tell me what you think and why
I have a question, which Emma will no doubt be able to provide the appropriate CS Lewis context for, if you are interested in his opinion. I have been thinking about this question, and it goes round and round...so yeah, keen for input ...
What is more important to you? What God thinks of you or what you think of God?
posted by me @ 7:54 PM
28 Comments:
What God thinks of you...
No surprises there from me! :)
The reason I say it that what God thinks of me informs and forms what I think of him. What I think of him enormously significant. Your life and soul depend on it. But only after one searches for what God thinks of you...
what god thinks of me. i mean god it would suck if the universe was so benjamin top heavy that it mattered more what I thought in any sphere (cause my thoughts can be and often are amazingly toxic)
justin...i like what you said. that makes sense. I like it because it doesn;t negate the iimportance of what i think of him..R
Benjamin - yeah.
What i don't get is then why people don;t enter into 'therapy' with God. Give over 'control' of what they think about themselves, to accept what god thinks of them (expecially because it is liberating), if what he thinks is so important ...
WOW great question rhea. I wish I did care more what God thought of me, than what I think of Him. Unfortunately I realise that I am so self absorbed that when I actually reflect on half the things I thought today, i see that what God thought of me and those thoughts didn't play enough of a role in those thoughts, to change them to more godly thoughts. i feel pretty shocked at my arrogance, thinking about this right now like this.
i'm going to reflect more on this, thanks for bringing it to my attention. expect a request around this next prayer group...
uh that was me!
heya rhea,
i reckon that what God thinks of me is more important because that is the view that is true, whereas my thoughts about him are likely to be skewed or tainted. However, what I think of God will usually inform what i in turn think HE thinks of me, so that becomes skewed as well. See?
On top of all that, frequently any thought of God and what he thinks of me is held to ransom by what I think of me.
So, to get to the truth of who i am in God may be preferable, but the bonds that hold me back are quite considerable.
Think I'll come up against this question again in hongkers.
mr g.
hey miss helena, ta ta for being so honest :) (Ps: its not my question, it belongs to others, particularly CS Lewis!)yeah for prayer group!
Mr G: 'So, to get to the truth of who i am in God may be preferable, but the bonds that hold me back are quite considerable'. ... so true .... so true ...
i know i +feel+ that my bonds are so strong, and yet i +know+ that the power of god in us by his spirit, and is the same that raised christ from the dead, and is able to give life to our bodies, and minds and souls...
"What i don't get is then why people don;t enter into 'therapy' with God. Give over 'control' of what they think about themselves, to accept what god thinks of them (expecially because it is liberating), if what he thinks is so important ..."
R--I totally get this. 2 elements come into play here--both having about equal weight. The first is this: Giving up "control" can't really be legitimately done in just this one area, and there's no way in H*** I want to give up *all* the control to god. I want the serenity *and* the control. (why is what I want always impossible?) The second is that I've built up an amazingly deep groove in my brain for thinking about myself what *I* think about myself (i.e., enormous, megagargantuan negativity coupled with enormous megagargantuan arrogance), and even when I attempt to "accept" what god thinks about me, the groove for those thoughts is *amazingly* shallow, and the the needle almost without fail skips back into the habitual groove.
I have to say what I think of Him.
Because what He thinks of me is constant, but all the things in my life (emotions etc) don't seem to be subject to the same constancy. What I think of Him (and by extension faith etc), however, fluctutates in rythms very closely correlated with those of life.
Of course, what He thinks of me has the advantage of not being subjective like the flip side.
Bec G
thanks ben - i think you have expressed beautifully exactly what we all feel at some level!
'I want the serenity *and* the control. (why is what I want always impossible?)' ...Totally!
I believe he heals the
groves of pain that negativity and stuff build on ... its just my opinion...i could go on for ages on this subject - but will wait for an invitation!
Becky G - u found me! we can discuss this at length cutting sandwiches ... got to find a way for the bread not to dry out, and i think we should lobby that we find an animal other than 'the devon' to fill the sanga's!
