Secret Life Feedback #8

Some more feedback from the blog/email I wrote entitled, "My Secret Life of Discipleship". I had a good shepherd ask me why I was posting so much feedback. He said it's starting to sound redundant...that the point has been made...and he is probably right if the point is the CONTENT of the essay.

 

But now, the point of all the feedback I am getting is the AMOUNT of people who resonate with the content of the essay. That is why I'm still posting.

 

I guess that will help me to think about stopping, but I want everyone to get a taste of the overwhelming response I got to this post. And the wide array of ages/personalities that identify with it (although most of the posts below are in the 35-45 age range).

 

I haven't posted a fraction of the feedback I've received.

 

What am I to learn from this? What are we to learn from this?

 

I'll have to post a few more...

 

"Wow….I wonder if you were looking inside my head when you wrote this.  I struggle with this stuff word for word in some cases.  I always use this passage (Ephesians 4:2,3) as a reason not to change so that I don’t upset people, but I think it is more of an excuse not to boldly follow Christ and therefore not cut the strings that keep me attached. Now that I read it in context, verse 1 says to live a life worthy of the calling you have received, and I think I am sacrificing that to satisfy verse 2 and 3. It is something I struggle with and I don’t have the answers.  For now, like you, I will continue to pray and seek God more and more each day striving to imitate Christ and share His love with others one day at a time.  Thanks for your encouraging words.  It is nice to know that others feel the same as I do.  I think I am going to go spend some time in prayer now just for some good God-Contact." - 35ish youth minister, life-long member of the Church of Christ

 

"I have felt much the same way for years but was not sure really how to deal with these emotions or if they are valid enough to be concerned about.  I was baptized when I was 9 yrs old and felt like I have done all the "right" things.  A few years ago after getting married and starting on that journey we call adulthood, I began to wonder "Is this all there is to the Christian life?"  Go to church on Sunday and Wed, sing some songs, pray, communion, listen to the preacher, go home, sometimes have a fellowship dinner, gospel meeting once, or twice a year if we were really about God's business, but very seldom ever talked Jesus outside the walls of the "Sanctuary"  How much we were missing. I feel sometimes that I am a beginner Christian again.  Past the milk stage and now ready for the Meat when I thought I had been a Meateater for years.  Guess it was just oatmeal.  It has become easier to at least "talk Jesus" when I am about among peers.  I always had the feeling that if I ever mentioned the Good News that I would be looked at as being Holier than thou because I was a "Church of Christer" and we have always thought we were "Right".  I have found that some of my Methodist friends are not so different in their goals as we are with ours and in some respects seem to be ahead me.  I have had some really good conversations with them that I never had with friends "in the Church".  What a sad confession. Do you mind if I share your article with some family members of mine?  I know some are in the same boat but are not sure how to exactly deal with some of this." - 40ish brother, life long member of the Church of Christ

 

"I could resonate to some of those situations, thoughts or ideas, and feelings.  You mentioned about (loving) “dialogue”, which is more humane than having a discussion.  Dialogue is more of the “heart” without bypassing the mind than just mere discussion, which has the tendency to more rational and usually stays on the “mind level”. Your words are always “of Christ”.  That’s really wonderful. Again, religion is not an issue but of faith. I like your words saying that less educated members or people are more devoted to the Divine Mater than some who have a Masters of Divinity.  It is ironic sometimes that we can be a “fan” of Christ instead of being or becoming a “follower” of Christ.  We can say a lot of things or ideas “about” Christ especially who have gone for further studies but sans the theological studies cannot ignore the “real or actual” experience “of” God.  However, there is always a desire that a theology from above could meet with a theology from below.  It is my ardent desire, too, that we can see both Christ as God (the Theology from above) and Christ as human who is also God (the theology from below) and so he is fully divine and fully human. Please, never lose that sight and your steadfast love for your Church and be the Church you pray to be, that is, “of Christ”. Let us always abide in the love and care of God." - 40ish Monk friend of mine, from the Philippines, who resides at "Christ in the Desert Monastery", where I spent 3 days last August.

 

"I'm pretty convinced that legalism is not unique to 'our' movement and seems to be a vulnerability to most who follow Christ. It is much easier-and probably more immediately affirming-to align yourself with a set of rules than put your full weight on Jesus. More than anything else my tendency to find the easy way, 'play the system', and just generally be lazy, lends itself to the least resistant, less thoughtful less faith-full, path of legalism. Your writing  and the Spirit has stoked alot within me." - 40ish brother, life long member of the Church of Christ

 

I am a along time member on the Church of Christ. I was absent for a long time (15 yrs or so) and the reasons I stayed gone so long were a lot of the same ones you have listed here. I know that it was not right, but I let my pride and belief that I was right keep me away. It truly seems that you have jumped into my head and pulled out all of my buried thoughts. However, I have found myself going too far, often by bashing as hard against them as I felt they were bashing me and my beliefs. This too is wrong, as you have pointed out... I love this church and I love the Lord our God." - 45ish brother, life long member of the Church of Christ

 

"I just wanted to take a minute to say that you did a fantastic job of summing up what so many of us are feeling.  As someone who is often called upon to write things to express group consensus, I found myself constantly wishing that I'd written what I was reading, and grateful that you'd summed it up so well." -- 25ish brother, life long member of the Church of Christ