How to be self-obsorbed (how?)

If you read this, I’m curious to know what you think...

Does the Bible show God’s “method” to be
1) Accomplishment
2) State of Being

For example, the idea of “God’s glory revealed.” Is that an issue of it finally being seen or that the universe is in an ongoing state of revealing?

For example, am I to “learn a lesson” (faith, obedience, morality, etc.) or am I to “become” something (faithful, obedient, moral)?


Is God trying to teach me “something” or is it more how to live, no matter what the somethings are? Does God put me in difficult situations or does life happen with God altering how I live in this world? Put most awkwardly, is God trying to make me Become something or rather Become someone Becoming?

A large part of this springs from the sense that if the former in each case is true, then how can I not be overwhelmed when I look at my life - so much going on, so many places where I think I see God's hand, etc. - SHOULD I be overwhelmed, is that the proper place to be?

[I know there are examples of both in the Bible. The question pertains to discerning does God have a primary method while the other is a tool or simply situational.]

Over-Simple Life Over-View

I am finding 3 options to most “areas” of my life:

1) Maintain
2) Sharpen, modify, make better
3) Create something new



[on a good note: at least it’s not the typical “2 things” that usually cause an artificial continuum!]

Why can I not quiet my mind?

Why can I not quiet my mind?  It’s like having ADD but only with internal stimuli.

Am I falling or getting right-side up?

I feel like a weed that has grown swiftly from the heat and the rain of late.  I feel like I’m growing!  I feel like my new growth is into space that I have never known existed (since I had never been in that space).

But I also feel like a new-born deer -- new space? all around!  Wobbly legs? Oh yeah!

Pursuing World Peace like a Pageant winner

Which would be better: change the laws of the land to be “good” or to do “good” no matter the laws of the land?  Does the answer to that question dictate where I should spend my time and energy when it comes to bettering the world (based on the assumption that I do want to better the world), ‘cause there just isn’t enough time to do both well.

Did Jesus read Plato or influence him?

I’ve been reading Plato for the last year; I have Portable Plato in the wicker basket in the bathroom (read fully into that).  Plato, who came  a few centuries before Jesus and Paul, uses a number of illustrations/analogies that are then found on the lips/pen of Jesus and Paul.  In fact, most all of Jesus and Paul’s analogies are used by Plato and usually in the same basic way.

Does this mean that the heart of God is discernable rationally?  I am addressing here the critique of Rationalism and/or Modernism and/or Enlightenment.  Did Plato discern with his mind the heart of God’s way for relating one to another?

Too easy

I found myself feeling like a character in the Old Testament.  I follow a set of ideas, even rules, that I enjoy following.  I think they are great ideas.  I don’t like the effort always, but I like following something Good.  But I am afraid I have put my head down and am just following the trajectory of these rule/ideas -- like drawing a line through them will point me down the straight-and-narrow.

Then a wonderful person at Shiloh the other day did one of those, “Oh, you’re not perfect!” statements.  It was NOT a sarcastic jab nor was it a call for me to accept my imperfection.  It was more, “Another example of you’re not only choosing good things, but you’re humble about it also -- another good choice!!”  If this person could see my insides . . .

My heart has wandered out of the color of a love-relationship and into beige.  See the first chapter of Isaiah here.

So I am left with this nag: I choose God, I choose to pursue His requests (that implies not doing it perfectly but trying to), but my heart grows cold and beige.  Is this the normal ebb-and-flow of a relationship?  It doesn’t feel this extreme with Tara, so why with God?  Is it because she’s newer?

Then my perfectionism kicks in with, “You probably shouldn’t do or say anything until you are back in color - you might do something foolish!!”

[Please, God, remove my ability to communicate such things to my children!!]