his perception, His experience was changed and thus his world was changed completely.
God asks us, by faith, to not see the rock and stone and storms and sea. He asks us to see the Code, Himself, which underlies it all. And by this change in our perception of the world to go forward trusting Him.
Is there a mountain in your life He's asking you to trust Him to move? Is there a sea He asking you to walk through on dry ground? Is there a raging storm He's asking you to get out of the boat and walk on the water with? Remember, there is no spoon.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Well, here I am...
Truth is, I never thought I'd be blogging.
I'm a fairly techno-geek kind of guy. I went to school for electronics and computers and had a lot of fun with it. I've ripped apart and rebuilt computers just for the fun of it. Installing and reinstalling Operating Systems, or software I will probably never use sounds like a good Saturday night. I even use Ubuntu Linux on my laptop, and usually can't restrain myself to wait until the next release version until I install it.
On top of this, I'm also an amateur writer. I've been a writer since I was nine (albeit my writing has much improved since that first one page story). I've written, privately, four novellas (or was it five), dozens of short stories, scores of papers on various subjects, and reams of poetry. None of it published, of course; I never thought it was good enough for that, and getting your work published takes a lot of luck and no small miracles. But I did write, and continue to write, all of these things.
You'd think blogging would be the logical outcome of these pursuits. Nope. Never really crossed my mind. I never bothered to look into it. For being such a techno-geek, I don't even know how to create a web page.
What started this blog was a series of notes I had written and posted on Facebook for those friends that could see them. Mostly it was just me ranting, or waxing philosophical, but I generally got a good response. One of my friends suggested that I start a blog, so... ta-da! Here it is.
Over the next few days, I'm going to re-release those original notes here starting with the first today. After that... who knows. So, here's my first Ramble:
A Ramble about Truth
Originally Published as a Facebook Note March 26, 2009
Have you ever come across something that disagrees with what you believe? It's a dumb question. Of course you have. Everyone has. Does it ever get to the point of threatening what you believe? Did you choose to outright reject it? Embrace it and overturn your belief? Or did you really wrestle with it and allow your faith to be strengthened and expanded without losing it all together?
For those of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ, what is it that we are actually staking that faith on? A lot of times, i don't think we actually know, especially not at first. Or somewhere along the way of theological indoctrination, we forget what it was first based on.
I think in some ways that's what happened to me. When God first called me to come to Him, He called me as a Father to His long lost son. For me He became a Father to this fatherless person. I didn't know anything about the trinity. I didn't know really anything about man, sin, or salvation. All I know is that He wanted to fill that place for me, and He initiated that relationship, adopting this fatherless, somewhat unwanted and misunderstood, orphan, as I seemed. Later on I went through and became indoctrinated as to what it was I was supposed to believe and place my faith in, and then learned that I had done it all wrong. Bible School went further to make sure that I was properly saved, sealed, and delivered, according to the rules someone laid down somewhere, the right way.
And then I was thrown away, or at least it felt that way, by that particular line of theology. They no longer had any use for me, and I was left adrift and disillusioned wondering what I had done. I was then shown kindness by a different Church theology. And so I began to study that, and seemingly correct where I had been wrong before. But they placed limits on how useful I could be to God, supposedly, and I didn't get from Him that those limits applied. And so I began the study of yet another set of theologies.
I'm being deliberately vague, although those who know my history know what I'm talking about, and those that don't may relate by filling in the blanks with their own experiences. Because in all of it, God has taught me that no matter how fine tuned and supposedly accurate or even Biblical a theological structure may be, it really doesn't matter.
What matters is Him. What matters is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born, lived, taught, died, resurrected, and ascended two thousand years ago. There's enough evidence, direct and circumstantial to confirm even the most skeptical of skeptics. The Man was a real person in real history. When we say we're going to place our faith in Jesus Christ, then our faith needs to be grounded on these facts. When we say we're going to follow Him, then we need to sit down and study what He said and actually practice it. This is the whole idea of being a student, it's to learn from your teacher and be able to reproduce the practice which was taught in a real world setting. Jesus Christ and everything about Him needs to be one of the primary anchors of our faith if not the primary anchor.
