Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Random thought on comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable

People frequently tell me that it is a very religious thing to be comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Well, I would just like to state for the record that the person talking about his or her own political views who feels he/she is being prophetic in doing so, is invariably the most comfortable person in the room.

Give me the discomfort of uncertainty, of entertaining the possibility that the other guy might have a point, of looking at whether my time might better be spent working than talking, any day.

CC

3 comments:

ABT said...

I beg to differ, CC. When I preach a "prophetic" or "afflicting" sermon, I am often extremely UNcomfortable. Why? Because I know I indict myself alongside everyone else. And because I know that the first response when someone feels the need to defend the status quo is to "shoot the messenger."

It is never, never easy to speak the hard truths.

Chalicechick said...

We're probably talking about different things. Anyone who is indicting themselves isn't the person I'm talking to.

CC

PG said...

"is invariably the most comfortable person in the room."

Wouldn't it be kind of self-serving for the afflicted person to get up and say, "Hey, why aren't you comfortable people comforting me?" (Not saying that afflicted people shouldn't call comfortable people to account, just saying that it's awkward for the afflicted person to get up and say it.)

Or am I also missing what you're talking about?