Tweets - July 20th - Tested

Reading this bit about the Sahara stirred up a bit of nostalgia in me, and still does. It isn't part of the beginning of your walk, but it is part of mine. It is part of my roots, part of the strength of my foundation, part of what I would become, part of what I will become.

My goal always is to be acceptable to God; if I am acceptable to God, then I am acceptable to the Garden of God (Christ, the Messengers, You).

I have no real control of these things. The Garden requires integrity, and my integrity will be tried again and again. I am what I am being made to be. The goal belongs to God and it is shared with us. My desire still is to be acceptable - stretched, tested, refined and polished.

The beauty of being tried and tested by God, is that you are never tested to see if you'll pass or fail some test, nor are you ever encouraged to do what you hate.

You are tried and tested (if these are even the best words for it) to reveal to you plainly and clearly who and what you are as a person. In this way, "testing" upbuilds, corrects, heals, and brings about integrity. We are talking about God AND decency here.

I find that story of Abraham being told by God to sacrifice Isaac a vile form of testing. Firstly, it teaches us that we cannot always trust God, as God is a sadistic game player. If one cannot trust God fully, then faithlessness becomes an acceptable response.

Secondly, it teaches us that we should not treat others in ways we ourselves would want to be treated - so long God commands it. If you do not see a problem with this, it is only because you are without genuine care for people (as you would hate if God told someone to harm you).

Thirdly, it teaches us that God is an awful authoritarian - the worst of any man. The impression this would have left on Isaac (being under a knife-wielding dad at God's command) would not create a gentle personable adult. It would have left something destructive in this world.

Christ rejected such stories about God. To know God is to know when someone is telling a bullshit story about God. But you can't go on telling a priest that his traditions and stories are bullshit, and convincing his children of the same, without being nailed to a cross.