We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
If a Christ centered person works harder from a Christ centered perspective in what they do, and not from the deceptive power of shame, guilt, and condemnation, would this be a problem for living the Christian life?
8 comments:
In an older ZigZag-Café you defined:
What I mean by working harder from a Christ centered perspective is that here one is free to work, not caught by the destructive enslaving temptation to work on my own account because of guilt and condemnation.
Where could be the problem for living a Christian life?
Lukas,
Thanks. My question was interested in having perspectives on work and spirituality. Sometimes in Christian circles these are assumed to cancel each other out. And this relates to your question. The problem for some believers is doing works at all. Fo others , of course, it is only works that count.
Titus 2,14
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Epheser 2, 10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Lukas,
These are wonderful passages to mention. Thanks. One wonders why Christians have such a dichotomy between works and living spirituality.
Hey Greg (et all)
Sometimes when I'm struggling with feelings of shame or guilt (or depression), I think to myself, "I wonder if it would help if I worked harder praying about these feelings. Maybe I would feel better if I were more persistent in asking God to take them away."
Do you think that I'm digging myself into a deeper hole with these thoughts, or just being logical? Or is there something else I might be missing?
--Valerie
Valerie,
Thanks. I believe that we can ask God to help take away such feelings, but the notion of working harder at praying may put too much weight on my praying or God answering - and neither may happen, which may amount to still being depressed, etc.
Maybe working harder from a Christ centered perspective would be renewing and embracing the truth of who God is and who I am as his child, which would clash with certain feelings and eventually perhaps cause them to diminish in their power.
I guess working harder has to have a referent - a target. Some forms of working harder will put undue weight where it does not belong, while other forms will lead to possibilities for lasting change.
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