Sometimes I wish I was wise. I don't know the standard amount of wisdom a nineteen year old should possess, but an abundant supply of wisdom would come in handy when sitting down to think about things. And I don't just mean thinking about things, I mean, thinking about things (there is a difference).
I guess today a lot of little unexpected things happened. We woke up and it was raining. It was bright and sunny by lunchtime. Someone rocked up wearing a wig. Ended up going to Stanwell Tops instead of the national park. Found a blue-tougued lizard at the beach. Heard someone was in hospital. Nearly got lost driving back from the beach. And we talked about serious stuff in the car on the way there and back. (I'm not saying it's a bad thing it was serious. I just didn't expect it to be.)
What sort of stuff did we talk about....argh, my memory is failing me...ok, I'll just mix in my own thoughts as well...
Do we really rely on our leaders too much? I'd never really given it much thought, how much we rely on them. For what? To give us the answers in bible study? Well, we don't always ask for them, some of them just like to talk =p. To organise KYC, and things we can do to help other people...Are we really that spoon-fed, and we don't even know it? How much responsibility do we take ourselves, growing ourselves as Christians, spurring one another towards love and good deeds...
Are our conversations too shallow? Surely people are deeper than their jobs, courses, exams, what they did during the week. Why do we find it hard to talk about what is troubling us, about our weaknesses in how we are going. Do we not trust each other enough? Two weeks ago in bible study, we agreed that loneliness affects everyone. OK. So where are all the lonely people?
Are we too analytical in the way we deal with God's word... too lacking in emotion? Are we too analytical in our relationships with one another?
The words we speak are here today and gone tomorrow, but their effects can last forever.
Parting comments went something like: "Thanks for the conversations."
"That's ok, you should be having them without me."
Sometimes I wonder if some of our leaders were ever kids.
Brain is feeling rather sun-drenched at the moment. You know that feeling, when you've been out in the sun all day, and then you can't think properly. Often accompanied by feeling salt and sand blasted. I feel like I should think more about these issues and find answers to questions, but it probably wouldn't get anywhere. Discussions with yourself generally never do.
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Where is the meaning in everything? Did what we do today have any meaning? Did it have eternal value?
I don't think I'm on very friendly terms with reality at the moment. Sometimes I find hanging out with reality a rather excruciating experience. Daydreams are a lot nicer. Completely under your control and can be as complicated or uncomplicated as you wish. You can progress at your own pace and jump back and forth to your own liking. The past and the future are both just a thought away.
This is the curse of consciousness, to be able to dream of freedom while trapped within the confines of reality. Peace with reality is so hard to come by. You think about it too much and it eludes you.
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11 comments:
Hey Viv,
Sorry about those last words. I guess I wasn't thinking because I was in a hurry... =(
But thank you all for sharing and putting up with me.
And yes, we were kids once. I have proof.
Hehe, no worries, I thought the car trip was probably the most interesting part of the social =)
And I wasn't implying the parting comment was bad or anything, I just thought it was funny!
Trusting our leaders too much: I think we are taught to see if their teachings/decisions are congruent with the Bible. If not, we're to talk to them about it and pray for further guidance, from someone other than the leader.
Are our conversations too shallow: Whether we find it hard to talk about what is troubling us, depends if there IS something troubling us. Most of the time, nothing is troubling me so I don't have anything thereotically 'deeper' to talk about. I guess if we do have things troubling us, it depends on your personality, some peoeple are up for talking, some people bottle it up, some people are in denial etc. But it's hard to talk about something that's troubling us, it's like ripping your heart out and putting it on a platter for people to see it slowly beat and die off. It's being vulnerable to someone and to trust wholeheartedly, and hoping that they won't judge/criticise but actually give you unlimited support.
We are all lonely people, because we're caught in our own lives and own thoughts. Not one person is in exactly the same situation as ourselves.
Are we too analytical: I believe it's good to be both analytical and emotional, a soley emotional relationship is very tiring for both parties, and can almost be mainpulative. A solely emotional relationship with God can crash, it's like only praying and being filled with the Spirit, but if one day you're going through trials, and emotional prayer isn't helping, we must read the Bible and see what God says about trials. I think people who've been to emotionally based churches, like Pentecostal for example may yearn for proof of God when being emotional doesn't satisfy them.
