I and Thou

There's this guy named Martin Buber. Funny name, I know, but he's the author of this philosophy that says that we can explain reality by looking at the way we communicate with the world around us, with one another, and even with God. It's all about relationships. Check it out.

What makes a whole ton of sense to me is his idea of the I-It relationship, which means that often, we talk to other people like they're "its," or objects, rather than people. What we're supposed to do is have "I-Thou" relationships, meaning we're supposed to talk to people like they're people, not just objects there to serve our needs. He says that when we analyze people and God as "its," then we cease to have genuine, mutual, give-and-take relationships with them.

Kind of interesting because we do this with God a lot. We study and talk about him so much (more than we talk to him), that he becomes more of an object to us than a person. Maybe we should start letting God have a say in the matter. Maybe we should start letting God speak for himself.

Using God

God gets used for a lot of different things. He gets used to scare people. He gets used to prove people's points. He gets used as justification for lots of horrible things that people choose to do. Most of the time I use God to make me feel better. I am usually wanting him to solve all my problems. The thing is, it's really hard to use God. The times I look back and I just wanted God's presence as a salve for my wounds, I realize he really didn't take to it too swiftly.

Usually when I spend time with the Father, I have this agenda of things I want him to take care of, or there's something I definitely want to get from the time together. Then I think about how awful that is - if I treated any of my other friends like that, we probably wouldn't be friends anymore. God will not be used - and that's kind of good. If he just did everything we wanted him to do, we wouldn't be able to experience real relationship with him - the kind of relationship where he is exactly who he is and not just everything we want him to be, and the kind of relationship where it is enough just to be together.

War

There's a hell of a war going on. It's the war for your soul. You know how it feels worth something some moments and other moments it doesn't? Well, there are more than a few forces marching into battle each day, which are more than happy to let you know what you're worth. The trick is which side to fight for and listen to.

What's kind of cool about this is that you're important enough to fight for. What's even cooler is that the One who has the final say has already declared you worth saving. He's given his life for yours. What you have to decide is whether you're ready to listen for his voice and let go of all the others.

Wrath

When bad stuff happens, especially when it happens repeatedly during a short span of time, it's easy to think that God is punishing you for something you've done. It's easy to think God's like the Karma Police - he's going around waiting for you to screw up so he can make your life just a little bit more miserable. I don't doubt that God wants to keep us from doing things that damage us. I just think he's got better things to do than act as a giant-sized hall monitor, roaming around, waiting for someone to point the finger at.

It's good to remember that Jesus took yours and my punishment on the cross. Also, I think God's more like a wise and learned parent: he gives us exactly what we want knowing that it won't be what we want in the long run. There's this guy in the Bible who says that God's wrath is giving us over to our own desires. God doesn't need to add more misery to our lives than we already create ourselves. Plus, I heard he wants to bless us.

You Are What You Are

There's this language we all speak, but most of us don't notice it on a regular basis. It's the non-verbal communication between people that is underneath and around the actual words we say. You know - like when you're talking to someone and their mouth is saying they're listening ("uh-huh...uh-huh"), but you can tell they'd rather be anywhere than standing in front of you with your mouth running.

We're all mindreaders. Some of us are just more adept at reading body language, tone, facial expression, and other subtleties than others. What this means is that we affect people no matter what we do. Even if you think you can put on a smiley face and make people feel like you like them, there is still a chance they sense your falseness in some small way. All the more reason to become someone who truly loves, rather than just pretending to be someone like that. You are what you are.