Seems that we've come to a point where nodding hello to someone is almost taboo.

Thanks for the reminder to be loving to anyone and everyone.

Wonderful post! Very true. :) Something we all need to work on, I think.

@MasterShoe11@xanga - I still see a fair amount of that in the city I live in, but I know that it seems to be rarer these days. Many people who have come here have been amazed at how friendly people are -- yet, as I've lived here all my life, I see it declining. As people are becoming more stressed, we're pulling into ourselves more and not wanting to help others. It's sad.

There was a group on facebook I was a member of until it shut down, which was called "Random Acts of Kindness". The idea was that every week a new random act would be posted, and we were all to act it out as much as we could for that week. One week was simply to smile at people who crossed our paths. It was really a wonderful idea.

I think it's worth pointing out that while "entertaining strangers" can be cross-applied to these other things, like being nice to people you pass on the street, and helping someone change a flat tire, that's not what it really means.

It specifically means to bring strangers into your home and feed them a meal.  This is a discipline the early church engaged in all the time, and one the contemporary church pretty much ignores.

@LadyLibellule@xanga - It has to do with killing your self-love and sacrificing your self-interest, in order to more fully become who you are.

@LadyLibellule@xanga - On the contrary.  You cannot fully become who you are if you are self-absorbed or first looking out for your own self-interests.

"Death to self" is a standard concept in Christianity.  Our ultimate goal is to become vessels of God's will, to partake of God's nature, to become like God.  But it isn't like we become someone else when we do that.  In fact, become more like God and giving up our desires and our lives ultimately makes us more like ourselves than we were before.

"...The obedience which [God] demands of men is quite a different
thing... He really does want
to fill the universe with a lot of... little replicas of
Himself—creatures, whose life, on its miniature scale, will be
qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but
because their wills freely conform to His....  [God] wants a
world full of beings united to Him but still distinct."

--C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.

@ChrisRusso@xanga - Then I guess you really should put your child's oxygen mask on first when your plane depressurizes.  Silly me.

@LadyLibellule@xanga - it's a different understanding of the word "hate" than we know in contemporary american english. at times like this, it's good to cross-reference.

luke 9:23-26

And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.  For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels."

it means, effectively, dying to yourself, your purposes, and having in mind only God's purposes; loving God with all your heart, mind, and soul - with absolutely everything of you. "Forsake" living for the paycheck, or the next GH3 package, and live for and with God. in three words, "repent and believe."

That's Jesus' teaching on "hating" one's life, written by a different hand.

hope that helps :)

@LadyLibellule@xanga - Ever hear the phrase (or rather lyric) : "I've had recurring nightmares that I was loved for who I am and lost the opportunity to be a better man." ?

That's what the quote is getting at.
If you already think you're perfect you won't strive for improvement.
If you realize your flaws you become closer to perfection.

Get it?

@misswonderj@xanga - But who thinks they're perfect?  Pretty much nobody.  Although, ironically, I've come across quite a few Christians who seem to think they are...

There's a big difference, though, between realizing you're not perfect (which is healthy) and hating yourself (which is not healthy).  The first may drive a person to be better... while the second, being so extreme, may actually make a person give up out of hopelessness.

@LadyLibellule@xanga - Its not just Christians who think they are perfect, there are people all over who are stubborn and feel they don't need enlightenment.

"There's a big difference, though, between
realizing you're not perfect (which is healthy) and hating yourself
(which is not healthy).  The first may drive a person to be better...
while the second, being so extreme, may actually make a person give up
out of hopelessness."

You clearly aren't listening. The word hate isn't to be taken literally like how we use the word in every day situations. Hating yourself in this context means that you understand you're lack of divinity, and that to reach for perfection is all you may do while never achieving it. However, it is still encouraged to reach for it betters yourself spiritually and emotionally.

@LadyLibellule@xanga - Just because some people take it to the extreme that doesn't mean that everyone does. Ever think they made the mistake in misinterpreting the quote just like you have?

@LadyLibellule@xanga - Could be. However you failed to read the quote in the context by which it was written. You've already made that mistake.