![]() ![]() Miller's first job with Associated Press began in 1932, the same year in which he met and married Louise Johnson. During college, he worked for the Daily Oklahoman as well as on student newspapers at the University of Oklahoma and at Oklahoma A&M College, from which he graduated in 1931 after haven taken a year out to be publisher and reporter for yet another newspaper, the Okemah Daily Leader. While still in high school, he worked for the Pawhuska Daily Journal as a reporter and even served briefly as city editor. You lean upon God because you can’t bear the weight of love.Born in 1906 to a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister's family in Diamond, Missouri, Miller's own experiences in the newspaper world began in communities in Oklahoma. You realize you can’t do life on your own, and you need God and his love to be the center. In overwhelming situations where you are all out of human love, you discover that you are praying all the time because you can’t get from one moment to the next without God’s help. Like the tax collector in the temple, we cry out, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). Our inability to sustain love drives us into dependence on God. We handle the weight of love by rooting ourselves in God. Paul the apostle tells us that the I beam or hidden structure of the Christian life is “faith working through love” (Gal. That is the beginning of faith-knowing you can’t love. You know without a shadow of a doubt that you can’t love. That is the crucible of love, where self-confidence and pride are stripped away, because you simply do not have the power or wisdom or ability in yourself to love. The more difficult the situation, the more you are forced into utter dependence on God. Your life energy needs to come from God, not the person you are loving. “You endure the weight of love by being rooted in God. ![]() The combination shuts down our hearts, and we just show up for life, going through the motions.”Ī Praying Life: Connecting With God In A Distracting World Cynicism leaves us doubting, unable to dream. Weariness and fear leave us feeling overwhelmed, unable to move. Without the Good Shepherd, we are alone in a meaningless story. Cynicism's ironic stance is a weak attempt to maintain a lighthearted equilibrium in a world gone mad. With the Good Shepherd no longer leading us through the valley of the shadow of death, we need something to maintain our sanity. In cynicism we can't pray because everything out of control, little is possible. In naive optimism we don't need to pray because everything is under control. The movement from naive optimism to cynicism is the new American journey. We go from seeing the bright side of everything to seeing the dark side of everything. You'd think it would just leave us less optimistic, but we humans don't do neutral well. Shattered optimism sets us up for the fall into defeated weariness and, eventually, cynicism. ![]() Optimism in the goodness of people collapses when it confronts the dark side of life. It is childlike trust without the loving Father. ![]() At first glance, genuine faith and naive optimism appear identical since both foster confidence and hope.But the similarity is only surface deep.Genuine faith comes from knowing my heavenly Father loves, enjoys, and cares for me. It leads to bitterness that can deaden and even destroy the spirit.Ĭynicism begins, oddly enough, with too much of the wrong kind of faith, with naive optimism or foolish confidence. While offering a false intimacy of being "in the know," cynicism actually destroys intimacy. The cynic is always observing, critiquing, but never engaging, loving, and hoping. “Cynicism creates a numbness toward life.Ĭynicism begins with a wry assurance that everyone has an angle. ![]()
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