Isn’t She Beautiful (4)
- Posted by scott on January 22nd, 2007 filed in conversatio, isn't she beautiful, mars hill, parable
A couple of you have requested that I post my notes for Mars Hill’s “Isn’t She Beautiful” conference. I filled a legal pad today, so there’s a lot to digest. Rest assured - I’ll post an abridged version once I make sense of my scrawlings.
Until then, let’s talk for a bit.
A man who loved his wife dearly walked into a room and found a group of women and men talking about how they should love their spouses. After a few mintues of listening quietly, he tired of their opining and penchant for technical terms such as complimentarian and egalitarian and mutual submission, and asked…”Well, what do you do? How do you love them?”
And for a moment, everyone sat silent. One gentleman tossed out a concrete, innovative idea involving cooking a meal together using only ingredients beginning with vowels, only to have it shot down by a group quite intent on maintaining their usual “Olive Garden and Out!” routine. Another proposed an alternative, but the rest found it “passé.” Some began to criticize each other’s spouses, but no one really did anything. Needless to say, the level of discourse dropped like a rock (or as next year’s Oxford might say it, “got plutoed”).
Frustrated, the man stood up and asked, “Are we missing something here? Is there a more creative, more synthetic, more organic approach just waiting to be discovered?”
What do you think?
2 Responses to “Isn’t She Beautiful (4)”
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Isn’t She Beautiful (4)
- Posted by scott on January 22nd, 2007 filed in conversatio, isn't she beautiful, mars hill, parable
A couple of you have requested that I post my notes for Mars Hill’s “Isn’t She Beautiful” conference. I filled a legal pad today, so there’s a lot to digest. Rest assured - I’ll post an abridged version once I make sense of my scrawlings.
Until then, let’s talk for a bit.
A man who loved his wife dearly walked into a room and found a group of women and men talking about how they should love their spouses. After a few mintues of listening quietly, he tired of their opining and penchant for technical terms such as complimentarian and egalitarian and mutual submission, and asked…”Well, what do you do? How do you love them?”
And for a moment, everyone sat silent. One gentleman tossed out a concrete, innovative idea involving cooking a meal together using only ingredients beginning with vowels, only to have it shot down by a group quite intent on maintaining their usual “Olive Garden and Out!” routine. Another proposed an alternative, but the rest found it “passé.” Some began to criticize each other’s spouses, but no one really did anything. Needless to say, the level of discourse dropped like a rock (or as next year’s Oxford might say it, “got plutoed”).
Frustrated, the man stood up and asked, “Are we missing something here? Is there a more creative, more synthetic, more organic approach just waiting to be discovered?”
What do you think?
2 Responses to “Isn’t She Beautiful (4)”
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Earl Says:
January 27th, 2007 at 11:57 amOne person in the room was moved and yet deeply disturbed. He thought to himself, “I know that that having endless discussions about how we should love our spouses isn’t the same as actually loving my spouse. I know that I need to move beyond the abstract into the concrete. But I’m just not wired that way. I’m not one to iniate concrete action. I get more of a buzz out of just analyzing and trying to make sense of things. Besides, I need to make sure that I really understand love and marriage before I stick my neck out. I don’t want to look foolish if it turns out that I have no idea what I’m doing. It would be so much easier if we could all first agree on how we should love our spouses so that we could then encourage one another as we move together from the abstract into the concrete. Even if that were possible, though, I know that actually loving my spouse, as opposed to just talking about it, will require sacrifice on my part. The more I think about what kind of sacrifice would be required to truly love my spouse, the more I wonder if I really am committed to loving my spouse in the first place.”
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Tony Myles Says:
July 21st, 2007 at 10:02 pmSlam dunk, dude… I like how you wrote this!
January 27th, 2007 at 11:57 am
One person in the room was moved and yet deeply disturbed. He thought to himself, “I know that that having endless discussions about how we should love our spouses isn’t the same as actually loving my spouse. I know that I need to move beyond the abstract into the concrete. But I’m just not wired that way. I’m not one to iniate concrete action. I get more of a buzz out of just analyzing and trying to make sense of things. Besides, I need to make sure that I really understand love and marriage before I stick my neck out. I don’t want to look foolish if it turns out that I have no idea what I’m doing. It would be so much easier if we could all first agree on how we should love our spouses so that we could then encourage one another as we move together from the abstract into the concrete. Even if that were possible, though, I know that actually loving my spouse, as opposed to just talking about it, will require sacrifice on my part. The more I think about what kind of sacrifice would be required to truly love my spouse, the more I wonder if I really am committed to loving my spouse in the first place.”
July 21st, 2007 at 10:02 pm
Slam dunk, dude… I like how you wrote this!