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go here to buy my stock photography Alan Creech
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aaron klinefelter
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The Christian who wants to imitate his Master must learn to do so not by imposing a crude and violent control on his emotions (and in most cases his efforts to do so will be a failure) but by letting grace form and develop his emotional life in the service of charity.Well, you shouldn't have to have Thomas Merton tell you that, but there it is anyway. And "charity" is Love, by the way. We ARE able to learn these things over years of trying and failing and figuring and refiguring. We CAN learn that wrapping ourselves in, as he puts it, crude and violent means of control on our emotions and external lives will never dig their way deep inside us and transform us truly into the Image of God. They will work temporarily and then they will fail. We may even merely think it was us failing and get back on the wagon for another ride. It's very unfortunate indeed when these unreal controls last longer. You'd think that would be a reason for rejoicing - "it's working! I've been good for a year now!" This is nothing more than a deepening of the deception involved in allowing you to think that what you are or are not doing is that which is making you holy. This is dangerous to our real spiritual development, and to those around us. First, we must get a realization of the Love of the Father for us as His children. Without that, we are crippled. We can't really go any farther if we do not have a deep acceptance of that Love as gift. We are trying to be something other than Christian if we're doing it without that. Now, I realize there are many of us who come into this thing with a more inherent emotional handicap - meaning: we are more psychologically and emotionally (soulishly) damaged than many others and that makes it more difficult for us to develop that realization of God's Love. For those I suppose step one is an acceptance that it is possible that this Love is true and some at least vague understanding that He Loves you anyway, even if you don't fully believe it yet. I'm not talking about fault here or blame, but I am trying to state reality - even if that latter case is so and God loves you anyway, you still have braces on your legs. Good thing you're not alone to walk this marathon, and eventually to run. You're not you know. Anyone who tells you it's only about "you and Jesus" is a heretic. Healing is available in the community of faith. Christ Himself lives in the community. This is where His Power works. Letting Grace form and develop us takes a while. It is a lifelong process. Can we ever tell it's working? Sure we can. We will change - our desires, our attitudes, our emotions, our beliefs, and our actions. Notice which one I put last. Actions are the most exterior and temporary of the things about us to change. Yet, we focus on them more than anything. We are, by and large, ignorant. We DO have the capability to stop being that way - to get it and move forward. But again, it takes a while and we need to be patient with ourselves. We're pretty broken. And it's not simply a matter of waking up one day and thinking to ourselves, "I think I don't want to be broken any more" and then we just become "not broken." No, it doesn't work that way. And if it seems to for a time, it is that, only seeming to and it will fail. We need to get to the real thing - the deep and lasting thing - and forsake all this surface nonsense. Let's move toward doing that. Grace be with us for this journey. Labels: merton, spiritual formation :::
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three quotes |:: "Then, if we cannot as yet think alike in all things, at least we may love alike. Herein we cannot possibly do amiss." "Keep your eyes on the crucifix, for Jesus without the cross
is a man without a mission, and the cross without Jesus
is a burden without a reliever." "...I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be
completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self."
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