Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 January 2005 19:31:51
A few recent conversations, some personal and some more general recently have got me thinking about walls, honesty and "stuff". This posting is an attempt to unpack some of these ideas (so if I ramble I apologise) not splurge a load of "poor me's" - so it's safe to read on (I think).
Recently I have become aware of how we build walls around ourselves, others build walls around us and Christians are very good at building walls around our faith. These walls tend to keep some "stuff" in and some "stuff" out.
Sometimes the walls are walls of protection and to a certain extent required, but there are occassions when the walls of protection can become walls which imprison us. That is when the walls of protection we build to get on with everyday life become thick, brick prison walls which keep out everything we worry may be dangerous rather than acting as a lego type barrier between us and some stuff which may not be good for us, which can be constantly altered and amended to deal with life as it changes.
What ever the type of wall honesty can act as demolition ball, which can destroy these walls in a second. I'm not talking necessarily about the spilling your guts, "poor me" honesty rather the most devistating honesty based upon a logic and not being prepared to pretend your brain has gone into neutral anymore.
On a personal level when people stop building walls around themselves the bricks can be used to build paths forwards, sometimes paths are watered by a few tears (but these tend to be more tears of relief than self pity).
When others stop building the walls around you they find that the conversations can be positive experiences where we learn from shared experiences and find creative ways forwards, again turning the bricks into paths which can go in unexpected and exciting directions. In these cases we often find that experience shows our perceptions have been wrong and the walls we built were based on misunderstanding and a view of eggshells which weren't really there.
Finally walls around faith can turn it into a limiting experience where we become so concerned with what we should be doing and should be thinking that we block out some of the manure required for growth. And you know what manure such as doubt and acknowledgement of apparent contradictions can help produce some beautiful flowers around the path that the bricks can be used to build.
Like any demolition and redevelopment these aren't always pretty or easy but they can be highly creative and in the long run produce a much more positive result.