I'm blessed, if you're reading this you're blessed. The more I do intra-personal work and the more I listen and read other's stories and share in their journeys the more I realize I'm plagued by first world problems. Oh my cell phone is shutting itself on and off - and it's borderline panic time. Gas prices went up again. I can choose to boycott various restaurant chains. We can fit about what color the new carpet should be. And while these seem like big problems - the fact of the matter is that it is a privilege to even have these "problems" in the first place. The fact of the matter is I, and dare I say American society, spend too much time fighting and debating these small problems. The reality is there are much bigger issues to tackle - poverty, hunger, lack of basic needs, lack of education, lack of health care, discrimination. To paraphrase the words of a wise Biblical Scholar - if people, the world, focused on these bigger issues then we wouldn't have the energy to fight about this little, first world stuff. This doesn't mean that we all have to work on the same issue - but if we looked to the big picture instead of all of the little stuff we could rock this world. Some may say that it's nihilism - maybe it is but why waste energy on little stuff that really doesn't matter to people? Why not show loving kindness to all in the best way possible? That's my prayer for this night and rest of the week - to focus on the bigger picture and to do what I can to let go of the little, first world problems.
In a conversation with a more conservative Christian then me (take in mind I call myself a bed-wetting liberal and I’m also a big time Process Theologian) the person started rambling off scripture quotes (proof texting really) to make a point. I have never claimed to be a great memorizer of anything. And even though I have read the Bible many times and own many copies of the Bible, I am still not a person who can just pull out scripture references in mid conversation. I do have several verses that I turn to and love dearly but I can’t tell you word for word what John 2:5 or Ruth 1:4 says. This got me thinking, why do Christians really feel the need to qualify their faith based on the amount of scripture that they can recite from memory? While it may be very handy to be able to quote scripture in a variety of situations, I believe that this can be dangerous. Proof texting (pulling scripture, from any religion, to support an argument without careful and learned consideration for its cont
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