Troubling Things

There are times when we wish we could un-read what we have read, un-think what we have started thinking, and do over what we did.  More than once in these recent years have such feelings surfaced from within to flood my conscious mind.  Troubling things.  Challenging things.  Throughout this faith journey the church has preached this doctrine of being conceived in sin without mentioning that we bear the imprint of the holy from the moment of conception forward.  The Word tells us that marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman, but now the church's message is different due to cultural pressures.  And, even though the church has always held up that commandment about not killing, it has also sanctioned killing under certain circumstances.    

Troubling.  How do we undo thinking we have done about things which for so long never seem to require much thinking at all.  So many of us grew up inside a church culture that we never really were allowed to question, or perhaps, a more accurate thing to say is that we never thought to question which puts the responsibility for what we think upon ourselves instead of someone else.  And, of course, some would say there is nothing which needs to be re-thought.  Something that has stood for centuries, or which cannot pass the culture test does not need to be thought about again.     

I often find myself remembering an old Episcopal friend in such moments.  A priest in that church and a valued friend for a number of years, Ron often said that if we read between the lines of what Jesus said, we would hear Him saying, "Go figure."  As the years have slipped along, I have come to appreciate more and more what my friend had to say in those days of our being together.  Those who follow Jesus must take both heart and mind, or something important and necessary has been left behind in the road.