Remember – your greatest gift to President Trump is FIVE WORDS:
I AM PRAYING FOR YOU
This very special SOCIALISM SUCKS SUNDAY
open thread is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody
to post whatever they feel they would like
to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA world.
I’ve got to thinking about why Socialism fails to deliver to the poor, the sick, the downtrodden of the world. As Wolf has mentioned before it fails by design.
So if it fails by design, what does a winning design look like?
I know the winning formula involves giving dignity, building a relational foundation before supporting decisions to improve upon life choices, that kind of thing.
Sort of the opposite of Bernie Sanders cast in the role of a Hallmark Santa Claus. We know that government assistance has been a big fail. And the socialists would like us to think that individual assistance is rare and inadequate.
From my own experience I learned that people want you to understand what matters to them, they may want you to meet one need that seems like a wrong priority, but the willingness to allow them to share their priorities may open a door to a conversation that would not happen otherwise.
I’ve also learned that I truly have no idea how to really help others. My helplessness has opened my heart to more of God in my own life as I partner with the person that I would like to help.
Maybe you would like to share a story about your own experiences with helping others. A task not for the faint of heart.
I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts about this.
Think*3
Selection from the chapters On Charity by Saint Maximus the confessor, abbot
Charity [caritas or agape in Greek] is a right attitude of mind which prefers nothing to the knowledge of God. If a man possesses any strong attachment to the things of this earth, he cannot possess true charity. For anyone who really loves God prefers to know and experience God rather than his creatures. The whole set and longing of his mind is ever directed toward him.
For God is far superior to all his creation, since everything which exists has been made by God and for him. And so, in deserting God, who is beyond compare, for the inferior works of creation, a man shows that he values God, the author of creation, less than creation itself.
The Lord himself reminds us: Whoever loves me will keep my commandments. And this is my commandment: that you love one another. So the man who does not love his neighbor does not obey God’s command. But one who does not obey his command cannot love God. A man is blessed if he can love all men equally. Moreover, if he truly loves God, he must love his neighbor absolutely. Such a man cannot hoard his wealth. Rather, like God himself, he generously gives from his own resources to each man according to his needs.
Since he imitates God’s generosity, the only distinction he draws is the person’s need. He does not distinguish between a good man and a bad one, a just man and one who is unjust. Yet his own goodness of will makes him prefer the man who strives after virtue to the one who is depraved.
A charitable mind is not displayed simply in giving money; it is manifested still more by personal service as well as by the communication of God’s word to others: In fact, if a man’s service toward his brothers is genuine and if he really renounces worldly concerns, he is freed from selfish desires. For he now shares in God’s own knowledge and love. Since he does possess God’s love, he does not experience weariness as he follows the Lord his God. Rather, following the prophet Jeremiah, he withstands every type of reproach and hardship without even harboring an evil thought toward any man.
For Jeremiah warns us: Do not say: “We are the Lord’s temple”. Neither should you say: “Faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ can save me.” By itself faith accomplishes nothing. For even the devils believe and shudder.
No, faith must be joined to an active love of God which is expressed in good works. The charitable man is distinguished by sincere and long-suffering service to his fellow man: it also means using things aright.
https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/media/articles/charity-st-maximus-the-confessor/
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress and
to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.“
(James 1:27)
Say what you want, comment on what other people said,
comment on people’s comments.
Keep it civil. Treehouse rules, but expect lots of QAnon.
See the January 1st daily thread for the rules of the road,
which are few but important.
