Posted by giveawayboy on May 06, 2003 at 01:19:48:
In Reply to: trusting god or each other posted by giveawayboy on May 06, 2003 at 01:00:51:
there is a power that god gives to each of us mysteriously and it is a power to build up the body. this power is his very life. it is not given as a commodity, but like Steve said, it is our identity. he gives it in a mysterious way to us as a body and also to individuals. how we appropriate it and weild it is something that we learn moment by moment. i guess i'm saying this as a counterpoise to my last post about taking risks and participating in the life of the body. we know that our friends can hurt and betray us. we lack trust at times. but here is the mysterious nature of what god puts into us broken people. he gives us a new life and power that actually can help build trust. it is a long time coming, but through faith we can learn to trust god working in all of us. we have this power in us that can trust and see the good in broken people. we can trust and see the good even in people who might hurt us. we can even begin to see how those people benefit others. i think the problem is we need a whole mindset change. also, we can find ways that we betray or hurt and we can begin to use this power, which is the life of God in us, to change our actions, even if it is moment by moment to bring healing and strength to others. i guess i'm not seeing us as a bunch of wandering defeated people, but as a tribe of people, full of potential and eagerness to serve. hope i'm not way off base in these posts. i for one am just sick and tired of people feeling defeated. i feel weary to, but by faith i'm catching a glimpse of something great, and i'm not ready to just let go of it. i'm ready to stick it out and i'm not ready to give in to unnecessary despair. i've been studying this city in Brasil called Curitiba. Many who live there, love their city and truth be told, it has become an example city world wide for enviromental, social and economic reasons. one of the main things that helped this city was that the people who lived in the city did not feel that politics were a waste of time. they did not feel that politicians were all corrupt. I guess i'm saying this about PU. We all have our weaknesses. every last one of us from Steve on down has weaknesses. but in Curitiba they made their city great, because they worked alongside each other, making corrections and adjustments when necessary. They did not give into this attitude that those who lead were corrupt. they did not give into the lie that their city had to remain mediocre. They rose up together and worked their butts off and created a heroic city. we can do the same. we all need to hold up each heads to see a little bit higher than the realm of appearances and deceptions. we need to learn how to talk to each other about a little bit more than the realm of gossip or negativity. i think there is a great height we can aspire to. let us leave behind whatever holds us back.
yours, bill, a guy who doesn't have it all together, but who knows we can always make progress.....