Holy fuck, there's a lot of good stuff in 1 Corinthians 13. I don't think I've ever read it. And to think, this verse was used to tell me to stop swearing. Or not to have sex until I'm married.
I can't believe people read this shit at weddings. There's no romance in this.
This isn't loving the sinner, hating the sin. It's not cuddling in the mountains or fucking on your honeymoon either.
This is pure, unadulterated, fucking humility.
"For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
For now.
We only see a reflection.
Then.
We will see face to face.
For now.
I only know ANYTHING in part.
But then.
I will know fully.
And, more importantly,
I will be known fully.
Tattered rags.
1 comment:
Thought provoking entry Wes. A few thoughts: 1) I think Maslow's hierarchy can be helpful when thinking about people's pursuit of meaning. For someone without food or shelter, they may wonder who they are and who they belong to, but their efforts and energy are put into survival. Since we (writing and reading this) live higher on the hierarchy, we have the time and energy to be reflective on meaning, 2) Defining ourselves by how we are different from those around us is a relatively recent phenomenon associated with the Enlightenment. In premodernity, people tended to define themselves by their similarities with those around them, suppressing unique traits. For instance, consider the efforts that went into forcing a left handed person to become right handed. I suspect in premodernity, social groups consisting of people who tried desperately to be uniform with each other then defined themselves over against different social groups, 3) Finally, i think the imago dei is an important concept not just for how we view ourselves, but also for how we view others. In order to do violence against another person, be it emotional violence like hatred, social violence like oppression, or physical violence, I must depersonalize and objectify that person. If I view them as image bearers of the same God who created me, that makes it far more difficult to objectify that person and treat them as "other." This idea of the imago dei in others is the single most important factor in how determining how I treat those I differ with. It also impacts my ethics on matters like abortion, capital punishment, war, patrirchy, human trafficing, and other issues more than any other theological concept.
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