Pope-style advice: Mike on being burned by a fellow believer
- Was I wrong to trust a fellow believer who burned me, and how do I keep it from happening again?
The recurring bit: Mike - addressed in the audio as 'the mistaken pope' after someone told crowds he is the pope - gives the week's Pope-style advice. Mike tells of a fellow believer he trusted with prayer-request information about non-Christian neighbors, who then used it against them; he felt burned and betrayed. His landing: stay open and vulnerable anyway - be 'faithful in the means' and let God handle the ends; getting burned shouldn't stop the conversations, though some discernment about untrustworthy rooms is warranted. Eric adds that Christians are 'spiritually poor' and will drop the ball; Ben (addressed by name) sums it up: you can't control what others do with your counsel - 'what that guy did reveals him.'
More on Trust
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Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
- Should following Jesus feel more comfortable as time goes on?
A host asks whether following Jesus should feel more comfortable as time goes on — noting the low-level tension many feel around am-I-doing-enough and the stigma that contentment equals laziness.
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Dear LFTP: long friendship broken by a theft accusation
- Are we oversensitive to feel insulted and end a long friendship after a theft accusation without an apology?
A letter asks whether the writers are oversensitive: friends of many years apparently think they stole items from their house, say it is in the past and they have forgiven them, but offered no apology, and the writers can no longer be friends.
From No. 562 · Enter the McCormick II
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Dear LFTP: husband's ex-fiancee memories
- Am I overreacting to finding photos of my husband's elaborate proposal to his ex-fiancee?
Mike reads a Dear LFTP letter from an eight-months-pregnant wife who found old photos of her husband with his ex-fiancee, including an elaborate proposal like the one he never gave her, and asks if she is overreacting.
From No. 560 · Chill Out
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Ben's three questions: is he real, is he good, is he capricious?
- Is God even real?
- Is God good?
Ben frames three reasonable reactions to Old Testament violence: (1) maybe God isn't real; (2) maybe he isn't good; (3) maybe he's capricious.
From No. 540 · Justice is Mine