Planting Ideas, Part Three

Part One.

Part Two.

This notion of “what kind of ideas do we incept in others” applies to so much of life – especially to my life as a story teller. 

Politics (how do I engage with ideas within the larger community – through planting negative ideas, or positive ideas?), work (what kind of stories do I create), relationships (what root connects me to others?), etc.

But where I am most struck with the Inception theme is the ramifications for my faith. 

I am an evangelical Christian.  My Lord claimed repeatedly that he came with Good News (the very definition of “Gospel.”)

Good news.

Yet as I both keep the faith and spread the faith, I gotta ask:  am I planting positive ideas (good news!) or negative ones?

For the evangelist, is the leading faith argument hellfire and damnation?  Sure it gets attention, and I suppose eventually one would get around to talking about Jesus’ love.  

But the idea has already been incepted as a negative one – which grows into fearful, legal-centric faith.

Jesus rarely led with hellfire. 

Oh, hellfire was there, just not as the lead in. 

(And most of the hell-fire and damnation preached by Jesus was directed to the religious – those that already had the message and were messing it up.)

Notice the order of things when he finally speaks to the woman caught in adultery.

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?  Then neither do I condemn you.”  Love first.

But let’s not forget: 

“Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Thus we have someone whose behavior is changed out of good news – because no one is accusing me, I can go and sin no more.

So,  again, I gotta ask myself – where am I coming from and how am I going out?

Is my faith one of judgments and piousness and self-righteousness?  Then maybe I have to dig that negative seed out, and replant the one of good news.

And when I go into the world, am I planting good news? 

Or am I preaching the Gospel as a negative seed?

Just my thoughts,

Sean