Supurfluous God Talk

By
Despite being a Christian I realised recently that I don't hang around with a lot of Christians. Outside of church on Sunday mornings and a weekly Bible study group most of the people I associate with on a regular basis are either clearly not Christians or mostly appear not be Christians.

When I found myself at a support group for parents of children with developmental disabilities run by a church in my area I was surprised by the God talk that I heard. It seemed to me that God was thrown into the conversation the way people throw the words "like" or "you know" into their conversations. I guess I'm not used to people saying in everyday communication that God told them to do this or that or led them into this or that. It felt much too flippant to me. I wonder if this is part of what is meant when the Bible admonishes us not to use the Lord's name in vain?

I have all kinds of ideas floating around in my head. Some of them I act on and try to bring to fruition. I don't know if I would ever dare say that God told me to do any of it or that he led me into any of it. That just seems far too presumptuous to me. While I try to live my life according to God's will I just can't bring myself to put the official God stamp on the decisions I make. The most I am willing to do is to say that I hope my decisions are made according to God's will and to hope that he will be glorified regardless of the decisions I make.

Having grown up watching televangelists crash and burn all the while claiming that God told them to do this or that or that God led them into this or that I'm highly suspicious of anyone else who says it. I have heard other Christians, people that I know and trust say that they felt God was telling them to do something. They generally seemed to me to make their statements with an appropriate amount of solemnity.

Comments

  1. DarkStarJune 19, 2007 9:56 PM

    Interesting perspective.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SamJune 20, 2007 1:42 PM

    I'm of the opinion that one shouldn't talk about God unless they really mean it and they sound like they mean it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Rise Up In The Darkness

By
Image
The teenager who joked with me over physics and algebra homework tonight was 6 months old the morning of September 11, 2001. He spent that day like many other 6 month olds spend their days, exploring his world and being saved from his own curiosity by mom. That morning after I got tired of hauling him back from the edge of the bed he was intent on crawling over I took him downstairs to safer level terrain. I turned on the television to check the news like I did every morning back then. At first I was horrified by what I saw. One smoldering tower. Not long after, while all the reporters and newscasters were struggling to make sense of what they were seeing, one plane, another tower, and I was pissed. At that point I understood what was happening. Why did people think, and still think, that kind of wretchedness served their cause? I didn't care what the cause was. These were arrogant fools. But the news kept coming about just how wretched humanity had been to itself that day. The
Read more

Treating autism as traumatic brain injury

By
I've been doing research into autism, dyspraxia, how the normal brain works, and how an autistic/dyspraxic brain works (or doesn't work). Traumatic injury to different parts of the brain can cause the same problems suffered by autistic and dyspraxic children. Compare this list of the functions of different parts of the brain and the problems caused by injuries to those areas with these descriptions of dyspraxia and autism. What is Developmental Dyspraxia? Developmental dyspraxia is a disorder characterized by an impairment in the ability to plan and carry out sensory and motor tasks. Generally, individuals with the disorder appear "out of sync" with their environment. Symptoms vary and may include poor balance and coordination, clumsiness, vision problems, perception difficulties, emotional and behavioral problems, difficulty with reading, writing, and speaking, poor social skills, poor posture, and poor short-term memory. Although individuals with the disorder may b
Read more

Battlestar Galactica needs more colour?

By
Here are the letters I mentioned in the previous post. The one that started it (I'm guessing these letters were written after the show's first airing at the end of 2003): Galactica Needs More Diversity The problem I had with Battlestar Galactica was there were no major and very few minor African American characters. There were no Black men in the show at all or if they were, they had virtually no screentime. In the original series, Boomer and Tigh were both played by African American actors. In this rendition of Battlestar, those characters were played by Asian and White actors. In the Caprica city, there no African American extras. On the Galactica's bridge, there was only one African American actress. Another Black actress could be found playing a religious official that swore in the new President of the colonies. This was very troubling to me. Do you not want African Americans to watch your show? Do you want to project the idea that African Americans are not part of the
Read more