I heard about this book on the radio this morning. The premise of the book is, as the title indicates, that men are like waffles (they compartmentalize their lives, can only be in one 'box' at a time) and that women are like spaghetti (they think about many things at the same time, one thing is 'tied' in with many other things).
Whether or not you like the foods or the illustrations, I offer this as a counter-example of how NOT to convey truth. This is like that is merely the use of a simile. That is, something bears a resemblance, or has similar characteristics to something else.
Waffles may indeed be an interesting illustration of what a man's mind is like, but you can't say that waffles teach us about ourselves.
Jesus isn't just similar to fire. Fire gets its identity from Him, and then it turns around and speaks of him. The seasons don't simply remind us of life and death, they were set in motion by the creator so that they could teach us about hope.
There's a remarkable difference between waffles and fire.
your post brings several things to mind:
ReplyDelete• what a rotten parallel. I think a lot of men have lots of things swirling in their mind at once. My experience is this taking place significantly increases with stress, not gender.
• God/Jesus as an all-consuming fire. Quite honestly, that sounds pretty funny. They are painted today by a Body which portrays them largely (exclusively?) as teddy bears. (Or is that Teddy Bears?)
I just don't see God into justice in this age. It seems He's heavy on the mercy and none on the justice.
I'm not downplaying the New in New Testament, as compared to the Old...or maybe I am.
Or maybe it's something else.
You're gonna have to clarify some of that. I'm not sure what you are after. Can you give me some more of your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteI use the example of "fire" to illustrate how Jesus is "in" that natural phenomenon--as opposed to how a waffle does not on its own speak of "men" and the way they think.
Comparing men to waffles and women to spaghetti is devoid of life. It's academic. It's an exercise of dullness. There's nothing mythic about it. My arms go limp when I read it, and my mouth goes dry.
Fire, on the other hand, speaks to me of Jesus. And wind speaks to me of the Spirit. Everywhere I look at the natural world, I see Him or His reflection.
Anyway, that's the point about fire, just to clarify.
What are you saying about justice? You think there's too little talk about justice, and too much on mercy?
sure, man.
ReplyDeleteThere are several references to God in His book about being "a consuming fire".
And then we read of Jesus and the baptism of fire.
God is not unclear in showing us (describing) His nature in the Book:
the way He speaks powerfully through thunder. How things anger Him. His/Jesus' rebukes. Strong things He says through prophets to erring children.
God is love, but the Body has taken this to the Nth degree and golden calfed it as the only trait in existence.
The Body today is a grace- and mercy-pungent arena where talk of correction, rebuke, reaping what's been sown, etc. are foreign words which are squelched out of conversations, sermons, lessons.
And I'm just speaking from my life circumstances, but I simply wonder where the consuming fire God is.
He conforms to no man, and yet has He molded Himself to be all mercy and no justice as He is largely taught/described/preached in today's Body?
Has He become nothing but the cuddly teddy bear which feministic Christianity has largely painted Him to be?
I am beginning to wonder if it really all is about blessing and mountaintop worship experiences, and power and justice and correction not even being backburner thoughts of His.
I've been lamenting what I see in the Body, the portrayal of feel-good Jesus and the marketing of Santa Claus Jesus.
It could well be (due to life circumstances) I'm simply struggling with the "New" in New Testament.
Or I may be struggling with things I'm being asked to die to, and though I know God is good and I'll come out of the rebirth, I'm going down kicking and screaming.
But I see a lot more mercy than I do justice. And God is both, but I don't see both around me.
Maybe I'm just being a sour grapes, diaper-wearing baby about things.
This is not so much mythic talk. It's just questioning the major tenet(s) of the paradigm the current Body is portraying of a many-faceted God.
Somehow we gotta figure out the name of this river of desire that's running wild inside you, man.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like more than just a chip on your shoulder from how you've been treated in the past.
What stirs the compassion inside you?
Do you have any compassion for those who have hurt or deceived you? (They're likely the ones who have been hurt and deceived themselves, but not everyone is drawn to that kind of plight.)
How about the helpless--those who have neither hurt nor deceived you or anyone else. Does their condition stir you?
We all have to walk through that door where we realize "people don't get this." The temptation is to feel really good about ourselves for seeing what they don't see.
Once the Spirit convinces us that "seeing" is a gift that He has given (not something we 'figured out') and we release ourselves from that kind of us-and-them comparison, then we can use that sight to help the blind.
The question is, what kind of blindness or darkness stirs you, man?
until about a year and a half ago, I had little (zero?) compassion for pretty much anyone.
ReplyDeleteBeing stung to deep wounds myself since that time, God used my breaking to birth compassion within.
What probably stirs me most right now is people who are hurting, and all they largely get from the Body is hollow cliches and other shallow nothingness. I've learned the hard way how ill-prepared and unrelatable 99.98% of the Body is to those who hurt.
I have compassion (or choose not to pick the battle) for strangers who hurt or deceive. Since I don't know them I cannot get at the 'why' underneath their surface actions.
I have zero compassion for those who know me (and who I know beyond surface acquaintanceship) who hurt or deceive. These are those who I wish would go play in traffic or fall off the face of the earth or some such similar thing.
The condition of the helpless does stir me. A lot. Prior to a year and a half ago it never stirred me at all. I have given many times over to the helpless in the last 1.5 yrs than combined in the previous umpteen years. The giving is grounded in God-birthed compassion, not anything else.
Blindness that stirs me is the portion of the Body blind to the fact that their notion of the Way is a combination of man-concocted ideas, tenets of other religions, and man-made wisdom (not God's).
Darkness that stirs me are lying bisexual whores who psychologically manipulate their children against their daddy.
Oh wait, whores charge money when they spread their legs. Guess I can't call her a whore...
Strumpet. Vixen. Okay, those are better nouns.
I could sum up this volcanic desire for justice by saying I embrace the cries of the writers of the Psalms, who cry out for God to silence and snare their enemies. I relate to that a lot. That sentiment bursts at the seams of my soul.
You owe no one any apologies. Come here and say the words that reflect right where you are, because anything else would be false.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather listen to the groans of a sorrowing man than the singing of a zombie.