Saturday, December 16, 2006

Yesterday's post...

must have hit a raw nerve with Amanda. I don't know Amanda but I would say she must have just read real quick and had a gut reaction. It does not say to ignore or avoid the "shallow" swimmer. It does not say judge them and be rude to them. It does not say to nod your superior head in disgust, it just says to recognize them. Satan uses many ploys to keep us distracted. Especially churches. If we are busy tending to a shallow swimmer who thinks she is drowning, we may miss someone who has drifted to the deep and really is drowning. This could also be interpreted as someone who pretends to be all focused on deepening their walk with Christ, but really is just going through the motions.

I think in my life I have been at both places. Sometimes being in the deep and drowning is when you really know you were in the kiddie pool before. Sometimes I have wanted with all my heart to be deepening my relationship with Christ and I just could not do anything but go through the motions. If someone had pointed that out to me, I might have been a little miffed at first, but I can recognize a truth even if I don't want to.

Our true calling is to be iron sharpening iron. Pulling each other up when we fall. Pointing out that someone just needs to "stand up" because they are drowning in the shallow. We are called to help bear one another's burdens. We are also called to speak the truth in love. There have only been a few people in my life who spoke truth in love. It makes them very unique in this "I'm OK, you're OK" world we live in. If you see me lay down in the shallow and pretend I am deep,-please tell me.

What did you think of the analogy? Amanda-if you still feel the same, I can respect that. It may seem a little self-righteous to you, I just read it different.

6 comments:

Julie Anne said...

hmmm..."amanda" sounds an awful lot like the little anonymous person who keeps popping up on my blog...knee-jerk reactions and bad spelling/punctuation...could it be that anonymous has come up with a nickname for herself so as to not leave a trail? Hmmm... :)

Nope, Amanda didn't ponder your point for very long.

Understood on this end.

Anonymous said...

oops!

That last post was me!

Sherry

Anonymous said...

Some interesting thoughts from people.
I do understand your analogy - to a point and I did click on the link and read the whole sermon and got a better understanding of what was being said.
I do agree with you about the iron sharpening iron, but as you said I think there are for most people one or two true friends or sisters that can really do that and not offend someone in the process. I don't think we have the right to do that with just anybody.

Sara said...

I'd say I fail in having the depth in relationships that it takes to recognize whether a person is in the shallow or drowning in the deep. It's easy to make a quick judgment and walk away or shrug it off altogether by declaring I do not have time to worry about that person's business. All the schemes of Satan to keep us from holding each other accountable.

Anonymous said...

Talking about knee jerk reactions, how about the comment posted on my site reguarding how much time I'm on the computer ?? (from the author of this blog)

Oh yes, I'm "feeling the love."

How quickly we are to tear each other up and we're (as Christian women) supposed to be an example and a light to other women.
Deborah

Anonymous said...

I tried posting this earlier and it didn't go through, so I'm trying again...

sorry for the comment I made earlier about Amanda, it sounded pretty rude...

I love Janice and I want her blog to be a nice place.