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I need a mini-vent...

About every week or so, someone posts on Facebook something that grates my nerves. I don't say anything, because honestly, it would just amount to trolling in that sphere.

My reputation in real life is that I speak my mind and don't take s**t, and so most people will think I am just getting riled up since tone can't carry through text, and syntax is easily misinterpreted. I also know that that could be at play in the way their words came across over the screen to me, but normally I am reminded of so many times when I actually was a part of a conversation in which the phrase was used.

Really though, I do want to know if anyone sees what I see or feels the way I do on certain things, so I figured here would be a good place to do that...



Today's subject for debate...

The phrase, "I'm just waiting to see God move."




There are a couple things that could have been changed to this sentence that would have made it palatable to me, and I wouldn't have given it another though... but as it stands, all I could think was...

Has it ever occurred to you that He might be waiting for you to move?

Seriously, I know it sounds judgmental, but every time I hear this phrase (or see it), that's what I want to reply. In my experience, God is always working, always moving, and it is Christians who have the tendency to sit on their asses (please note: I'm not excluding myself from this group)...

Many times our fear (or excuse) that we might not understand the Will of God keeps us stagnant when we should be moving, and normally when this phrase comes into play, it is the pre-realization that God is waiting for us.

I think we should train ourselves to recognize that whenever this phrase is uttered, we should IMMEDIATELY stop and reevaluate what we have or haven't been doing that would cause us to miss what action we are supposed to be part of.

To someone that says that I would ask, "do you know of God and if so how do you know when he moves".

I'm going to share a parable from a story I've been working on:

"During one of Danya's lessons, she gave the following parable. “There were two amputees who both prayed for God to regrow their legs. One of these men, while praying, searched all the labs and healers over the course of his prayers. In his searching, he found some doctors looking to try an experimental procedure that would make one's legs grow back. After many trails and testing, the man got his legs back. The other man prayed and prayed. People came to him and told him of ways he could get his legs back but he turned them away. He told them that he had faith that God would grow his legs back. Eventually this man prayed to his death bed, with no legs grown back. Now I ask, who did God heal?” A person firmly seated in the House of the Hanged Man spoke up and ignorantly answered, “Neither. While the first man was healed, he was healed by the ways of men and science, not Gawd.” Danya retorted, “Do you not know that you are a child of our Heavenly Father-Mother? Because we are a fragment of our Heavenly Father-Mother, God can work through us. You are of little faith to deny that God has, can, and does work through others and to deny that God is not with that which is true.”"

I know a guy who runs a lot. His perspective on God is that he's always on the move, like you said. He says, when he runs, God is running with him. And if he stops, God will always keep moving. And if he were to stay still, God would slow down some, and give him the opportunity to catch up, but God would never stop. It's part of what gave him motivation to keep running, even when he was alone. He figures, at times God might seem to be gone, out of sight, when for him, God is really just somewhere up ahead, waiting for him to catch up, and if he makes the effort, he will.

As for me, I can't relate it so personally, as I am an atheist. But I know when I get stuck writing, sometimes I can be stuck for a long time, and nothing comes to me. I can spend days thinking, and get nowhere. Funny thing is, when I just sit down as start writing anyway, it all just starts falling into place, and everything I couldn't think of, suddenly comes together. I imagine God would work in a similar way.

Let's see. If they're on your facebook, and they're your friends/family, etc. one would think they'd be willing to hear what you have to say. In fact, it might be something they need to hear. If I had made that post, and you told me what you wanted to tell them, I probably would not heed God per say, but I would probably realize that it's time I did something about it myself. I don't pray, but I figure, if God is helping me with anything through life, I'd be grateful. If he'd like that I thank himspecifically, I'd appreciate some revelation about his existence. Until then, it's fascinating to think about.

All I have to say is:

We are the body of Christ. He does his work on earth through us. I firmly believe that. The Holy Spirit is our guide (you know, that little tug you feel inside you sometimes?) in our earthly endeavors.

So, I agree with you. If my experiences with God have taught me anything, it's that you are the engine by which God's will happens. If you feel the Holy Spirit moving inside you, you've got to make the move. God will always provide when you follow Him.

LOL

You are right... It is an overused term. I guess it doesn't get to me so much because it is something I heard so much growing up, and I don't hear it repeated as many times per day as I used to nowadays.

But yeah, it is especially annoying when people use the term like they are referring to some Heavenly quota that is supposed to get you a bigger mansion in the sky, or some shiz...

... Which sends my brain on a tangent. The way so many people talk about getting others saved, it kinda degrades those people from people tally numbers. It just seems so impersonal the way some congregations refer to it. If we aren't supposed to worry about having so many earthly possessions, when at times they are needed, why should we worry about laying up treasures in heaven when we shouldn't need a darn thing there... (I know, I know... it's just a thought, I'm not meaning to start a whole discussion on it here. rolleyes )

Yeah, that's how I think...

But growing up, the thing was some people would end up with better rewards than others if they worked harder at saving others (like it's something that a person can do). I actually remember a preacher talking about those who made it to Heaven by the skin of their teeth and referring them as heavenly toilet bowl scrubbers. rolleyes It seems to be a common sort of analogy around here.

LOL... Good luck with that. I've been trying to remove the thought from my head since i heard it nearly 20 years ago. I knew it was absurd when I still hadn't pieced together what I believed at what I could not.

Oh no... that's not how it went... the Heavenly janitors were the people who didn't do enough witnessing and converting in this life, and they are just happy to spend eternity NOT in Hell. LOL