Unclear on the concept

[resonant]

One of the churches in town has been using its messageboard to do those "messages from God." You know the ones -- "Drop by my place before the game, and bring the kids. --God."

Today it says, "I am thankful for you. --God."

And I said, "Thankful to whom?"

Comments

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know -- I like the idea of God being thankful for people... thankful to the people themselves, for what they are and what they do.

But then I'm a Unitarian Universalist (kinda), and you know what we're like. *g*

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Oh! Icon! That's always been my favorite chalice, the double-circle one. It is permitted to share? (Or, in the alternative, did you get the graphic from the UUA website? No real reason I couldn't make my own related icon.)

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Sure, help yourself! I made this icon from a graphic I snagged off the UUA site; if you like the result there's no reason you should redo work that's already been done. Enjoy!

[read-300300.livejournal.com]

Yay for UUs!!!!!


*hugs you warmly!*

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*

[somniesperus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know -- I like the idea of God being thankful for people... thankful to the people themselves, for what they are and what they do.

I agree--that's what I thought of, when I read it. It sounded nice to me!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'm very fond of UUs, even though that's exactly what y'all are like.

But I run into trouble when I try to think of God being grateful, because it implies that God could need something, or lack something, or ... something ...

Maybe it's not so much grateful as the way you feel when your two-year-old brings you a dirt-dripping bunch of dandelions: it makes you happy to be loved by this clumsy small undeveloped creature, and also relieved that the creature didn't destroy anything you really cared about in the process.

[the-shoshanna.livejournal.com]

Well, if God can be sorrowful when people do bad things, it seems to me he can be glad when people do good things, and I guess "glad" and "grateful" are awfully close in my mind. I think I can be grateful for without necessarily being grateful to, though I admit that maybe I just haven't examined that feeling closely enough. (When my stepchildren ask if I believe in God, I say, "I don't know, and I'm willing to wait until I die to find out.")

But if, as you say later, the sign now says "I'm thankful to me for you" -- I got nuthin'. Eesh.

[apple-pi.livejournal.com]

A church down the road a ways says, at the moment, "Give Satan an inch, and he'll become a ruler." Which I did sort of snicker at - it's clever in its way.

Generally, though, I just - no. I want my Unitarian church to put out quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, or Thoreau, or someone like that.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Once I saw a bumper sticker that said, "You following Jesus this close?"

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[apetslife.livejournal.com]

Himself? His pre-New Testament singular incarnation? *grin* Wow, that's a brain twister, right there. Can gratitude exist as an abstract, without a focus?

I am too dumb right now to contemplate this, I think, so I am going to wander off and read porn instead. I'm guessing that that's not what they intended with their little throwaway message board message. HEH.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

They've changed it now, and in a way it's even more confusing, because now it says, "I'm thankful to me for you."

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

That's an unusually smug god, right there, eh? Basically, they've got him saying "Yeah -- I'm good." One imagines he then buffs his fingernails on his lapel, stretches extravagantly, lights up a cigarette, etc.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

You have read the first chapter of Genesis, haven't you?

He sees pretty much everything he makes as "good". Except for Monday. Made heaven on Monday, but it, apparently, wasn't good.

:)

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. But I think there's a (subtle, but important) difference between "This thing I have made is good" and "[Damn,] I'm good [!]" ;-)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

They don't mention God doing an end-zone dance, but you can kind of picture it.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

The guy who gave him the idea? You know, my favorite image is that of multiple gods sitting in the ether going: "So what are we going to do today?" And then someone comes up with humans and they all rejoice, because Sims is awesome that way.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Bwah! We're Sims! Maybe that explains why some of us seem to be living lives with more accessories than others.

[suaine.livejournal.com]

And you know that some of them are totally cheating! And some enjoy building swimming pools just so they can remove the ladder and see us drown -_-

[snpdiva.livejournal.com]

There is a little shoebox church that I often pass on my way to my parent's house, that has the same type of sign. Right now, however, instead of a cheesy quote it says:

"Welcome our new pastor: Rev. Richard B. Long"

I can't stop laughing.

[florahart]

OH GOD.

...wait.

>.>

I am reminded: I used to have a Jiffy Lube by my house. It had a signboard. This signboard usually read things like "Christmas is coming; do you know where your lube is?" or "Lube for you and a friend! Ask us!"

No lie.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

He may have looked at his name and thought, "Well, it's either preacher or porn star. I'll flip a coin."

[whatifisaidno.livejournal.com]

"I am thankful to myself for making you. Yes. You heard me right."

Obviously, God's lonely and in need of attention.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

There's a Hadith in Islam that says pretty much that straight out: "I was a hidden treasure and I desired to be known."

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I like that! Even though (possibly because) it sounds like Q from Star Trek.

[jood.livejournal.com]

I have one of these I pass on the way to work every day. They're often overly cutesie and irritating, but I like the one they have out this week:

SIGN BROKEN. SOME INSIDE FOR MESSAGE.

:-)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Our church has a movable-letter sign, but it just gives the title for next week's sermon. Once when I was working in the church office, the maintenance guy spent about an hour trying to solve the problem of "we have quotation marks but no apostrophes, and if I try to use a comma upside-down, it will be -- well, upside-down." I think he wound up cutting a quotation mark in half with a table saw.

[sef1029.livejournal.com]

Finally--a place where the Trinity actually comes in handy for explanatory purposes.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Hee! Plus if they get bored, they can play Rock, Paper, Scissors.

[geeklite.livejournal.com]

Your mom. ?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

There we go. The definitive answer.

[spike21.livejournal.com]

Theirs is a smug and self congratulatory God. A God who does Affirmations in the morning and wears a t-shirt that says: I Like Me.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

This suggests self-esteem problems. Their God has never recovered from Nietzsche, and wanders around muttering, "I am not dead!"

[spike21.livejournal.com]

Hah!! In which God now looks a lot like Rodney McKay.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Which does not surprise Rodney McKay one bit.

[20thcenturyvole.livejournal.com]

... Darwin?

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Or possibly Freud?