Sunday, December 25, 2011

Sympatheologic

Greetings to all pagans or accidental Christians passing by this blog.
Well! Christmas night and all through the!
Don't bother looking up the word adorning this post-"Sympatheologic" is so freshly minted
it's still warm from the mind-oven.
Put simply (for a change), I've been over-inured with attempts to clutch at my heartstrings, make currency of my emotions.
You know what I mean-the Holiday feel good warm puppy stories.
"A man saves 40,000 nickles as a hobby, but gives them to a charity because..."It's Christmas"(tm)!" dunt dunt dah!
"A cat lost on vacation back in 1978, but the 5th generation of its kittens find their way back home to the waiting family on...
(you guessed it!) "Christmas"!"
 Please stop.
Why the fuss, Doug?
Simple. My emotions are mine. I do not want my emotions manipulated with warm puppy stories by media trying to make a buck off of me.
Because it's Christmas. Christmas. Christmas. Beer commercial. Warm puppy. Christmas. Christmas. Car commercial. Christmas. Warm puppy. Vodka. Christmas. Truck. Christmas.
I am not made of concrete and other discrete 'parts'. I do have emotions...I just prefer that they not be abused for the sake of commerce.
Which brings me to the theologic part of 'Sympatheologic'.
God has Blessed me with many friends and family.
They are on my heart, in my prayers. I think I have more sick friends right now than healthy ones. Some are struggling, some few may not see another Christmas.
But all are safe with God.
Right now, today, there have been "Christmas Day attacks" across the globe which have killed some of my brothers and sisters in Christ. My sympathies are with them, their families. They are safe with God.
I have unsaved friends and family for whom I continue to pray. They are...





7 comments:

Doug said...

I wish I could have all of my friends and family with us in Heaven when I get there.
But here's a point which is hard for some to accept:
God does the choosing, and if He does not save someone, that is up to Him, and has to be fine with me.
I would love to see hell empty, as I've said before, but the reality is that God doesn't save most of the world from going there-narrow are both the way and the gate that lead to Heaven, broad is the way leading to hell.
When I get to Heaven, I know that I will never see anyone complaining at God that He made a mistake. We will all be bowed down in worship, praising God for saving us though we know that we deserve hell.
May God add you to our number.

Lucia said...

Why do we deserve hell?

It depends how you define hell, of course, but if hell is eternal suffering, how can any human being deserve it? What have you done, what has any human being done, that could merit that?

Take Ted Bundy, for example. He may have murdered as many as 50 women. Let's say he deserves 200 years of hellfire, every second immortal agony, for the suffering he inflicted on each woman. If he's eternally damned, when he's been there 10,000 years... he'll have no fewer days to scream his lungs out than when he'd first begun.

You and I strive to be righteous, to walk humbly, to help feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked. So do millions of our neighbors. Why do we deserve hell?

And don't tell me because God says so. As you understand justice, goodness and mercy, why do we deserve hell?

Doug said...

Hello Lu-nice to see you pop in again, even though we won't agree about why people go to hell.

"And don't tell me because God says so. As you understand justice, goodness and mercy, why do we deserve hell?" Two conflicting sentences.
As it IS because God 'says so'; that is my only point, which you don't want to hear about. So, though I'd like to, I can't answer your question. Because that is how I understand justice, goodness and mercy. Impasse.
I hope that you are well, enjoying life, Lu.
I have a question, too. As this is now a (shudder) election year, if some nationally known Democrat (HClinton, for example) made a run to unseat President Obama, how do you think that would go?
I know that it won't happen, but I'm assuming that there is dissatisfaction with President Obama. Could you vote for a challenger?

Lucia said...

Hmm... I think any Democratic challenger would be seen as a spoiler, and wouldn't get much traction. I doubt if the power brokers would let such a challenge get far: Dems are far less unified and disciplined than the GOP (as Will Rogers famously said a couple of political eons ago, I don't belong to any organized party, I'm a Democrat), but not completely clueless. If such a candidate did run, I wouldn't vote for them; I'm unhappy with Obama because he's caved to the GOP way too much, possibly that lack of executive experience coming home to roost, but he still beats all the alternatives by a country mile.

Specifically re Secretary Clinton, I'd have voted for her in 2008 had she been the nominee, but I wouldn't go near her if she ran this year, for the reasons I've given. I think she's way too smart to try any such thing; besides, being Secretary of State is no small potatoes (and I think she's acquitted herself admirably in that job).

(Might some Dem take votes from Obama by running as an independent or on a fringe-party platform? It could happen, but it's not likely. As we saw in 2000, even a couple of percentage points in one state could swing a whole election &#8212 but, having seen it in 2000, the abovementioned power brokers would try hard to prevent any such scenario. Plus I can't offhand think of any Dem who is rich, powerful, popular, and antiestablishment enough to pull it off.)

Lucia said...

Oops, &#8212 was supposed to have been a dash — like this.

Lucia said...

As for hell, I thought you would say that; and I say that your God is a sadistic bully, and not for bread or wine or all the kingdoms on earth would I bow down and worship him. Nor even to get into heaven: spending eternity praising such a deity isn't my idea of bliss.

Fwiw, if there is a God (or more than one), I don't think S/He/They are anything like yours.

Doug said...

"Fwiw, if there is a God (or more than one), I don't think S/He/They are anything like yours."
Fair enough, Lu-I'm glad that we don't feel the need to argue-there is no point in it, as neither of us is capable of budging a centimeter.
Will Rogers-my Grandfather used to correspond with a friend who was sort of the 'local' Will Rogers back in the 1950's. This guy ended every letter with:
"If you want to be misunderstood your entire life, always say exactly what you mean."