tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1979194495561256604.post4950376443888083203..comments2023-09-11T08:13:16.820-07:00Comments on living as if the Truth was true: Besetting ScruplesJoanna Hoythttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13447960126998692419noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1979194495561256604.post-304473353492475972014-02-20T23:33:11.011-08:002014-02-20T23:33:11.011-08:00Your idea of 'besetting scruples' makes pe...Your idea of 'besetting scruples' makes perfect sense to me, and may have a prophetic role in community--whether that community is the people you see and worship with face-to-face or the people who read your words.<br /><br />Community is important in another sense. You can't be sensitive to sin (and willing, with reflection and modesty, to say so) and also be a people-pleaser. It seems to me that you'd need to have some people around you who have the maturity to love you unconditionally and tell you when you're off track. No amount of introspection, no varying waves of confidence and self-doubt, can replace the counsel of people who love you and who will tell you the truth.<br /><br />It's very important to have a community in which people can risk using their spiritual gifts and know (through mutual support) that even their mistakes can yield fruit. We can't always wait to speak or act until all our ducks are lined up in a perfect row. (Or, as you put it, until we're sure we've got clarity and grace.) Sometimes other people's clarity and grace merge in God's economy with our judgment and persistence, if we are simply willing to risk.Johan Maurerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13771067774042071617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1979194495561256604.post-20267025590841548812014-02-17T17:28:53.913-08:002014-02-17T17:28:53.913-08:00Thank you both. Randy, after reading your comment...Thank you both. Randy, after reading your comment about considering 'scruples' pejorative I did what I should have done before--went back to a couple of dictionaries and looked up 'scruple'. I had been picturing the definition more or less correctly but with a positive spin. <br /><br />For myself I find the test about easyness of which you speak (which sounds somewhat like the test of the cross which I've heard other Friends speak of?) double-edged, like the concept of scruples itself. I do easily slip into habits of speech and action that aren't conducive to wholeness, and questioning those semi-automatic responses is very helpful; I do often have a strong and ill-defined resistance to the very things I most need to do. In that sense I do need to reconsider both what draws and what repels me. But I can easily use the same words to make myself miserable and to avoid what might heal me...perhaps this is the danger to which Forrest refers?<br /><br />Forrest, can you say more about how you make sure of whether you are examining yourself through God's eyes or your own, and about what you do in times when the sense of connection with God and graced insight is lacking--or do you not have the latter times? My own experience so far is that sometimes clarity and grace come as gifts, and sometimes I feel blinded and disconnected and have to use whatever reserves of judgment and perseverance I have until grace comes again.<br /> Joanna Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13447960126998692419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1979194495561256604.post-41098028427988760142014-02-17T09:04:26.330-08:002014-02-17T09:04:26.330-08:00I think we can safely leave it to God to decide (a...I think we can safely leave it to God to decide (and let us know, if need be) when a reaction is Led and when it's just habitual.<br /><br />I'm concerned about randyvo's joke about "trying hard to... become more judgemental about... my judgementalism.<br /><br />Rather than being a useful approach, this just points up the trouble with judgement as a means of finding and fixing problems; it's both ineffective and needlessly painful. <br /><br />It's like what Gabor Mate said about giving himself a knee injury from jogging: [roughly]~"As a physician, I ought to remember that 'pain' implies 'tissue damage.' "<br /><br />Self-examination, good! But self-examination via God's merciful [but observant] eyes, not human judgement biting itself in the butt! [& sometimes humor is just appreciation of an incongruity?}forresthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13861950371962268402noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1979194495561256604.post-81181385266439549872014-02-16T23:40:05.225-08:002014-02-16T23:40:05.225-08:00Thanks, Johanna. As always, you raise interesting...Thanks, Johanna. As always, you raise interesting questions. I like your use of the words "scruples" - because I tend to think of that as a pejorative term and so reiterates your point. One of the things I am trying hard to do is to become more judgemental about is my judgementalism. I used to take quite vocal umbrage against all sorts of things I no longer want to spend time on (though sometimes do). The spiritual discipline I try to cultivate is this: do I find it easy? Then try and think twice about doing it. Do I find it difficult? Then maybe God is trying to tell me something. Only in my more lucid moments do these thoughts come, of course, not when they would be most helpful or necessary, but it's a process. But you are quite right: we need to ask these questions of ourselves.randyvohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06279844466583666934noreply@blogger.com