So I took a walk today. I've been thinking and talking a lot lately about the different emphases our traditions place on different aspects of the Christian walk. I walked all across St. Elmo via Florida, mostly: from the south side where I live out past the St. Elmo cemetery towards Alton Park. Seems like we really have to emphasize something (like personal piety) in order to start putting our money where our mouths are. Funny thing is, the more we emphasize it, the more we risk excluding other areas (like social justice or sound doctrine). And vice versa.
Well, I stopped by the post office and turned around, thinking about the friends I have who are very concerned about loving post-monderns and about the global church in our global society, but who don't score highly at all on personal piety. There ought to be some kind of mutual edification between these groups, instead of competition and judgment, doncha think? Or is it better to emphasize one thing and get the others wrong, rather than to be faced with the immensity of holiness and right living and be consequently overwhelmed, all the time?
I went to China Express and ordered some take-out, since I never know who might drop by when I'm not working. I started thinking a bit about the friends and friends-of-friends I know who are in the hospital right now. By now, the sun had set and the night was turning cooler. Being cooped up in a hospital for tests and surgery feel like being in a time capsule: it's awful. You miss out on seeing the sun run its course, feeling the seasons change, sensing the passage of time in the lives of important people. I hope time is kind to those folks I know in medical stir.
There are some houses in St. Elmo that belong on some cheap beach, somewhere. You know, the wooden facades, the party lights that never come down off the porch but that are rarely turned on, the belongings strewn across the front steps beach-bum style? Then there are some that belong on some shady, quiet avenue lines with Tennyson's immemorial elms. I think the Halls' house is one of these. Some need repairs and some don't. Some are new. Some are old. And we have such a variety of trees! I love living in such a diverse neighborhood.
I'm realizing that most lf the things I pondered and prayed about on my walk are private things. I guess that's all I have to say about them, right now. I ought to take more walks, more often.
Posted by nickles at November 15, 2004 06:27 PMhmm you said all that about the hospital because..you're currently going to nashville right? you haven't been a patient in the hospital lately? no you havent. lol hmm mez just answered her own question. that medium you wre talking about, "There ought to be some kind of mutual edification between these groups, instead of competition and judgment, doncha think?"...hmm ive tried to reach that. makes me think of...hmm things ill talk to you later about.
i miss you de-a brotha and i shall see ya soon!
Bob, your comment about mutual edification is right on the money. I've actually been pondering along similar lines recently, but hadn't found the words to express it. Perhaps that's partly what Paul was talking about when he spoke of the Body of Christ? Not everyone is a hand, nor is everyone an eye. Is that right? Should we be content to let some things be done well by some people at the expense of other areas of the Christian life/walk? Shouldn't one's personal "piety" make them *more* inclined to take up the cause of social justice? And yet it does seem to run counter to this in the world that we live in. Or at least in the ultra-Reformed world that we live in. Why is that? I actually believe that we (or maybe more accurately, "I") can learn a lot from those people who are most unlike ourselves about how we should love others selflessly. Which is odd, because love, as it should be applied to the post-moderns, the down-and-outs, and the disillusioned, is such a Jesus-centered concept and practice. We see him spending his time with and loving these very people in the Gospels...
Posted by: Joel P at November 16, 2004 09:41 AM