Dumb Mistakes

  

 

Dumb Mistakes

 


Why do Christians, pastors, leaders, ushers, —everyday Christians— make real dumb mistakes.  Now I am talking about real dumb moral mistakes—lying, cheating, immorality, thievery—-like why?

Christine Pohl warns us as follows:

“By compartmentalizing aspects of our actions or thoughts, we are able to ignore major inconsistencies and wrongdoing.”

Ever heard yourself asking this question: ‘What was he thinking when he did that?’   You think of moral failure or just plain —dumb decisions—and you ask that question!   How does that happen?  What were they ‘thinking?’  Well, Pohl suggest “he wasn’t thinking he had stopped thinking and reflecting.  Instead, the person deliberately excluded a part of his or her life from spiritual and moral scrutiny.”

 

So now a word of help!  Do the daily examen!  (See. https://pwcusick.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-examen.html)

 

If there ever was a culture, a time, a season when Christians need to act like Christians —it is now!   The ancient practice of the examen is a spiritual discipline designed to help you ‘non-compartmentalize’ your spirituality.  In other words—ALL your life is spiritual.  You eat, spend money, drive, cut your grass, pay your bills, show up for work, —AS a spiritual person representing Jesus.  

 

Pohl, Christine. 2011. Living into Community: Cultivating Practices That Sustain Us. Grand Rapids, IL: Eerdmans. ISBN: 9780802849854. 219 pp. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning to hate your sin

Image
   John 5:13-15 (NLT) 13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” 15 Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him.   Lord give me grace, power, and effort to maintain a resilience against sin.  Sin is ALWAYS a dark path. It ALWAYS pays wages.  The wage of sin is death.  Sin will always hurt, always destroy, always wound—you, relationships, stuff, goals, etc.  It is a killer.  It is a wound-er.  It is a consumer of all that is healthy, strong, good, and perfect. Learn to hate sin. Learn to fear sin. Learn to run as fast as you can away from sin. Search deeply for hidden sin. Be disgusted with your sin.  Repent, repent, repent daily for your sin. Be afraid of your sin. Be petrified of your sin. Be worried ab...
Read more

Meditation

Image
Meditation I realize as we move on with this series that there are two things that need some clarification.  We already looked at the idea of silence and quietness—this week we will look at meditation.  Let’s begin by giving you the descriptions of the differences between these two disciplines.  Although from an outsider’s position there may be little or subtle differences, I want to help you process the vast difference between these—-and the immense benefit from both of these disciplines: Silence/ Quietness: Here the idea is shutting out your active mind —leaving lots of space for two things.  First, space to give your mind a rest, relaxing your mind.  It is a stopping of your mind from racing around solving all the problems of the world.  Second, giving space to hear from God! It is laying aside your agenda.  It is putting aside the debris, hurriedness, and hectic pace to relax in God’s presence.  Often music can help...
Read more

God is after you! And... for a different reason than you think!

Have you ever been pursued by a suitor—a lover—someone who is very interested in you? Was it pleasant to be liked?  Was it pleasant to be wanted?  Well, yeah—for sure.  Who doesn’t want to be loved? Who doesn’t want to be sought after?  Who doesn’t want to be appreciated? I do!  I am sure you do too! Did you know that is actually the message of Christmas—and the actual ‘story’ of the Bible?  It’s a story about God pursuing humanity. Too often when we think of God, or church, or the Bible—we think of behaving ourselves enough to get God’s attention.  Or, we think of trying hard to impress God—so that God would appreciate the hard work we are doing down here and give us His nod. Well, actually that is not true.  That is not the message of the Bible—nor the core message of Christmas.  It is actually the total opposite.  The core message of Christmas is not our chasing God—it is God chasing us! God is so in love with ...
Read more