'...he maketh his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.' (Matthew 5:45)
Dan introduced me to that scripture once. It's raining and bleak today, here in Dayton ... and I'm reminded of that scripture. It's Lent and people are marking their foreheads with ash birthmarks and I'm feeling rather cynical lately. [Notice that the King James Version doesn't capitalize "he." I've never liked capitalizing "he" when I write about God. It makes me feel small and petty.]
The first time and only time I successfully wakeboarded, I spent about a half hour in the water before I got up. Each time my cousins would swing the boat around they would shout out encouragement and advice. I heard every bit of advice you could think of. There was no way I could keep it all in my head. In the end it was one piece of advice that got me up: something my cousin said about the wakeboard cutting the water like a knife. It's not that I was doing everything right except for one thing ... it's that when I kept that one thing in mind, everything else fell into place.
When you read about God you get a million pieces of advice and you can't possibly follow them all. But I guess I'm still looking for that one piece of advice that will click and make everything else make sense.
5 comments:
hang on, J. I don't know if I'll be your John or Alex, but I'll answer you. And I'll keep answering you, and keep answering you, and keep answering you, until you find that one piece. We'll find it. I promise. I've been thinking about "Why can't religion make sense" too, and like Rob, I wanted to stew on my answer for awhile. I felt it deserved thought, and the same with this. I'll write about it in my blog, since I think it fits better there than as a comment taking up so much space. But I need some time. For now, I just say don't let go of the rope.
I found this guy. There's an interesting perspective and humility about his writings. It's not an answer exactly, but I thought you might enjoy some of his thoughts, too. parsonblue.blogspot.com, specifically: trading magic for miracles; forgiving God
I think the answer lies in not only believing in God, but believing God. God is perfect meaning complete. His plan is flawless and so are its principles. Man tends to get caught up in the if's and how's of life and seems to lose his focus. God's prophets will not lead us astray. Remember, they are still human and as a human they are fallable.
Our objective is to put off the natural man who is an enemy to God. (Mosiah 3:19) If we put off the natural man and become humble, then we are teachable. Look back into your early teachings and understandings, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. . ." I have always believed that in God lies all the answers although at times he lets us discover them for ourselves.
I'll have to respond in my next blog entry...
(Too much to say...)
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