word<\/a> I should have seen coming\u2014self-compassion. Self-compassion is a stop somewhere out there on the journey to self-love, which, from my vast research, seems to be a terminal destination. Self-compassion nor self-love should be confused with self-indulgence, which of course is bad, and is probably the conjoined twin of self-care. And also, I took the quiz, though I lied. I put \u2018sometimes\u2019 down for every question because I don\u2019t really care, I just wanted to see what they were asking. By the twelfth one I was clinically bored.<\/p>\nIt seems to me, though I never thought it was possible, that modern western culture is determined to put a lie to that tragic questioning cry, found in the lections for today, if you were thinking of trudging off to church somewhere. It\u2019s that famous line buried in a recapitulation of Psalm One (also for today) and much maligned by ex-evangelicals who love Brene Brown. Here it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?\u201d<\/p>\n
After two more articles on the website Well and Good, where you can find the link to take that quiz if you want, I feel like the answer to that question is, \u2018Why would you want to?\u2019 Because after a very short interval its not that interesting anymore. The more the world careens towards self-acceptance, self-love, self-compassion, self-care, all wrapped up with that dreaded bow of self-indulgence, the more the internet stops being curious and fun, the more twitter lives into its full malign nature. Are human people even that interesting when they are in the ghastly throws of self-compassion?<\/p>\n
\u201cCursed,\u201d explained Jeremiah, speaking on behalf of God, \u201cis the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength.\u201d He is like a shrub in a desert, parched. But I am reminded of all that grass we human people are likened to somewhere else by some other prophet*. It grows up suddenly and waves in the bright sun and bends in the wind and you think \u2018oh, that\u2019s so fresh and bright and summer is so great,\u2019 but then you come back a month later and there\u2019s a heavy layer of snow and the grass is nowhere to be seen. It died. It was brittle. Fire or snow, or time really, and its as if it never even existed. That is the human person, scrolling wildly through a social-media news feed, driven along by that unsparing, internal rule of self-love. Cursed.<\/p>\n
If that doesn\u2019t appeal to you, and it shouldn\u2019t, a few verses later you come across the antidote. \u201cBlessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,\u201d and then, in case you didn\u2019t quite get it, Jeremiah repeats himself, \u201cwhose trust is<\/i> in<\/i> the Lord.\u201d He is like a tree planted by streams of water, whose roots go down into the cool silent depths, who stays green all the time and even bears fruit.<\/p>\n
How can a human person, of whatever kind of gender, in whatever state of self-love, who is here one moment, like the grass, and gone the next, ever be like a tree? I met a glorious tree last month. Some ancient, vast oak tree down in the south that looked like it had wandered out of Lord of the Rings, and also like it would say something in words if you stood there long enough, quietly.<\/p>\n
Trees and grass are all of the same stuff, the same idea. They both live. They can both look pretty. But one of them isn\u2019t going anywhere, and, according to Jeremiah, that one of is basically completely happy, blessed even, sucking up water through its roots while the other one burns itself out in a conflagration of self-love.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah answers his own question, \u201cWho can understand it,\u201d with the only answer you\u2019d expect of him. He quotes God, \u201cI the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is curious to me is that God would even want to know. That he bothers with the search. That he hasn\u2019t already had enough of ladders.com and Well and Good and just chucked it. Sin\u2014of which self-love, if not the chief, is surely reclining at the head of the table\u2014is not that interesting. There is never anything new and wonderful about it. When you see it there in the light it doesn\u2019t look shocking nor inviting. It is strange of God that he would take the trouble even to search the depths of a boring and bedraggled humanity, setting themselves alight with vanity and calling it special.<\/p>\n
\u201cHeal me,\u201d concludes Jeremiah, setting himself down by the stream and probably throwing his phone into its sparkling depths, \u201cand I shall be healed. Save me and I shall be saved. For you are my praise.\u201d<\/p>\n
God, who is the living water, and is himself the most interesting being out there, if only we would stop gazing at ourselves in the mirrors of our lives and wander away to read a book, but especially the book I\u2019ve been quoting here, has the power and the inclination to heal and to save. His compassion far surpasses any that you or I could ever manufacture, even with the help of a leading psychologist. He has mercy on those who suddenly see themselves going up in smoke, who see the stream and the cool quiet and wish they could stop careening along in the way of the wicked.<\/p>\n
And what of the tree? Because it is not just any tree. It stands there against the sky so that when you hurry by, if you were to pause, just for a moment, you would actually see a redemption, a healing, a compassion, a salvation, indeed, a solution to all the cares of the world, fixed there. You could pause and sit, and drink, and eat, and forget yourself in a haze of wonder. You can\u2019t understand yourself or him, but he understands both.<\/p>\n
Be a tree, go to church.<\/p>\n
*Isaiah 40:7<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In my ongoing quest to come to the end of the internet, this week I discovered a word I should have seen coming\u2014self-compassion. Self-compassion is a stop somewhere out there on the journey to self-love, which, from my vast research, seems to be a terminal destination. Self-compassion nor self-love should be confused with self-indulgence, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2373,"featured_media":5337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,75],"tags":[23,34,64],"class_list":["post-9442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reading-the-bible","category-the-bad-word-association","tag-anglicanism","tag-culture-watch","tag-vanity"],"yoast_head":"\n
Why Would You Want To?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In my ongoing quest to come to the end of the internet, this week I discovered a word I should have seen coming\u2014self-compassion. Self-compassion is a stop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Would You Want To?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In my ongoing quest to come to the end of the internet, this week I discovered a word I should have seen coming\u2014self-compassion. Self-compassion is a stop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Preventing Grace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-17T11:48:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/578\/2016\/11\/photo-1428572609837-d1e70a302821.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Kennedy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/\",\"name\":\"Why Would You Want To?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-17T11:48:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-17T11:48:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1\"},\"description\":\"In my ongoing quest to come to the end of the internet, this week I discovered a word I should have seen coming\u2014self-compassion. Self-compassion is a stop\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why Would You Want To?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/\",\"name\":\"Preventing Grace\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1\",\"name\":\"Anne Kennedy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anne Kennedy\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/author\/akennedy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Would You Want To?","description":"In my ongoing quest to come to the end of the internet, this week I discovered a word I should have seen coming\u2014self-compassion. Self-compassion is a stop","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Would You Want To?","og_description":"In my ongoing quest to come to the end of the internet, this week I discovered a word I should have seen coming\u2014self-compassion. Self-compassion is a stop","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/","og_site_name":"Preventing Grace","article_published_time":"2019-02-17T11:48:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/578\/2016\/11\/photo-1428572609837-d1e70a302821.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Kennedy","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/","name":"Why Would You Want To?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-02-17T11:48:23+00:00","dateModified":"2019-02-17T11:48:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1"},"description":"In my ongoing quest to come to the end of the internet, this week I discovered a word I should have seen coming\u2014self-compassion. Self-compassion is a stop","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2019\/02\/17\/why-would-you-want-to\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why Would You Want To?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/","name":"Preventing Grace","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1","name":"Anne Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anne Kennedy"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/author\/akennedy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/578\/2016\/11\/photo-1428572609837-d1e70a302821.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n