I thought about this as I was at some dinner with some fellow "profound fools" the other night. I thought about it as I dipped my boneless buffalo wings in some chunky blue cheese dressing. I love blue cheese dressing. But I didn't always. I used to hate it as a kid. I thought it stunk. I thought it tasted moldy. It was just plain gross!
But, now that my pallet has developed some more as I've grown older, I have come to like it. In fact, I love it. It's good stuff. As I thought about this, I proposed this thought to the "fools" I had gathered with that night. "Isn't it funny?" "What", they asked. "It's funny how the views I have now differ from the views I had long ago." Kind of like blue cheese dressing. The things I would have fallen on the sword over just a few years ago, now are just peripherals at best. Peripherals to the gospel. Some views that would have long ago revealed someone's immaturity to me, now only reveal my immaturity back then. Things that I saw as "sin" or indicators of shallow spirituality back then, don't mean that to me today. Back then, I would have made an instant judgment call based on some of these things. But now, peace with things that I thought would have made one immature, now I simply view as a sign of maturity.
Gotta' go. I have a hankerin' for some blue cheese.
~Smitty (the Poet)
What you described sounds a lot like growth. (Especially since Bleu cheese is awesome, I'm glad you finally saw the light!) I think sometimes the hardest thing is to realize that everyone isn't just like you, and thats OK!! The New Testament shows that Christianity can look 1,000 different ways, each person living a life led by the Spirit. We are not all saved to become like every other Christian, in fact Christians can be worlds apart, in personal preferences and standards, while beautifully connected and part of one another because of who we love. I wonder how much God's name has been drug through the mud because Christians never could see that we don't have to be cookie cutter Christians, but that in our diversity, we are one body! Peripherals become essentials, and when that happens, there is endless division.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your friends loyalty, but, just for sake of discussion, how far do you take that? Would your friend have been any less of a friend had he decided to do that thing (whatever it was) in faith, giving thanks to God? Would he have been less faithful to Christ? Obviously not flaunting his actions to you, but partaking nonetheless. If everything was abstained from because of others' convictions, our actions would be dictated by others, and not the Spirit. As I am writing this, I realize that it always seems that the more noble thing to do is to abstain, but again, where does this end?
Growth or perversion? What once was abhorred is now palatable? Even desirable? Sounds more like someone who has lost his ability to discern what is good and right. Repent thou backslider! (I speak only of the bleu cheese of course. The rest of the post is fine.)
ReplyDeleteI just realized I spelled "bleu" wrong. It's "bleu cheese".
ReplyDeletesmitty (the poet)