It can't just be me. Have you noticed how commonly we strain at gnats, while logs are firmly lodged in our eyes??? Why do we do this? All I've been able to come up with is that somewhere inside us, we DON'T really want to know the undiluted, actual, factual truth, and often DESIRE to muddy up issues so we can think what we WANT to, rather than accept the simple Truths God left for us to study, learn from, and profit from. That SOUNDS like it's directly in opposition of what we always SAY we want, but .... well, there it is right before our eyes.

And it's SO easy to recognize this in others, but so hard to recognize and admit when we do it ourselves. It's as though we've engages upon a pre-set plan to deceive our own selves. This, I believe, demonstrates the extreme power our own wills can often have in our lives and behavior. Now we can't possibly deceive ourselves, in actual fact. We always know what we're doing. But we CAN deny our true intent, and try to "explain it all away." We can feign ignorance, but Truth has a way of never going away, no matter how much we may want it to.

Truth is Truth, and a lie is a lie, and only Truth makes us fruitful happy. Only Truth satisfies our souls, even when it means we have to accept the fact that we've erred, or been foolish. Personally, I've erred and been foolish so many times, I've really kind'a become used to that recognition. Now, I'm at a point where I understand that what WORKS and is TRUE is all that matters, and all the idiotic imaginations and contrivances I've spent so many hours working on and "perfecting" are just tinkling cymbals and sounding brass. That's me, of course, and each person has to find their own way to self-realization and humility enough to be God's servant, and not try to be His "master."

So many of us are cock sure OUR interpretations are right, when all that's really necessary in the vast majority of cases, is to not "interpret" anything at all, but just accepting of what's clearly said and meant in the Bible. I believe God knew that there'd be many like my young cousin with Down's syndrome, who wouldn't be very capable of understanding and internalizing the "fine points" of theology, and He wanted them to be capable of coming to Grace as well as anyone else. My young cousin has become one of the nicest, most Christianlike and ladylike young women I've ever known! And all it took was repeatedly and gently keeping her focus on God's word, and His intent for her life. Could there be a greater demonstration of God's love and power and grace????? I don't think so.

So lest we wind up deceiving our own selves by overthinking things, maybe it'd be best if we just take God at his Holy Word, and not get so tangled up in our own mental machinations, that so often tend to only confuse and entangle good theology with our own wills and prejudices and appetites. I'm no longer engaged in trying to know the answers to every trite question anyone may come up with. I'm quite content to leave those things up to God to settle on my behalf. After all, He's never let me down before. Why shouldn't I trust Him, just as he recommends to us in his Book???

All that's really necessary is that we love Christ, accept His salvation, and do our best to follow the directions and advice He left for us in His Book. The rest is just flowers and decoration, and too many seem to follow the flowers and decoration while letting the essentials slip past them. Prigs don't seem to have a place in Heaven. Just those who appreciate the wondrous grace and sanctity that Christ allows us to have, if we only follow his Guide Book that He left for us. It's really simple. Let's not over-complicate it, when there's really no reason to, other than our own wills and appetites.