Questions God Will Never Ask ~ Closing

Greetings Dear Reader,

We make so many choices about preferences.  We choose based on our likes and dislikes.  Things that please us draw us to them.  People go where they get their needs met.  If we think about our favorite diner or dinner it is about the same.  We know what we like and are drawn to it.

The idea that there is only one right way to do some things is not part of God’s nature.  If we act out of love for the Father and each other most of the rest is a matter of preference.  Following Christ is really much simpler than we make it for each other.

We are required to worship out of our love for God.  He will never ask why we did it sitting down, standing, or rolling in the aisle.  Prayer is necessary.  God will never ask why we did it on our knees or in a chair.  He will not ask why we used memorized prayers of why we did not. 

I have said this a couple of times lately but I will say it again so that I get it.  The Father is not surprised by anything I choose.  He already knows, already has a response, and is seeking constantly for me to see him in every encounter.  There is no moment where he is not there asking me to see his love for me, love him in return, and show that love to my fellow humans.

The perfect will of God is summed up in those three things Dear Reader.  Everything else is a matter of choice.  In those choices, the Father finds joy in our infinite diversity.  Because we have a finite mind, we have trouble getting it around omniscience possessing limitless creativity but it is there none-the-less. 

As we travel on from this discussion, It is important to remember it.  In it are the seeds to a discussion is still proofing in my warm gray matter.  The essence of it is this:  Our perception of the Father’s inability to be surprised by our actions can lead us into less guilt and sorrow if we let it.  That is the beginning of something that I will get to a little further down the path.

For now, Dear Reader, let us agree that God will never ask us why we made our choices.  He knows.  He will continue to ask us to get to know him and his love four us.  He will ask us to love him in return.  He will insist that we love each other through grace, mercy, forgiveness, and service.  On this rests all of our other choices.  Shall we work at that together? 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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Questions God Will Never Ask ~ Food

Greetings Dear Reader,

I had the privilege of eating with a friend at a new restaurant yesterday.  It was a good place to eat and not overpriced but also not as frugal as I usually am when it comes to breakfast fare.  I enjoyed the food and the company was literally divine. 

The place was the kind that featured free-range cage-free potatoes and non-political lemons.  Having lived in a city for twenty years that is on the vegan edge of this trend I have learned that there are places that truly engage with this philosophy of food and there are places that do it for the profitability.  It is important to some people to know the sourcing and production of their food.  It is important to others to talk about it.

In Sheetrock on the Road, I recount an incident where I was assailed by a vegan at a festival for Bratwurst.  I am sure that it left me somewhat scarred in the battle over broccoli, burgers, and brats.  What I do wish to say on this day that will see me eat as much corned-beef as I can manage is that God will never ask us why we ate meat.  He will never demand our explanation for allowing foreign sourced mangos in our salsa.  

The truth is that we need to pay more attention to our heart and attitude about food instead of battling over salad versus steak.  Even though I am light-hearted about the discussion between omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans, I care more about things that matter eternally.  We are obligated to be good to each other when it comes to food as well as everything else.

It troubles me to see someone leave half a plate of food uneaten at a restaurant when it could be taken and eaten later.  It hurts me to realize the amount of food we waste when so many are hungry.   God will never ask me why I had pulled pork barbeque for dinner.  He may ask me why I neglected someone else who told me he or she was hungry. 

The freedom we have in Christ is to eat almost anything we wish.  The obligation we have is to do so with gratitude for what we have, care for the needs of others, and to never be gluttonous.  We should try to be healthy.  We should celebrate with food when we can as it is part of God’s prescription for celebration.  We should always do what we can to feed the poor. 

Yesterday I had a good meal with a friend the centered around loving God and loving each other as fellow travelers.  The fact that I had bacon in my scramble will not come up when God and I talk about it.  The fact that two of his children expressed their love of him and each other in truth and harmony will come up and our Father will be smiling.  Let us have a good meal and discuss this further Dear Reader before we head down the road.  Oh, and as to the vegan young lady that threw her shoes at me.  I have already forgiven you and would love to buy you a salad.

 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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Questions God Will Never Ask ~ Feels

Greetings Dear Reader,

I have written several times about feelings over the last few years.  One of the things which we fail to do is to allow our feelings to live and then allow them to die.  We do not use our feelings to help us learn how to be our better selves.

Whilst I am not going to dwell on any one feeling, I do wish to process how our feelings evolve into automatic learned responses.  I think of my feelings as rain gauges for emotion.  I think a thought and it produces a feeling.  The more often that thought reigns in my mind the more that feeling saturates my life. 

