We watched another Nooma video from Rob Bell yesterday morning. "Sunday" is pretty good. In fact, in our meeting last night, several people referred to it throughout the night (even me). It's kinda about the fact that God wants our heart, rather than mere obedience.
I think this is an issue for a lot of people: do we do what we do (Christian-wise) out of our love for God and others, or out of our sense of DUTY?
A perfect example played out the very same afternoon in our church. We had a memorial service with dinner to follow in our building for someone who never went to our church. His daughter has attended our church for almost 2 years, and she just didn't feel comfortable having the service anywhere else. I thought it was GREAT. And the place was packed with friends of the deceased, and a BOATLOAD OF OUR CHURCH PEOPLE. Again - super. The problem though (which I didn't find out about until last night), was from some of the people putting the dinner together. They didn't know why we were giving a dinner for someone who didn't even attend our church. Geesh! And they WATCHED THE VIDEO THIS MORNING!!!
Old ways die hard though. And I was glad that someone pointed out to this person that doing things like funeral dinners or baby showers or whatever are maybe more the sorts of things we Christians ought to be doing. Maybe churches might seem a little less threatening to people if we had a little more love in our hearts.
That thing about 'loving God and loving others'... it's not easy, you know. But I don't understand how people can think it's not what God wants us to do.
Anyway, the Nooma video "Sunday" is a good one. I recommend it.
Peace, friends. Revolution(ate).
7 comments:
Hey Dad,
No, I don't mind at all that you linked my blog...anything to get more people reading it is good!
Do you think it would be beneficial to switch to the new Beta thing? Not sure what the differences are.
isaac
Isaac,
I have another blog just for the purpose of trying out the Beta, and it IS a lot faster, and seems to run really nice. I haven't been able to figure out how to get my "Recent Comments" on it though, and a few other things. But you might want to try it out. It seems easier to edit and add to your sidebar and stuff like that.
I think I will eventually switch this one over - as I seem to always have problems with "old" blogger. It works fine one minute - then it won't work at all. Yeah, you might want to try it.
Hope yer havin' a good day!
Dad
FYI - I just read where Blogger Beta doesn't work with Safari or Opera (so unless you're using Firefox or Internet Explorer they don't recommend switching yet).
The sad thing is when people serve out of duty, they have no idea that's what they're doing. I was one of those for a thousand years at least. Obligatory duty...yuck! Was it EVER pleasing to God? I mean, I served "in His name" but really, it was all about me...duty....obligation.
I read Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline a year or two ago, and his chapter on service was dead on! I realized the difference between the martyr syndrome and lovin' God/lovin' others. Immediately, I thought of examples of both (in my own life, in the lives of others...it's much less painful to point a finger elsewhere, but then, there's those pesky three, pointing back at me :/).
Now where I sit, I'm just thankful to see the beauty of love being the motive behind any act...and that changes everything.
Robin,
Good points. Especially that people who are serving out of duty have no idea that's what they're doing. It IS a hard thing to grasp - moreso if that's what you've always lived by.
Thanks for visiting.
dh
We were just talking about this in my philosophy class. How people are moral for different reasons. Some do good things out of expectation of a reward..some out of pity..and some out of duty. And just yesterday, I was asking myself: do I want to help people because of my love for them or because I know it is my duty and i am obligated to do it. I realized that often it is the latter reason.
I just thought that it was interesting that you blogged about this.
Emily
Hi Emily,
Interesting how things like this happen sometimes, isn't it. Ya know, it's hard to say it's "wrong" to do something out of duty, but... maybe it's "better" to do it out of love. I dunno.
Good to hear from you!
dh
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