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AnonymousThis morning I was perusing my Facebook feed and came across this status of a friend:
“If we fail, it is because we have not yet put into practice what God has placed within us.”
For the love of chicken potpie, this kind of thinking gets to me. I can put a finger on a few things. Failure and success are a near constant in human existence and, more often than not, we will face failure. This idea that failure is bad, that weakness is a sign of the absence of strength…it is unsettling.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this comment, and these type of assertions in general. These kind of comments give me stomach knots that slowly start to untangle with perspective. So, let’s hear it!
AnonymousWell, if you’re lookin for an argument, I ain’t got one.
I for one am tired of the onus being placed upon me for everything. I spent years and years trying to please God, seeking him, trying to find and do “his will”. If he would but reveal it! Show me!
But if I don’t “get it” it’s still my fault?
That’s probably not where you were going with this, but that’s what came to mind for me.
AnonymousYea, @SanG. I was just thinking something similar. Kind of like some of the harmful ideas surrounding faith and healing; You are not healed because you don’t have enough faith, bull shit.
I’ve found a lot of encouragement in the idea that I can move forward in both my strengths and my weaknesses. I think what got to me most about this particular comment is that it was written by someone so young (early 20s). She is a youth leader in her church and it’s hard to know that people even younger are taking in this kind of thought – the idea that who they are, with their successes and their failures, is not good enough.
Hmm…
Failure is how us hoomins learn what doesn’t work. In fact, most animals learn it. Watch a kitten or puppy sometime. Lots of failure! It is whether we try again afterwards that is the key. The founder and chief writer for an Aussie kit electronics magazine many years ago used to say that if your new kit doesn’t work, you now have a chance to learn something. It was a radical approach to teaching electronics.
I used to like the pat little Christian catch-phrases. The few I liked the longest have dual meanings and tend to make people stop and think. The one you saw posted on FaceBook by your friend I find painfully näive. And I find it sad because the odds are good that one that person is going to come crashing down hard in life and their God is not going to save them the way they think he will.
Wade.
P.S. I loved the phrase “for the love of chicken potpie.”
AnonymousOh my God what a load of fucking crap. Greatest apologies for the profanity. I guess that must be down to my “failure” to be a good well behaved Chriatian,
Oh really, what would Jesus say about this? We hav not yet put int practise what God has place in us? Would you call a child a failure for not being a master pianist becaus God has given her the talent to play the piano and she is not a virtuoso?
In my expercins what god has placed in me takes time, nurturing, encourgarment getting up failing, getting knocked down again, taking the courage to face fear to face strong opressive forces that would have me not do what God has put in me to do and neefin frineds around to be with me in that, not call me a failure. Life is tough enough without freinds, people I depend on doing that.
Sorry if that was too much of a rant – probably an extreme reaction to your freind’s posying Holi and more of a reflection of my allergic reaction in the intensity of what I express than a reflection of what they have written. I’m sure they mean well and they probably have written that with the disire for people to enter into the fullness of life that God would have for them.
Anonymous@staticsan I couldn’t agree more. We are incredibly capable to learn and grow through failure. More and more I’ve been responding to these pat catch-phrasing thinking it could work to balance things out. Naturally I am fairly silent, but lately becoming less so. My question is: Everyday I stumble across these pat catch-phrases. What is a healthy and productive way to respond?
Agreed, @Adam-Julians. Although they likely mean well, I can’t help but cringe at the ignorance of it. It is disturbing. It’s how I was raised! I’ve heard it said: The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.
Anonymous@hollidurost Yeah wierd huh how often it is the “certainty” that give the appearance of faith but can be anyhting but fiath gin God. Missplaced faith in the flawed sysytem maybe but not faith in God. If anyone wanst to question doubt being consistent with faith, i would point them ot the psalms – they are full of them. And then I would point them to Jesus at Gesthemane. Cringe is a healthy emotion in respense to it. Have you seen what David has said about a way to rsepond to someone who is meaning well but not being helpful? I tried that one out a couple of times this week to good effect! Better than I would have done otherwise!
AnonymousI haven’t seen what @admin has said, @Adam-Julians! What he done said!?
Anonymous@hollidurost Well it was in the context of someone thinking they are doing goo by trying to get you to do somethign the think you should do. Hes saying it coms fomr a plce of concern – misguided and ignorant as it is. He’s suggesting that in keeping with that thanking them first and then using but to get things into your court and leave them with something to think about.
OK so the response might go something like this to the qutoe and there is some truth in the qute so ackowledge it first, so “Yes it often is the case that we fail because we have chosen not to make the most of the gifts and the talensts that God has given us. It is tru that we let God down whan that happens. But don’t you think that God the loves us just loves it when we do our best and don’t always get things right? I imagine him bein maybe a little like my dad when I brougha painting home fomr school. Sure I panted a horse and it looked like a dog but nevertheless he gave it pride of place and hung it high on the wall in the living room”.
That shoud do it *wink* Would love to hear how it goes if you say somethign to your firned
i think adam’s referring to this post: http://www.thelastingsupper.com/blog/2013/03/pity-party-table-for-one/
AnonymousYeah that’s right before i saw that post – I’d probably be going on a rant like the woman in the cartoon. I have a nice littel tool to bring out the box now for a suitable time thanks to that post. Now all i have to do is control what I really feel like saying and say what is suggested instead. Easier said than done – habits can be hard to break!
holli, yep. I cringe too. And then I look away….
Anonymous@starfielder – I don’t know how to NOT get involved. I am not the type of person who always has to put her 2 cents in, ya know? I stay at the side of the room, for the most part, and care about meaningful conversations. I don’t need to one-up anyone and I don’t get anxiety if I don’t get my point across. But something is changing in me – so many of my family and good friends are still of a “the bible is black and white, thus sayeth the lord” mindset and I can’t NOT get involved. That being said, I do stay civil – for the most part. My cousins (and more recently his friends) have started saying, “Oh, Holli…” everytime I question their pat answers for anything and everything.
I wish spankings were an acceptable response to condescension.
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