Introvert Pride? Introversion Demystified by Victoria Raphael | Noomii.
I completely agree with this article. Extroverts look at me—an introvert, note that I operate differently and think, “I need to help him become normal.” Then they help me by attempting to make me do all things I find uncomfortable. Ugh.
I used to really resent people (extroverts) because I thought they were being intentionally unkind to me. Now I realize they don’t really know they are being cruel. It also reminds me to slow down and evaluate the situation when people I’m attempting to help someone and they balk or close off.
Sometimes, just being accessible is the right help. I wouldn’t prescribe large quantities of chocolate to cure a dog of digestion ailments, why treat an introvert like an extrovert or visa versa?
“LIFE QUESTIONS
We humans are (as far as we know) the only creatures on this planet who wonder about themselves. The rabbit doesn’t ask, “Why am I here?” nor does the sycamore tree say, “Am I fulfilling my purpose?” Only we humans stand at a distance from ourselves, in a figurative sense, and ask questions about our existence.
Do we ask these questions because we matter so much? If we do, how did it happen to be so? If not, how did we get such an exalted view of ourselves? How is it that we combine in our nature both baseness and magnificence? What manner of creatures are we? Why are we made as we are?”
Excerpt From: “Christian Believer – Session 8.” iBooks.
7 Reflections on Forty Years of Writing // Asbury Seedbed.
- Let’s take Scripture seriously, unfiltered, without blinders, inductively.
- The church is a spiritual/social organism with its own ecology.
- God is always in the business of radically renewing the church, if we are open to the Spirit and faithful to Scripture.
- God has “a plan for the fullness of time to bring everything in heaven and earth together under one head, even Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:10).
- Christians are “stewards of God’s grace” (1 Peter 4:10) and stewards of the earth.
- Since God is always at work to renew the church, church history is largely the story of a succession of renewal movements, from the early church right up to today.
- We have unbounded confidence that God will fulfill all his promises.
The Seedbed Daily Text » Blog Archive » PRAYING THROUGH STORMS.
Last Wednesday Seedbed had a daily reading post I particularly like. I’ve posted the link above in order to make it readily accessible to me, and some of my friends, when we especially need it.
I’m very weak on this and I empathize with the Jews of the Old Testament:
[The Jews were] chosen in order to be a witness. They [were to] transmit the covenant faith to others, indeed, to the whole world. This understanding was difficult for them to maintain; time and again they slipped into the perception that their chosenness was to their own benefit. We understand this, of course, because throughout church history we Christians have so often succumbed to the same misperception. Not often by doctrinal statement, but by pattern of life and failure of mission.
Quoted from Christian Believer Bible Study, session 7.
From Christian Believer Bible Study:
We are inclined toward God. We need God. Our disposition toward God may be erratic and faltering; it may even be rebellious and resentful. Indeed, we may become so estranged we deny the existence of God. But the recluse from God is by nature a seeker of divine covenant as is the human recluse a social creature. We are what we are, deny though we may.
I’m so excited that the authors of I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist quoted Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard, really the first existentialist philosopher, is complex and intellectually stimulating. Reading Kierkegaard helped me understand the paradox—which is not contradiction—of faith. How we have to get to the point of taking a leap of faith—what Dr. J. Ellsworth Kalas called in a lecture I attended, a leap into faith. Here’s the reference from the above mentioned book:
You can reject Christ because he has left your free will truly free. Author Philip Yancey adapts a parable by Christian philosopher Søren Kierkegaard that helps us understand how God attempts to save us while respecting our freedom. It’s a parable of a king who loves a humble maiden:
The king was like no other king. Statesmen trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden.
How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his very kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist—no one dared resist him. But would she love him?
She would say she loved him, of course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind. Would she be happy at his side? How could he know?
If he rode up to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross over the gulf between them. “For it is only in love that the unequal can be made equal,” concluded Kierkegaard.
I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist
This is going on my list of “Books Every Young Man Should Read” along side other great books like C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. I love to read books that have one “Aha!” moment after another. This one does.
Not forgetting love and emphasizing boldness, I really like the following quote from I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist:
Contrary to the spineless Jesus invented today by those who want to be spineless themselves, the real Jesus taught with authority and did not tolerate error. When religious people were wrong, he made righteous judgments and let everyone know what those judgments were. And who could be better at correcting error than God himself? Since Jesus is God, whatever he teaches is true.
Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Revised Series for iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC, Windows and Android – Olive Tree Bible Software
Expositor’s Bible Commentary – Revised Series for iPad, iPhone, Mac, PC, Windows and Android – Olive Tree Bible Software.
Likely, someday I will own this commentary. Maybe I’ll try to find the old version in a used book shop and see if I really like it, then I’ll know if the new versions worth the price.
Everything I’ve read about it is glowing and positive though. I know, delayed gratification…
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