Quote:
Originally Posted by ILG
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Yep, you hit it.
|
Yep. And one, apparently, has to have been there to understand. I remember the days of my church attending innocence. I remember the way I thought and the judgments I had for people. Remembering those days I can see the differences in my thinking then and now. I can see the understanding I have now and I can see how going through what I've been through has made me more adept at ministering to those who have been burned.
Those who have never been burned... and I mean REALLY burned... not marginally inconvenienced... talk a language I recognize. I can read or hear in the words that there is no concept of what it's like after you've taken the red pill.
Those words that used to "make it all better" don't work anymore. There is healing. That is for sure. But they don't come through catch phrases anymore. Things now require real answers and what one used to accept because someone said so now requires proof.
I think that I am a more stable person this side of the pain. I have recovered nicely for the most part and the only times I ever consider that it was nicer before my eyes were opened is when the rejection of those who don't yet understand and who walk in the world of catch phrases and wonderful blind trust frustrates me. I then wonder... if I were blind again... could I be happy?
And... I guess I might if I could stop knowing what I know now and lose my memory of it. But don't ever let me know what I've learned because I'll want to come back here.
Some may read this and say... what a hijack. But... my friend... while I'm not a backslider... I'm very busy in a church just like always. But I understand their thinking to the point I don't have to start threads that ask what they are thinking. My rambling above IS what goes through the mind of a backslider. And those who need to ask what goes through their mind (with no disrespect intended for the thread author) really don't have what it takes to minister to them and will probably do more damage than good.
If you haven't been there you can't understand the change in their mindset and the two of you operate on two totally different wave lengths now and there is no repairing it.
If they are to "return" to anything it will be through intensive study and a full realization that cannot be delivered with pentecostalisms like they used to. They have to see it and see it well and few people are equipped well enough to show it to them unless they've "been there, done that".
If anyone would ever spend the time to truly help a "backslider" (and be willing to drop everything they can't back up) then you'd find that a restored "backslider" is one amazing individual and can turn their world upside down. I'd love to have a whole church of "backsliders". We would have some wonderful times of study in the Word. One word of caution though... the timid need not attend.
Linear Mode
