Kyle Woodruff's Blog: TheDevoutHumorist - Posts Tagged "christianity"

Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7:7
(NKVJ)
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As a lover of books, it took me more than thirty years on this planet before opening the most widely sold one of them. I say widely “sold” because I’m not convinced it’s the most widely “read,” as I once believed. I wonder how many people who consider themselves Christians have actually read the whole thing, or even more than five or ten percent for that matter. I also wonder if their view on the religion would be the same if they did.

I’m not sure what my own hesitation was in cracking open the Good Book. Perhaps intimidation, or the dogma around it, but as I’ve finally begun to read the Bible it’s anything but what I expected. Although I was as familiar with the story of Christ as anyone not living under a rock would be, reading the gospels for the first time painted another picture of Jesus that I hadn’t seen or heard. One with a little more impatience and anger than I’d expected from the son of God. More thoughts on that to come.

If you bring your gift to the altar,
and there remember that your brother has something against you,
leave your gift there before the altar, and go on your way.

First be reconciled to your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.

Matthew 5:23
(NKVJ)
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Few of us bring gifts to the altar as sacrifice today, but there’s still wisdom to be derived from what Jesus said.

Reject anger the same way you’d reject murder. Hatred not only leads to acts of violence, but harboring anger causes pain within yourself. It’s like that Buddhist quote on how holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

Jesus precedes this line with something like, “Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Anyone who calls someone a fool will be in danger of hell fire.”

While at first this seems extreme, consider from a less spiritual point of view how we can easily create a Hell within our own minds by holding on to anger.

“Leave your gift at the altar” means to drop whatever you’re doing, even if it’s the act of worshiping God, and reconcile with whomever you’re angry toward to bring yourself peace of mind.

Why? Because our prayers, our desires, our asks of The Universe will not be heard with anger in our hearts, especially with hopes of retaliation.

Imagine your child comes up to you and says, “I hate my sibling.” Then they put on a big old smile and say, “But I love you! Can I have some ice cream now?” Would you reward them for such behavior? Or would you first address the issue at hand? I’d hope it’s the latter.

I’d like to add that if you’re dealing with a person where reconciliation is impossible, or not worth the time, at least find a way to let go of the anger in your own heart. I’ve found that whatever is triggering my own anger usually stems from childhood, with a mother, father, sibling, or early influence in life.

The trigger you’re encountering now is merely pressing the button created years ago. Revisiting the original cause can help to unwire it and lessen your emotional response moving forward. I put what Jesus is trying to convey into practice by stopping whatever I’m doing to ask, “Why am I so angry right now?” Then I’ll dig back to confront whatever memory lurks there.

Because what is more important than healing yourself in the here and now?

Nothing.

If you love only those who love you,
what reward is there for that?

If you are kind only to your friends,
how are you different from anyone else?

Matthew 5:46-47
(NLT)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’d gone through this phase of being aloof recently--and I don’t mean a few days or weeks, I mean on and off for months. I was stuck in this “woe is me” pattern of thinking because of where I felt life had led me, and I was definitely projecting it outwardly. I could feel it in myself, and I could recognize others recognize it in me.

I’ve been working on that, a lot. I’ve been digging into why I was feeling that way and a lot of it came down to feeling lonely, and a lack of faith in the path God has chosen for me. I was walking it, but I wasn’t doing so with passion and gratitude. I was walking it with an admittedly bitter attitude in a period of low.

I’ve been trying to turn that around and express more gratitude as of late, and I’ve asked God to help me project a vibe of approachability. I think it’s working. I’ve been embracing this concept of being more open to everyone, and I’ve noticed more people openly engaging with me.

These lines from Jesus were a reminder that showing love and kindness toward others first, whether they are your friends and family or strangers and enemies, feels better than not doing so.

Being open feels better than being closed. I can breathe easier. It’s been a physical tension released.

Don’t do your good deeds publicly,
to be admired by others,
for you will lose the reward
from your Father in heaven.

Matthew 6:1
(NLT)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A big lesson that came through meditation recently was around the idea of serving others instead of solely worrying about myself.

Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks about serving your own spiritual pride instead of serving others (and therefore God) with devotion.

In meditation I heard that inner motivation is more important than outer actions.

Here Jesus explains that ulterior motivations turn good deeds into selfish actions.

He goes on to say something akin to, “When you do good deeds, don’t blow trumpets in the streets as the hypocrites do. Truly I tell you, they have their reward in full.”

Of course, here I am posting on a platform designed for approval by others, on display in the virtual streets of the public eye. Feels somewhat hypocritical, but I’d like to think there is a subtle difference between:

~ performing deeds so that others think God is good
~ performing deeds so that others think we are good

One is righteousness, and the other is arrogance.

