Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
But while I do agree at some level that so much focus on heaven is relatively trite, it is only so when it is usurping your place and part in the changing of lives, both "your" own and of others. When active participation in this life is relinquished and everything is pining for something somewhere else. There is a place for "Oh I want to see his face." But if that's all we ever do, might we find that we were busy ... and missed when He came to us now as an out-of-luck guy on the street and we ...just acted like he wasn't there.
|
Continuing my discussion from posts #98,99, (ha-ha-ha) I was visiting with the Full-Time Training Anaheim (FTTA) and was in a meeting with a group of "trainees". One of the trainees was telling about how she was visiting an old lady and her grandchildren. Evidently the middle generation were dead or in jail or doing drugs or whatnot. Gone. So there was this old lady with some very young children, who gladly received her. But the trainee was bothered because this seemed to be kind of a dead-end. I remember her saying that the woman wasn't very educated, and they were too busy worrying about "practical issues" to get very much involved in "the church life". So she said, in effect: "I have a promising contact, but..."
The "trainer" was blunt. "Don't waste your time." My hair stood on end. I raised my hand, and then raised Luke 14. The trainer looked at me as if I simply were not there, said nothing in reply, and continued the meeting. "Next question?"
I don't think the trainer "went rogue" in his reply, or ignoring my objection. I think he was fully and succinctly expressing the wishes of those who trained him. The goal of the LSM is to build up the present, earthly system, variously called "the ministry", "the local churches" and "the Recovery". People be damned. If you can't help them, they are not interested in you. They simply won't invest anything in you if they can't get an immediate, physical, "practical" payout.
Like Willard "Mitt" Romney: now that the election is over he probably won't give any more speeches on "America". Now it's back to what really matters, which is Willard "Mitt" Romney. The presidency is no longer a trophy available for his grasp, so he will seek others. They said Romney flip-flopped but he was remarkably consistent in trying to build up the Kingdom of Romney.
(And believe me, I am not a huge fan of Democrats from Illinois either [hint-hint]. This morning the news told me of a certain Democratic Congressman from Chicago who's been on leave of absence, "seeking medical treatment" because of "nervous anxiety" over the various scandals plaguing him. Today I found out that he coasted to an easy re-election. As they say up there: Vote early, vote often!)
Point is: if you stick around, people eventually reveal their true orientation, of what sort it is. In retrospect, I saw something of the real LSM orientation that day, all the talk of "New Jerusalem", "paradise", and "overcomers" notwithstanding. And for that view, I am grateful. It was not as visceral as
awareness' experience:
GET OUT!! GET OUT!! But that vista 'behind the veil' was ultimately as instructive to me as it was to him.