#Getting past labels

[momentsbeforemass]

The non-answer answer

“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”

It’s a real question. It was real when it was asked in today’s Gospel. It’s still real when you and I ask it.

There are a lot of people out there who don’t believe. And a lot of people who don’t know what to believe.

Because there are a lot of people who wear the label “Christian” (liberal, conservative, progressive, traditional, pick any of them) that only add to the confusion. Often by giving some of the most off-putting presentations of what it means to be a Christian.

The lived sermons of some of the loudest “Christians” are no help at all. So it’s no wonder that people don’t know what to believe, and are asking,

Whose example should I follow? What does it really mean to live my Faith? How do I have a real relationship with God?

This is why – “Lord, will only a few people be saved?” – is a real question. 

What I love best is how Jesus answers it. He doesn’t give numbers or percentages. He doesn’t have statistics or projections or trends.

Because Jesus doesn’t care about numbers or statistics or trends. What Jesus cares about is people.

But not as anonymized data or members of a group. Not as collections of identifiers and labels.

Jesus doesn’t care about groups. Jesus doesn’t care about labels.

What Jesus cares about is you.

Which is why Jesus’ answer is about our part, is about what you need to do and what I need to do – “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.”

Jesus doesn’t want a relationship with a group. Or a collection of labels.

Jesus didn’t preach the Kingdom of God to a group. Jesus didn’t give His life for a collection of labels.

For Jesus, all of it is personal.

Because Jesus wants a relationship with you.

Today’s Readings

[finsterkiibo]

HAPPY PTIDE MONT EVERYBODY!!!!!

been fighting demons (sinus infection) for the past two weeks now, I promise im still alive (kinda) AND IM COOKING SOME OTHER MORE FINISHED PRIDE STUFF TOO!!! I just wanted to throw together this one for sillies cuz my fighting of demons is killing my ability to make finished art 💔 IM GETTING THERE THOUGH!!!! PRIDE MONTH CANNOT ESCAPE MY PRIDEFUL HANDS NO MATTER HOW GROSS MY COUGHS GET o7

[italyveneziano]

Obsessed with what America and England have going on in HetaOni. America's like "I keep having to watch my dad die from overusing his magic in past timelines and not knowing how to stop it is killing me inside but I'm not going to talk to him about it" and England's like "I can't seem to hold a conversation with my son without insulting him but I won't hesitate to use my dying breath to ensure I can protect him from beyond the grave"

[cator99]

out of curiosity, would you consider yourself butch?

used to be a blonde underweight twink and now I'm a based jock still got the chanel bag and the sick albeit matured mind of a suckpig to prove it so I'm gonna let you decide whether you wanna call me that word just cuz I got a pussy and short hair. I promise you that there have been enough advancements made in the art of lesbian sexual dynamics in the past 50 years to broaden the vocabulary used to describe the plethora of types of masculine females.

[aropride]

gender microlabels are really cool to me bc a lot of the time they're like, metaphors almost, for how someone experiences their gender. like constellunyx, which is a gender connected to the moon, stars, & the connection between the moon & stars. or mechuatic, which is a gender related to mechanical sharks or fish. or lunaboy and solgirl, which are a gender related to the moon + femininity while being a boy, & the sun + masculinity while being a girl, respectively. or genderfunky, which is when ur gender is funky and goofy, and has a really fun flag. like i genuinely think it's so cool!! i love it & i wish microlabels weren't so looked down on both within and outside of the queer community bc it rules!!!

[ominis]

I find it interesting that after people’s interaction with Ominis outside of the Undercroft where he gets upset with them, people label him as a “privileged Slytherin” akin to Draco Malfoy, but that really can only be taken from his comment about using his family’s ties to the headmaster against the MC. Beyond that, Ominis and all the Gaunts are far from privileged. 

By this point in the HP universe, the Gaunts are incredibly poor and they are very isolated from a lot of the wizarding world because of their aversion to anything Muggle (a view which Ominis states clearly that he disagrees with and isn’t proud to be related to people who have those views.) In the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore literally says the Gaunts lived in poverty due to previous generations having little sensibility when it came to indulgences and that was the case for a while before Ominis was born. All Gaunts lived in a run down shack that was a poor excuse for a home.

I think Ominis’s connection to the headmaster really just comes from them all coming from pure-blooded families, so they’re related in some way. The Gaunts aren’t very well-respected for a number of reasons. It’s only their history and their blood status that they really have to stand on (two things that Ominis rejects), not the current state of their family. His threat to use that only came from fear because of his perfectly understandable trust issues and the fact that one of his family’s secrets he wished to keep hidden had been exposed to a stranger without his knowledge. 

