My Biggest Gripe

[Ed Hurst]

And it's not even about Christian religion, really. I've been keeping track of this whole business of resisting unjustified restrictions, and not just on the COVID thing. It's the entire range of the whatever we might call the Liberty Movement. Some of their ideas are actually pretty good, but they destroy the message by how they present it. Sometimes I think someone somewhere is boosting these boring blabbermouths just so it kills the liberty message.

So today I was looking at a video that involved an interview with a physician about things you can do to minimize the risks of COVID, and the shedding from vaccinated people, and a lot of other good stuff. The truth is, the core of the message could have been presented in 5-10 minutes. But instead, the host and guest blathered on and on about the stupid video itself, and filled it with polite pleasantries that should have been handled off camera for us. But because these people are such attention hounds, they destroy the message for people who don't have time for a stinking hour-long blab festival.

There's a whole lot of stuff I don't read for this very reason. Get to the point, folks! This is why the most important stuff I have to say is typically condensed into outline form. That way, if you don't get it, you can ask for more details. Lord, make me terse for Your glory.

[IainH]

Lord, I freely grant to Brother Ed, all my excess terseness, a quality of which, I continue to seek to remove from my character. In my world, to get directly to the point without first enquiring into the wellness of the recipient is the height of rudeness. It's the one quality, commonly found among northerners, in particular Yankees, that makes mountain folks cringe (not BrotherJay, Pennsylvania is the starting point of some of my ancestors.) "Dang it, life is hard here and by gosh, we want to know how you are doing before, we get down to bidness", within that is the desire to make a fair deal, if making less enables the other to continue to thrive then, so be it. That was the old way, the Antebellum way of my people. There exists, within the culture of my section, the seeds, if properly tended lend themselves to what we would consider a covenant community. It is there in the genetic history waiting to be used. Idk, maybe it will become clearer as I do.

[Ed Hurst]

Heh. Good one, Iain. There's no harm at all in being personal with folks and spending time together, provided that's the real point. But there are thousands out there who don't need to get to know me when all they seek is just a word from the Lord. The word will stand on its own.

The particular information I was referring to is the equivalent situation where you are already bleeding your life out and the "presenters" want to blather endlessly instead of stitching you up first. The claim to offer an emergency service, and then demand all your attention for the next hour before they even get around to hunting down the first aid kit. I think I'd rather find someone else to staff the ER.

What these people want is for me to know them, but they have zero interest in getting to know me. They have no time to to reciprocate, so they shouldn't eat up my day by hiding what I need while they bask in all the attention.

[jaybreak]

That's one thing I do like about Ben, is that there's no cult of personality around him. The interest in him as a person from commenters seems genuine, and it's not the main topic.

Don't forget, Iain, I was born and raised in MA, not PA, but I do know how to make the small talk. Although as an introvert I do admit most small talk frays my nerves. I play along as much as I can tolerate.

[IainH]

I was being mischievous y'all. I knew exactly what Ed meant. I lost my gregariousness when I lost Michelle and although I tried not to, I was short with people sometimes and seeing as how I was transformed from being an often antagonistic* to a more open man by the grace of God, to see that gift diminished by grief was disturbing to me. 
 * I liked to irritate and, when I was successful, it was a gotcha moment. Always with people I know, it's that "breaking thine stones" thing that human males like to do.
PS. If you don't like small talk, I understand because, I always hated it myself. Then the Lord said "hey! be nice to people, be exceedingly glad even when you don't feel that way and you will be a blessing." "Listen without thinking of your answer and I will give you what to say." "I need you to be "a perfect and upright man who, fears God and eschews evil" and you better believe I immediately recognized that was from Job which means to me that I have the Lord's favor. Some might find it strange that, my hearts desire is to lay down my life for Christ as a martyr for me there's no greater glory than to do so.

[Ed Hurst]

Yeah, I detected the sarcastic humor. Sometimes it's right to just sit and absorb the other person. At other times, they need to get their butts in gear, and God uses me to give them a boot. I'd be glad to take the martyr's path, myself. Still, I'm convinced that the Lord currently plans to run me into the ground, and that'll be a while yet.

[IainH]

"Still, I'm convinced that the Lord currently plans to run me into the ground, and that'll be a while yet."
 Yeah buddy, that's what I figger for myself too. Nana and I gather in His presence every morning and it's the best church I've had in a long time. She lost her son, husband and daughter and through her, I'm learning to praise God through pain. 
  I tend to believe that you have to be something special to receive the high honor of martyrdom and I ain't nothing special at all. I'm encouraged by the fact that God uses fools for His good purposes actually, it's more of a brow wiping "phew, thank you 1 Corinthians 1: 18-31."

[jaybreak]

I have no idea what will happen to me, but that's literally only my problem (if we can call it a "problem"), and maybe caused in part by personal shortcomings.

That's my roundabout way of contributing to the discussion while not contributing at all.