Christian tropers, join together!

God will never reject you for being a sinner unless you are unrepentant. Just keep praying to God to forgive you and to help you with your struggle.

Exactly. Remember the parable of the Lost Sheep.

"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off."

God loves it when people come back to him

Concerning the problem of evil, www.christianthinktank.com has some good resources. The logical version is solved by God having a good reason to not interfere too much. The emotional version is solved in my opinion by the Incarnation and what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

It's comforting to hear I'm not the only one who has trouble with it sometimes.

Does anyone else here struggle with witnessing to others, even though you know you are supposed to?

Whenever I try, they either turn out to be a Christian or are the hardened path from the parable of the soils. What's weird is that if I have the guts to ask a complete stranger, they claim to be a Christian.

So next time you see someone being a homophobe, racist, or just generally acting like an asshole, feel free to judge.

Friendly reminder to my fellow Catholics that while we are encouraged to attend Mass today- Ash Wednesday- it is not, contrary to popular belief, a holy day of obligation.

Oh that's good, because I kind of didn't, and didn't realize it actually was Ash Wednesday for a while today.

Well, with recent events as of now, getting into any gathering of significant size isn't the best idea. I think the cancellations of physical in-person church attendance is a good move. For one, we have video streaming as a backup in case things like this happen. I personally find the idea of televised mass to be kind of odd for reasons I haven't explored, but if there was a reason to use it, this is it. Also, Jesus may have hung out with the severely afflicted, but he didn't have to literally lick the contamination off of their leaking bodies to be with them. He could get better from that; if he did that though, others would do it and he knew they didn't have the spirit needed to miracle their way outta that.

In more personal matters, I've spent some time reading up and being a bit more informed about my faith and its interaction with the world at large. Here's one conclusion that I've come to so far: There is no correctly identified ailment of humanity pointed out by enlightenment era anti-theists that is truly novel to their writings. Other parties past and contemporary have noted these foibles better and more clearly. The failure of most of these other parties to properly educate the future generations contributed to the seeming novelty of these "eye-opening" observations. Largely in part because they often fall to the errors that they point out, just as the "truly awakened" philosophers do.

So here I am again complaining about other people with opposing views and using vague language to try to explain my objections. In my attempt at being more informed, I have been led to clearer and clearer understandings of what "forgiveness" truly is, and boy howdy do I need to learn to practice it better. It's going to be a long and taxing lesson, but please bear with me, because until I get banned for something stupid I do/say, this is place here is among my best outlets for my theologically-inclined frustrations. So here's a hint in the form of a summary to make what I'm talking about clearer:

With that said, I'm fine not taking whatever the author of Revelation was on while he was in his cell because wowwie that's some trippy political commentary right there.

Thank you for listening fellow poppy seed lickers. Stay safe, breathe carefully, wash your body parts well, and have a good Easter season everyone. We're halfway there, Lent observers, we can do it.

Sometimes I think, maybe...

That “judge not” also applies to not hero-worshipping people who seem more advanced in their spiritual journey than me.

Some people can talk a good game—and maybe even be a true believer—but due to woundedness or weakness or pressures we know nothing of, commit repetitive or very serious sins.

Anyhoo, have a blessed Lenten season and stay safe and healthy 🙂

Edited by Joyce on Mar 17th 2020 at 5:57:15 AM

Putting people up on pedestals is just asking for them to fall off, yeah.

Regarding this virus, my mother told me that God has a reason why he let this happen. My thoughts are that maybe with all that's happening before this (tensions between political beliefs, environmental crises, apathy), God wants us to remind what matters more than these. Seeking Him and connecting with loved ones are those.

Adding to the post above me... In classical Christian theology, there’s a concept of God’s “permissive will”, that He will allow things to happen, although He doesn’t *send* it to us. I agree with your mom, that there’s a reason for this. I don’t know what that reason is, nor do I see it as my business to know. But I decided to make the most of this unique opportunity to act more mindfully, to rekindle some fading relationships and catch up on some things I’ve let fall by the wayside.

These past few weeks have tested my faith. I feel incredibly sad and alone and I don't feel God in my life anymore, at least not as much. I don't blame God for the pandemic but I feel so completely lonely and abandoned and forgotten. How are the rest of you coping? Do you have any advice for me?

I've been seeing a therapist for a couple of years now (I've actually been in therapy most of my life, but I've only been going to this specific place for about two years). Right now, we can only have sessions over the phone. Being stuck indoors is eating me alive. I've been going to the drive-through once a week just for a change of scenery, but now I'm hearing that even that may be unsafe.

