POlitical foo, religious foo... Control
Jul. 2nd, 2014 01:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alpharaposaJust some musings..
We live in such a risk averse culture, don't we? Helmets, padded everything. Rules and regulations on how to wash hands or grow vegetables.
Capitalism may be shown to create improvements for everybody in an entire culture, but it's full of risks. Old industries and jobs and methods die, to be replaced by new ones. STarting a business is like jumping off a cliff and growing wings on the way down. Most end in a damp thud after a few months.
Our politics are full of safety, too. If only everybody could act this way, or agree, or do things the same way, then finally no crazies would hurt us. Let's exile those people far, far away so their unsafe ideas don't get in and break our perfect world we're building.
Our world is so full of comfort and technology, it's easy to fall into the idea that we can make a perfectly safe and comfortable world. A place where you need not suffer any threat to your body, or your emotions. So many battles are fought over control, so we can make that perfect world. If you stand on the other side, you're a threat. You're trying to control the thing I'm trying to control, and only one of us can win.
No wonder Christianity is so despised in such a world. To be Christian, first you have to understand that control is an illusion. That the World itself is unsafe. Building walls to keep out the chaos is like building sand castles in the rain.
If we lived in a time where disease was more rampant, or had wars in our backyard (instead of halfway around the world), it would be obvious that this is so. Life is unfair and unpredictable.
God is the only thing that endures, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And He doesn't promise safety. Indeed, if you want what He has to offer, you have to give up safety and control, and let Him do the work.
Imagine, to hand over your whole life to someone else! We have changed quite a lot from the days when knights pledged undying loyalty and obeyed their kings unto death. These days, such devotion is mostly found in salacious stories about dom/sub sex. It's kinky. Heaven forbid that a man and a woman might be so devoted to each other (or to God) without being into bondage or contracts or threesomes.
A stumbling block to the Greeks, indeed.
We live in such a risk averse culture, don't we? Helmets, padded everything. Rules and regulations on how to wash hands or grow vegetables.
Capitalism may be shown to create improvements for everybody in an entire culture, but it's full of risks. Old industries and jobs and methods die, to be replaced by new ones. STarting a business is like jumping off a cliff and growing wings on the way down. Most end in a damp thud after a few months.
Our politics are full of safety, too. If only everybody could act this way, or agree, or do things the same way, then finally no crazies would hurt us. Let's exile those people far, far away so their unsafe ideas don't get in and break our perfect world we're building.
Our world is so full of comfort and technology, it's easy to fall into the idea that we can make a perfectly safe and comfortable world. A place where you need not suffer any threat to your body, or your emotions. So many battles are fought over control, so we can make that perfect world. If you stand on the other side, you're a threat. You're trying to control the thing I'm trying to control, and only one of us can win.
No wonder Christianity is so despised in such a world. To be Christian, first you have to understand that control is an illusion. That the World itself is unsafe. Building walls to keep out the chaos is like building sand castles in the rain.
If we lived in a time where disease was more rampant, or had wars in our backyard (instead of halfway around the world), it would be obvious that this is so. Life is unfair and unpredictable.
God is the only thing that endures, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. And He doesn't promise safety. Indeed, if you want what He has to offer, you have to give up safety and control, and let Him do the work.
Imagine, to hand over your whole life to someone else! We have changed quite a lot from the days when knights pledged undying loyalty and obeyed their kings unto death. These days, such devotion is mostly found in salacious stories about dom/sub sex. It's kinky. Heaven forbid that a man and a woman might be so devoted to each other (or to God) without being into bondage or contracts or threesomes.
A stumbling block to the Greeks, indeed.
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Date: 2014-07-02 06:16 pm (UTC)And I was thinking about free will, and room to grow. The Hallmark answers to why God made people are pretty dull (and untrue). He was never lonely. But if you had a place where there were multitudes of wills creating in the image of the Creator, there would be the chance to grow something amazing. In other words, God didn't just make the world and considered the work done then. Creation grows from those beginnings. And to a God who saw its ending as well as the beginning of its growth, it's obvious that the chaos of all those souls is necessary to make the Good thing He spoke into being.
Creation isn't a static event of long ago. God's Word is still being spoken, bringing into existence a thing more beautiful and complex and wonderful than we can imagine. We are the soil, and the tree, and the fruit. None of us can see the whole by ourselves, but our striving makes it all grow, created in the Word. We are all part of His creation, in all senses of the word.
He will see that it is all turned to Good when it's complete.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-02 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-02 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-02 10:27 pm (UTC)I think we need more stories in our culture with fealty. We've forgotten what it means to make a vow and then keep it, and to love with service even when we don't necessarily feel it much today.
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Date: 2014-07-03 04:40 am (UTC)Pledging your fealty when someone'll just throw you away? That doesn't work either.
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Date: 2014-07-03 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-07-05 02:21 am (UTC)