Hopefully I’m leaning toward the former and not the latter. (But then again, I don’t know who’s actually reading these commentaries anyway…)

Scratch everything here off the good deeds tally if you will, but the lesson here is this: The praise of men is the reward hypocrites serve themselves, while the unseen deeds are those that God rewards when no one else is looking.

Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Isaiah 58:8
(NIV)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve been living within driving distance of the beach for six months now and haven’t gone to the shore for a single sunrise. Don’t ask me how. I could list a bunch of excuses, like I was busy, or preoccupied, or my schedule was such that I slept in too late. But the point is I was missing out.

Anyway, the first word that came to mind as the morning’s rays pierced over the horizon was “glory.” God’s glory, I suppose.

The second word that came to mind was “assholes,” as all the trash left behind by people the day prior was illuminated.

“What dicks,” I thought. But then I saw some retirement-aged man walking down the beach with a litter-picker and I thought, “You know, if there weren’t such assholes in the world, then there wouldn’t be much good for the do-gooders to do, now would there?”

Those are God’s dicks.
Those are God’s assholes.
Providing balance in the world.

They are the night’s darkness to morning’s light. Without litter-droppers, litter-pickers would have no litter to pick. They are the reason good deeds can be done, the reason retirement-aged glory exists.

#LetThatSinkIn

And so, as I left the beach that beautiful morning, I did my share and cast my plastic water bottle straight into the sea.

(Kidding)

“We deserve to die for our crimes,
but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus,
remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

And Jesus replied,
“I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:41-43
(NLT)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jeffrey Dahmer was an inspiration, to people like John Wayne Gacy, that is.

[Spoiler alert for the docuseries ending]

Dahmer was likewise inspired by Gacy, although for a different reason: Jesus.

Yes, a man who raped and strangled 33 young men was the inspiration for a man who killed and ate 17 lads in finding the Lord.

Weird.

The dramatization shows Gacy on television discussing the artwork he’d been working on on death row, designed to “bring joy into people’s lives,” when he mentioned being at peace with everything he’d done because of his relationship with God. This sparked Dahmer’s curiosity in finding the Lord.

Initially doubtful he could ever be forgiven, the biblical scene above was the one revealed to Dahmer by the prison reverend that gave him hope. It was explained that of the two criminals crucified alongside Christ, after the first one mocked the Messiah, the second one acknowledged him as the Son of God, and that’s all it took to secure a place alongside him in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Apparently Gacy went on to be executed the same day Dahmer was baptized, on the same day of a solar eclipse.

Weird.

The following scene was of Dahmer’s neighbor, who tried and failed numerous times to get the police to investigate the abnormal sounds and smells emerging from her neighbor’s apartment. She was speaking to the pastor of her own church, struggling to find any forgiveness in her heart for the man who disturbed her life in numerous ways.

This sparked my question for today’s post:
Could you forgive Jeffrey Dahmer?

And if you were one of the victim’s parents:
Could you forgive the man who ate your son?

That’s a heavy question to weigh.

After being baptized the pastor tells Dahmer, “Congratulations, Jeff. You’re saved.”

If that’s the case, eternity seems like a long time to spend in the company of Dahmer and Gacy…

#SeeYouBoysInHeaven #MullThatOver

“My command is this:
Love each other as I have loved you.”

John 15:12
(NIV)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’ve started perusing different religion Reddits and came across this post on r/Christianity:

“I’ve been a Christian for five years but have only recently talked to other Christians. I now understand why so many people hate Christianity, because Christians are some of the rudest, hypocritical, hateful assholes I have ever met. So many just call themselves Christian but don't follow a single Christian value. I will always be Christian but this community is terrible and I hate being associated with a lot of these people.”

My first thought was that there are 2+ billion Christians, so there’s inevitably a bell curve of assholes on one end, saints on the other, and the majority of people somewhere on the spectrum in between, just like with any other group of people.

This command laid out by Jesus may seem impossible to live up to in the face of rude, hypocritical, and hateful assholes, especially when the “as I have loved you” meant going to the cross, but I think we can strive to do our best when dealing with these types.

While that might not be genuinely manifesting those warm and fuzzy feelings associated with love, we at least have it within our power to act lovingly toward others, even if they don’t reciprocate the same attitude. Pouring more rudeness or hatred into the world doesn't do anyone any good.

Also, we have it our power to cultivate and strengthen our emotions, by focusing on the attitude which is favorable or unfavorable toward someone, by seeking out what loveable or unloveable in someone, despite whether or not they are more narrow minded, despite whether or not their world view is entirely different than yours.

When it comes to following this command, I think our role is to uphold our own standards and echo the nature of Christ’s love the best we can.

