In my first post on this blog, I wrote I may share journal entries which would be addressed to God.
I often write to God and thought it might be good to share these things with others. I typically feel that it is good to share everything.
But I have done some growing and am at a different vantage point to view this idea.
The Bible suggests that all things will be brought out into the light. Anyone who has followed the lives of any politician, actor, or pastor who has done wicked things and whose career was destroyed can see how this can be true. Of course, there are those whose personal lives are not known to the vast majority of people.
I made a decision early on in life that it is very important to tell the truth. I then set about attempting to do this and it has been extraordinarily hard to attempt to live by this principle all the time.
Sometimes people do not want to hear the truth. Sometimes I am afraid of what people would do should I say the truth. Sometimes the truth is not relevant to the discussion and would serve to detract from the immediate purpose of an interaction.
It can be confusing.
But what I intuited was that, whether or not you tell the truth, the truth is the truth and it will eat at you one way or the other. If it is out in the open, however, there is no denying it and perhaps there are more opportunities to work through your issues.
Of course, you can see from all this that when I talk about "telling the truth," I am mostly talking about revealing the negative facts about oneself. While I believe it is best to tell the truth all the time, it is not so difficult to tell the good things about yourself to others. So we're dealing mostly with the bad stuff.
I wish I could share my life with other people more openly but I realize now that this is not always the best course of action. Getting back to the original point, if I were to share some of the writings I direct towards God, many people would not understand the references I am making because they are of such a personal nature that no one would be benefited. I realize there is this thing of paying attention to one's audience. One must be aware of the commonalities between the parties that are exchanging information in order that the information can be properly exchanged.
For instance, I will often share my religious views with others. I have two reasons for this. The first is that I wish to share what I believe could be very important and helpful for the other person. The second is that I wish the other person gets to know me and the abiding beliefs that inform my thought processes and behavior. But I have found that in the dozens of interactions where I have shared my beliefs with others, very rarely have people found it meaningful enough to give it any more than a second thought. This can partly be due to the fact that they are simply not interested but can also be due to the fact that I am not sharing very well. And when I say I am not sharing very well, I am talking about not paying attention to the commonalities between the parties I mentioned earlier.
This may all be rather heady stuff.
I did not believe I would write so long on this topic but here it is.
My main point, as flawfully communicated as it may have been, was to explain why I have found it wise to not share letters I have written addressed to God. Firstly because they are so personal. I try to be as loose as possible in my language and write what I think and feel at the time. Sometimes this means the words and structure are difficult to follow. Secondly, they include references to situations in my immediate life that would require long explanations to fully explain to an audience different to God. So the letter would have to be very brushed up extensively for public viewing which would ultimately destroy the spirit of the document.
I often write to God and thought it might be good to share these things with others. I typically feel that it is good to share everything.
But I have done some growing and am at a different vantage point to view this idea.
The Bible suggests that all things will be brought out into the light. Anyone who has followed the lives of any politician, actor, or pastor who has done wicked things and whose career was destroyed can see how this can be true. Of course, there are those whose personal lives are not known to the vast majority of people.
I made a decision early on in life that it is very important to tell the truth. I then set about attempting to do this and it has been extraordinarily hard to attempt to live by this principle all the time.
Sometimes people do not want to hear the truth. Sometimes I am afraid of what people would do should I say the truth. Sometimes the truth is not relevant to the discussion and would serve to detract from the immediate purpose of an interaction.
It can be confusing.
But what I intuited was that, whether or not you tell the truth, the truth is the truth and it will eat at you one way or the other. If it is out in the open, however, there is no denying it and perhaps there are more opportunities to work through your issues.
Of course, you can see from all this that when I talk about "telling the truth," I am mostly talking about revealing the negative facts about oneself. While I believe it is best to tell the truth all the time, it is not so difficult to tell the good things about yourself to others. So we're dealing mostly with the bad stuff.
I wish I could share my life with other people more openly but I realize now that this is not always the best course of action. Getting back to the original point, if I were to share some of the writings I direct towards God, many people would not understand the references I am making because they are of such a personal nature that no one would be benefited. I realize there is this thing of paying attention to one's audience. One must be aware of the commonalities between the parties that are exchanging information in order that the information can be properly exchanged.
For instance, I will often share my religious views with others. I have two reasons for this. The first is that I wish to share what I believe could be very important and helpful for the other person. The second is that I wish the other person gets to know me and the abiding beliefs that inform my thought processes and behavior. But I have found that in the dozens of interactions where I have shared my beliefs with others, very rarely have people found it meaningful enough to give it any more than a second thought. This can partly be due to the fact that they are simply not interested but can also be due to the fact that I am not sharing very well. And when I say I am not sharing very well, I am talking about not paying attention to the commonalities between the parties I mentioned earlier.
This may all be rather heady stuff.
I did not believe I would write so long on this topic but here it is.
My main point, as flawfully communicated as it may have been, was to explain why I have found it wise to not share letters I have written addressed to God. Firstly because they are so personal. I try to be as loose as possible in my language and write what I think and feel at the time. Sometimes this means the words and structure are difficult to follow. Secondly, they include references to situations in my immediate life that would require long explanations to fully explain to an audience different to God. So the letter would have to be very brushed up extensively for public viewing which would ultimately destroy the spirit of the document.
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