There's an interesting post over at Quaker Street (BG linking to Quaker blogs? Get used to it.)
Apparently Jean Paul Sartre wrote about Christians coming out of church with smiles on their faces and deduced that happiness was a hallmark of Christian living or some such nonsense. Any quote from French philosophes of the twentieth century prompts "the taking of the Advil" at Chateau Blue Gal. Here is my comment from there:
I have known Christians who felt some obligation to be either happy or sad but I'm with the Buddhists on this one: mere human emotion is Monkey Mind.
I think the hallmark of a true Christian is both a broken heart and a joyful one. We've been to hell and come back. We know the pains this world can produce and we know the way out is hard, but we're not alone and we don't have to be afraid.
My recent leadings (and yes I'm a newly Convinced Quaker) have been both sad and joyful.
Other things to read today:
Manila calls the founders of Live Earth, "the Man." He's right.
Blogenfreude loses it. And shouldn't we all?
Are you an English teacher? Please prepare your red pencil and give Mitt Romney's finance chair an "F". Then expel her. From the English-speaking world.
Off to the airport and lots of waiting. Should have wifi but may not have power supply. We'll see.
Indeed, the reason I've become a recent convert to Christianity is that I have emerged from worship service with a smile on my face.
ReplyDeleteThe Buddhist perspective is that without pain there cannot be progress. I heartily agree with that sentiment.
But to quote the Old Testament here, if I may, to everything there is a season. And when I was a Unitarian, I witnessed a lot of winter and not much summertime. God's ways are not our own and I'm okay with that. A religion based on the scientific process is doomed to fail.
There is no real perfection, nor will there ever be, so long as there is humankind.
I have to remind myself that in all my bluster, if I focus merely only the negative I'm ignoring how good life really can be...just as you've noticed on your travels to the beach.
me, i have a t-shirt that says religion is for those afraid of hell.
ReplyDeletespirituality is for those that have been there.( i think hell is here and we usually bring it on ourselves or others)
i respect all religions and have friends and aquaintances of all beliefs ,that harm none(well as little as is possible)
i'm ecclectic, a happy little(raised catholic) pagan i suppose ,that embraces all tenents that help me to be a better person and to try to make my road and those i meet along my journey a bit eaiser, kinder and give smiles while i'm learning as i live.
if i'm wrong, i'll find out after i pass on, till then, this works for me. : )