I'm reading Jack Reese's book, The Body Broken. It is really good! I want to share some exerpts from the chapter, Suffer the Children:
He begins by quoting from Augustine's Confessions: [When I was a child,] when people did not do what I wanted . . . I would become angry with my elders for not being subservient to me, and with responsible people for not acting as though they were my slaves; and I would avenge myself on them by bursting into tears. This, I have learned, is what babies are like, so far as I have been able to observe them.
Reese later says: "Peace is not a divine afterthought unrelated to central matters of faith and discipleship. Unity is not a marginal doctrine that becomes a luxury for Christians whose primary concerns are elsewhere. Peace is what the cross has wrought. People formed by the cross become peacemakers. Those who are healed become healers. Those who are reconciled become ministers of reconciliation. That is what the cross does. That is the kind of people the cross creates."
He says, "Living in unity is not the byproduct of the resolution of our differences. To wait until we all agree before we engage in matters that produced peace is nonsensical. Unity is only possible in the midst of differences; otherwise it is not unity. Waiting to have unity until everyone agrees is like having cancer but refusing treatment until the malignancy is gone."
"Peace is not what we accomplish, it is what we receive, what we inherit. Peace is God's work, God's gift."
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Tomorrow Beverly and I head out to Lovington, New Mexico to lead a weekend seminar (I am sure I got the dates right this time). We will be back Monday evening.
Monday I turn the big "5-0". Physically, I don't know if I have ever felt better. The biggest change I can see is in my hair. I used to could hardly run a comb through it. Now there isn't much to comb at all.
I will try to blog in the morning before we leave.
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3 comments:
Have a great trip to New Mexico...or Houston or Kansas or wherever you wind up this time.
50? That's all? Wow.
The problem I too often see in unity in myself and others is that before I can get to the cross, I get stopped by what I want (or what Satan makes me think I want). If we could all get to the cross, what a day it would be. I will keep trying but it may not be that I completely make it in my lifetime. That's when I turn back to abundant thankfulness for God's mercy on me.
We must love our "brothers in error" because they are the only kind we have. And "brothers in error" are the only brothers they have as well.
Have a great time and tell the Tittle's we said hello! Wow, 50!! Happy Birthday!!
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