I don't know how you were hurt, and I won't demean you by trying to say that something makes it ok or right that you were hurt, or by saying that something now or in the future-this life or any life-makes that nothing and meaningless.
If it helps though, faith is always muddled. That is not because something is wrong with you, it is just…
I don't know how you were hurt, and I won't demean you by trying to say that something makes it ok or right that you were hurt, or by saying that something now or in the future-this life or any life-makes that nothing and meaningless.
If it helps though, faith is always muddled. That is not because something is wrong with you, it is just the nature of faith. Faith is to hold on to a promise when all the world gangs up to prove every way it can that the invisible little promise will never be true. Martin Luther in his Bondage of the Will said that no one can know or feel himself to be a Christian, he can only believe against all of his own feelings and everything that he knows about himself.
I don't know your pain. I've had some hard stuff happen to me but it's entirely possible that I wouldn't understand, couldn't understand what you've been through. Any Christian who tells you that people don't suffer unfairly doesn't understand his own creed. The heart of our religion is that an innocent man suffered and was abandoned in His hour of greatest need. Some people think it is ok for this reason or that but who really knows? But the bottom line is that broken, hurting people with muddled faith are the ones that He came to call to Himself. And that doesn't mean you have to stop being broken or stop being muddled, it doesn't mean that you ever have to act like what happened to you was ok or doesn't matter.
And whatever sins you have, including lack of faith, I absolve you, anyone who holds those things against you henceforth is ignorant or an ass. Give mercy to them graciously as it has been given to you.
Thanks. In this moment, this is soothing to me. I honestly think that being tortured and trafficked as a child has unhinged me somewhat. Perhaps we are all a little unhinged.
Thats horrible. I'm sorry. It will always be a part of you but I read some of your substack and you are funny and bright and interesting, and I wanted to say that however bad that was it is not all of who you are. I enjoyed your observations about human nature.
I'm not sure if the poster who sorta brushed you off was a jerk or not paying attention or thought that what they were doing was important enough to make running over you ok, wait that's the same thing as a jerk isn't it? But anything that is built by treating the Lord's children callously is not worth building.
This chain is very kind of you. I will say that I am not one of the lord's children, can't be. No true parent would treat or allow their child to be treated in that way. So they are excused of that infraction.
By the way, I dont' think the person was a jerk. I'm not sure what motivated the comment exactly, but the language is full of certainty, while there is not one square inch of me that doesn't live in a cloud of uncertainty.
As you indicated in a previous, we are all the walking wounded. Including the poster who admonished me. There is a wound there for sure I'm guessing. It reminds me of the words attributed to Scotsman John Watson “Be kind. Everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden.”
Well the broken are my calling. What is not my calling is to defend God. The divine artist likes to paint dark scenes. There may be this reason or that but anybody that can't see that isn't looking. What I can tell you is that the Father treated the beloved Son, the Son that we know he loved in some pretty awful ways and that Son continued to believe in His Father, although His faith was pretty muddled at times too.
I don't know how you were hurt, and I won't demean you by trying to say that something makes it ok or right that you were hurt, or by saying that something now or in the future-this life or any life-makes that nothing and meaningless.
If it helps though, faith is always muddled. That is not because something is wrong with you, it is just the nature of faith. Faith is to hold on to a promise when all the world gangs up to prove every way it can that the invisible little promise will never be true. Martin Luther in his Bondage of the Will said that no one can know or feel himself to be a Christian, he can only believe against all of his own feelings and everything that he knows about himself.
I don't know your pain. I've had some hard stuff happen to me but it's entirely possible that I wouldn't understand, couldn't understand what you've been through. Any Christian who tells you that people don't suffer unfairly doesn't understand his own creed. The heart of our religion is that an innocent man suffered and was abandoned in His hour of greatest need. Some people think it is ok for this reason or that but who really knows? But the bottom line is that broken, hurting people with muddled faith are the ones that He came to call to Himself. And that doesn't mean you have to stop being broken or stop being muddled, it doesn't mean that you ever have to act like what happened to you was ok or doesn't matter.
And whatever sins you have, including lack of faith, I absolve you, anyone who holds those things against you henceforth is ignorant or an ass. Give mercy to them graciously as it has been given to you.
Thanks. In this moment, this is soothing to me. I honestly think that being tortured and trafficked as a child has unhinged me somewhat. Perhaps we are all a little unhinged.
Thats horrible. I'm sorry. It will always be a part of you but I read some of your substack and you are funny and bright and interesting, and I wanted to say that however bad that was it is not all of who you are. I enjoyed your observations about human nature.
I'm not sure if the poster who sorta brushed you off was a jerk or not paying attention or thought that what they were doing was important enough to make running over you ok, wait that's the same thing as a jerk isn't it? But anything that is built by treating the Lord's children callously is not worth building.
This chain is very kind of you. I will say that I am not one of the lord's children, can't be. No true parent would treat or allow their child to be treated in that way. So they are excused of that infraction.
By the way, I dont' think the person was a jerk. I'm not sure what motivated the comment exactly, but the language is full of certainty, while there is not one square inch of me that doesn't live in a cloud of uncertainty.
As you indicated in a previous, we are all the walking wounded. Including the poster who admonished me. There is a wound there for sure I'm guessing. It reminds me of the words attributed to Scotsman John Watson “Be kind. Everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden.”
Well the broken are my calling. What is not my calling is to defend God. The divine artist likes to paint dark scenes. There may be this reason or that but anybody that can't see that isn't looking. What I can tell you is that the Father treated the beloved Son, the Son that we know he loved in some pretty awful ways and that Son continued to believe in His Father, although His faith was pretty muddled at times too.
https://comfortwithtruth.substack.com/p/the-cross-considered-as-revelation