Duality of Purpose
There are two sides to everything, one being the truth and the other being what someone else thinks the truth is. Regardless of the sequence of events or circumstances seldom do two people create the same image in their minds about something that happened or could happen. To tangle this little web further there are times when we have two versions of the so called truth ourselves. That would be the one we hold in our heart and mind and the one we share with others.
Last week I asked people to email their thoughts on what I called Christian castaways. I was looking for reasons why people stopped going to church or never went in the first place. The responses I got were all over the board. Everyone that wrote had their version or story which allowed me to create my own thoughts, hence two sides.
Once I allowed my brain to dissect this I discovered that most of us have an expectation of church that is probably hard for the institution to live up too. Those expectations change (as they should) as life circumstances change. We need what we need when we need it, right.
Before I address that I want to go a wee bit deeper into the two sides to further form the concept of what I intend to convey. Our minds in my non professional opinion seem to carry a duality of purpose or split personality if you will. We exist in either survival mode or arrival mode. Meaning we either think we are there or we will never get there. That process moves us in every facet of life. The problem I see in this split personality is that you can get stuck in either mode and lose sight of your God given purpose.
Consider the person that is down, I mean really down and the ground looks up to them. Most of us have been that low before and that can push us into survival mode and further into totally give up mode. If you recall stories in the Bible this is where Jesus found most of the people he came in contact with. Life had lost it's meaning and hope was all but gone. Yet one touch, one forgiveness, one kind word, one act of love made all the difference in the world. That same model of genuine caring can exist in our world today if we allow love to be the driver and not popular political propaganda. Taking that one step further in our churches you have always heard that it is more about what you give to your church not what you take from it. The preacher, priest, rabbi, or other clergy are simply messengers of the word. They are not perfect they are human. Inside their humanity resides two people, the one you see and the one they see. Remember in the Bible that the people Jesus chose to proclaim his message were oh so human in every way. So too are our messengers of the word. They can't live our lives nor fix us but they can provide a message of hope and love that creates in us a fresh desire for a new beginning. It is our actions more so than the clergy that will drive people into or away from our faith based institutions.
Our duality of purpose also exist in our personal lives. What people see is not who we are. What we see is not the way the world really is. You have all heard people say things like "with him you get what you see", or "she is so genuine". These statements have some truth to them no doubt however the person that inhabits the body is not the total person others see. What do I mean? Simply that two people exist in our bodies. Why you may ask. I believe we were created for love yet as the world grew more sophisticated more and more things take our minds to a place that was numb to the affections around it. We no longer felt the warmth of love because we did not have too. There was always something extra to stimulate those other senses that removed love from our hearts. Sure we carry on masking a feeling that does exist in the hopes that it will someday.
In life if you want to bring your dual personality into one being you must figure out how to make the main thing the main thing. If the first two commandments Christ shares with us are about love I would have to say that the main thing is love. That goes without saying that there are huge responsibilities that go along with that. No matter though if love resides in your heart there will be little room for bitterness, revenge, jealousy, judgement, etc. Love paves the way to forgiveness which creates the path to acceptance. The acceptance I speak of is not just about others it is also about you accepting yourself. You are without a doubt the greatest creation and miracle God has ever made. Inside that creation is a child that seeks a world surrounded by love. That world cannot exist or be recreated unless we start the movement.
Hopefully you figured out that I wrote this from both sides of my personality. I allowed the world to mold some of my thoughts in this writing and I let my heart create some words as well. The combination of the two may seem confusing as you read this however isn't life the same way. We act out in accord with how our senses are stimulated which I will call the world effect. BUT when we are alone to think from our heart and mind we often regret the actions or lack there of we took when the world was our driver. At the end of the day we must believe that God made our personalities different so that he could make us one. We have external actions and internal feelings. The two will never be in total alignment but they can get close if our driving force is love.
peace and love
dale
Last week I asked people to email their thoughts on what I called Christian castaways. I was looking for reasons why people stopped going to church or never went in the first place. The responses I got were all over the board. Everyone that wrote had their version or story which allowed me to create my own thoughts, hence two sides.
Once I allowed my brain to dissect this I discovered that most of us have an expectation of church that is probably hard for the institution to live up too. Those expectations change (as they should) as life circumstances change. We need what we need when we need it, right.
Before I address that I want to go a wee bit deeper into the two sides to further form the concept of what I intend to convey. Our minds in my non professional opinion seem to carry a duality of purpose or split personality if you will. We exist in either survival mode or arrival mode. Meaning we either think we are there or we will never get there. That process moves us in every facet of life. The problem I see in this split personality is that you can get stuck in either mode and lose sight of your God given purpose.
Consider the person that is down, I mean really down and the ground looks up to them. Most of us have been that low before and that can push us into survival mode and further into totally give up mode. If you recall stories in the Bible this is where Jesus found most of the people he came in contact with. Life had lost it's meaning and hope was all but gone. Yet one touch, one forgiveness, one kind word, one act of love made all the difference in the world. That same model of genuine caring can exist in our world today if we allow love to be the driver and not popular political propaganda. Taking that one step further in our churches you have always heard that it is more about what you give to your church not what you take from it. The preacher, priest, rabbi, or other clergy are simply messengers of the word. They are not perfect they are human. Inside their humanity resides two people, the one you see and the one they see. Remember in the Bible that the people Jesus chose to proclaim his message were oh so human in every way. So too are our messengers of the word. They can't live our lives nor fix us but they can provide a message of hope and love that creates in us a fresh desire for a new beginning. It is our actions more so than the clergy that will drive people into or away from our faith based institutions.
Our duality of purpose also exist in our personal lives. What people see is not who we are. What we see is not the way the world really is. You have all heard people say things like "with him you get what you see", or "she is so genuine". These statements have some truth to them no doubt however the person that inhabits the body is not the total person others see. What do I mean? Simply that two people exist in our bodies. Why you may ask. I believe we were created for love yet as the world grew more sophisticated more and more things take our minds to a place that was numb to the affections around it. We no longer felt the warmth of love because we did not have too. There was always something extra to stimulate those other senses that removed love from our hearts. Sure we carry on masking a feeling that does exist in the hopes that it will someday.
In life if you want to bring your dual personality into one being you must figure out how to make the main thing the main thing. If the first two commandments Christ shares with us are about love I would have to say that the main thing is love. That goes without saying that there are huge responsibilities that go along with that. No matter though if love resides in your heart there will be little room for bitterness, revenge, jealousy, judgement, etc. Love paves the way to forgiveness which creates the path to acceptance. The acceptance I speak of is not just about others it is also about you accepting yourself. You are without a doubt the greatest creation and miracle God has ever made. Inside that creation is a child that seeks a world surrounded by love. That world cannot exist or be recreated unless we start the movement.
Hopefully you figured out that I wrote this from both sides of my personality. I allowed the world to mold some of my thoughts in this writing and I let my heart create some words as well. The combination of the two may seem confusing as you read this however isn't life the same way. We act out in accord with how our senses are stimulated which I will call the world effect. BUT when we are alone to think from our heart and mind we often regret the actions or lack there of we took when the world was our driver. At the end of the day we must believe that God made our personalities different so that he could make us one. We have external actions and internal feelings. The two will never be in total alignment but they can get close if our driving force is love.
peace and love
dale
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