Thursday, April 24, 2008

More Thoughts on Paul Tripp

When I brought a friend of mine who is a Pastor in on the conversation, he made some very helpful comments and clarifying questions (quoted with his permission, though he wishes to remain anonymous):

There is a complexity to the wounding dynamic because our woundings and sinfulness coexist in the same heart. In other words, if I am sinned against and thereby wounded in the depths of my heart, this wounding will no doubt intermingle with my sinfulness (it may feed into my natural sins or it may prompt sinful responses). How do we sensitively address both elements, and the intermingling of the two, in a balanced way without diminishing either part?

Referring to a different, yet related, lecture by Dr. Tripp my friend comments:

One of things Dr. Tripp said was that our self-justifying responses to our own sin aim to make us feel good about things (i.e., sins) that God doesn't want us to feel good about. I agree with him. But I have a question - what about self-condemning responses to our non-sins? That is, what do we do in cases where we feel bad about things (i.e., non-sins) that God doesn't want us to feel bad about? How do we deal with guilt feelings that are not grounded in reality? I am not referring to guilt feelings for sins that have been forgiven, but to guilt feelings for things that are not even sins?

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