I see these as the anchors of my faith: the reality of Jesus Christ, my own personal experience and relationship with God (relationship is a two way street by the way), the fact of my vows to follow Him and my public commitment to do so by being baptized.
As for the rest of the theological wasteland we like to ramble around in... honestly, what difference does it make? How does it affect my practice of compassion and mercy as Jesus taught if I accept a six day creation or theistic evolution? We're here. We weren't there when it happened. Get over it. How does it help me to not judge and to forgive if I am vehemently pre-trib, mid trib, or post trib? The end will come whether we like it or not. He said so, and He didn't say when.
We get so worked up over so many theological minutiae that we actually violate what He taught in defending our own little beliefs. And when a set of data arrives that contradicts those little beliefs, we fall apart and lose our faith, or get angry and bash our brothers and sisters. I can't tell you how many times someone has questioned my salvation because I wore black clerics and a white collar. And yet those clothes symbolized my absolute devotion and service to our Lord.
I recently translated in Matthew where the Pharisees were upset with Jesus' students over violating the tradition of the elders by eating with unwashed hands. He fired right back and accused them of violating the commandment of God because of one of there traditions. We are doing the same thing and transgressing the direct order and instruction of Jesus Christ when we place our own version of "Truth"
above compassion, love, and mercy upon our fellow brothers and sisters who profess faith in Him. And we blaspheme and shame Him to those who are outside the faith when we do this. Why would anyone want to be a "Christian" when we don't even follow Christ?
I'm ranting. I know. I want to see the Church restored to what He taught, and what He intended. That's not going to happend until we lose the theological baggage, our own "truth", and actually follow the One who is Truth. Our own "truth" is just another form of judgement and condemnation of others, "I'm right, and everyone else is wrong." It's narcissism dressed up in Sunday best, and it's self-centered at it's very core. Truth is Compassion and Mercy on the level that Jesus Christ taught and lived, praying for His enemies and forgiving them even as they were crucifying Him. This is Truth. This is the Faith. This is the example our Teacher set for us, His final and most important lesson before death.
I'm a fairly techno-geek kind of guy. I went to school for electronics and computers and had a lot of fun with it. I've ripped apart and rebuilt computers just for the fun of it. Installing and reinstalling Operating Systems, or software I will probably never use sounds like a good Saturday night. I even use Ubuntu Linux on my laptop, and usually can't restrain myself to wait until the next release version until I install it.
On top of this, I'm also an amateur writer. I've been a writer since I was nine (albeit my writing has much improved since that first one page story). I've written, privately, four novellas (or was it five), dozens of short stories, scores of papers on various subjects, and reams of poetry. None of it published, of course; I never thought it was good enough for that, and getting your work published takes a lot of luck and no small miracles. But I did write, and continue to write, all of these things.
You'd think blogging would be the logical outcome of these pursuits. Nope. Never really crossed my mind. I never bothered to look into it. For being such a techno-geek, I don't even know how to create a web page.
What started this blog was a series of notes I had written and posted on Facebook for those friends that could see them. Mostly it was just me ranting, or waxing philosophical, but I generally got a good response. One of my friends suggested that I start a blog, so... ta-da! Here it is.
Over the next few days, I'm going to re-release those original notes here starting with the first today. After that... who knows. So, here's my first Ramble:
A Ramble about Truth
Originally Published as a Facebook Note March 26, 2009
Have you ever come across something that disagrees with what you believe? It's a dumb question. Of course you have. Everyone has. Does it ever get to the point of threatening what you believe? Did you choose to outright reject it? Embrace it and overturn your belief? Or did you really wrestle with it and allow your faith to be strengthened and expanded without losing it all together?
For those of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ, what is it that we are actually staking that faith on? A lot of times, i don't think we actually know, especially not at first. Or somewhere along the way of theological indoctrination, we forget what it was first based on.
