Knowing this, I therefore know that it is really mean to trip across someone's writing down of things and then link it to your own blog wherein you shred said writing down of things apart, exposing it as Clearly Hope in What Ought Not to Be Hoped For.
So I'm not going to link to it. But I am going to paste some copy from it here, and if you want the link, you can email me and I'll send it to you. Because I also got a really good recipe for homemade deoderant on this same site and there might be other gold there to be mined.
She starts this particular post with a description of God creating the world. "There was order with each passing day." And very quickly, she leaps from there to this:
As we are created in His very image, I believe God has designed us to be creatures of order. God worked in an ordered, simple way, and we are commissioned to follow in this example. If we keep this vision in the foremost of our thinking, that God fashioned you to be orderly in your homemaking and lifestyle, than this goal will be a rock to stand upon.Speechless.
But can't stop reading. This:
Is clutter and disorder in our lives a good representation of Jesus Christ? Chaos in our lives is a sign that our relationship with Christ is probably askew. If there is disorder, stress, and clutter, we may just want to step back and evaluate our hearts. Am I submitting to your design for order, God? Or is ME on the throne in my home and I cannot let go. Make sure Jesus is the Lord of your home, submit to His design, and He will guide you each step of the way.
Listen, I don't think I even want to say anything else. Except for this maybe. These things hurt my heart. Because a) she believes this, and therefore believes 1) that her ordered home is a sign that she's got it right with Jesus and 2) that anyone she knows with a disordered home is being frowned on by Jesus; and b) (should I have used bullets?) she really and truly wants and needs other people to believe this too so that she can keep on believing 1 & 2 which seem to be kind of lynch-pinny to her understanding of what Jesus might love about her.
And then maybe I also want to say this. First, mostly this just makes me laugh because really, it is kind of funny. Jesus, Lord of my home = planned meals and routine housekeeping? I just keep picturing her face when she walks into Jesus' room in heaven for Wednesday night drinks (surprise number 1, right?) and discovers He never puts away laundry.
But then second, it makes me kind of want to cry because I write down all kinds of crazy shit that I really hope and want to be true about Jesus (see... well, just about every post here) and probably it's just as ludicrous to the Lord as I'm hoping this is. See? Crying.
Being a Jesus Freak is hard.
6 comments:
it's people like this that make being a Christian all the harder....some one gave me a poem when Byron was born about not having the house clean, the laundry away and the bathroom spotless and what is more important to you as a parent, a house that is spotless or spending time with you beloveds (be they your children or Jesus or both)
PS I didn't know there was a ban in place so have been sharing lots. OOPS!
This kind of thinking both amuses me and scares me. Amuses me because, well, I’m easily amused. Plus, it is easy to point to things I see as ridiculous and imagine how much more enlightened I am, and that amuses me, because really, me? Enlightened? Awesome!
The scary part is knowing that some people may not read beyond the confident, devotional, Godspeak language and will see this as one more way they don’t measure up, one more way they fail in God’s eyes, one more way to “self-help themselves”, one more way they aren’t ‘right’ with God – and all that will cause them to miss the point that Jesus really already took care of all that ‘failing’ crap we like to lament about. At least that’s what I thought the cross was about … but maybe I’m not so enlightened and perhaps what’s really scary is the idea that I have attachments to beliefs that are also quite far off of what Jesus is really about and what He really finds important.
PHEW! I guess I wasn't reading closely enough and thought for a split second that you were promoting this point of view. Our friendship was almost over.
"Cleanliness is next to Godliness" a daily quote from my late grandmother. The same lady who pledge waxed the entire house daily. The same crazed lady who I beleive drove my own Mother over the edge.
I find this thinking dangerous. I find this thinking to be the exact opposite of the God I want to know. Remember Gods son was born in a barn. A BARN people. Barns are smelly, messy overrun with mice and animal feces. It suggests that living in complete order will protect you from harm? So living with some disorder therefore makes it your fault if something goes wrong.
This makes me so mad. And sad. Imagine this womans children and oh goodness " daughter-in-law". We thought we had it bad. Dangerous.
Holy schmokes. If my junk drawers and my closets are any indication of Rightness with Jesus, I am screwed six ways from Saturday.
Some of my most neat-nik friends are the most unpeaceful people I know. Yes, I could clean out a few more drawers, but I think God would rather I do something else with my time. Like help people. Or do my Bible study on a daily basis, rather than the night before my group meets. That's what I think.
Great post, A, as usual.
It is a great comfort to know that those I love and admire think this is all kinds of kooky. I am hoping that Heaven is divided into neighbourhoods and I can spend my day to day worship of the King on High next to you all, and we only have to get together for group adoration with those other freaks weekly or monthly or something.
I did read further in this woman's blog and discovered that she is about 26, homeschooled, married at 20 to the only boy she dated, etc. I start to get all sad and compassionate, realizing that this is all that life has brought her this far and she really has no reason to know any differently yet. I suspect that life will eventually reveal that a daily devotion is not an innoculation against the chaos and terror of Bad Things Showing Up Unexpectedly, but until that happens, can I blame her for thinking her fomula works? I mean, I'm a Universalist too - I just happen to think my own brand of Truth is more universally true. (smirk - do you think Jesus just straight up guffaws sometimes?)
I'm thinking that she and the lady featured in the below article both get weekly colonics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/nyregion/09organizer.html?scp=3&sq=organize%20it&st=cse
Is that too mean?
I love cleaning house in preparation for company, but I also have this thing where I try to think about honoring myself as I might a guest. That comes to fruition once or twice a month.
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