8.30.2008

I am a paradox

Okay ... so my reading list is ever so long and I am just now starting a book Ryan read 4 years ago, but nevertheless, it seems like the right timing. Brennan Manning (The Ragamuffin Gospel) honestly admits, "...I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and I get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer." Somehow I was comforted and scared by this honest statement.

4 comments:

Alexa said...

DUDE, Amber. . . you have no idea. I've never read that book ( even though EVERYONE is telling me to) but that exactly what I fell like right now . . . in life . . . definitely scared as well.

frisky said...

Those statements are so true for me, too. Especially the one how I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. That seems to come up with me and the kids a lot.
Maybe I should add this book to my long reading list. It's good to know that I'm not the only one that takes years to finally get a chance to read the good stuff.

Anonymous said...

I like the beer part!

hestermom said...

Yes, I think we can all relate!! Paul said it this way,
"And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can't. I want to do what is good, but I don't. I don't want to do what what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life-that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 7:18-25 (ish) NLT
P.S. I miss you Amber...