Deity Over Dignity

I keep hearing Christians speak about counseling and I want to say something. Often I disagree with them. They're only half right because you can't really make blanket statements about counseling. Psychologists divide the patients they deal with into different Axes, depending on the severity of the problem the person is dealing with. The things we all understand, depression, anxiety, etc. . . . those things are easy to counsel. They are counseled well by Christians. They are straightforward. Disorders that end with the words Personality Disorder are more deeply rooted disorders. Christians have said to me over and over, "Well, we all have personality disorders, don't we?" Well, yes, of course, we all have sins and problems. We do not all have "personality disorders," though. Other children do not sit and sort and sort and sort and classify, rather than play, as I saw my niece doing this weekend. What she did reminded me so much of what I used to do for hours on end when I was a kid. Now, I make lists for hours on end to calm myself. I can list for 24 hours at a time, frantically. The things that Christians say don't apply to me then. I'm not reasonable. No reasonable approach will work because I don't understand why I'm afraid or even that I am afraid. I just have this strange compulsion to make a list of something.

Dress as Fruit

I just read a really exciting (to me, at least) post at http://wittingshire.blogspot.com/. I can't say how much I encourage you to go over and read it. We shouldn't judge people by their clothes, if they can't afford to wear better than they're wearing. But, choosing to wear grungy clothes says something about your character. To me, it suggests that the person wearing them lacks boundaries. Boundaries don't just express themselves between people. Boundaries are also about accepting responsibility. This has to do with the boundary between us and God, I think.

In an infamous passage somewhere in the Corinthian letters, Paul asks that women wear something on their heads. He justifies this by saying that it is done so in all the churches. The way we dress profoundly affects our witness to the world. Yes, WE shouldn't judge people negatively and be less than completely Christlike because of the way somebody dresses. We should, however, be aware that others do judge by what they see on the surface of our lives.

Am I saying that we should be superficial? It kinda sounds like it, huh? No, I think that we should have integrity, internal and external consistency, that we should let our relationship with Christ reform every single part of us. Then, we should never be embarassed to be completely who we are, completely honest. It is only this that is truly a witnesses. Witnessing isn't telling somebody about Jesus. It's being true, such that people cannot help but see the difference that Jesus is or is not making in my life.