Rats!

A. Unabashed Pacifist:

“Go to war, go to hell.“
[Rephrasing Gen. Sherman’s statement.]

B. Unabashed Christian:

Holy One,

The variety of beliefs about you makes my mind tired. I suppose this variety reflects the variety of our experiences and our personalities. We project those onto you, then say you are responsible for the beliefs as well as for the experiences.

I line up with those who think your responsibility for our experiences is only of an indirect kind. You have no need to control the details, nor do you care to judge us for our actions and beliefs. They carry enough of their own consequences in our lives.

I believe, for instance, that you are loving and forgiving and desire that we be the same. If we are, then life generally goes better for us and we experience happiness. That is simple consequence, not reward given as judgment on our behavior. Of course, bad things happen even if I live what I believe. But the bad is not punishment, just a risk that comes about as part of living.

You continue to love and forgive, and if I live accordingly, then I can maintain a happy spirit despite the bad. I dwell in the assurance of your care and the sense that all life is blessing. If my beliefs are wrong? Nah.
Amen

C. Un-quoting Jesus:

“I’m King of the Universe!”

[No matter what we think of Him, He didn’t say this.]

D. Blog: Ratatouille

On the day of Chinese New Year, we celebrated the Year of the Rat by watching the movie “Ratatouille.” Delightful! Alice observed that it must be a pretty amazing movie if it made her feel sympathy for rats (we once belonged to a city church where rats were a serious problem).

The key line for me in the film came when the highly critical critic wrote his appraisal of the restaurant where the chef was a rat: “Not everyone can be an artiste, but an artiste can come from anywhere.”

The same can be said of goodness, or inspiration, or prophets, or a redeemer – from Nazareth, even.