Quote:
Originally Posted by coalsoffire
New to the forum. Any other sisters here? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I sense more yang than yin here. (And if you ask me... Hmm... Perhaps... Just perhaps... It is the male ego that is the most damaging element to the Recovery.) My parenthetical statement is causing my heart to race... But my temporary password encouraged me to forge ahead despite the old fears...
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coalsoffire, welcome to the forum!
Love that name ... great admonition to us all ... one of the Bible's great oxymorons ... an old proverb the Apostle picked up in his exhortation to the Roman believers. (12.20) Looking at its numerous ramifications, it's pretty incredible to consider. Here it is ...
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.
-- Proverbs 25.21-22
Referring to the conclusion to the Great Commandment "
to love your neighbor like yourself," here the instruction to love your "enemy" brings the Lord's promise to personally reward us. Isn't that incredible! One would think that "coals of fire" dumped on your enemy's head would upset him further, but in the ancient saying, this referred to loving him and caring for his needs. In man's final days, the Lord refers to this again in the parable of the sheep and the goats, (Matt 25.31-46) with the punchline -- "
in so far as you did this to the least, you did it to Me."
In the context of the many conflicts which frequent the Recovery, I am reminded of the Lord's heart of love, and how it seems far better to just "
give him a drink," than to remind him of his many failures and shortcomings which made him so "
thirsty" in the first place.
btw, I think you are on to something when you mentioned the destructive powers of the male ego ...