Comments on: Not that person anymore

By: I only read the comments and not the posts | Martyholman.com

I only read the comments and not the posts | Martyholman.com — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:28:10 +0000

[...] wrote the last comment of my post yesterday (up to this point) called, “Not that person anymore” where he said, “I mostly only read the comments (speaking of my blog), and not the [...]

By: the burns

the burns — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:49:09 +0000

actually, I mostly only read the comments and not the posts. is that weird? not, definitely not.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:27:24 +0000

As I was reading through this post and the comments that followed, I was struck by the fact that there are so many different responses. Many are really tangents to the original post.
Clearly, there is something quite primal going on.
There are huge issues here: issues of personal responsibility, issues of God’s grace, issues of interpersonal forgiveness… questions about the nature of friendship and how much of who we are is under our control.
Even while I was noticing all this another part of me wanted to jump into the conversation. I have my own responses, experiences, and reactions to all this.
I think, though, I’ll save those for another day. Instead, I simply want to throw out the observation that it seems like this topic is huge and close to the center of who we are.

By: Dionne

Dionne — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:23:20 +0000

…

By: garret

garret — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:15:20 +0000

p.s. speaking of change, do the pants in the picture still fit?

By: garret

garret — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:12:15 +0000

In “Blue Like Jazz” Miller says that he was “tired of pretending to be the person he was supposed to be” or some facsimile thereof. i believe the drastic turn-about you describe is often the culmination of steady internal change.

We are very good pretenders most of the time. i can honestly say that there are things about me changing all the time, and were i not inclined to speak of them no one would know.

Sometimes it’s easier to change your life than to deal with the processes that led there. Being newly married as you are and not yet in full mid-life mode i suspect you have limited experience upon which to draw. Trust me, when as much of your life is behind you as is in front, the mechanism of desparation begins its assault. i totally get what drives a person to snap-change. i even get the ‘why’. It takes a strength that is not natural to fight it, or to channel it to good use.

Long live the community of Faith.

By: Clay

Clay — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:59:32 +0000

I’m really glad you labeled the pictures at the top. Otherwise, I may have gotten confused as to who was who.

By: Karen (Biehler) Derucki

Karen (Biehler) Derucki — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:31:58 +0000

I hate to say this, it’s so cliche……I can’t believe I’m going to say but…..What would Jesus do? I think about that in general when “People” are just irritating the crap out of me. In this scenario how would Jesus treat someone who has made a drastic change in their life? First and foremost he would love them regardless of their change. Not even getting to the forgiveness part yet, he would simply love them unconditionally and then move forward.

By: Marty Holman

Marty Holman — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:04:19 +0000

Thats the thing Ian, I don’t necessarily mean change from “Good to bad”. I just mean, I tend to get uptight about any drastic change in someone’s life who I’m close to. So it was more of an indictment on me, though, it could also be on them too, depending on the situation. Some good points John and Ian. I’ll process this further.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:54:20 +0000

I do totally agree with you on the marriage thing though. I often wonder if the phrase “I’ve changed” is really just an excuse to give in to a person’s selfish desires.