The process goes like this:  Something happens. I think about that event.  Those thoughts trigger an emotion.  I choose an action based on that emotion.  There is now another event that occurs because I acted and the cycle begins again.  What we fail to grasp is even though we do it at a very base level we choose how we feel.  We choose how we respond.

This is why we are supposed to bring every thought we have under our control.  We are not to create a process of instant learned negative emotions in our lives, but we do.  We train our minds that when certain events occur, we will have a certain emotional response.  “If he leaves his socks on the floor one more time…”  We have chosen anger in the future with this thought.  We choose thoughts that are not healthy and wed them to our darker emotions.

It is not wrong to feel anger, sadness, or hurt.  It is always wrong to extend the life of feelings that are not good for us.  It is always allowable to feel things but we must never allow our feelings to control us.  God will never ask us why we felt how we did.  He may ask us why we thought our way to certain feelings.  This is never anyone’s choice but our own.

Everything is subject to our thoughts about it.  I think my way into love and hate, peace and anger, sorrow and joy.  None of those feelings are wrong but there may be wrong thoughts that lead me there.  My failure to see non-emotional love as the key to controlling all of my thinking may lead to thought patterns that spawn waves of emotion that are unhealthy for me.  They, in turn, become unhealthy for others. 

It is in the handling of our feelings that we decided how we will treat others.  If I forgive you, I will not love you properly.  If I cling to grief, I will not develop true joy in my journey.  My choice to fear things will keep me from exploring deeper faith.  Anger, fear, sorrow, and all other negative emotions are allowed to live but not have a long lease or permanent purchase in my life.   It is in this that we find the way home Dear Reader.  It is love that casts out the negative feelings by serving as the foundation for all of our thinking. 

The non-emotional love that is unconditional and eternal will guide us into mastering our feelings so that the harmful ones are short lived and those focused on Christ resolve into tendrils of genuine love.  That, Dear Reader makes me feel great joy.  How about you?

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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Questions God Will Never Ask ~ Forked Roads

Greetings Dear Reader,

When I first began to follow Christ, I was given an impossible task, or so it seemed.  I heard teaching and was given counsel on finding the “perfect will of God for my life.”  Because I was in a very conservative tribe of believers, I was also told very clearly by people who did not know me what that will was.

The leadership drew a very clear path for me and made it seem like they knew what my destiny was.  They were wrong but they meant well.  It was not manipulation but it did not take into account how the Father had uniquely gifted me.  I lost a few years in trying to follow a path that was not suited to who I am as a person. 

This goes back to our understanding of two things.  The first is that if we understand how things unfold in time from God’s perspective, then there is not a path we “should have taken.”  Everything is known and understood by God so he knows which fork you will choose every time.  You are always, therefore, choosing the fork you were meant to choose.  Only humans say you should have gone to the right instead of the left.

It is in this understanding that we view the second but more important aspect of why this is vital to our journey.  There is only one way to find the right path for our lives.  It is to understand that the foundation for the path is the deep and unwavering love of God for us.  That tribe of followers that I knew early on was steeped in being conservative in order to prove we loved God.  It only proved it to the humans in that tribe who believed the same thing.  The map to following Christ is that the path is loving God and each other in the moment. 

When we set up a wall around this that tells us how to conform to the tribe we are not loving.  We are putting rules over love.  Rules have value but they are not the foundation.   Pure and genuine love will lead us to rules that are steeped in kindness, grace, justice, and mercy.  Jesus made it clear that vertical love for the Father and horizontal love for each other are the path to understanding the intent and limitations of the Law.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God.  He will, therefore, never ask why you did not take this or that path.  It is in the past, it cannot be changed, and what seemed a choice to us was foreknown by the Father.  We must not waste time thinking that we should have done this or that.  Once the choice is made, we can only use the next moment to seek Christ and to love each other.  It is in this attitude that we can be assured that the moments, the days, and the life we live is unfolding as it should. 

When we walk together Dear Reader it is not my place to point to the past and tell you what you should have done.  I am not supposed to look back through time and feel guilt over the past.  I am required to see time and learn from it so that I can live in this moment as a more loving and a better fellow traveler.  It is the way in which we can walk together in a way that benefits us both.  I am going to tell you what the perfect will of God is for your life:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Everything else is secondary.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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Questions God Will Never Ask ~ Einstein

Greetings Dear Reader,

The question that triggered this area of thinking for me was this, “God will never ask you why you were not Einstein.  He may ask you why you were not Sheldon Cooper.” -  Young Sheldon.  You will never be asked to be someone else.

Again, this thinking comes from our lack of understanding of the nature of God.  Every single one of us is unique in all of existence in every time and every place.  There is and will only ever be one of us.  We have a destiny and a role to fill.