I don't think I can help you there; I've been staying inside long before this whole thing. The only thing I really miss doing is trainspotting, which weather conditions previously kept me from doing much of, anyway.

Yes even before this it was mostly inside with some ventures to walk the trails just slightly up the road from my house, which I can do now. The only real difference is I just got a job right before this happened which was bad timing, and I'm not volunteering anymore (I was volunteering securaly at a daycare and Guiding the younger units) I've been putting up some stuff for the kids, it's honestly difficult not being able to help. But it's not been much of a difference between routine just existentially difficult, I'm worried about my loved ones getting sick and dying. I don't feel less connected to God though I have been praying for others health more.

I don't know how you guys do it. I've always been an introvert but staying indoors this long isn't good for me. I miss going to the mall and the movies. I miss seeing other human beings.

Well that's partly because I live in a house of four, but frankly I've been posting in the fora a bit too much these past few days.

Mostly because I can hardly be bothered to go anywhere besides work a lot of the time.

Yeah I live with two other people my family, as well as my cat and dog so I'm less effected by this in that way too.

Edited by phantom1 on Apr 9th 2020 at 3:08:15 AM

That's so me as well.

If I'm not heading off to the university to study, I'm usually just writing chapters for my fanfiction.

I'm admittedly kinda annoyed. I've always been pretty introverted, but now that I decided to be more social and try to get out more, I now have to stay inside.

For you Thrice, I only have this thing, it's sappy but it's what I have:

We're here. Someone has to be posting these comments. And they're doing that because they're seeing what you post.

It can't ever be the same as meeting and seeing people without the screen, but I hope this helps and that you stay safe and well.

For all of you, here is something, a first of three.

Now perhaps we could imagine this.

...

You see all that they have done. You see all that has been done by those before them. Right from the day the first of them realized who they are.

You see who has seen a glimpse of you and didn't shy away. They followed you, flawed though they may be. You see those who turn away and say it was something else.

You see who has wronged others, and thus you know who has wronged you, regardless of if their victims have experienced you or not. You have always seen it.

They have come and passed. They are what they have been. You saw the first breath you take.

Death is so far, yet still you are flogged. You know what has to be done.

Here is the day you die. There are numerous people who've come to witness you there. People who've touched you. People who've sworn to follow you.

People who've rejected you and your teachings. People who turn their backs on you because you're there and about to die.

Adhered to some oversized sticks in the one of most painful manners the state knew, naked and bleeding. You hear the cries and jeers of followers and enemies alike. You see their faces weep and smirk.

They are all gathered near you. They are as they are they are now. You feel the pain of your body being strangled.

Death nears, and you cry out your prayers. You do what needs to be done.

You witness what they will be and what they will do. You experience what those who will follow them shall bring to each other. All the way up to the end of the end of the end and the the last ending.

Your message is received and they do right and wrong by it. You know that your will will be carried out even by those ignorant of you, willfully or not. Because you are always what is good, more than good, and perfect.

You hear of their potential, their misdeeds and sins, their praises and blasphemies. The sounds of their screeching ignorance and the songs of their halfhearted idiocy shudder through you.

They will be here. They are what they will be. You take your last breath.

Death is here, and the world itself knows it. It is done.

You know all of what they were, all of what they are being, all of what they will do. You know of what they have always done, what they are always doing, and what they always will do. You can squeeze out between the tiny gaps in the pile of misdeeds we have committed.

You know the things they could have done, the choices that they have, and the possibilities that await them. We respond recklessly, and you always respond correctly.

You know how they acted, are acting, and will act, here, there, everywhere, and in what is that we only think what could be. You know what could be is what was, and what was is what could be, here and elsewhere in true possibilities through the freedom that you are.

You have who are saved. You rejoice at those who cam back to you. But those who turn away shall always be what you lament. You are haunted by all, by sorrow and pain greater that anything we can articulate, alone or in collaboration, and greater than all that we can experience. Your anguish and torment shall follow you beyond the tomb. For them to say otherwise is a failure to understand anything. And somehow, you still forgive them.

Death falls. You are what must always be.

...

But perhaps I cannot earnestly ask you to imagine this, for these are small words meant to catch bigger things, and He knows I can't. No tale we make can ever be truly greater, because it is all part of this, and even if the whole is greater that the sum of its parts, He will still be greater than that or any other whole. But if we do fail to understand this, then we can at least fail gracefully. He knows I need to start doing so.

So ends this first thing on Friday.

From one writer to another, one Christian to another, that is truly beautiful.