Behind Me Satan

I'm Not A Perfect Person

 Hoobestank

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In the many teachings of the Christian life, none is greater than those dealing with Charity. All "natural" loves, those organic stirrings in the breast may be made full or whole in Charity with the acceptance of the gift as love.
While human emotion or sentimentality in itself may result in an affection which ultimately eats itself up, a love of need, a craving now satisfied, love as gift is looking towards another, one to receive the gift and the giver who gives it. This love is in proportion.

Can one love 'too much?' Loving in proportion is not simply about quantity, rather it places itself in relation to the Creator, the one who gives all from the first. Can then a love be too much for an earthly beloved? The question doesn't seek an answer as to emotional intensity. Rather is asks, whom do you serve, where do you place your treasure?

While all love, we are taught, comes from the Creator, there surely is nothing against fully engaging in human loves, nor for fear of disappointment or hurt as a result. In Luke 14:26 this is carried a step further. It introduces the notion of hate here. What is it to earthly love to hate? Why does Luke say it as he does?

He exclaims in this story, not that the Creator is counseling hate, but rather he is exclaiming to all who wish a taste of divine charity, to 'get behind me,' that they set themselves against the hateful, make no concession to it, nor to the beloved when the beloved calls however sweetly, prompts of Satan, the devil.

A man, retorts the Christ, cannot serve two masters. Either he serves the good or he serves the other. The humble in a sense of Grace may have the sense of service to the One, a knowledge of the Creator herself; only knowledge because the source is so vast.

God is Love, declares Paul. "Not that we loved, but that God has loved us.' 1John 4:10. John declares this not as an entry to mysticism, but as a real beginning, that love is divine energy. This energy loved into being all that exists on earth as a Divine creation.

It is a Creator's love directed to what one finds intrinsically unloveable: the murderer, the thief, the deviant, the cheat, and others, but through a movement of the Holy Spirit, charity comes into play and one gives something of that divine energy, something of ones' own heart, rendering the unloveable more divine, more lovable. All may be clothed in the Christ.

Luke it seems, recognized that there is the complex, unloveable in all of us; that in our darkest recesses are those vague, unformed impulses driving towards the evil energies fully present in the world. Luke 8:11-15
 In the book of Matthew there, further insists that Charity, the Love energy was greater, thus he demands, "Get behind me Satan!"  Mat. 16:23

Gender Identities

And he made each one in his own likeness.  --Genesis 1:25-26

Daisy Jane

by America

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Flyin' me back to Memphis
Gotta find my Daisy Jane
Well the summer's gone
And I hope she's feelin' the same

Well, I just left her to roam the city

Thinkin' it would ease the pain
I'm a crazy man
And I'm playin' my crazy game
Does she really love me?
I think she does
Like the stars above me, I know because
When the sky is bright
Everything's alright

Flyin' me back to Memphis
Honey keep the oven warm
All the clouds are clearin'
And I think we're over the storm

Well I've been pickin' it up around me
Daisy I think I'm sane
Well I'm awful glad
And I guess you're really to blame, blame

Do you really love me?
I hope you do
Like the stars above me, how I love you
When it's cold at night
Everything's all right

Does she really love me?
I think she does
Like the stars above me, I know because
When the sky is bright
Everything's alright

Today's media is all ablaze with reports of which public restrooms are one to use; who will put what signage where? There is an increased perception that humans, made in the image of the Divine Creator are, maybe, not so divine after all. Maybe they're off kilter, mixed-up; it's become quite political. What ever spiritual base it may have is unclear to many these days. Is an individual life, a struggle, confusion towards what is and what is not? Is it like Daisy Jane?

Ms. Schick, American author, Christian writer, speaker and the daughter of a man whom she describes as suffering from Gender Identity Disorder, the result being that he viewed himself not as the Divine did create, but rather as female. For the writer and her family, they came under a great deal of challenge and discord. She writes now of it in several of her books; most recently, Understanding Gender Confusion.

She writes largely from personal experience, from what she has learned and from a primary view of catholic, Christian faith. Regardless of what side of the fence one resides, her experiences are validly her own.
As Christians we are called to love our neighbors as our self, and to give expression to the dignity of all Creation. The prime concern she writes, is to address the pain and confusion of these souls, saying there is in each case, a primary disconnect, "a psychological separation from one's true existence."

She writes also that God the Creator is indeed "very interested in all aspects of our lives."

Matthew 12:10; Luke 6:20 

Hitting the Skids

In some places the skids means to be in an unenviable place, as in one step forward, two steps backward. Does it have to be like that? Does that one step back place one on the skids, like a hamster on a wheel? The unenviable turning of the wheel, why?--when just recently there seemed to have come a place of calm, a peaceable and livable state where we might all prosper. Ouch!  People generally don't like what they don't know, what they don't understand or half-understand. Even if there is not direct, immediate conflict between individuals, then there is conflict elsewhere. And where dignity is lacking, respect is absent too.

That brings conflict to you and me. (We're Only Human After All) I've seen this picture before... and suddenly the new made good is punctured by those around who would be the critics. And what the hell am I talking about, you ask? Well, in the short of it, it's about that much used term dignity. Many like that term; they like what it means. The UN likes that term; they use it as part of their human rights doctrine. Do they extend themselves to others?

The Church uses that term too. She really likes that term; matter of fact, she likes it so well, she teaches it every day. Hmm. The dignity of a human person is what primarily distinguishes it from others. All are deserving of their dignity. The sidebar of this blog even has it on there-- affirm the force and value of a person. Each deserves respect...respect them in the place they are... so as to create a more unified and harmonious world. Some of this may require patience. And yes, it works, this more harmonious world. And very well when we all sing the same song. Does that make sense? Can we talk?

Diane Rizzetto writes in her book, Waking Up To What You Do, a story about a Peace Corps worker in the chapter, Taking Only What is  Freely Given:  After pedaling miles and miles with a passenger upon his bicycle in rural Africa on a very hot day, they arrived at her destination. He had gone out of his way to take her. "He was exhausted. I was giddy and in awe of him." It was, she says, an act of dana, giving freely and generously. It is not the simple act of giving help, writes Rizzetto.
Instead practicing dana over time teaches openness; this can be profound in working our way through to a more open heart, a heart that sees past anger, jealousy, fear or rejection.

 The woman on the bike recounts that looking back to that day, moments before the man offered her a ride on his bike, she felt stranded. But still a part of her was calm because she knew where she was in that place, and then the stranger came and offered her his help. She accepted in the spirit of dana. We can learn.
John, the disciple of the Christ writes:

See what love the Father has bestowed on us

that we may be called the children of God.

Yet so we are.

The reason the world does not know us

is that it did not know him.

1John3:1-2