Quote: On Forgiveness

This quote comes from the book A Good Friend by Dr. Les and Leslie Parrott: Thoughts?

"Trigger-happy forgiveness is not forgiveness at all. Given out quickly, too liberally, forgiveness becomes watered down. The quirks and cranks of our friends’ annoying behaviors do not deserve forgiveness. Generosity? Yes. A sense of humor? Yes. Some tolerance? Yes. But not forgiveness. No. Forgiveness is reserved for a more serious mercy. Not for annoyances but for the deeper wrongs friends do us.

There’s another important point about forgiveness: When a good friend forgives another, it doesn’t guarantee reconciliation. Forgiveness requires something of the offender as well as the offended if it is to restore the relationship. My former professor Lewis Smedes is one of the nation’s leading experts on forgiveness. In his best-selling book Forgive and Forget, he said something about what it takes to be reconciled after we forgive:You hold out your hand to someone who did you wrong, and you say: 'Come on back, I want to be your friend again.” But when they take your hand and cross over the invisible wall that their wrong and your pain built between you, they need to carry something with them as the price of their ticket to your second journey together… What must they bring? They must bring truthfulness. Without truthfulness, your reunion is humbug, your coming together is false.'Forgiveness will always heal the wound in our memory, regardless of how a friend responds. But reconciliation requires that our friend own up to the truth of his or her fault and see the pain it caused. (Emphasis added.) No mask or manipulation is allowed. If you forgive a friend for breaking a confidence and your friends denies it ever happened, the relationship will remain in limbo. There’s no way around it. Reconciliation is a two-way street, requiring both grace and repentance. And good friends know it–whether they are on the giving or receiving side of forgiveness."

Extinction

This is from an article in The New York Times today about animal extinction and the evolutionary cycle. There are many who hold the view that 'if I cant seem them, they don't matter." Well, to those of use who enjoy art and nature (birds specifically) it is a huge loss when an animal or plant species-weather we have ever seen them or not- ceases to exist. Being awake to our world and what Gods doing in it is what makes being alive so great. Here's a quote:

But to me, whether we need to save other species to save ourselves is not really the point. Each time a species vanishes, the planet becomes a poorer place. It doesn’t matter if we’ve never seen them, if they go extinct without our ever knowing they were here. To live is to participate in the carnival of nature, and the carnival is diminished by the losses....

...For there is so much to marvel at. Like the spraying characid — a fish that lays its eggs out of water, jumping to stick them onto leaves that hang down over streams. (The male keeps the eggs wet by splashing them with his tail several times a day.) Or the just-discovered mimic octopus, which can assume the shape, colors and undulating swimming motions of a flat fish like a flounder. When it does so, the octopus even bugs its eyes out, so they look like flounders’ eyes.....

End of the Year

Finals begin today; this is the home stretch. This year has gone by fast and the kids were great. My reading list for the summer is going to be long. Here are some initial titles:

Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright

The Powers That Be by Walter Wink

Christianity in a Pluralistic Society by Leslie Newbigin

A Christianity Worth Believing by Doug Pagitt

Religion and Science by Jurgen Moltemann (did I spell that right?)

The Birth of Christianity by John Dominic Crossan

God and Empire by John Dominic Crossan

Any suggestions? I could use some....

New Book

I just purchased Doug Pagitt's new book, A Christianity Worth Believing, and so far so good. Its a personal look at his faith journey and some hope-filled ideas about the future of theology....more to come...

Listen!!!

If your in the mood to relax and jam check out the song St. Stephen by The Grateful Dead, live recording Live at Filmore East 69'. Wonderful sound and Jerry Garcia's guitar is amazing...check it out.

Say The Jesus Prayer

The Eastern Orthodox Tradition has a beautiful practice of prayer called the Jesus Prayer or The Prayer of the Heart. The explanation below comes from The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Prayer the prayer in a quite place; pray slowly and take the words to heart.


THE JESUS PRAYER

In order to enter more deeply into the life of prayer and to come to grips with St. Paul's challenge to pray unceasingly, the Orthodox Tradition offers the Jesus Prayer, which is sometimes called the prayer of the heart. The Jesus Prayer is offered as a means of concentration, as a focal point for our inner life. Though there are both longer and shorter versions, the most frequently used form of the Jesus Prayer is: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." This prayer, in its simplicity and clarity, is rooted in the Scriptures and the new life granted by the Holy Spirit. It is first and foremost a prayer of the Spirit because of the fact that the prayer addresses Jesus as Lord, Christ and Son of God; and as St. Paul tells us, "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3).

Super Truth!!!

Here is a small portion of a letter sent to Tony Jones about absolutes and super truth. I thought it spoke well to the previous post. If you want to read the whole letter go to the Tonyj.net link to your right.

First, to your reasoning. You state in your book (I’m too lazy to reference it ) that many people in the theological landscape have changed their minds about theological issues such as slavery, so how, really, can we know that what we think about now is, in fact, God’s super-truth. True truth.  This is, I think, a powerful argument. Here’s mine.
I don’t think we even have to reference changes in theological beliefs over time to prove your point. I think we can simply look at the vast plethora of differing interpretations that exists now and stand in awe of the complexity of theology.
I compiled a list of “views” books, you know, like those Zondervan books that have four views on blah blah blah. My argument for a hermeneutic of humility would be:
If there are so many views argued so well, by godly, intelligent men, who all think they have the correct interpretation, doesn’t that imply a humility of sorts? And boy, do these guys argue well for their views! How the bleep, then, can one claim so dogmatically and with such over-arching certainty, that their view is the one!

Absolute Truth and Arrogance

When people approach the Bible with large amounts of confidence and claim that what they 'think' it says is absolutely true, is that arrogance? The reason I ask is because how can we say that we are absolutely sure of anything? One hundred years ago, interracial relationships were considered a sin against God. Two hundred years ago, slavery was an absolute truth in many sourthern churches. Brian Mclaren says, when we begin nailing everything down and bolting it to the floor it ceases to be faith. That makes sense to me. I dont believe because of absolutes, I believe because I am in awe.

The Bible does tell us that God is love and that she is always faithful. I have confidence in God and her faithfulness. So my question is this; what is 'proper confidence' and what is arrogance? How do we know the difference?