Wednesday, September 06, 2006
I'm OK - You're OK - The World; However, Stinks
Back in the day, the old High School/College days, this book swept the nation. I had my little mind "transactionally analyzed" by the finest of amatuers, who I am convinced never read past the title. Please note, I seriously mean amatuers - there is something of value in transactional analysis, when it is used by fully trained professionals. But when a book becomes as popular as "I'm OK, You're OK" did, you can bet your bottom dollar everybody thinks themselves a highly trained professional.
I do think the book title had a deep impact on my generation and subsequently society as a whole. The book itself was a pretty superficial treatment of something that should not be treated superficially, but I don't think many read the book, and most that did probably did not even begin to remember anything past the title.
Certainly no single book is responsible for the state of things today, but this book does, I think, make a good focal point. We want to feel good about ourselves (I'm OK) we want to get along with those around us (You're OK) - problem is we do that and things really don't get any better.
That's because God had a different plan for things. I am not "OK" - and neither are you, unless God makes us OK. Part of God making us OK is that we start with the realization that we most assuredly are NOT OK, and therefore get out of His way while he makes us OK. OK?
When I look around me today, at the state of the church, and the state of society as a whole, there is a lot of people thinking they are OK without letting God make them OK. The result is that everybody I am talking to is OK, but somehow the world is still just in awful, awful shape. How can that be? The practical ramification of that is that we spend a lot of time fixing the world, through politics and programs, ministires and messages, and almost no time trying to fix ourselves, that is to say, letting God fix us.
I wonder if it has dawned on most of us that if God wanted to fix the world through politics and minsitries, he would have established a government and built a church. Instead, He incarnated and died on a cross - things designed to fix me - not the world.
Funny thing though, If we let God make each of us OK - the world is going to end up OK too.
Related Tags: transactional analysis, pop psychology, sin, fix
I do think the book title had a deep impact on my generation and subsequently society as a whole. The book itself was a pretty superficial treatment of something that should not be treated superficially, but I don't think many read the book, and most that did probably did not even begin to remember anything past the title.
Certainly no single book is responsible for the state of things today, but this book does, I think, make a good focal point. We want to feel good about ourselves (I'm OK) we want to get along with those around us (You're OK) - problem is we do that and things really don't get any better.
That's because God had a different plan for things. I am not "OK" - and neither are you, unless God makes us OK. Part of God making us OK is that we start with the realization that we most assuredly are NOT OK, and therefore get out of His way while he makes us OK. OK?
When I look around me today, at the state of the church, and the state of society as a whole, there is a lot of people thinking they are OK without letting God make them OK. The result is that everybody I am talking to is OK, but somehow the world is still just in awful, awful shape. How can that be? The practical ramification of that is that we spend a lot of time fixing the world, through politics and programs, ministires and messages, and almost no time trying to fix ourselves, that is to say, letting God fix us.
I wonder if it has dawned on most of us that if God wanted to fix the world through politics and minsitries, he would have established a government and built a church. Instead, He incarnated and died on a cross - things designed to fix me - not the world.
Funny thing though, If we let God make each of us OK - the world is going to end up OK too.
Related Tags: transactional analysis, pop psychology, sin, fix
