(l) – Two Unrelated Thoughts

Number 1

God is not a positivist. If it looks like God is not doing anything, then you are probably doing too much. Take your hands off the wheel. If it feels like God isn’t talking to you, you are probably talking too much. God doesn’t have to prove himself to you with words or deeds. Stop trying to help Him–He will let you know what He needs.

(Be prepared just in case “what he needs” to be measured in cubits).

Number 2

The life of Faith can be compared to a journey, a walk, a marathon. Have you ever considered that faith is like a Space program?

  • Lots of false starts when you are figuring things out and you fall back down
  • Early milestones are short and then all of a sudden there is a huge gulf.
    • Great, an engine that doesn’t explode. Great, we made it to low earth orbit. Great, we launched a satellite. Great, we launched a dog. Great, we launched a person. Great, we launched the person around the earth once. Great, we can launch two people in separate rockets and have them meet up safely. Next stop: The moon.
  • Once you figure things out and embark on the long trek, you will be sustained not by messing with the controls but by keeping carefully on track.
  • The dangers at this stage are that if you deviate from the course, you will either be entirely destroyed or gradually change your destination. All the effort is in staying the course.
  • The evil one’s objective in the early stage is to discourage you from trying. The evil one’s objective in this late stage is to get you to doubt that you are on the right track at all.

In other words: if the devil is in the details then maybe don’t look so close. You can see the moon just fine, keep that in view and you know you’re headed in the right direction.

AMDG

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Scoot

timesdispatch.wordpress.com

4 thoughts on “(l) – Two Unrelated Thoughts”

  1. Scoot – great post. This along with today’s mass readings – “what father doesn’t discipline his sons?” – were just what the Good Lord knew I needed to hear.

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  3. I’m not sure what you mean by positivist, but will take it to mean concerned with measurable results. If that is so, I must disagree, pointing as usual to the “by their fruits” measure. We can debate what counts as “fruits,” but Christ clearly requires his followers to do things. The parable of the talents makes this point very strongly, so strongly that it is almost crass. God invested talents in each of us and is terribly interested in a measurable return on his investment.

    I will grant positivism often measures the wrong thing. It often measures what is most easily measured. We see this in churches that gauge their health by the size of their membership roll, weekly attendance, collections, steeple height, etc. But these mis-measures are abuses of positivism, not positivism itself.

    I agree with the spirit of what you have written here, but cannot forget what happened to the worthless servant. “And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

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  4. I agree wholeheartedly. This is not so much an admonition of action at all, as a call to proper action. I can only speak for myself–I tend to get frazzled and try to do a lot, I am especially prone to “bootstrapping” mentality, that I’m not going to get to Heaven unless I lift myself up on my own power. Sometimes I need to slow down. Remember the story of Jesus with Martha and Mary? Martha was working busily and Mary was reclining with Jesus–Christ said “Mary has chosen the better part”. There are I am sure a lot of possible interpretations of this, but one that I take away is that we can give ourselves permission to slow down and enjoy some quality time with the Lord. That is to say: If we are running ourselves ragged and wondering if God is doing anything to help us, the answer could be that we aren’t giving God room to work and we need to get out of his way.

    I am admittedly fuzzy on the technical definition of positivism. I take it to mean as you say, concerned with measurable results. “God needs to positively show us (demonstrate through action) that he is working in our lives.” This claim is not true. God is working in invisible ways as much as visible ways and sometimes there are invisible fruits that we cannot measure.

    But, yes, none of this is to say we should do nothing. I remember those parables as well, and part of my bootstrapping mentality comes from the concern that I am not doing enough. Everything needs a balance.

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