Morning all,
I picked my
sister up from the airport
last night. She lives in the United States and works there as a
children’s
pastor. I mentioned the discussions we have been having here regarding
Bush’s policies, America’s responsibility, repentance, and the
reflective approach to 9/11 that Lance and I prescribe. She
immediately
told me of how much of America is doing just that, engaging the event
with
thoughtful and prayerful speech. She mentioned that talk radio has
been constructively
discussing why the rest hates the west for over a year now. I said to
her, well that certainly is not like the forum that I am attempting to
engage. She looked up from her dinner and said, “Oh, you must be
speaking
with fundamentalists.” I smiled.
There is
nothing like a nice, ripe
peach. So soft, juicy, delicious, sweet, everything a peach should
be. But not all peaches are like the perfect peach. Many peaches
are hard, unforgiving to the touch, un-impressionable. They look great
from the outside, the fuzz in the right places, the colour just right.
But when you pick one up it is hard. Your thumb leaves no imprint.
You put the peach down and search for one that is impressionable, one
that will
be sweet to the mouth. Of course you keep an eye on the first peach;
you
hold it again tomorrow but it is still hard. Each day you lightly
touch it
hoping for that softness, hoping against odds that the peach will
become all
that it is meant to become: the perfect peach. Although it still looks
beautiful on the outside it begins to rot on the inside. Within a few
days, this peach that had so much potential is now rotten, beginning to
smell.
I would like
the TT forum to become more
like the soft peaches: impressionable, teachable, and pliable. This is
my
main problem with fundamentalists; they have lost the ability to be
molded, to
become soft, teachable. Rather, they look great from the outside,
perhaps
looking like the model Christians. They do most things right; they
look
like good peaches. But when you pick one up, attempt to become more
intimate with that peach you notice that it is hard on the inside. A
nice
looking peach, but little visible fruitness. These peaches tend to be
rather angry, responding out of their hardness, their rigidity.
Softness
is considered too feminine, too liberal. Meanwhile, they slowly rot
inside, their juice drying up.
My very
first post on Truthtalk was about epistemological
humility; the changes that occur in our doctrines as we become closer
to
God. I asked for examples from people (after providing a few of my
own)
on where God had changed them, molded them differently from what they
first
believed. I found it astounding when none of the ‘fundamentalists’
on this forum replied, not one of them. It appears that
fundamentalists
grow in the faith, just never change in it. What an eye-opener for
me.
I beg of you, plead with you, allow the Spirit to keep you humble, to
be
impressionable, to listen and hear the Spirit’s voice in whatever guise
it may come to you. Allow yourself to be healthy peaches, full of
juice and
a delicate sweetness.
Jonathan
