Things That Make Ya Go Hmm

Here's something to gnaw on if'n you're into it: this postmodern trail I'm wandering along (for lack of anything better to call it just yet) has got me thinking in different directions these days and I'm possibly very close to deciding that the term "right with God" is nearly irrelevant or at best very vague and ambiguous.

Here's what got me going on it:

A woman I know went to counseling and here's what the therapist piles on her :
"Well I think that if you and your husband got it together, got right with God that is, things would really mostly take care of themselves in your relationship."

First, I'd like to go find this therapist and give her an assertive and firm WEDGIE to establish our boundaries and then perhaps a proactive nonemotive NOOGIE or two for saying such a thing at such a time.

Second, From what I can see my friends are not WRONG with GOD (whatever that means) so isn't relational healing a LOT MORE COMPLICATED THAN THAT!!!????

And Third, just for the fun of it: What the HECK does RIGHT WITH GOD really MEAN anyway?

I remember hearing the phrase all my life. Get right with God. Oh, they can't be right with God, cause LOOK WHAT THEY'RE DOING!!
If I just get right with God everything will be so much better.....

But it's not all ON US is it?

IF it were really that simple... wouldn't we all just do whatever it took to "get right with god" and then go have groovy lives?

Where's Grace in all this? And consequence? And healing and community and allathat stuff????

And if I am "right with God" -- so to speak, does that mean there's no intentional sin in my life? (this is what I thought at one time) Could that mean I'm simply not immediately currently AWARE of sin? Or am subconsciously am semi aware, but ignore it. In my experience, if I strap something on and beat it into submission in my life - gain the victory in a manner of speaking -- whether by God's Grace or my white knuckling - usually something else rears its ugly head to take its place... I'm really never right with God if that's what it means.

Is right with God more about setting your will toward God then?

And who can be the judge of who is right or wrong with God?

How can *I* even be the judge of that in myself?

Is it about me/us at all or maybe only partly?
Or is it about HIM?
Is this a both/and paradox?

See, other religions besides Christianity have no problem with paradox. Eastern religions accept this as part of how the cosmos works. Many of our more visible Christians on the other hand appear to tend toward ONE or THE OTHER type thinking. If it is Truth then it is THIS or it is THAT - it certainly can't be BOTH - or very rarely if ever.

Are you right wing or left wing?
Are you republican or democrat?
Are you for or against abortion?
Are you a Calvinist or an Arminian?
Are you right with God or wrong with God?
Where do you stand on the issue of......

and ON and ON..... feeling around to see if we're "in" or "out"..... not necessarily looking for connection or dialogue.

I read recently that Truth ALWAYS involves paradox. It is THIS - AND it is THAT. Both/And. Binary. Beauty. Confusing. Mystery. Unknown.

Throw a third thing in there, like the Trinity, and whoa, we blow a gasket! But why? Why do we want a God we can so easily understand. Doesn't that inherently make God a Not God but another one of US?

unconclusion: It seems to me that I'm clumsily and messily yet quite solidly "right with God", (though that would be debated by many I'm sure, given the way things may appear from the outside) but my relationships still can suffer my being ME. Not that I'm BAD but that it introduces a complexity to things that throws off the whole black and white landscape created by simplistic thinking and law mongering.

Is it up to Me?
Is it up to God?

Am I right with God?
Am I wrong with God?

Yes.
No.
Like, Binary Alchemy, man!