I’ve been putting off launching into the blogosphere, but I guess the time has come. I have been sending out occasional emails with thoughts from my journal to a growing list of friends. The email thing has become unmanageable…hence the need for an easier option–a blog.
As I continue to get the feel of this thing before making more official posts, let me at least share a goodie from some of my recent reading:
“If the devil can distract us from the “one thing needful” by getting us absorbed in mere phenomena, that is as effective as seducing us into an adulterous affair and has the added benefit of tricking us into thinking that we are superspiritual. From the Devil’s point of view, tempting someone like you to gross sins is a risky business, for chances are the consequent guilt would send you to your repentant knees, seeking forgiveness. But by introducing spiritual sins into our lives, he more often than not, besides distracting us, is able to introduce dissension and confusion into the community and puff us up, if ever so slightly, with an insider’s pride.” (Peterson, Eugene. The Wisdom of Each Other. Grand Rapids: ZondervanPublishingHouse, 1998, p. 56.)
Subtle spiritual sins of self-righteousness and moral pride are just as damning as adultery and drunkenness…and perhaps more so because they are the sins of those who should know better. God, protect me from every sneaky way that the ugliness of my self-orientation distances me from You and from Real Life. Amen.
I’m so glad you are in blogdom! I love you!
Gem
Nothing short of complete surrender will ever satisfy the Lord, for Our Lord is a consuming Fire.Sam
[...] “Off We Go…” – I recently pointed back to this first blog post of “Notes from my Journey” in December 2005. Notes had been an broadcast email since 1996 before that. The post was an excerpt from Eugene Peterson’s The Wisdom of Each Other on the subtle danger of spiritual sins (as opposed to obvious sins of the flesh). [...]