Looking over my shoulder?

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The term goes both ways.  I do get a bit uptight about things, and to some degree, shouldn't.  I might learn to better handle my reactions.  Looking back, or over my shoulder, some of this is simple to spot and certain.  While I do have some sort of link with God it certainly doesn't gain me access to certainty, even when I focus, pray, read the catechism, read the bible, then put it all together.  A blind man on a balance beam with one hand tied behind his back, all of his own doing?  To a degree. All of this lead me to question what is good.  What is a good deed?

The other part of looking over my shoulder is that while I sometimes do it to myself, God is always doing it.  Oh, I don't think of it as a parent looking over my shoulder.  Wait.  Actually, that is very much how I see it, only a perfect Parent.  If the Lord knows, I had parents who really tried.  Yes, I see God over my shoulder when I look.  But God doesn't have a smiling face or a long face, unlike what many seem to believe.  No, He just Is.  So, what do I receive from perceiving God looking over my shoulder?  Ah, a reminder of what Is and what He wants.  If I am a child, He is not.  In physical, civil, secular terms, at least for me, seeing God there is similar to looking up at a mountain from it's base, or looking around out in the middle of the ocean, or watching a huge storm.  It is humbling, settling too, and puts the world, all, and me in place, our places.  He brings order.

So, what is a good deed?  Some will say helping people.  Others say "helping the planet" is a good deed.  There are many schools of thought, but most fail in part or in whole.  A quick search at a search engine lead to anti-war people, questions, and groups.  No, if God were to be of the laughing sort, this would surely cause Him to grin, then grimace, then become very angry I should think.  It refutes His very will from times past, possibly present, and the times to come.  Christ will cause blood to flow in the streets, if not directly through warfare but through His will it seems, if due to the threat of obliteration.  I knew I had read the right answer somewhere before, at least as I see things.  The Catechism?  Maybe, but where is it and how to find the topic in such a big book?  A very short trip found the book in my hand before I had actually started the search.  I merely entered the next room to begin contemplating where I might have placed the book, from there to go and begin my search.  My left hand had it in hand before I truly realized I had found it or even started contemplating which room to search for it.  Well, at least God didn't throw it at me.  :p

A very short search within the book itself and, there it is.  The chapter title, if I can call it a chapter, was 'Good Acts and Evil Acts".  Well, yeah.  A bit of reading made me sure this is where I had seen what I approved as an answer before.  I've read the book twice, and searched it while reading the bible many times.  Still, it is rather more than memory can contain, if some notions stick pretty well, like this one.  An act, as the Catechism puts it, is split into three parts.  The first part is the object.  This can be a self-contained act, the example it gives is fornication which is always an evil act.  The other parts of an act may include the end, and circumstances.  If a man prays and fasts, for example, that would seem to be a good act.  But if he does it to be seen by men, then... not so much.  As well, if someone does an evil, but it is done under duress, that would have an effect on the level of corruption.  Much as the amount that is stolen will have a moral and legal affect on judging the action.

I am not sure I am getting it exactly right.  But that is the crux of it, some of it nearly verbatim.  Why is this on my mind?  It's that looking over my own shoulder thing at the moment.  I am trying to square some circles, I just didn't have the right tools at hand.  Now I do and can move on to the next set of issues to be defined, tackled, unknotted.  At least I know where to go, for my purposes, in my belief.

One notion that bothers me is that it is suggested that if another man is doing wrong, that a personal conversation to clarify the actor's action and understanding, and to attempt to have the actor cease what he is doing wrong.  I would hope others would do this with me, and I will do likewise.  Beyond that, the next step is to take the issue up with the Church.  These steps are not intended for suspicion, though snotty behavior might be included.  It is then their job to set the thing straight.  An issue I have here is, what about a Presbyterian and a Lutheran?  Can they speak to each other in such a manner?  Catholic and Baptist?  No, I don't have an answer, only a question.  My guess is it would depend on many factors, rightly or wrongly.  It is a troubling thought.

Hmm, on to my day.  I did get the litter policed, the girls need more food now, and I will reset the dishes to a fresh soak.  I am extremely tired today.  I turned the furnace up a bit, for a while, though I think I blew it.  I need a blast of hot air, for say an hour, not a breath of warm for a while.  I need to drive the cold out of my body, first thing, then let the house cool down.  My body just has to warm up a bit before it can maintain boiler temps and I didn't do that well this time.  Trial and error, the stuff life is made of?

Later.