{"id":7233,"date":"2024-02-18T23:01:43","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T06:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dresan.com\/blog\/?p=7233"},"modified":"2024-02-18T23:01:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T06:01:44","slug":"jesus-and-godel-2024-post-two-unnecessary-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/2024\/02\/18\/jesus-and-godel-2024-post-two-unnecessary-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"[jesus and godel 2024 post two]: unnecessary opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"411\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dresan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/alphabet-of-goodness-600x411.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7234\" style=\"width:717px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/alphabet-of-goodness-600x411.png 600w, https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/alphabet-of-goodness-300x205.png 300w, https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/alphabet-of-goodness-768x526.png 768w, https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/alphabet-of-goodness-640x438.png 640w, https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/alphabet-of-goodness.png 1464w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A brief thought today, as I&#8217;m trying to get back on an even keel after a weekend of draining stuff. I found this &#8220;alphabet of goodness&#8221; for a few bucks at a nearby Restore, and recently hung it where I could see it before walking into my office, to help remind me to have the right attitude towards the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it reminds me of the unnecessary opposition many Christians have towards the good things of this world. Many of the Christian authority figures I grew up couldn&#8217;t admit that something that they&#8217;d heard from our culture was actually a good thing, and would invent reasons why it was bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even recently, a priest at the local Church was complaining that &#8220;Jesus wasn&#8217;t asking people to go live their best lives, but to get out of the boat and follow Jesus.&#8221; Well, in one sense that is true, but in another sense, it isn&#8217;t. When Peter got out of the boat and walked on water, he soon was floundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Self-care is an important thing. It&#8217;s possible for people to literally work themselves to death if they aren&#8217;t careful &#8211; either by causing themselves long-term health problems that shorten their lives, or by causing them to take risks that cut their lives short more abruptly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Taking care of yourself is important. Jesus didn&#8217;t give us a spirit of fear &#8211; nor did he wish us to cultivate habits that cause fear in ourselves. He told us to repent from our evil ways, yes, but also to be not afraid &#8211; and that following Him could be an easy burden if we took up his yoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not wrong to take care of yourself, even if you are a Christian trying to serve Jesus. If your body is a temple, it should be a well-tended place, one that functions. If you are God&#8217;s instrument, you should make sure that instrument is in good condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, sometimes following Jesus is a difficult path, but we don&#8217;t have to make it harder than it already is by embracing bad choices &#8211; or ignoring good advice just because it&#8217;s not coming from a church leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-the Centaur<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pictured: A nice framed inspirational stone I found for something like 3-5 bucks at Restore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A brief thought today, as I&#8217;m trying to get back on an even keel after a weekend of draining stuff. I found this &#8220;alphabet of goodness&#8221; for a few bucks&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[265],"class_list":["post-7233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","tag-jesus-and-godel","ratio-2-1","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7235,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7233\/revisions\/7235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dresan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}