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By Joyce - 13 Aug 2012

In Reference to: 12 August 2012 - Christians Are Made For Pouring

Frank you ask for comments on your sermons. 

I am referring to the one on Christians being "pourers" and not "stone walls."  Well, I have a lot of thoughts about that!  For one thing, the best way I can love my neighbors is to not bother them.  They really do want to be left alone.  I've tried.  People don't neighbor around here.  Most of the houses I have never seen anyone coming out of. 

As I wrote in that last article, people, including Christians do NOT want to relate for the most part.  The boundaries and barriers are really "up there" very firm.  They don't have much to say, if anything, and they don't want to be talked to, either. 

I've gotten to the point where I JUST CAN'T STAND IT ANYMORE, being in social situations where I cannot be myself with my animal concerns, health/food interests, and other things.  Their distance and unwillingness to relate is painful, again and again.  A person has to experience being snubbed and rebuffed time after time.  I get to thinking "I wonder what is wrong with me?"  "What am I doing or not doing to turn them off?"  I have talked to several people in last couple of days who tell me it is like that all over.  They experience pretty much the same type thing.  A person can have a nice, casual, short chat with someone at a checkstand or something, with, of course, NO expectation of any reoccurrence or relationship building. 

What my point here is that what Christians and others need to be is connectable and exhibit real interest in others.  I have already written plenty of articles on connection, etc. and it is still crucially important.  One can just FEEL the distance and coolness in atmosphere.  But, one can also quickly just FEEL the openness and warmth too, when it is there.  When it is there, it is wonderfully enhancing to both parties and is a real blessing.  I am thinking of two such brief interactions with clerks in local stores.  My word!!  They were chatty, cheerful, and good at getting our transactions done.  We ended up with great warmth and real liking for one another.  Real blessing.  FRANK, THIS IS WHAT CHRISTIANS NEED TO BE!  I can't hardly find much of that in my world around me here.  If I do, I surely join in and flow with it gratefully. 

I don't think people like to be preached to by folks who are trying so hard to do the work God wants them to do, but who have no real connection with the ones they are talking to.  I sure don't like to be "informed" like that, esp. by people who otherwise would have absolutely no interest in knowing me.  I did quit that church I was going to, as only one older lady showed any interest in knowing me. 

I am thinking of the places in the Bible where it says things like "don't throw your pearls before swine," "sowing your seeds on hard, parched ground does not bring harvest," and "if they don't receive you, shake the dust off your feet and move on."  Well, they don't receive me, as me, and do not want me, except in a very superficial manner in certain situations. 

I just can't stand their superficial distance anymore.  I have talked to several people in my life about being "there" for each other on a reliable basis, and that is all I am going to try to do with that "world out there." 

All this has everything to do with softening people's hearts, and in the end with animal concerns. 

Well, I hope I have communicated here.  I will be living a much more isolated life, but will continue to be friendly and cheerful to people I run across out there, and I do certainly help anyone that has a need.  I just can't stand the repeated pain from being treated, basically, like a piece of dirt.  Also, there is the very real danger of being "used" and "taken" by those that seem so nice, but who have a hidden agenda, as I experienced recently again.  They can really harm!!  One has to be careful!!

Joyce