Outback Jack's Journey

In the Journey course this week, we read chapter 11 of Unwanted by Jay Stringer and were asked these questions: What are the core accusations of shame in your story? What does it continue to try and convince you of? A: Shame tries to convince me that I am incomplete as a man, a freak, a deviant, queer, weird, unlovable, unwanted, unvalued, stupid, weak. In what ways have you attempted to run from shame, and what has been the result? A: I tried to hide my masculinity, my nakedness, my penis. I tried to hide my masculinity, my nakedness, my penis. I tried to hide from people, avoid eye contact, avoid attractive men, avoid deep friendships, and avoid awkward conversations. In what ways has faith/spirituality been used to further shame in your life? Do those sources/voices still exist, and are they adversely impacting your faith today? How might you begin to separate your faith and understanding of God from those messages? A: Sermons preached do not resonate with my struggles, so I must b...

  I went to a talk on Forgiveness just now by Dan Anderson. He said forgiveness has two aspects: An absolute insistence on the wrongness of the wrong. Forgiveness is not the same as excusing a wrongdoing, minimising a wrong, overlooking or forgetting, or just getting over it. Forgiveness refuses to say that a wrong doesn't matter. The decision by the person wronged to not act toward the wrongdoer on the basis of the wrongdoing. Rather than reasoning from the wrongdoing to a set of actions toward the wrongdoer, instead the forgiver accepts reasons to excludes the wrongdoing from consideration and acts on the basis of these other reasons instead. Two other curious things.  Jesus "invented" forgiveness. It does not exist in any historical writings before Jesus resurrection! (People cannot forgive without having first tasted forgiveness from Jesus.) Repentance (admitting the wrong) (where possible) is required for #2. (Luke 17: forgive your repentant brother 7x) I've defi...