Thursday, October 29, 2009

My rant about "The Good Lord"

It's been a long time since I've had a deadline on something, and now that I do, I find myself procrastinating like it's going out of style. And so what do I do, instead of doing this project? I sit down and write a blog. It reminds me of studying for exams in college. "Oh, this is a good time to organize my closet! Declare war on clutter!" "Oh, I must redecorate the room this very instant! Hang new pictures!" " Now is the logical time to put all my journals in chronological order from fourth grade through the present."

Today's random deep thought, brought to you by procrastination, is this: God probably doesn't mind any name for Himself, provided it is said in reverence, but if he DID have a pet peeve of a title, I bet it would be this appellation: " The Good Lord." It just dawned on me how ridiculously redundant, and also remote, it sounds. It's like the speaker is trying to butter Him up. Either that, or the speaker doesn't know him very well. I mean, you don't really hear theologians or Bible teachers or people on deep, meaningful spiritual pilgrimages referring to God this way. It's kind of like, " I knew Him once, when I was a kid. He was an okay guy." A tepid endorsement. I think it might be a generational, codgery thing. I mean, it's something that geezers call God: The Good Lord. No offense, all you geezers, but it's just not a young person thing. It strikes me as basic and flat. Might as well call him the Nice Lord. Ooo- let's find the smallest, blandest adjective for the biggest, most vibrant, powerful being in the universe!

I can just imagine God cringing.

This is my opinion. You can call Him "The Good Lord" all you want. Just don't let me hear it.

P.S. The above may totally make no sense. It's all due to the fulminations of procrastination in my mind. Pay me no mind.

P.P.S. As I have "gwunted and stwuggled" through this project tonight ( which I am not nearly finished), I thought of how Grampa M. used to say the following, which I thought was a quote from himself, but I googled it and it turns out that it's attributed to Francis Bacon... ( ha ha, Grampa M. and Francis Bacon...birds of a feather...): "Reading maketh a full man... and writing an exact man." I have had to stop and really think what I am trying to say, and what I really believe. It's hard work, my friends.

3 comments:

KJ said...

Hehehe... I can TOTALLY understand about the whole procrastination thing ... hence my reading your blog instead of analyzing math samples, creating a checklist based on the state standards, and writing up a report about two of my students' math abilities. Um. Yeah.

Anyway. You're funny. I think of "the Good Lord" as being a Southern phrase as well as a geezer phrase. And I was agreeing along with you, until I remembered that Jesus Himself said "no one is good, except God." Interesting, huh? But I know what you were saying and see your point :)

Claire said...

Good insights, KJ! I wonder how long it would take us to get things done if suddenly the internet were no longer available...but then, we would find other things to distract us, I guess, and google would not be there to HELP us.

I appreciated your pointing out about what Jesus said. Hey! There's no arguing with HIM!

And yes- I think it might be a Southern thang too...

gretchen said...

How did we ever procrastinate before the internet?

Daddy has often quoted the "writing maketh an exact man" and wow, isn't it the truth!

May your gwunting and stwuggling soon be o'er, and produce lots of good fruit too : )