The greatest joy we will ever experience is being used by God, doing the things He's made us to do. God did not make the larger portion of us for middle management desk jobs, which is why a lot of people in those positions are unhappy. God did not make us to run around incessantly, giving ourselves away and for little to no price. God did not make us to feed our own egos.
God made us to lift each other up, to encourage one another. God made us to learn who He really is, not our preconceived ideas of Him. God made us to love and be loved.
Cast down your cynicisms and build up your brother. Fret not, because God is certainly good.
Love,
Colton
P.S. I chose not to sleep last night, this is a by-product of my experiences and lessons learned over the last while as seen through sleepy eyes.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Reason We're All Buttholes
I couldn't honestly say if this theory is Biblically supported. To avoid any potential heresy, let me go ahead and clarify that I think that sinning and being a jerk or a butthole or otherwise acting in an inconsiderate, uncaring manner are two different things. Many times they involve the other, but they are not inherently the same thing. To stay as close to the Bible as I can, let's quote some scripture that is pertinent to my point I am going to pontificate. But first, I must note that I purposefully placed the words in this and the previous sentence to alliterate, because I do so love to alliterate. Righty then.
". . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," -Romans 3:23
Let it be clarified that first and foremost we are all uncaring jerks. This is because we are sinful, fallen creatures, which is made abundantly clear in the Scriptures. Everything that we do that is unpleasant can usually be boiled down to the fact that we are all effected by the human condition. What I'm looking at is a more specific reason and a very common cause as to why we are jerks and buttholes.
We, as humans, act in unkind, uncaring, generally jerky and dickish ways most often times because we have been hurt in one way or another.
Is this an excuse for our behavior? Mostly no. It means we should have grace when someone is a jerk to us. It means we should aim to avoid hurting people. Hurting people and being hurt are unavoidable, unfortunately. We are a broken people living in a world we broke long ago and continue to break. God is sovereign and is Love and is the Savior of the universe, however, and our actions are made small in the sight of a really big and great God. Let me repeat that: God is Love and our brokenness is inconsequential because of His grace.
It should be noted that many times when we've acted uncaringly, it's because we simply were being inconsiderate. Does that excuse it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We should still feel bad for hurting someone and we should still try to rectify it, but this is just another reason why we act the way we do. The larger problem of acting out of hurt is the main focus here, however.
I've used the example before of humans being like dogs and God being the master. You get a pack of dogs and they can be loving and playful one minute, but can turn on each other the next, snapping at each other, then being hurt because they were snapped at which causes them to snap at each other even more. With all our combined knowledge and technology, we can never get over our jealousies, our pride, our hurt, our human nature. We are like dogs who return to their own vomit. Hey, that sounds vaguely familiar.
In no attempt to justify or excuse my actions, let me tell you that most of the times and possibly even all of the times that I've been a jerk or acted in an unloving way, it's because I was hurt. I've ignored customers at my job when I've been emotionally hurt. I've ignored friends who have tried to help me when I've been hurt. Should I have tried to get over my hurt at least to the point that I'm not a jerk to people? Absolutely, but unless I was wallowing in my hurt, I don't think God will be very upset with me for acting human.
I won't drown you with examples of this like I tend to do when making a point. The point tends to make itself. Just think about the last time you were a jerk to someone, you should see what I mean. The catch is when we act in response to things we don't know we're hurt about. Whether it was our parents not telling us they were proud of us leading to machoism in guys or mothers not showing love to their daughters leading to controlling women, we act out of our hurt.
Please, please, please, try to examine yourself and see why you act the way you do. If someone has accused you of being a jerk, find the root cause of why they think that. Either they have been hurt and are interpreting your actions as being unkind or you have acted unkind because of some hurt you've experienced, the latter being the more common reason. We are, a lot of times, unaware of our own true intentions, be them good or bad. A good quick start to fix any hurtful situation or to avoid them in the future is to act out of love, which many times starts with just being nicer and more humble. Crazy idea, I know. Just be open to the idea that there is a reason why someone is crappy person, other than them simply being a crappy person. Be open to the idea that you yourself have acted uncaringly and unkindly and that that is why someone has acted that way to you. No one started it, no one is the first to blame, we're all hurt, let's understand this and move on.
I have many times not acted out of love and I regret and am sorry for each one of those times. If I have hurt you, you are more than welcome to tell me about it and I will give you the sincerest apology I can muster. I may explain to you why I acted the way I did, which may or may not lessen your hurt, but I will hopefully not try to excuse my actions.
In conclusion, know this: when people are jerks, it's probably due to the fact that they are feeble, hurting people. Have grace for them like your Father has grace for you. (I feel like that is in the Bible somewhere) Forgive and forget, that's what 1 Cor. 13 tells us.
