Minnesota Blogs You Should Be Reading: Within the Discord
By Mitch Berg
Somewhere in Corinthians, it says that God gives people gifts in the faith according to what people can best put to use – or words to that effect (I blame translation difficulties from the Greek for any misunderstandings. That’s the ticket).
Which is one of the reasons I don’t write a whole lot about religion; God’s seen fit to put my strengths in areas other than “being articulate about faith”.
But it’s always a treat – and a blessing, in every sense of the term – when I find someone who not only writes articulately about faith, but asks the big questions and reflects the churn a lot of us feel in looking (or waiting) for the answers.
Which is why I like Amanda Carranza’s “Within the Discord” so much.
Yes, I said big questions:
A lot of things have happened the last few days, a lot of things reminding me of just what an active role my Heavenly Father plays in not only my life, but my every happiness. A lot of these things are confusing, yet exciting, and I’m not exactly sure what to do with them. How do I harness this and bring glory to God through the written word? How do I encourage others with my blatherings, and yet not come across as self-important? (How do I not feel self-important when something I write just happens to make sense in my own head?) How do I convey my flaws, how do I prevent myself from shying away from them? How do I present who I am, my identity of who God sees me as, as accurately as can be expected, and yet still encourage each others and not thoroughly discourage myself?
Well, there’s a question, can I become thoroughly discouraged while examining myself through God’s eyes?
Of course, reading pushes me to ask the same questions – and that’s usually pretty revelatory, or at least something most of us could stand to do more of, no matter what we believe.
