First, I promised to tell you (briefly) about my left shoulder. I wrenched it dancing a bit over two months ago and then proceeded to rinse and repeat that horrible motion in a variety of creative ways. Two months later I finally saw an orthopedic doctor who assures me this pain is not all in my head and that I have very likely torn (to some degree) my rotator cuff and ripped away the tendon from the socket in the ball joint of the shoulder. Because of the pain of this, I pretty well stopped my using my left hand for *most everything* and that has resulted in a frozen shoulder. Yeah, turns out that not moving it didn't work out so well. Now I am going to have my first therapy appointment tomorrow and will continue with that for a month to see if it will solve the problem. If not, then I can look forward to an MRI with a probable side of surgery.
Second, I wanted to ask you some questions about Religion. More precisely Organized Religion. Our pastor put out three different white boards during the message last Sunday. One was asking us to list the qualities of Jesus. The second was to list the characteristics of our church - specifically. The third was to list the characteristics of the church universal. She encouraged us to talk to people who were and were not Christians for the last one in order to get a broader view. Since you don't go to my church, you can't help with the second one. But, I am interested in your ideas of the characteristics of Jesus and the church universal. So, please tell me what you think in the comments.
I challenge you (if you are a Christian) to do what you can to make the characteristics of your life - and ergo your church, if you attend - to shift to look more like those in the Jesus column. I think that disparity is the reason that people tend to not like organized religion. Organized religion is nothing more than the sum of its parts (the people) and so that means You. And Me. I remember saying once, as a teenager, "The thing working hardest against Christianity is the people out there preaching the message." I still believe that is true. I feel sorrowful that Christ relies so much upon us to spread the message and we are so fallible, and sometimes miserable, in our translation of the Word.
So, back to the original point: Describe the characteristics of Jesus and the characteristics of the Church Universal. (And think about the characteristics of your church.)
