Hey! My dear hubbie just read my blog and commented that people may tar me with the same brush as Paul Tillich because I mentioned his name in a favourable way. I thought that might happen. Guess I have entered the fray. What do we do with stuff like that? I am an evangelical Christian in the truest sense of the word. But I like the honesty of lots of people who are not. There is much that Paul Tillich has written that I would likely profoundly disagree with, and yet I like lots of things he has said. The same could be true of other people I might quote. And here is the rub. If I were not a publicly declared Christian in mnistry maybe it would only matter to me and God. But because I am out there, in the arena so to speak, I need to clarify who I am and what I believe.
When do we worry about the "appearance of evil"? I am facing this in a small and potentially humourous way about an "accident" coming out of my last blog. I was horrified to discover on looking at the "Dashboard (control center)" for it after more than a year, that I am listed as having another website also called www.testicles4me.blogspot.com" You can check it out yourself. Type that in and see that "Meg W....former missionary, etc..." has this website. It could seem that it was either "spontaneously" (or maliciously) created because there was one time when I created a "test"...
What do I do? I can't get into the control center because I don't have the active email address that set up my first blog. So I live with the embarrassment of this and trust that those who know me will just laugh at the evils and spoofs of internet stuff....
Reminds me of how I tried to react to the malicious stories about us when we lived in Uganda...people spread gossip that we were working for the CIA....it was so ridiculous...I said to Jim..."Let's buy T shirts when we are on furlough in Canada with CIA on them!" Then I thought more carefully..and another missionary agreed with me...people wouldn't know what to do with it...they would BELIEVE our T shirts...their humour and logic are different...
Another time we were talking with our missionary friends about the gossip about our friendship and fellowship with Christians from many denominations in town. Furthermore these other missionaries, being from big mission societies, had labelled vehicles such as Baptist Union of Uganda, or United Pentecostals...etc. etc....So at one peak of frustration with all this nonsense I said to some of them..."Be sure when you are going round the corner by the cathedral that you shout out from your labelled truck that you've just been to visit the ....at Canada House...."!!!
How do we respond to misunderstanding? How much trouble should we take with our reputations when we have clear consciences, true Christian belief and behaviour.....where do we find the joy in the midst of this kind of frustration and suffering? Do we just get silly like I wanted to, or do we actually declare ourselves...I guess the place of joy is a combination...and then we leave the rest to God, and trust that if it is really important those who want to know who and what we are will ask us, and check..will give us feedback, like my husband did.
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