This does not mean that we will miss our destiny or fail to walk our path.  Remember that the Father already knows everything we will do.  He has plans for us that are not to harm us.  He is working in each of us to bring all things back to good.  The implications of our individuality are important on a cosmic scale. 

The difficulty is that we compare ourselves to all the wrong things.  We wish we were like someone we think of as better than ourselves.  We desire to be more like this or that person.  We compare ourselves to those we think successful.  We emulate our heroes or despair and quit.

What we fail to do is compare ourselves to our former selves.  We fail to remember that the self we must become need only be better today than yesterday.  We need to improve in the moment.  We fail to see that the past need only inform the future and not control it.  We fail to give ourselves the freedom to grow by becoming discouraged that we are not like someone else.

Every person has a life to live that can be for ill or good.  We have the freedom to choose from our perspective.  God already knows our choices from his.  He will counter-move to each of our moves to guide us toward him and his desire for us to see his love for us.  He will never force us.  He will never make us love him. 

Most important Dear Reader, he will never ask you why you were not more like Einstein or any other human.  He makes a way every moment for you to see his love and how much he loves everyone.  He will ask us in every one of those moments to be more like him in our love and kindness.  We must also remember that we should not expect each other to be more like someone else. 

I must accept everyone as he or she is.  I must love him or her with all that I can and look for the unique love and creativity of the Father in everyone.  There is no individual that does not have something unique to show me about my faith, following, and life.  I must be willing to love and learn from everyone.  It is in this discipline that the joy in our traveling together is found.  So, tell me Dear Reader, how are you going to be more yourself today than yesterday?  I long to know who you are and learn from it.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

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Questions God Will Never Ask ~ Surprises

Greetings Dear Reader,

I become more certain every day that we do not really understand omniscience.  When we say that God knows everything, I do not think we have thought through what that means and the implications.  I will dig a little deeper than this but I want it to be clear.  God will never ask you why you snuck something past him.

Let us dwell on omniscience for a moment.  Here is a question I will ask you:  Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?  It is in light of this question that we unpack our understanding of an all-knowing nature.  Consider all the things that you do that no one else knows about or is told.

The cookies we sneak, the shows we binge, and the office supplies we steal are all seen by God.  Not only are they seen, but they were already known by God before you even thought of doing them.  Everything you ponder has already been seen by the Father and he knows what you will think, choose, say, or do.  He has already prepared his response and is waiting in the moment of it for you to arrive (that is called omnipresence).

The implications to this are vast.  You see you will never surprise God with what you choose to do or say.  He knows every secret and every thought.  He has a response planned for everything and it is this: He is going to love you.  He does love you in the constant now.  His second response is that he commands me to love you and you to love me. 

There is no situation in which the Father does not already know you fully and desire the very best for you.  You will not, therefore, disappoint, hurt, or fail the Father.  Those are human responses that we put on God to make him more like us.  You cannot disappoint someone who already knows what you will choose. 

It is in this knowledge that we stand in every moment, every grain of time that falls through the pinch.  An all-knowing, always present, and all-powerful God wants you to find him loving you in every moment.  He also wants you to figure out how to love him back Dear Reader.    God will not be surprised if you do or do not.  He will love you anyway.  It is his nature.  Perhaps we should try loving him and see how it works out.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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Questions God Will Never Ask ~ Clothing Options

Greetings Dear Reader,

First, let us consider that I am not saying clothing is optional.  Please keep your clothes on and ponder instead what options there are.  In our society we place far too much emphasis on what people wear and when they wear it. 

Think for a moment about the many fashion choices there are for us.  We have different uniforms for work, recreation, leisure, and sleep.  Even in those categories, there are variables influenced and informed by trends, taste, and practicality.  A quick look around will tell us that our choices are varied and driven by culture.

None of this is wrong.  We are free to dress in any style that suits us.  Our choices may be limited by our available resources and the care we have for our appearance in certain situations.  It is in those choices that we express our style, preferences, and values.  Our fashion sense or lack of it is an extension of who we are as individuals. 

It also says who we are relative to stewardship, materialism, and morality.  I am not going to judge your clothing choices here.  I do wish to ponder an area where there is not a place to judge others.  God will never ask you why you did not wear a tie to church.  He will not chide you because you did not dress up for an occasion.  It is not our place to judge how others dress if God does not.

We should be more concerned about why we choose to wear what we choose when we choose it.  That is a lot of choosing.  What matters is our heart in choosing.  Am I being a good example to those around me?  Do I dress in ways that enhance my ability to express who I am without being prideful or self-serving?   Do I devote my heart to following Christ over following fashion?

You will never be required to answer to God for wearing shorts in winter or white after Labor Day.  What matters in your choices about what to wear is your heart toward the Father and your fellow humans.   If you spend more time picking out clothing than you do being good to others there may be a problem. 

