Dennis Leary is so hot-and-cold for me.

First time on Friday: I finally tried Dairy Queen ice cream. Neither my boat nor world were officially rocked. I was disappointed. What I ate was pretty much a less gross Oreo McFlurry. (It wasn't what I meant to order...it made me sad.)


Today I posited that it's "easy" for God to forgive us because He sees the better self we could/will beome on the other side of it. (I imagine a sin or a plea for forgiveness floating up in front of His face like a bubble or busying like a fly and He just swats it away. It's hardly important...it's blocking His view.) I imagine He knows better...that He expected the sin, that He sees us forgiven and that He knows our perfected selves. I tried to say that it's like Him shaving off pieces of stone in pursuit of the sculpture inside but I'm not sure how that analogy holds up.

"because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
Apparently it's a privilege to be disciplined by God. I think of the system by which Rabbis chose their disciples or followers... I think of the honor conferred by being allowed to copy someone's every move. It sounds like weird-o idolatry or perhaps arrogance but it makes sense to me (only with God, really). He wouldn't bother with la discipline if He didn't think we could take it or didn't think we could be trained or further perfected or however you want to say it. He knows our potential. The phrase, "He sees our sinless self," liberates me. I'm glad that God is omniscient because that means He can view all of THIS - all of what I now understand as self, as true about the world at present, etc. - and see it as prep for what WILL BE. It's all valuable, it's all ordered...it's all leading somewheres. And He gets that it's necessary because He knows the end result and what every up, down, struggle and triumph is going to yield in the Finished You. The Finished Me. I'd love to meet her.