The Fall... Into Lonliness

I've often said how John Blase's words speak to me.  His words often have the power to make me catch my breath. Like today.

Read today's post yourself (http://thedirtyshame.blogspot.com/).  He writes of how Adam and Eve descend not into sin alone, but also into "lonely."

I love how he breaks the word into parts:  "a word defined largely by its sound, the long O creating a moan leading into the n allowing you to rock on it a moment before tipping into ly and then it drifts away."

He's so RIGHT.  Sin makes us lonely (hear that moan?).  We sink further and further into lies and deceit to keep our sin... well, to keep it secret.  We cut off ties with those who expect us to account, who would hold us to a standard of right, who shame us in our sin. 

And then one day, the Light pierces the darkness.  Today it comes in the words from Jamie The Very Worst Missionary.  She writes about the Big O, obedience, and how being obedient to the Word is worth the effort.  Read this excerpt:

But you can’t have it both ways. If your goal is Obedience, you can’t phone it in. If you think you can just show up on Sunday morning and stick your hands in the air during the third song, you’re wrong. That’s faking it. If you think you can simply waltz into Bible Study with a tray of double-chocolate-chunk-brownies, you’re faking it – and you are good! but still, faking it. If you think you can put on a lusty voice and say all the right words during corporate prayer, you are so faking it. And yeah, that might get you by for a little while. It might even please the people you fake it for. But in the end, your shallow faith will leave you feeling fragile and insecure. You’ll end up wearing a thin façade of Christian-ness that isn’t worth its weight...

But obedience will treat you right. Obedience has never left me feeling used and it’s never left me empty, because the foundation of Obedience is built not on whether or not other Christians are impressed by me, but on whether or not God is pleased with me.

I think it's my unwillingness to be "wearing a thin facade of Christian-ness that isn't worth its weight" that makes it difficult for me to sometimes say the words "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive..."  Sometimes I'm not ready to forgive.  Other times I'm not ready to ask forgiveness.  Saying the words without meaning them might be someone's idea of asking for the Grace it takes to forgive and be forgiven, but for me it's hypocritical -- going through the motions when I don't want to just go through the motions. 

Matthew West has a new song, The Motions.  The refrain says exactly what I mean:

I don’t wanna go through the motions; I don’t wanna go one more day
Without Your all consuming passion inside of me.  I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking
What if I had given everything?  Instead of going through the motions

Thank God for wisdom wherever it's found.

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In other news, I learned the Hail Mary and the Glory Be in Latin today.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.  Amen. 

Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.  Benedicta tu in murlieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.  Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc, et in hora mortis nostrae. 

Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritu Sancto.  Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et in saecula saeculorem.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.  Amen.

They're beautiful!