Having been a teacher, I of course love this analogy...its sweet and wonderful...you have such a way with words!

thank you darlin'- I truly do think this describes where I'm coming from..

Mike..Nicely written. Explains it well. :)

peace :) shemelts

thanks darlin'- it seemed to say what I wanted..

I'll play, how bout I take 2nd base. LOL God bless you PM.

you got it! I'm on first.. left handed. or I might pitch with my famous screwball..takes one to throw one...

lets go

first overs.. set up the wickets...

I like that!!!

thanks dear.. I think this is what I try to preach simplified..

i like this very much, i love a good analogy! now if only we can behave :) hehe

don't have to.. we're forgiven.. we may get all skinned up by misbehaving.. but not go back to detention. unless we go there voluntarily. that's why we're so happy...

What a great post! I love thinking of it as a freedom...it is! Good, good job, pastor!

yes..it sure is!and joy is the best response.. thanks Jennifer!

When you said "...is!and joy..."

It looks as if you are making a sort of beautiful e.e. cummings pun on island joy.

actually, the l is supposed to be a comma.."sure is, and joy".. Fruedian slip?

Doesn't this require original guilt Mike?

not guilt.. foolishness. I love and apply Brendan Mannings idea of Ragamuffins. Ragamuffins can be really good people.. they just don't have something necessary to get along in this world. Smarts, drive, luck, opportunity, education, ambition.. something.. and spiritually we're all ragamuffins...

Sorry to whine on but this omniscient being responsible for our existence designed us with a flaw in the glass, so to speak, on purpose? Thus requiring a bit of maintenance before we even left the shop? On purpose? If that were Ford or BMW, they'd recall the model and replace the flawed spirit, no?
Maybe I'm guilty of trying to lead a dead horse to water. Not you, rather in my use of a 3 dimensional, structuralist model, I miss the point of existence, as I don't see any other point than happenstance. In addition I consciously lack the required faith to believe the various disseminated teachings and preachings about deities getting about this blue ball.
Although 'ragamuffin' is a lovely word, kind of like incompetent and essentially harmless vagabond.
You know, I don't even think I am trying to subtly goad you into a debate or looking for a justification of your thought. No, not at all. Maybe I just hated detention and I am irritated with any idea that implies that I have not left it well behind. Yep that feels about right. Shallow, but there you go.

No.. it is tough to reconcile "omniscient" with flawed humanity. But because I believe God is pure love.. I think it is simply.. he needed something to love.. not just admire his handiwork. and he is determined to love us into loving each other. this was really written more for believers.. Specifically "sour Saints" who want everybody back in their little version of detention. if we believe that we've been "saved" (which i don't believe in the same sense they do) why are we so dour and angry and condemning? for Christ's sake!(excuse the pun..) get out there and celebrate! but.. I do believe we are.. from self imposed limitations..keeping ourselves in detention in a humanistic way too. we can't go forward because we can't forget the past.. and our present wants cost so much we have nothing left for the future. and the remedy is less selfishness and more love of others..which is what faith should be about.. and so should humanism..

Paradox, why do I feel the notion of pure love is a little difficult to digest when so much that is experience by organic forms on this blue ball is totally hideous. Not just human initiated but natural as well, like earthquakes. Take for example the pain of and in Iraq, or the Ice addict in the alley, or my back. That is some special kind of affection. Unless we're talking god on a strictly quantum potential basis. Nup, can't stay with paradox, I feel I have to move towards contradiction.

I understand.. until you've experienced having been touched by that pure Love there's no point of reference. best I can do.. the forces that bind this universe are fixed and balanced with incredible precision.. to prevent a hurricane would mean Love has to break those laws.. and if it did once we'd expect it again.. and become demanding and dependent. the short term love would be to prevent it.. but the long term love.. to make us understand, predict and protect.. is the greater love..though we can't see it. 100 years ago Katrina would have had a toll 10 times as great.. look at Galveston..hopefully in another 50 years the toll will be less yet.. and countless generations will benefit from what we're learning the hard way..rose colored glasses,I know..but a wise man said "Love always hopes.." same thing in our lives.. if Love fixed it all we wouldn't learn the bitter lessons we need to..we wouldn't grow..and that wouldn't be the greatest Love. we're like ants crawling on a gigantic picture.. all we see is dark.. but if we could stand where Love does..we'd see that we're so close to the light.. and the only way to the light is through the darkness. I'm really not the best at philosophical arguments..my religious experience has altered my inner socrates..

I can understand the requirement for hope to be important to negotiate the human condition of greater ignorance and I don't begrudge that of anyone. Possibly the need is negated slightly with acceptance of a sense of meaninglessness. In that meaning is limited to us by our limited ability to understand. So I can see the place a faith could occupy. Inner socrates! Are you alluding to compassion and the human ability to empathise?
I don't want to pry, well I suppose that is a lie but what is it you mean by 'religious experience'?

well.. I think I mean simply that I've felt directly the Force that I call God. I find myself speaking words that simply aren't mine.. they are beyond me.. and I feel a power within.. and so do the people listening.. and afterwards I'm limp as a dishrag.. I simply can't deny that something beyond understanding is happening.. no matter I philosophically deny that it can..so Philosophical arguements just seem to me kind of empty. there was a time I was into it.. but now it seems like I've found something beyond Philosophy. I can't possibly expect anyone who hasn't felt this to understand how it feels..the church does an absolutely lousy job of it. it is not an adreniline induced frenzy.. nor is it a warm fuzzy feeling. it just is..and I simply don't believe I am deluded. and.. the words I'm given change lives.. and bring comfort.. that's my bottom line..

Cool