pilgrim.not.wanderer

Yeah you stand on your way to fucking over everyone else.

Ed, this seems like a big jump from your normal style. Maybe I’m confused… in my obviously confused state, this reads more like a great piece of sarcasm… but I’m not sure if that’s what you intended. The following is less of a burn and more just to show how I would read this:
It is a great and wonderful thing to be in the Canadian Armed Forces.

The Canadian Army is not built around idealogy. In a sense, I wouldn’t even think of us as an army. In some ways representing Canada, isn’t like representing a country.

It is a great and wonderful thing to just get out there. In a lot of ways, I see being part of the Canadian Military as just being part of a really cool bunch of guys who move along in life together. We’re not like all strict and stuff. We even drink beer and swear in public to show people that we aren’t up tight. We’re actually kind of like the most screwed up people that you could ever meet… but hey… Here I am, sick and lost. On to the way to serve and protect. If you are neither sick nor lost, move along. This is not for you.
Whatever else I know, I know this. It is a great and wonderful thing to be a soldier. Here I stand, happily. On the way.

If you don’t understand this, if this scares you, I implore you to carefully consider what it is like to be me. Imagine what it is like to be a member of the Canadian Armed Forces. Don’t right me off just because you don’t understand me, and I’ll return the favour.

I consider it sign of greatness that you can’t tell whether I was being satirical or not. (Greatness of my abilities as a satirist.) Good satire should be so close to the real thing that it’s painful, right?

I hope no one’s going to call me out for being satirical. Don’t tell me being sarcastic isn’t Christlike. Read the NT. Jesus was pretty adept at the whole sarcasm game.

Anyway, I wasn’t being satirical.

When I used rude language to describe Christians, I wasn’t trying to say we Christians are not (or even should not be) uptight about taboo enforcement (on booze, rude language or whatever).

I was trying to talk about how deeply flawed we Christians are, and what it is like to be a Christian amongst other Christians.

I had in mind my post about being ‘burned by the church’. Basically, I was calling out Christians who get in an uproar when things go rough at their church or with their Christians friends generally. They turn themselves into victims and go on a pity party. They act all surprised, in righteous indignation.

I’m not surprised when I bump into a sick person at a hospital. Neither am I surprised when I bump into a seriously flawed Christian at a Christian gathering. (I’m not talking about bad habits, but serious character flaws and emotional damage.)

If you are surprised, then maybe you don’t understand what a hospital (or the Church) is for.

Or maybe you think conversion to Christianity is like being given a clean bill of health. If so, then you can only become a Christian if you are in good health. I don’t believe that for a second, though I understand many Evangelicals do.

Here’s a good way to think about it. Some say converting to Christianity is matter of going from bad to good. And so they are surprised to find out that Christians are bad people.
I’d say that converting to Christianity is a matter of going from lost to found. I’m not surprised that God ‘found’ so many bad people.

That doesn’t mean the badness of Christians is excusable. (Does it mean it is forgivable? Hmmm.) It does mean that it is wrong to be surprised by it or be disillusioned by it.

Also, I think you’re missing how distinctly Christian my meditation was, what with all that talk about being reconciled to God by God and being on the way to the heavenly city.

Could I say that about the army? What are you getting at then?

I thought this was a great piece, in fact i printed it off to show one of my co workers.

are you done school yet? Did Kristy get that job? when are you coming home to visit next?

Damn… It would have been a great piece of sarcasm… as non-sarcasm, I just don’t get it… guess that we’re on different wave lengths at the moment.
I think you are describing an ideal, in a sense, of how christianity is supposed to work. A world where murderers and pedophiles are attending church and being transformed by the gospel.
The way I see it, there are the people being welcomed in to the church and the people who show up when the church is closed and rob it. Sure, there are lots of people in the church who are secretly murderers and pedophiles also.
We do also see the occasional great conversion, where God really changes someone’s life, but the majority of what we hear is drama and propaganda to keep the story going.
I think that we’re just talking out of different minds.
It’s good stuff to think about though.
Makes me think for a second about the old debate over whether it’s more important for churches to tell people that homosexuality is a sin or for churches to get homosexual people to join their church… or some churches believe they can do both… most churches probably couldn’t bother with either…
I think we are thinking in different bubbles here though…

I wasn’t thinking of criminals. I was thinking of run of the mill screwed up people.

And I wasn’t thinking about transformation either. I’d want to completely distinguish conversion from transformation. Lately, I’ve been feeling very Lutheran. Lutherans are generally pessimistic about personal transformation. The Gospel is outside of us, not a matter of changed lives. (That’s a bit overstated, I guess.)

BTW - I didn’t know that comment was from you.

Ya, I didn’t mean to post anonymously, it just didn’t auto fill my name and I didn’t notice.
I think I see where you’re coming from with it now… See, I’ve lost all concept of run of the mill screwed up. I would probably take people who are run of the mill screwed up as quite funny and enjoyable.
I’ve been reading a lot more this year.
I just read Albert Camus’ the Stranger. It’s a good book where the main character is just existing and trying to be honest about his situation and the world will hardly even let him do that.