I am in Florida a good bit, but I took that picture in California. And your spiritual motto paints the picture well. I have to remind myself that God is working through his people, who must be shaped into vessels for his good work of reaching others.
“Love alone is credible; nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed. This is the achievement, the ‘work’ of faith: to recognize this absolute prius, which nothing else can surpass; to believe that there is such a thing as love, absolute love, and that there is nothing higher or greater than it; to believe against all the evidence of experience (‘credere contra fidem‘ like ‘spere contra spem‘), against every ‘rational’ concept of God, which thinks of him in terms of impassibility or, at best, totally pure goodness, but not in terms of this inconceivable and senseless act of love.”
I am definitely on the side of the "heart-men" and not the "usurping intellect." Yes, I have been there. In the 10th grade, I entered into that darkness, and the words and actions of almost everyone would send me into a very lonely and dismal spot, and, what's worse is that my mind would replay them over and over again. My family made no effort to inquire; my classmates could only observe, having no idea. I might as well have been all alone in Antarctica. I developed facial "tics" that i would repeat. When it happened again about 15 yrs. ago, I immediately got on Citalopram. But I observed, in both cases, that a world-shaking, faith-shaking, personal event precedes these episodes. In my youth, they seemed to express themselves in terms of religious doubts and a profound distaste with the physical and cultural changes I was undergoing.
James, I think you described this perfectly. And you are 100% right about the world-shaking event that often precedes such seasons. For me, it was the suicide of a fellow mother--who had been a professing Christian, mother of many, etc. I was beyond devastated and scared. It took me two years to process it and see the light again. And the "alone in Antartica" feeling is deeply familiar to me. On the other side of all this, I developed a much more mature faith--but oh my goodness, the suffering that was required!
What you had endured, if you at all subscribe to the Stoic philosophers, was a maturing of your faith. It is when our feelings disappear, and all that seems to be left is the scaffolding. But what miraculous scaffolding!
My experience was somewhat different. Raised as a Pentecostal Preacher's kid, after my parents divorced, high school and college took me to atheism, even communism.
But interest in "evolutionary science" led me to topics not sufficiently covered by academics who seemed afraid of it. I knew enough that the Bible was historical, and started reading it again to find non-spiritual insights.
But themore i explored, the more sense it made. And true science corroborated. And the idea of "just believe" is not even enough for the Bible believer.
Because it saysthings like "Prove me now, and see", or declares that there were 500 witnesses to the resurrected Christ.
More than 300 SPECIFIC prophecies pointing to Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah, including the clear of his crucifixion.Details in prophecy about the destruction of Tyre. Rabbis in Jerusalem showing Alexander the Great the Daniel prophecies about him. A description of DNA in Psalm 139. A description of the effect of a nuclear blast on a person standing nearby: flesh burns off as they stand, eyes meeting in theirvsockets.
Daniel describes the procession of world empires, thru Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, to the last empire of the Beast.
>>... "Take courage, doubters; God is for you."
And if God is for you, who and what can prevail against you?
Or, as my Spiritual motto goes:
We have fallen asleep in God's embrace
having a nightmare that we are elsewhere.
I'm curious about the photo you included. Was that taken somewhere in Florida?
Merry CHRISTmas!
~ D-FensDogG
I am in Florida a good bit, but I took that picture in California. And your spiritual motto paints the picture well. I have to remind myself that God is working through his people, who must be shaped into vessels for his good work of reaching others.
“Love alone is credible; nothing else can be believed, and nothing else ought to be believed. This is the achievement, the ‘work’ of faith: to recognize this absolute prius, which nothing else can surpass; to believe that there is such a thing as love, absolute love, and that there is nothing higher or greater than it; to believe against all the evidence of experience (‘credere contra fidem‘ like ‘spere contra spem‘), against every ‘rational’ concept of God, which thinks of him in terms of impassibility or, at best, totally pure goodness, but not in terms of this inconceivable and senseless act of love.”
Hans Urs von Balthasar
Catholic theologian
https://afkimel.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/st-isaac-the-syrian-preaching-the-astonishing-love-of-god/
I am definitely on the side of the "heart-men" and not the "usurping intellect." Yes, I have been there. In the 10th grade, I entered into that darkness, and the words and actions of almost everyone would send me into a very lonely and dismal spot, and, what's worse is that my mind would replay them over and over again. My family made no effort to inquire; my classmates could only observe, having no idea. I might as well have been all alone in Antarctica. I developed facial "tics" that i would repeat. When it happened again about 15 yrs. ago, I immediately got on Citalopram. But I observed, in both cases, that a world-shaking, faith-shaking, personal event precedes these episodes. In my youth, they seemed to express themselves in terms of religious doubts and a profound distaste with the physical and cultural changes I was undergoing.
James, I think you described this perfectly. And you are 100% right about the world-shaking event that often precedes such seasons. For me, it was the suicide of a fellow mother--who had been a professing Christian, mother of many, etc. I was beyond devastated and scared. It took me two years to process it and see the light again. And the "alone in Antartica" feeling is deeply familiar to me. On the other side of all this, I developed a much more mature faith--but oh my goodness, the suffering that was required!
Amen, thank you !
What you had endured, if you at all subscribe to the Stoic philosophers, was a maturing of your faith. It is when our feelings disappear, and all that seems to be left is the scaffolding. But what miraculous scaffolding!
My experience was somewhat different. Raised as a Pentecostal Preacher's kid, after my parents divorced, high school and college took me to atheism, even communism.
But interest in "evolutionary science" led me to topics not sufficiently covered by academics who seemed afraid of it. I knew enough that the Bible was historical, and started reading it again to find non-spiritual insights.
But themore i explored, the more sense it made. And true science corroborated. And the idea of "just believe" is not even enough for the Bible believer.
Because it saysthings like "Prove me now, and see", or declares that there were 500 witnesses to the resurrected Christ.
More than 300 SPECIFIC prophecies pointing to Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah, including the clear of his crucifixion.Details in prophecy about the destruction of Tyre. Rabbis in Jerusalem showing Alexander the Great the Daniel prophecies about him. A description of DNA in Psalm 139. A description of the effect of a nuclear blast on a person standing nearby: flesh burns off as they stand, eyes meeting in theirvsockets.
Daniel describes the procession of world empires, thru Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, to the last empire of the Beast.