Please read this first:
Funeral For A Friend (The Death of Bill Cosby)
My comment:
Thanks for another amazing post, John.
This is very sad, all round.
While I was reading, I just keep hearing
"ALL have sinned and fall-short of the Glory of God."
ALL of us have things we hide,
and if these things were shared with all the world,
there would be consternation all 'round.
I am reminded how Jesus hung out a lot with the 'sinners';
the 'low', the 'outcast', the obvious law-breakers of our society have less to hide, and less-far to fall. They can be more Real.
The "good" folks, the "religious" folks, the "squeaky-clean" folks, the "successful" folks
-
we have more to hide, and much farther to fall.
Which holds us in pretense, in hiding, in continuing to spiral down in to darkness and sin.
When OUR sins - where we fall short, where we miss the mark
- when our mis-steps are seen to the world, it is ugly, always.
If not the things we have done and failed to do - then, certainly what has been in our hearts and minds.
As bodies/flesh, in our every-day consciousness, none of us are clean, and none of the works of our hands are pure.
Yes, as we allow the Light to grow in us,
and we start to operate from spiritual consciousness (putting on the mind of Christ),
instead of physically (influenced by the world, the flesh, and the devil).
Yes, then the fruit of spirit becomes more overt.
But, we still all miss the mark, regularly.
SO, I think we must "hold the opposites" regarding our brethren who fall spectacularly from the 'heights':
- the wonderful beauty of art, music, culture, comedy, inspiration that they produce and we enjoy
- AND at the same time being-with the broken and struggling real-people that we play the earth-game-with... We are all just humans, together.
We are ALL always falling down and, by grace, getting up,
hopefully always letting God help us back up;
hopefully always helping each other back up.
(Here is a useful application of the often misapplied 'love the sinner, hate the sin')
Because Mr. Cosby, like us all, has done good and evil,
and he will continue to do so...
and so will we.
May God bless his soul - and all of us.
Mr. Cosby has been given a terrible blessing, a dark gift
- one that none of us ever ask-for:
his deepest secrets are coming out for ALL to see - horrendous for any of us.
AND Now he can stop running and hiding - which only makes things worse and worse;
and start reconciling and healing.
I hope and pray he does this with humility, grace, and (yes, even) humor.
IMO, Mr. Cosby has a lesson for us all, may we learn from him.
May we confess our shortfalls and where we are hiding our darkness, ASAP!
Tell our TRUSTED and LOVING and SAFE brethren the truth that we have been hiding about our lives
- there is so much power in saying the Truth!
May we make amends, as best we can, where and when we can.
May we, with as much ease and amusement as possible, get back into alignment with God, with ourselves, with our fellow travelers.
When Jesus helped people heal,
he helped them back into Alignment with themselves and with God
and he said something like this after:
1) Your faith has made you whole,
(you co-created this healing with God - you can keep doing so, even when I am not right here with you to help you...)
2) Go and sin no more
(Stay in Alignment with who you are in God, Stay in Alignment with your path in God, Stay in Alignment the Light, with God - let go of your old habits that had you miss the mark: STAY in the Light..)
May we be always in this process ourselves,
and give each other this Mercy and Grace as well... including Mr Cosby.
Blessings, Wendy
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