Friday is for Friends

Scot I liked the old look better! Oh well, guess I have to get used to some change.

About sloth, I think it depends on your cultural background. I know Koreans who will, quite literally, work themselves to death. There needs to be a balance

"Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others."
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If I think of all inside me that still wants to lie, that still wants others to come to harm, I can pray the "cursing psalms" about myself. Not that I want all that terrible stuff to happen to me, but a) that I realize I'm no better than those who wrote them, b) that I am so grateful for God's mercy and life, and c) that God and I both want better for me, and that is the goal toward which we are both working.

I do have trouble getting off my duff and moving, though.

Dana

Hmmmmm.. . this brings to mind Irenaeus's idea that "the glory of God is man fully alive". I think we often have it backwards when it comes to humility and pride. Denying our own status as image bearers, downplaying our gifts and generally denigrating ourselves is not humility, but a grievous insult to God who made us, died and rose for us and delights in us. Real humility comes from realizing that the source of our glory is God and not ourselves. Then our glory can glorify God. But denying it out of sloth and false humility is not Godly in the least. Yet the church seems to be very good at enforcing this false humility.

Hmmm... posting a comment about sloth four days later than the initial blog. I was away from the computer all weekend and very Thankful.

It was interesting to read this chapter in conjunction with my other current reading, Miroslav Volf's "Exclusion and Embrace." Scot's comment about racism struck a chord with me, and the observation Norris makes could easily have fit into Volf's work. Volf spends quite a bit of time discussing our ability to think of the Other as barbarians, uncivilized, savages, etc., all the while separating ourselves from their sin and destructiveness. Perhaps our incredulity at racism is fed by creating an image of racists that is obviously Other so that we don't get lumped in with it, and then we shudder when a chink in our armor is highlighted.