I love you as much as my feeble human form will let me. We are all dicks. Please excuse the vulgarities, but they're necessary to show how crappy we all are. I'm sorry for treating my friends and loved ones badly. Let us all forgive one another and look to Jesus, the only one who can make us less crappy.
Love,
Colton
P.S. It should be noted that I'm terrible at this. I realize the need to have grace for people for this reason, but I'm not very good at it so I apologize if it came off as if I thought I was. If Paul was the chief of sinners, consider me king of buttholes.
". . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," -Romans 3:23
Let it be clarified that first and foremost we are all uncaring jerks. This is because we are sinful, fallen creatures, which is made abundantly clear in the Scriptures. Everything that we do that is unpleasant can usually be boiled down to the fact that we are all effected by the human condition. What I'm looking at is a more specific reason and a very common cause as to why we are jerks and buttholes.
We, as humans, act in unkind, uncaring, generally jerky and dickish ways most often times because we have been hurt in one way or another.
Is this an excuse for our behavior? Mostly no. It means we should have grace when someone is a jerk to us. It means we should aim to avoid hurting people. Hurting people and being hurt are unavoidable, unfortunately. We are a broken people living in a world we broke long ago and continue to break. God is sovereign and is Love and is the Savior of the universe, however, and our actions are made small in the sight of a really big and great God. Let me repeat that: God is Love and our brokenness is inconsequential because of His grace.
It should be noted that many times when we've acted uncaringly, it's because we simply were being inconsiderate. Does that excuse it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We should still feel bad for hurting someone and we should still try to rectify it, but this is just another reason why we act the way we do. The larger problem of acting out of hurt is the main focus here, however.
I've used the example before of humans being like dogs and God being the master. You get a pack of dogs and they can be loving and playful one minute, but can turn on each other the next, snapping at each other, then being hurt because they were snapped at which causes them to snap at each other even more. With all our combined knowledge and technology, we can never get over our jealousies, our pride, our hurt, our human nature. We are like dogs who return to their own vomit. Hey, that sounds vaguely familiar.
In no attempt to justify or excuse my actions, let me tell you that most of the times and possibly even all of the times that I've been a jerk or acted in an unloving way, it's because I was hurt. I've ignored customers at my job when I've been emotionally hurt. I've ignored friends who have tried to help me when I've been hurt. Should I have tried to get over my hurt at least to the point that I'm not a jerk to people? Absolutely, but unless I was wallowing in my hurt, I don't think God will be very upset with me for acting human.
I won't drown you with examples of this like I tend to do when making a point. The point tends to make itself. Just think about the last time you were a jerk to someone, you should see what I mean. The catch is when we act in response to things we don't know we're hurt about. Whether it was our parents not telling us they were proud of us leading to machoism in guys or mothers not showing love to their daughters leading to controlling women, we act out of our hurt.
Please, please, please, try to examine yourself and see why you act the way you do. If someone has accused you of being a jerk, find the root cause of why they think that. Either they have been hurt and are interpreting your actions as being unkind or you have acted unkind because of some hurt you've experienced, the latter being the more common reason. We are, a lot of times, unaware of our own true intentions, be them good or bad. A good quick start to fix any hurtful situation or to avoid them in the future is to act out of love, which many times starts with just being nicer and more humble. Crazy idea, I know. Just be open to the idea that there is a reason why someone is crappy person, other than them simply being a crappy person. Be open to the idea that you yourself have acted uncaringly and unkindly and that that is why someone has acted that way to you. No one started it, no one is the first to blame, we're all hurt, let's understand this and move on.
I have many times not acted out of love and I regret and am sorry for each one of those times. If I have hurt you, you are more than welcome to tell me about it and I will give you the sincerest apology I can muster. I may explain to you why I acted the way I did, which may or may not lessen your hurt, but I will hopefully not try to excuse my actions.
In conclusion, know this: when people are jerks, it's probably due to the fact that they are feeble, hurting people. Have grace for them like your Father has grace for you. (I feel like that is in the Bible somewhere) Forgive and forget, that's what 1 Cor. 13 tells us.
I love you as much as my feeble human form will let me. We are all dicks. Please excuse the vulgarities, but they're necessary to show how crappy we all are. I'm sorry for treating my friends and loved ones badly. Let us all forgive one another and look to Jesus, the only one who can make us less crappy.
Love,
Colton
P.S. It should be noted that I'm terrible at this. I realize the need to have grace for people for this reason, but I'm not very good at it so I apologize if it came off as if I thought I was. If Paul was the chief of sinners, consider me king of buttholes.
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