More on those good things
Well, last night’s lecture at the Centre for Christian Living on 'Love One Another! - 'Was Jesus too much of an idealist? was excellent. I am hoping it was recorded, because Andrew Cameron talks fast but it was gold. We were given an exercise we could do at home, so I think I am going to have a go at it and blog it (there, I’ve said it – now I will have to). For the second part of the evening Andrew asked questions of Jenny Brown, a family systems counselor, about how we go about loving one another. Jenny also gave us some diagnostic questions to ask ourselves. Lord have mercy! - did I (and all the people murmuring around me) feel screwed up.
Jenny mentioned how our anxious brain gears us to see threat everywhere, and so we hear negative criticism, and how often when we try to help others we are really driven by a desire to relieve discomfort and transfer the anxiety and tension (or something like that - I am hoping she was recorded also). Jenny’s book Growing Yourself Up: How to bring your best to all of life's relationships was on sale – another one to add to that ever-growing must-read book list.
It just made me ponder again how amazing heaven is going to be. It’s not just that physical sickness and death and tears and pain will be gone, but everyone will be psychologically well also. Imagine what it is going to be like to wake up one day and be all sorted emotionally and mentally?! We will perceive everything correctly, and be able to act rightly on our perceptions (but we won't even really need to, because other people's words and actions won't be all complicated by their own stuff), and we won’t be messed up by our family systems and past experiences, and relationships won’t suffer from communication problems …
Then yesterday in the mail at home, as part of the same indulgence that saw me buying Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, I also received Molehill, Vol 1 in the mail, from The Rabbit Room. This too looks fabulous, from the quick flick I managed to do last night, and is one more thing I can’t wait to read.