Mind you, much of what I post is intended to encourage myself. A kind of inversion of Joan Didion's better known "I write in order to find out what I think." I post in order to evoke the world I want to live in.
We must all be thinking pastorally about the spiritual problem of despair, paralysis and the false notion perpetrated by CN. In my sermon Sunday, titled Hope in the Darkness, I tried to encourage Hope in the possibilities inherent in God as opposed to the defeatism inherent in our world order as so well stated by you Loren.
I very much appreciate this piece. Thank you for writing it, Loren. There are two things that stand out to me: 1) Trump seeks to pump up the economy to keep half the country numb and comfortable, while overwhelming any opposition into despair, shame, and defeat.; and 2) Your reaction to Jeff Gill's post.
On the first, yes. This hit home so hard in so many ways. I think there is a great deal of truth in the statement and I can absolutely see the ways that it may not necessarily be his intent. I think it may be more of an effect than intent. I don't think he "seeks" to do this so much as his actions have this effect, but that takes us deeper into politics than is probably necessary for this discussion. Nonetheless, I love the comparison to "totalism" - a concept, I will further explore based on this piece.
On the second, I imagine the offense you took to Gill's words is probably the same offense I took to reading yours! Ha! And so I will meditate and pray on this! There is wisdom here and I seek the humility to understand it.
Thank you for your writings. You continue to mentor and I continue to grow.
Mind you, much of what I post is intended to encourage myself. A kind of inversion of Joan Didion's better known "I write in order to find out what I think." I post in order to evoke the world I want to live in.
We must all be thinking pastorally about the spiritual problem of despair, paralysis and the false notion perpetrated by CN. In my sermon Sunday, titled Hope in the Darkness, I tried to encourage Hope in the possibilities inherent in God as opposed to the defeatism inherent in our world order as so well stated by you Loren.
Well said.
I very much appreciate this piece. Thank you for writing it, Loren. There are two things that stand out to me: 1) Trump seeks to pump up the economy to keep half the country numb and comfortable, while overwhelming any opposition into despair, shame, and defeat.; and 2) Your reaction to Jeff Gill's post.
On the first, yes. This hit home so hard in so many ways. I think there is a great deal of truth in the statement and I can absolutely see the ways that it may not necessarily be his intent. I think it may be more of an effect than intent. I don't think he "seeks" to do this so much as his actions have this effect, but that takes us deeper into politics than is probably necessary for this discussion. Nonetheless, I love the comparison to "totalism" - a concept, I will further explore based on this piece.
On the second, I imagine the offense you took to Gill's words is probably the same offense I took to reading yours! Ha! And so I will meditate and pray on this! There is wisdom here and I seek the humility to understand it.
Thank you for your writings. You continue to mentor and I continue to grow.