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Wisdom Story
The crazy sage Mullah Nasruddin and his wife arrived home to find the house burgled. Everything portable had been taken away. "It's all your fault," the wife spoke, "for you ought to have made sure the house was locked before we left." A neighbor said, "You didn't lock the windows." Another neighbor spoke, "Why didn't you prepare for this?" "The locks were faulty, and you didn't replace them," said a third neighbor. "Just a moment," Nasruddin interrupted, "I'm not the only one to blame?" "And who should we blame?" asked his wife. "What about the thieves?" asked Nasruddin.
Scripture
My dear children, let's not just talk about love; let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living truly, living in God's reality. It's also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. (I John 3.18-20, The Message)
Comments
Who among us has not known the debilitating effects of criticism by other persons or self-criticism? And some among us grew up in critical environments. Some children are reared in critical homes. Some churches, too, are critical environments.
St. Paul offers us the antidote to criticism. We are to "practice real love." This real love practice, regardless of what we believe or do otherwise, is the only sure evidence that "we're living truly, living in God's reality."
The story of Nasruddin shows us how easy it is to blame one person, one group, or one cause. In community and personal matters, any one happening has a group of causes. Our interdependent linking with each other in community will not allow reduction of problems in that simplistic way.
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This applies to you and me, also. Many different causes and persons contribute to our every act and word. While we are personally accountable, we can lessen our tendency to self-criticism by seeing that we are a product of the community, as well as of personal choices.
Rather than blaming, address solutions. This means communities discontinuing to point fingers and dream about positive changes for the good of all. This is practice of real love, and God's Reality is true communion working together, being one in spirit.
Suggested Reflection
1. About You~What does it mean for you to practice real love? What does it mean for you to live in God's reality? Are you, over time, becoming less critical toward others? ... toward yourself?
2. About Your Church~What church processes does your church have in place to work through group challenges without getting bogged down into name calling and blaming behaviors? If your church does not have such a process in place, would you consider suggesting to your pastor to pray about urging placement of such a process with the help of the governing board?
See next page for details on OneLife Ministries, Brian's book An Ache for Union, and material pertaining to sources used in the writing.
Feel free to submit a query on how OneLife Ministries can better serve you. Thanks! Brian K. Wilcox
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