Chuck Ryor

res·sen·ti·ment  – n. – A generalized feeling of resentment and often hostility harbored by one individual or group against another, especially chronically and with no means of direct expression.

This is a tough week for me.  On one hand I’m grateful for the football victory against my arch enemy the University of Pittsburgh (known as Pitt – as in the pit of hell or the pit you get in your stomach when you think of them).  But rivalries in and of themselves aren’t wrong.  Where I get into trouble is not simply wanting to beat Pitt, but wanting Pitt to lose every other game they play.  I lived in Tallahassee, Florida for nearly fifteen years, and my best friends (most Florida State Seminoles) have the same root issue regarding the Florida Gators.  Their saying is that they’re cheering for Florida State and whoever is playing the Gators.

My dad is quite the wordsmith – probably where I get my love for language and speech and probably why my son does, too.  Its genetics and nurture at their finest.  Many years ago my dad – who is a crossword puzzle addict – introduced me to a linguistic distinction that makes me uncomfortable.  While resentment and ressentiment are similar words, they’re not to be confused.  While resentment is a feeling of frustration directed at a perceived source, it doesn’t speak to the special relationship between a sense of inferiority and the creation of morality.

That’s what is cooking in me when I think about the upcoming game between Cincinnati and Pitt.  I just want Pitt to lose.  It is a particularly evil compulsion and I hate it when my dad’s words start haunting me.  Particularly in the afterglow of a win in the Backyard Brawl.

My dad used this description:  if a child doesn’t want a toy, but takes it just so another child can’t have it…that is ressentiment.  And it is clearly not something that would be reconcilable with the way Jesus calls his followers to live.

⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” – Matthew 5:43-48

Sorry to be bad cop, my FSU-UF friends (not to mention my WVU comrades).  Sometimes the truth has to be delivered in the manner that a safety jars a wide receiver on a crossing route.  Let’s just hope the slot receiver is from Pitt.

My friend good friend Jeff Jakes (Senior Pastor, Orangewood Presbyterian in Orlando, FL) turned me on to Charles Spurgeon back when we were both youth ministers.  These devotions have become a staple in my daily preparation for life and ministry.  Today’s devotional was so encouraging, I feel I must point you to it.

Perhaps, like me, you feel inadequate to the task ahead of you.  It’s possible that you, as I do, look into the mirror and think, “What’s going to happen when people find out that I am as weak of a Christian as I really am?”  Somewhere in your internal conversation you may have heard the voice of our arch enemy, Satan, accusing you of being undeserving of God’s grace (duh!).  That scoundrel would have us believe that we cannot be used by God because so much is out of sorts in our lives.

If you’ve felt this way before and said these things to yourself on occasion, then sit back and enjoy a daily dose of Spurgeon with me.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

This Morning’s Meditation

C. H. Spurgeon

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“For my strength is made perfect in weakness.”—2 Corinthians 12:9.

A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness. When God’s warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, “I know that I shall conquer, my own right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory,” defeat is not far distant. God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own strength. He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for “it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their armour stained with disgrace. Those who serve God must serve Him in His own way, and in His strength, or He will never accept their service. That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own. The mere fruits of the earth He casteth away; He will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love. God will empty out all that thou hast before He will put His own into thee; He will first clean out thy granaries before He will fill them with the finest of the wheat. The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. God will have no strength used in His battles but the strength which He Himself imparts. Are you mourning over your own weakness? Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give thee victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.

“When I am weak then am I strong,
Grace is my shield and Christ my song.”

*See http://www.spurgeon.org/daily.htm for more of Charles H. Spurgeon