After all my going on about how I want to be supportive of my husband in his Lutheranism, and after I said I hoped his Sunday school class wasn’t providing him with ever more negative views of the Catholic church…..Just when I thought things were going really well and all was peaceable…….
Last night he made an uncalled-for, testy little comment about the Church’s practice of giving indulgences—something that shows his understanding of indulgences (and of so many of the Church’s teachings in general) is ill-informed. He equated the Vatican’s planting a forest to offset its carbon dioxide emissions with the selling of indulgences (the horrible practice Martin Luther rightly spoke out against in the 1500s). I calmly replied that it’s not the same thing; he insisted it IS. And I had to leave the room. I didn’t trust myself not to lash out at him for being so unfair. I guess in his own mind, it was perfectly fair. Let’s call it ignorant, then. Boy, would that make him mad. What I wanted to say most of all were these two things: 1) Apparent intellectual knowledge does not equal wisdom; and 2) The abuse of a good thing does not render said thing to be bad (e.g., people use the Internet to view pornography and solicit minors for sex, but this does not make the Internet itself “bad”).
So I’ve been crabby ever since—feeling rather sick to my stomach, actually. Disappointed, angry, frustrated. We were doing okay with this stuff—our differences in beliefs. Why did he have to go and ruin it?
Blah blah blah. I could write an entire diatribe about the wide chasm that exists between Catholics and Protestants. We’re all Christians, but we don’t all have the same ideas of what that means. It’s a sorry state of affairs. A sad, sorry state.
My friend Jessica, in Texas, used to always remind me to count my blessings. So rather than focus on my disappointment (having to ride for 6 hours in the car tomorrow beside someone who disdains the Church I love), I am going to count my blessings. Such a thing fits perfectly; after all, Thursday is Thanksgiving.
I am so very thankful for…..
- My husband! Yes I am!
- My beautiful boys.
- Echowood, my home.
- My churches—both of them!—and the terrific people I’ve met therein.
- Shelves full of books to read.
- Plenty of food to eat.
- A closet full of clothes to wear.
- Friendships with women who are beautiful inside and out.
- My faith in God.
- My parents, siblings, in-laws, nieces, and nephews.
The Lord has blessed me that I might be a blessing to others. I pray it may be so.
