You could say I'm a pirate because I want to conquer the world and give it back to its Creator, or a rescuer because I'm all for giving a warm hug to the rejected and marginalised and heal their broken hearts, or a witch like the heroes of LOTR and Harry Potter who used magic powers to defeat evil. Or maybe just a child trapped in a body of an adult, still innocent, still a dreamer
During our travellings today, we were listening some videos on performance-based Christianity. At some point while we were listening, @arcenciel-par-une-larme said that God doesn't call the qualified but qualifies the called.
I repeat:
GOD DOESN'T CALL THE QUALIFIED BUT QUALIFIES THE CALLED.
That hit hard. And it's crucial to remember it because the Church today works like a business and is obsessed with performance, numbers and perfectionism.
No, we are not second-rated Christians if we don't meet the Church's standards. We are beloved children of God and when He calls us He also qualifies us. He wants us to be humble, willing, available and obedient. Not spotless machines.
The church is not a factory nor a corporation and should not behave like one. Likewise, we are not cogwheels nor businessmen and we should not behave like we are. No matter the pressure, the rejection and the abuse, we have to resist.
it's both so ironic and so evil that a horrific fear of abandonment can often manifest as a manic desire for explosive abandonments and heartbreaks and insults. it does make sense, though: if you are certain of an inevitable, slow, painful death for yourself, a quick death is often preferred and striven for.
1. it's crucial to keep in mind that reparenting and healing many times take time if not years and is not a linear process.
2. In order for someone to be a healthy adult they need to be a healthy child first. In other words, let the child inside you breathe and live at last..!
3. Therapy is important and is not a sign of weakness. We need to kill the stigma.
In 1978, the farmers in a small Chinese village signed a secret contract. They thought it might get them executed. Instead, it wound up tran
"Back then, even one straw belonged to the group," says Yen Jingchang, who was a farmer in Xiaogang in 1978. "No one owned anything."
At one meeting with communist party officials, a farmer asked: "What about the teeth in my head? Do I own those?" Answer: No. Your teeth belong to the collective.
In theory, the government would take what the collective grew, and would also distribute food to each family. There was no incentive to work hard ā to go out to the fields early, to put in extra effort, Yen Jingchang says.
"Work hard, don't work hard ā everyone gets the same," he says. "So people don't want to work."
In Xiaogang there was never enough food, and the farmers often had to go to other villages to beg. Their children were going hungry. They were desperate.
So, in the winter of 1978, after another terrible harvest, they came up with an idea: Rather than farm as a collective, each family would get to farm its own plot of land. If a family grew a lot of food, that family could keep some of the harvest.
This is an old idea, of course. But in communist China of 1978, it was so dangerous that the farmers had to gather in secret to discuss it.
One evening, they snuck in one by one to a farmer's home. Like all of the houses in the village, it had dirt floors, mud walls and a straw roof. No plumbing, no electricity.
"Most people said 'Yes, we want do it,' " says Yen Hongchang, another farmer who was there. "But there were others who said 'I dont think this will work ā this is like high voltage wire.' Back then, farmers had never seen electricity, but they'd heard about it. They knew if you touched it, you would die."
Despite the risks, they decided they had to try this experiment ā and to write it down as a formal contract, so everyone would be bound to it. By the light of an oil lamp, Yen Hongchang wrote out the contract.
The farmers agreed to divide up the land among the families. Each family agreed to turn over some of what they grew to the government, and to the collective. And, crucially, the farmers agreed that families that grew enough food would get to keep some for themselves.
The contract also recognized the risks the farmers were taking. If any of the farmers were sent to prison or executed, it said, the others in the group would care for their children until age 18.
The farmers tried to keep the contract secret ā Yen Hongchang hid it inside a piece of bamboo in the roof of his house ā but when they returned to the fields, everything was different.
Before the contract, the farmers would drag themselves out into the field only when the village whistle blew, marking the start of the work day. After the contract, the families went out before dawn.
"We all secretly competed," says Yen Jingchang. "Everyone wanted to produce more than the next person."
It was the same land, the same tools and the same people. Yet just by changing the economic rules ā by saying, you get to keep some of what you grow ā everything changed.
At the end of the season, they had an enormous harvest: more, Yen Hongchang says, than in the previous five years combined.
That huge harvest gave them away. Local officials figured out that the farmers had divided up the land, and word of what had happened in Xiaogang made its way up the Communist Party chain of command.
At one point, Yen Hongchang was hauled in to the local Communist Party office. The officials swore at him, treated him like he was on death row.
But fortunately for Mr. Yen and the other farmers, at this moment in history, there were powerful people in the Communist Party who wanted to change China's economy. Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who would go on to create China's modern economy, was just coming to power.
So instead of executing the Xiaogang farmers, the Chinese leaders ultimately decided to hold them up as a model.
Within a few years, farms all over China adopted the principles in that secret document. People could own what they grew. The government launched other economic reforms, and China's economy started to grow like crazy. Since 1978, something like 500 million people have risen out of poverty in China.
