.jpg)
.jpg)
|
Home
Opinion
Banks, Harry
2012
|
Ground Rules
Submitted: May 3, 2012
By Harry Banks
Hi, I'm Harry. Adventist Today has asked me to put some words down. Written words are not my natural media. I am more of a live interaction teacher-type communicator. Sometimes some wonderful, unexpected discoveries have come from those conversations. In this column I am going to try to learn how to communicate in this written format and see if we can enjoy some discoveries here as well.
But first, for those of you who care … (I got a bad class evaluation for saying that too much in the classroom. They said, "It makes it sound like some may not care." Hmmm ... I sorta thought some people might actually not care.) Anyway, for those of you who care, here are some ground rules for my column …
What! Ground Rules?
Yeah ... I'm gonna need some ground rules to be comfortable doing this because I plan to write like I'm telling a personal story about myself and my life. These are being offered "as is." You know when you buy some second-hand stuff it is sold "as is." Well these columns are going to be "free" and "as is" offerings. Which leads me to ...
Rule Number 1.
Take the best and leave the rest.
I usually also add "and do not gossip," but since these are in print I don't expect anonymous readers to be careful with the free gift of a personal story. It would be nice, but it's a big world out there and not everyone has made a commitment to being considerate.
Rule Number 2.
No arguing.
If you choose to respond, please no arguing. If you reply with arguing, I will most likely not respond. I'm expert only on my own story and I expect you to be expert on your own story. If you feel like arguing it is likely because your story is different. That is OK. It's perfectly fine. So tell your story from your personal point of view! Just don't argue about it.
Rule Number 3.
No advice giving.
You gotta be kidding; No advice giving! Yep! I'll just tell my story. If you respond, you just tell your story ... with no advice.
Rule Number 4.
Let's pray with and for each other.
I don't mean one of those I'm-going-to-preach-to-you-in-my-prayer kind of prayers but pray with a trusting heart that the Great God of Heaven and Earth can and will work miracles of faith, redemption and grace when we truly prayerfully intercede for each other.
________________________
Join in the discussion:
Log In to Post a Comment. Log In | Register
Is this an invitation for everone to tell her own personal story? What to look for? Conversion story? Unconversion? Beliefs? Disillusionment? Delusions?
Expectations? Disappointments? Lessons learned?
This is the best, and perhaps only way to really get to know someone: listen, don't argue as a story cannot be argued, what is past is past; what is believed is very subjective and not open to disagreement.
O.K. Harry, you're first. Tell us about yourself that you want us to know.
Obviously it had a great influence on my vote since it had all the substance of "lipstick".
And I do drive past her house when ever I go to work -- Well it's a block off the highway...
BTW I can see Denali (Mt. McKinley) from my house... but not Russia...
Intercessory prayer is certainly one of the most underappreciated gifts we’re given. If it weren’t for intercessory prayers for me, I suspect that I would have been dead well before my 25th birthday.
How do you explain that to a skeptic?
It they are somewhat open to belief I’d explain that since the long odds against my family surviving and thriving are self-evident; that we are beneficiaries Divine intervention.
(I’d also number the contemporaries of mine, Adventist and non-Adventist alike, who aren’t here.)
Admittedly, some things have to be experienced.
Ok then....first thing, we need rules. Hard and fast, and alot of 'em! Then everyone needs to make sure no ones breaking them without getting outed. And then we'll all gather 'round the firepit, roast some vege-links, sing abit and act as if we all sorta kinda get along, for a day or so, give or take. Then act normal, like everybody else.
Ohh, I'm not giving advice, I'm making sure I save you. And Im not finding fault, but the church has to look perfect. After all...this is kinda my story, in a nutshell...
Welcome aboard, Harry
Stephen,
Luck, happenstance, and prayer may all have the same attribution. If one believes in luck, the lottery is the perfect test of its efficacy. Anything else is in the eye of the beholder.
Skeptics aren't nearly so certain as believers; skeptics question and objective evidence is all that can be accepted; all else are subjective.
There are likely many similar situations who don't attribute surviving to prayer. Just last night, there was a 86-yr-old Jewish lady survivor of the Holocaust who told a most amazing story which has been duplicated numerous times. Few attribute their survival to God, but tremendous will-power, persistence and nothing divine.
For one who believes, it is comfortable to rely on prayer. But convincing others is not so simple unless they are prepared to accept all stories they've heard as due to prayer. I have known people who prayed about what they should wear to work; what they should eat that day, etc. Believers are covincing themselves; not so successful with others.