Yes I found you, but will you be able to find me? You needn't look beyond blogspot.com...
Bec
That is a great question Rhea!
I think what God thinks of me...
because what God thinks of me shape the way I think of him. Or at least it should!
While I agree somewhat with the Bec's comment that we cannot have the same consistancy as He does, I would argue that this simply shows the inability to rely on our feelings etc toward God - our feelings always change, whether or not they should, its just a human thing.
God is consistant, and yes, while we cannot live up to that, it represents his faithfulness.
I think its more important to rely on what a faithful consistant God thinks of us rahter than an inconsistent us thinks of Him....if that makes any sense haha
"I believe he heals the
groves of pain that negativity and stuff build on ... its just my opinion...i could go on for ages on this subject - but will wait for an invitation!"
(now how is someone supposed to resist that?)
here's your invitation.
write about it, and I'll post it on my blog as a guest post (I mean if you're kewl with that)
yes i second that invitation too haha...
ok.
i am madly writing essay as we speak. because i think this topic is really important, i want to say it write (he he) so it might not make it's way into blog-space in the next few days... but you never know - i might get a burst of inspiration in my essay writing ... thanks for your offer ben (i don;t think its gonna be that profound or that smart thta you will want to post it on your site, but we'll see!)
chelsea - thanks for your comments, and in the midst of what God thinks about you, he cares very deeply about how you feel!
and bec - can;t find you - i'm not so down with computers. would not even know how to start the search. pretty sure i will find you in teh kitchen on wednesday though...if not thursday!
actually, yes, thats very true rhea, thanks hehe
haha writing an essay... yes I seem to wnat to contemplate deep theological/existential 'stuff' when I'm in the middle of essays too! At the moment the essays seem to have little to do with the thoughts like my latest essay on risk management.
What is your essay on?
hi rachel! social legal and ethical issues underlying the counseling dynamic!
Ok, so it's taken me a while to latch on to all of this because i have not been faithful to the blogging world of late but to be predictable, and just coz no one has done this yet, here is what good ole c.s. lewis says. (it's easy for me to type coz it's my e-mail signature - i see it about four hundred times a day at work so it has kind of found it's lovely way into my consciousness):
"I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God. By God Himself, it is not! How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important. Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except in so far as it is related to how He thinks of us. It is written that we shall "stand before" Him, shall appear, shall be inspected. The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God. To please God... to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness... to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son - it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is."
Rhea
I hope I have not put you off blogging forever by taking you up on your invitation. You can still post random (I think "random" should be spelled "randomn") thoughts without having to write essays...
hey ben! hope things are going OK for you with your lovely ones in oz - just got to tough it out i guess...
ha ha - in no way have you put me off bloggin, just the opposite in fact! yeah, just doing my last essay right now. You know how it is a parent - that window of opportunity of sitting down and writing is especially small!
where abouts is megs in oz - is she visitable?
take it easy,
PEACE, R
R
Megs is in Port Macquarie--it's about 5 hours drive north from sydney, on the coast. She's definitely visitable, but not this weekend, 'cause her lovely sister Rachel is getting wed. Then next week they are going to The Farm, which is in Barham, way out in the middle of nowhere, north of melbourne and east south east of sydney, or something like that. Of course, she's visitable there too, I'm pretty sure. Her family are very hospitable. If you want her phone number there, email me and I'll give it to you. It's Benjamin.ady@gmail.com
Oh Rhea..
Rhea???
hi Rhea! i would love you to call me! we are in australia until january 19. i do wish the pacific ocean were small and weeny! my life would be SO much easier!
as for your question ... gosh! now, i dunno! what DOES God think of me?
hey megs! yeah, cool, i will call you - that will be fun. i will prepare conversation cards for if we run out of things to talk about in the first 2 minutes! just kidding. I am really looking forward to it! i am a bit disorganised. so maybe i should give you my number too, so we make sure it happens! i sent it to ben before when he gave me yours ... exciting!!
hope its amazing in the port!
it is a good question hey!
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