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<\/a>This is the time of year when a lot of people evaluate their story and try to make some sense of it, or perhaps make it better for the next trip around the sun.\u00a0 And there are real temptations to make ourselves the hero and everyone else into our supporting cast. \u00a0 But it takes courage to see things as they really are.\u00a0 There are a million conversations going by, but there are some on a world, national, local and even church or family scale which many of us share.\u00a0 A lot of what I post is an attempt to read those stories as they go by and correct the inaccuracies, to call things by their proper name.<\/p>\nFor example; a lot of times when I hear the phrase \u201cI\u2019m a Christian\u201d it makes a lot more sense to correct it to: \u201cI\u2019m a selfish coward.\u201d\u00a0 I know it might sound a little harsh but here we are again with telling the truth.\u00a0 Of course we all look forward to that day when God will judge, but part of remaking this entire Earth as it is in Heaven is to judge rightly.\u00a0 As in Matthew 18, or as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.<\/p>\n
Often I see the phrase \u201cI love you.\u201d or something similar and it makes more sense to change it to \u201cbeing selfish around you makes me feel nice\u201d.<\/p>\n
When people do horrible things they will often say \u201cthat\u2019s not who I am\u201d\u00a0 which needs to be edited to \u201cI don\u2019t want to accept responsibility for my actions\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou make me so mad\u201d is really \u201cI have no self control and I\u2019m going to blame you for that too.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of my personal favorites is \u201cI am rejecting what you say, not because you are wrong but because of the way you say it.\u201d\u00a0 Which is really \u201crather than change my behavior I am just going to blame your demeanor and speech patterns\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not nice.\u201d is really \u201cI don\u2019t like to be held to any standard outside of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is a whole class of \u201cyeah but look what you did\u201d which I still find very interesting.\u00a0 That somehow finding unrelated fault in someone else vindicates yourself.\u00a0 There are whole novels written on this principle.\u00a0 And in fact they must be written.\u00a0 For when we encounter goodness better than ourselves we must change or destroy the good.\u00a0 There just aren\u2019t any other options.\u00a0 That is why Jesus had to be crucified and why the story of every one of his true disciples is very similar.\u00a0 We will face persecution, bullying, mockery and even death.\u00a0 Because when your false story meets the true story you simply must deal with it.\u00a0 There is no room for two heroes, if you don\u2019t push yourself aside and put Jesus the Christ in the position of the hero, you are simply doomed to share the story of the fallen angel of light.<\/p>\n
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It is hard to minimize the importance of story to the health and sanity of the human soul.\u00a0 God speaks to his people in stories I Cor 10:11.\u00a0 And even our own stories are given to us to refine our character.\u00a0 But we must read them properly.\u00a0 The fundamental problem with idolatry or any other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t