Being analytical, I don't think it's too bad but having feelings in connection with God, is highly recommended ;)
Sorry, probably very unclear in how I just typed it up, but I know what you mean, those questions plagued me in year 10. :)
Yeah, I think you have a point (or points). With things like having shallow conversations or being analytical, conversations don't always have to be deep, or bible study emotional, there's a time and a place for everything. or, y'know, "for everything there is a season"
I know what Katay said about not quoting verses without full references, but I only remember that it's Ecclesiastes.
wow, someone is giving me answers! Maybe not THE answers, but they look like answers of some form nonetheless. Thanks for the essay :P
And quoting verses?? Where did that come from? And what DID Katay say regarding this?
I think it was Katay, said that you shouldn't quote bible verses without saying exactly where they come from. or just take someone elses word for quotations. but i don't think that it's that relevant here.
When I started reading the post, I imagined Andrew.
The ebb and flow of life.
Do you have conversations with other people in your mind? I do... like right now...
cat: oops, don't mind me, I didn't notice the quote in the first paragraph of your first comment and got confused about what you were refering to in the second paragraph =P Hmmm yeah, Katay says a lot of things about a lot of things =P
unkoh: lol, what in particular made you imagine andrew?
yeah, I have conversations with other people in my mind, I even have conversations with imaginary people...
When I read "Do we really rely on our leaders too much?"
I thought... "It sounds like an Andrew initiated conversation or something like that. But didn't Andrew drive? Maybe Viv drove or Andrew drove and they car pooled?..."
Conversations... when we read blogs/e-mails/MSN messages we would be nature think about who wrote it and that would help us understand what is written (or perhaps a biased reading).
That makes me wonder whether you can get to know someone over blogs/e-mail/MSN without relating to them in person?
And that leads to the whole question of responsible communication on blogs.
And that is important because it reflects our understanding of communication, hermeneutics, revelation and God's word.
God can communicate to us so we understand him? What part does reading the bible "well" play? What is our responsibility? How does that affect our responsibility in expressing ourselves in whatever form, especially one where there is little accountability such as blogs? Whoops, wait, this is your blog...
Yes it was an Andrew-initiated conversation cos Carmen was driving when we car-pooled to go to the beach...
Hang on, I have to look up "hermeneutics"...
Wait, so are you comparing reading and revealing information on blogs to reading and having God reveal himself to us in the Bible??
I would say that blogs are in a different category to emails and msn, because I think that you can get to know someone via the latter two, since there is two-way communication between a finite number of people.
Blogs are different as you are writing for a potentially unknown audience, who may or may not express their opinions on the matter, as the written content may be totally irrelevant to them.
God in the Bible, I believe, reveals to us information that is relevant to us and requires a response. I'm not too sure about our responsibility in reading it "well", and how you made the jump from that, to our responsibility in expressing ourselves in different forms of communication....I'm probably missing the major point here, would you like to clarify yourself a bit more please? =)
True, a dialogue is very different to a monologue, but with the ability to put comments it also becomes some sort of dialogue. But your point about dialogue amongst known individuals is good.
Oh ermm. The responsible reading thing... well, the argument goes:
(This might be oversimplified, and isn't original either)
Meaning is communication between one party and another with purpose. Without purpose there is no meaning.
If God speaks the truth, and does so through his word, the bible, then he has communicated to us with meaning and purpose.
That means that He has spoken to us with a definite meaning and purpose (even if we might be uncertain of it).
As the listener, we can then read right or wrong. The key to interpreting (and reading correctly) is to read well. That is, put effort into things like reading in context, understanding language, etc, all of which God himself helps us with.
The way we communicate is a slight tangent to the topic, but nevertheless very much tied in.
We as Christians are called to be faithful with our words (not to lie) and that involves the way we communicate. So we should make every effort to communicate well, such as on blogs (writing well).
Because we are fallen, what we write may not always be taken as what we intended. So in our writing, we should take care in how we write to "write well".
That of course doesn't mean we are restricted to prose, because we can see in literature and especially in God's word that "writing well" doesn't just mean proposition phrased logically as such. It involves expression of meaning.
Philip Brooks (a preacher) once wrote that "Preaching is the communication of truth through personality". This is often quoted, and I wonder if perhaps that as followers of Christ, all our words should be such whether written or spoken.
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