My friend Laura recently blogged about homosexuality. Between the lines of what she wrote, I sense that she wants to trust in God's Biblically revealed truth about homosexual acts, but has trouble reconciling it with His love.
In thinking about this, it struck me that the pain that two people of the same sex who have fallen in love experience when committed to obeying God's word is the same as our Lord's pain for us.
It is the pain of self denial. The pain of restrained love. The pain of wanting to unleash love and comfort and giving and sharing but having to stop. Having to hold back out of a greater love, out of a greater desire for the best of the beloved. He could simply do it, simply unleash His love on all of us, and in doing so, remove our ability to chose to love Him in return. Instead, he gives us the opportunity to chose love ourselves, mimicking Him by also having to deny ourselves in order to fully accomplish that love.
And so our Lord aches to consummate, throughout the eons.
He must have a very special place set aside for those committed Christians who also ache to consummate with their mirror images, but do not.
Showing posts with label Imago Dei. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Imago Dei. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Day 8 take 2: fully ourselves
I had the honor of counseling someone in prayer this morning, a sweet spirit who's humility is deep and painful. My heart continues to ache for her this afternoon, and for a few other friends who's crosses are difficult.
We talked about Paul's apparent abhorrence of and battle with the flesh, and about my BP's teaching on our being made in the image and likeness of God; the imago Dei. He taught us that the Christian journey is to become more and more who God made us to be. The more we transform ourselves into His image, the more truly ourselves we become.
In the fullness of time we will walk in resurrected bodies, finally and at last fully ourselves. His plan for completion is not that we disappear, but that we transform.
And so it is not that we become less ourselves, but more ourselves. When we are most like Him, we are most fully us.
It is not that we either become like Jesus, or remain like ourselves. The two become one.
And I think that when I have this discussion with Paul, he will agree with me.
(Click here to read more on this in a later post...)
We talked about Paul's apparent abhorrence of and battle with the flesh, and about my BP's teaching on our being made in the image and likeness of God; the imago Dei. He taught us that the Christian journey is to become more and more who God made us to be. The more we transform ourselves into His image, the more truly ourselves we become.
In the fullness of time we will walk in resurrected bodies, finally and at last fully ourselves. His plan for completion is not that we disappear, but that we transform.
And so it is not that we become less ourselves, but more ourselves. When we are most like Him, we are most fully us.
It is not that we either become like Jesus, or remain like ourselves. The two become one.
And I think that when I have this discussion with Paul, he will agree with me.
(Click here to read more on this in a later post...)
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