2010
05.07
05.07
I loved the discussion this week. I want people to comment more – even reply to comments and get some good discussion going in the threads. This week really moved us toward that. I’m trying to post less, to give you more time to comment and learn from each other.
Great work this week! Looking forward to next week. We’ll finish up the Sermon on the Mount in our daily reading with Matthew 7.
Mathew 7 and Lord of the Rings. It might not seem that these things were related, but maybe there is a connection. I think with Mathew 7, we’ll be hearing a lot about 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” and probably not so much about 7:7-8 7″Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Judging we do. Asking God, seeking God, opening doors to God. I’m thinking we really don’t spend too much time on these activities.
Now, Lord of the Rings. My favorite character by far is Treebeard the Ent. A tree that is a sentient being. Listen to the description of Treebeard.
“Treebeard had a long, bushy, grey beard that appeared to be made of twigs and moss. His eyes were brown suffused with green light, and they were deep and penetrating.
“One felt as if there was an enormous well behind them, filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thinking; but their surface was sparkling with the present: like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples of a very deep lake. I don’t know but it felt as if something that grew in the ground – asleep, you might say, or just feeling itself as something between root-tip and leaf-tip, between deep earth and sky had suddenly waked up, and was considering you with the same slow care that it had given to its own inside affairs for endless years.”
How many human eyes are like deep wells and yet sparkle with the present. Some humans maybe?…not nearly enough of them though.
Most poor judgement of others is because our knowledge of the person is superficial. Spend any time with someone, and you’ll better understand them. Understand them better and you’ll be less likely to judge them and be much more likely to sympathize with them. You might even appreciate their ‘differentness’.
Ask God about the big questions. Look in the Bible…he’s already answered quite a few, but if you can’t find it, ask…ask Him. Seek to know Him. Imagine how deep His eyes must be how they must shine with His knowledge and His understanding! Look for the door that leads you to His heart. Do this and you’ll start to acquire the steady gaze of a mature Christian who foregoes judgement and seeks rather for Wisdom and Understanding. Quit playing in the kiddy pool, and take a dive in the deep end.
It’s easier to stop the judging when you actually have something better to do…like seeking God. Spend more time becoming someone interesting, and you won’t have to spend so much time making bad judements about someone you barely know just because you have nothing better to do.