Today, the Chinese government is clearly proud of what happened in Xiaogang. That contract is now in a museum. And the village has become this origin story that kids in China learn about in school.
I've asked this before but...why are we so selective on what drunk people are responsible for?
Like of you drink and leave your kids in the car or something, you can be arrested fir chikd endangerment/neglect.
If you get drunk and decide to steal from a business, youre still recognized as a thief.
If you get drunk and fight people on the street, you can still be arrested.
If you get drunk and vandalize a building, you still get arrested.
If you get drunk and drive, you will be arrested if caught.
But if you drink even a little and have sex with someone, it's assumed you arent in your right mind to have made that sound decision, and thus...arent responsible for your actions?
And to be clear, this often doesnt apply to men who drink.
Drunk men are often seen as responsible for their actions regardless of how much they had to drink.
Why are we considered responsible for our actions regardless of our intoxication for essentially everything but intercourse?
Here's a hymn we sang today at home, which set to the tune of the American National Anthem.
It was only last year that the 4th of July started having a different impact on me, mainly because during that year I started experiencing the American world first hand.
Therefore, I pray that both the American nation and the whole world, both you and I, will finally declare our independence from Satan's Dominion over us and come back to the one true God.
We are His army. And the war is between principalities and powers of the heavenly places. Let's raise His banner and march on. Let's fight for Him.
May all nations and all people finally experience and accept the freedom offered not by weapons and wars but by Christ Himself. Freedom from malice, pride and hypocrisy. Freedom from trauma, loneliness, rejection, abuse and abandonment. Freedom from darkness. And even freedom from ourselves.
Happy 4th of July!
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It first was unĀfurled upon BethĀleĀhemās plain,
Where shepĀherds their lone starry night watch were keepĀing;
And JuĀdeaās hills echoed back the reĀfrain,
While Godās chosĀen race all unĀconĀscious were sleepĀing,
As anĀgelĀic bands lifted high in their hands
The stanĀdard which yet was to conĀquer all lands,
O say, does the blest Gospel banĀner yet wave
Over alĀtars and homes, and the path to the grave?
Yes! from dark loneĀly towĀers it floatĀed for years
When dim mists and black shaĀdows enveloped the agĀes,
At first crimĀsoned with blood, and then darkĀened with tears,
With which marĀtyrs reĀcordĀed their names on earthās pagĀes,
Now hath vanĀished the night, and we hail the glad light,
Which ilĀluĀmines that banĀner, unfurled to our sight,
'Tis the blest GosĀpel banĀner, and long may it wave
Over alĀtars and homes, and the path to the grave.
And thus be it evĀer with foes of the right,
Who hurl on our cause their fierce imĀpreĀcaĀtions,
For God helps to triĀumph in His hoĀly might,
The men who will serve Him through all geĀneĀraĀtions;
And when dust to dust shall return, as it must,
We praise Him forĀevĀer, who now is our trust:
And the blest GosĀpel banĀner its gloĀry shall wave,
Over alĀtars and homes, And the path to the grave!
I wonder whether those who call God a "she" or their Mother, are not all just misguided leftists but rather hurt people who never had a proper mother that actually loved and cared for them.
Many are just obsessed with gender ideology and are too loud so we can't listen to those who try to speak. I'm sure there are people who long for a motherly love. And God might be the only person in their life that can offer that. So calling him their Mother might be soothing as the wound in their soul starts healing. Even those obsessed with their ideology might deal with rejection issues from their mother deep inside.
Others on the other hand may struggle with calling God their Father because they never had a proper father figure. So calling Him their Mother might be easier.
So.... maybe we should not get too preachy but rather look what's underneath the top of the iceberg? Instead of starting a conversation by explaining why God is our Father, why not ask them about why they call God their Mother? And why don't we focus on their upbringing?
** Disclaimer: I don't agree with them. And I certainly don't believe that calling God our Mother is right or biblical. In other words, starting pandering them by watering down the Gospel is not the right way of approaching them. But still, I try to understand their thought process.
My cat attacked me and scratched and bit my arm bad. She suddenly needed to play and get energy out. I feel like a failure of a cat mom. I thought this was mostly fixed - she used to do this often but it had slowed down. She probably needs a cat friend, but what if she does this to the cat? She bullied my brotherās cats.
Iām also not doing okay. Sheās basically the only reason I come back down from suicidal thoughts and if Iām starting to believe she would be better off with someone else taking care of herā¦
I know the feeling. Our cat prefers my husband more to the point that she only goes to him for cuddles and isolates herself when my husband is not in the house instead of spending time with me. She rarely comes to me. As I struggle with rejection, loneliness and abandonment, dealing with this is tricky. I feel I'm a burden to her. So... you are not alone.
I try to reject the belief that we are failures as cat mums. I can't explain their behaviour but I try to remember that cats don't think like humans do..
"In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike."
ā Harriet Beecher Stowe
