Sunday 17 February 2013

Throwing the baby out with the bath water

Dirty bath water:
  • Christian denominational & theological divisions
  • evil in our hearts, dressed to look smart in pews
  • self-serving, proclaimed as protecting the truth
  • traditions and unwillingness to change
  • self-importance and hypocrisy
  • keeping a safe distance from a troubled world
  • sticking with people who are 'like us'.

Baby: Jesus!

Cleansed water:
  • crossing the divides to bring Christian unity, under one Lord
  • evil in our hearts, forgiven at the cross
  • acknowledging Jesus as Lord, who is the Truth
  • following wherever Jesus leads
  • self-worth, bestowed at great cost on the cross
  • working to bring peace to a troubled world
  • loving those who are needy, in the name of Jesus.

Don't throw the baby out with the dirty bath water!

Saturday 9 February 2013

Boiling frogs

It is said that a frog will not jump out of a pot of water if the temperature of the water is raised so gradually that the frog doesn't notice. Despite nothing stopping the frog from jumping out, it will stay there and be boiled to death - so long as the change in water temperature is very, very gradual.

This doesn't just apply to frogs! People who exert power know they can make changes very slowly, confident that those affected will gradually acclimatise to the changing circumstances and not notice until it's too late. This often occurs in abusive relationships; politicians and managers also use it to gradually introduce unpopular measures.

But there are at least two ways in which this applies to us all.

First, as we grow up in our increasingly materialistic and consumerist society, we gradually adjust to living more and more depersonalised lives in an increasingly polluted world, with run-away global warming and a rapid depletion of species. While we mutter about the degradation of life, we make no serious change of course, and it's not difficult to foresee a 'boiled frog incident' of global proportions coming.

Secondly, we also grow accustomed to the devil's pervasive lies which promote deceit as truth, greed as good, selfishness as self esteem, sex as love and desires as rights - and we just go with the flow. We call it 'progress' or 'modernisation' and see nothing particularly dangerous about such ideas!

Despite nothing stopping us from going back to the Author of Life - who is ever ready to rescue us, through Jesus, from a very unpleasant end - we gradually acclimatise to increasingly deadly ideas and ways of life without ever noticing - until its too late, and we are boiled to death.

In fact, I understand that experiments with frogs have shown that the 'boiled frog' story is a myth* - frogs do jump out when the water temperature gets uncomfortably hot.

So, it turns out that it doesn't work with frogs. But it does work with many humans.

* see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog

Saturday 2 February 2013

The devil's indecision

How difficult it is to make and own a decision!

There are big decisions, difficult decisions, those where we cannot choose between options because both are good, dilemmas where neither option seems desirable and double-binds where the choices are irreconcilable...

So we take the easy route: we don't decide, we procrastinate and say we'll decide later. But of course, by not deciding, we are in fact making a decision, attempting to maintain the status quo - or at least that is our assumption.

Sometimes we decide against something, for example voting against a political party we dislike at an election rather than voting for what we think is best (at least in those countries where some form of democracy exists). It seems easier to choose not to do something, than to make a positive choice.

Or we can make very small decisions to change. For example we may forego a biscuit in an attempt to lose weight, but continue unchanged with our intake of chocolate and sugary drinks. It's easier to make the little decision than to take the big one.

Sometimes there are moments when we really do have to make a decision because the status quo is no longer possible - and then we are likely to get very stressed.

In fact, it seems very difficult to make a clear, significant, positive decision. It requires honesty about our circumstances and about ourselves. It also requires an act of faith: that our choice will work out for the good.

Certainly, to become a Christian is a life-changing decision, but one that many hesitate over until it's too late. Although the responsibility is ours, the devil seems keen to encourage our indecision!

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I've written about decisions before, see:
Decisions, decisions, decisions and Micro-choices matter