Do not be deceived:
Bad company corrupts good morals.

1 Corinthians 15:33
(CSB)
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The label “religion” often carries baggage. Therefore, the texts of each religion carry the weight of humanity’s actions that have snowballed over time, long after these ancient stories were written down. I think the primary reason it took me so long to crack open these books was the stigma surrounding “religion,” even though I had little grasp of what each one actually entails.

If these stories were separated from the Biblical canon, for example, and stood alone on a bookshelf labeled “Humanities Myths & Origin Stories,” I might have picked them up sooner. If the back sleeve of a book called “Genesis” read something like, “Follow mankind’s evolution through ancient Israel’s origin story. From the time a great deity molded man out of clay and breathed life into his lungs, to a brother sold into slavery who rises up to become the governor of Egypt, this riveting series of tales tracks early humans through the trials and tribulations of founding civilization in the cradle of life.”

When not umbrellaed under religious doctrine, that might have actually piqued my interest while browsing through bookstores for Joseph Campbell-type literature. I was completely taken aback by what I found in the first book of the Bible when writing “Genesis: Biblical Commentary Through Dialogue.” I had no idea it was stories of rape and incest and murder. I had no idea what to expect, but it sure wasn’t a bunch of tales of lies and deceit and chaos.

Imagine perusing another bookshelf labeled “Most Popular Short Stories of All Time” and reading a summary that says, “Explore one of the most confounding mysteries of all time in a tale that explores why bad things happen to good people. Witness an innocent man endure the worst of tragedies, one after another, all to settle a wager between Satan and God.”

Would you be more intrigued if you didn’t have to flip through much of a leatherbound Bible to get there?

I’d encourage anyone to put aside the labels of “Christianity” and just read these stories as best sellers passed down throughout the millennia.

“The truth will set you free.”


John 8:32
(Translation from ESV)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I went to a church service recently with a couple friends, and after we went to a diner. Over french toast and egg sandwiches we discussed the vast array of different churches, preachers, and attendees that have spanned over time.

The churches I’d attended sporadically over the years were old school--with robes and candles--while these friends are members of something more new age--with live bands and a video production crew. My friend’s wife was raised in a cult-like setting that called these new age churches evil, yet the attendance in these newer environments is growing while the attendance at older churches is dying off (literally).

“Maybe they are,” said my friend, “but even if they do, they served their purpose to get us where we are today.”

They were the horse and buggy to today’s automotive, I suppose. But the evolution of the delivery of the message is interesting. The old school vibe I experienced seemed more piecemeal, with lots of hymns and random snippets of verses here and there, which weren’t as cohesive as the man in a suit jacket delivering a modern sermon here.

Our discussion drifted toward how each pastor, reverend, or minister can interpret the roughly 1,700 pages of biblical text however they want. And, being a vast spectrum of deliverers--ranging from good to evil and everything in between--that text can pretty much say whatever they want it to say by pasting different verses together and creating correlations. And then there are the deliverees--ranging from ignorant and impressionable to well-versed and informed--who can pretty much absorb whatever they want with a filter of their own selective hearing. So God’s Word--the “Truth,” if you will--is shaped and understood differently by man, intentionally or unintentionally, depending on who is doing the interpreting.

Our conclusion was that responsibility comes down to the individual to study and learn for themselves--something the minority take the initiative to do--otherwise you’re at the mercy of whoever is at the head of the church, receiving a grab bag approach to religion. That’s the real truth.

“And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven,
but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”


Matthew 12:31
(Translation from NIV)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

​​I was having a conversation with someone last night who dislikes the boy’s character in my book. She grew up in a Catholic school system and was on the receiving end of guilt/shame/scolding if she questioned the “authority” figures in that system.

She told me the boy made her uncomfortable asking all of his questions, so I guessed that was her inner child’s lingering fear of getting in trouble bubbling up to the surface whenever the boy asked a question she herself had but was afraid to ask because of this trauma.

I told her there was an inner dichotomy between wanting to ask the questions herself and her younger self wanting to punch the boy in the arm and say, “Shh! You’re gonna get us in trouble!” Obviously there is no authority figure to get her in trouble today, but the traumatized younger version of herself still living inside her doesn’t realize that.

This, of course, was the purpose of the boy’s character all along, while the purpose of the old man is to represent someone confident enough in his faith to patiently answer these questions where a “traditional” (and potentially less confident) authority figure might respond with guilt or shame and no answers.

The whole purpose of the book is to allow the reader permission to ask the challenging questions they may feel like they don’t have the permission to ask and NOT be faced with shame and guilt, but instead find the appropriate answers delivered in a patient manner.

Now if only the reviewer on Amazon who gave my book one star for “blasphemy” could see things that way.