...truth...

Truth is not relative. I will say again - truth is not relative. I've heard the arguments, i'll hear them again, but I woke up this morning with truth on my mind; lo and behold! It continues to haunt me today. This is me, putting words to my thoughts...a musing if you will. Please bear with me. And please continue in our other discussions...they are going places.
Today, I see God in truth. Perhaps I am off base, but it seems that when truth is present, so is God. That's to say truth doesnt equal "good" I am sure there are truths that God greatly despises. What I am working towards is that the abstract concept of truth is becoming for me, well...much less abstract. The last couple of days my lit. class has been working on "In Cold Blood" by Truman Copote. Never have I been so affected by a tragic novel in my life. Today in class, i seethed, I boiled, I almost wept with the reality...the tangible reality of the death of this family. It was a family, a true family, a family with feelings, affections, pains, and to give Kirkegaard his due, a history. The truth is, is that this family being a creation of God was snuffed out by a sadistic utterly selfish impulse. No longer will the Father farm, the girl date. The truth of the matter makes our rationale recoil in horror and bewilderment.
I may be getting sick of reducing the concept of truth into a philosophical abstract. We ssuccessfully have done this, and inadvertantly reduced things such as ethics or theology to relativity. It is this limitation of truth that gives creedence to narcacism and a saving gospel that damns...
I wonder if I had ever comprehended the truth of murder before this week. Maybe in glimpses or concepts, but never like this. Can I explain the change? Probably not. But ask yourself, "When was I affected by God?" Was it when I could explain it, understand it? Is God truly God only when we can understand him? But the truth is, is that God's truth...indeed, truth itself is truth even apart of our intellects. What I am saying is this, I am beginning to believe that we can better understand a truth when it affects us to the core of our being; in other words, truth is more clearly seen when I feel it.
The truth for me the last couple of week is this. I am spiritually bored and hurting. I have gotten angry at God and don't feel guilty about it. The world continues, good and bad, salvation and murder. I love you guys. This is truth. And God, he is among us- laughing and mourning, He truly lives with us. Let us begin to understand truth, and in our context here, the truth of God's love as a standard; there are such things as standards, ethically they point towards God and good. Let us not be afraid to feel, perhaps we can see more when we do.
-Beardo-

broken community

How do we mend a community of broken individuals together... and keep relationships honest?

Clarity:
By 'broken', I mean people that are sinful, downtrodden individuals that can't express their sinfullness and downtroddedness in a church they're already in (much like we've talked about in previous posts). Apparently it seems like an impossibility to step into a community (say, the congregation at the church down the street), stand up and say, "I'm gay." I would face rejections, criticism, or I'd be asked to leave. We actually had an incident similar to this happen at my church MANY years ago. The church lost an amazing child of God to the world. She was rejected, criticized and asked to come back after she had thought long and hard about the wrong and sinful choice that she made. She wasn't loved. At all.

What I'm asking is, how can we (as sinful people in a "righteous" community, such as our church congregations that "have it together") come together?

We face nonchristian behavior, in many established communities (churches), when we're too honest about our failures. My question is: how do we redeem this in a congregation that's been established for, say, 30 years? Is it even possible? Or must we start from scratch?

The surreal truth of Harstine

Greetings again friends. Its good to see that we are all on board, twill be good I believe.

I was just thinking today and was reminded of some conversations that Mr. Barrett, Mr. Jamis, and I had a few semesters ago; I realize that as I've grown here at friends, so has my passion for the Church. I think that we sometimes forget the unbelievable blessing that we have here on campus, or alongside our brothers (Bonhoeffer has a great section on this in Life Together, really the only part i've read of that one. As we sit in Mr. Harstine's roasting classes, we are surrounded by equally bogged down but amazing brothers and sisters in Christ. Our classes are filled by people that are passionate for Christ, and actively pursuing holyness, ready to give much of themselves at our expense. But the truth is, is that this awesomeness, in my eyes, seems to translate to the American church with only a low percentage. Is it because we are religion majors? Absolutely Not!

What I am getting at is that I look around (and cannot speak for every church), and find a body of believers bored with God; in other words, they are bored with the life that they profess as their joy. What has happened, what can happen? I personally believe that the understanding of the salvation of man through Christ has been diluted into a much less filling form. I'm reading a article by Foster in which he shares the same sentiments as myself, Ill comment on that as soon as i finish. Perhaps this is a step into having the passionate people within the church not be the minority. Let me know what you think. - Beardo