Jesus’ brother James made it clear that we are not to judge others by what they wear.  We are instead to treat everyone as Christ would treat them.  What matters is that I am more attentive to what others need and if their clothing reflects needs that I can meet, that I do so.  God will never hold me to account for wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt to church unless I do so in a spirit that is unloving.  Were it up to me ties would not even exist.  What about you Dear Reader? 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn

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Questions God Will Never Ask ~ Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

In pondering the love of the Father. I think we anthropomorphize him too much.  It is necessary to humanize God in some ways so that we may begin to understand him.  We cannot fully understand God because of our human limitations.  It is not possible.

Because of our need to humanize Him to some degree, we also assign things to God’s character that are part of our nature.  In doing this we miss the true scope of the love of God.  We do not give Him the benefit of our understanding of His divine nature.  We do not allow for the fact that there are things that God will not do to us that humans will.

There are questions that God will never ask us.  There are accusations He will never make.  The idea that God even for a moment will not love us should be inconceivable.  I am not going to say too much before I dive into the questions that God will never ask.  I would like you to ponder it. 

The love of God transcends so much more than we admit.  We have humanized God to the point that we cannot always see how He is beyond things that we do.  Walk with me and let us consider the nature of God for a bit Dear Reader.  We may find some peace for our journey in a better understanding of the questions God will never ask us.  As always, your questions and thoughts, no matter what they may be are always welcome.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:

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Great Expectations - A Pause to Respond – Part Two

Greetings Dear Reader,

If one has read the excellent novel The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis one can grasp the seed bed of my further thinking.  If we accept that there are those in torment (I am not saying yea or nay on this), then we can surmise a few things about them.

The first would be that they now believe.  They have had the ultimate show me experience.  What captured my imagination is that the people in the book have the option to stay in heaven when they are allowed to visit.  It made me wonder who would not choose to stay given the opportunity.  What is more I cannot find anything precluding God from giving that opportunity. 

Please remember that all of this is precluded on my simple thoughts and questions.  I want to develop a polemic here and please let me know if it sticks.  Actually there are a couple that I would posit.  They assume that you believe the Bible so feel free to provide analysis from that perspective.

The first is quite simple:

Major Premise:  Jesus is the all-powerful, all-knowing, God of the universe.

Minor Premise:  Jesus said he will draw all humans unto himself.

Conclusion:       Eventually all humans will be drawn to Jesus.

I will define some terms for clarity.  First the word draw here is a term that compels people.  It is that he will compel all humans to come to him.  Second since Jesus is omniscient he knows the outcome of this action.  He only ever said the Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. 

The second polemic is this:

Major Premise:  God clearly states that he will eventually work his will with all humans.

Minor Premise:  God’s will is that no one should perish.

Conclusion:       Eventually all humans will be redeemed from perishing.

Again at least one term needs defining here.  Perish means to be eternally dead.  It is the same word that Jesus uses when he tells Nicodemus that God loved the world to the extent that he sent his only Son so that belief in him would prevent perishing. 

I am not great at many things but I am passable at reasoning.  I do not find it reasonable that an omnipotent loving God could not find a way to draw all men back to his love and protection.  His nature when dealing with our relationship is to find a way.   His reputation is to sacrifice all to make it so. 

If we approach the teachings of Jesus without any filters it seems that this is his intent.  He came to seek and to save that which his Father, God had lost.  I will address your other comment tomorrow Dear Reader.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Figuring Out God – A Loving God

Greetings Dear Reader,

One of the things I often hear is what a loving God would or would not do.  We put our own standards on God and decide how he will behave based on those standards.  Putting God in this box presumes so much.

We must presume that God’s standards are equal to ours.  We also presume that we have the same level of knowledge of all the things involved in how God is acting.  We assume that his ways are our ways when he has clearly said that they are not.  “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord.  ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”

God loves us.  He declares this as well.  We cannot manipulate his standards into aligning with ours.  We too often blame him for the consequences of our own actions.  We want him to align the world to what our vision of right and wrong is. 

We do not have God’s love figured out.  We know it is there, unconditional, and eternal.  How it works out juxtaposed to the problem of evil and the tragedies in human lives is not always clear.  That does not give us leave to define things for him.  We do not have it figured out.

I must have faith that God loves me.  I cannot pigeonhole the character of God and the demand that he express his love by my standards.  I have done this in the past with people and it just does not work.  I cannot imagine it working with someone so far beyond my comprehension. 

God loves me.  I have not figured out how that works in every area my life but I know it does.  Once again I come back to the fact that I must follow in faith and attempt to love others whilst I work out God’s love for me. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)