Being weird
The world punishes you for being weird, especially if you're a kid. So parents don't want their kids to be weird, so as to keep them from needless pain.
The problem is that if God made you weird, it's really abusive for someone to punish you for being how God made you - and it's worse to be abused by those near you who should be protecting you than by the indifferent world.
If you want to walk with God and be his friend, like Abraham, you'll be weird in the world's book. For this reason Paul wrote, "All who want to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution," and Jesus said the same before him.
They don't persecute you for holding some theological position. In fact, the world expects, even demands, a certain theological bag in its religious workers. They persecute you for wanting "to live godly," which in God's book is nothing but to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).
You can't make those your first priority without being weird in this world. So if your priority is to fit in, to not be weird, you can forget about pleasing God and walking with Him. God made the world, and God is in it, but the world doesn't know God. He too is weird.
As I was walking out the door this morning to fetch Joshua, I saw the mess Gayle and I had left - not real bad, but Jacob has heard from me about leaving his crap all over. So I started to clean it up, and I was busted. Doing justice was picking up Joshua, who was already late, not spending 5 minutes to keep Jacob from being able to ride me for not doing as I say.
There's another point. As P. T. Barnum said, to be noticed you have to wiggle your ears. We can be weird in order to show off and wave one finger at the world. That's actually sucking up to the world too, which loves novelty and entertainment, and gives me a chance to be proud of how bad I am. The pride of life in every form is not of the Father, but of the world, so the world will always find some place of honor for the pride of life.
So it wasn't OK to take real time to red up the dishes, but it was OK to take 15 seconds to clear the table so Jacob can use it when he comes in.
The problem is that if God made you weird, it's really abusive for someone to punish you for being how God made you - and it's worse to be abused by those near you who should be protecting you than by the indifferent world.
If you want to walk with God and be his friend, like Abraham, you'll be weird in the world's book. For this reason Paul wrote, "All who want to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution," and Jesus said the same before him.
They don't persecute you for holding some theological position. In fact, the world expects, even demands, a certain theological bag in its religious workers. They persecute you for wanting "to live godly," which in God's book is nothing but to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).
You can't make those your first priority without being weird in this world. So if your priority is to fit in, to not be weird, you can forget about pleasing God and walking with Him. God made the world, and God is in it, but the world doesn't know God. He too is weird.
As I was walking out the door this morning to fetch Joshua, I saw the mess Gayle and I had left - not real bad, but Jacob has heard from me about leaving his crap all over. So I started to clean it up, and I was busted. Doing justice was picking up Joshua, who was already late, not spending 5 minutes to keep Jacob from being able to ride me for not doing as I say.
There's another point. As P. T. Barnum said, to be noticed you have to wiggle your ears. We can be weird in order to show off and wave one finger at the world. That's actually sucking up to the world too, which loves novelty and entertainment, and gives me a chance to be proud of how bad I am. The pride of life in every form is not of the Father, but of the world, so the world will always find some place of honor for the pride of life.
So it wasn't OK to take real time to red up the dishes, but it was OK to take 15 seconds to clear the table so Jacob can use it when he comes in.
posted by Peter Attwood at 2/03/2007 11:34:00 AM
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