Ventilation

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Manners

Still struggling to determine your root sin? Perhaps we can learn something from your prayer life.

Pride vs. faith

A faithful person discusses many of life’s moments with God, generally before the moments occur. A prideful person discusses fewer of their moments with God, and usually in retrospect; more of a telling than a confiding.

Prideful people talk to God a lot, while faithful people usually listen.

Prideful people pray for shorter periods of time. Their lives are more about themselves and when they can fit God in.

A faithful person probably has time set aside specifically for prayer and studying the Bible.

Greed vs. hope

A hopeful person spends a lot of prayer time in what some might call meditation; or for those more versed in church-speak, just being in the presence of God.

And this might sound obvious, but greedy people ask more during prayer. They might ask for "good" things, but there’s a subtle giving of responsibility back to God, which leaves less for them to assume. "Please make this work out according to Your will," for example, as opposed to, "I already know You have everything under control."

Greedy people prepare to pray.

A hopeful person sees prayer as a means of building his relationship with God, coming into prayer just as he is with no agenda.

Lust vs. love

The only pattern I have found in a loving person is that he generally prays for other people. This person maintains a long list of prayer requests and prays through them incessantly.

A loving person is at risk of becoming robotic in his prayer life. In spite of his good intentions to pray for everyone, he simply cannot put forth the amount of empathy he wants to for each request, but he cannot not pray for the people on his list either.

Lustful people spend most of their prayer time in confession. Not confession and moving on, but almost a dwelling on their sins and how bad they are.

They, more than any others, are aware of and sincerely desire some sort of deliverance from their sin. These are the people who know what it means to truly grieve over sin.

Someone sent me a quiz recently that starts by asking you to give a word that, to you, describes a dog, and your answer is supposed to reflect how you view yourself.

Interestingly, my lustful friend used the word dirty.

I used friendly, a quality to be "proud" of, and my greedy friend used loyal. Perhaps signifying his commitment to pursuit?

Certainly we must fluctuate between two extremes; sometimes offering a spirit-controlled prayer, other times clearly controlled by our sins.

And though the root sin theory still applies, we must move on to the broader concept that all our behavior is defined not only by one root sin, but also its opposite good; from now on, the fundamental manner theory.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Passing

Why are so few of us afraid to fall asleep at night while so many of us are afraid to die?

Aren’t these moments very similar, a going from someplace known to someplace unknown?

Perhaps we trust the statistics, having slept and woken up safely so many times before.

I wonder if babies are afraid to fall asleep. Is that why they need to be rocked and cuddled?

Some people have actually found a way to control sleep.

Ailyne can wake herself up a few minutes before an alarm clock goes off even when she doesn’t know what time the alarm is set for. And my husband is the same way. He never lets the alarm go off in the morning.

If I were left alone, I wouldn’t stir before noon. Sleep definitely controls me. But then again, it’s arguable that I control my sleep with the way I live the rest of my life.

Another one of those things I could manage, but don’t; my life.

I really must find a therapist.

I have never understood how some people can say they feel ready to die.

That said, I can imagine how someone burdened with greed, always chasing the future, would see death as a relief, a peaceful end to a constant struggle.

It’s not ‘what happens next’ that makes death hard to face, assuming that is already settled for you. It’s that one moment of passing.

Do you think everyone reaches a point where they feel ready to face that moment?