[gorespawn]

also while we're here i would like to share the two iterations of tumblr user gorespawn that have existed since i abandoned this blog back in like early 2021. Who wants me

[filmmakerdreamst]

They get it

[habibisagi]

ok bro so i don't know how to make this post SDJFHSH and say hi hello i missed everyone without being awkward and facing cricket noises since it's been over a year since i’ve logged in LMFAO and ppl still following r gonna be like ??? but .... ASKDUSDL HELLO!!!!! 🙂‍↕️ to everyone that is still here ... <3

I MISSED YA'LL SM OMG ;---; i hope some of you still remember me so this won’t be too awkward 🙂‍↕️🙏

on that note!!!! i have returned because i have really bad gojo and isagi brainrot since rewatching/rereading jjk + getting into bllk

+ i have so many fics i have completed that i want to post !!! i have been cooking in isolation and after much needed self-growth and love in writing <3 ;v; (gojo, isagi, and nanami ones mostly lmaoo AND ALSO A SUKUNA SERIES I WANT TO POST) AND IDK WHAT TO POST FIRST LOL

also to the mutuals (that remain... <3) please do not be alarmed if u see me in ur notifs reblogging fics for my current faves and yapping in ur tags 🙂‍↔️ like in the next few days LMFAO i have been deprived of reading good fic for soooo long bruh and now im like. I NEED TO READ FOR GOJO AND ISAGI SO BAD…. i missed fic so bad...

would ya'll be chill if i posted writing out of the blue here lmao and changed my username ??... it wouldn't be too awkward ?? 🙂‍↔️ (for the username i will change it in a few days despite my impatience so i give everybody like a chance to get used to me being on their dash so it won't be too alarming LMAOO)

[deadbeandrop]

i always feel like there's such an underappreciated aspect of lumpus being the one to have feelings for slinkman (over the years) which is that there's something so Hilarious about him wanting to dump his head in a vat of acid because he's thinking stupid mushy shit, or Worse, about this Thing again

who also does not pick up on this at all and just thinks he's being weird again

[arsenicflame]

ive had to step away from all the analysis of the finale because thinking about it for too long it fills me with such a [rage? bitterness? frustration? all of the above?] the likes of which ive genuinely never felt for a show before

ive cared about media before. ive been disappointed by media before, but i think the difference is i haven't put my faith in media like i did ofmd- and the more time passes the more i feel fucking stupid for putting that faith in the show in the first place, when so many of the things coming to light now were already there

i cant think about it too long else it makes me so fucking sad, and im tired of analysing it to bits because its not going to change anything, theres no way to fix any of this, no way to find a spark of light in it, no way to come back, to resurrect the show i fucking loved.

im sure everything everyone is saying is well thought out and nuanced things but for the sake of my own enjoyment of this fucking show i have to just not engage with it anymore.

[momentsbeforemass]

Seeing

Sometimes the Bible can sound like nonsense.

Like today’s Gospel, “they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.” How is that even possible?

It’s not just possible. It’s commonplace. You and I do it all the time. Here’s how it goes.

We look. We label. And…we’re done.

We don’t really see the person. Not after we label them.

It’s not just that we don’t stop for a closer look. We don’t even slow down. With a quick label, we’ve turned them into a thing. Dropped them into a convenient box with everything else that has the same label. And moved on.

The scary part? How often you and I do this. And how easily we do it.

Whether we slap a positive label on them or a negative label really doesn’t matter. Because either one does the same thing.

When we label, it keeps us from seeing everything that’s really going on with them. From ever understanding who they are. Or why they do what they do.

Which means that we can never help them. We can never use the gifts that God has given us to do any good for them. To make any difference in their lives. Even the thought to do that never occurs to us. Because to us, they’re just another thing with a label.

Truth be told, getting past the labels and to the person?

It’s the only way that any soul is ever saved. It’s the only way that any life is ever changed.

And it starts with seeing them not as a label, but as a person. As someone.

Someone worthy of your time. Someone worthy of your sacrifice.

It starts with seeing them the same way that God sees you.

Today’s Readings

[nihiltism]

why do i keep getting into communities i inherently have one-sided beef with (meaning, hate deeply and thus refuse to interact with)

[angelichl]

.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Loudest Silence

YA contemporary

a newly Deaf-Hard of hearing girl moves across the country and starts a new school, struggling with navigating her disability and love for singing and lost friendships - determined to not make any new friends for the year she’s in Florida

and a boy struggling with family expectations and anxiety, after being made the fútbal captain even though he secretly ways to be on broadway, who quickly befriends her

bi & aroace-coded MCs

[priafey]

things the US needs to address:

the collective psychosis that leads people to make posts like these