I’ve wanted to post on here the past few days, but I can’t seem to come up with anything that’s happened in my life that any one would want to hear about, so I’ve pretty much refrained. I guess I’m going out on a limb assuming that people find what I write here interesting, but you never know…I’ve seen people say “why would anyone ever read what I write” and for wahtever reason, I find it interesting.
Enough rambling regarding that…
Tuesday after my therapy appointment, I checked out Frank Peretti’s The Wounded Spirit, which though it’s autobiographical in nature, the intent behind its writing is to encourage and assist those who have had experiences similar to those of Peretti. The book reminds me somewhat of John Eldridge’s Wild at Heart, but I think I like Peretti’s perspective better, at least in the three chapters I’ve read. I think the intent behind the two books differs. Where Eldridge addresses those influences which attack a man’s manhood, Peretti deals with deeper issues – those underlying every one Eldridge talks about. I haven’t read either book in its entirity as of yet and I’m probably not the best judge on such topics, but that’s just my two cents.
Peretti discusses the ways in which those who have been picked on equate themselves to monsters – “the kind you never see, never epect, until they snap and take desperate, violent measures. And all of us – those who have been wounded as well as those who wound others – need healing, forgiveness and a new herat attitude toward our fellow human beings.” Several months ago, I wrote about Rachel Scott’s father’s powerful presentation about the Columbine school shootings. That, in addition to Peretti’s disucssion of such events makes me wonder how different this country, really, this world could be. Why is it that people become gay or even go out and sleep around with people of the opposite gender? Because of hurt in their lives…because of a need for belonging. Jesus commands us to love others…and what a world of difference it would make if we quit following our own selfish ways and looked out for the needs of others.
Mark 12
30And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’This is the first commandment. 31And the second, like it, is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ‘There is no other commandment greater than these.”1 Corinthians 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.4Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Who is your neighbor? Do you love your neighbor?