What was my surprise to discover that day that the Arvels were "cultural Jews" only, agnostic, but on the positive side highly informed about historical Judaism and by no means "anti-Bible," just skeptical of the divine explanation of biblical things. After a draught or two of brew (age and affiliation kept me from the cup!), Uri went on at some length about how the plagues of the Exodus were actually natural events that were later arranged into a morality narrative and attributed to Jehovah. The good captain assured me that it is not at all unusual for great winds to pile up the waters of the Reed Sea, or for blood-red algae to occasionally choke the waters of the Nile, before the days of the Aswan Dam. Frogs? Yes, infestations came; lice, the same. Pestilences of cattle, nothing new there. Darkness? Volcanoes spewing sulphuric gas into the sky off a Mediterranean island had an unpleasant habit of blocking out the sun for days, even weeks, etc.
Journalist at heart then, even before I knew what would become of me in later years, I asked Uri and Lea if their parents and grandparents held these liberal beliefs as well. They assured me that most Ashkenazy Jews (a new term I learned that afternoon) up to and during the Holocaust believed the divine elements of the Bible, but that the relentless genocide broke the faith of nearly all survivors. The attrocity was so unspeakable, the death toll so obscene, the carnage so inhuman, that the survivors concluded that NO God having the power to deliver His people, would EVER allow such psychopathic behavior to go on and on and on, year after year—that either God did not exist at all, or He was so unspeakably depraved, it would be a travesty to honor and worship Him one day longer. I had never heard that side of the Holocaust story, and I was troubled for many months. My faith in a Divine Being was not shaken by what Uri Arvel told me that afternoon as the sun filtered down on us through the leaves of the gnarled avocado tree. But my faith in my own ability to judge the merits and sinfulness, belief and cynicism of others, sank that day in the watery grave of that swimming pool. The faith I lost was in myself—in my own ability to understand good and evil at its core and to assess blame and penalties accordingly. I know remorseless evil when I see it—life has taught me it exists. But to trust myself as final arbiter of a person's right to be called a son or daughter of God, based on externals such as their ability to confess faith in God, or at a less cosmic level, to observe the Sabbath the way I believe it is kept best is something I no longer can do. We may all be created equal, but we all have life stories that CAN change us, sometimes wrenchingly "beyond belief."
I’d say that even the most ardent and committed believers are not nearly as ardent and committed as was Elijah. He knew God could and would demonstrate His miraculous power one minute and was hiding and cowering in a cave soon thereafter, almost as if there was no God.
We are (or I am) somewhat/very similar. Sure, I know that Scripture reveals God to be loving and wise, yet I often do not trust Him as I should. Lord I believe. Help my unbelief.
I tend to prefer ground beef over ground rules - or at least to think that grinding is an excellent thing to do to rules.
Nonetheless, praying for one another in an authentic way sounds like an excellent place to start, and I look forward to hearing more (some) of Harry's story.
(legal disclaimer/fine print. the following is not to be construed as anything other than an out-loud musing of a querious mind, weary of the confrontational replies, but unafraid to ask a few questions despite. if they provoke a reaction within, consider that well. this is not a personalized point, but a general perception of the overview of a particular mindset. if you are likely to find it offensive, please stop reading now)
Conversations with a friend of mine, an "unbeliever", who PRAYS even, and calls himself a practicing agnostic and skeptical heathen. He asks me if Jesus himself did not say "try me, and see". My friend further asks, is this often not a more honest stance, than the dishonest Christian claiming he "believes" (the Bible), but, seemingly, does not live according the character and attributes the author of the bible calls the believer to? Why are so many Christians afraid to "try and see", or permit question of their faith, when their very manner of living seems indicate their own non-adherence to the tenets of faith?
Perhaps being determined in own belief, and not respectfully permitting the other to their own brings into question, rightly even, your right to your own belief, as much as you question their right to unbelief? Can we talk about this concept without defenses, and the ensuing offenses?
Perhaps a believer can allow the questioner, if he were not also so blinded by his own 'determined belief'. Perhaps such determined belief itself is a human machination to deny a fearsome and subconscious deep seated unbelief. If belief WERE real, would it present so?
Seems Jesus had a "determined unbelief" of the motives and methods and demeanor of those who employed their determined belief to justify many attempts to trap him, ultimately hanging him.
Just sayin'....I'm personally not desiring to stone anyone....regardless of belief/unbelief.
Oh, and Ellen? I'm praying for you! ;)
Skeptics need prayer, perhaps almost as much as the determined believers!
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
No one believes everything he hears or reads. Children believe in fairy tales, Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. We enjoy childhood fantasies. Because someone tells me of an experience due to prayer or luck or coincidence, it is his experience and not mine to deny his explanation; but neither am I required to accept his explanation.
"Miracles" are often recounted for medical conditions. The patient may have one explanation and the physician another. Whose to believe?
You've appeard to have launched a discussion about what you do not intend ot discuss ... situation normal here at AToday ... you are obviously fitting right in!
In fact...is our abject failure at "ground rules"
not functionally really only our failure apprehending the gospels intended effect in each of our our own lives?
Hence, we focus on 'others'...