Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Great Divide needs Love

I've noticed more and more over the past few years the "great divide" that is between Christians.  One of the most notable things to me is there is never an argument over who loved someone more or better.  I think because their is no love in the protest, name calling, hate spewing words that come from either side.

White, black, foreign, immigrant, christian, agnostic, addict, fundamentalist, right, left, gay, straight, single, loud, shy, divorced, married, Baptist, widow, rich, poor, middle class, Methodist, disabled, liberal, artistic, Catholic,moderate, slim, Presbyterian, obese, fit, Episcopalian, healthy, tattooed, sick, Unitarian, farmer, cancer, autistic, military, intelligent, alcoholic, bi-racial, adopted,opinionated, follower, non-denominational, pastor, homeless

These mostly single words are one word descriptions of friends and family of mine. We are different, we are similar, we agree, we disagree...

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. Love your neighbor as yourself - Jesus

This verse speaks beyond the protest, name calling and hate...LOVE


Sunday, July 22, 2012

Teatime Thoughts: Conversations

Teatime Thoughts: Conversations: Since I no longer live on a farm, I've decided to have a new blog, Teatime Thoughts . I hope it will be interactive as many times my though...

Conversations

Since I no longer live on a farm, I've decided to have a new blog, Teatime Thoughts.
I hope it will be interactive as many times my thoughts lead to questions and maybe you will have an answer or opinion.
One of the questions I've had for sometime now is, why do we no longer have conversations?  By this I mean we "talk" by texting, posting on facebook or twitter and think we know everything that is currently going on in our "friend's" lives.  In these conversations that I think we are missing out on, I also wonder when we stopped being able to agree to disagree.  Instead now we seem to live in a life of attack. No longer willing to see a different view of the picture. Years back, a friend of mine and myself had been raised in two different countries in two very different styles of church and homelife.  We had some shared beliefs and practices and some we were on different sides of the fence about but it was in our differences that I grew (and I think she did too) as a person and our friendship blossomed.  Challenged to think about more than myself, more than the culture I grew up in, more than my parents or childhood pastor had taught me...I had to pray, read, discuss, discover and grow into who I am today.  I'm glad I am not the person I was 1, 3, 5, 10, 20+ years ago...and I think it is because I truly love to have a conversation.  A time of listening and a time of speaking.