Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday April 24, 2008

A friend asked me why I am willing to quote people whom he considers goof balls. I replied and mentioned that I was speaking as one goof ball to another that I quote whomever has a good thought or statement on what I am writing about, and I reserve the right to maintain my own thoughts and beliefs as merely quoting someone does not in any manner mean that I buy the whole nine yards. Paul quoted heathen philosophers and the world did not end as a result. So there.

Have you ever felt like screaming? I mean just taking a real deep breath and letting it all out. This does not mean that you are screaming at someone, but just screaming for the pure joy of it or perhaps screaming because it will worry the neighbors. I do this often and it livens up a rather sedate little part of the world in which we live.

I read a statement the other day that really caught my attention and even the most rabid Christian will have to admit to the truth of the musing and we certainly think we have the right biblical answer to the question, at least we have myriads of statements from Jesus and several other writers of sacred writ.

“The fundamental question in life is whether we live it from the outside in or from the inside out.”

If you want to make a study out of this letter, get your Bible, a concordance and figure out the position of the Bible on this one.

Is the biblical truth "Christ on you the hope of glory" correct? Nope. The correct statement from the word is "Christ IN you the hope of glory." The correct understanding does away with many of the goofy ideas about looking like we lived 200 years ago, or the length of our hair, I wish I had some, or even if we should use a little perfume for the ladies and after shave for the men. I prefer to think that just sprinkling a little Jack Daniels under the arms is better than smelling like a milking barn. I learned this technique from my saintly mother in law.

When we think that life is lived from the outside in then we are subject to overmuch fretting about our circumstance. I know we should be neat, but if a sprig of hair is out of place, is it really the end of the world? If hair is a true factor in the measure of a person, where pray tell, does this leave me? It seems that those who chose to live life based on environmental circumstance such as mentioned are miserable when those things that matter so much are denied them.

Paul wrote that he had learned to be content in whatever state he found himself in, because he knew his life, his value was not determined by the price of his house or car, that he was who he was because of what or really, who was going on inside of him. In the Mamertine prison where he died, Paul was busy about writing scripture and helping the new born struggling church. He mentions little about his brutal deprivation in the place of horrors. Christ IN him was more important than the filth around him.

By the way today's quote is from Fritz Perls. I don't know if Fritz ever figured out for sure just what the correct answer was, but at least he knew how to state the great question.

What do you think? Are you living for the Outside of yourself? Or are you living for the inside, Christ going on inside of you?

Oh, by the way for those who spend too much time knowing about the ladies of Wisteria Lane, instead reading some boring books, Fritz Perls founded the much maligned program called Gestalt Therapy, thus the reference to a scream. I prefer the quiet power of Christ on the inside.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit.

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