I think in some ways that's what happened to me. When God first called me to come to Him, He called me as a Father to His long lost son. For me He became a Father to this fatherless person. I didn't know anything about the trinity. I didn't know really anything about man, sin, or salvation. All I know is that He wanted to fill that place for me, and He initiated that relationship, adopting this fatherless, somewhat unwanted and misunderstood, orphan, as I seemed. Later on I went through and became indoctrinated as to what it was I was supposed to believe and place my faith in, and then learned that I had done it all wrong. Bible School went further to make sure that I was properly saved, sealed, and delivered, according to the rules someone laid down somewhere, the right way.
And then I was thrown away, or at least it felt that way, by that particular line of theology. They no longer had any use for me, and I was left adrift and disillusioned wondering what I had done. I was then shown kindness by a different Church theology. And so I began to study that, and seemingly correct where I had been wrong before. But they placed limits on how useful I could be to God, supposedly, and I didn't get from Him that those limits applied. And so I began the study of yet another set of theologies.
I'm being deliberately vague, although those who know my history know what I'm talking about, and those that don't may relate by filling in the blanks with their own experiences. Because in all of it, God has taught me that no matter how fine tuned and supposedly accurate or even Biblical a theological structure may be, it really doesn't matter.
What matters is Him. What matters is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born, lived, taught, died, resurrected, and ascended two thousand years ago. There's enough evidence, direct and circumstantial to confirm even the most skeptical of skeptics. The Man was a real person in real history. When we say we're going to place our faith in Jesus Christ, then our faith needs to be grounded on these facts. When we say we're going to follow Him, then we need to sit down and study what He said and actually practice it. This is the whole idea of being a student, it's to learn from your teacher and be able to reproduce the practice which was taught in a real world setting. Jesus Christ and everything about Him needs to be one of the primary anchors of our faith if not the primary anchor.
I see these as the anchors of my faith: the reality of Jesus Christ, my own personal experience and relationship with God (relationship is a two way street by the way), the fact of my vows to follow Him and my public commitment to do so by being baptized.
As for the rest of the theological wasteland we like to ramble around in... honestly, what difference does it make? How does it affect my practice of compassion and mercy as Jesus taught if I accept a six day creation or theistic evolution? We're here. We weren't there when it happened. Get over it. How does it help me to not judge and to forgive if I am vehemently pre-trib, mid trib, or post trib? The end will come whether we like it or not. He said so, and He didn't say when.
We get so worked up over so many theological minutiae that we actually violate what He taught in defending our own little beliefs. And when a set of data arrives that contradicts those little beliefs, we fall apart and lose our faith, or get angry and bash our brothers and sisters. I can't tell you how many times someone has questioned my salvation because I wore black clerics and a white collar. And yet those clothes symbolized my absolute devotion and service to our Lord.
I recently translated in Matthew where the Pharisees were upset with Jesus' students over violating the tradition of the elders by eating with unwashed hands. He fired right back and accused them of violating the commandment of God because of one of there traditions. We are doing the same thing and transgressing the direct order and instruction of Jesus Christ when we place our own version of "Truth"
above compassion, love, and mercy upon our fellow brothers and sisters who profess faith in Him. And we blaspheme and shame Him to those who are outside the faith when we do this. Why would anyone want to be a "Christian" when we don't even follow Christ?
I'm ranting. I know. I want to see the Church restored to what He taught, and what He intended. That's not going to happend until we lose the theological baggage, our own "truth", and actually follow the One who is Truth. Our own "truth" is just another form of judgement and condemnation of others, "I'm right, and everyone else is wrong." It's narcissism dressed up in Sunday best, and it's self-centered at it's very core. Truth is Compassion and Mercy on the level that Jesus Christ taught and lived, praying for His enemies and forgiving them even as they were crucifying Him. This is Truth. This is the Faith. This is the example our Teacher set for us, His final and most important lesson before death.
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